Google’s lab X is setting out to solve humanity’s greatest challenges – such as the secret of happiness – through incredibly ambitious technological innovations In 2014, my son Ali died following a routine appendectomy. Two days earlier, he had asked our family to sit down at the kitchen table and told us he had something important to say to each ...

LONDON — The World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Survey examines the financial health and risks of countries around the world. While Britain’s public debt is the cause of constant debate and concern for policy-makers and politicians, the ranking shows that Britain is not even among the top 10 countries with the highest levels of borrowing. In fact, debt-to-GDP ratios around ...

Teachers could be barred from setting exam papers under proposals being considered by Ofqual in the wake of the public schools cheating scandal. In a clampdown on exam malpractice, teachers who are also employed by exam boards would only be allowed to write individual questions, which would then go into a “bank” and be selected at random for upcoming tests. ...

Central Park South is the most expensive rental neighborhood in New York City. The neighborhood’s median asking rent is $6,500 a month. Once known as “hotel row”, many of those accommodations have now been converted into condos and co-ops. One of Manhattan’s smallest neighborhoods is also its most expensive for renters. Just below Central Park, between 5th and 8th Avenues ...

An Oxford University academic has defended a colleague accused of sexual assault amid claims he has been smeared because he is a “prominent Muslim”. Professor Eugene Rogan, the director of Oxford’s Middle East Centre, has come to the defence of the Islamic theologian Tariq Ramadan, who is currently being investigated by French police. Prof Ramadan, who is the grandson of ...

It is hard to think of another Bank of England decision that is simultaneously as momentous and as inconsequential as this one. The mere fact that the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee is widely expected to raise interest rates this month is a landmark moment all of its own. It would be the first time rates have been lifted in a ...

Britain’s powerful services sector accelerated in October as demand picked up and confidence ballooned. It joins the manufacturing industry in growing unexpectedly strongly into the autumn, raising hopes that this year’s slowdown in economic growth could be past the worst. The services sector’s purchasing manager’s index, an influential survey from IHS Markit, climbed to 55.6, up from 53.6 in September ...

Cycling in London could reach Amsterdam levels with almost one in three journeys made by bike, the boss of one of the “dockless” firms launching in the capital predicted today. Zhang Yanqi, 30, co-founder of ofo, set out a vision where cycling became commonplace as millions of commuters used the so-called “Uber for bikes” to complete their journeys. Founded by ...

Alumni from elite boys’ public schools do not dominate the upper echelons of British society as much as they used to, according to a detailed analysis of Who’s Who over the past 120 years. The command that Britain’s public schools hold over the highest offices in the country has “diminished significantly” over time, academics at the London School of Economics ...

The GP and television presenter says sharing our medical information globally could lay the groundwork for the next healthcare revolution A few years ago I undertook a genetic screening for a television show. The tests, which analysed aspects of my DNA from a swab of my cheek cells, revealed I was genetically prone to raised levels of an amino acid ...