Barack Obama This article is more than 5 months oldObama reportedly warns Biden over strength of Trump 2024 challengeThis article is more than 5 months oldReport says ex-president made comments at private White House lunch in June but pledged ‘to do all he could’ for re-election bid Barack Obama has reportedly warned Joe Biden about how strong a challenge Donald Trump will be in their second election battle in 2024, should Trump win the Republican nomination next year as expected.

Book of the weekPolitics booksReviewA fearless, fascinating account of the emergence of the Putin regime also shines a light on the current threats posed by Russian money and influence Russia stepped decisively off a path of western-led global integration on the morning of 25 October 2003. Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the country’s richest man and the chief shareholder in its largest energy company, Yukos, had touched down to refuel his private jet in Novosibirsk when Russian Federal Security Service commandos forced their way on to the aircraft and arrested him on trumped up charges of fraud and tax evasion.

The 100 best novelsBooksAfter two years of careful consideration, Robert McCrum has reached a verdict on his selection of the 100 greatest novels written in English. Take a look at his list Robert McCrum reflects on his choices One in five doesn’t represent over 300 years of women in literature: a response What is missing: readers’ alternative list The world’s 100 greatest novels of all time (2003) 1. The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan (1678)

Psychology This article is more than 14 years oldThe waking nightmare of sleep paralysisThis article is more than 14 years oldChris FrenchImagine awaking to a strong sense of a 'presence', pressure on your chest, intense fear and hallucinations, but being incapable of moving a muscleProfessor French discusses sleep paralysis on The One Show tonight on BBC1 at 7pm "The light had been switched off, and a comfortable feeling of warmth and heaviness marked the onset of sleep.

Top 10sBooksFrom The Godfather to LA Confidential, these are some of the most compulsive tales of men who live and die in the mob It’s not hard to understand the enduring appeal of gangsters in fiction. From the romantic notion of the outlaw antihero to the caricature of the psychotic mob boss, they have been portrayed in many different lights; but the unifying theme is that they live by a set of rules alien to the law-abiding public, and that makes them fascinating.