In the dead of winter, it can be hard to keep your alertness up when it gets darker. Here are a few good habits that will help you stay productive

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It is an all-too-familiar scenario: you reheat a bowl of last night’s noodles for lunch, devour it, then return to your desk and gradually droop over the course of the afternoon, to the point at which you are battling to keep your eyes open. Or perhaps you struggle with energy on waking up; or, after a busy start and strong coffee first thing, you begin to fade mid-morning. Or, like me, after dinner in the winter months, you are completely lethargic.

How common are such peaks and troughs in our energy levels? “If you’re having an active day, then you will naturally get tired because we are human, we’re not machines,” says Dr Linia Patel, a dietitian and nutritionist. “Getting tired at the end of the day, before you go to bed, is perfect. But getting tired at your desk is not great.” Chronic tiredness is something to see a doctor about, says Patel, as it could be a symptom of illness.

Streaming’s algorithms make it easy to avoid whole discographies – so in the interest of deeper listening, our writers dedicate time to the ones who might have got away

The first time I heard Joni Mitchell, in 1997, she was looped across the chorus of Janet Jackson’s single Got ’Til It’s Gone. The song’s credits would educate me on the sample’s origins; I had previously assumed Big Yellow Taxi was an Amy Grant original. The second time I heard a Mitchell song was when Travis covered the beautiful River as a B-side.

As he dons sunglasses to play a tough guy on screen, the actor, AKA Paul Elliott, answers your questions about moustaches, Gogglebox, Bond, Judge Jules, Liam Gallagher and missing his brother, Barry

Paul, you must rank as one of the most committed moustache-wearers in Britain. When was the last time you were clean-shaven? DoubleRDiner
I’m an ambassador for Marie Curie and shaved it off live on X over lockdown. I’ve had the moustache since I was 23. It’s not itchy. I have to trim it, else it comes down over the lip and gets thick and bushy. I’ve tried going full walrus, but it doesn’t look good.

Were the physical comedy greats from the silent era such as Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd and Max Linder an inspiration for you and your brother [Barry] getting started in slapstick? Tombo
Yes. Slapstick is something we’ve always found funny. Laurel and Hardy were our favourites. You can’t go wrong with visual comedy. There can’t be many people that don’t laugh at somebody falling down. We were brought up in showbusiness. My dad [Gene Patton, who worked with Peter Sellers] was a comedian and very visual. Our mum was a dancer. Our two older brothers were in the business. We’d been brought up in and out of the theatre all our lives and found it natural to be on stage.

As young people take on a messy dating landscape, they’ve created their own lexicon to match. Here’s like what phrases ‘bird theory’ and ‘monkey branching’ mean

This year marked a decade since the term “ghosting” hit the mainstream. At the time, the idea that someone could abruptly cease communication with a lover without explanation seemed like the peak of indignity. How naive we were. In the 10 years since, finding a partner has only become more confounding – an oftentimes fruitless exercise in humiliation that is increasingly pigeonholed by social media jargon.

Gen Z, a cohort who came of age during a loneliness epidemic, a masculinity crisis, and a coordinated attack on the rights of women and the LGBTQ+ community, faces a far messier landscape than their millennial predecessors could ever imagine. And so their dating glossary has grown longer and more deranged, with phrases like “Shrekking” and “monkey branching” testing the limits of your sanity.

Red flags – Behavioral quirks indicating a potential partner is bad news. Examples include calling their exes crazy, subpar tipping habits, a love of Woody Allen films, a burgeoning DJ career …

Green flags – These quirks validate your decision to pursue a mate. Examples include checking in to make sure you got home safe after a date, low screen time, owning a bed frame …

Beige flags – These usually describe niche, mostly benign quirks. Examples include being an enthusiastic birdwatcher, still carrying around a pen in their purse, paying rent in cash …

It was assumed that Reform would sweep all before it – but locals rejected the party’s campaign of ‘lies and hate’

Yuliia Bond works two jobs, raises two children and is studying at university. In the autumn, she also found time to take on Reform UK when it tried to win the Caerphilly byelection.

Bond, a Ukrainian refugee who has settled in south Wales, said she could not remain silent as Reform tried to win the seat in the Senedd (Welsh parliament ).

A DNA test showed me that theoretically I have links to a long list of countries – and that the way we look at belonging makes little sense

While accepting that David Lammy, the deputy prime minister and justice secretary is, for many, the human embodiment of Marmite – loved or hated, with not much in between – one can still question whether, for all his faults, he should “go home to the Caribbean”. Whether you agree with him over this or that utterance or the broad sweep of government policy, he has, unquestionably made his contribution to Tottenham, in north London, whose people he has represented for a quarter of a century, to parliament, as a senior MP, as foreign secretary and now as an important figure with several key portfolios.

So when a lieutenant of Nigel Farage, admittedly no fan of Lammy’s, suggests, without notable contradiction or condemnation from Reform, that Lammy “should go home to the Caribbean”, one is tempted to look at that askance. But then, in the year just past, when bigotry in frontline politics took off its training wheels and othering became the sport that everyone can play, the notion that someone who clearly belongs here should not belong here ceased to shock.

Hugh Muir is executive editor, Opinion

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Police have ruled out an attack on Le Constellation bar as investigation starts into cause of fire

Officials at the press conference are asking for “prudence” from those in the town, reminding them not to make unnecessary demands on hospitals, which are overwhelmed.

Please leave investigators to do their work, they say.

Police say blaze tore through crowded bar where people were seeing in the new year

• Switzerland resort fire – latest updates

About 40 people are believed to have been killed and 115 injured after a fire tore through a crowded bar during a New Year’s Eve party in the Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana.

Swiss police confirmed several dozen partygoers were dead. The victims could not be immediately identified because of the severity of their burns, the ministry said. It confirmed arson was not responsible, with the blaze thought to be the result of an accident.

Investigators say no indication of terrorism or arson after 40 people die and 115 are injured in blaze

• Switzerland ski resort fire – latest updates

Dozens of people are presumed dead and about 115 injured, many of them seriously, after a fire at a bar in the Swiss Alps during a new year celebration at a luxury ski resort.

The blaze ripped through the packed bar, Le Constellation, early on Thursday in Crans-Montana, one of the top-ranked ski destinations in Europe, which lies about 25 miles (40km) north-west of Zermatt.

About 40 people are believed to have been killed and 115 injured after a fire tore through a crowded bar during a New Year’s Eve party in the Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana, according to the Italian foreign ministry. Video from the scene shows orange flames billowing from inside the ground-floor bar and lounge. Swiss police confirmed arson was not the cause and the blaze is thought to have been started accidentally