About this issue: Overview
Pussy Riot’s Punk Prayer in a Russian church propelled Maria Alyokhina and her two fellow members towards global fame as political activists – and into a Siberian prison. But, Richard Smirke finds, her jail sentence hasn’t dimmed her commitment to fighting for freedom.
A new National Audit Office report lays out the true picture of homelessness across our cities. Antonia Charlesworth unpicks it and asks why Manchester is bearing the biggest brunt.
When he was 15, Chris Mears had a near-death experience after rupturing his spleen. But the Leeds-based diver fought his way back to health and, with partner Jack Laugher, won gold in the synchronised 3m springboard event at last year’s Rio Olympics.
Columnist Roger Ratcliffe stands up for clear thinking, playwright John Byrne discusses the revelations that he was born of an incestuous relationship in a letter to his younger self, we talk to the exponents of sang culture in China – for whom drinking a particular brand of tea is a provocative way of revealing the dissatisfaction in their lives – and there’s a preview of a new Roy Lichtenstein exhibition in Liverpool.
Plus crossword, Sudoku and much more.