In the rainforest the plant develops aerial roots that are vital for its health and perfectly natural. But there is a solution if they look too wild for your living roomWhat’s the problem?
My philodendron has long, white, string-like growths coming out of the stems. Is my plant OK and can I cut them off?Diagnosis
These curious structures are known as aerial roots, and are completely natural. Philodendrons originate from tropical rainforests, where they climb trees. These aerial roots help it anchor itself, absorb moisture and draw nutrients directly from the humid air. Indoors, however, they can give the plant a slightly wild appearance. Continue reading…

Daniel Jackson was just 14 when he and his friends saw a strip of forest between Serbia and Croatia, and decided to claim it. Now 20, he is the president of Verdis, but has been forced to live in exileMost presidential residences feature a grand entrance, security guards, perhaps a few pillars. They also tend to be inside the country of which the occupant is president. Yet when I arrive at the home of Daniel Jackson, president of the Free Republic of Verdis, it is neither magnificent, nor on the Serbian-Croatian border, where his country is situated, but on a small street round the back of a bingo hall in Dover, Kent.Jackson, 20, was born in Australia to British parents, and lived in Melbourne until he was 17. He was only 14 when he and a group of friends decided they “wanted to do something that was unique”. While most others their age were scrolling TikTok, Jackson and his friends – some from south-east Europe who he had met online, some from Waverley Christian College, the Melbourne private school he attended – scoured maps, and discovered an unclaimed strip of forest that falls outside the borders of Croatia and Serbia. They thought it would be fun to see if they could make it into a country, and named it Verdis. The “micronation” (a largely unrecognised small country, as opposed to officially recognised “microstates” such as Andorra and Monaco) is just 1.6 hectares larger than Vatican City and has never been inhabited. It has not been part of a nation since the dissolution of Yugoslavia. “Obviously that was more than 30 years ago,” says Jackson. “So we believe we’re rightful to it under international law.” Continue reading…

Manager faces a tricky task against Club Brugge and can not afford background music to become any more discordantRangers supporters are entitled to feel conflicted over the prospect of Champions League participation. The kudos and finance that come with involvement against Europe’s elite would be welcome. There must also be an awareness, however, that it may be a chastening experience.Rangers’ last involvement in the competition proper ended with them on zero points and a minus-20 goal difference at the end of the group stage. That squad, from the 2022-23 campaign, was stronger than the wholly unconvincing class of 2025. Continue reading…

Ahead of the 2025 tournament, we take a look back at each of the finals since the inaugural tournament 34 years ago. Continue reading…

He prefers to get intimate in anonymous spaces and initiates sex every time we’re at someone else’s house. I love the excitement, but feel manipulatedMy husband and I never have sex at home, only at our friends’ places or in hotel rooms. We’ve lived together, improbably, for four years now. When we hooked up six years ago I never expected anything serious, just a one-night stand with a hot flight attendant.After 15 casual sexual encounters we had a screaming row about my sleeping with someone else, and after the 16th, we decided to be in an exclusive relationship. After 40 meet-ups, he brought home an exotic strain of gonorrhoea; when we had got over the shock, and finished a course of antibiotics, we started planning the wedding.Pamela Stephenson Connolly is a US-based psychotherapist who specialises in treating sexual disorders.If you would like advice from Pamela on sexual matters, send us a brief description of your concerns to private.lives@theguardian.com (please don’t send attachments). Each week, Pamela chooses one problem to answer, which will be published online. She regrets that she cannot enter into personal correspondence. Submissions are subject to our terms and conditions.Comments on this piece are premoderated to ensure discussion remains on topics raised by the writer. Please be aware there may be a short delay in comments appearing on the site. Continue reading…

One of the great mismatches ended in controversy after just 89 seconds but did show what people will pay to seeIn Las Vegas, 30 years ago, prisoner 922335, not long released from the Indiana Youth Center, boxed an unknown club fighter in a bout that shattered pay-per-view records. Mike Tyson v Peter McNeeley may be, in a competitive field, the most audaciously staged mismatch in boxing history. Its global success, despite only 89 seconds of action and a farcical ending, set the tone for the sport’s development in the modern era.Promoted simply as “He’s Back”, the contest was Tyson’s return after a three-year imprisonment for rape, but the former undisputed heavyweight champion’s popularity seemed to have increased. Among those ringside at a sold-out MGM Grand sat Madonna, Nicolas Cage, Jerry Seinfeld, Denzel Washington, Jim Carrey, Pamela Anderson, Eddie Murphy and an alarmingly human-coloured Donald Trump. All in attendance to see something akin to a ritual sacrifice. Continue reading…

First I had anorexia, then high cholesterol. It’s hard to maintain a healthy relationship to food in a society obsessed with weight lossWhen I was a teenager suffering from anorexia, I thought it was a life sentence. I genuinely believed slogans like “every woman has an eating disorder” and couldn’t imagine a future where calories didn’t make me sweat. With this in mind, you must understand that I’m boasting when I write this next sentence: in November 2024, I was diagnosed with “very high” cholesterol.After years of restriction, I spent my 20s unable to understand why every meal shouldn’t be the maximum amount of delicious. This means that last year, I was regularly melting a packet of white chocolate buttons on my morning porridge before heading out for a white chocolate matcha with cream, followed by a cheese and egg sandwich in a brioche bun, a slice of cake, fried chicken and chips, to say nothing of the bread and butter before dinner and dessert. In short, I was smashing through my recommended daily allowance of saturated fat and loving every second of it. “Treats”, to my mind, are not something that have to be earned.Amelia Tait is a freelance features writerIn the UK, Beat can be contacted on 0808-801-0677. In the US, help is available at nationaleatingdisorders.org or by calling ANAD’s eating disorders hotline at 800-375-7767. In Australia, the Butterfly Foundation is at 1800 33 4673. Other international helplines can be found at Eating Disorder HopeDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading…

In a letter posted online by President Trump, the first lady wrote to Russia’s leader but didn’t mention Ukraine. At the White House, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine brought Mr. Trump a letter from his own wife to Ms. Trump.

The chairman of the House Oversight Committee said the department would miss a Tuesday deadline his panel set in a subpoena but would begin sharing some records on Friday.