General news

• Labour revives Northern Powerhouse Rail project with pledge of £45bn funds

  13-01-2026 23:30 via theguardian.com
  Plan will start with TransPennine upgrade with new line connecting Liverpool and Manchester in second phaseLong-awaited plans for better railways across the north of England have been given government backing with an undertaking to “reverse years of chronic underinvestment” by spending up to £45bn building Northern Powerhouse Rail.Just over £1bn has been allocated to work up a detailed three-stage plan to connect cities from Liverpool to Newcastle, which could fulfil most
  
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• Tired of the wellness industrial complex? Six rules to ditch – and what to do instead

  13-01-2026 21:00 via theguardian.com
  Dr Ezekiel J Emanuel, a former Obamacare adviser, has deceptively simple advice for living a healthy lifeBeing healthy shouldn’t feel this complicated. Yet every week brings a new wellness fixation, from “fibermaxxing” to “zone 2 training”, creatine and cortisol-hacking.Between prescriptive plans, complex science and often contradictory advice, it can seem like being healthy is a full-time job – or a hopeless cause. Continue reading...
  
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• ‘They want to break us’: Russian energy grid strikes give freezing Kyiv some of its darkest days

  13-01-2026 19:24 via theguardian.com
  Impact of raid on infrastructure rivals early weeks of war when tanks tried to force their way into Ukrainian capitalOn the night of 9 January, amid warnings from Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, of massive and imminent Russian airstrikes, Tetiana Shkred began cooking for her children at midnight.Concerned that the power was once again about to be knocked out in her apartment block on Kyiv’s left bank – the side of the city that has been most affected by Moscow’s
  
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• Competency porn: is there any greater escapism than watching a capable person on TV?

  13-01-2026 19:05 via theguardian.com
  In 2026, when it feels as though the world is moments away from any number of disasters, there is nothing hotter than watching someone do their job really, really wellName: Competency porn.Age: Relatively new. Continue reading...
  
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• How to make a habit actually stick: the small changes that worked for you

  13-01-2026 16:34 via theguardian.com
  Most resolutions don’t survive past January, so how do you make a change that lasts? Readers share their top tips, from habit stacking to drinking their second coffee outdoors• Motivation-boosting buys to help you stick to your resolutionsJanuary often starts with a long list of unrealistic resolutions – and ends with them all being abandoned. But some good habits are worth keeping, whether that’s flossing daily, getting exercise or eating more plants.So how do you build a
  
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• Meet the merpeople: ‘Once I put the tail on, my life was changed forever’

  13-01-2026 15:00 via theguardian.com
  Professional mermaids risk hypothermia, seasickness and the cling of skin-tight silicone, but the reward is becoming an ‘ocean ambassador’ – and a bit more colour in the worldPropelled by a shimmering silicon tail, Katrin Gray spins underwater, blowing kisses to the audience as her long, copper hair floats around her face. Her seemingly effortless movement is anything but – a professional mermaid’s free diving and performance skills require training, practice and to
  
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• January tips if you’re cooking for one | Kitchen aide

  13-01-2026 14:00 via theguardian.com
  From one-pot meals to versatile dishes that last all week, our panel of experts serves up ideas for solo chefsI really struggle with cooking for one, so what can I make in January that’s interesting but easy and, most importantly, warming?
  Jane, via email“There’s an art to the perfect solo meal,” says Bonnie Chung, author of Miso: From Japanese Classics to Everyday Umami, “and that’s balancing decadence with ease.” For Chung, that means good-quality ingr
  
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• Biffy Clyro review – triumphant set marks a thunderous renewal

  13-01-2026 11:21 via theguardian.com
  Motorpoint Arena, Nottingham
  Coming off the back of a rough period, the Scottish band find reconnection, renewal and purpose in their singular mix of pop, rock and metal‘With a little love, we can conquer all,” Simon Neil croons on Biffy Clyro’s opening song A Little Love, over its huge, infectious arena-rock chorus. It’s a line that feels like a mantra for the Scottish band 30 years and 10 albums in: they’re currently touring 2025’s Futique having come throug
  
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• Love Machines by James Muldoon review – inside the uncanny world of AI relationships

  13-01-2026 08:00 via theguardian.com
  A sociologist talks to the people putting their faith – and their hearts – in the hands of robotsIf much of the discussion of AI risk conjures doomsday scenarios of hyper-intelligent bots brandishing nuclear codes, perhaps we should be thinking closer to home. In his urgent, humane book, sociologist James Muldoon urges us to pay more attention to our deepening emotional entanglements with AI, and how profit-hungry tech companies might exploit them. A research associate at the Ox
  
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• How to have a sustainable family ski holiday: take the train and head high

  13-01-2026 08:00 via theguardian.com
  Cut out flying and you shred skiing’s carbon footprint. And opting for a high-altitude resort that needs less artificial snow makes it even greener. Les Arcs in the French Alps ticks both boxesI’ve always wanted to try skiing, but it’s not a cheap holiday and I have always had a lingering suspicion that some resorts are like Las Vegas in the mountains, with artificial snow, damaging infrastructure, annihilated vegetation and air-freighted fine dining – in short, profoundl
  
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• Co-op refuses its will-writing service because I was born in Russia

  13-01-2026 08:00 via theguardian.com
  This was even though I had revoked my citizenship and now have dual British and German nationalityI want to flag a discriminatory experience I’ve had with the Co-op’s will-writing service.I asked it to update a will it had drawn up for me in 2020, with my partner and our daughter as the beneficiaries. I received no follow-up for two months. Continue reading...
  
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• Cheesy celeriac souffle and citrus salad: Thomasina Miers’ recipes to brighten a dark winter’s day

  13-01-2026 07:00 via theguardian.com
  A light but filling no-bechamel souffle with a zingy citrus salad to add a sharp burst of flavour and colourThere is a skill in not wasting food and it’s all about good, old-fashioned housekeeping. If you learn how to store ingredients properly (cool, dark places are handy for spuds, for example) and keep tabs on what’s in your fridge/freezer, you can use everything up before it goes off – and make delicious things in the process. This golden, cheese-crusted souffle uses up the
  
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• The pulmonaut: how James Nestor turned breathing into a 3m copy bestseller

  13-01-2026 06:00 via theguardian.com
  It is the most essential thing we do - yet many of us arguably breathe badly. The author of Breath explains how that can be changedIn the last stages of writing his book, Breath, James Nestor was stressed. “Which was ironic when writing a book about breathing patterns and mellowing out,” he says. The book was late; he’d spent his advance and was haemorrhaging even more money on extra research that was taking him off in new, potentially interesting, directions – was it rea
  
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• Death on the inside: as a prison officer, I saw how the system perpetuates violence

  13-01-2026 06:00 via theguardian.com
  A rise of murders is traumatising inmates and staff, and making life harder for staff. But even in prison, violence isn’t inevitableThere are hotspots for violence in prison. The exercise yard, the showers. There are peak times, too. Mealtimes and association periods are particularly volatile.But first thing in the morning is not when you expect to hear an alarm bell. I certainly didn’t, at 6am in my office on the residential wing of a high-security prison in late 2018. All prisoners
  
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