As visitor numbers hit record levels in southern Europe, some residents are surrounded entirely by tourist flats

When her husband, who had cancer at the time, took a tumble in the couple’s sixth-floor flat last year, Maria frantically wondered who she could call for help to lift him.

In another building, another era, she might have dashed next door to ask a neighbour. But it wasn’t an option in her 11-unit building in central Lisbon, where tourist flats had proliferated and turned long-term residents into a rarity.

What the pushback against a more equal society could mean for a world fraught with power imbalances

When American voters headed to the ballot box in November, polls suggested the cost of living, immigration and reproductive rights ranked among their biggest concerns.

But tucked within this week’s barrage of executive orders was an attack on an initiative that had in recent years become increasingly weaponised around the world: measures that sought to tackle discrimination.

In leaked memo to culture minister, Laurence des Cars sounds alarm over state of Paris art gallery

Visiting the Louvre has become a “physical ordeal” as the throngs of tourists, leaks and substandard catering take a toll on the world’s most-visited museum, its director has said in a leaked memo.

The document, written by Laurence des Cars for the French culture minister, Rachida Dati, but leaked to the media on Thursday, sounded the alarm over the state of the Paris museum.