I am in my 30s, unmarried, and afraid I’ve missed my chance. How do I make peace with my fear? | Leading questions

Your life may not look the way you thought it would, writes advice columnist Eleanor Gordon-Smith, but whatever happens it can still be rich and fulfilling

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I am in my early 30s, unmarried, and increasingly afraid that I may have missed my chance at the life I’ve always imagined. For as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted children and a loving partnership that embodies safety, warmth and a shared sense of joy in living. But lately, that future feels more like a fantasy than a possibility.

Many of my closest friends are in similar positions, yet one friend is happily married with her first child and already planning a second. Watching the tenderness and stability in her marriage is both beautiful and painful. Her husband embodies so many of the qualities I long for in a partner, and I find myself wondering whether that kind of love is something I will ever experience, or whether it simply isn’t meant for me.

Published: February 27, 2026, 12:47 am

What is the national maternity and neonatal investigation and why was it launched?

From racism to staff shortages, the interim report found a host of deep-rooted issues affecting women and babies

• NHS maternity units often cover up harmful errors in childbirth, report finds

• Cruel comments, racism and cover-ups: key findings from England’s maternity care report

On Thursday, a damning interim report published after a national investigation into England’s maternity services found deep-rooted issues affecting women and their babies, including insensitivity from maternity staff, racism and discrimination, and chronic staff shortages. Below is an exploration of what led to the report and what happens next.

Published: February 26, 2026, 12:01 am

NHS maternity units often cover up harmful errors in childbirth, report finds

Damning inquiry into services in England reveals falsification of medical records after ‘negligent’ care

• What is the national maternity and neonatal investigation and why was it launched?

• Cruel comments, racism and cover-ups: key findings from England’s maternity care report

Hospitals that cause harm and injury to women and babies during childbirth often resort to a “cover-up” of their mistakes, falsify medical records and deny bereaved parents answers, a damning report has found.

“Negligent” care has devastating emotional and psychological consequences for families, disputes between maternity staff have a “disastrous” impact on mothers, and ethnic minority and poorer women have worse outcomes because of racism and discrimination, Lady Amos said.

Banning families from being involved in investigations into the mistakes they encountered.

Conducting inquiries into errors which families think are poor quality and do not properly reflect what occurred.

Driving distressed families to instigate legal action as a way of getting at the truth after they were “denied openness and honesty in the aftermath of harm and bereavement”.

Failing to treat families who have lost a baby with compassion.

Published: February 26, 2026, 12:01 am

Leave big tech behind! How to replace Amazon, Google, X, Meta, Apple – and more

A handful of companies monopolise the web, with unprecedented access to our data. But there are many more ethical – and often distinctively European – alternatives

There’s not much to love about big tech these days. So many ills can be laid at its door: social media harms, misinformation, polarisation, mining and misuse of personal data, environmental negligence, tax avoidance, the list goes on. Added to which, Silicon Valley’s leaders seem all too keen to cosy up to the Trump administration, to shower the president with bribes – sorry, gifts – and remain silent about his worsening political overreach. And that’s before we get to the rampant “enshittification”, as the tech writer Cory Doctorow describes it, which means that by design many big tech products have become less useful and more extractive than they were when we originally signed up to them.

We’ve entered into a Faustian pact with these companies: “While it’s brilliant to have access to high-quality products and software, very often for ‘free’, it’s important to remember that there is a trade-off involved – often of our personal data and privacy,” says Lisa Barber, tech editor at Which? We give these companies our attention and our information, which they then turn into big bucks and apparently unassailable monopolies.

Published: February 26, 2026, 10:00 am

Keen bosses, strange mistakes and a looming threat: workers on training AI to do their jobs

Some say the technology is devaluing their work, while others reckon it is not yet – and might never be – good enough to replace them entirely

Workers grappling with the rapid growth of artificial intelligence have said they feel “devalued” by the technology and warned of a downward trajectory in the quality of work.

Recent analysis by the International Monetary Fund found AI would affect about 40% of jobs around the world. Its head, Kristalina Georgieva, has said: “This is like a tsunami hitting the labour market.”

Published: February 26, 2026, 10:00 am

Mumsnet calls for under-16s social media ban with cigarette-style health warnings

Resembling cigarette packet warnings, the ads highlight dangers and urge people to email MPs

Mumsnet has launched a campaign to introduce a ban on social media for under-16s featuring health warnings in the style of those on cigarette packets.

The deliberately provocative national advertising campaign calls for all social media to be banned for children under the age of 16. The images on billboards and social media make a number of stark statements related to health.

Published: February 26, 2026, 7:28 am

‘Unbelievably dangerous’: experts sound alarm after ChatGPT Health fails to recognise medical emergencies

Study finds ChatGPT Health did not recommend a hospital visit when medically necessary in more than half of cases

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ChatGPT Health regularly misses the need for medical urgent care and frequently fails to detect suicidal ideation, a study of the AI platform has found, which experts worry could “feasibly lead to unnecessary harm and death”.

OpenAI launched the “Health” feature of ChatGPT to limited audiences in January, which it promotes as a way for users to “securely connect medical records and wellness apps” to generate health advice and responses. More than 40 million people reportedly ask ChatGPT for health-related advice every day.

Published: February 26, 2026, 2:00 pm

Tell us: how will the UK’s landline switch-off affect you or your family?

The UK will phase out traditional home phones by 2027, but the switchover has been stressful for some. How do you feel about the change?

UK telecoms companies are retiring traditional landline services and replacing them with internet-based home phone connections.

The industry has set a deadline of January 2027 to complete this switch with roughly 3.2 million homes still to move over. While the digital switchover has been straightforward for most households, for some vulnerable customers, such as those with telecare devices, it has been very stressful.

Published: February 26, 2026, 2:43 pm

Resident Evil Requiem review - there’s plenty of life in the undead yet

Fear, fights and feverish fanservice collide in this celebration of Resident Evil’s recent and retro legacy
PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox, Nintendo Switch 2; Capcom

There’s often an undercurrent of existential fatigue in games that look back at their legacy. Dark Souls III’s dying kingdom, Metal Gear Solid 4’s decrepit Snake. So when Capcom showed us an ageing Leon Kennedy entering the ruins of the police station that marked the start of his journey from rookie cop to hardened veteran, it felt tinged with ennui as much as nostalgia. That self-reflective swansong for this 30-year series may still happen one day, but Requiem isn’t it. Even at its dourest and most pensive, this is less a song for the dead, more a knees-up in honour of the rocket launchers and typewriters that came before. Leon may be getting on a bit, but this is Capcom as energised, devious and goofy as ever.

Leon’s old scars will have to wait, anyway. Requiem’s new blood is FBI analyst Grace Ashcroft. Equal parts tenacious and nervous, she’s a fitting lens on the horror portion of Requiem’s split focus between disempowered terror and cathartic action. The story opens with Grace – more acquainted with desk work than field ops – tasked to go over a crime scene at a gutted hotel. She knows the place well, since it holds some horrific memories for her. Still, she heads off with little more than a flashlight and a pistol you’ll never find quite enough ammunition for to feel safe.

Published: February 26, 2026, 1:46 pm

New GLP-1 pill helps patients lose up to 8% of body weight, trial shows

Orforglipron led to greater weight loss than semaglutide tablets and could offer more effective oral alternative to jabs

A new daily pill could be a more effective GLP-1 tablet for weight loss, according to a clinical trial that may pave the way for an improved non-injection alternative to Wegovy and Mounjaro.

The drug, called orforglipron and manufactured by Eli Lilly, is prescribed for type 2 diabetes and targets the same GLP-1 receptors as oral semaglutide. Like semaglutide, it lowers blood sugar levels, slows digestion and suppresses appetite. Unlike semaglutide tablets, it does not need to be taken on an empty stomach.

Published: February 26, 2026, 11:39 am

Can degrowth save the climate? – podcast

Since the 1960s, global GDP has been rapidly rising and living standards have reached record highs. But something else has been rocketing up too – carbon emissions. For years, scientists and economists have been asking: is it possible to grow without heating and polluting the Earth? And as the climate becomes more unstable, the issue is only becoming more urgent. Madeleine Finlay hears from two economists arguing for a change in how we measure a country’s success. Nick Stern is professor of economics and government at the London School of Economics and an advocate of green growth, an approach to growth that prioritises green industry. Jason Hickel is a political economist and professor at the Autonomous University of Barcelona who advocates degrowth, shrinking parts of the economy that do not advance our social and ecological goals.

Catch up with all the pieces in the Beyond Growth series

Support the Guardian: theguardian.com/sciencepod

Published: February 26, 2026, 5:00 am

Waitrose suspends sale of mackerel because of overfishing

Supermarket chain says it will point customers to herring and other species to protect threatened Atlantic stocks

Waitrose has become the first UK supermarket to suspend the sale of mackerel because of overfishing and will start pointing customers toward herring and other species.

The Marine Conservation Society warned last year that stocks were at breaking point owing to overfishing, and it downgraded mackerel from a three to a four on its five-point Good Fish Guide sustainability scale.

Published: February 26, 2026, 1:06 pm

Vegetarians have ‘substantially lower risk’ of five types of cancer

Study shows lower risk for multiple myeloma as well as pancreatic, prostate, breast and kidney cancers

Vegetarians have a substantially lower risk of five types of cancer, a landmark study on the role of diet has revealed.

The research, using data from more than 1.8 million people who were tracked over many years, found that vegetarians had a 21% lower risk of pancreatic cancer, a 12% lower risk of prostate cancer and a 9% lower risk of breast cancer compared with meat eaters. Combined, these cancers account for around a fifth of cancer deaths in the UK.

Published: February 27, 2026, 1:00 am

Giving stem cells in utero to babies with spina bifida boosts quality of life, trial finds

Experimental therapy of applying stem cells during surgery could be ‘major milestone’ in treatment of birth defects

Giving stem cells to unborn babies diagnosed with spina bifida while they have in utero surgery could be “a major milestone” in the treatment of birth defects, doctors say.

A trial in the US found that applying stem cells from the mother’s placenta to her baby’s spine while it was being repaired was safe and improved the child’s mobility and quality of life.

Published: February 26, 2026, 11:30 pm

New image reveals secrets of Milky Way galaxy in stunning detail

Largest ever image obtained by specialist telescope in Chile represents scientific and aesthetic breakthrough

Scientists have captured a beautiful image in unprecedented detail of the vast Milky Way galaxy, of which our own solar system is a part.

The stunning image is the largest ever obtained by the specialist telescope in Chile called the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (Alma) radio telescope, according to the group behind the project.

Published: February 26, 2026, 8:01 pm

Research suggests mating direction bias between Neanderthals and humans

Scientists say DNA evidence indicates male Neanderthals and human females interbred more often than opposite

Tens of thousands of years ago, as modern humans migrated into northerly territories inhabited by our ancient cousins, the Neanderthals, the two species met – and sometimes mated.

Now, genetic evidence has revealed a striking imbalance in these prehistoric trysts, suggesting that interbreeding was mostly between male Neanderthals and female humans.

Published: February 26, 2026, 7:00 pm

A deafening nuclear fusion reactor: why you wouldn’t want to hear the sun

Sunrise is a majestic spectacle – but we should be grateful for the miles of vacuum between us and the star

Dawn on a still morning is a majestic spectacle, as sunlight spills silently across the landscape and the Earth gradually emerges from darkness. Sunrise has inspired countless pieces of music striving to express this soundless experience in audible form. But if we could actually hear the sun, it would be deafening.

The sun is a giant nuclear fusion reactor, converting hydrogen into helium and releasing massive amounts of energy in the form of heat – and sound. Sound is essentially vibration and needs a medium to travel through.

Published: February 26, 2026, 6:00 am