67 h. ago More Manchester children are gaining first choice primary school places than their London peers

In some of England’s biggest cities more children got their first choice school this year than in 2024, according to a PA survey.

Politics

5 d. ago Council tax compared: the English cities with biggest increases as bills up £150

Council tax bills across the 13 areas compared went up by £119 on average

Economics

6 d. ago Scots share 'the worst mistakes a tourist can make' when visiting Scotland

From mispronouncing cities to calling tablet fudge, locals have shared their biggest no-nos.

Politics

3 w. ago Cool Britannia: skeleton stars target Olympic history despite a lack of ice

Matt Weston and Marcus Wyatt are favourites for next year’s Winter Games despite the absence of facilitiesPinned to a wall inside the small wooden hut housing Britain’s only skeleton and bobsleigh push-start track is a notice delivering health and safety commands with no hint of irony.Alongside instructions to ensure leaves and other hazards are cleared prior to use is the stipulation that the track must be free of ice. That Britain is the world’s only top sliding nation permanently navigating a lack of frozen facilities betrays the directive’s inadvertent satire. Continue reading...

Events

3 w. ago Scrapping St Paul's gyratory "race track" will deliver City's biggest ever new open space

Work starts on April 28 and the first phase will take up to two years to complete.

Politics

3 w. ago In Canada, I saw how Trump is ripping North America apart – and how hard its bond will be to repair | Andy Beckett

With the US president now warmer to Moscow than to Ottawa, it’s little surprise Canadians I met rolled their eyes at the decline of the special relationshipAs wealthy but lightly defended countries have often learned, being close to a much more powerful state – geographically or diplomatically – can be a precarious existence. All it takes is an aggressive new government in the stronger state and a relatively equal relationship of economic and military cooperation can suddenly turn exploitative, even threatening.Since Donald Trump’s second inauguration, this realisation has been dawning across the west, but nowhere more disconcertingly than in Canada. Its border with the US is the longest in the world: 5,525 miles of often empty and hard to defend land, lakes and rivers. Canada’s two biggest cities, Toronto and Montreal, are only a few hours to the north, were you to approach them in a US army tank.Andy Beckett is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Politics