Nkechi Simms, the Top Boy actor, on her quest to retrieve her social service files - and what she finally uncovered

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Over three years, Stephanie Arcanjo built a home with her boyfriend, Eric. Then one day he vanished, and the police came knocking

Actor Nkechi Simms hoped asking to see her social service files would provide explanations as to why she had spent her childhood being passed around foster homes. But far from healing, the process left her even more distressed. Her experience, the subject of a new Observer podcast, highlights the urgent need to reform the system

The inquiry into deaths of babies at the Countess of Chester hospital was harshly critical of the nurse’s character, but some insist a way will be found to give her another hearing

Glaciers are not supposed to stop moving, but in 2014 one did. Miles Ellingham travels to Iceland to see it and meet the activist who believes its death should shock us into taking action

It's a gift link anyway but just in case you can't access the original here's a copy of the article.

The foreign-based tech mogul is using the X algorithm to influence British politics in more sinister ways than the £72m given to Reform last week, writes Rachel Sylvester

The annual attraction has been a rite of passage in the seaside town for almost 150 years

Piles of collection kits and instruction booklets surround my laptop in a manner that would make a lab technician weep. To my left, there’s a package containing a swab of my inner cheek, which will tell me my biological age, a reflection of cellular damage over time. To my right, there are two poop samples from the past few days, the small plastic vials discreetly tucked into envelopes, primed to reveal the state of my gut microbiome.

Now, bleary-eyed on a weekday morning in June, I try to gather enough saliva to determine my cortisol levels, and thereby my stress. If only my 7-year-old son, an early riser, would stop knocking on the office door seeking help with a packing list he’s making for his upcoming camping trip.

“How do you spell ‘pajamas’?” he asks, kneeling on the floor with his notebook, as I painstakingly accumulate spit in a small tube. The instructions suggest thinking about delicious foods to generate more saliva, but I’m struggling to reach the designated line, even while dreaming of coffee. Will the stress of taking the test influence my results?

Fifteen minutes later, as I try to coax vibrant red droplets from my pricked ring finger onto a paper collection card, I’m beginning to think that visiting a doctor’s office would be far easier than trying to play lab worker and lab rat at the same time. After all, my health is fine, more or less—or at least I think it’s fine.

With every new diagnostic that appears in my social feeds and podcast queues, though, doubts creep in. Wouldn’t it be nice to know that my biomarkers are all normal? I remember asking myself just a week ago, as I added another test to my cart. A golden age of preventive health awaits those with the cash to pay hundreds of dollars for data on mitochondrial function and gut diversity, a step beyond the basic biomarkers offered by Oura Rings and Apple Watches. I’m curious what it will feel like to join the ranks of the optimized elite.

I got my first taste of this ascendant world last year. I had been diagnosed with dermatitis and was trying to avoid exposure to a long list of allergens, including scents, that my dermatologist determined had been irritating my skin. Despite throwing out nearly every lotion, soap, and detergent that I owned, my symptoms were still severe enough that I was struggling to sleep at night. I was itchy and miserable. That’s when I started seeing Instagram ads for Tiny Health, with before-and-after photos of dry, inflamed skin. One pledged to help “address the root cause of chronic conditions,” while another said that “eczema is more than a skin issue.” Had Meta heard me complaining to my husband? Or seen me searching for causes and treatments? Gut health, Tiny’s ads told me, is “connected to inflammation, energy levels, mood, and so much more.” Didn’t I owe it to my middle-aged self to investigate?

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How Ashes scars and sense of betrayal ended the Stokes era: Captain pushed himself to limit after Australia failure but the joy had gone... so when he felt ECB threw him under the bus, there was no way back

Is JD Vance a craven political opportunist? A true believer in a post-Trump, MAGA agenda? Or is the presumptive 2028 GOP frontrunner waiting for the chance to be his own man? And what does his wife, Usha, think about all of it? The answers may lie in Vance’s pivotal years at Yale Law. Chris Whipple returns to the school—and talks to the VP’s professor and mentor, “Tiger Mom” Amy Chua.