
Latest news, sport, business, comment, analysis and reviews from the Guardian, the world's leading liberal voice
There are lots of guidebooks for parents of young children – but what happens when your offspring hit adulthood? A psychotherapist shares her guiding principles for raising grownups
When one of my daughters turned 18, our relationship hit a crisis so painful it lasted longer than I knew how to bear. I was a psychotherapist, trained in child and adult development, yet I was utterly flummoxed. Decades have passed since then, but when I recently spoke to her about that time, a flood of distress washed through me as if it were yesterday.
This is how my daughter, now a mother herself, put it when I asked her to describe that era:
Continue reading...Sun, 01 Feb 2026 12:00:28 GMT
The people I met were disconnected and angry at the same time. Even if Labour somehow wins this byelection, how does it arrest the slide into hopelessness?
The route of the No 201 bus begins in the regenerated wonderland of central Manchester, and follows a straight line through the neighbourhoods to its east. The city’s box-fresh skyscrapers and gleaming new hotels quickly recede – and within 10 minutes you arrive in Gorton, at the outer edge of the constituency that, in not much more than three weeks’ time, will see the byelection that could have profound consequences for the future of both the Labour party and British politics.
Gorton is hardly a social desert. Millions of pounds are being spent on a regeneration scheme that – among its other benefits – will bring the area new housing and a revitalised high street. But in the covered market that is about to be upgraded to a “food and drink cluster”, when I ask people questions about the looming vote, I mostly hear expressions of fierce resentment. In that sense, the story of what is about to happen here may crystallise one of this year’s big political themes: a long-festering sense of disconnection and fury reaching a new extreme, thanks to a government that seems strangely powerless to even begin to tackle it.
John Harris is a Guardian columnist
John Harris and John Domokos’s Anywhere but Westminster film about the Gorton and Denton byelection will appear later this week
Continue reading...Sun, 01 Feb 2026 15:24:08 GMT
In-person interactions break down barriers in east London, as AI startups also try to bridge communication divide
Wesley Hartwell raised his fists to the barista and shook them next to his ears. He then lowered his fists, extended his thumbs and little fingers, and moved them up and down by his chest, as though milking a cow. Finally, he laid the fingers of one hand flat on his chin and flexed his wrist forward.
Hartwell, who has no hearing problems, had just used BSL, British Sign Language, to order his morning latte with normal milk at the deaf-run Dialogue Cafe, based at the University of East London, and thanked Victor Olaniyan, the deaf barista.
Continue reading...Sun, 01 Feb 2026 14:18:06 GMT
TikTok says it’s the ultimate wake-up call. But does the fitness craze have any downsides – apart from waking up the neighbours?
If you’re an avid viewer of online fitness content (or live below someone who is) you’re probably familiar with TikTok’s 50 jumps challenge. The basic premise is simple: you jump 50 times as soon as you wake up, for 30 days straight. Reach the end of the month and you’re supposedly in for a world of benefits.
The jumps, reassuringly, don’t need to be too extreme. Think gentle bouncing with a soft knee bend, rather than tuck jumps. Some content creators show themselves with arms by their sides, swaying their hips as they go; others have their arms crossed over their chests and maintain a strict up-and-down momentum. Some would find their natural home in a moshpit, others at a dance party. Nobody, yet, seems to have purchased a bedside trampoline.
Continue reading...Sun, 01 Feb 2026 14:00:32 GMT
App endured a major outage and user backlash over perceived censorship. Now it’s facing an inquiry by the California governor and an ascendant competitor
A little more than one week ago, TikTok stepped on to US shores as a naturalized citizen. Ever since, the video app has been fighting for its life.
TikTok’s calamitous emigration began on 22 January when its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, finalized a deal to sell the app to a group of US investors, among them the business software giant Oracle. The app’s time under Chinese ownership had been marked by a meteoric ascent to more than a billion users, which left incumbents such as Instagram looking like the next Myspace. But TikTok’s short new life in the US has been less than auspicious.
Continue reading...Sun, 01 Feb 2026 11:00:26 GMT
Eric’s libido always outstripped Bea’s, but with the perimenopause she experienced a surge of desire. Is Eric fully onboard with their new ménage à trois?
• How do you do it? Share the story of your sex life, anonymously
When I kissed him in front of Eric during a meet-up in a bar, the chemistry was pretty electric
Continue reading...Sun, 01 Feb 2026 11:00:24 GMT
Andrew Mounbatten-Windsor features heavily in the latest tranche of the Epstein files, released on Friday by the US justice department
We can bring you more from the interview with housing secretary Steve Reed on Sky News’ Trevor Phillips programme this morning (see this post for what Reed said about Peter Mandelson in the same interview).
When asked if the British government would comply with an extradition request from the US if there was a charge brought against Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, Reed said he could not answer that question as it was an “entirely hypothetical” one.
Continue reading...Sun, 01 Feb 2026 15:20:52 GMT
Exclusive: Thousands of pounds unlocked to fund more diversity initiatives in diocese of capital
Church of England clergy will be encouraged to promote antiracism in sermons as senior figures unlock thousands of pounds in funding to promote diversity initiatives in London.
Church Commissioners, the body that manages C of E assets, is funding the Diocese of London, which covers more than 400 parishes and 18 boroughs north of the River Thames, to boost inclusion work as part of the three-year Racial Justice Priority (RJP) project.
Continue reading...Sun, 01 Feb 2026 12:00:27 GMT
Green party leader wants to legalise all drugs, regulate their use and not be ‘the fun police’
The leader of the Green party, Zack Polanski, has said he has never taken drugs or “even drunk alcohol” in his life, but wants to legalise all drugs and regulate their use.
Polanski was asked on the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme if he had taken drugs at university. “I’ve actually never taken a drug in my life, or even drunk alcohol, but I still don’t sit here as the fun police,” he said. “I very clearly believe people should be able to do what they want to do. It just wasn’t for me.”
Continue reading...Sun, 01 Feb 2026 13:28:21 GMT
Seven cases are to be looked at after inquiry heard evidence of serious infections at Queen Elizabeth university hospital
The deaths of seven patients at Glasgow’s landmark super-hospital are now being investigated, prosecutors have confirmed.
The revelation that another two deaths are being examined after cancer patients, many of them children, contracted infections linked to Queen Elizabeth university hospital’s (QEUH) contaminated water supply and ventilation system, comes after Scottish Labour made public further evidence of political pressure being applied to open the campus in April 2015, just before the general election.
Continue reading...Sun, 01 Feb 2026 15:06:01 GMT