In retrospect, I can appreciate what a big chance she took. I hope the universe has repaid her many times over

• Read more in the kindness of strangers series

Back in 2006, I went to Canberra for a medical school interview. I figured I would book accommodation when I arrived but when I arrived, there was a big convention in town and all the backpackers hostels and budget accommodation were fully booked.

Coming from Singapore, I thought perhaps I could just sleep at the airport – but quickly found Canberra airport, unlike Singapore’s, is not open 24 hours. Not knowing quite what to do and getting a bit desperate, I caught a bus into town, then started wandering towards the casino, thinking I might spend the night in a place that was open all night. That wouldn’t put me in the ideal condition for nailing an interview the next morning, but as a broke student, I couldn’t afford a pricey hotel.

In retrospect, I can appreciate what a big chance she took. I hope the universe has repaid her many times over

• Read more in the kindness of strangers series

Back in 2006, I went to Canberra for a medical school interview. I figured I would book accommodation when I arrived but when I arrived, there was a big convention in town and all the backpackers hostels and budget accommodation were fully booked.

Coming from Singapore, I thought perhaps I could just sleep at the airport – but quickly found Canberra airport, unlike Singapore’s, is not open 24 hours. Not knowing quite what to do and getting a bit desperate, I caught a bus into town, then started wandering towards the casino, thinking I might spend the night in a place that was open all night. That wouldn’t put me in the ideal condition for nailing an interview the next morning, but as a broke student, I couldn’t afford a pricey hotel.

In retrospect, I can appreciate what a big chance she took. I hope the universe has repaid her many times over

• Read more in the kindness of strangers series

Back in 2006, I went to Canberra for a medical school interview. I figured I would book accommodation when I arrived but when I arrived, there was a big convention in town and all the backpackers hostels and budget accommodation were fully booked.

Coming from Singapore, I thought perhaps I could just sleep at the airport – but quickly found Canberra airport, unlike Singapore’s, is not open 24 hours. Not knowing quite what to do and getting a bit desperate, I caught a bus into town, then started wandering towards the casino, thinking I might spend the night in a place that was open all night. That wouldn’t put me in the ideal condition for nailing an interview the next morning, but as a broke student, I couldn’t afford a pricey hotel.

Parcels worth £666.5m have been stolen in the UK this year, though some pranksters have found ways to give culprits their comeuppance. With Christmas deliveries arriving thick and fast, here are practical steps to take

A couple of years ago, 31-year-old charity worker Nicki Wedgwood had ordered Christmas presents online for friends and family. When the packages were delivered to her in Hackney, east London, the driver left them in the lobby of her building rather than taking them directly to her flat. She spotted them as she popped out to a nearby shop and decided to pick them up when she came back. When she returned 10 minutes later, the boxes had been ripped open and their contents were gone.

Wedgwood thinks she passed the thief in the hallway as she was leaving for the shop. “There was some random dude just inside the doorway, who had a Boris bike with him,” she says. She had assumed he was a guest of one of her neighbours. “I said hello to him … I think he even said Merry Christmas.”

Parcels worth £666.5m have been stolen in the UK this year, though some pranksters have found ways to give culprits their comeuppance. With Christmas deliveries arriving thick and fast, here are practical steps to take

A couple of years ago, 31-year-old charity worker Nicki Wedgwood had ordered Christmas presents online for friends and family. When the packages were delivered to her in Hackney, east London, the driver left them in the lobby of her building rather than taking them directly to her flat. She spotted them as she popped out to a nearby shop and decided to pick them up when she came back. When she returned 10 minutes later, the boxes had been ripped open and their contents were gone.

Wedgwood thinks she passed the thief in the hallway as she was leaving for the shop. “There was some random dude just inside the doorway, who had a Boris bike with him,” she says. She had assumed he was a guest of one of her neighbours. “I said hello to him … I think he even said Merry Christmas.”

Parcels worth £666.5m have been stolen in the UK this year, though some pranksters have found ways to give culprits their comeuppance. With Christmas deliveries arriving thick and fast, here are practical steps to take

A couple of years ago, 31-year-old charity worker Nicki Wedgwood had ordered Christmas presents online for friends and family. When the packages were delivered to her in Hackney, east London, the driver left them in the lobby of her building rather than taking them directly to her flat. She spotted them as she popped out to a nearby shop and decided to pick them up when she came back. When she returned 10 minutes later, the boxes had been ripped open and their contents were gone.

Wedgwood thinks she passed the thief in the hallway as she was leaving for the shop. “There was some random dude just inside the doorway, who had a Boris bike with him,” she says. She had assumed he was a guest of one of her neighbours. “I said hello to him … I think he even said Merry Christmas.”

Questions about the Corn Laws and habeas corpus are abstruse and unrelated to modern life – as my French husband is finding. The test should instead ask about soap operas and sandwiches

What medal did Mary Peters win in the 1972 Olympics? How many Scottish ski resorts are there? Where was Florence Nightingale born? Until I got these questions as exasperated screenshots from my husband, I had no idea, like any normal Briton (it’s gold, five and Italy, apparently). They came from an app he downloaded to revise for his Life in the UK test, a prerequisite for applying for citizenship. Other recent questions have featured the divine right of kings, Hadrian’s Wall fort names and trying minor crimes in Scotland. Can the test itself possibly be this hard? We’ll soon find out: he’s taking it next week, if he doesn’t give up and go back to France instead.

Much has been written about the absurdity of the Life in the UK test – it’s inaccurate, partial and sloppily worded , unfit for purpose , a “ bad pub quiz ” – and now it’s ruining my life (in the UK). Home is tense: my husband is tetchy because he has spent years here (he works, volunteers, pays taxes, can identify both Mitchell brothers and responds appropriately when asked “You all right?”), but now needs to prove he is assimilated by answering multiple-choice questions on the repeal of the Corn Laws. I’m mortified, partly because we’re making people pay £50 to take an absurdly hard exam – you need 75% to pass – and partly because it keeps humbling me. I’m a history graduate, but couldn’t tell you the date of the Habeas Corpus Act with a gun to my head.

Kyiv may be approaching its last chance to end the war with its sovereignty intact. If a peace deal includes two key elements, it should accept

The negotiations over the war in Ukraine are frustrating and tragic. On the one side, a victim of aggression whose plight is more and more desperate. On the other, a brutal aggressor, willing to go to extraordinary lengths to win the war. In the middle, a transactional American president eager for a deal.

It’s no surprise that so many observers have railed against the proposals recently put forward by President Donald Trump and his emissary Steve Witkoff. These proposals appear to offer much to Russia and little to Ukraine – other than an end to the violence. If the negotiations produce a plan that offers Ukraine no hope of security after the war, no Ukrainian leader will accept it. Security is the core of sovereignty, and it would be political suicide to trade Ukraine’s sovereignty for peace.

Christopher S Chivvis is a senior fellow and director of the American statecraft program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Questions about the Corn Laws and habeas corpus are abstruse and unrelated to modern life – as my French husband is finding. The test should instead ask about soap operas and sandwiches

What medal did Mary Peters win in the 1972 Olympics? How many Scottish ski resorts are there? Where was Florence Nightingale born? Until I got these questions as exasperated screenshots from my husband, I had no idea, like any normal Briton (it’s gold, five and Italy, apparently). They came from an app he downloaded to revise for his Life in the UK test, a prerequisite for applying for citizenship. Other recent questions have featured the divine right of kings, Hadrian’s Wall fort names and trying minor crimes in Scotland. Can the test itself possibly be this hard? We’ll soon find out: he’s taking it next week, if he doesn’t give up and go back to France instead.

Much has been written about the absurdity of the Life in the UK test – it’s inaccurate, partial and sloppily worded , unfit for purpose , a “ bad pub quiz ” – and now it’s ruining my life (in the UK). Home is tense: my husband is tetchy because he has spent years here (he works, volunteers, pays taxes, can identify both Mitchell brothers and responds appropriately when asked “You all right?”), but now needs to prove he is assimilated by answering multiple-choice questions on the repeal of the Corn Laws. I’m mortified, partly because we’re making people pay £50 to take an absurdly hard exam – you need 75% to pass – and partly because it keeps humbling me. I’m a history graduate, but couldn’t tell you the date of the Habeas Corpus Act with a gun to my head.