Diane Ackerman

For fans of candy – and who isn’t one? – the headlines have been alarming: a California bill would “ban Skittles”, the rainbow-colored fruity sweets, alongside treats including M&Ms, Nerds and some baked goods.It’s true a lawmaker is…

Tractors are commonly sold to farmers at agricultural fairs and announced in the trade press. But machinery makers are falling over themselves to get a slice of a much more unlikely advertising vehicle: the Farming Simulator video game.The…

Six years after turning the first spade at Euston station, it’s hard for local people to see HS2 as anything other than levelling down.Hundreds of homes have been demolished. A school, a pub and other businesses have been knocked down or…

As the march against Emmanuel Macron’s pension reforms made its way along the Grands Boulevards north of Paris on Thursday, a group of women began singing and dancing in the dense crowd.Above the sound of police sirens, protestor chants and…

We think of our family as outside the financial world. But two new studies show that it’s not so simple.The state provides support for those of us lucky/silly enough to have children. Child benefit starts from birth, but you’ll probably…

Shawn Fain, candidate for UAW president, is in a run-off election with incumbent Ray Curry for the union's highest-ranking position.Jim West for UAW Members UnitedSupporters wave signs during an address at the Time Warner Cable Arena in…

The United Nations' first meeting on water in nearly half a century drew towards a close on 24 March with hopes that it would spur political momentum and fears that too little is being done to tackle chronic water stress globally.There is…

When, late last year, the editor asked me and other Observer writers what we thought 2023 would be like, my response was that it would be more like 1993 than any other year in recent history. Why? Simply this: 1993 was the year that Mosaic,…

The former chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, and former health secretary, Matt Hancock, agreed to work for £10,000 a day to further the interests of a fake South Korean firm after apparently being duped by the campaign group Led by…

Notwithstanding the impact of Russia's war with Ukraine, the UK and India are heading towards an era of positive engagement in trade and business relations, with steps underway to promote mutual investments in both the nations, British…