When he was nine years old, my godson Adam developed a brief but freakishly intense obsession with Elvis Presley. He took to singing Jailhouse Rock at the top of his voice with all the low crooning and pelvis-jiggling of the King himself. One day, as I tucked him in, he looked at me very earnestly and asked: “Johann, will you take me to Graceland one day?” Without really thinking, I agreed. I neve

More than 20 countries have already called for a total ban on killer robots ahead of a UN meeting next week on autonomous weapons. Photograph: Stephen Curry/The Guardian More than 20 countries have already called for a total ban on killer robots ahead of a UN meeting next week on autonomous weapons. Photograph: Stephen Curry/The Guardian

The people of Hiroshima have developed a verbal shorthand for describing their city’s layout. A particular street is “about 1.5 kilometres away”; a building “500 metres north”. No further explanation is required. The unspoken reference point is the hypocentre of the world’s first nuclear attack. At first glance, visitors arriving by bullet train to Hiroshima’s main railway station might have littl

One of the most remarkable things about Amanda Foreman's magnificent study of British involvement in the American civil war is both its length – it comes in a few folios shy of 1,000 pages – and also, almost as telling, that virtually no one has commented on this, perhaps out of respect for the fact that Dr Foreman devoted more than 10 years of her life to it. Film, video, TV and radio all accommo

The economic picture is certainly rosy, but in terms of innovation and diversity, Broadway musicals, still the likeliest venues for presenting work that will impact the broader culture, have not come so far. While shows such as Hamilton, a history of the founding fathers refracted through the lens of more recent immigration, and Fun Home, about a lesbian daughter’s exploration of her closeted fath

Over the past few weeks, I've written a lot about ideology and polarization. Most of that has focused on the left-right differences. But there's another shaping theme in politics that is also present: establishment v insurgent. Presidential campaigns, for example, usually come down to those who are backed by the establishment and those who are not. The candidates backed by the establishment usuall

Remember when your mum told you to stand up to bullies. Not always a good idea, it seems. With economies across Europe now facing meltdown, the credit rating agencies that did so much to help them get into this mess have, according to Reuters, warned the European Commission they may stop rating risky countries. Why? Because the EU has had the temerity to suggest they should be legally liable if th

Barack Obama delivers remarks about his efforts to increase federal gun control on Tuesday. Photograph: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Cyclists in central London wait for a traffic light to change. Photograph: Matt Dunham/APBut the rule change – often referred to as the Idaho Law after the US state where cyclists can stop and roll through a red light if the way is clear – is back on the agenda. Campaign group Stop Killing Cyclists asked the main candidates in May’s mayoral election to support its 10 by 2020 safety challenge, whic

We’ve stripped out the street names and lost the labels – but can you still recognise the cities from their aerial views? All images by Bing Maps/Guardian Imaging

Something seemed strange. Staring out of a hotel window in São Paulo, my eye was caught by an oversized digital display crowning the top of an undersized skyscraper. Steadily flashing the time, then the temperature, the display was incongruous in a way that I couldn’t quite put my finger on. It was only later, when a colleague mentioned that São Paulo had banned billboard advertising, that I reali

Publicly funded arts institutions are under more pressure than ever to quantify the social benefits they bring, as would be done for schools and hospitals. But isn't the crucial role of art to challenge the way society is run? Please God, no. Over 60 years after the foundation of the Arts Council, 50 years after the creation of the RSC, with publicly funded British plays the toast of Broadway, vis

A woman holds a sign that says in Spanish, ‘You, me, we are America!’ during a rally about immigration in San Diego in February 2015. Photograph: Gregory Bull/AP

Eight years later, Zawahiri is still alive. Seventy-six children and 29 adults, according to reports after the two strikes, are not. However many Americans know who Zawahiri is, far fewer are familiar with Qari Hussain. Hussain was a deputy commander of the Pakistani Taliban, a militant group aligned with al-Qaida that trained the would-be Times Square bomber, Faisal Shahzad, before his unsuccessf