Food & Health

Forced to Flee: Childbirth in the isolated mountains of Kashmir

In Gurez Valley, in the remote mountains of Kashmir, winter turns childbirth into a dangerous journey, with snow-covered roads and an acute lack of healthcare forcing expectant mothers to leave their homes months in advance. Women from one of the Himalaya’s oldest Indigenous communities, Dard-shin, speak of displacement, financial strain and risking their lives to become mothers.

October 21, 2026

Stories of migration

Equality

‘They want to build a village’: The community ‘supplementary school’ tackling Leicester’s education gap

​In the 1960s, the Black Supplementary School Movement opened voluntary Saturday schools to address the gaps in an education system that were leaving Black children behind. Sixty years later, more than 3,000 grassroots supplementary schools are still supporting minoritised children across the UK. In Leicester, teacher Julie Walters-Nisbett says ​​​​the community’s​​​​ ​​​​Phoenix Agenda Supplementary School is as relevant as ever

September 2, 2026

Black History Month

Lacuna Writing Competition

War & Peace

West Bank schools at breaking point: The education crisis no one is talking about

“How can I focus on the laws of physics or the rules of language when the sound of gunfire or raids fills the classroom?” As conflict tightens its grip on the West Bank, classrooms are becoming frontlines of a quieter crisis: the erosion of education. For students like 17-year-old Ahmad Haje, daily life is shaped by checkpoints, raids and fear, forcing learning under constant violence, disruption and uncertainty.

July 15, 2026

Stories from Palestine

Justice

Agnes Wanjiru: What does her family’s fight for justice reveal about the legacy of colonialism?

Agnes Wanjiru went missing 14 years ago. Two months later, her body was pulled from a septic tank. Now, Robert James Purkiss could become the first British soldier in history to face trial abroad for the killing of a civilian. Agnes’s niece, Esther Njoki, says the case goes far beyond one unresolved murder, uncovering an arrangement that has ensured British military presence in Kenya since independence and shielded British soldiers from the reach of Kenyan law.   

June 9, 2026

Agnes Wanjiru: Photograph of the hands of Esther Njoki arranging photographs of her aunt Agnes Wanjiru at her family's home in Nanyuki.

Justice

Taylor Atkinson: A reminder of the ongoing political failure of the Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) scheme

When Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) was introduced in 2005 by a “tough on crime” Labour government, it was expected the indeterminate sentence would be rarely handed out. But when the highly criticised scheme was abolished in 2012, 6,000 people were still serving their sentence – and 900 remain imprisoned today. IPP’s indefinite sentences have taken a devastating toll on the health of prisoners, including Taylor Atkinson, who was originally sentenced to less than four years, but ended his life after being held for more than 13. 

April 16, 2026