Sharks could struggle to feed themselves efficiently in future, affecting marine ecosystem stability, researchers say

Sharks without teeth might sound like the stuff of dreams to swimmers and surfers. Now a new study has found that ocean acidification could leave the apex predators without their critical survival weapon.

Shark jaws carry several rows of teeth and new ones quickly push forward to replace losses. However, rapidly acidifying oceans are damaging shark teeth and could speed losses past replacement rates. Sharks with bad teeth could struggle to feed themselves efficiently, “potentially affecting shark populations and marine ecosystem stability”, the study said.

At 14, on a family road trip to Europe, I mixed traditional shalwar kameez and trendy T-shirts. Unfortunately, I didn’t really understand what was on my shirt ...

My favourite teen outfit was memorable for the wrong reasons. Age 14, in a desperate attempt to be cool, I bought a graphic print T-shirt depicting a bright green can of 7Up with bubbles effervescing from the top – oblivious to the fact that it didn’t say 7Up at all, it said, “EUp”, and the bubbles were not bubbles, but MDMA pills being dropped into the can. To make matters worse, the image also included Fido Dido – the cartoon mascot for 7Up – sporting bloodshot eyeballs while smoking a spliff. Little did I know that I, an innocent, drug-free Muslim girl, was a walking endorsement for ecstasy.

I wore it in 1992, the year my dad decided it was time for a grand family road trip across Europe. There were 12 of us in total, aged between five and 50: aunts, uncles, siblings, cousins – we all piled into a minibus my dad had hired from a care home, with the words “Never too old for fun” emblazoned on the front and back. Thus began our Asian National Lampoon’s Vacation as we took the ferry from Dover to Belgium for a three-week adventure.

Can a European-led coalition really provide credible security guarantees? Past examples are not encouraging

After an unusual August of geopolitical summitry, the reality is sinking in that Europe is on its own in defending Ukraine’s sovereignty and hence its own security against Russian aggression and cannot count on much support from the United States.

The sense of strategic loneliness in an increasingly brutal global power contest follows a summer of submission in which the EU accepted a manifestly unbalanced trade deal imposed by Donald Trump and pledged improbably large investments in the US while European Nato members promised to boost their defence spending to an aspirational 5% of gross domestic product – all to appease Trump in hopes of keeping the US engaged in European security.

Paul Taylor is a senior visiting fellow at the European Policy Centre

Grace Chambers, whose daughter dared her to join nine years ago, hopes to be first centenarian at her local event

When Grace Chambers ran her first parkrun, it was the result of a dare. Now, nine years later, and at 97 years old, she has reached the sought-after milestone of 250 runs.

Chambers first took part after her daughter Michele registered her for the free, weekly timed events that take place in parks and public spaces in several countries around the globe.

An Algerian mother blames people smugglers and opportunists for the death of both her daughters. Now she cares for four grandchildren alone

Each morning Zahia leaves the home she shares with her four grandchildren in the Algerian coastal city of Bou Ismaïl and heads to her job cleaning a primary school. For the past year she has lived alone with them, after the death of both her daughters ripped their family apart.

Their tragic story started on 5 October 2021, when Zahia’s youngest daughter, Feryal, then 23, decided to leave Algeria with her husband, Aissa, and their son Amjad, aged 2. At the time neither had jobs – although Aissa worked occasionally as a horseback tour guide – but they were both determined to improve their lives.

Nearly all common garden snails have shells that coil to the right but Ned the snail’s left-spiralling shell results in reversed reproductive organs – a barrier to mating

If you thought your dating pool was limited, spare a thought for Ned, a very rare snail unearthed in New Zealand. Due to a left-spiralling shell, Ned has a vanishingly small chance of finding a mate – a predicament that has sparked a nationwide campaign.

Nearly all common garden snails have shells that coil to the right but Ned’s left-spiralling shell is like a mirror image, resulting in a flipped shell and reversed reproductive organs – a configuration that affects roughly 1 in 40,000 snails.