We are the fastest-growing city-region economy in the UK, proof that it is possible to use public funds effectively while reducing crisis spending

• Andy Burnham is the mayor of Greater Manchester

At the weekend, Zia Yusuf posted: “After 7 May 2026, Reform will accept no more Tories.” In other words: all you failed MPs and councillors have a full three and a half months to decide at your leisure whether or not to leave the sinking ship.

Taking on politicians from the party that governed Britain for more than a decade and broke it is hardly the stuff of a political insurgency. Suddenly, Britain’s newest political force doesn’t look quite so potent or relevant. Instead, it seems old.

Andy Burnham is the mayor of Greater Manchester. He served as the Labour MP for Leigh from 2001 until 2017

In the UK, 98% of two-year-olds watch screens on a typical day, on average for more than two hours – and almost 40% of three- to five-year-olds use social media. Could this lead to alarming outcomes?

At Stoke primary school in Coventry, there are many four-year-olds among those starting in reception class who can’t sit still, hold a pencil or speak more than a four-word sentence. Lucy Fox, the assistant headteacher and head of foundations, is in no doubt what is causing this: their early exposure to screens, and a lot of it. When the children experiment with materials and creativity, and make things in the classroom, she says, “We notice a lot of children will cut pieces of cardboard out and make a mobile phone or tablet, or an Xbox controller. That’s what they know.”

At another school in Hampshire, a longtime reception teacher says in the last few years she has noticed children getting frustrated if activities aren’t instant and seamless – something she thinks comes from playing games on a phone or tablet. There is a lack of creativity and problem-solving skills, noticeable when the children are playing with Lego or doing jigsaw puzzles and turning the pieces to fit. “I find their hand-eye coordination isn’t very good, and they find puzzles difficult. Doing a puzzle on an iPad, you just need to hold and move it on the screen. They get really frustrated and I feel like there are certain connections the brain is not making any more.”

Randy thinks throwing in a line or two lightens the mood. Taylor says it’s an avoidance tactic. You decide who’s out of tune

• Find out how to get a disagreement settled or become a juror

He will throw in lines from songs during serious conversations – it is an avoidance tactic

Yes I should tone it down, but a lyric can lighten the mood and there’s one for every occasion

When Stuart Green’s wife, an environmental rights lawyer, was shot dead in a car in front of her children in the Philippines, he found books on grief little help. So he wrote his own

The dreaded school run is a daily battle for most parents. Even once out of the door and at the school gates, feigned smiles and small talk with other haggard parents can be a mass performance. For Stuart Green, who spent years wrestling his young twins out of car seats and into coats, all the while keeping an eye on his eldest daughter, it was the small talk he dreaded.

“Is Mummy at work?” someone might ask. Green’s response would be a half truth: “I’m a single parent.” The full story could not be explained in a 15-second conversation on the street.

It’s not just Tunbridge Wells – a country famous around the world for its rain is in danger of self-imposed drought

You get up and go to the loo, only to find the flush doesn’t work. You try the shower, except nothing comes out. You want a glass of water, but on turning the tap there is not a drop. Your day stumbles on, stripped of its essentials: no washing hands, no cleaning up the baby, neither tea nor coffee, no easy way to do the dishes or the laundry. Dirt accumulates; tempers fray.

The water company texts: we are so sorry; colleagues are working to restore connection; everything should soon be normal. You want to believe them, but the more it’s repeated, the more it becomes a kind of hold music. There’s no supply the next day, and the day after, and the day after that. Each morning brings with it the same chest-tightening question: what will happen today? Buckets and bottles don’t stop you feeling grubby and smelly, or from noticing the taint on your family and friends and neighbours. You’re not quite the people you thought you were and nothing feels normal.

Aditya Chakrabortty is a Guardian columnist

In 1978, Soviet scientists stumbled upon a family living in a remote part of Russia. They hadn’t interacted with outsiders for decades. Almost half a century later, one of them is still there

In the summer of 1978, a team of geologists exploring southern Siberia found something rarer than diamonds. While searching for a helicopter landing site amid the steep hills and forested canyons of the western Sayan mountains, their pilot caught sight of what appeared to be a garden, 150 miles from the nearest settlement. Hovering as low as he could, he saw a house. No people were visible, but someone was clearly tending the garden. He and his geologist passengers were shocked to find a dwelling in an area long considered too remote for human habitation.

When the four geologists set up camp 10 miles away, it was the mysterious homestead that was first in their mind. Who could live here? Were the inhabitants the last Mohicans of the Brezhnev era? The geologists ventured to the settlement bearing gifts – and a pistol, just in case. They were greeted by a disheveled old man dressed in patched-up sacking cloth. This was Karp Osipovich Lykov, the patriarch of the family. Inside a tiny, dark cabin, the geologists found Karp’s two adult daughters, Natalia and Agafia, weeping and praying. Four miles away, by the riverside, lived Karp’s two middle-aged sons, Savin and Dmitry. It soon became apparent that none of the members of this ageing family had interacted with outsiders in decades.

Rolling coverage of the world economic forum in Davos

• Trump declaration of Greenland framework deal met with scepticism as doubts persist

Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen has issued a statement reacting to the vague agreement apparently reached after talks between Donald Trump and Mark Rutte last night.

Frederiksen says it is “good and natural” that Arctic security was discussed between the US president and the Nato secretary general here in Davos last night.

“I have been informed that this has not been the case.”

PM says he hopes focus will now shift to the ‘hard yards’ of maintaining security in the Arctic

Andy Burnham may have a new route to parliament after the MP Andrew Gwynne reached a settlement with the Commons that would allow him to retire and call a byelection, Pippa Crerar, Jessica Elgot and Josh Halliday report.

In her Sky News interview this morning, Kemi Badenoch also said she was opposed to the UK joining President Trump’s board of peace if Vladimir Putin is a member. She said:

We should not be, certainly, on any board with Vladimir Putin. That’s something I’m completely against.

Exclusive: Gorton and Denton MP’s pension settlement allows him to potentially retire and call byelection

Andy Burnham may have a new route to parliament after the MP Andrew Gwynne reached a settlement with the Commons that would allow him to retire and call a byelection.

The mayor of Greater Manchester is said to be seeking a return to parliament to stand for the Labour leadership if there is a challenge to Keir Starmer, but was thought to have limited options for a byelection in the north-west.

Survey finds rising numbers of reception pupils struggling with basic life skills such as eating independently

About one in four children who started reception in 2025 were not toilet trained, a survey of teachers has found, prompting warnings that growing numbers of pupils are struggling with basic life skills.

In an annual survey of primary school staff in England by the early years charity Kindred Squared, teachers estimated that 26% of the children in their reception class were having frequent toilet mishaps, rising to more than one in three (36%) in the north-east.