From the outset, 2015 shouldn't have been a momentous year. "Yet for many and varied reasons, most of them unpleasant", writes Martin Hannan in The Scotsman, "it will be remembered for decades to come". Looking through the TLE archives from 2015 the breaking news stories are a reminder of the testing times we face as ideological warfare simmers and boils to the point of eruption. Attacks on Charlie Hebdo at the start of the year were followed by the heartbreaking terrorist...

It’s Christmas time and as usual this year’s must-have toys are mostly related to our soon-to-be robot overlords. Here’s TLE’s guide to the most battery-powered fun you can have at the moment: BB-8 The must-buy gadget for spoilt Star Wars fans is no longer a light sabre, it’s now BB-8 - The Force Awakens new lovechild of R2-D2 and a high visibility football. £129 buys you your very own Force Awakens co-star droid controllable by voice or app. Sphere's BB-8  not...

By Bea Patel, TLE Property Editor and Director of Shop for an Agent The ‘once upon a time’ dream of growing up, buying a home and then raising a family seems a tradition of the past. Increasing research shows how modern lifetime milestone experiences and expectations are dramatically different to those of a generation ago. The ‘changing face’ of lifetime milestones in the UK and the growing number of Londoners who are celebrating key events in their lifetimes in rental...

By Dr Helen Webberley MBChB MRCGP MFSRH Christmas is the season of excess - we do a bit more of everything. We spend more money, and pay for it in the following months; we drink more and eat more, and in most cases our bodies recover; we take more risks - physically, emotionally and sexually – and we rely on the NHS to pick up the pieces. The result? Our NHS is bursting at the seams, we are constantly reminded...

By Ben Gelblum There’s always a buzz about Touched compilations.  Some of the finest talents in electronica from Boards of Canada to Plaid, Orbital and 808 State have made them pretty, pretty special… This Christmas, Touched has put out another fundraising compilation for Macmillan Cancer Support charity. - Only this time the acts behind the sizzling electronica are top secret. - TLE Music have spent the past few days trying to needle, badger and uncover who the artists behind the...

Here is The London Economic's top 10 restaurants in London that you need to visit in 2016  TripAdvisor boasts reviews for 18,159 restaurants in London, catering for foodie tastes of every type imaginable from all corners of the globe. Keeping up with the hot new eateries and menu choices in the capital is a time-consuming and calorie-busting effort (179 new restaurants opened in London last year alone) achieved by monitoring sites such as How to Spend It. To help you...

The International Space Station is an architectural feat and a cross-country collaboration like no other. Suspended approximately 400 kilometres above the Earth’s surface the habitable artificial satellite weighs almost 400 tonnes and required more than 40 missions to assemble. Space administrations from across the World joined to form the world's largest international cooperative programme in science and technology. As British Army Air Corps officer Tim Peake becomes the first British European Space Agency (Esa) astronaut to live on board the...

Callum Towler, Stephen Adams and Owen Black chat about the the outcome of the Paris climate summit, exploring the inability for a lot of people to care about something so seemingly far into the future, how we consume and whether the prevailing political model can ever achieve sustainability.

British military personnel have been deployed to Afghanistan just three days before Christmas. Reports suggest that the Taliban is close to taking the town of Sangin in Helmand province just months after British forces withdrew all combat troops. The MOD has said that a small number of personnel has been sent to Camp Shorabak in Helmand but will not be deployed outside of the camp. Apparently the troops will only be providing an "advisory role" to the Afghan National Army...