Have a great weekend everyone!
Thanks to everyone who was involved today. We will leave comments open for the next hour or so, and encourage you to continue the discussion. Look forward to talking more next week.
The week's best video
My favourites are videos that take me into worlds I otherwise wouldn’t have a hope of entering because of profile, distance or affordability. This week’s turned out to be a surprise hit from the Guardian’s Iman Amrani. A gem of an Insta Story for a delicious 24 hours only, at a street art event in Algiers.
It’s strength, as well as the access, was its immediacy. Information accurately and beautifully conveyed in a short slice of life from a country whose street art is rarely seen in our mainstream media. The power of a smartphone in the hands of someone informed and creative enough to know where to point it.
How far are university staff responsible for students' mental wellbeing?
It’s the time of year when another cohort of fresh-faced yoofs will be arriving at their campus halls lumbered with dried fusilli, booze, posters, and all the other studenty cliches. These will be happy days for many, but it won’t be smiles all-round. Academic pressures, coupled with the first-time move away from home, can cause or exacerbate problems with mental health. It’s an emotive issue that affects everyone at some point, so it felt important that our latest student blog addressed this darker – and increasingly prevalent – side of university life from first-hand experience, with an appeal for improved counselling support services.
Many commenters said they could relate to the story, while a debate has ensued: to what extent are university staff responsible for students’ mental wellbeing? At what point is it more appropriate for a GP to step in?
Mental health at university
The number of students seeking counselling at university has increased by 50% in the last five years, according to figures obtained by the Guardian. It’s a worrying statistic, although it’s noted that the rise is also down to the fact people are more openly talking about mental health, and seeking help as a result. What is clear is that young people are now under great pressure, and it’s something we need to take seriously. How can we improve mental health issues at university? What do you think is driving this? Share your views with us.
What song do you want your Tinder date to love?
What one song defines who you are? It was a question posed this week by the dating app Tinder, who announced their partnership with streaming service Spotify. Not only will it sync users to others with similar listening habits, but it now allows you to pick a “personal anthem” – a song that reflects you.
It seems like a smart segue, but in actuality it poses all sorts of problems given the loaded nature of music. Some songs which give the illusion of romance are actually about far more sinister prospects (The Police’s Every Breath You Take, You’re Gorgeous by Babybird). I’d presume anyone choosing an earnest, credible song would be totally self-important and prone to asking “What you thinking?” during moments of silence. Anything genuine – ie whatever is in your head – might be too revealing.
Maybe it’s safest to stick on the Cardigans Lovefool and get on with it. Although in this context it’s a bit pathetic, isn’t it?
I am quite clearly clueless. Let us know what you would pick as your personal anthem in the comments.
Does anyone care about Brad and Angelina?
It’s been a story that’s shocked many, but how newsworthy is it really that Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt have split? Tell us what interests you – or doesn’t – about this story? How should newspapers report it? What about how Jennifer Aniston has been embroiled in it?
Gun Nation: what do you think of our documentary?
Last week we launched our documentary strand with our new film Gun Nation, which is a troubling look at gun owners in the United States.
When the film-maker Zed Nelson approached me with the idea of revisiting the subjects of his photo book from 16 years ago, I was excited by the prospect of getting access to these people, who would normally be suspicious of speaking on camera to an organisation like the Guardian. Zed and the editor Noah have done a brilliant job of letting us hear them speak, occasionally challenging them, but approaching them from a perspective that they must surely want a solution to their country’s cycle of violence too.
It looks beautiful, we’ve designed a special new page for it, and it’s rather stark in style, forcing you to make up your own mind rather than telling you what to think. I’m excited for the Guardian’s audience to see it – settle down for 30 minutes, let us know what you think, and look out for future docs.
A couple of your views on gun ownership here
As a nice liberal Brit, I deplore the ease of access to guns in America, but as someone who has fired several in my time, it gives you a hell of a rush and I can certainly see the attraction
What do you think? Does it shift your perspective to think of gun owners like any other kind of passionate collector or hobbyist?
If it were true that all guns were kept as non-functioning museum pieces (and a lesson as to how dangerous they are for future generations) I would be fine with that. However this is far from the case of course.
The fact people have guns mainly either as a defence precaution which greatly heightens the possibility of people being killed, or because they enjoy shooting. Mostly, I understand that, they enjoy shooting at living creatures and killing them for pleasure. That strikes me as a singularly horrible thing to do, and morally there is a strong case for confiscating all guns used for such acts in my view.
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Meet America's gun super-owners – does this surprise you?
This week I wrote about a new study estimating that just 3% of Americans own half the country’s guns. These “super-owners” – about 7.7 million Americans – own an average of 17 guns each.
This may sound like a lot. But the super-owners I interviewed convinced me that it’s really not that many.
If you think of guns as tools, it makes sense that you might need different tools for different tasks. A rifle that’s good for hunting deer “would just obliterate” a rabbit, one super-owner told me.
The other big factor is inheritance. Guns last a long time, and Americans often inherit guns from parents and grandparents. So that collection of 17 guns might include a bunch of family heirlooms that they don’t actually shoot very often, or that aren’t particularly practical to use.
What do you think? Does it shift your perspective to think of gun owners like any other kind of passionate collector or hobbyist? Does this estimated concentration of American gun ownership surprise you?
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Can having fewer children save the planet? Conversation of the week
Each week we ask our team of moderators to highlight a comment thread they particularly enjoyed. This week, you offered many interesting perspectives on a radical idea to save the planet by bioethics researcher Travis N Rieder: to have fewer children.
You can click the links to further explore the conversation.
‘Let’s be honest, two of the little swines are enough for anybody’
Absolutely; two kids per couple to ensure a steady population and, let's be honest, two of the little swines are enough for anybody.
The trouble is that whilst we have superstitions that encourage people to have loads of kids or which prohibit contraceptio, and societies that favour male offspring over female, then this ideal will be difficult to achieve.
‘Perhaps longer gaps between generations?’
Or perhaps longer gaps between the generations? People having kids in their 40s now rather than in 20s. During the next century that'll make a significant difference.
‘Global warming is taking away any parent’s control over quality of life’
A question any prospective parent has to consider is what kind of life they can provide for the child.
Global warming is taking away any parent's control in this matter.
Global temperatures over the last 40 years, when averaged over several years, have gone up fairly linearly.
But impacts like extreme weather and sea level rise are extremely non-linear and will cause big changes over the next several decades.
When I see young people starting families I think they haven't been following the science.
Did you read the article? What do you think?
One reader seems to have – quite delightfully – got their stories mixed up ...
This is a controversial topic, and views have often become heated in recent days.
However, if you ask me, the moderate Paul Hollywood has opted for power, and the chance to improve ordinary baker's lives, rather than ideological purity. By contrast, Mary Berry has merely sacrificed power for principles. So much for the kinder baking.
The best way forward would be for the New Great British Bake-Off to create a politically-balanced kitchen cabinet; which will allow them to give cooks their just desserts.
An enabling kitchen - where people are encouraged to take responsibility for half-baked recipes; and which harnesses the power of the supermarket.
Nowhere is this more important than when it comes to the craft of biscuithood. With the right ingredients, even the most homely of cooks will be able to create a good, centrist biscuit - such as the custard cream, for instance; or perhaps a more aspirational variety - like the aptly named Boaster.
I feel that there is little more which remains to be said on this most contentious matter, quite frankly. Save to add that if Bake-Off doesn't unite, then Masterchef will continue to dominate the airwaves for many years to come.
Let's talk about rats
I really enjoyed this piece about rats by Jordan Kisner this week. In it there are lots of facts about rats, but also the incredible story of a scientist working to make them infertileto rid them from our streets and sewers. To get you going, though, some myths to dispel ...
There are no “super rats”. Apart from a specific subtropical breed, they do not get much bigger than 20 inches long, including the tail. They are not blind, nor are they afraid of cats. They do not carry rabies. They do not, as was reported in 1969 regarding an island in Indonesia, fall from the sky. Their communities are not led by elusive, giant “king rats”. Rat skeletons cannot liquefy and reconstitute at will.
The story continues, introducing us to Loretta Mayer, who has developed a tasty (to rats, one presumes) drink – called Mouseopause – which makes them infertile … She thinks it could change the world.
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You’ve been sharing your views on Jeremy Corbyn after reading John Harris’s thoughts earlier.
I’m of the opinion – I think – that all this discord is a sign of a party fighting its way through an unavoidable crisis, and very little will become clear within the next five years.
I think I agree - however I think it will take less than 5 years, because I think that the acolytes will most definitely go for full control with de-selections and that will force the issue to a more rapid conclusion than might be imagined.
The PLP know Corbyn has to be allowed to fail , there is no point challenging him at all , and that really is the case . A reading of the serenity prayer may help them out.
Corbyn has strengths and he has weaknesses, like all of us. His strengths are considerable. More than doubling Labour party membership in a year so the party is now the biggest in Europe, enthusing and giving badly needed hope to hundreds of thousands, having consistently made the right call on key issues as Ronan Bennett pointed out in a recent piece, and refusing to respond to endless personal abuse received not only from the Tories but, shamefully, his own side. If his PLP would notice and respect these considerable and actually remarkable qualities, and give him assistance where he is weaker, rather than the persistent undermining that has gone on so far, the Labour party would start looking like a party of government again
What does a Corbyn win mean for Labour.
It means they have to knock on the doorsteps of Middle England and explain to the voters why they are stuck with a leader that enjoys a 172 vote of no-confidence from his own MPs.
A useless leader, in other words, and this time we don't even need the right wing media to tell us about it.
John- there is so much bad blood I am not sure detente could work. As soon as this calms down it'll flare up again. I honestly think there needs to be a split in the party. The Corbyn camp will go as a 'mass movement' (although I honestly think they'll get a shock in a GE as they find the mass support is sizeable as far as a movement goes, but a tiny percentage of the mainstream).
The 'professional' wing of the parliamentary party are also goosed. They cannot realistically work with the grass roots any longer.
The Conservatives will eventually over-reach and fall, but no time soon
The Guardian’s Polly Toynbee also gives her thoughts on the Labour leadership battle.
It looks as if Labour will be no better off when the leadership result is announced tomorrow. Following a Tony Benn dictum, Jeremy Corbyn used to demand a leadership ballot every year – and now he may get it. The party is so deeply and permanently divided, I see no way the two sides can come together until some other leader emerges more or less acceptable to both. If Owen Smith manages to get over 40% it will count as a success for non-Corbynites, but it will show how far the name “Labour” houses two quite different parties now. Many members warn they will quit, but democracy always rights itself in the end. Some day, goodness knows when, the Conservatives will over-reach and fall. But maybe not for years – so that’s cold comfort.
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What next for Labour and Jeremy Corbyn?
Labour’s bitter leadership contest is set to come to a head this Saturday, with the result of the ballot due to be announced. Here, the Guardian’s John Harris talked about what we can expect.
Corbyn has won – we know that. The Labour party is in a much more uncertain position: seemingly largely united as far as its newly inflated membership is concerned, but also troubled further towards the top. Some MPs are taking minders with them to the party conference. The party’s national executive thinks online abuse is such a toxic issue that it will now require members to sign up to a new code of conduct. There are voices on all sides of the party talking about “unity and taking the fight to the Tories” (it’s a cliche already), but the chances of all those MPs dutifully settling down and accepting Corbyn’s pre-eminence seem slim. Meanwhile, some voices – witness this parish’s Paul Mason – are calling for the most intransigent parliamentary anti-Corbynites to be replaced: “deselected”, as the Labour vernacular would have it.
I’m curious to know: do people think JC and his people now have to complete their dominance of the party, or do they prefer the idea of a concerted attempt at some kind of detente? Do they even think that’s even possible? And also, is it time we all got our heads straight and acknowledged that Labour/the left is faced with a much longer haul than anything beginning with a win in 2020? I’m of the opinion – I think – that all this discord is a sign of a party fighting its way through an unavoidable crisis, and very little will become clear within the next five years.
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The week's most-read articles
Popular this week was a documentary on Donald Trump supporters, with the Guardian’s Paul Lewis interviewing a variety of people in Ohio (including Kathy Miller, who was chair of Republican presidential candidate campaign in Mahoning County). Great lines include Miller saying that there was no racism in the US until Obama.
Another top story was based on a new survey finding that significant numbers of under 30s lack self-confidence and are at risk of mental health problems, with women the worst affected.
A number of readers were also (understandably) outraged by news that Mary Berry, queen of cakes, is leaving the Great British Bake Off as it moves to Channel 4.
What stories have got you thinking this week? Share them with us below the line.
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Welcome to our weekly social
It’s Friday (pause for cheering) and as usual we will be discussing all the week’s best comment and news this afternoon.
This is a space for our readers to come together with our journalists, and talk about the biggest stories, best photographs and videos, and anything else that’s on your mind.
We will be posting commentary from those in the building above the line, and encourage debate below the line.
Look forward to getting started. If you have a question for any of our journalists and want it answered in this space, share it here.
I've yet to hear a sensible reason for a civilian owning an assault weapon. Americans can own as many firearms as they like - just restrict the supply and purchase of ammunition. The Second Amendment of the Constitution says nothing about the right to bear loaded arms.