91 minutes ago Pitch perfect: why listening to cricket on radio soothes a world that won’t hear sense

Waves crashing. Cicadas singing. And always the burble of cricket on the radio, unifying summers and people with its gentle pleasures for an uncertain worldMy father was a man of his generation, which meant when summer rolled around and the cricket season started, he insisted on muting Channel Nine’s coverage and blasting the ABC’s radio commentary instead.Ours was a complicated relationship but one thing for which I’ll be forever grateful was the way my father shared his love for Test cricket with me. I grew up as a cricket obsessive. My love for the game survived childhood, adolescence, and even the realisation that, given I was batting No 11 for South Melbourne under-12s, my dream to open the batting for Australia was unlikely to be fulfilled. Continue reading...

Politics

91 minutes ago My body is already in decline. Now experts can predict when my mind will follow | Emma Beddington

What’s more depressing than the thought of a long, slow decline in health? The thought of several short, sharp declines. Thank you, science!I don’t believe ageing is linear: I reckon we have long plateaux, then everything falls apart all at once. I realised this at the close of my harrowing 31st year, when I looked in the mirror and didn’t recognise the sad, grey ghost staring back. I swear one day I was young and moderately dewy with a functioning musculoskeletal system; the next my face imploded, shortly followed by my knee (yes, it was a fun year). There’s a phrase for this kind of sudden ageing in French: prendre un coup de vieux, which feels appropriate, since I was living in France during that first precipitous decline and prolonged exposure to the angry rigours of Parisian life was at least partly to blame.Anyway, now science is catching up. Earlier this year, researchers identified two “peaks” for ageing at 44 and 60, and now a new paper points to three peaks in brain ageing...

Science

1 hour ago The family business that has told staff they only need to work four days a week

"It means people get to spend more time with their friends and families with longer weekends, they see no decrease in wages"

Economics

1 hour ago Couple's home renovation turns into 'horror movie' after finding hidden room under floor

A man has described how he and his wife bought their first home and started renovating it to make the space their own – only to find a hidden room that sent shivers down their spines

Events

1 hour ago Miracle survival for people in plane crash stuck on minus 24C mountainside for three days

The two pilots and a passenger, aged 71, 68 and 25, managed to survive the minus 24C conditions after digging a hole in the snow and burning fuel from their downed An-2 aircraft

Events

2 hours ago Usyk stakes claim as best man in boxing after making Fury eat his words | Donald McRae

Boxing is full of unsavoury people but it also produces extraordinary men. The Ukrainian champion is one of themAs Oleksandr Usyk walked towards us just after three in the morning, resplendent in his purple tracksuit while carrying Eeyore under his arm, his promoter let slip a gentle cry: “Here he comes, the best man in boxing ”Alex Krassyuk is not a traditional boxing promoter, being a much more understated man than most of his contemporaries in this riotous old business. But his pride was understandable in the immediate aftermath of Usyk’s decisive second straight defeat of Tyson Fury. Continue reading...

Politics

2 hours ago I had 25 addresses in 20 years – but now I’ve created the beginnings of a new life | Jay Bernard

Gentrification and the cruelties of the rental market kept forcing me to move. This Christmas, I know I’ll find happiness wherever I amIn our end of year series, writers and public figures remember the place or time when they felt most at homeAfter a while, you want to live alone. And then it happens and you discover everything that’s difficult about it. You realise that you didn’t really want to live alone, you were just sad and alienated in your old life.The pandemic reshuffled society in a way that could not be anticipated. Sometimes it feels as though the life I now have has come about because I stepped through a portal to a parallel world. There is a disconcerting jump cut between life before Covid-19 and life now. In the history of unstable housing that characterised my 20s and early 30s, and about which I feel nothing but regret, there was a moment when it changed from an unquestioned, if depressing reality, to something emblematic.Jay Bernard is a writer and artist Continue ...

Politics

2 hours ago Chase shares jam jar money saving method that could help people keep on top of finances

It turns out that a jam jar is not just a jam jar but a 'door into the psychology of saving,' according to Chase bank which is advising customers on how best to manage their money

Economics

2 hours ago Police issue 'terrorism' warning to British public after Germany Christmas market attack

At least five people have been killed and over 200 people injured after an SUV ploughed through a crowd of people at the packed market in Magdeburg on Friday.

Events

2 hours ago Wes Streeting says he feels shame at people being treated in NHS hospital corridors

Wes Streeting said there is ‘so much more to do’ to fix the NHS as satisfaction in the health service hit a record low

Politics