Robert Hardman

This week's self-inflicted disaster comes courtesy of several High Street supermarkets, a major European milk co-operative and a £23 billion Swiss-Dutch food and beauty corporation.

Five and a half years on from the fire which shocked the world, the Cathedral of Notre-Dame is not merely restored. It is now more splendid than perhaps at any point since the Middle Ages.

ROBERT HARDMAN: Inside Parliament, we saw the president of the National Farmers' Union, Tom Bradshaw, close to tears.

ROBERT HARDMAN: And clearly that will be a guiding principle for the national memorial to Elizabeth II - judging by yesterday's announcement of the two-stage competition to create it.

They are still confused and, understandably, a little angry in the centre of Essen, though the mood is very much calmer than it was a few days ago. Back then, many people were scared witless.

This should have been the busiest day of the year in the Old Marketplace in Magdeburg, writes ROBERT HARDMAN, with squeals of excitement from the fairground rides. Instead, all stand empty.

Rather than address the nation from a royal residence this year, the King will speak from a small chapel hidden up an alley behind an office block in London's West End.

NEW PODCAST: Robert & Kate are back with a Christmas Special in which they explore royal Christmases past. Including, the shocking tradition Tudor children were forced to endure

Did the King not get the memo? 2024 will long be remembered as a year of personal challenges for the monarchy. The word 'crisis' has been routinely bandied around.

TfL says that the proposed ads - saying 'Stop the Family Farm Tax'- are 'politically controversial'. You do not need to be a lawyer to see that this is a brazen case of vindictive hair-splitting.