THOMAS GRAHAM

Nobody knew what killed Robert Rayford. The African American boy was just 15 years old when he presented at St Louis city hospital in late 1968, but the medical team drew a blank.

Before an audience of 500 people on the outskirts of Pamplona, Maialen Lujanbio, the reigning champion of bertsolaritza, the Basque oral tradition of improvised song, steps up to the microphone. She stands in silence, thinking.

In 2015 Ada Colau, an activist with no experience in government, became mayor of Barcelona. She called for a democratic revolution, and for the last two years city hall, working with civic-minded coders and cryptographers, has been designing the technological …

“In this moment, it is not possible for me to know, dear reader, if the infinite jungle has started on me the process that has taken many others that have ventured into these lands, to complete and irremediable insanity… all …

“Distilling is beautiful. First of all, because it is a slow, philosophic, and silent occupation, which keeps you busy but gives you time to think of other things, somewhat like riding a bike. Then, because it involves a metamorphosis from …

La Paz, BOLIVIA—President Evo Morales wants Bolivia to become the “energy heart of Latin America,” producing many times more electricity than it consumes and exporting it all across the continent. The key to these grand ambitions will be hydroelectric power, …

No one could describe the Bolivian Cinemateca as glamorous. People loiter in the lobby for the warmth, the tickets are sometimes handwritten, and it’s better not to speak of the toilets. But as cinemas in La Paz go, it’s a …

BARCELONA—Four years ago, several of Spain’s biggest cities all rejected traditional political parties in their municipal elections. Instead, they elected new civic platforms made up of a mix of activists, academics and lawyers with little experience in government. This was …

Most dictatorships end in revolution, or don’t really end at all. Spain was a rare exception. Francisco Franco died peacefully in 1975, almost four decades after his fascist forces triumphed in the Spanish Civil War. Franco believed he was handing …

“Of all the several ways of beginning a book which are now in practice throughout the known world, I am confident my own way of doing it is the best – I'm sure it is the most religious – for …

When Kleber Mendonça Filho’s Aquarius emerged on the festival circuit, its resonance with Brazil’s political turmoil was uncanny. In his film, Clara, a 65-year-old former music critic, is being forced out of her home by patriarchal property developers. Meanwhile, the …

Emilia-Romagna is one of the most prosperous regions in Italy. It’s also home to perhaps the greatest density of cooperative businesses in the world—and they account for no less than 30% of the region’s GDP.

Earlier this year, a cryptic press release landed in the inboxes of journalists. Black and white, stylised like the ‘game over’ screen from an arcade game, it intoned: “CREATIVITY IS NOT ONLY FOR HUMANS”. The makers were a French trio …

If you’re going to get fired, do it in Sweden. There, around 85% of laid-off workers find new work within a year. No other OECD country does re-employment better. But the really remarkable thing is this: government is barely involved …

BARCELONA, Spain—For the past two years, millions of women and men across Spain have joined in a general strike and protest to mark International Women’s Day, on March 8, pressing for women’s rights and gender equality.

If childhood is “the bank balance of the writer,” then British novelist Graham Greene had plenty to draw on. School, where his father loomed as headmaster, was a miserable place. Following several suicide attempts Greene was sent away for six …

If films were made by pulling the lever on a fruit machine to generate a random combination of actors, plot and setting, you would occasionally get a hilarious freak like Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence. The fact that someone actually made …

Basic income is a simple, radical idea. In essence, it is that a government should give each of its citizens enough money to live on, with no strings attached. What people do with it is entirely up to them.

“Nothing is true; everything is permitted.” Welcome to Interzone, the hellish playground of William Burroughs’ ‘Naked Lunch’.

PEPE CARVALHO is Spain’s most famous detective. In 23 novels over 32 years, he idled in Barcelona’s cafés and bars and fell in and out of love; sometimes he solved cases. Often more gripping than the machinations of criminals were …