World newsAnarchists and the fine art of tortureSpanish art historian says they put enemies in disorienting cellsA Spanish art historian has uncovered what was alleged to be the first use of modern art as a deliberate form of torture, with the discovery that mind-bending prison cells were built by anarchist artists 65 years ago during the country's bloody civil war.
Bauhaus artists such as Kandinsky, Klee and Itten, as well as the surrealist film-maker Luis Bunuel and his friend Salvador Dali, were said to be the inspiration behind a series of secret cells and torture centres built in Barcelona and elsewhere, yesterday's El Pais newspaper reported.
Book of the dayFictionReviewA woman retreats to a forest in northern Italy in an immersive first novel that explores what it means to inhabit a female body yet reject femininity
Kathryn Bromwich’s accomplished debut novel begins in a deceptively pastoral register. Her narrator, Laura, is an educated woman who has purposefully removed herself from society to rent a tumbledown cabin in a forest in the mountains of northern Italy. On her first encounter with the reader she presents herself with all the tropes of a fairytale crone: she walks up the mountain at dawn, wrapped in “layer upon layer of coarse, heavy clothing”.
Poland This article is more than 5 years oldMax Spiers death coroner attacks 'incompetent' policeThis article is more than 5 years oldPolish officers did not examine conspiracy theorist’s body after he died, inquest finds
Polish police officers were “wholly incompetent” in their response to the death of a British conspiracy theorist, a coroner has said, as he concluded the man died after taking prescription drugs while suffering from pneumonia.
Max Spiers, 39, died suddenly on 16 July 2016, at the Warsaw home of a fellow conspiracy theorist whom he had met at a conference.
World newsTeens describe killer crocodile ordealAnimal attacks friend and 'parades' his body in front of terrified survivors in Australian riverTwo Australian teenagers spent 22 hours in a tree above rising floodwaters after a crocodile killed their friend and "showed him off" to them as it held the body in its jaws.
Shaun Blowers and Ashley McGough, both 19, spent the night keeping each other awake in case they fell into the water where the four-metre (13ft) animal that killed their friend Brett Mann, 22, was waiting.
Life and style I spoke with widows, newlyweds, monogamists, secret liaison seekers, submissives and polyamorists and found there was no such thing as desire too high or low
Male desire is a familiar story. We scarcely bat an eyelash at its power or insistence. But women’s desires – the way they can morph, grow or even disappear – elicit fascination, doubt and panic.
In 2014, as experts weighed the moral and medical implications of the first female libido drug, I found myself unsatisfied with the myths of excess and deficit on offer, and set out to understand how women themselves perceive and experience their passions.
Shadow play: Robin, 6, saddles up for a ride through history. Photograph: Pal Hansen/The ObserverShadow play: Robin, 6, saddles up for a ride through history. Photograph: Pal Hansen/The ObserverThe ObserverChildrenThe modern unicorn is everywhere. On children’s TV, on Gay Pride marches and selling beauty products. Alice Fisher looks at why this magical creature has become so popular
The unicorn started as a fierce creature found in the furthest corners of the known world.
Italy This article is more than 2 years oldDeaths among Rome's rough sleepers surge as shelters turn many away due to CovidThis article is more than 2 years oldAbout 3,000 homeless people in Italian capital sleep on the streets every night
Coronavirus – latest updates See all our coronavirus coverage More people are sleeping on the streets in Rome after being turned away from shelters due to coronavirus restrictions, while the number of homeless people dying from the cold has surged this winter.
Harry StylesLonged-for duets between favourite pop singers are now being generated by AI. Fans are enthralled, but artists are worried: ‘I can’t help but think that I can be easily replaced’
Last month, a video of Harry Styles covering a song from 2003 Disney film The Lizzie McGuire Movie went viral on TikTok. Except Styles has never – at least not publicly, or to anyone’s knowledge – performed this song. Instead, it joins the many examples of fake performances created by artificial intelligence.
MusicThe Red Hot Chili Peppers have survived drugs, madness, breakdowns, seven guitarists, £70,000 of dental surgery and six deaths (five in one person). They tell Dave Simpson why it's tofu and candles from now onIn a sectioned-off room in Milan's plush Four Seasons hotel, Chili Peppers guitarist John Frusciante is explaining his unusual methods of trying to come off heroin. "I's tried it by just smoking pot and drinking," he says with a slight slur.
World newsJapanese police stamp on foot fetish cultA guru who made millions from 'reading' victims' feet is arrestedJapanese police yesterday swooped on a cult guru accused of a bizarre foot-reading swindle that has netted its practitioners £500m.
Hogen Fukunaga, the self-proclaimed reincarnation of Buddha and Christ, was arrested with 11 acolytes and charged with defrauding five women of 25m yen (£150,000).
His detention marks the climax of a four-year investigation into the Ho-no-Hana Sanpogyo cult, which attracts followers by offering to diagnose their spiritual and mental health through an examination of their soles and toes.