When the UK’s jab programme began, expectant mothers were told to steer clear – so Samantha decided to wait until she had had her baby. Two weeks after giving birth, she died in hospitalIt was typical of Samantha Willis that she bought the food for her…
Memory lanes: Google’s map of our lives
Google’s Street View helps us navigate the world, but it’s also a portal on forgotten places and secret momentsI am leaning against a wall outside my secondary school in my home town of Canterbury, waiting for my mother to pick me up. She is late, as u…
Guardian angel: we send a 21-year-old mega-fan to perform at the world’s largest Elvis festival
Aaron Arter enlivened lockdown – and raised thousands for charity – with his streetside renditions of the King’s hits. Now it is his turn to shineWhen 21-year-old Aaron Arter feels blue, he sings along to the King. When he is happy, he sings along to t…
The indecent exposure epidemic: ‘How are they not taking this seriously after Sarah Everard?’
Flashing is a sexual offence, victims say it can have a lifelong impact and experts say it can lead to escalating crimes against women. Why is the police response so often dismissive?Cathkin Braes country park, in south Glasgow, is beautiful. You can s…
‘Call It’: app takes aim at sexual harassment in the film industry
Exclusive: UK producer Kate Wilson hopes it will force film executives ‘to take their head out of the sand’When she was 24, the film producer Kate Wilson was sexually harassed at work so badly, she left the United States and returned to the UK, at a co…
‘We’re concentrating on the villains’: the shocking play about the Grenfell tragedy
The writer of a drama about the Grenfell inquiry – and the £800,000 cost-cutting that made the refurbishment lethal – explains how this story is a microcosm for what’s rotten in Britain todayAlthough Richard Norton-Taylor’s ninth play makes its debut l…
Guardian angel: a Hackney hero takes his team bowling
In our new column, in which we make nice things happen for nice people, we meet Marvin Birch, who turned his life around – and now spreads the community loveMarvin Birch has lived on the Kingsmead estate in Hackney his entire life. It’s never had a goo…
Maggots and mayhem: behind the scenes of Britain’s big bin crisis
Thanks to the HGV driver shortage, many refuse collectors are quitting to earn up to £30,000 more driving lorries. But what does this mean for our streets, as the rubbish and recycling piles ever higher? Andy Gee doesn’t mind when people call him a bin…
‘My persian had a three-hour blow-dry!’ 150 years of cat shows – then and now
Feline fancies began in the UK in 1871, with proud cat owners grabbing the chance to show off their perfect pets. What is the secret of their enduring appeal?The air in the sports centre has a base note of urine. A soundtrack of plaintive mewling is in…
‘It felt like political persecution’: Labour’s Apsana Begum on the trauma of her criminal trial
The MP was cleared last month of housing fraud. Finally able to speak about her ordeal, she opens up about her controlling ex-husband, the family that disowned her and her political futureWhen Apsana Begum found out she had been acquitted of housing fr…