EPA Sir Keir Starmer’s honeymoon is over. The prime minister has spent the summer preparing the ground for unpopular and controversial spending and taxation decisions. He wants to persuade voters not to blame him, but the governments who came before. The Conservatives, he argues, left the country’s finances in such a mess that there’s going … Read more
Ferdia Lennon, 36, was born and raised in Dublin. His first novel, Glorious Exploits, set in ancient Sicily, was the winner of this year’s Waterstones debut fiction prize. It follows two jobless potters who decide to co-direct a play performed by Athenian prisoners of war. The New York Times called it “a comic riff on … Read more
Anthony Albanese had just finished briefing Pacific island leaders on Australia’s bid to host a UN climate summit when one of his counterparts made a pointed intervention. The president of the Marshall Islands, Hilda Heine, began her speech diplomatically, saying she was “grateful” for the update and hoped the initiative was a “true” partnership with … Read more
I’d been single for a couple of years when I won the booby prize in 2006. My family has a history of breast cancer so, although I was shocked, I wasn’t too surprised to find myself on the receiving end of a solemn diagnosis. Living in regional Victoria made cancer treatment tough. I had chemo … Read more
Vice President Kamala Harris should promise to grow the U.S. economy by importing more migrant workers, consumers, and renters, according to a pro-migration op-ed writer at the Washington Post. “Legal immigration is a critical component of economic growth and solvency for our entitlement programs,” columnist Jennifer Rubin declared on August 27. “There is no shortage of good ideas, … Read more
The growing strength of parasport across the globe was brought into sharp focus in a packed Stade de France on Saturday night and, unfortunately, it was British stars who paid the price. Thomas Young, Sophie Hahn and Paralympic legend David Weir were all the subject of chastening defeats in their marquee events as new stars … Read more
Having written 10 histories of war, I’d become inured to the idea that war is probably inevitable and violence intrinsic to human nature. I no longer believe that. Spending six years writing 260,000 words on the history of the human mind has compelled me to contemplate the possibility of a new path for humankind free … Read more
There’s only one Vietnamese restaurant in Bathurst. Its head chef, Thi Huê Dao, moved to Australia with her family in 2015 to take up the job and residents of the central west New South Wales city responded enthusiastically, filling tables at Anam and leaving five-star ratings. “My mum wanted a career and we had family … Read more
A vision-impaired woman with an assistance dog was denied service by 10 cab drivers in a row in a single booking. When she pursued the matter through the human rights commission, the booking company offered a $100 gift voucher. Melbourne woman Debra Simons, 62, took her case to the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) but … Read more
Vincent* didn’t know his 20-year-old son Matthew* was gambling until he took a phone call from him as he stood on a cliff’s edge after racking up thousands of dollars of debt. Matthew was crying and revealed a gambling problem which had begun years earlier with online gaming, causing increasing debt. Matthew had opened up … Read more