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On January 27 2025, political dignitaries and Holocaust survivors will gather in Oswiecim (Auschwitz) in Poland. They will attend the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the concentration camps by the Red Army.

There are two verses to Advance Australia Fair, but do you know the second? Probably not.

In 1980, two children and 29 crew members aboard a grain freighter became ill. They had been exposed to phosphine – a chemical used in fumigation to kill pests in and on grain – for four days. In the end, one child died.

Aristotle’s Poetics has arguably influenced modern culture more than any other ancient text. The Greek philosopher’s 4th century BCE treatise on what constitutes the best form of poetry is our earliest surviving piece of standalone literary criticism. It has had a profound influence on storytelling ever since.

Nowadays, we probably never stop to think about why money was invented. If you are a cynical person, you won’t be surprised to learn the prime motivation was to make a profit for rulers.

When we think of writing systems we likely think of an Alphabetic writing system, where each symbol (letter) in the alphabet represents a basic sound unit, such as a consonant or a vowel.

Travellers have always faced health hazards when far from home. Medieval people were no exception. Pilgrims, crusaders and others were warned by preachers such as 13th century Jacques de Vitry of “dangers on land, dangers at sea, the dangers of thieves, the dangers of predators, the dangers of battles”.

Late in Alan Hollinghurst’s new novel Our Evenings, the narrator David Win, gracefully ageing doyen of the British stage, experiences one of those moments when the world is revealed to be other than he thought it was.

The Martyrs of Compiègne, a group of 16 Discalced Carmelite nuns executed during the Reign of Terror in the French Revolution, were canonised by Pope Francis on December 18.

Blues singer Gladys Bentley was a dazzling star of the Harlem Renaissance, a period in the 1920s and ’30s when African American culture flourished in New York City. Bentley’s risqué performances intrigued audiences. So did the entertainer’s relationships with women.

Imagine a summer holiday at a seaside resort, with days spent sunbathing, reading books, exploring nature and chatting with friends.