Meet the merpeople: ‘Once I put the tail on, my life was changed forever’

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 world

Propelled 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 total concentration.

Mermaiding has become a global cottage industry, with pageants, conventions, retreats and meet-ups, where people gather in “pods” to practise their dolphin kicks. Makers create bespoke tail flukes, bejewelled bras, mermaid hair and even prosthetic gills for professional and hobbyist “seasters”. There is even a Netflix reality series called MerPeople, which documents the occasionally perilous journey of several aspiring professional merfolk. “No dead mermaids” is the motto of one business featured.

Published: January 13, 2026, 2:00 pm

Co-op refuses its will-writing service because I was born in Russia

This was even though I had revoked my citizenship and now have dual British and German nationality

I 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.

Published: January 13, 2026, 7:00 am

Five minutes more exercise and 30 minutes less sitting could help millions live longer

Research finds minor changes in physical activity could hugely reduce number of premature deaths

Just five extra minutes of exercise and half an hour less sitting time each day could help millions of people live longer, according to research highlighting the potentially huge population benefits of making even tiny lifestyle changes.

Until now, evidence about reducing the number of premature deaths assumed that everyone must meet specific targets, overlooking the positives of even minor increases in physical activity.

Published: January 13, 2026, 11:30 pm

Wes Streeting asks US expert Jonathan Haidt to address officials on social media ban for under-16s

Exclusive: Health secretary issues invitation in push for UK to consider copying landmark restrictions in Australia

Wes Streeting has asked Jonathan Haidt, a bestselling author and high-profile advocate of banning social media for under-16s, to speak to his officials in his push for the UK to consider following a landmark ban in Australia.

The health secretary has invited Haidt to address an event with staff, charities and MPs after the prime minister, Keir Starmer, said he was open to stricter limits for young people.

Published: January 14, 2026, 7:00 am

Musk v Starmer: will UK ban X over Grok nudification? | The Latest

The UK government is threatening Elon Musk’s X with a ban. The social media platform is under pressure from ministers over the use of the Grok AI tool to manipulate images of women and children to remove their clothes. Ofcom, the UK’s media regulator, has launched an investigation into X – and the government says it will support a ban if Ofcom decides to press ahead.

Published: January 13, 2026, 7:03 pm

UK government rolls back key part of digital ID plans

Workers will be able to use other identification for right to work, meaning digital form not mandatory

Ministers have rolled back plans for a central element of the proposed digital ID plans, leaving open the possibility that people will be able to use other forms of identification to prove their right to work.

This will mean that the IDs, announced to some controversy in September, will no longer be mandatory for working-age people, given that the only planned obligatory element was to prove the right to work in the UK.

Published: January 13, 2026, 8:14 pm

Use of AI to harm women has only just begun, experts warn

While Grok has introduced belated safeguards to prevent sexualised AI imagery, other tools have far fewer limits

“Since discovering Grok AI, regular porn doesn’t do it for me anymore, it just sounds absurd now,” one enthusiast for the Elon Musk-owned AI chatbot wrote on Reddit. Another agreed: “If I want a really specific person, yes.”

If those who have been horrified by the distribution of sexualised imagery on Grok hoped that last week’s belated safeguards could put the genie back in the bottle, there are many such posts on Reddit and elsewhere that tell a different story.

Published: January 14, 2026, 10:00 am

Home Office TikTok account posting deportation footage accused of turning ‘brutality into clickbait’

Video of raids and migrant arrests shared by profile with slogan ‘restoring order and control to our borders’

A Home Office TikTok account posting footage of deportations and arrests set to dramatic music has been criticised for turning “brutality” into “clickbait”.

An account called @SecureBordersUK was created on Tuesday with the slogan: “Restoring order and control to our borders.”

Published: January 13, 2026, 1:58 pm

An ecosystem of smuggled tech holds Iran’s last link to the outside world

Despite internet blackout, a small number of Iranians are risking their lives to share messages as protests continue

For most of Iran, the internet was shut off on Thursday afternoon – the most severe blackout the country has seen in years of internet shutdowns, coming after days of escalating anti-government protests.

For a very small sliver of the country, it is still possible to get photos and videos to the outside world, and even to make calls. The Telegram channel Vahid Online on Monday posted photos of dead bodies lying next to a street in Kahrizak, on the southern outskirts of Tehran; on Sunday, it shared a video of Iranians chanting “death to Khamenei” at a funeral.

Published: January 13, 2026, 5:00 am

The best air fryers in the UK, tried and tested for crisp and crunch

Air fryers have taken over our kitchens, but which wins the crown for the crispiest cooking? Our expert peeled 7kg of potatoes to find out

• The best blenders to blitz like a pro, tried and tested

Air fryers inspire the sort of feelings that microwaves did in the 1980s. I vividly remember those new-fangled boxes being spoken about often, either dismissively or with delight. A rash of cookbooks followed, and dinner changed across the land. Fast-forward a few decades, and air fryers have become the same kind of kitchen “disruptors”, offering time-saving convenience and healthier cooking, but with the added allure of easily achieved, mouth-watering crispiness.

Since launching with a single-drawer design, air fryers have evolved. Sizes range from compact to XL, while drawer configurations can be double, split or stacked. Alongside air frying, many will grill, roast and bake, and some will dip to lower temperatures for dehydrating, fermenting and proving dough. One we tested features steam cooking, allowing you to whip up dim sum as easily as a roast dinner, while another included racks for cooking on four levels.

Best air fryer overall:
Tefal Easy Fry Dual XXL EY942BG0

Best budget air fryer:
Tower AirX AI Digital Air Fryer

Published: January 14, 2026, 10:00 am

The five new gadgets I tried and loved at CES 2026 (that you can buy right now)

From smartglasses to nano phone chargers, these futuristic products from the Consumer Electronics Show are available right away

• I’m a digital nomad who works on the road. These seven travel gadgets go with me everywhere

Every year, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) gives us a glimpse of what’s around the corner in tech: creepy humanoid robots, robovacs that climb stairs, AI baked into everything.

Some of these products will never come to fruition. Some will arrive months later. And some – the rarities we picked out below – are available to order right now. I had a chance to try each one in person on the show floor in Las Vegas. So if you’re looking for a taste of the future today, here’s your fix.

Published: January 13, 2026, 8:15 pm

The best Apple Watches in 2026: what’s worth buying and what’s not, according to our expert

There’s no need to buy new – unless your model’s ready for retirement. Our technology expert compares the top Apple smartwatches available right now

• The best running watches – tested

The best Apple Watch may be the one already on your wrist.

Each generation of Apple’s smartwatch is fairly iterative, with most of the best features added via software updates, which means there’s no need to buy a new device each year. That said, if your watch has seen better days, or it’s stopped receiving updates, then your best options are set out below.

Best Apple Watch for most people:
SE 3

Best mid-range Apple Watch:
Series 11

Published: January 13, 2026, 10:00 am

Love Machines by James Muldoon review – inside the uncanny world of AI relationships

A sociologist talks to the people putting their faith – and their hearts – in the hands of robots

If 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 Oxford Internet Institute who has previously written about the exploited workers whose labour makes AI possible, Muldoon now takes us into the uncanny terrain of human-AI relationships, meeting the people for whom chatbots aren’t merely assistants, but friends, romantic partners, therapists, even avatars of the dead.

To some, the idea of falling in love with an AI chatbot, or confiding your deepest secrets to one, might seem mystifying and more than a little creepy. But Muldoon refuses to belittle those seeking intimacy in “synthetic personas”.

Published: January 13, 2026, 7:00 am

Royal Society president reignites Elon Musk row by defending lack of action

Society should only eject fellows for fraud or other defects in their research, says Paul Nurse

The president of the Royal Society has reignited a row over Elon Musk’s association with the body by arguing that fellows should only be ejected for fraud or other defects in their research.

In an interview with the Guardian, Paul Nurse defended the academy’s decision not to take action against Musk – who was elected a fellow in 2008 – despite claims the tech billionaire had violated its code of conduct, including by his role in slashing US research funding as part of the US “department of government efficiency”.

Published: January 14, 2026, 5:00 am

‘A bombshell’: doubt cast on discovery of microplastics throughout human body

Exclusive: Some scientists say many detections are most likely error, with one high-profile study called a ‘joke’

High-profile studies reporting the presence of microplastics throughout the human body have been thrown into doubt by scientists who say the discoveries are probably the result of contamination and false positives. One chemist called the concerns “a bombshell”.

Studies claiming to have revealed micro and nanoplastics in the brain, testes, placentas, arteries and elsewhere were reported by media across the world, including the Guardian. There is no doubt that plastic pollution of the natural world is ubiquitous, and present in the food and drink we consume and the air we breathe. But the health damage potentially caused by microplastics and the chemicals they contain is unclear, and an explosion of research has taken off in this area in recent years.

Published: January 13, 2026, 2:20 pm

How to sleep well in 2026 – podcast

Ian Sample puts listeners’ questions on sleep to Dr Allie Hare, consultant physician in respiratory and sleep medicine at Guy’s and St Thomas’ hospitals and president of the British Sleep Society. They cover why women experience sleep disturbance during the menopause, why sleep paralysis affects some people more than others, and what scientists know about the link between sleep and dementia. Hare also gives her top tips for getting better sleep in 2026

Support the Guardian: theguardian.com/sciencepod

Published: January 13, 2026, 5:00 am

The pulmonaut: how James Nestor turned breathing into a 3m copy bestseller

It is the most essential thing we do - yet many of us arguably breathe badly. The author of Breath explains how that can be changed

In 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 really necessary, he wondered, to go to Paris to look at old skulls buried in catacombs beneath the city? (It was.)

Then a couple of months before the book’s May 2020 publication date, the Covid pandemic hit, and Nestor was advised to wait it out. He couldn’t afford to. “One of the main motivations for releasing it at that time was to get that [on-publication] advance,” he says. “But I’ll be honest, I didn’t want to release it. I said: ‘How are you going to promote a book that can’t be sold in stores, that I can’t tour for?’” He expected, he says, “absolutely zero to happen”.

Published: January 13, 2026, 5:00 am

He invented mini saunas for frogs – now this biologist has big plans to save hundreds of species

A deadly fungus has already wiped out 90 species and threatens 500 more but Anthony Waddle is hoping gene replacement could be their salvation

Standing ankle-deep in water between two bare cottonwood trees on a hot spring day, eight-year-old Anthony Waddle was in his element. His attention was entirely absorbed by the attempt to net tadpoles swimming in a reservoir in the vast Mojave desert.

It was “one of the perfect moments in my childhood”, he says.

Published: January 13, 2026, 5:00 am