NFL playoff predictions: who will seize a wide-open Super Bowl race?

The postseason kicks off on Saturday. Our writers pick the dark horses, players to watch and make their tips for the NFL’s championship game

Melissa is right about the Lions (see below), but how about the Dallas Cowboys? Their defense was nauseating, and nobody wants a playoff weekend spoiled watching that. But their offense was electric. They finished fifth in the league in EPA/play in the regular season. And with Dak Prescott, a solid o-line and George Pickens and CeeDee Lamb, they had the potential to drop 30 points on any playoff group. If they’d snuck in and managed to knock off a top seed, it would have convinced Jerry Jones that he was on the right path. And nothing is funnier than Jones failing to recognize that the reason why Dallas is stuck is the reflection in his mirror. Oliver Connolly

Published: January 9, 2026, 9:00 am

Trump’s Venezuela strike won’t distract voters from the crises at home | Steven Greenhouse

As Americans worry about healthcare and affordability, the ‘no more wars’ president is helping oil companies instead

Immediately after Donald Trump ordered a military strike in Venezuela, many critics focused on how that attack violated international law as well as the US War Powers Resolution. But there hasn’t been nearly enough focus on the domestic implications of Trump’s move.

Trump seems to have ordered his Venezuela venture in part to flip the script away from domestic matters, where things aren’t going well for him. His approval ratings are under water, and he’s getting low marks on the economy, health policy (just 30% approval), inflation (31% approval on the cost of living), his immigration crackdown (41% approval) and his sending the national guard into US cities. Then there’s the big thumbs down that Americans are giving to his tariffs, which have helped push up prices even though candidate Trump promised to lower prices on day one.

Steven Greenhouse is a journalist and author, focusing on labour and the workplace, as well as economic and legal issues

Published: January 9, 2026, 12:00 pm

‘There’s serendipity to my story’: Emmylou Harris on Gram Parsons, her garlanded career – and her dog rescue centre

Ahead of her final European tour, the US songwriter discusses her unlikely life as a country star, seeking advice from Pete Seeger – and why retirement isn’t on the cards just yet

When Emmylou Harris was starting out in the late 1960s, she thought country music wasn’t for her. “I hadn’t seen the light,” she says. “I was a folk singer who believed you don’t ever work with drummers as they wreck everything.” It was Gram Parsons, of the Byrds and the Flying Burrito Brothers, who changed her mind. Their musical partnership was brief – Parsons died after an accidental drug overdose at the Joshua Tree national park in 1973, aged 26 – but his impact on her was profound. “He had one foot in country and one in rock and was conversant in both. It changed my thinking completely.”

Is Harris, legendary doyenne of the country ballad and distinguished recipient of three Country Music Association awards whose guitar was exhibited in Nashville’s Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, really saying she hated country? “It can be corny!” she says. “Country music aims straight for the heart and when it misses, it misses really badly. And that’s the stuff that makes the most noise and takes up most space.” She pauses. “But then you hear something like George Jones’s Once You’ve Had the Best, and you hear the simplicity of his phrasing and the earnestness with which he sings. There’s a soulfulness to country music that can elude you if you just look at the big picture.”

Published: January 9, 2026, 5:00 am

Ten years after his death, is David Bowie’s musical legacy at risk of fading from view?

From the V&A to the Stranger Things finale, the pop icon still looms large – but with lower streaming figures than his peers, how many new listeners are discovering his music?

• ‘A perplexing, astonishing finale’: world pays tribute to David Bowie a decade after his death

When David Bowie died on 10 January 2016, such was the scale of media coverage and public mourning that one would have presumed his music would be everywhere for ever, elevated as he was, to misquote Smash Hits, to the position of the People’s Dame. It was briefly – Starman reached No 18, and Space Oddity No 24 – but then it wasn’t.

Each year, Forbes compiles a posthumous celebrity rich list. Bowie appeared in 2016, ranked at No 11 with estimated earnings of $10.5m (£7.8m), and again in 2017, in the same position but with earnings of $9.5m (£7m). This was unsurprising given the enormous spike in interest there is in the immediate aftermath of a superstar’s death. Yet he didn’t appear in the Forbes list again until 2022, when he was at No 3 with earnings of $250m (£195m) – the highest-ranked musician that year – but that was almost all attributable to the sale of his music publishing rights to Warner Chappell.

Published: January 9, 2026, 12:14 pm

Six years after George Floyd, we must stand against an ICE killing in Minneapolis | Austin Sarat

Barely a mile from Floyd’s murder, an officer killed Renee Nicole Good. We must peacefully say no to this violence

On 25 May 2020, America witnessed a stunning act of police brutality when a police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, murdered George Floyd. The killer, Derek Chauvin, apparently confident that he would be immune to accountability, did his deed in the open, with other officers standing by and in front of a crowd of onlookers.

The video of Floyd’s murder shocked the nation.

Austin Sarat, William Nelson Cromwell professor of jurisprudence and political science at Amherst College, is the author or editor of more than 100 books, including Gruesome Spectacles: Botched Executions and America’s Death Penalty

Published: January 9, 2026, 10:00 am

Experience: I’m Britain’s best gravedigger

People say my job must make me morbid, but I think the opposite is true, I truly appreciate life

Not many people can say their happy place is a cemetery, but mine certainly is. I didn’t set out to dig graves for a living – it’s nobody’s childhood dream – but working as a contract gardener for the council in Oxfordshire, I did some work tending cemeteries, and eventually I was offered a job digging graves.

I found it quite daunting at first. I was responsible for digging the plots and being on hand during the funeral service, as well as filling in the grave. It felt like a huge responsibility. I’d recently lost my nan and I’d sit and watch the funerals with a lump in my throat. From the beginning, I treated every grave as though it were for a member of my own family. For the first time, I felt like my job really mattered.

Published: January 9, 2026, 5:00 am

Trump administration unleashes torrent of untruths after woman shot dead by ICE

Victim-blaming began almost as soon as Renee Nicole Good was killed – we examine the claims and the reality

The killing of a US citizen by a federal immigration agent in Minneapolis was a five-alarm fire for the Trump administration. But a torrent of untruths, half-truths, smears, and innuendo has been unleashed by the White House, and amplified by its social media and cable television acolytes, in an attempt to douse the flames.

Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic House minority leader, called homeland security secretary Kristi Noem a “stone cold liar” on Thursday for her efforts to falsely portray the victim Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old mother of three and award-winning poet, as a “domestic terrorist”.

Published: January 9, 2026, 10:00 am

Iran’s supreme leader signals harsher crackdown as protest movement swells

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei calls protesters ‘vandals’ and ‘saboteurs’ and blames the US for instigating the unrest

Iran’s supreme leader has vowed that authorities will “not back down” in the face of growing protests, blaming the US for instigating demonstrations that started over economic conditions and have since expanded to calls for political reform.

In his first speech since the protests started 13 days ago, the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, signalled on Friday that a greater crackdown was coming. He described protesters as “vandals” and “saboteurs”, and accused them of working on behalf of foreign agendas.

Published: January 9, 2026, 1:18 pm

US in process of seizing fifth tanker in effort to control Venezuelan oil

The Olina, seized in the Caribbean, was falsely flying the flag of Timor Leste, according to a public shipping database

• US politics live – latest updates

The US is in the process of seizing the Olina tanker in the Caribbean near Trinidad in the fifth such interdiction of ships in recent weeks as part of Washington’s efforts to control Venezuelan oil exports, two US officials said on Friday.

The Olina, according to public shipping database Equasis, was falsely flying the flag of the tiny south-east Asian nation of Timor Leste. The vessel had previously sailed from Venezuela and had returned to the region, said an industry source with direct knowledge of the matter.

Published: January 9, 2026, 2:37 pm

US supreme court set to release first decision of new term – live

The court could issue a highly anticipated ruling on the legality of Trump’s sweeping tariffs

Pope Leo XIV has denounced how nations are using force to assert their dominion worldwide, saying they are “completely undermining” peace and the post-Second World War international legal order, AP reported.

In his most substantial critique of US, Russian and other military incursions in sovereign countries, Leo told ambassadors who represent their countries’ interests at the Holy See that “war is back in vogue and a zeal for war is spreading”.

Published: January 9, 2026, 3:01 pm

US hiring held firm in December capping weakest year of growth since the pandemic

Employers added 50,000 jobs, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, despite a year of uneven growth

Hiring held firm in the US last month, official data showed, amid uncertainty over the strength and direction of the world’s largest economy.

Employers added 50,000 jobs to the US labor force last month, capping the weakest year of growth since the pandemic, according to data released from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday.

Published: January 9, 2026, 1:59 pm

Russia fires hypersonic Oreshnik missile at Ukraine in massive attack

Kyiv dismisses as ‘absurd’ Moscow’s attempt to portray missile launch as retaliation for supposed attempted drone strike on Putin residence

• Europe live – latest updates

Russia’s military has fired its new hypersonic Oreshnik missile at a target in Ukraine during a massive overnight strike.

Ukraine confirmed the attack, saying it took place in the west of the country near the EU border. Moscow said the launch of the intermediate-range ballistic missile was retaliation for a supposed attempted Ukrainian drone attack on Vladimir Putin’s residence late last month – an allegation Kyiv and Washington have said is false.

Published: January 9, 2026, 1:38 pm

Alzheimer’s therapies should target a particular gene, researchers say

Scientists at UCL say drug developers should focus on two risk-raising variants of the Apoe gene

New therapies for Alzheimer’s disease should target a particular gene linked to the condition, according to researchers who said most cases would never arise if its harmful effects were neutralised.

The call to action follows the arrival of the first wave of drugs that aim to treat Alzheimer’s patients by removing toxic proteins from the brain. While the drugs slow the disease down, the benefits are minor, and they have been rejected for widespread use by the UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice).

Published: January 9, 2026, 10:00 am

Face masks ‘inadequate’ and should be swapped for respirators, WHO is advised

Experts are urging guideline changes on what health professionals should wear to protect against flu-like illnesses including Covid

Surgical face masks provide inadequate protection against flu-like illnesses including Covid, and should be replaced by respirator-level masks – worn every time doctors and nurses are face to face with a patient, according to a group of experts urging changes to World Health Organization guidelines.

There is “no rational justification remaining for prioritising or using” the surgical masks that are ubiquitous in hospitals and clinics globally, given their “inadequate protection against airborne pathogens”, they said in a letter to WHO chief Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

Published: January 9, 2026, 9:49 am

One awards battle after another: A-listers face off at this year’s Golden Globes

Big names from Leonardo DiCaprio to Timothée Chalamet are aiming for a win at Hollywood’s most important Oscars precursor

Hollywood’s A-list will assemble this weekend for the 83rd Golden Globes ceremony, a night that will reveal where this year’s Oscars race is headed.

Stars including Leonardo DiCaprio, Timothée Chalamet, Jennifer Lawrence, Emma Stone, Michael B Jordan and Ariana Grande are among those nominated for film awards while small screen nominees include Helen Mirren, Jenna Ortega, Jude Law and Glen Powell.

Published: January 9, 2026, 10:03 am

Doge cuts cost US taxpayers $10bn to cover workers’ paid leave, analysis finds

Analysis estimates Trump administration ‘wasted’ billions to compensate over 154,000 federal employees on leave

The Trump administration “wasted” $10bn on paid leave, or paying workers to stay home, as part of the “department of government efficiency’s” assault on the federal workforce, a new analysis by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (Peer) estimates.

In a letter sent to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), Peer estimates that more than 154,000 employees were put on paid leave in 2025, making up nearly 7% of the federal civilian workforce. That costs taxpayers approximately $10bn in compensation for workers who were staying home and not working.

Published: January 9, 2026, 1:00 pm

‘We are not for sale’: chair of Greenland’s top labor union rebukes Trump’s call for annexation

Exclusive: SIK leader Jess Berthelsen rejects Trump claim that the US needs Greenland for ‘national security’

Greenland “will not be annexed”, the longtime leader of its largest labor union has declared, refuting Donald Trump’s claims that the Arctic territory’s current status poses a national security threat to the US.

In an interview with the Guardian, Jess Berthelsen, chair of SIK, Greenland’s national trade union confederation, said people in the territory do not recognize the US president’s allegations that Russian and Chinese ships are scattered throughout its waters. “We can’t see it, we can’t recognize it and we can’t understand it,” he said.

Published: January 9, 2026, 10:00 am

Morality, military might and a sense of mischief: key takeaways from Trump’s New York Times interview

Trump sounds off on Venezuela’s future, Taiwan’s security and his aims for Greenland, days after operation to seize Nicolás Maduro

Just days after launching an unprecedented operation in Venezuela to seize its president and effectively take control of its oil industry, Donald Trump sat down with New York Times journalists for a wide-ranging interview that took in international law, Taiwan, Greenland and weight-loss drugs.

The president, riding high on the success of an operation that has upended the rules of global power, spoke candidly and casually about the new world order he appears eager to usher in; an order governed not by international norms or long-lasting alliances, but national strength and military power.

Published: January 9, 2026, 3:15 am

US House breaks with Trump to revive Affordable Care Act subsidies

Seventeen Republicans join Democrats to pass a three-year extension of tax credits cutting ACA premiums

The US House of Representatives on Thursday passed legislation to re-establish tax credits that lowered premiums for Affordable Care Act (ACA) health plans, after a small group of Republicans broke ranks and joined with Democrats to defy Donald Trump on a key healthcare issue that could sway voters ahead of the November midterm elections.

The chamber voted 230-196 to approve a bill that would extend for three years the credits, which were first created under Joe Biden but expired at the end of last year despite a concerted effort by the Democratic minority to continue them.

Published: January 8, 2026, 10:32 pm

‘A colossal own goal’: Trump’s exit from global climate treaties will have little effect outside US

For much of the last 30 years, the rest of the world has been forced to persevere with climate action in the face of US intransigence

• Outrage as Trump withdraws from key UN climate treaty along with dozens of international organisations

Donald Trump’s latest attack on climate action takes place amid rapidly rising temperatures, rising sea levels, still-rising greenhouse gas emissions, burgeoning costs from extreme weather and the imminent danger that the world will trigger “tipping points” in the climate system that will lead to catastrophic and irreversible changes.

The US president’s decision to withdraw from the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the world’s leading body of climate scientists, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, will not alter any of those scientific realities.

Published: January 9, 2026, 6:00 am

How independent journalism is a form of resistance: ‘I’m not answering to anyone’

Trump’s attacks on mainstream media have opened a window for journalists who want to operate independently

When Donald Trump retook office last January, many national newsrooms braced for what lay ahead. There was the expected firehose of news, with the president issuing dozens of executive orders in his first week alone. Then there was the fear and tension over the president’s history of attacking and suing news organizations over unfavorable coverage. Meanwhile, audience trust in media was at an all-time low.

While it was a turbulent time for traditional media, it opened a window for independent journalists like Marisa Kabas, who is not beholden to covering Trump’s every move, nor saddled with decades of institutional distrust. On 27 January, she received a massive scoop she published in her newsletter, the Handbasket: the US office of management and budget was freezing federal grants. Getting to that news first only led to more exclusives and subscribers.

Published: January 9, 2026, 1:49 pm

‘We can’t take it any more’: thousands flee guerrilla clashes on Colombia-Venezuela border

Caracas shake-up could intensify violence in Catatumbo in Colombia, an area rich with coca crops, cocaine laboratories and a porous border with Venezuela

Alberto’s eyes shifted nervously. His chin trembled.

His slender hands fumbled with a manila folder containing his family’s documents, which he was waiting to present to staff of the Human Rights Ombudsman in the north-eastern Colombian city of Cúcuta, in the hope of receiving humanitarian aid.

Published: January 9, 2026, 5:00 am

I see sounds as shapes. Synaesthesia has given me an extraordinary ability for languages

Kim Elms, a speech pathologist, shares her experience as an auditory-visual synaesthete

• Read more stories of synaesthesia in the way I feel series

Car journeys with my partner are a nightmare. He’s an ex-DJ so he likes to crank the music up, but for me this means seeing static images and flashes of light in my mind’s eye while I’m trying to drive. It’s hard to describe exactly what I see when I hear sound. But it’s almost like the sound waves you’d see if you watched an audio recording on a screen, or these little neurons connecting and space nebulas exploding in front of me.

I’m 44 now and only realised I had auditory-visual synaesthesia in my 30s. What I did know was that I seemed to have an extraordinary ability for linguistics. In school I studied Japanese and did really well without trying because I could literally see the words and sounds presented as images in front of me, making them easy to remember. At university I majored in Spanish, Korean and Indonesian and it was no effort at all. I then joined the air force as an intelligence officer because I didn’t want to become a teacher or translator. I walked away from the language aptitude test thinking I’d either messed it up or that it had been the easiest thing I’d ever done in my life. No one’s ever managed to get every answer right, they said when the results came back. But I hadn’t even tried. It just came naturally.

Published: January 9, 2026, 2:00 pm

What is Marvel up to with its Avengers: Doomsday trailers?

Teaser reels for next December’s coming episode give no clues to the story, still less to how these old characters are returning via the multiverse

Avengers: Doomsday may still be almost a year off, but already it feels as if Hollywood has entered a new era of confidence marketing, built around a sort of ritualised roll-call of legacy characters who really need everyone to know they haven’t been retired yet. In the last few weeks we’ve had three almost completely pointless short trailers online, with another reportedly playing in cinemas ahead of Avatar: Fire and Ash. First there was Captain America cradling his baby, then Thor praying to his dear old dead omnipotent dad. This week we got our first proper look at the classic X-Men lineup in the new film, and there are suggestions that an encounter between the Fantastic Four’s The Thing and half of Wakanda is imminent.

Something weird is clearly happening. These aren’t teaser trailers in any meaningful sense, because these half-cocked, chord-drenched promotional entries tell us absolutely nothing about what is to come. Assembled fandom wants to know who Doctor Doom is in the new movie, and why he looks exactly like Robert Downey Jr’s Iron Man (because if this is just stunt-casting there are going to be walkouts). We want to know how all the Fantastic Four and X-Men have suddenly turned up in the main Marvel timeline, when the last 17 years of these movies made no mention of them whatsoever. And we’d really like it not to just be explained away by … “the multiverse”.

Published: January 9, 2026, 11:38 am

A Thousand Blows season two review – Erin Doherty is so good it’s hard to think about anything else

Almost every scene in Steven Knight’s late-Victorian thriller is stolen by its female lead. You absolutely marvel at her in this darker second outing

The problem with having Erin Doherty star in your TV drama is that it makes it extremely difficult to tell whether it’s any good or not. The 33-year-old is more than an impressive actor – she is a magnetic presence, able to sell the idea that she actually is her character in a way few others can (a particularly impressive feat considering her breakthrough was playing Princess Anne in The Crown). As such, Doherty’s participation in a series can elevate the premise, plot and script in a slightly confusing way. Watching the first few episodes of Steven Knight’s late-Victorian thriller A Thousand Blows, I wasn’t sure whether I was genuinely enjoying the programme or simply marvelling at Doherty’s effervescent turn as wily, tough-as-boots pickpocketing queen Mary Carr.

Series two makes it easier to spot the difference. While the first outing suffered from its share of heavy-handed exposition, the tale of an East End boxer (played by Doherty’s Adolescence co-star Stephen Graham) whose local dominance is undone by a smart Jamaican fighter (Malachi Kirby) was propulsive and slick, and the presence of the Forty Elephants – a real all-female crime syndicate – was giddily novel. The rivalry between Henry “Sugar” Goodson (old school, bare-knuckle, chip-on-both-shoulders, mildly deranged) and Hezekiah Moscow (young, fun, good-hearted, and willing to cash in on the gentrified west London boxing scene) was a framework that allowed room for commentary on colonialism, racism, tradition and class. Throw in Mary and her mischievous colleagues and you also had a compelling exploration of female empowerment, poverty and the psychology of risk and reward.

Published: January 9, 2026, 8:00 am

‘Damage is piling up’: has the Netherlands forgotten how to cope with snow?

Cyclists and others voice frustration as transport infrastructure descends into chaos amid increasingly rare cold snap

A week-long winter cold snap that would once have been normal in the Netherlands has caused more than 2,000 flight cancellations, chaos on roads and railways, buildings to partially collapse, and a stream of angry cyclists asking why roads seem better gritted than cycle lanes.

Since Saturday, up to 15cm of snow has fallen across the country, with temperatures of -10C (14F) including wind chill, sparking angry commentary over how some nations manage months of snow but the Netherlands, no longer used to it, appears paralysed.

Published: January 9, 2026, 5:00 am

Grok is undressing women and children. Don’t expect the US to take action | Moira Donegan

Elon Musk’s reckless and degrading AI could be built differently. But Americans will have to speak up

Over the past year, Elon Musk has made a series of protocol changes to Grok, the proprietary AI chatbot of his company xAI, which runs prominently on his social media site X, formerly Twitter. Many of these changes have been geared to make the bot more amenable to producing pornography. In August 2025, Grok launched an image generator, branded as Grok Imagine, which featured a service geared toward creating nude, suggestive, or sexually explicit content, including computer-generated pornographic images of real women. The feature, which was quickly used to create naked images of celebrities like Taylor Swift, also allowed users to create brief videos, complete with animations and sounds.

Musk also rolled out AI girlfriends on the platform: animated personas – including female characters with exaggerated breasts and hips – that interacted in sexually explicit ways with users. One of the characters, “Ani”, was an anime-style cartoon blonde with a series of skimpy outfits; the bot blew kisses and addressed users as “my love” while directing the chats toward sexual content.

Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist

Published: January 9, 2026, 1:00 pm

Why is Trump interested in Greenland? Look to the thawing Arctic ice | Gaby Hinsliff

Forecasts suggest that global heating could create a shortcut from Asia to North America, and new routes for trading, shipping – and attack

Another week, another freak weather phenomenon you’ve probably never heard of. If it’s not the “weather bomb” of extreme wind and snow that Britain is hunkering down for as I write, it’s reports in the Guardian of reindeer in the Arctic struggling with the opposite problem: unnaturally warm weather leading to more rain that freezes to create a type of snow that they can’t easily dig through with their hooves to reach food. In a habitat as harsh as the Arctic, where survival relies on fine adaptation, even small shifts in weather patterns have endlessly rippling consequences – and not just for reindeer.

For decades now, politicians have been warning of the coming climate wars – conflicts triggered by drought, flood, fire and storms forcing people on to the move, or pushing them into competition with neighbours for dwindling natural resources. For anyone who vaguely imagined this happening far from temperate Europe’s doorstep, in drought-stricken deserts or on Pacific islands sinking slowly into the sea, this week’s seemingly unhinged White House talk about taking ownership of Greenland is a blunt wake-up call. As Britain’s first sea lord, General Sir Gwyn Jenkins, has been telling anyone prepared to listen, the unfreezing of the north due to the climate crisis has triggered a ferocious contest in the defrosting Arctic for some time over resources, territory and strategically critical access to the Atlantic. To understand how that threatens northern Europe, look down at the top of a globe rather than at a map.

Gaby Hinsliff is a Guardian columnist

Published: January 9, 2026, 6:00 am

Some want to ban geoengineering research. This would be a catastrophic mistake for our planet | Craig Segall and Baroness Bryony Worthington

We’ve already geoengineered the planet through the careless release of greenhouse gases. Now we need a plan to manage the risks we’ve set in motion

A few months ago, Marjorie Taylor Greene, then a Georgia representative, held a hearing on her bill to ban research on “geoengineering”, which refers to technological climate interventions, such as using reflective particles to reflect away sunlight. The hearing represented something of a first – a Republican raising alarm bells about human activity altering the health of the planet. Of course, for centuries, people have burned fossil fuels to power and feed society, emitting greenhouse gases that now overheat the planet.

Unfortunately, her hearing waved past an urgent debate that policymakers are confronting around the world: after centuries of accidental fossil-fuel geoengineering, should we deliberately explore interventions to cool the planet and give the energy transition breathing room?

Craig Segall is the former deputy executive officer and assistant chief counsel of the California Air Resources Board. He is also former senior vice-president of Evergreen Action and a longtime climate advocate. He has academic seats at the University of Edinburgh, New York University, and the University of California at Berkeley The opinions in this piece are his own.

Baroness Bryony Worthington was created a life peer in 2011, giving her a seat in the UK’s House of Lords where she served as Shadow Energy Minister She has over 25 years of experience working on climate, energy and environmental policy in the NGO and public sectors, and in the private sector.

Published: January 9, 2026, 11:00 am

After Trump’s attack, we Venezuelans need to know what comes next – authoritarianism or democracy | Jesús Piñero

There is palpable tension: not because anyone trusts the president and the US, but because now there is opportunity for change

• Jesús Piñero is a historian at the Central University of Venezuela

In 1936, Venezuelans learned for the first time what it meant to transition towards democracy. While this was not the only period of transition the country would experience (since the process that began in 1958 consolidated a more open and enduring political regime), the transition of 1936 was longer and more complex, resembling the one Venezuelans are now experiencing after the capture of Nicolás Maduro on 3 January 2026.

Coromoto Escalona, a 35-year-old woman, was preparing her baby’s feeding bottle when she heard some strange noises in the house. It was two o’clock in the morning. She wondered whether the fridge had broken down, since it sometimes made strange noises when it was damaged. Her eldest daughter, who was scrolling on WhatsApp, shouted from her room: “Mum, they’re bombing us.” The two of them stopped what they were doing, grabbed the essentials – the feeding bottle, water and some food – and ran to an underground room in their house, an old colonial mansion in La Pastora, a working-class neighbourhood in central Caracas.

Jesús Piñero is a journalist and a historian at the Central University of Venezuela

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Published: January 9, 2026, 11:43 am

Why Spain’s prime minister has broken ranks in Europe – and dared to confront Trump

Outrage at the US, close ties with Venezuela and mounting domestic challenges have prompted Pedro Sánchez to take a stand

Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, rarely utters the words “Donald Trump” in public. Since the US president took office, Sánchez has typically referred to the US administration and its president without explicitly naming him. This was initially interpreted as a calculation designed to avoid personal confrontation, but even without using Trump’s name, Sánchez has managed to deliver harsher criticism of the US president’s aggression than any of his fellow European leaders.

This week, Sánchez did not wait for a joint EU statement to issue judgment on the US’s illegal military intervention to capture the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro: he swiftly joined Latin American countries in condemning it. A few hours later he went even further, saying the operation in Caracas represented “a terrible precedent and a very dangerous one [which] reminds us of past aggressions, and pushes the world toward a future of uncertainty and insecurity, similar to what we already experienced after other invasions driven by the thirst for oil”.

María Ramírez is a journalist and deputy managing editor of elDiario.es, a news outlet in Spain

Published: January 9, 2026, 5:00 am

Nigeria’s big tax gamble: great in theory but people are already checking their pockets | Cheta Nwanze

If this reform succeeds it will be a blueprint for African self-reliance. But the state has failed to deliver the most basic services for decades. No wonder Nigerians are suspicious

Let’s not mince words. Nigeria’s new tax regime, which landed on our heads this January, is the most ambitious attempt to reshape the state since, well, since the last time someone had a “bright idea” in Abuja. They’re calling it a “generational reset”.

From where I sit, and from where millions of Nigerians actually sit – in traffic, in market stalls, in offices – wondering how to make ends meet, it feels more like a grand, high-stakes gamble.

Published: January 9, 2026, 9:00 am

Beck’s late scramble sends Miami past Ole Miss into College Football Playoff title game

• Beck’s late TD run seals 31-27 CFP semi-final win

• Ole Miss rallies late after coach Kiffin’s LSU departure

• Miami to chase first title since 2001 on home field

Carson Beck scrambled for a three-yard touchdown with 18 seconds left, and Miami will head back home for a shot at their first national championship since 2001 after beating Mississippi 31-27 in an exhilarating College Football Playoff semi-final at the Fiesta Bowl on Thursday night.

“We never flinched,” said Beck, who threw for 268 yards and two touchdowns with an interception. “In the face of adversity, when we had to respond, we responded.”

Published: January 9, 2026, 4:56 am

Ilia Malinin electrifies US nationals with quad-packed short program

• Malinin shines with quad-heavy short to lead nationals

• Naumov honors late parents in emotional moment

• Chock, Bates surge toward seventh ice dance crown

Ilia Malinin impressed even himself with a brilliant short program at the US Championships in St Louis on Thursday, electrifying the crowd and showing why he is the runaway favourite to take gold at next month’s Olympics.

Malinin, 21, punched the air as spectators rose to their feet after he landed a quad flip, a quad Lutz-triple toe loop, and an audacious back flip.

Published: January 9, 2026, 4:51 am

Minnesota Timberwolves hold moment of silence for woman killed by ICE officer

• Wolves hold silence after ICE killing of Renee Good

• Protests grow amid surge in immigration enforcement

• Randle leads Minnesota past Cavaliers at home

The Minnesota Timberwolves held a moment of silence before Thursday night’s game to honor Renee Good, a 37-year-old woman who was fatally shot in her car by a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer, an incident that has shaken Minneapolis and prompted renewed protests across the Twin Cities.

Good was killed Wednesday morning following a brief confrontation with ICE officers on a south Minneapolis street roughly three miles from the Target Center. Federal authorities have said agents were attempting to carry out an enforcement action when the encounter escalated and an officer fired into Good’s vehicle. The shooting came amid a visible increase in ICE activity in the region as part of the Trump administration’s expanded immigration crackdown.

Published: January 9, 2026, 7:33 am

Liam Rosenior’s Chelsea appointment must be a tipping point not just a landmark moment | Samuel Okafor

Football has to be held to account: we cannot have another generation of qualified black coaches being ignored

Football’s start to 2026 has been seismic, with the festive season soon replaced by sacking season. At times this week it has been hard to keep up. The lifetime of a head coach or a manager seems to be getting shorter, with pressure for positive results apparently never greater.

In among the churn came a landmark moment, with Liam Rosenior taking on the head coach role at Chelsea, making him the first permanent black English manager at a big-six club.

Published: January 9, 2026, 12:30 pm

Arsenal fail to take advantage of City slip as Liverpool hold leaders to draw

Point proven? Well, not exactly. Just when Arsenal looked ready to lay down a real marker for their title aspirations, a rejuvenated Liverpool side that has been through the wringer since they were crowned champions last season showed the Gunners remain fallible.

It could have been even worse for Mikel Arteta’s side if Liverpool had been awarded one of two potential penalties or if Conor Bradley’s brilliant chip had not struck the crossbar in the first half.

Published: January 8, 2026, 10:05 pm

Chloe Kim’s Olympic three-peat bid in doubt after dislocated shoulder

• Kim, 25, injured shoulder during training in Laax

• MRI will determine Olympic availability for US star

• Two-time champion chasing historic third gold

Chloe Kim’s pursuit of an unprecedented third straight Olympic gold medal has been thrown into uncertainty after the American snowboard star dislocated her shoulder during a training session in Switzerland.

Kim, the dominant force in women’s halfpipe snowboarding for nearly a decade, revealed the injury on Thursday, sharing video of the fall that caused the scare. The injury occured while Kim was training in Laax, a regular World Cup venue and a key pre-Olympic stop on the circuit. The 25-year-old landed a maneuver cleanly but lost her edge shortly afterward, sliding awkwardly across the pipe and into the wall.

Published: January 8, 2026, 10:05 pm

FA Cup third round: 10 things to look out for this weekend

Macclesfield and Weston-super-Mare carry the non-league hopes while fringe players need to seize their chances

Silly goals conceded, chances missed, a lead surrendered and points squandered against relegation fodder. On the face of things, Manchester United have changed manager but nothing else. The reality is different. They started slowly at Burnley, settling into a 4-2-3-1 formation that suits them – and pretty much every other team – far better than Ruben Amorim’s 3-4-2-1 before, midway through the first half, they started to play. The deployment of Bruno Fernandes close to the opposition goal, along with a wide player, Patrick Dorgu, playing on his natural side, meant Benjamin Sesko was, for the first time, provided with decent service. Then, following Jaidon Anthony’s equaliser, Darren Fletcher’s side risked defeat by going all out for the win – one nearly achieved through the timely introduction of Shea Lacey, a richly talented 18-year-old. Brighton will present far stiffer opposition but, for the first time in a long time, United are doing what United are meant to do. Daniel Harris

Manchester United v Brighton, Sunday 4.30pm (all GMT)

Macclesfield v Crystal Palace, Saturday 12.15pm

Grimsby v Weston-super-Mare, Saturday 5.45pm

Manchester City v Exeter, Saturday 3pm

Published: January 9, 2026, 12:00 am

Dolphins fire Mike McDaniel after missing playoffs for second season in row

• 42-year-old failed to win playoff game during tenure

• Miami’s offense has struggled in recent seasons

The Miami Dolphins have fired head coach Mike McDaniel after the team missed the playoffs for the second straight season.

“After careful evaluation and extensive discussions since the season ended, I have made the decision that our organization is in need of comprehensive change,” Dolphins owner Stephen Ross said in a statement on Thursday.

Published: January 8, 2026, 4:26 pm

Grok turns off image generator for most users after outcry over sexualised AI imagery

Editing function to be limited to paying subscribers after X threatened with fines and regulatory action

Grok, Elon Musk’s AI tool, has switched off its image creation function for the vast majority of users after a widespread outcry about its use to create sexually explicit and violent imagery.

The move comes after Musk was threatened with fines, regulatory action and reports of a possible ban on X in the UK.

Published: January 9, 2026, 9:47 am

Le Constellation bar co-owner reportedly detained as Switzerland honours victims of Crans-Montana fire – Europe live

Swiss prosecutors had summoned bar’s owners earlier on Friday as country held national day of morning

Pope Leo also chooses to express a view on the recent events in Venezuela, calling for world governments – I think he means US president Donald Trump in particular – to “respect the will” of the Venezuelan people.

Goes without saying that it’s particularly important coming from the first US pope.

“I wish to repeat my urgent appeal that peaceful political solutions to the current situation should be sought, keeping in mind the common good of the peoples and not the defence of partisan interests.”

“This pertains, in particular to Venezuela. In light of recent developments in this regard, I renew my appeal to respect the will of the Venezuelan people and to safeguard the human and civil rights of all ensuring a future of stability and concord.”

“The Holy See strongly reiterates the pressing need for an immediate ceasefire and for dialogue motivated by a sincere search for ways leading to peace.

I make an urgent appeal to the international community, not to waver in its commitment to pursuing just and lasting solutions that will protect the most vulnerable and restore hope to the afflicted peoples.”

Published: January 9, 2026, 2:43 pm

Thousands of New York City nurses set to strike amid contract disputes

Nearly 16,000 nurses to join union-led strike on Monday to demand large hospitals across NYC ‘put patients over profit’

Nearly 16,000 nurses in New York City are set to strike on Monday amid a battle over safe staffing, healthcare benefits, pay and workplace safety during contract negotiations.

The action, due to take place across five large hospitals, is being organized by the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA), which is demanding the hospitals put patients over profit.

Published: January 9, 2026, 12:00 pm

Princess of Wales says nature ‘helped me heal’ in 44th birthday video

Catherine says she feels ‘deeply grateful’ in final instalment of Mother Nature series, a year on from cancer treatment

The Princess of Wales has marked her 44th birthday with a short video in which she says she has spent winter reflecting on how “deeply grateful” she is and how nature helps to heal.

In the video, entitled Winter and the final instalment of her quarterly Mother Nature series, Catherine says: “Even in the coldest, darkest season, winter has a way of bringing us stillness, patience and quiet consideration.”

Published: January 9, 2026, 1:15 pm

Nasa orders its first-ever space station medical evacuation after astronaut falls ill

Agency says US-Japanese-Russian crew of four will return to Earth in the coming days, earlier than planned

Nasa has ordered its first medical evacuation from the International Space Station in its 25-year history after an astronaut in the orbital laboratory fell ill with a “serious” but undisclosed issue.

The US space agency said in a press conference that the crew of four led by the US commander Zena Cardman would return to Earth in the coming days, earlier than planned.

Published: January 9, 2026, 12:20 pm

Spotify no longer running ICE recruitment ads, after US government campaign ends

The ad campaign ended in late 2025, the Swedish streaming giant confirmed, having previously said, despite protests, that it did not violate advertising policies

Spotify is no long running advertisements for the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the streaming service has confirmed, after the Trump administration campaign ended in late 2025.

“There are currently no ICE ads running on Spotify,” the Swedish company said in a statement. “The advertisements mentioned were part of a US government recruitment campaign that ran across all major media and platforms.”

Published: January 9, 2026, 12:19 pm

Anonymous painting bought at auction on ‘hunch’ identified as two-in-one Rubens

Study of man often featured in works by the Flemish master reveals hidden painting of woman beneath model’s beard

Is it a bald elderly man with a big bushy beard and a wine-addled stare? Or a friendly young woman with flowing locks and a crown of braids?

To Belgian art dealer Klaas Muller, an answer to that question mattered less than the fact that this particular take on the duck-rabbit optical illusion was painted by one Peter Paul Rubens.

Published: January 9, 2026, 1:53 pm

‘A perplexing, astonishing finale’: world pays tribute to David Bowie a decade after his death

Celebrations of his life include David Bowie Day at Foyles bookshop and a re-release of classic family film Labyrinth as well as a slew of club nights

• Analysis: Ten years after his death, is David Bowie’s musical legacy at risk of fading from view?
• David Bowie’s childhood home to open to public after 1960s restoration

Ten years ago this week, David Bowie turned 69, released his 26th album, Blackstar – and then exited the stage for good when he died on 10 January. Unbeknown to fans, or indeed many of his friends, the British musician had been suffering from liver cancer. His death, many theorised, was as artful as his life. “It sounds like Bowie stepping into the light as his body falls apart – like one of the pioneers of pop-star reinvention on a vision quest for one last metamorphosis,” wrote Stereogum critic Chris DeVille in a new retrospective piece on the album. “It made for a perplexing, astonishing finale.”

His extraordinary life – from his 60s beginnings as Davy Jones through to building one of the most diverse and influential catalogues in the history of rock – is the subject of similarly diverse celebrations this weekend, from heady to hedonistic. Fans can listen to a plethora of radio programming: BBC Radio 6 Music’s Bowie Forever season continues today and over the weekend with contributions from artists including Henry Rollins, St Vincent, Brett Anderson of Suede, Tilda Swinton, Neil Tennant of Pet Shop Boys, Christine and the Queens and Iggy Pop.

Published: January 9, 2026, 12:13 pm

‘Profound impacts’: record ocean heat is intensifying climate disasters, data shows

Oceans absorb 90% of global heating, making them a stark indicator of the relentless march of the climate crisis

The world’s oceans absorbed colossal amounts of heat in 2025, setting yet another new record and fuelling more extreme weather, scientists have reported.

More than 90% of the heat trapped by humanity’s carbon pollution is taken up by the oceans. This makes ocean heat one of the starkest indicators of the relentless march of the climate crisis, which will only end when emissions fall to zero. Almost every year since the start of the millennium has set a new ocean heat record.

Published: January 9, 2026, 8:00 am

Week in wildlife: rare gorilla twins, racing camels and a psychedelic spider

This week’s best wildlife photographs from around the world

Published: January 9, 2026, 8:00 am

Fema staff outraged by draft plans for deep cuts under Trump

Staff warn that the homeland security secretary’s proposed cuts could weaken Fema’s disaster response

Current and former staff at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) expressed outraged over reports that the agency has drafted plans to eliminate thousands of staff in 2026 – part of a broader restructuring effort being overseen by the homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem.

“The Trump administration seems determined to continue weakening the agency’s efforts to help people before, during and after disasters,” said Jeremy Edwards, former spokesperson for Fema and the White House during Joe Biden’s presidency.

Published: January 8, 2026, 3:28 pm

If geoengineering is ever deployed in a climate emergency, transparency is key | Ines Camilloni

We must not let geoengineering be shaped behind closed doors. Climate justice demands an inclusive approach

As the world faces the challenges of the climate crisis and critical threshold levels or tipping points may be reached soon, a disputable idea is gaining momentum as a potential solution: solar geoengineering – the deliberate reflection of sunlight to cool the planet. Advocates argue it could buy us time. Critics warn of unknown risks. Some see it as a possible emergency break if temperatures spiral out of control. Others call it a dangerous distraction that undermines meaningful climate action.

Research into solar geoengineering is advancing, including exploration of techniques such as stratospheric aerosol injection, which would involve spraying tiny reflective particles into the upper atmosphere to mimic the cooling effect of volcanic eruptions, and marine cloud brightening, which aims to enhance the reflectivity of low-lying marine clouds. While stratospheric aerosol injection is not being conducted, these technologies are being studied with increasing urgency in the global north. In the global south, however, they remain largely invisible to public discourse and policymaking.

Published: January 8, 2026, 11:00 am

Tennessee university reinstates professor fired for post criticizing Charlie Kirk

Austin Peay State University will also pay theater and dance professor Darren Michael $500,000 in settlement

Austin Peay State University has reinstated a professor who was fired for his social media post after the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. The Tennessee school is also paying the teacher $500,000 in the settlement.

Austin Peay spokesperson Brian Dunn said Darren Michael returned to his position as a tenured faculty member at the public university in Clarksville effective 30 December. A copy of the settlement agreement obtained through a public records request includes a $500,000 payment and reimbursement of counseling, as reported earlier this week by WKRN-TV.

Published: January 8, 2026, 11:29 pm

ICE agent in Minneapolis killing identified as 10-year law enforcement veteran

Court records point to Jonathan E Ross as officer in Renee Nicole Good’s death, amid protests and political fallout

• US politics live – latest updates

The ICE agent involved in the lethal shooting of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good during an immigration sweep in Minneapolis on Wednesday is Jonathan E Ross, according to court records that closely match the description of a June 2025 incident involving the agent in Bloomington, Minnesota, cited by the homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, and JD Vance. Ross is a Minnesota resident and 10-year veteran of the special response team of ICE’s enforcement and removal operation.

The death of Good, a mother of three, sparked outrage in Minneapolis and strident rebukes from Minnesota officials and on Capitol Hill. Thousands of people gathered in protest near the site of the shooting Wednesday night, and some Democrats on Capitol Hill have threatened to withhold funding to the Department of Homeland Security. Minneapolis mayor, Jacob Frey, said on Wednesday: “To ICE: get the fuck out of Minneapolis.”

Published: January 8, 2026, 10:17 pm

Harvey Weinstein weighing guilty plea to resolve third-degree rape charge

Disgraced former movie mogul would avoid a third trial in New York on charges that came to define the #MeToo era

Disgraced former movie mogul Harvey Weinstein is weighing a potential guilty plea to resolve an undecided third-degree rape charge and avoid a third trial in New York on charges that came to define the #MeToo era.

Weinstein, in a wheelchair and looking noticeably paler than he did when he was last in court in June, was brought to Judge Curtis Farber’s court on Thursday, seeking to have his latest sex crime conviction thrown out over claims of juror intimidation.

Published: January 8, 2026, 7:25 pm

US serial killer confesses to 1965 murder of 18-year-old woman in New Jersey

Police close murder case of Alys Eberhardt after confession from Richard Cottingham, known as the ‘Torso Killer’

Richard Cottingham, a US serial killer widely known as the “Torso Killer”, has confessed to the 1965 killing of an 18-year-old woman in New Jersey.

On Tuesday, New Jersey police announced the closure of the murder case of Alys Eberhardt after Cottingham, 79, admitted to killing her nearly six decades ago. Eberhardt, then a nursing student, was found brutally beaten and dead in her family home in Fair Lawn.

Published: January 8, 2026, 5:02 pm

Syria announces ceasefire in Aleppo after three days of clashes with Kurds

US envoy welcomes pause in hostilities in contested region although it is unclear whether deal will hold

Syria’s government has announced a ceasefire after three days of clashes with Kurdish fighters in Aleppo, which has led to more than 140,000 people being displaced.

The pause in the fighting, which was the most intense in the country for more than six months, came into effect at 3am local time (midnight GMT). Under the terms of the ceasefire, Kurdish militants were to leave the three contested neighbourhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud, Ashrafieh and Bani Zaid, where clashes were happening. They would be provided safe passage to the north-east of the country, which is controlled by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), and be allowed to take light arms with them.

Published: January 9, 2026, 10:14 am

Attempt to overturn the Gambia’s ban on FGM heard by supreme court

Case brought by Muslim leaders and MP follows failed 2024 bid and seen as part of global anti-women’s rights backlash

A group of religious leaders and an MP in the Gambia have launched efforts to overturn a ban on female genital mutilation at the country’s supreme court.

The court case, due to resume this month, comes after two babies bled to death after undergoing FGM in the Gambia last year. Almameh Gibba, an MP and one of the plaintiffs, tabled a bill to decriminalise FGM that was rejected by the country’s parliament in 2024.

Published: January 9, 2026, 6:00 am

Human eggs ‘rejuvenated’ in an advance that could boost IVF success rates

Exclusive: Research suggests supplementing eggs with a key protein reduces age-related defects, raising hopes of improved IVF for older women

• Could egg defect breakthrough help stop the IVF rollercoaster?

Scientists claim to have “rejuvenated” human eggs for the first time in an advance that they predict could revolutionise IVF success rates for older women.

The groundbreaking research suggests that an age-related defect that causes genetic errors in embryos could be reversed by supplementing eggs with a crucial protein. When eggs donated by fertility patients were given microinjections of the protein, they were almost half as likely to show the defect compared with untreated eggs.

Published: January 9, 2026, 12:01 am

At least 13 killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza, including five children, civil defence agency says

Attacks bring total number of Palestinians killed by Israel to 425 since October ceasefire took effect

Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli attacks in the Palestinian territory on Thursday killed at least 13 people, including five children, despite a ceasefire that has largely halted the fighting.

Four people including three children were killed when a drone struck a tent sheltering displaced people in southern Gaza, agency spokesperson Mahmud Bassal told AFP.

Published: January 8, 2026, 10:45 pm

‘I haven’t mellowed my violence’: Park Chan-wook on cultural dominance, the capitalist endgame and why we can’t beat AI

His brutal movies put Korean cinema on the map. Now the director of Oldboy is back with a blistering satire about a man driven to murder after redundancy

The Korean wave is being feted around the world right now but Park Chan-wook is not feeling too celebratory. From the outside, South Korea seems to be a well-oiled machine pumping out a stream of world-conquering pop music, cuisine, cars, cinema (especially the Oscar-winning Parasite) and TV shows, as well as the Samsung flat-screens to watch them on. But Park’s latest film, No Other Choice, bursts the balloon somewhat. It paints modern-day Korea as an unstable landscape of industrial decline, downsizing, unemployment and male fragility – with no KPop Demon Hunters coming to save the day.

“I did not mean it for it to be a realistic portrayal of Korea in 2025,” says Park, a serene, almost professorial 62-year-old. “I think it’s more accurate to view it as a satire on capitalism.”

Published: January 9, 2026, 8:00 am

People We Meet on Vacation review – Netflix travel romcom is a dull journey

Emily Henry’s hit book has been adapted into a glossily made yet charmless attempt to resurrect the friends-to-lovers formula

Released just as the weather turns to freezing and we’re all daydreaming of an escape, Netflix’s early January romcom People We Meet on Vacation is at the very least smartly timed. Produced as part of the streamer’s Sony deal, it benefits from some real studio gloss (proper lighting!) and as Polo & Pan’s perfectly balmy Nana plays over a transporting shot of our heroine lounging on a beach (the song was also used in Netflix’s underrated Christmas romcom Let it Snow), I was ready to relax with her. But what a brief escape it turned out to be …

The adaptation of Emily Henry’s much-loved 2021 novel has the superficial trappings all in check (eyes with permanent twinkles, unrealistic main character job in this climate, more easily affordable Taylor Swift song on the soundtrack) but no heart or soul to go with it. There’s simply nothing to root for or care about or grasp on to, just the limp tracing of something we’ve seen many many times before. Its closest comparison would be When Harry Met Sally, a similar journey that turns friends into lovers over a fairly epic time span (the pair even meet in the exact same way, forced to drive home together from college). But what felt lived in and genuinely human back in 1989 now feels shallow and synthetic in 2026, a grim start to the year for a genre I keep hoping and praying for.

Published: January 9, 2026, 12:00 am

Stop the blues a-callin’! It’s our guide to the ultimate comfort TV

An afterlife sitcom, an angry penguin, tossed salad and scrambled eggs, and a Corby trouser press … our writers pick the shows they would happily watch on a loop for ever

I love every character and every aspect of Brooklyn Nine-Nine. There isn’t a weak link in the cast and they work together as seamlessly and apparently joyfully as you could wish.

Published: January 9, 2026, 1:00 pm

Primate review – pet chimp gone wild makes for giddy, gory good time

There’s a great deal of unpretentious B-movie fun to be had in this brief, brutal and slickly made creature feature

There’s a refreshing lack of subtext and pretension to this week’s gory creature feature Primate, a straight-to-the-point riposte to the glum, trauma-heavy horror films we’ve been enduring of late. Rather than following his genre peers who are busy aiming for the lofty heights of Don’t Look Now and Possession, British director Johannes Roberts is happy to give gen Z their very own Shakma, the goofy 1990 schlocker about a baboon driven wild by an experimental drug.

That film took a while to gain a cult following, ultimately accepted by the same drunk Bad Movie crowd who took in Troll 2, but Primate won’t take anywhere near as long. It’s a far better, slicker movie for one, a surgically well-made crowd-pleaser that swaps out baboon for chimp, cleverly turning him from test subject to domesticated pet. At 89-minutes and paced like a rollercoaster, there’s little room for life lessons, although the film does make for a stern, grisly reminder of why chimps should not be considered part of the family (something many still don’t seem to understand).

Published: January 8, 2026, 8:17 pm

Greenland 2: Migration review – disaster sequel is disastrously self-serious

Gerard Butler returns to keep his family safe from post-apocalyptic chaos in a glum and misjudged follow-up to the superior 2020 adventure

Gerard Butler has made his fair share of sequels, but few have held as much potential as Greenland 2: Migration. The original Greenland wasn’t even a traditional hit; it was released in theaters and on VOD at the end of 2020, when plenty of cinemas remained closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but it garnered some attention for being an unusually sober and thoughtful apocalypse movie, especially given that Butler previously starred in the likes of Geostorm. Because Greenland was about surviving a global apocalypse rather than averting one, any sequel would have to venture into the unknown with a drastically different status quo.

Greenland 2 obliges for a little while, though it also walks back some of the hope that ended the first film. The story rejoins engineer John Garrity (Gerard Butler), his administrator wife Allison (Morena Baccarin) and their now-teenage son Nathan (recast as Roman Griffin Davis) as residents of a Greenland bunker. They’re lucky to have been government-selected for entry when the Earth was rendered largely uninhabitable by comet fragments five years earlier; they’re also chafing at the loss of freedom, tough decisions and overall claustrophobia that comes with cohabitating underground with hundreds of others. (Curiously, none of them seem to have made many friends despite the close quarters.)

Published: January 8, 2026, 3:04 pm

His & Hers review – this glossy thriller is ideal new year TV

This six-part adaptation of the bestselling 2020 novel about a murder investigation is twisty, absurd and bingeable. It’s great January viewing

A woman lies bloodied and twitching her last on the bonnet of a car parked deep in a wood. Another woman arrives home bloodied, gasping with fear and for wine, and starts scrubbing her hands before clearing her flat of – well, everything.

A female voiceover intones that there are two sides to every story. “Which means someone is always lying.” Absolute nonsense, obviously, but it sounds great and more importantly it confirms what we were hoping: that we are in the presence of a glossy, efficient adaptation of a bestselling thriller and it is time to switch off our brains and enjoy (unless you are the type who likes to try to solve the mystery before the characters do, in which case, Godspeed and let me know where you get the energy from).

Published: January 8, 2026, 8:01 am

Toni Geitani: Wahj review | Ammar Kalia's global album of the month

(Self-released)
The Beirut-born producer’s masterly second album revels in dark tension to cinematic effect, finding beauty in ruinous sound

Arabic electronic experimentalism is thriving. In recent years, diaspora artists such as Egyptian producer Abdullah Miniawy, singer Nadah El Shazly and Lebanese singer-songwriter Mayssa Jallad have each released records that combine the Arabic musical tradition of maqam and its slippery melodies with granular electronic sound design, rumbling bass and metallic drum programming to create a dramatic new proposition.

Beirut-born and Amsterdam-based composer Toni Geitani is the latest to contribute to this growing scene with his masterfully produced second album Wahj (“radiance” in Arabic). Working as a visual artist and sound designer, Geitani is well versed in creating imaginative soundscapes for films such as 2024 sci-fi Radius Collapse, as well as referencing the shadowy nocturnal hiss of producers such as Burial on his dabke-sampling 2018 debut album Al Roujoou Ilal Qamar. On Wahj, he harnesses soaring layali vocalisations, reverb-laden drums and analogue synths to leave a cinematic impression.

Published: January 9, 2026, 9:00 am

Jenny on Holiday: Quicksand Heart review – Let’s Eat Grandma innovator’s knowing new-wave reinvention

(Transgressive)
In Jenny Hollingworth’s first solo venture, her singular songwriting powers shine in swooping vocals and transcendent pop melodies

Over the past decade, 27-year-old Jenny Hollingworth’s musical output has become steadily less strange. As half of Let’s Eat Grandma, the Norwich native started out making freaky synth-folk the arch syrupiness of which chimed with the then-nascent hyperpop scene: I, Gemini, the duo’s 2016 debut, was outsiderish juvenilia of the most thrilling variety. For its follow-up, I’m All Ears, Hollingworth and her bandmate, Rosa Walton, sharpened their songwriting skills while holding tight to their eccentricities; the result was an album of sensational futurist pop. By 2022’s Two Ribbons, they were slipping into slightly more subdued, conventional territory – albeit retaining enough idiosyncratic sonic detailing to maintain their place at the edge.

So it takes a moment to adjust to the overt familiarity of Hollingworth’s first solo venture. Like Two Ribbons, it reflects on grief (she lost her partner in 2019) and the temporary disintegration of her lifelong friendship with Walton, except this time the introspection is set to knowingly nostalgic 1980s new wave. When the choruses don’t sparkle, Quicksand Heart can feel like plodding through the past, but the moment Hollingworth lands on an irresistible melody – see: Every Ounce of Me, whose bittersweet bounce bridges the gap between Olivia Rodrigo and the Waterboys – the effect is transcendent. The record peaks with the archetypally perfect powerpop number Appetite and the genre-bending Do You Still Believe in Me? in which Hollingworth patchworks together breakbeats, vertiginously swooping vocals, squealing hair metal bombast and shoegazey dissonance, reminding us of her singular powers in the process.

Published: January 9, 2026, 8:38 am

Sébastien Tellier: ‘I thought I’d be famous after Eurovision - but nobody noticed’

The musician’s elegant electropop marked him out as one of the ‘cool French dudes’, before an attempt to literally crash the Song Contest fell badly flat. Now back with an adventurous new album, he talks about the man who stole his identity and why he doesn’t care for ‘good taste’

A few years ago, a stranger stole Sébastien Tellier’s identity. The impostor – sporting the musician’s trademark sunglasses and beard – posed as the Frenchman at fancy parties, nabbed free clothes from Chanel (Tellier used to be an ambassador for the brand), and even held meetings with bosses from Hollywood studios (Tellier has dabbled in soundtrack work). “He [also] took a lot of drugs like ketamine in front of a lot of people,” Tellier continues with perfect nonchalance from his Paris home, sunglasses and beard present and correct. The crime was only rumbled when a confused woman got in touch to tell him she’d been partying with “Sébastien Tellier” in France only to see on Instagram that the real Tellier was playing a gig in Belgium.

This experience has been alchemised into pop gold via Copycat, a sparkly synthpop workout on his upcoming eighth album, Kiss the Beast. “My name you steal it / Hat and success,” Tellier croons for the song’s chorus over a chunky bassline, disco strings and synths that crackle and spark like fireworks. It’s typical Tellier, mixing the serious – things got so bad with the impostor that Tellier was briefly forced to show his passport at the school gates when collecting his two small children – with the playfully naive.

Published: January 8, 2026, 8:00 am

Eric Lu: Schubert Impromptus album review – mature and mesmerising

(Warner)
In this recording of the eight Impromptus, some of Schubert’s most profound music, Lu cements his place as a serious talent

Eric Lu was a worthy if controversial winner of the Chopin international piano competition in October, having won the Leeds event seven years ago: how many springboards should one pianist seek? What is certain is that this latest Schubert recording, following on from his release of the late sonatas late in 2022, reveals a rewardingly mature, un-egotistical approach to the eight Impromptus, some of the composer’s most profound music.

Lu is very much attuned to the way in which Schubert creates overarching structures, conjuring a mesmerising feeling of stasis with music that’s alive with detail under the surface – in his performances of several of them, time really does seem to stand still. Right from the lonely opening of Op 90 No 1, he draws the ear in with the scope of his phrasing: even though his playing can be weightier than some, his lines go on and on into the distance and corners are smoothly turned, with the dramatic passages growing out of what has come before. Perhaps these performances aren’t yet quite distinctive enough to make this recording top choice in a crowded field, but they certainly back up the Chopin judges’ decision: Lu is a serious talent.

Published: January 8, 2026, 3:00 pm

The best recent science fiction, fantasy and horror – review roundup

Godfall by Van Jensen; The Salt Bind by Rebecca Ferrier; The Poet Empress by Shen Tao; A Hole in the Sky by Peter F Hamilton; Hello Earth, Are You There? by Brian Aldiss

Godfall by Van Jensen (Bantam, £20)
The debut novel by a popular comic-book writer is set in a small town in Nebraska, after the landing of a three-mile-long alien figure dubbed “the Giant”. Local sheriff David Blunt is struggling to do his job following the sudden boom in population: in addition to scientists, government agents and soldiers at the highly classified research area established around the mystery from outer space, many more enthusiasts flood to the town, possibly including a serial killer. Two people have been killed in a horrifically brutal way when the FBI takes over and tries to shut him out. But when the next victim is a man he’s known all his life, Blunt is more determined than ever to catch the killer. His investigation draws him to infiltrate a doomsday cult and to discover more about the tangled lives of the people he grew up with, along with the possibility that there could be a clue in the physical composition of the Giant. A suspenseful, well-written blend of science fiction and serial killer thriller.

The Salt Bind by Rebecca Ferrier (Renegade, £18.99)
In 1770s Cornwall, Kensa’s father was hanged as a smuggler, and she now feels a despised outsider, especially in contrast to her quiet half-sister. Only when the local wise woman, Isolde, accepts Kensa as her apprentice can she imagine a future in which she could be respected as a healer. But there’s more than useful potions and a helpful dose of trickery to the role: the wise women of Cornwall are responsible for making sure an ancient pact between land-dwellers and the creatures of the sea continues to hold. Kensa has learned little of the Old Ways when she must suddenly act alone. She has seen Isolde summon the Father of Storms from under the sea, but when she does the same, she finds she has made a horrifying bargain. If she can’t put things right, the sea will rise and drown the whole area. A moving exploration of sisterhood and community, this is an evocatively written folkloric fantasy.

Published: January 9, 2026, 12:00 pm

Sarah Moss: ‘I never liked Wuthering Heights as much as Jane Eyre’

The author on the trouble with the Brönte novels, what she gained from reading John Updike and Martin Amis – and the brilliance of Barbara Pym

My earliest reading memory
Swallowdale by Arthur Ransome, aged seven. I didn’t learn to read in the first years of school and became entrenched in illiteracy until my grandmother, a retired primary school teacher, intervened. I loved the Swallows and Amazons series, and especially Swallowdale in which a shipwreck is redeemed and the adults provide exactly the right support when the children mess up.

My favourite book growing up
The Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder, whose politics I now find obviously objectionable. I often tell students that what you don’t get is what gets you, and I’m sure the obsession with rugged independence and the repression of foundational violence did me no good, but I liked the landscapes and the combination of domesticity and adventure.

Published: January 9, 2026, 10:00 am

Belgrave Road by Manish Chauhan review – a tender tale of love beyond borders

This poignant debut about two strangers who fall in love offers a powerful portrait of the lived realities of immigrants in Britain

“Love is not an easy thing … It’s both the disease and the medicine,” a character says in Manish Chauhan’s meditation on modern love. This poignant and perceptive coming-of-age story, about two strangers who become star-crossed lovers, is a powerful portrait of the lived realities of immigrants in Britain, and of love as home, hope and destiny.

Newly arrived in England following an arranged marriage with British-Indian Rajiv, Mira feels increasingly out of place as she finds out that Rajiv holds secrets and loves someone else. On the eponymous Belgrave Road in Leicester, entire days go by “without sight of an English person”, and Mira feels “disappointed that England wasn’t as foreign or as mysterious as she had hoped”. She takes English classes, finds companionship in her mother-in-law and fills her days with household chores, but nothing shifts her deep loneliness.

Published: January 9, 2026, 7:00 am

The 15 best Nintendo Switch 2 games to play in 2026

From cosy museums and tropical islands to nightmarishly difficult adventures – and revamps of favourites including Mario Kart and Pokémon – there’s something for everyone

Nintendo’s newest console has been out for a less than a year but it already boasts an impressive catalogue of excellent new games, as well as a variety of enhanced Switch greats. Here’s our selection of the 15 best titles currently on offer, ranging from family favourites to grittier, more adult challenges.

Published: January 9, 2026, 10:00 am

Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles review – remastered 1997 classic is even more politically resonant now

PlayStation 4/5, Nintendo Switch/Switch 2, Xbox, PC; Square-Enix
This landmark role-playing game remains a revolutionary tour de force

At first glance, Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles, first released in 1997 and now available in newly remastered guise, does little to separate itself from other boilerplate fantasy fiction. There is a hero, Ramza – an idealistic nobleman with luscious blond hair who cavorts about the medieval-inspired realm of Ivalice in search of high adventure. But quickly, and with narrative elegance, the picture complicates: peasant revolutionaries duke it out with gilded monarchists; machiavellian plots plunge the kingdom into chaos. Ramza must navigate this knotty political matrix, all while experiencing his own ideological awakening.

There is a strong case to be made that Final Fantasy Tactics tells a better story than the landmark Final Fantasy VII (which saw Cloud Strife and a ragtag bunch of eco-terrorist pals taking on the shady megacorporation Shinra). And with our real-world political focus shifting from the looming threat of the climate crisis to the more pressing rise of fascism (though the two are inextricably linked), one can make the argument that Tactics is now also the more timely game.

Published: January 8, 2026, 10:00 am

Hawaiian headwear, Beuys’ bathtub and Nan Goldin’s photo diaries – the week in art

Jewels of island life go on display, Beuys introduces heroism to washtime and Nan Goldin’s classic The Ballad of Sexual Dependency reveals itself – all in your weekly dispatch

Hawai‘i
Some of the most spectacular masterpieces in the British Museum, including feathered war helmets and glaring gods collected by Captain Cook, make this exhibition created in collaboration with Hawaii community leaders and artists entrancing.
• The British Museum, London, from 15 January to 25 May

Published: January 9, 2026, 12:00 pm

Matt Damon’s best films – ranked!

Ahead of his reunion with Ben Affleck in thriller The Rip – as well as his starring role in Christopher Nolan’s upcoming Imax epic The Odyssey – we run through the best work of one of Hollywood’s most reliable heroes

Matt Damon is essentially a bland dish that requires the right spice truly to zing, which means he is often at his best when playing beastly. His flagrantly nasty turn as one of the antisemitic bullies who makes prep school life hell for a secretly Jewish classmate (Brendan Fraser) offers an early indication that Damon realised this, too.

Published: January 8, 2026, 2:35 pm

What is Stranger Things’s Conformity Gate craze – and why did it crash Netflix?

An online conspiracy theory has left hysterical fans believing that the Netflix show’s finale was a fake. Could Vecna still come back with a secret episode?

In recent days, my 14-year-old daughter has been exhibiting signs of becoming a conspiracy theorist. But this isn’t your common or garden Twin-Towers-grassy-knoll-moon-landings business. She has fallen, entirely and joyfully, for a conjecture known as Conformity Gate – and she is not the only one.

For the non Gen-Zers out there, Conformity Gate is the theory that the much-vaunted finale of Netflix behemoth Stranger Things, released on 1 January in the UK, wasn’t the real finale at all.

Fuelled by energy drinks and pasty from lack of sunlight, fans of the show have been beavering away in basements around the world to produce a fantastical hypothesis that the finale’s rather soupy 40-minute epilogue was all an illusion created by the show’s mind-controlling villain Vecna. A secret final episode, showing what had really happened, would be released on 7 January, at 8pm US Eastern Time (1am in the UK).

Explaining the labyrinthine intricacies of the “evidence” cited by Conformiteers would take thousands of words. Essentially, it involves some people sitting with their hands in their lap wearing orange graduation gowns, too many people wearing glasses, a roll of dice totalling seven, a dial changing colour, a wonky milkshake-timeline, strategically positioned exit signs, a woman having short hair, a door handle switching sides, a character missing some scars, and one of the characters remarking that the town of Hawkins “feels different” – hardly surprising, as it’s no longer full of murderous monsters, cracks in the earth, and a psychopath made out of tree roots.

Published: January 8, 2026, 1:07 pm

Singer-songwriter Bill Callahan: ‘I’m not a craftsman – I’m more of a drunk professor who likes coincidence and mistakes’

Preceding the release of My Days of 58, the Americana legend once known as Smog discusses his Yorkshire youth, why Spotify is like the mafia and the bleak state of AI

We got married to [Smog’s] Our Anniversary. When you write songs, do you think about how listeners might carry them into their own lives, or do the songs stop being yours after they are done? Vanearle
When I wrote [2019’s] Watch Me Get Married, I thought maybe people would have that as their wedding song. But mostly it’s inconceivable what people are gonna do with a song. I don’t think about it too much because there are 100,000 places where it’s gonna live. Have I ever heard about any inappropriate uses of songs? I think having Our Anniversary as a wedding song is a little surprising, but maybe they’re realists.

As an appreciator of dub, if you could spend a week in a studio to collaborate with any dub artist at their peak, who would you go for? albertoayler
I’d have to say Lee “Scratch” Perry just because he was so crazy. He was like a little kid – just infectious excitement. I think that he would have been easy to hang out with. But also, King Tubby was such a minimalist and I’d be curious about how he determined when enough was enough – investing so much power in the fewest elements. Have Fun With God [the 2014 dub remix album of 2013’s Dream River] was very traditional – all the moves were taken from 70s Jamaican records. Maybe once is enough. But I do like the idea of recycling recorded things to make something else – that’s what initially attracted me to dub. If I did [a new remix album], I may do a chopped and screwed record.

Published: January 8, 2026, 3:00 pm

My favourite family photo: ‘I was six, with mumps and diarrhoea – and having the time of my life’

When I went to Saudi Arabia in the 1980s to see my Dad it felt like visiting another planet. But beyond the scale and shininess of the country was the feeling of my family finally being together

In the 1980s, the British construction industry was hit hard by recession. At the same time, Saudi Arabia had the opposite problem; lots of money and a desire to build infrastructure, but not enough skilled workers. As a result, thousands of British labourers found it was the only place where they could earn a wage. My dad – freshly out of work with a young family to support – was one of them. We travelled out to see him twice, once to Riyadh and once to Jeddah.

Objectively, the Riyadh trip was better. Dad lived on a worker’s compound, and there was a pool and a restaurant and loads of room to run around. Jeddah, less so – but that’s where this photo was taken. Dad shared a tiny flat on the city’s noisy Palestine Street with one of his colleagues. I caught mumps basically upon landing and (according to the diary I kept at the time) experienced excessive diarrhoea for the duration of the visit. My dad bought me and my brother novelty karate-style pyjamas on arrival, which my brother used as an excuse to beat me up as often as possible. But I was six years old, and I still had the time of my life.

Published: January 9, 2026, 5:00 am

Are you taking supplements correctly? Here’s a guide on their dosage limits

From vitamins C and D to calcium and magnesium, it’s critical to know whether you’re taking the correct dosage to avoid health problems

There are more than 100,000 supplements on the US market – capsules, powders, tablets and gummies sold to improve or maintain health. Supplements can contain vitamins, minerals, botanicals and amino acids on their own or in various combinations.

The consumption of these products is surging. But it’s a common misunderstanding that these products are entirely safe, says Dr Pieter Cohen, an internist and associate professor at Harvard Medical School. Excessive amounts of nutrients can cause health problems, so it’s critical to know whether you’re using the correct dosage of high-quality products.

Published: January 8, 2026, 6:11 pm

Better hair, less waste: this durable British classic replaced my basic plastic combs

As a man in my 40s, I want to keep my hair healthy. Kent’s cellulose acetate combs are gentler on hair – and more sustainable – than disposable plastic ones

• Sign up for the Filter US newsletter, your weekly guide to buying fewer, better things

As a man in my 40s, my hair isn’t getting any thicker from here on out.

To keep the hair I do have healthy, I’ve become more conscious of small habits. I kept noticing that my cheap plastic comb pulled at my hair, and it struggled especially when I tried to comb my damp hair out after a shower. That’s what sent me down a hair-hygiene rabbit hole online.

​​My favorite men’s hair comb: Kent 16T Tortoise Fine Tooth and Wide Tooth Comb

Published: January 8, 2026, 8:15 pm

Home truths: my Nanna provided me with the two words that would eventually guide me – ‘never weaken’ | Tony Birch

My grandmother’s words didn’t register with me as a child, their influence grew as I came to know more about her past

• Read more in the home truths series

I was raised in a house of suspicion and superstition. We knew that the world was out to get us and took every precaution to protect ourselves. The front door of the house had never had a lock, but it did have a chair jammed under the brass doorknob of a night. My mother slept with a rolling pin under her pillow and my father a crowbar. Or perhaps it was the other way around?

As children, we had mantras, fractured commandments, drilled into us on a daily basis. I would not have been more than four years of age when one of my uncles schooled me that I should never sign a police statement. My father, a retired boxer, provided me with a handwritten list of survival skills on my first day of school. His guiding principle for a safe life was “hit before you get hit”. He lived by the rule and had the scars to show for the failure of his particular brand of street philosophy.

Tony Birch is the author of the novels Women and Children, The White Girl, Ghost River, and Blood

Published: January 9, 2026, 2:00 pm

My favourite family photo: ‘I can still feel my mother’s arm around my shoulder’

I love the way we are both looking in astonishment at my son. It shows the unwavering support she gave me when he was born

This picture of my mother, me and my eldest son, Theo, was taken the morning after he was born in May 2002, in University College Hospital, London.

There are a lot of things I love about it. I love the fact my mother is exquisitely dressed – she’s wearing her pearls! She always looked very elegant at this time in her life and enjoyed clothes (we bought that suit on a day out together). I love the composition too – our three dark heads, faces in profile and the way our three hands are aligned. I love the miracle of my son’s intricate little shell of an ear, the nose (his dad’s) and lips (mine) still visible now in his 23-year-old face.

Published: January 9, 2026, 12:00 pm

Want to keep growing through winter? Try microgreens, indoor miracles bursting with flavour

The whole plant is edible and they don’t need much light – so they’re an easy, tasty treat

January can hardly be considered an abundant time of year. All but the evergreens are barren and bare. Yet there is an approach to year-round growing that, in the depths of winter, feels all the more miraculous. Microgreens are not a “type” of plant, but a method of growing leafy crops which doesn’t require much space or effort – and, importantly for now, can be done indoors – in order to achieve an unseasonably fresh burst of flavour on your dinner plate.

Any plant that is edible from top-to-toe can be grown as a microgreen. From salad leaves like lettuce and sorrel to herbs such as basil, dill, coriander and fennel, plus all the brassicas from the very delicious mustard greens and rocket to the far less spicy broccoli and kale. Also on the fuller side of the flavour profile are nasturtiums and sunflowers, which produce juicy shoots with a nutty flavour. Peas also produce a substantial shoot with pretty leaves and tendrils. Amaranth, carrot and perilla are other edible plants I am eager to try.

Published: January 9, 2026, 11:00 am

Helen Goh’s recipe for baked apples with lemon and tahini | The sweet spot

A wholesome and indulgent pudding that’s a great way to use up dried fruit left over from the festive season

After the excesses of December, these baked apples are a light, refreshing vegan pudding. The filling makes good use of any dried fruit lingering still from Christmas, and is brightened with lemon and bound with nutty tahini. As the apples bake, they turn yielding and fragrant, while the sesame oat topping crisps to a golden crown. Serve warm with a splash of cream, yoghurt or ice-cream (dairy or otherwise), and you have comfort that feels wholesome and indulgent.

Published: January 9, 2026, 6:00 am

Vance snarls and swipes in defence of ICE agent – was the boss impressed?

The vice-president went ballistic against the media and the left – a version of Trump with even more menace

It was James David Vance’s pitch to his boss: don’t forget me!

The vice-president was nowhere to be seen last weekend when US special forces swept into Venezuela and snatched its leader, Nicolás Maduro. Instead Marco Rubio, the secretary of state and a potential rival to Vance in the 2028 presidential election, grabbed all the Maga glory.

Published: January 8, 2026, 9:56 pm

Trump’s assault on the Smithsonian: ‘The goal is to reframe the entire culture of the US’

The president has vowed to kill off ‘woke’ in his second term in office, and the venerable cultural institution a few blocks from the White House is in his sights

On 30 May last year, Kim Sajet was working in her office in the grandly porticoed National Portrait Gallery in Washington DC. The gallery is one of the most important branches of the Smithsonian Institution, the complex of national museums that, for almost 200 years, has told the story of the nation. The director’s suite, large enough to host a small party, has a grandeur befitting the museum’s role as the keeper of portraits of the United States’ most significant historical figures. Sajet was working beneath the gaze of artworks from the collection, including a striking 1952 painting of Mary Mills, a military-uniformed, African American nurse, and a bronze head of jazz and blues singer Ethel Waters.

It seemed like an ordinary Friday. Until, that is, an anxious colleague came in to tell Sajet that the president of the United States had personally denounced her on social media. “Upon the request and recommendation of many people I am herby [sic] terminating the employment of Kim Sajet as Director of the National Portrait Gallery,” Donald Trump had posted on Truth Social. According to the post, Sajet was “a highly partisan person” and a “strong supporter” of diversity and inclusion programmes, which by an executive order on his inauguration day, 20 January, he had eradicated from federal agencies. “Her replacement will be named shortly,” continued the message. “Thank you for your attention to this matter!”

Published: January 8, 2026, 5:00 am

Trevi fountain coins and a Melbourne heatwave: photos of the day - Friday

The Guardian’s picture editors select photographs from around the world

• Warning: graphic content

Published: January 9, 2026, 1:06 pm