When her left shoulder began to ache shortly before she turned 50, my sister Carol Wilson ignored the pain and put it down to a poor-quality mattress. She hoped the situation would resolve when she moved house in the UK – and got a new bed. The pain continued. “I kept hoping it would get better,” she says. “But it didn’t.” Her doctor diagnosed a frozen shoulder and alluded to it being something that occurred in “women of a certain age”. He prescribed physiotherapy, which didn’t help her much,...

As the 2026 US midterm elections draw near, Minnesota Democratic congresswoman Ilhan Omar has found herself embroiled in renewed controversy over her immigration history and past marriage to Ahmed Nur Said Elmi. Elmi has long been alleged to be her brother, although the Somali-born legislator has denied such claims, which remain unproven. However, in 2016, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security found some evidence suggesting the marriage may have been fraudulent, The New York Times...

When the travel agency China Highlights organises bus trips for foreign tourists to iconic sights across China, the company says one last-minute request keeps cropping up again and again. “Can we visit a farm?” The question has become so common that guides now organise farm tours lasting a day or two for groups as they drive back from scenic spots such as Huangshan and Zhangjiajie, according to company CEO Steven Zhao. The tourists often wanted to meet the farmers, have lunch in their...

Sometimes, through no fault of their own, good films slip through the cracks. They fall out of fashion, are misunderstood by critics or are poorly distributed, and it can take the passage of time – or a miracle – to bring them back into the light. So it is with Nancy Kelly’s 1991 period piece Thousand Pieces of Gold, adapted from Ruthanne Lum McCunn’s 1981 novel and starring Rosalind Chao from The Joy Luck Club. The film is a sincere, authentic-feeling drama based on the incredible true story of...