Having realised she had no hope of winning it, Theresa May postponed parliament’s so-called “meaningful” vote on her Brexit deal, which was meant to take place today. The prime minister instead plans to return to Brussels to seek further concessions on the Irish backstop, pledging also to find a way to give parliament more power to ensure that the backstop arrangement is not permanent. It looked like May had no choice, but Simon Usherwood thinks she would have been better to plough ahead. For Andy Price, parliament is the key to breaking the deadlock. Neither of the two main party leaders have produced a workable idea – the elected representatives of the British people must come together to find the solution. And the European Court of Justice ruled that Article 50 can be revoked if the UK was to decide to cancel Brexit.

The UN climate talks continue this week in Poland. Zbigniew Kundzewicz and James Painter look at how the country, the EU’s largest coal producer, became known for its climate scepticism. At the talks, a group of academics have got delegates playing a computer game that simulates the global battle over climate policy and shows the outcome of national decisions. One human cost of climate policy being played out in France right now is the “gilets jaunes” protests against a hike in fuel taxes. But taxes like this don’t have to be unpopular if done correctly, says Michael Mehling.

Silicon Valley’s so-called biohackers see death as just another problem to overcome, not with lines of code but with fasting, stem cell injections and cryo-baths. But many of these attempts to lengthen the human lifespan come with inevitable trade offs that, in the long term, could do as much harm as good. In our latest long read, James Horton and Nicholas Priest explain how avoiding nature’s built-in time limits may involve making the biggest sacrifice of all.

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