A sweeping overhaul of planning rules to trigger the building of many more affordable homes will be announced by the government this week as it confronts the economic and social legacy of 14 years of Conservative rule. Deputy prime minister Angela Rayner will unveil a new National Planning Policy Framework to MPs on Tuesday before … Read more
Glory be, the Games are going to have to go some to top their start at the Stade de France on Saturday night. France won their first gold medal of these Olympics in the most incredible style, with a ring-a-ding, rope-a-dope 28-7 victory in the men’s rugby sevens final against the two-time Olympic champions Fiji. … Read more
In June 1924, L’Auto, the French sportspaper that had launched the Tour de France, ran a large portrait on its front page. This was the Olympic Games of the Finnish runner Paavo Nurmi and his five gold medals; of Harold Abraham and Eric Liddell, whose story would be told in Chariots of Fire; of Johnny … Read more
It’s a Saturday morning and I am standing in front of a wall of skincare products in a bustling Mecca store in Sydney. Every product in this hub of cool glamour seems filled with promise. I sneak a look at the girl with flawless skin across the aisle. I’ve watched her move between all the … Read more
It was billed as the race of the century. And for once hype and reality danced mightily close together. But, as so often in the past, the Australian they called the Terminator was left standing at the end, immortal and indestructible, an Olympic champion once again. Rarely do you get three world record holders, all … Read more
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, vowed the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah would “pay a hefty price” after a strike on a football pitch in a remote town in the occupied Golan Heights killed11 young people and a daylong barrage of rocket fire from Lebanon targeted Israeli territory. Israel’s Magen David Adom emergency services said “large … Read more
I have George Bush Sr and Saddam Hussein to thank for meeting Barbie. It was 1991 and rallies against the US bombing of Iraq were raging in Australia and around the world. As an Arab feminist born in southern Lebanon who grew up in white suburbia north-west of Sydney, I had long identified with the … Read more
Dynasties are rare in Australia. Those that want to change their homeland, generation after generation, are rare everywhere. Most democracies aim to keep it like that. As US president Joe Biden said in his retirement address, “presidents are not kings”. When King Charles and Queen Camilla boarded their gilded carriage to travel to Westminster to … Read more
The French writer Victor Hugo once compared the thought of dying in Paris to vertigo. “Nothing is more fantastic,” he wrote. “Nothing is more sublime.” And nothing seems more likely if you attempt to get to as many Paris 2024 Olympic venues as possible in relentless rain on the opening day. Day one of the … Read more
Getty Images Experts say behaviour problems are often “masking an underlying unmet need” Figures released last week showed the highest yearly numbers of suspensions and exclusions of school pupils in England. Is worsening behaviour really the only explanation? Sara, not her real name, says she first noticed her son’s irritability and difficulty socialising while at … Read more