50 h. ago Joy and relief as homeless residents move into new Trafford housing development

'I have my home, I can plan for the future and look forward to it with real hope for better times ahead'

Politics

7 d. ago Bethell’s elegant first Test century presses pause on Australia’s Ashes party

Fifth Test; day four: England 302-8 & 384; Australia 567Tourists lead by 119 after late wickets let hosts back inIt was good. So good. So unbelievably good. On the penultimate day of an Ashes tour packed with regrets for England, a star was born when Jacob Bethell, 22 years young, raised his bat to all corners of the Sydney Cricket Ground in celebration of a hundred that offered hope for the future.There was no reason why England should collapse to defeat on this sun-soaked fourth day but every reason to think they might anyway. Ground down by Australia over two months, starting their second innings 183 runs behind and with Ben Stokes injured first thing, they certainly looked ripe for it. Continue reading...

Politics

8 d. ago Kelsey Parker reveals she is trying for another baby as she admits 'it's OK not to be OK'

Kelsey Parker has been through more heartache in her 35 years than most in an entire lifetime - but as she revealed recently, she is looking to the future with hope

Politics

9 d. ago Corriedale 'positive' ending explained as two worlds 'go back' amid devastation

After the horror of Corriedale came to a close, the final scene offered some hope for the future of the ITV soaps

Politics

9 d. ago Swinney’s message to Scotland: May’s election offers ‘hope for a better future’

The First Minister was speaking to SNP supporters in Glasgow.

Politics

1 week ago Tyson Fury confirms boxing future a year after retiring with Anthony Joshua fight hope

Tyson Fury has announced he will return to boxing in 2026, a year after retiring following defeats to Oleksandr Usyk, with a potential bout with Antony Joshua a possibility

Sport

2 w. ago Hot dinners, a warm bed & hope for the future how Prem club West Ham opened its doors to rough sleepers this Christmas

THE final touches of straightening bedsheets, popping dinner in the oven, and then preparing for guests are taking place.  This isn’t a hotel, nor is it a family home waiting for the influx of far-flung relatives at Christmas. It’s West Ham’s community centre The Foundry, which has been hosting rough sleepers for eight days over...

Events

2 w. ago My big night out: I finished the 1990s with fireworks, a funfair, flirting – and furious hope for the future

It was the end of a fabulous decade, when spontaneous, unpredictable parties seemed not just possible but typical. A new millennium was dawning. What could possibly go wrong?‘We wish you peace,” said Tony Blair as the clock struck 8pm. It was New Year’s Eve 1999, a Friday night, and I was on the banks of the Thames. Britain’s fresh-faced prime minister – only two years into the job – was giving a gimmick called The British Airways London Eye its first spin. The Eye was physically unremarkable and harrowingly slow, but it didn’t matter because it only had a five-year lease and definitely wouldn’t still be around a quarter of a century later, littering the skyline.It was the end of the 90s and, as the Thatcher/Major doldrums whizzed out of view like the subplot of Sliding Doors, we maintained a Bridget Jones-like innocence and entrusted the future to guys like Blair, Peter Mandelson and Bill Clinton, who didn’t seem like (respectively) warmongers, abuse excusers or sex pests. Continue...

Events

2 w. ago Myanmar votes in sham election under atmosphere of fear and coercion: ‘What will change? Nothing’

With only parties vetted by the military allowed to contest Myanmar’s first election in five years, Sara Perria speaks to people in Yangon and Mandalay who are heading out to vote because they are being forced – not out of any hope for a better future

Politics

2 w. ago The price of ‘ceasefire’ in Gaza: More than 400 people dead in just three months and little hope for the future

When Donald Trump did his victory lap in Israel after announcing a ceasefire last October, he promised ‘peace for all eternity’. But Palestinians tell Alex Croft and Nedal Hamdouna they continue to face a grim daily reality of violence and destruction

Events

3 w. ago 'The town that taught the world a lesson in humanity': Lockerbie marks the 37th anniversary of bombing

Lockerbie looks to the past on the 37th anniversary of the atrocity that killed 270 people - but also the future, in a sense of hope and honour.

Events

3 w. ago From Dr Seuss to All Quiet on the Western Front: 19 books to help you find hope, sense and resistance in difficult times

Writers, activists and politicians on the books they turn to for wisdom and perspective – and to restore their faith in human natureAustralia is mired in grief, anger and division over the horrific act of antisemitic terrorism in Sydney. The attack in Bondi has reverberated internationally, tragically bookending a year that already challenged humanity, hope and the future of the planet.Indeed as 2025 ends it is defined by yet more abject and ignoble political, economic, technological and environmental derelictions of dire proportions. Continue reading...

Politics

4 w. ago Europe is a continent soaked in economic pessimism. Until we change that, the far right will rise and rise | Owen Jones

Since 2008, struggling communities have been told they are in competition with migrants. Only a model that gives them hope will halt the populists How much does Europe’s future resemble its gruesome past? That question was already pressing before Donald Trump retook the White House, and turned support for the European far-right “patriotic” parties into US policy. That is, of course, what his newly published National Security Strategy means, committing the US to “cultivating resistance” in European nations against the supposed “civilisational erasure” represented by immigration.With or without US interference, far-right authoritarianism is now an entirely plausible European future, unless there is drastic change. After all, it is already the US’s present reality. American exceptionalism once held that such an outcome was impossible in the world’s oldest continuous constitutional republic, with its system of separation of powers and no history of despotism. Yet the country is now rule...

Economics