Ahmed Mater and Ashraf Fayadh were best friends. One is now Saudi Arabia’s most illustrious artist and cultural commissar. The other languishes in a dark prison. Nicolas Pelham charts their rise and fall
Have you heard the one about the AI who wanted to be a comedian? Chris Stokel-Walker meets the machines trying to raise a smile
How subversives through the ages have expressed dissent
James Joyce looms large, but the city has many other chroniclers. Here’s our reading list
She elevated the lowly craft of weaving into a bold Modernist art form
Its troubled decades are over, but where are the tourists?
Why we should be reassured by the moral panic over the Croydon Cat Killer
A Yazidi refugee has won the Nobel Peace prize. How she and Amal Clooney are fighting to put Islamic State in the dock. From the archive
It has always been the most conservative meal of the day. But some diners are starting to experiment
The surprising endurance of a Jazz Age design
A striking image and a few well-chosen words still have the power to influence
Technology may be fraying our nerves but can it also soothe them? Jonathan Beckman plugs in and loosens up
Which domestic animal gets the most pampering?
