Teenagers these days, eh? Instead of having unprotected sex and popping out babies, they’re wasting their time on TikTok, or something. According to a recent report, the teenage birth rate in the US fell by 7% in 2025. While this might seem like a positive development, it has been a cause of dismay among the…
Your mattress is not just furniture, it’s family. You drool and sweat into it for hours, have sex on it, and shed millions of dead skin cells into it every night. It shares your DNA. Romantic or disgusting? Either way, that thing needs a wash. The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission…
From the age of 16 to 22, I was a children’s entertainer. Most often a fairy, sometimes a witch, ballerina, princess or mermaid – with conspicuous legs underneath her tail. One time, hilariously, a ladybug. The hourly rate was excellent, the costumes were cute and the tiny customers even cuter. My special skills were memorising…
How do I store cooked rice safely, and what can I make with it the next day?Michael, by email“It’s a bit of a running joke with rice, because I think of all the people in China who aren’t spreading their leftover rice immediately on to a tray to cool and are still alive,” says Amy…
The problemMost plant advice focuses on light, water and soil. Air barely gets a mention, yet stagnant indoor air is one of the less discussed reasons houseplants struggle. Fungal spots, mould on the compost surface and pest infestations like mealybugs can all be traced back to a room with no airflow. We open windows in summer…
Few things put a spring in your step quite like a beautiful, bouncy blow-dry from your favourite hair salon. However, if you don’t want to spend your days – or your money – at the salon, then a hot brush could be just the styling tool you need. The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will…
Strolling through a deep tangle of beech trees to get some fresh air after a long drive, I think of the scene in Kenneth Grahame’s wistful story The Wind in the Willows, where Mole gets lost in the Wild Wood. “There seemed to be no end to this wood, and no beginning, and no difference…
British Gas opened an account in my name for an address that I have never occupied, and sent me a £571 bill. It declined to open a complaint because I “refused” to provide a tenancy agreement or mortgage statement which, since I’ve long since paid off my mortgage, I don’t have. It is now threatening…
When I was growing up in the small village of Talaván in Extremadura, Spain, we never ate nettles. They were wild plants that grew along the edges of the fields, and the sort you tried to avoid: like many children, I learned about them the hard way, brushing against them while playing and getting stung….
With light beaming from his palms and an American flag waving behind him, an AI-generated image of President Donald Trump healing a sick man sparked renewed outrage Sunday on Orthodox Easter. The post, which has since been removed, followed closely on the heels of a tirade denouncing Pope Leo as “weak on crime,” making this…