Much of the wellness economy thrives because it offers the illusion that if we just reframe, breathe, manifest and hydrate we can out-think the chaos

It was 8:37am and I was scrolling Instagram with one eye squinting, the other sealed shut in protest. The morning light was harsh; the algorithm harsher. Somewhere between a video of a dog doing taxes and a girl making her matcha, I stumbled upon Mel Robbins, motivational speaker and Ted Talk legend, telling me to high-five myself.

The video had pandemic energy. That quiet, echoey desperation of someone who’s spent too long indoors talking to objects. Mel explained that in her darkest days she looked at herself in the mirror and gave herself a high-five.

Searchers hope that finding Celine Cremer’s bones, teeth and car key in Tasmania’s north-west will help them solve what happened to her

The Belgian tourist Celine Cremer disappeared in an ancient rainforest during a brutal Tasmanian winter, while it is likely her remains were unearthed during this mild summer.

The 31-year-old backpacker had packed lightly to walk a relatively easy trail through the wilderness of the Tarkine in June 2023. Days later, her family reported her missing.

It can feel overwhelming, writes advice columnist Eleanor Gordon-Smith. But ask yourself what sacrifices make the biggest proportionate impact

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I’m finding it difficult living up to my morals – where is the line between compromising a little, versus becoming complicit in what I don’t agree with?

I’m one of those people who believes we can each take a role in solving big problems, and that we should try to make things better where we can. For this reason, I’ve ended up working in public service and try to reduce how much meat I eat. I’m vegetarian 60% of the time, which is not perfect, but I believe doing something is better than doing nothing.

The case of the Palestinian activist, the face of 2024’s US campus protests, could have repercussions for thousands

Despite his grim circumstances, Mahmoud Khalil can’t help but laugh.

Walking through Congress’s hallowed halls, the Palestinian student activist who may be inching toward deportation is not yet ready to waver. He admits he’s in “the scary part” of his ordeal, but he has a new reason to like his odds.

Report says children born today could earn 51% more over lifetime if their country’s human capital improved

Deteriorating health, education and training in many developing countries is dramatically depressing the future earnings of children born today, the World Bank says.

In a report the World Bank urges policymakers to focus on improving outcomes in three settings: homes, neighbourhoods and workplaces.

Video of a masked suspect in Arizona spurs a surge of calls as the desert search near Tucson yields little evidence

The search for the missing mother of Today show host Savannah Guthrie continued on Thursday as investigators revealed they had received more than 18,000 calls about the case. A search of desert terrain near her Arizona home came up mostly empty.

Almost a quarter of the tips came in during the 24 hours since the FBI on Tuesday released door camera video and still images of a masked and gloved suspect outside Nancy Guthrie’s home in the Catalina Foothills area north of Tucson early on 1 February, the Pima county sheriff’s office said.

At a press conference to open the 76th edition of the Berlin film festival, the jury president said ‘cinema has an incredible power’ but little influence on political decision makers

Veteran director Wim Wenders has hailed the power of cinema to help heal a broken planet as he takes up the jury presidency of the Berlinale, the most politically charged of Europe’s big three international film festivals.

Asked about the role of movies in the current climate of war and social upheaval, the auteur behind Wings of Desire and the Oscar-nominated Perfect Days said he saw film-making as an act of bridge-building and generating empathy.

Continuing extreme weather has caused deaths of 16 people, evacuation of thousands and destruction of homes

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Portugal is under pressure to draw up plans to adapt to the climate emergency as the country continues to be lashed by an unprecedented series of storms that have killed at least 16 people and left tens of thousands without electricity.

More than 3,000 people were evacuated from the Coimbra area of central Portugal on Wednesday as the Mondego River reached critical levels, while part of the country’s main motorway, the A1, collapsed after a dyke on the Mondego gave way under the weight of flood water.

We explore the cosy world-building spin-off with Game Freak’s Shigeru Ohmori and his fellow developers – and learn how it began with a Pokémon-hunting dream

Pokémon is celebrating its 30th anniversary this month, and everybody knows what to expect from these games by now. The concept is simple: head into a cartoonish paradise full of whimsical creatures, capture them in red-and-white balls and assemble a team of warriors from them, before battling other aspiring Pokémon masters. But the latest entry in the series is different – a game that’s more about building than battling.

In Pokopia, a refreshingly pacific twist on the series, players are dropped into a virtual world where Pokémon are freed from their spherical prisons and happily roam their natural habitats. There’s one minor caveat – you have to create those habitats by hand, building them from what you can find.

We take a look at some of the the best images from day six of the Games, including bobsleigh, snowboard cross and freestyle skiing

South Korea’s spy agency monitoring whether girl, believed to be 13, will appear at political conference this month

South Korea’s spy agency has told lawmakers it believes the teenage daughter of Kim Jong-un, the North Korean dictator, is close to being designated as the country’s future leader, as Kim moves to extend the family dynasty to a fourth generation.

The assessment by the national intelligence service (NIS) comes as North Korea is preparing to hold its biggest political conference later this month, where Kim is expected to outline his main policy goals for the next five years and take steps to tighten his authoritarian grip.

The Guardian’s picture editors select photographs from around the world

With 13 medals through the first five days – surpassing their total at Turin 2006 – the Italians are the surprise stars of these Games. What’s different this time?

From Milan to Cortina and beyond, the star of the first Olympic weekend in Italy was … Italy.

The electric celebrations started Saturday in Bormio, close to the Swiss border, with a silver and bronze in the men’s downhill. They echoed a few hours later in Milan, where Francesca Lollobrigida set an Olympic record in women’s 3000m speed skating for the host country’s first gold.

As Kate Bush’s Wuthering Heights gets a boost from a new film adaptation, we survey the surprising, seditious and sensual ways in which prose has influenced pop

The oeuvre of Katy Perry occasionally has some profoundly unexpected inspirations: California Gurls is spelt in homage to Big Star’s September Gurls, while Firework was based on, wait for it, Jack Kerouac’s On the Road, specifically the line about how his favourite people “burn like fabulous yellow roman candles”.

Capitalism cares about our species’ prospects as much as a wolf cares about a lamb’s. But democratise our economy and a better world is within our grasp

We have an urgent responsibility. Our existing economic system is incapable of addressing the social and ecological crises we face in the 21st century. When we look around we see an extraordinary paradox. On the one hand, we have access to remarkable new technologies and a collective capacity to produce more food, more stuff than we need or that the planet can afford. Yet at the same time, millions of people suffer in conditions of severe deprivation.

What explains this paradox? Capitalism. By capitalism we do not mean markets, trade and entrepreneurship, which have been around for thousands of years before the rise of capitalism. By capitalism we mean something very odd and very specific: an economic system that boils down to a dictatorship run by the tiny minority who control capital – the big banks, the major corporations and the 1% who own the majority of investible assets. Even if we live in a democracy and have a choice in our political system, our choices never seem to change the economic system. Capitalists are the ones who determine what to produce, how to use our labour and who gets to benefit. The rest of us – the people who are actually doing the production – do not get a say.

Once thought of only for vodka and lager, Poland is in the midst of a wine-making revival that’s infiltrating restaurant lists, bars and independent suppliers

Swap the staid stereotypes of Żubrówka vodka and Żywiec lager for vineyards and vintages, because Poland is in the throes of a viticultural renaissance, the likes of which hasn’t been seen for centuries. On a road trip tracing Poland’s best terroirs back in the summer of 2023, I met winemakers going against the grain, unshackled by tradition and producing unpretentious, expressive pours that more than merit a place on your dining table.

Lately, Polish wines have been cropping up all over bar and restaurant lists: Niemczańska’s chardonnay at London’s most emblematic Polish restaurant, the borscht-fronted Daquise in South Kensington, say, while chic bar Spry in Edinburgh has started stocking my favourite producers, Dom Bliskowice, Kamil Barczentewicz and Nizio. But you won’t find bottles nestling between the neat rows of kabanos sausages of your local Polski sklep, nor lining the supermarket shelves. Or not just yet, anyway.

Victoria Brzezinski is co-author of Drinking the World: A Wine Odyssey, published by Pavilion Books/HarperCollins at £22. To order a copy for £19.80 go to guardianbookshop.com

Information appears to contradict court testimony by banker in 2025 over nature of ties to convicted sex offender

The former Barclays boss Jes Staley was named as a trustee of Jeffrey Epstein’s estate until at least May 2015, according to documents that appear to contradict court testimony given by the banker.

This month the Guardian revealed that US prosecutors had reviewed allegations of rape and bodily harm against Staley, who denies any wrongdoing. He has never been charged with a crime related to the allegations.

Along with its crisp, earthy galettes – suitable for Pancake Day and, really, any time of the year – this French region has so many delicious things to eat

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Every February – or occasionally March – I get together with two friends to gorge on pancakes; I provide the pan, Caro does the cocktails and poor old Harry is invariably the chef because she never fails, even three ciders in. With two half-Frenchies in the room, we always start with buckwheat galettes, usually served complète with gruyère, ham and a fried egg (though the more we eat, the more adventurous the combinations become). Then we move on to softer, thicker British sweet pancakes with lemon juice and crunchy demerara sugar to finish. We rarely manage to meet on Shrove Tuesday itself, but apart from the year I went vegan for Lent, that’s no problem. After all, any cold, dark evening is improved by a pancake party.

I suspect we’re not alone in sticking with the classics, so I’m not going to suggest too many alternatives, but, given that pancakes are not just for the 47th day before Easter, I do like the sound of Nigel Slater’s ones stuffed with cheese and caramelised onion, I know I’d love Yotam Ottolenghi’s Austrian kaiserschmarrn and, though they’re as flat as they sound, Jimi Famurewa’s Nigerian-Dutch puff puff pancakes look incredible. Oh, and there’s Meera Sodha’s Indonesian-style salted peanut and chocolate pancakes, while Claire Ptak’s fluffy cardamom pancakes with thyme-spiked figs certainly aren’t just for Christmas.

If Tottenham are waiting for Pochettino part two, then season three of Postecoglou might bring the right survival vibes

It’s panic time at the bottom of the Premier League, and if the past couple of days are anything to go by, probably don’t go following Ange Postecoglou into a job any time soon. Others who’ve followed it more closely can do Nottingham Forest and their 4 (four) managers. This is a piece about Tottenham Hotspur, or as I like to call them, my big team who win things.

November 2023 feels like a lifetime ago. Spurs were top of the league. Angeball was at its peak. Dynamic free-flowing football – they were 1-0 up against Chelsea thanks to Dejan Kulusevski (injured). It’s the 14th minute, Spurs neatly play themselves out from back down the right, it breaks to Pape Sarr who rolls the ball to Destiny Udogie (injured), and Brennan Johnson (Crystal Palace) steams down the left. He plays a perfect first-time ball with his left foot into the path of Son Heung-min (LAFC), who rolls it home. Tottenham are 2-0 up against a team they lose to at least twice a season.

Chile’s female players are newly protected under labour law and are hoping their official status can help the game thrive in South America

The Chilean players’ association officially became a union in December, and its president, Javiera Moreno, believes there needs to be women’s representation in players’ unions around the world.

“We want this movement to become massive,” says the former Universidad Católica captain. “Our goal is to spread this to other countries. I don’t know if in other places the path will be to have a specific union for women. This was needed here, but I think there needs to be at least representation of women’s players within every country’s footballers’ union.”

Sadler’s Wells, London
Tanztheater Wuppertal’s dancers treat the audience like lovers in an entrancing show of seductive elegance

Pina Bausch had a pair of secret weapons in Matthias Burkert and Andreas Eisenschneider, who jointly sought out music to match her uncanny dance-theatre and make it so indelible. In Sweet Mambo, the German choreographer’s 2008 production for Tanztheater Wuppertal, their eclectic compilation complements the seductive elegance of set designer Peter Pabst’s huge, billowing white drapes and the sumptuous gowns provided by Marion Cito.

Track by track, an entrancing through-line is found in Sámi joiking, torch song, folk, electronica and ambient music. The mix extends to the unclassifiable party sound of Hazmat Modine’s Bahamut, harmonicas and tuba boosting a late burst of loosey-goosey abandon from dancer Daphnis Kokkinos while his colleagues are wrapped and spun upside down in those curtains.

Report on Islamic State says Ahmed al-Sharaa was targeted twice by IS front group that bombed Damascus church

Five separate plots to assassinate Syria’s president or his senior ministers were foiled last year, the UN has said in a report on Islamic State.

According to the report, the Syrian president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, was targeted twice, once in northern Aleppo and another time in southern Daraa, by Saraya Ansar al-Sunnah, an IS front group that carried out a bombing of a church in Damascus last summer.

President warned prior to the vote that any Republican who voted against tariffs would ‘suffer the consequences’

In a short while, we’ll hear from Trump’s “border czar” Tom Homan, who will address members of the media at 9am ET. A reminder that Homan took over the federal immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota from senior border official Gregory Bovino, after the second fatal shooting of a US citizen in Minneapolis by immigration officers, and the ensuing backlash from residents.

On Tuesday, governor Tim Walz said that after recent conversations with Homan, he is convinced that the immigration crackdown in his state will end in a matter of days. A reminder, that the administration drew down 700 federal immigration officers last week — still leaving around 2000 stationed in the North Star State.

Opposition leader ousted as Barbados Labour party wins all 30 seats in assembly

The prime minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley, has won her third election victory, with her Barbados Labour party sweeping all seats in the House of Assembly, state TV reported.

Mottley’s BLP won all 30 seats available in the lower house of parliament, unseating the opposition leader, Ralph Thorne, after the prime minister – who has built one of the strongest global profiles of any Caribbean leader – won the support of voters across the island country, CBC Barbados reported early on Thursday.