How do I build a sense of worth that isn’t constantly slipping through my fingers?

We often peg our self-esteem on short-term goals and generic standards, advice columnist Eleanor Gordon-Smith writes – but it’s what makes you you that others truly value

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I keep waiting to feel that I’m finally enough. I’ve worked hard, am in the process of changing careers to be more of service to others, gone to therapy. I go to the gym, eat the right food, have built things I’m proud of. And yet nothing sticks. Every time I hit a goal, there’s this tiny burst of pride, then it’s gone.

Lately, I’ve noticed how tangled this has become with how I see my body. I’ve been training and eating well for ages, but I still feel ashamed when I look in the mirror, as though I’ve failed some invisible test. People tell me I look great but it doesn’t land. There’s this constant hum of “not good enough” running underneath everything, no matter what I do.

Published: January 8, 2026, 2:00 pm

My rookie era: I used to be too timid to change a tyre. Now I build my own bikes

Figuring out how to diagnose and fix a problem myself generated a sense of satisfaction powerful enough to get me up a medium-sized hill

It wasn’t until Covid lockdowns that I became a regular bike rider, but it has become one of the joys of my life. Nothing melts away a stressful day like whizzing down a hill; not having to think about petrol prices, one-way streets or parking spots does wonders for my mood.

When it came to maintenance, though, my attitude was decidedly timid. If something worked, that was good enough for me – how it did so was simply none of my business. Strange noises and glitches were things I figured would either go away on their own or deteriorate into something I’d hand off to an expert. I’m not proud to admit I’ve walked my bike half an hour to a bike shop to fix a puncture more than once; my chain was perpetually caked in gunk because I thought even looking at it the wrong way might break something.

Published: January 8, 2026, 2:00 pm

Hundreds of nonconsensual AI images being created by Grok on X, data shows

Sample of roughly 500 posts shows how frequently people are creating sexualized images with Elon Musk’s AI chatbot

New research that samples X users prompting Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok demonstrates how frequently people are creating sexualized images with it. Nearly three-quarters of posts collected and analyzed by a PhD researcher at Dublin’s Trinity College were requests for nonconsensual images of real women or minors with items of clothing removed or added.

The posts offer a new level of detail on how the images are generated and shared on X, with users coaching one another on prompts; suggesting iterations on Grok’s presentations of women in lingerie or swimsuits, or with areas of their body covered in semen; and asking Grok to remove outer clothing in replies to posts containing self-portraits by female users.

Published: January 8, 2026, 5:00 pm

Tech titans divided over whether to pay billionaire tax or flee California

State residents worth more than $1bn could face one-off, 5% tax to help fund education, food assistance and healthcare

A battle is brewing in California over a plan to tax billionaires – with tech titans divided over whether they should pay up, or flee the state.

Under a tax proposal that could be put to voters this November, any California resident worth more than $1bn would have to pay a one-off, 5% tax on their assets to help cover education, food assistance and healthcare programs in the state.

Published: January 8, 2026, 2:52 pm

Musk lawsuit over OpenAI for-profit conversion can go to trial, US judge says

Judge says there is plenty of evidence to suggest OpenAI’s leaders made assurances nonprofit structure would be kept

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Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI is to go to trial after a US judge said there is plenty of evidence to support the billionaire’s case.

The world’s richest man, who co-founded OpenAI, is suing the ChatGPT developer and its chief executive, Sam Altman, over claims its leaders violated the organisation’s founding mission by shifting to a for-profit model.

Published: January 8, 2026, 11:56 am

‘Brilliant for work-life balance’: how Britain is embracing the ‘workation’

Research finds growing trend of employers letting employees work remotely to free up more holiday time

Katherine first caught the bug when she visited Australia a couple of years ago. The flights were expensive, and it was a once in a lifetime opportunity, so she asked her manager if she could extend the trip by two weeks, and work remotely from her friend’s house.

That was her first taste of a “workation” – combining working with a holiday – and she loved it. She now regularly arranges petsitting in different places so she can visit family, friends and new cities for long weekends without spending extra.

Published: January 8, 2026, 1:00 pm

Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles review – remastered 1997 classic is even more politically resonant now

PlayStation 4/5, Nintendo Switch/Switch 2, Xbox, PC; Square-Enix
This landmark role-playing game remains a revolutionary tour de force

At first glance, Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles, first released in 1997 and now available in newly remastered guise, does little to separate itself from other boilerplate fantasy fiction. There is a hero, Ramza – an idealistic nobleman with luscious blond hair who cavorts about the medieval-inspired realm of Ivalice in search of high adventure. But quickly, and with narrative elegance, the picture complicates: peasant revolutionaries duke it out with gilded monarchists; machiavellian plots plunge the kingdom into chaos. Ramza must navigate this knotty political matrix, all while experiencing his own ideological awakening.

There is a strong case to be made that Final Fantasy Tactics tells a better story than the landmark Final Fantasy VII (which saw Cloud Strife and a ragtag bunch of eco-terrorist pals taking on the shady megacorporation Shinra). And with our real-world political focus shifting from the looming threat of the climate crisis to the more pressing rise of fascism (though the two are inextricably linked), one can make the argument that Tactics is now also the more timely game.

Published: January 8, 2026, 10:00 am

Europe faces a pincer attack from White House ideologues backed by Silicon Valley and its far-right proxies | Armida van Rij

US tech bosses are exerting leverage on EU regulators via Trump and Vance. But Europe isn’t powerless, and it isn’t alone

The US is advancing a new global order. Over the past eight decades Washington pursued – when it suited American interests – an order based on international law, liberalism, multilateralism and democratic values. The new one is based on autocracy and the use of force, and is underpinned by xenophobic nationalism.

For the transatlantic relationship this is transformative: it means that coercive action now drives policy change. Europe’s security dependency on the US is leverage to be ruthlessly exploited. Silicon Valley tech firms’ business interests converge with those of the White House, and the US instrumentalises far-right politicians in Europe to achieve its foreign policy objectives.

Armida van Rij is a senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform

Published: January 8, 2026, 5:00 am

Our science predictions for 2026 – podcast

Last year was full of unexpected science news, from the discovery of a new colour, to the interstellar visitor 3I/Atlas passing by our solar system, and a world-first treatment with a personalised gene editing therapy. So what will this year bring? Ian Sample and science correspondent Hannah Devlin discuss the big stories likely to hit the headlines and share their predictions for 2026

Clips: MSNBC, KHOU11, KHON2, NBC News, Today, CBS Mornings, CNN, ABC News, CNBC

Support the Guardian: theguardian.com/sciencepod

Published: January 8, 2026, 5:00 am

Human eggs ‘rejuvenated’ in advance that could boost IVF success rates

Exclusive: research suggests supplementing eggs with a key protein reduces age-related defects, raising hopes of improved IVF for older women

Scientists claim to have “rejuvenated” human eggs for the first time in an advance that they predict could revolutionise IVF success rates for older women.

The groundbreaking research suggests that an age-related defect that causes genetic errors in embryos could be reversed by supplementing eggs with a crucial protein. When eggs donated by fertility patients were given microinjections of the protein, they were almost half as likely to show the defect compared with untreated eggs.

Published: January 9, 2026, 12:01 am

‘Gifted learner dogs’ can learn words by eavesdropping, study says

Certain canines can learn using cues from people’s gaze, gestures, attention and voices, researchers find

Whether it is a piece of food or a four-letter expletive, words can be learned by young children overhearing adults – but now researchers have found certain dogs can do something similar.

Scientists have discovered canines with the unusual ability to learn the names of myriad objects can pick up such labels by eavesdropping on conversations.

Published: January 8, 2026, 7:00 pm

Nasa considering early return of crew from ISS due to medical reasons

Astronaut aboard the International Space Station is in stable condition, Nasa said, and a spacewalk was canceled

Nasa is considering a rare early return of its crew from the International Space Station (ISS) over an unspecified medical issue involving one of the astronauts, after cancelling a planned spacewalk that had been scheduled for Thursday, the agency said.

A Nasa spokesperson said the astronaut with the medical concern, whom she did not identify, was in a stable condition on the orbiting laboratory.

Published: January 8, 2026, 1:20 pm

Studies link some food preservatives to higher diabetes and cancer risk

Of 17 preservatives studied, higher consumption of 12 of them linked with increased risk of type 2 diabetes

Higher consumption of some food preservatives is associated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes and cancer, two studies suggest.

The findings, published in the medical journals Nature Communications and the BMJ, may have important public health implications given the ubiquitous use of these additives globally, researchers said.

Published: January 8, 2026, 5:00 am

If geoengineering is ever deployed in a climate emergency, transparency is key | Ines Camilloni

We must not let geoengineering be shaped behind closed doors. Climate justice demands an inclusive approach

As the world faces the challenges of the climate crisis and critical threshold levels or tipping points may be reached soon, a disputable idea is gaining momentum as a potential solution: solar geoengineering – the deliberate reflection of sunlight to cool the planet. Advocates argue it could buy us time. Critics warn of unknown risks. Some see it as a possible emergency break if temperatures spiral out of control. Others call it a dangerous distraction that undermines meaningful climate action.

Research into solar geoengineering is advancing, including exploration of techniques such as stratospheric aerosol injection, which would involve spraying tiny reflective particles into the upper atmosphere to mimic the cooling effect of volcanic eruptions, and marine cloud brightening, which aims to enhance the reflectivity of low-lying marine clouds. While stratospheric aerosol injection is not being conducted, these technologies are being studied with increasing urgency in the global north. In the global south, however, they remain largely invisible to public discourse and policymaking.

Published: January 8, 2026, 11:00 am

Nasa postpones spacewalk due to medical issue with astronaut

Space agency says US-Japanese-Russian crew of four will return to Earth in the coming days, earlier than planned

Nasa is cutting short a mission aboard the International Space Station after an astronaut had a medical issue.

The space agency said Thursday the US-Japanese-Russian crew of four will return to Earth in the coming days, earlier than planned.

Published: January 8, 2026, 10:44 pm