Japan This article is more than 3 months oldManhole covers become collector’s items in Japan This article is more than 3 months oldKyoto to sell its obsolete manhole covers in a bid to cash in on the public’s fascination with the decorated pieces They are heavy disks of cast iron that separate us from our subterranean sewage, but in Japan, they are also highly coveted works of art, symbols of regional pride, and now, sources of revenue.

Montenegro This article is more than 12 years oldMillion-pound bash for rising star of the super-richThis article is more than 12 years oldNat Rothschild throws three-day party for 40th birthday at glitzy resort in MontenegroThey came on the sleekest of yachts bought with the proceeds from the grittiest of industries. Mining and commodity magnates descended this weekend on an unlikely new billionaires' playground in Montenegro, one of Europe's poorest countries, to celebrate the 40th birthday of the rising star of their firmament, Nat Rothschild.

Society booksReview A powerful call for western museums to return the objects looted in the violent days of empire, during ‘world war zero’ Museums are entertaining. They are educational. They are civic institutions. They are the sites of school trips, first dates, rainy days on holidays. Museums are safe, and worthy, and a little boring. Right? Dan Hicks sees it differently. In his beautifully written, carefully argued book, museums house unending violence, ceaseless trauma, colonial crimes committed again every morning as the strip lights click on.

US gun control This article is more than 1 month oldUS supreme court refuses to overturn Illinois assault weapons banThis article is more than 1 month oldLaw was passed following Highland Park shooting in 2022, and has been challenged by gun shops and gun rights groups The US supreme court has refused to overturn an Illinois ban on assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition, which was passed following the deadly mass shooting in Highland Park, Illinois, in 2022.

The ObserverTupac ShakurNews last month of a police raid sparked fresh hopes of solving one of the most infamous killings in US history. William Shaw, an expert on the Los Angeles rap scene, recounts a tragic tale of racism, gangs, toxic masculinity and police incompetence The 1990s music scene produced two moments of great darkness. If the 1994 death of Kurt Cobain somehow symbolised young white alienation, the murder of Tupac Shakur two years later continues to resonate, not just because it was another deep and painful scar for the African American community, but because no one has ever been prosecuted for it.

Marina O'Loughlin on restaurantsRestaurantsReviewThe pole-up-jacksie staff robotically recite every component of every dish with the animation and charm of a Theresa May interview How dare I? How dare I be critical about a small, new indie restaurant, its name an elision of the chef/owner’s two sons (and the number of tables they, er, used to have)? Where it’s clearly the work of the bleeding inevitable passionate maverick who has dedicated his life, soul, savings?

The age of extinctionScotlandResearchers are using satellite technology to monitor the health of these vital carbon sinks and help restore them Flanders Moss bog is slumped on the flat, farmed landscape of the Carse of Stirling in Scotland like a jelly fungi. It wobbles when you walk on it, and a metal pole goes down eight metres before reaching hard ground. This lowland-raised bog is a dome of peat fed mainly by rainfall and it acts like a single organism – the whole thing has to be looked after for any part to be in really good shape.

Alys Fowler's gardening columnGardensYou can boil, mash, roast or fry this Andean tuber. Even the leaves taste good In this damp, cool weather, most of the garden is tumbling into decline, yet one plant flourishes. Mashua has spent the autumn sending out tendrils, racing upwards and triumphantly flowering where it finds the most sun; below ground, its tubers are fattening up. Mashua, Tropaeolum tuberosum, is a perennial cousin of the nasturtium.

ArtObituaryKhosrow Hassanzadeh obituaryArtist who applied the techniques of pop art to exploring Iranian life past and presentEven after the Iranian revolution of 1979, the western pop art collected by Farah, the last shah’s wife, remained on show at the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art. Works such as those by Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein inspired a generation of artists, among them Khosrow Hassanzadeh, who has died aged 59 of alcohol poisioning after consuming bootleg arak.

The ObserverMoneyOlder people hired as ‘money mules’ by gangs as cost of living crisis bitesMore people in their 50s and 60s are being recruited to allow their bank accounts to be used in scams A growing number of people aged in their 50s and 60s are allowing their bank accounts to be used to move money illegally. Fraud experts say that among the increasing number being recruited as “money mules” – those who allow their bank details to be used to transfer criminals’ cash – are older account holders, as well as business owners who use company bank accounts.