The rise of vice-signalling: how hatred poisoned politics

Over the last 10 years, the terms of political debate have changed completely – and week by week they seem to get worse

The notion of virtue-signalling – the act of performing progressive stances that don’t cost you anything in order to burnish your own moral credentials – has been around since at least the 00s. In a political sense, it meant always being the one who reminded others to say “chairperson” not “chairman”; always manning the barricades for signs of bigotry, always being on the right demo. If its values were sound – all we’re talking about, really, is trying to systematise courtesy to others – it was often easy to lampoon, because it felt performative and had a hair-trigger.

But what has risen in its wake – vice-signalling – cannot be seen as its mirror or answer, any more than dehumanisation could be seen as the equal and opposite of decency. They’re not in the same rhetorical category. The term doesn’t bring itself to life; for that you need the US president. Cast your mind back to 2015; although Donald Trump had said he might run for election to the highest office in every cycle this century, his speech in Trump Tower was his first campaign launch, and it was where he announced that he would build a wall between the US and Mexico. In seemingly unplanned remarks – the grammar was off, the structure meandered, the vocabulary was vague and repetitive – he said “[Mexico] are sending people that have lots of problems, and they are bringing those problems to us. They are bringing drugs, and bringing crime, and they’re rapists.”

Published: February 11, 2026, 10:57 am

The big AI job swap: why white-collar workers are ditching their careers

As AI job losses rise in the professional sector, many are switching to more traditional trades. But how do they feel about accepting lower pay – and, in some cases, giving up their vocation?

California-based Jacqueline Bowman had been dead set on becoming a writer since she was a child. At 14 she got her first internship at her local newspaper, and later she studied journalism at university. Though she hadn’t been able to make a full-time living from her favourite pastime – fiction writing – post-university, she consistently got writing work (mostly content marketing, some journalism) and went freelance full-time when she was 26. Sure, content marketing wasn’t exactly the dream, but she was writing every day, and it was paying the bills – she was happy enough.

“But something really switched in 2024,” Bowman, now 30, says. Layoffs and publication closures meant that much of her work “kind of dried up. I started to get clients coming to me and talking about AI,” she says – some even brazen enough to tell her how “great” it was “that we don’t need writers any more”. She was offered work as an editor – checking and altering work produced by artificial intelligence. The idea was that polishing up already-written content would take less time than writing it from scratch, so Bowman’s fee was reduced to about half of what it had been when she was writing for the same content marketing agency – but, in reality, it ended up taking double the time.

Published: February 11, 2026, 5:00 am

That’s Life! The magazine that shaped America – in pictures

From grown men eating ice cream – gasp! – to Noël Coward sweating in the desert and a baseball team without pants – a new exhibition celebrates images from the era-defining magazine

Published: February 11, 2026, 7:00 am

Why Jeff Bezos gutted the Washington Post – podcast

Hundreds of jobs have gone at the newspaper that broke the Watergate scandal. Was profit or politics behind the decision? Jeremy Barr reports

Reporting on a corrupt president made the Washington Post a global sensation with Watergate and a byword for fearless reporting. But last week the news organisation axed about 400 jobs, with some reporters discovering they were being laid off while still in war zones.

Media organisations face tough times with falls in advertising revenues and search traffic, and making cuts is not necessarily surprising. But with Jeff Bezos having bought the company, buying the rights to The Apprentice and making a lavishly produced documentary with Melania Trump, critics are asking whether politics, not profits, are really behind the move.

Published: February 11, 2026, 3:00 am

A moment that changed me: I wasn’t sure about my relationship. Then my boyfriend went missing on 9/11

I was quite spoiled and he could be a little dour. But on that terrible day, when he was just two blocks away when the South Tower exploded, I realised he was all I wanted

I met Chris in the college bar in 1997. I was part of a group of visiting American students visiting the University of Oxford – we kept ourselves to ourselves in the first few weeks of term – and he leaned over from the next table to talk to me. I saw his one-dimpled smile and the cocky way he tipped his chair back on two legs and I thought: “Uh-oh, here’s trouble.”

Despite the fact that I was only at Oxford for one term, we quickly became a couple – and stayed together. When he finished university and started working in London, I returned to North Carolina to finish my English degree. We visited each other when we could. He made a surprise appearance at my 21st birthday party; we spent a New Year’s Eve in Paris.

Published: February 11, 2026, 6:55 am

‘I am never off the clock’: inside the booming world of gen Z side hustles

More young Americans are taking on side gigs to explore their passions and make extra cash while navigating an unstable job market

Aashna Doshi, a software engineer at Google, is constantly monitoring her headspace. “This way I don’t burn myself out,” she said. “And I stay a lot more consistent with my podcast and content creation work.”

On top of her day job in the tech giant’s security and artificial intelligence department, Doshi also publishes social media content about working in tech and her life in New York City, and records podcasts – sometimes all three in a day.

Published: February 11, 2026, 1:00 pm

US added 130,000 jobs in January, surpassing expectations as 2025 growth is slashed

Unemployment rate was 4.3% in January with gains 13,000 less than the 143,000 jobs added a year ago, report shows

The US jobs market added 130,000 jobs in January, according to a highly anticipated labor market report released on Wednesday, a surge of job growth after months of fatigue in the labor market.

The unemployment rate was 4.3% in January, a slight cooling since the fall. Economists predicted 70,000 in job gains and an unchanged unemployment rate for January.

Published: February 11, 2026, 1:51 pm

Tumbler Ridge school shooting: teacher and students hid for hours during Canadian attack – latest updates

Mechanics teacher tells how he and 15 students barricaded workshop doors with metal benches

• Full report: suspect dead and nine killed in Canada shooting

• What we know so far about the Tumbler Ridge shooting

“We believe we’ve been able to identify the shooter,” said Floyd, adding that RCMP will withhold the shooter’s identity for privacy reasons and for the conduct of the investigation.

Floyd also refused to disclose details on how many of the victims were children and adults, adding that more details will emerge in coming days.

Published: February 11, 2026, 2:32 pm

Trump official allies with Europe’s far right in attacks on migration and hate speech policies

US state department’s Sarah B Rogers has become face of White House’s hostility to European liberal democracies

As Donald Trump redoubled his war of words on the European Union and Nato in recent weeks, a senior state department official, Sarah B Rogers, was publicly attacking policies on hate speech and immigration by ostensible US allies, and promoting far-right parties abroad.

Rogers has arguably become the public face of the Trump administration’s growing hostility to European liberal democracies. Since assuming office in October, she has met with far-right European politicians, criticized prosecutions under longstanding hate speech laws, and boasted online of sanctions against critics of hate speech and disinformation on US big tech platforms.

Published: February 11, 2026, 12:00 pm

US officials abruptly close airspace in El Paso, Texas, for 10 days in unusual move

FAA cited ‘special security reasons’ for shutting off skies around El Paso airport in area along border with Mexico

US authorities have abruptly closed the airspace around El Paso international airport in Texas for 10 days for “special security reasons”, shutting off the skies for all aircraft in an area along the border with Mexico.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) posted the “temporary flight restriction” notice on its website late on Tuesday, stating that a 10-nautical-mile circle up to 18,000ft would be off limits for all commercial, cargo and general aviation flights.

Published: February 11, 2026, 12:50 pm

Netanyahu to push Trump to take tough Iran stance during White House visit – US politics live

Israeli PM is expected to press the president to take a harder line over Iran’s nuclear program

The Federal Aviation Administration said late Tuesday it would close the airspace around the international airport in El Paso, Texas, a major city on the US-Mexico border, for 10 days, in a move that surprised local officials and stranded travelers overnight. The agency cited “special security reasons”.

But this morning, the FAA announced that the closure had been lifted. No detailed explanation was formally given for the original 10-day closure, and no further details were provided by the FAA this morning.

Published: February 11, 2026, 2:31 pm

Man detained for questioning in Nancy Guthrie disappearance reportedly released

Carlos Palazuelos told reporters he was held at a traffic stop Tuesday and claimed to not have heard about the case

A man detained by authorities in Arizona investigating the disappearance of Today show host Savannah Guthrie’s mother was released early on Wednesday after several hours of questioning, according to reports.

An individual who identified himself to reporters as Carlos Palazuelos said he was the person held after a traffic stop on Tuesday in Rio Rico, about an hour’s drive from the Tucson area home from where Nancy Guthrie, 84, was reported missing on 1 February.

Published: February 11, 2026, 1:44 pm

Super Bowl and Bad Bunny miss US TV audience record but new mark set for social media

• Broadcast averages 124.9 million viewers in US

• Half-time show draws 128.2 million viewers

• Bad Bunny social media views top 4bn

Sunday night’s Super Bowl and Bad Bunny fell short of setting records for the most watched US broadcast and half-time show.

Seattle’s 29-13 victory over New England averaged 124.9 million viewers on NBC, Peacock, Telemundo, NBC Sports Digital, and NFL+, according to Nielsen. That fell short of the 127.7 million US viewers who tuned in for Philadelphia’s victory over Kansas City last year on Fox.

However, this year’s Super Bowl became the most-watched program in NBC history as the network celebrates its 100th anniversary.

Published: February 11, 2026, 1:44 pm

How to make the Guardian your go-to news source in Google search

Google now allows you to pick your preferred sources in Top Stories. Here’s how to do it in two clicks

You may have noticed some changes in how news appears in Google search. The company recently rolled out a “Preferred Sources” feature that allows people to choose which outlets they’d like to see stories from, customised to their interests.

By selecting the Guardian as a preferred source you’ll have more control over what shows up in your search results without having to rely on the algorithm alone. Here’s how to do it.

Published: February 11, 2026, 1:59 pm

Ukrainian skeleton athlete urged by IOC to ditch helmet protest or face Olympics ban

• Heraskevych faces potential disqualification

• Athlete calls situation ‘theater of the absurd’

The Ukrainian skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych has been warned that he faces disqualification from the Winter Olympics if he wears a “helmet of memory” for his country’s war dead when the men’s competition starts on Thursday.

Heraskevych has continued to practise in the helmet, which shows 20 images of athletes and children killed since Russia’s invasion, despite the IOC banning it on Monday. In a post on X, published on Wednesday, Heraskevych indicated that he has no intention of backing down and called on the IOC to approve his helmet for the competition.

Published: February 11, 2026, 1:09 pm

Trump news at a glance: Why did FBI raid Georgia election office? Trump-loyal election deniers told them to

Unprecedented raid elevates concern that the president will seek to interfere in this year’s midterm elections – key US politics stories from 10 February 2026 at a glance

When the Federal Bureau of Investigation raided the Fulton county election office in Georgia last month, the decision was based on debunked claims from election deniers and came after a referral from a White House lawyer who tried to overturn the 2020 election, a search warrant affidavit unsealed on Tuesday reveals.

The FBI’s investigation “originated” from a referral sent by Kurt Olsen, an attorney who sought to overturn the 2020 election and contacted justice department officials to urge them to file a motion at the US supreme court to nullify the election. Olsen began working at the White House last year to investigate supposed election fraud.

Published: February 11, 2026, 2:00 am

Trump administration removes LGBTQ+ Pride flag from Stonewall national monument

‘They cannot erase our history. Our Pride flag will be raised again,’ says Manhattan borough president

The Trump administration has removed a large pride flag from the Stonewall national monument in New York City, marking the latest move by the federal government to end diversity initiatives and sanitize the history shared in national parks.

The monument commemorates the June 1969 riots that followed a police raid on the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village. The six days of protests against the police action were a key moment in sparking the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement, and the site has since become a national symbol of LGBTQ+ Pride.

Published: February 10, 2026, 9:50 pm

ICE director refuses to commit to pausing operations for 2026 World Cup

• Acting director Todd Lyons called ICE ‘key’ to security

• 2026 World Cup takes place this summer in 11 US cities

The acting director of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) told a congressional committee on Tuesday that his agency is a “key part of the overall security apparatus for the World Cup” and refused to commit to pausing operations near games at this summer’s tournament.

The 2026 World Cup will be hosted this summer by the United States, Mexico, and Canada, with 78 of the 104 games taking place in the US. Various entities have estimated that up to 10 million people could visit the 11 US host cities for the quadrennial tournament. However, ICE’s role in Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown – including an extended and widespread operation in the Minneapolis/Saint Paul metropolitan area in which two people were killed by federal agents – has raised serious concerns among fans.

Published: February 10, 2026, 9:33 pm

Mark Carney reminds Trump that Canada paid for key border bridge US president says he won’t open

Trump earlier had ranted against bridge and also warned that China would ‘terminate’ hockey in Canada

Mark Carney said he had held a “positive” conversation with Donald Trump after the US leader threatened to block a new key bridge between their two countries, reminding the president that Canada paid for the structure – and that the US shares ownership.

Late on Monday, Trump posted a lengthy message on social media, falsely claiming that the $4.6bn Gordie Howe International Bridge between Windsor, Ontario, and Detroit, Michigan, had “virtually no US content”. The bridge is due to open in early 2026.

Published: February 10, 2026, 6:28 pm

The secretive, destructive work of an ICE attorney: ‘My job is to do what I’m told’

ICE lawyers in New York City earn more than $100,000 a year, enjoy generous benefits and post about rich social lives. Their work is vital to Trump’s deportation agenda

One morning last June in an immigration courtroom in New York City, a lawyer named Estefani Rodriguez looked as if she was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. She was a prosecuting attorney for the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE). Her job was to present immigration judges with motions to kick non-citizens out of the United States – to switch on the deportation machine.

Rodriguez is in her late 30s, with long hair and full cheeks. According to the website of the Dominican Bar Association, her parents are immigrants from the Dominican Republic. In online photos, she sports a wide smile. But on this day, as she covered one of some 60 immigration courtrooms housed in labyrinthine federal buildings in lower Manhattan, she seemed to churn with angst. Repeatedly she touched her hands to her mouth, then under her glasses, then back to her mouth, and then she rubbed and rubbed her eyes.

Published: February 11, 2026, 1:00 pm

‘The trend is irreversible’: has Romania shattered the link between economic growth and high emissions?

Emissions have plunged 75% since communist times in the birthplace of big oil – but for some the transition has been brutal

Once the frozen fields outside Bucharest have thawed, workers will assemble the largest solar farm in Europe: one million photovoltaic panels backed by batteries to power homes after sunset. But the 760MW project in southern Romania will not hold the title for long. In the north-west, authorities have approved a bigger plant that will boast a capacity of 1GW.

The sun-lit plots of silicon and glass will join a slew of projects that have rendered the Romanian economy unrecognisable from its polluted state when communism ended. They include an onshore windfarm near the Black Sea that for several years was Europe’s biggest, a nuclear power plant by the Danube whose lifetime is being extended by 30 years, and a fast-spreading patchwork of solar panels topping homes and shops across the country.

Published: February 11, 2026, 6:00 am

Some of world’s oldest trees hit by climate-fuelled wildfires in Patagonia

Wildfires that left 23 people dead were made about three times more likely by global heating, researchers say

The climate crisis inflamed deadly wildfires that left 23 people dead in Chile and devastated forests in Argentina that host some of the world’s oldest trees, scientists have found.

The hot, dry and windy conditions that enabled the fires to blaze across huge areas in January were made about three times more likely by global heating, researchers from the World Weather Attribution (WWA) consortium found.

Published: February 11, 2026, 8:00 am

Rio’s bloodiest day: the untold story of Brazil’s most deadly police raid

In interviews with community leaders, lawyers, security specialists and bereaved relatives, the Guardian pieces together how an operation targeting a criminal gang left 122 people dead last October

• Warning: contains graphic images

• Visual investigation: how Rio’s deadliest police raid unfolded

Juliana Conceição startled awake as the first shots of an infamous day were fired in the Complexo da Penha, the labyrinthine Rio favela where she was born and raised.

It was 4.30am on 28 October. Thousands of police had surrounded the community’s barricaded entrances and were preparing to swarm up its streets on foot and in black armoured personnel carriers with firing ports and bullet-cracked ballistic windows.

Published: February 11, 2026, 10:00 am

The mother of all meltdowns: Rose Byrne on playing a parent cracking up in her taboo-busting new film

What if loving your child is destroying you and all you want to do is escape? That’s the nightmare the Oscar-nominated Byrne faces in If I Had Legs I’d Kick You. The star and its director reveal why backers were scared

If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, for which Rose Byrne just won a Golden Globe and is Oscar-nominated for best actress, is unmistakably a horror film. And yet how can it be? It’s the story of a mother, Linda, with a very sick child. You never see the child, only the outlines of the anxious medics. You never find out what’s wrong with her, only that it involves a feeding tube. Linda is going steadily crazy, because who wouldn’t? On paper, this is a painful yet heartwarming tale of love and adversity. Instead, it is claustrophobic and vertiginous. It sometimes has the panic-attack surrealism of an anxiety dream, and other times is so real you can barely look directly at it. I’ve never seen the maternal condition drawn as a trip to the abyss. The only film I’ve seen that’s anything like this is Eraserhead.

“I was very influenced by that film,” writer and director Mary Bronstein says, carefully. She’s a fascinating conversationalist, frank and open but watchful. Byrne is more reserved. Both are darkly funny, all the time. They look Hollywood-polished, in this central London hotel, but fair play, they’ve just come out of a photoshoot. “Eraserhead is about a type of parental anxiety that only men can have,” Bronstein says. “And this is a film about a parental anxiety only a woman can have. In Eraserhead, he can leave and that’s his angst. Linda cannot leave. That’s hers.”

Published: February 11, 2026, 8:00 am

The place that stayed with me: I would not have become a writer were it not for Iceland

As a teenager I wondered what I would have in common with this Nordic island. Then my teacher gave me a book of poetry

Lying in my bed, I listened to what sounded like a woman screaming outside in the dark. I picked up my pen. A month of living in this Icelandic village and I was still unaccustomed to the impenetrable January gloom and the ferocity of the wind; its propensity to sound sentient. I had started to feel like the island was trying to tell me something, had a story it wanted me to write.

Sauðárkrókur, a fishing town in the northern fjord of Skagafjörður, was all mountain, sea and valley. There were no trees to slow the Arctic winds, and I had already been blown sideways into a snowbank while walking home from Fjölbrautaskóli Norðurlands vestra, my new high school whose name I could not yet pronounce. At night, my dreams were filled with a soundscape of weeping women. When I woke, their wailing continued in the gusts outside. That was when I wrote. I wrote to understand myself in this new place. I wrote to understand Iceland, its brutality and its beauty.

Published: February 11, 2026, 2:00 pm

Jess Cartner-Morley on fashion: the easiest shortcut to chic? Jeans with heels

The combination of denim with heels is more than a trend – it elevates both you and your look

On the Notes app on my phone, among the to-do lists and the half-drafted email replies, I have a random list called Things That Are Just Always Chic. Wearing a watch that only tells the time. Having a signature scent. Black Ray-Ban sunglasses. All-white flowers in a vase. Also: wearing jeans with high heels.

Jeans with heels gets me every time. The woman who walks into the room in jeans and heels looks as if she owns the place, in a good way. It is a style language that speaks to everyone, confident and direct, a woman who is on top of her brief but also fun. The impact is stronger than a casual outfit, more compelling than a formal one.

Published: February 11, 2026, 2:00 pm

Method dressing: nine actors who stayed wildly in character on the red carpet

Whether it’s Zendaya in tennis-inspired shoes, Cynthia Erivo dressed in green, Margot Robbie as Barbie or Jenna Ortega in shredded black leather, today’s movie stars rarely disappoint on the promo circuit

‘Have you ever heard of a female actor that was method?” Kristen Stewart said last year, the implication being that method acting is the exclusive preserve of a particular type of man, unburdened by caring responsibilities or needing to be agreeable. But what is available to all actors (without getting their teeth pulled, taking magic mushrooms or demanding to be spoon-fed on set) is method dressing: that is, promoting a film in an outfit inspired by their character.

Everyone seems to be doing it, particularly in the past few months as Wicked: For Good and now Wuthering Heights have hit the red carpet. Why? It’s a low-stakes way to offer an extra endorsement for the film the actor is promoting (they liked it so much they’re willing to stay in character) and to drum up column inches and excitable TikTok commentary. It can also be a knowing wink – a gift, even – to fans. Some actors (or their stylists) include subtler sartorial semiotics and Easter egg accessories in their outfits that only the hardcore fandom and fashion nerds can appreciate. Either way, there’s a lot of it about. But who are the Daniel Day-Lewises and Robert De Niros of promo tour dressing?

Published: February 11, 2026, 6:00 am

The Jeffrey Epstein files have shattered Norway’s illusions about itself | Sindre Bangstad

Norway built its global brand on diplomacy and egalitarianism. The cosying up of its elite to the sex offender can only boost the far right

Donald Trump may have wanted revenge against Norway for the Nobel peace prize snub, but even he could hardly have imagined the damage contained in the latest US justice department’s release of three million emails from the Jeffrey Epstein files.

A string of what appear to be embarrassing messages between a Norwegian princess and Epstein initially led the global headlines. Mette-Marit, the crown princess, communicated regularly with the financier despite his 2008 conviction for child sexual abuse crimes and even went on holiday to his notorious Palm Beach villa. She has since apologised, expressing her “deep regret” for the friendship.

Published: February 11, 2026, 5:00 am

Quality sports coverage matters – now more than ever

With human sporting dramas fighting for space amid the geopolitics, the Winter Olympics are a reminder that the essence of sport remains noble and valid

The Guardian’s sports coverage is different – and shaped by more than just the action on the pitch (or slopes). Help keep it free and independent today by becoming a supporter

My kids don’t like sport. Either playing or watching. This isn’t an affectation – my daughter once turned down a ticket to the Women’s World Cup final. We get along fine. But, given my job, it can limit the teatime conversation at home.

On Sunday night, however, for a few moments, they accidentally watched the TV as Ilia Malinin of the USA went head-to-head with Shun Sato of Japan to determine who would lead their country to gold in the team figure skating at the Winter Olympics. They were transfixed. Although they know nothing about ice skating – correction, we know nothing about ice skating – it was obvious that Malinin’s flawed, riskier routine would ace the more fluent, more conservative Sato. It did.

Published: February 11, 2026, 12:00 pm

Cricket, field and track: the Caribbean’s sporting success is extraordinary – so why does it feel like a missed opportunity? | Kenneth Mohammed

As the men’s football World Cup looms, the region’s prowess is often seen in terms of inspirational hardship, but the political will to treat sport strategically is lacking

The US is preparing to co-host the 2026 World Cup while also deciding who is allowed to attend. For the Caribbean, that contradiction is familiar. In nearly a century of men’s World Cup football, only four Caribbean nations have ever qualified.

This year, more finally will, but many of their supporters, especially Haitians, will be unable to travel to cheer them on, blocked by immigration rules that sit uneasily beside sport’s language of unity.

Published: February 11, 2026, 1:00 pm

Enjoying mafia movies doesn’t make me a killer. So be wary of the state using rap music to prove murder | Shami Chakrabarti

UK prosecutors are recklessly deploying art against young men in court. That’s why I’m taking parliamentary action to curb it

How often have you slumped into an armchair and surfed various streaming platforms in search of escape? Even if not looking for them, you’ll have been bombarded by a vast array of crime procedurals made in the UK, the US, various continental jurisdictions and further afield. They are set in gritty urban and idyllic rural landscapes; in country houses and even submarines. Whether featuring hardbitten veteran cops or gifted middle-class amateurs, what they all have in common is murder.

Middle England is seemingly addicted to these TV dramas and the books that inspired so many of them. The creativity that produces them is big business. But what if those who write or even just enjoy this form of popular art found themselves prosecuted for real crime, with their work or taste used as evidence of criminality? If you find this possibility ridiculous, spare a thought for the increasing number of young black men and boys charged with “gang-related offences” on the basis of their participation in, or mere engagement with rap and drill music. It’s as though prosecutors were watching The Night Manager and trying to send Hugh Laurie to prison.

Shami Chakrabarti is a lawyer, Labour peer, former shadow attorney general and the author of Human Rights: The Case for the Defence

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

Published: February 11, 2026, 11:00 am

Snippets? Apps? Visuals? Why classical music should stop trying to be pop

Classical music’s blessing is also its curse: you’ve simply got to pay it attention. Plus: No wonder Rossini was an Olympics hit – he invented disco

If you’re reading this, you too may know the essential power of the music we call classical to chart and change your life. That power of connection and empathy is among the miracles of human creativity, and it’s something that everyone has a right to. That is despite decades of underfunding of music education and the whole sector in this country; despite generations of the astounding innovation of its practitioners being ignored by government after government; despite the ravages of technology companies who would replace human-created music with rights-free AI given half a chance. With all of those pressures, and more, it’s no wonder that classical music is in a psychological state of defensiveness and a perennial struggle for relevance, and ends up trying to do things on terms that are set by the streaming companies and social media, not by the art form or the artists themselves.

Classical’s blessing and curse is that it demands our unmediated attention and our time, making it unfit for purpose in the second quarter of the 21st century. What to do with hour-long symphonies and evening-length operas in a cultural feedback loop of ever-shorter attention spans and a media landscape in thrall to the playlist, the reel, the image, the moment? Who has time for time?

Published: February 11, 2026, 2:27 pm

You might love olive oil, but don’t put it on your CV | Polly Hudson

The foodstuff was apparently listed as an interest on a job résumé, according to a viral social media post. It might make you stand out, but not in a good way

Competition in the jobs market is ferocious, so today’s applicants must attempt to stand out. However, it now transpires, not too much. Online debate has been raging over one employment hopeful’s decision to list “olive oil” as an interest on their CV, after an anonymous account on social media claimed that doing so had blown the applicant’s chance of an interview.

In their eyes, this failure of judgment in providing an acceptable interest was a dealbreaker. It spoke completely to the prospective candidate’s character, and it had nothing good to say there. It rendered everything else on the page moot.

Published: February 11, 2026, 11:00 am

The Guardian view on Jimmy Lai: what Britain’s caution says about its relationship to Beijing’s power | Editorial

Australia defended a detained journalist despite the risks. Britain’s muted response to a media mogul’s harsh sentence suggests a narrowing view of what confrontation is worth

If the sentence handed to the media mogul Jimmy Lai was meant to surprise, it would have been shorter. Twenty years behind bars is not a burst of rage. It is a sentence designed to make repression routine in Hong Kong. The 78-year-old founder of the shuttered pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily is now likely to die in prison after being convicted of sedition. The court was telling Hongkongers what kind of place they now live in, and signalling to foreign governments what kind of relationship Beijing expects them to accept.

China’s national security law, imposed on Hong Kong in 2020, was designed to dismantle the former British colony’s pro-democracy movement and to place freedom of expression under permanent political constraint by the Chinese Communist party. From 2020 to 2026, at least 385 individuals have been arrested and 175 convicted under national security-related offences.

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

Published: February 10, 2026, 6:56 pm

Jordan Stolz: the American speed skater who could define the Olympics

The 21-year-old has dominated speed skating for three years running. In the next 11 days, he could become not just an Olympic champion but the face of the Winter Games

Each Winter Olympics produces one or two figures who come to define it. The stars whose performances transcend result sheets and medal tables and settle into memory as shorthand for the event itself. For decades, America has waited for their next one: someone capable of cutting through the noise of the crowded sports landscape and centering themselves in the national conversation.

Jordan Stolz may be him.

Published: February 11, 2026, 7:00 am

Russia plays prideful, but there’s no doubt the Olympics ban is hurting | Bruce Berglund

Some Russians have dismissed the Games over the continued exclusion of their athletes. But the truth is international sport is still important to Moscow

Duma member Vitaly Milonov didn’t mince words when asked four years ago about the international ban against Russian athletes.

“There’s no point in humiliating ourselves and begging to be let in,” said the St Petersburg deputy, a member of Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party. “We have our pride.” International events had been corrupted by the United States, he claimed in a 2022 interview, just weeks after the International Olympic Committee and other governing bodies imposed the ban. “Only Russia can say no. Other countries will accept whatever nonsense the Americans force on them – teams of vegans, queers and lesbians.”

Published: February 11, 2026, 10:00 am

USA dominate short-handed Canada to close out women’s hockey group play

• Hannah Bilka scores twice in 5-0 shutout win

• Canada captain Marie-Philip Poulin out with injury

• US will face Italy in quarter-final on Friday

Hannah Bilka scored twice, and the United States’ youth and speed overwhelmed a Canadian women’s hockey team missing their captain in a 5-0 win at the Milan Cortina Games on Tuesday.

The lopsided victory in Milan clinched first place for the US in Group A entering the quarter-finals, and continued confirming why the Americans entered the tournament as favorites. Team USA swept all four preliminary-round games by a combined score of 20-1 and brought back memories of how a Canadian team in their prime rolled to winning gold at the 2022 Beijing Games.

Published: February 10, 2026, 10:32 pm

Australian snowboarder Cam Bolton airlifted to hospital after breaking neck at Winter Olympics

• Veteran sustains serious injury during Winter Olympics training

• Athlete in good spirits says chef de mission Alisa Camplin

Australia’s Olympic team has been rocked with Cam Bolton airlifted to Milan after breaking his neck in training, ending the veteran snowboarder’s Winter Games campaign.

Competing at his fourth Olympics, the 35-year-old suffered a crash on Monday while training for the snowboard cross event but woke up with worsening pain in his neck the following day.

Published: February 10, 2026, 9:50 pm

‘My needles are waiting’: Ben Ogden credits knitting habit after cross-country silver

• Vermont native ends US men’s 50-year medal drought

• Result continues strong showing at Milan-Cortina

• Norway’s Johannes Høsflot Klæbo wins seventh gold

Ben Ogden delivered the most significant result in US men’s cross-country skiing in decades on Tuesday afternoon, winning Olympic silver in the men’s sprint classic at the Milano Cortina Games to end a 50-year medal drought. And afterwards he credited the relaxation he finds in knitting.

The mustachioed 25-year-old finished in 3min 40.61sec after surging through the final with his trademark classical technique, less than a second behind Norway’s Johannes Høsflot Klæbo, who secured the seventh Olympic gold medal of his career in 3:39.74. Klæbo’s teammate Oskar Opstad Vike took bronze after climbing from 20th in qualifying to the podium.

Published: February 10, 2026, 3:55 pm

Winter Olympics 2026: Von Allmen’s historic hat-trick; freestyle skiing gold and silver for USA – live

• Medal table | Live scores and schedule | Results | Briefing
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The riders are having to squint into the sun to see their scores come up. There’s lots of USA support on the slopes, first for 19-year old Bea Kim, who looks happy to settle into fifth, then for the queen of half pipe, Chloe Kim, who is aiming for her third consecutive gold medal in this discipline. Oh and she’s also just finished a degree at Stamford. It’s a cracking start – a big backside 720, frontside 900, and something floaty and turny which the commentators describe as “the penny black” of halfpipe. She immediately settles into first.

Women’s halfpipe qualifying: Thinking about my attempts to stand on a skateboard as young women in baggy snow trousers zig-zag and float across the halfpipe.

Published: February 11, 2026, 2:31 pm

Thomas Frank sacked by Tottenham after eight months as head coach

• Club five points above drop zone after Newcastle defeat

• Spurs have not won in the Premier League in 2026

Thomas Frank has been sacked by Tottenham, the final straw for the head coach coming on Tuesday when his team lost at home to Newcastle, leaving Spurs 16th in the Premier League, five points above the relegation zone.

The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium crowd again rebelled against Frank, booing him and chanting that he would be sacked in the morning.

Published: February 11, 2026, 10:06 am

Pitch Points: Tottenham’s relegation chances; Could Ronaldo leave Saudi Arabia?

The world of soccer throws up no shortage of questions. In today’s column, we endeavor to answer three of them

Last season’s 17th place finish was meant to be rock bottom for Tottenham Hotspur; a nadir for the club in the Premier League era that was awkwardly offset by glory in the Europa League. There is, however, no glory in what Spurs are going through this season and no guarantee that rock bottom isn’t still around the corner.

Published: February 11, 2026, 10:00 am

Sesko’s nonchalance late strike show of resilience that enhances Carrick’s cause | Barney Ronay

The winning run may be over but his Manchester United team showed fight until the end against West Ham

On nights such as these it can feel as though football is choosing to remind you of its true nature. Which is, it turns out, the most gloriously perverse, slow-burn, 400‑miles‑from‑home, 10.15pm on a Tuesday, waving your arms in the air, gripped‑with‑final‑plot‑twist-ecstasy pursuit ever devised.

For Manchester United’s travelling support this game must have felt like a slow-motion strangulation. Your team have had two shots on target all night. They’re 1-0 down against relegation-haunted West Ham – 95 minutes have passed. Narratives are being muddled. Arcs of hope reined in.

Published: February 11, 2026, 12:00 am

Qatar’s beIN Sports wins LA 2028 media rights in buildup to 2036 Olympics bid

• Qatar still has infrastructure from 2022 World Cup

• Ahmedabad, India likely to be other host candidate

Qatar’s bid to host the 2036 Olympic Games has received a boost with the state-owned broadcaster beIN Sports concluding a media rights deal for the 2028 Games in Los Angeles.

It is understood that beIN has won the rights to broadcast LA 2028 in the Middle East and north Africa (Mena) region, with the contract signed by the International Olympic Committee president, Kirsty Coventry, and the beIN chair, Nasser al-Khelaifi, over the last few days at the Winter Games in Milan Cortina.

Published: February 11, 2026, 8:00 am

Welcome to the Dark Side: Seattle’s brutal, Super Bowl-winning defense is here to stay

The Seahawks’ Legion of Boom terrorized opponents in the 2010s. Now a new unit has taken up the mantle – and delivered another title

Super Bowl LX was a two-score game with less than five minutes remaining. New England had the ball on the Seahawks’ 44-yard line and – after reaching the end zone in the fourth quarter, finally – that familiar sense of possibility. But that quickly vaporized when Devon Witherspoon knifed in on a corner blitz and jarred the ball loose from the Patriots quarterback, Drake Maye, mid-throw. Uchenna Nwosu snatched it in stride and rumbled 45 yards to the end zone, sealing Seattle’s 29‑13 victory.

That the league’s top defense was able to punctuate this moment, more than a decade in the making, with an interception as the Super Bowl XLIX hero Malcolm Butler looked on made the Seahawks’ revenge all the sweeter. “They lived up to the Dark Side today,” the Seattle head coach, Mike Macdonald, said of his defense. “It’s going to go down in the history books.”

Published: February 10, 2026, 10:00 am

Epstein engineered intimate relationship for Tesla’s Kimbal Musk, emails show

Elon Musk’s younger brother and the woman were involved for about six months between 2012 and 2013

Jeffrey Epstein engineered an intimate relationship between a woman in his network and Kimbal Musk, who is the brother of Elon Musk and on the board of directors at Tesla, according to emails from the Department of Justice’s recent release of documents involving the convicted sex offender. The younger Musk and the woman were involved for around six months between 2012 and 2013, with Kimbal Musk describing them as “dating”.

In the lead-up to Musk and the woman’s first meeting, Epstein and his longtime associate Boris Nikolic labored to set them up and bring her to a birthday party Musk was throwing – with Nikolic telling Epstein: “please prepare [the woman] —;)”

Published: February 10, 2026, 9:57 pm

Don Lemon hires federal attorney who quit over handling of inquiry into Renee Good’s killing

Ex-CNN anchor brings on Joseph H Thompson to defend him from charges related to coverage of a church protest

Former CNN anchor Don Lemon has hired a federal prosecutor, who quit amid the White House’s immigration blitz on Minneapolis, to defend him from charges related to his coverage of a church protest.

Lemon officially brought Joseph H Thompson on to his legal team, according to a Tuesday court filing. Thompson, who Donald Trump had appointed acting US attorney for Minnesota in June, reportedly resigned in January over the justice department’s treatment of immigration enforcement.

Published: February 11, 2026, 2:29 pm

Pope Leo accepts resignation of embattled New Orleans archbishop, Gregory Aymond

The archdiocese agreed to pay 600 abuse survivors a $305m settlement before the Vatican confirmed Aymond’s exit

Pope Leo XIV accepted the resignation of the Roman Catholic archbishop of New Orleans, Gregory Aymond, on Wednesday – one day after the archbishop concluded a series of meetings with survivors of a clergy molestation scandal that has embroiled the city’s church leadership for years.

Aymond had submitted his resignation to global Catholic church leaders at the Vatican as he was required when he turned 75 in November 2024. But the Vatican didn’t immediately accept it, plotting for Aymond to remain in position until the New Orleans archdiocese settled a federal bankruptcy protection case that it filed in the spring of 2020 amid the continuing fallout of the decades-old worldwide clerical abuse crisis.

Published: February 11, 2026, 2:32 pm

Zelenskyy warns Ukrainians losing faith in diplomacy after Russian strikes kill four - Europe live

Russian attacks show no sign of slowing as fourth anniversary of full-scale invasion approaches

As part of the increased focus on Arctic and High North, UK defence secretary John Healey is expected to confirm today that the number of British troops deployed to Norway will double over three years from 1,000 to 2,000 personnel.

“Demands on defence are rising, and Russia poses the greatest threat to Arctic and High North security that we have seen since the cold war. We see Putin rapidly re-establishing military presence in the region, including reopening old cold war bases,” Healey warned in a government statement published overnight.

Published: February 11, 2026, 2:35 pm

Gisèle Pelicot describes shock of seeing herself like ‘a rag doll’ in memoir

Pelicot writes of ‘brain stopping working’ when police told her of crimes of man she shared her life with for 50 years

Gisèle Pelicot, who became a global symbol of courage during the trial of her ex-husband and the dozens of men who raped her while she was unconscious, has described her shock when police first showed her images of the crimes, likening herself to a “rag doll”.

In extracts from her forthcoming memoir, A Hymn to Life, Pelicot, 73, describes her shock when police told her of the actions of her ex-husband Dominique, whom she considered “a great guy” and had shared her life with for 50 years.

Published: February 11, 2026, 2:25 pm

Heineken to cut 6,000 jobs as people drink less beer

Dutch brewer lowers forecasts for 2026 profit growth as cost of living and consumer health concerns reduce sales

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Heineken is to cut up to 6,000 jobs globally over the next two years – close to 7% of its workforce – as the Dutch brewer struggles with falling demand for beer.

The company, which makes Heineken, Amstel and Tiger, said the cuts would come from brewing and white-collar roles among its 87,000-strong global workforce as it faced “challenging market conditions”.

Published: February 11, 2026, 12:42 pm

France makes international appeal over ex-teacher accused of raping 89 children

Police search for more possible victims of Jacques Leveugle, whose alleged crimes span many countries and date back to 1960s

French police have made a rare international appeal for victims and witnesses in the case of a 79-year-old former teacher accused of raping and sexually assaulting 89 children across five continents from the 1960s until 2022.

Police in Grenoble said Jacques Leveugle, who has been in pretrial detention in France since April 2025, was a “textbook example” of a serial sexual offender in an unusually sprawling case spanning many countries from Germany to India over more than five decades.

Published: February 11, 2026, 10:35 am

US union elections declined in 2025 after Trump hobbled labor board

Both the number of workers participating in union elections and the success of elections dropped off

The number of union elections overseen by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) dropped 30% in 2025 after the Trump administration left the federal labor watchdog powerless, according to an analysis released on Wednesday.

The number of workers participating in union elections dropped by 59,000, a 42% decline compared with the year prior, according to the report from the Center for American Progress. The total number of union elections fell from a 10-year high of 2,124 in 2024 to 1,498 in 2025.

Published: February 11, 2026, 1:00 pm

Spanish video game aims to boost church wedding rates

Bishops launch Level Up! for Valentine’s Day teaching importance of qualities such as patience and integrity

Faced with a steeply declining number of church weddings, Spanish bishops have turned their eye to the virtual realm in the hope that a new video game will help entice more couples to the altar.

According to the most recent figures, less than 18% of all weddings in Spain in 2024 – 31,462 out of 175,364 – took place in church. The numbers are dramatically down from 2007 when more than 55% of weddings happened in a Roman Catholic church.

Published: February 11, 2026, 1:21 pm

‘The normal should be darkness’: why one Belgian national park is turning off ‘pointless’ streetlights

The radical project is an attempt to preserve wildlife in one of Europe’s most light-polluted countries, but can they persuade local people they will still feel safe?

Two yellowing street lamps cast a pool of light on the dark road winding into the woods outside Mazée village. This scene is typical for narrow countryside roads in Wallonia in the south of Belgium. “Having lights here is logical,” says André Detournay, 77, who has lived in the village for four decades. “I walk here with my dog and it makes me feel safe and gives me some protection from theft.”

Belgium glows like a Christmas decoration at night, as witnessed from space. It is one of the most light-polluted countries in Europe, with the Milky Way scarcely visible except in the most remote areas.

Published: February 11, 2026, 12:00 pm

Gray wolf appears in Los Angeles county for first time in more than 100 years

Three-year-old black coat female, known as BEY03F, crossed into LA county around 6am on 7 February

A gray wolf wandered into Los Angeles county for the first time in more than a century on Saturday morning.

“This is the most southern verified record of a gray wolf in modern times,” Axel Hunnicutt, gray wolf coordinator for the California department of fish and wildlife, said.

Published: February 10, 2026, 11:43 pm

Climate crisis linked to fall in southern right whale birth rates as researchers raise ‘warning signal’

Lead author of Australian study says breeding slowdown is linked to climate-driven changes in ‘magnificent’ whale’s foraging grounds

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After decades of recovery, southern right whales are showing signs of a climate-driven decline in breeding rates, which scientists say is a “warning signal” about changes in the Southern Ocean.

After being hunted to near extinction by commercial whaling in the 19th and 20th centuries, southern right whales remained endangered in Australia.

Published: February 11, 2026, 10:00 am

Trump to repeal Obama-era finding foundational to US climate rules

Climate groups vow to fight rollback of 2009 finding determining CO₂ and other greenhouse gases harm health

In what is set to be its most audacious anti-environment move yet, the Trump administration on Thursday will roll back the mechanism allowing the government to regulate planet-heating pollution, the White House press secretary has told reporters.

“President Trump will be joined by EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin to formalize the recession of the 2009 Obama-era endangerment finding,” Karoline Leavitt said at a press conference on Tuesday. “This will be the largest deregulatory action in American history.”

Published: February 10, 2026, 10:17 pm

Case dismissed against LA protester accused of assaulting federal officer with cloth hat

Judge says US government acted in ‘bad faith’ in case of Jonathon Redondo-Rosales, 36, who spent six months in jail

A federal judge has dismissed charges against a Los Angeles protester who was accused of assaulting an officer with a cloth hat, with an order saying the government acted in “bad faith”. The man had spent six months in jail awaiting trial.

Jonathon Redondo-Rosales, a 36-year-old TikTok content creator and US citizen, had been in custody since his arrest at a 2 August protest against the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

Published: February 11, 2026, 2:32 am

FDA declines to review Moderna application for new flu vaccine

Moderna requests meeting to discuss refusal as decision could have implications for all new and updated vaccines

US regulators will not review Moderna’s request to license a new, potentially more effective flu shot – even though the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) previously gave the green light to the project – in a decision that could have implications for all new and updated vaccines in the US.

It’s the latest move by the Trump administration against vaccines. Officials in January decided to stop fully recommending one-third of routine childhood vaccines, including flu vaccines.

Published: February 10, 2026, 11:52 pm

Grand jury declines to indict Democrats asking troops to refuse illegal orders

Trump, outraged by clip of six lawmakers, called them ‘traitors’ and said behavior was ‘punishable by death’

A Washington DC grand jury declined to indict six Democratic lawmakers who were denounced by Donald Trump after they made a video urging troops to refuse illegal orders.

Federal prosecutors had sought an indictment against the Democrats who participated in the video, including Elissa Slotkin, Mark Kelly, Jason Crow, Chris Deluzio, Maggie Goodlander and Chrissy Houlahan, who all have military and intelligence backgrounds.

Published: February 11, 2026, 2:44 am

Debunked claims from election deniers influenced FBI raid in Georgia, affidavit reveals

The 28 January raid of the Fulton county election office also came after a referral from a White House lawyer

The FBI’s rationale behind raiding the Fulton county election office in Georgia last month was based on debunked claims from election deniers and came after a referral from a White House lawyer who tried to overturn the 2020 election, a search warrant affidavit unsealed on Tuesday reveals.

The warrant offers the first insight for the basis for the FBI’s 28 January raid on the Fulton county election office. FBI officials seized nearly 700 boxes of election materials in the raid.

Published: February 10, 2026, 9:53 pm

Aide linked to sex offender ‘did not give full account’ before he was given peerage, PM says

Keir Starmer defends his actions as Kemi Badenoch asks why Matthew Doyle was given ‘a job for life’

• UK politics live – latest updates

Keir Starmer’s former communications chief Matthew Doyle “did not give a full account of his actions” before being nominated for a peerage, the prime minister has told the Commons after it emerged Doyle had campaigned for a friend charged with possessing indecent images of children.

Doyle, a longstanding Starmer aide who stepped down as the No 10 head of communications last March, was suspended on Monday from the Labour whip in his new role in the Lords following reports about his actions.

Published: February 11, 2026, 2:08 pm

Five bones, teeth and car key found in Tasmanian search for missing backpacker Celine Cremer

Police have been searching for Belgian tourist, 31, since she went missing near Cradle Mountain in June 2023

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Investigators are closer to uncovering the mystery of what happened to missing Belgian tourist Celine Cremer after a major discovery in the wilderness.

Five bones, teeth and a Honda car key were found by Tasmania police after a two-day search of the Arthur River area, where Cremer is believed to have disappeared.

Published: February 11, 2026, 12:22 am

‘Women’s freedoms are at stake’: concern at rise of Islamist party before Bangladesh election

Jamaat e-Islami, oppressed under Sheikh Hasina’s rule, could take unprecedented share of the vote on Thursday

As the clock hit midnight, the women held their flame torches aloft and marched into the Dhaka night. “The people have given their blood, now we want equality,” they shouted above the roar of the traffic.

For many in Bangladesh, the past few weeks have been a cause for jubilation. The first free and fair elections in 17 years have been promised for Thursday, after the toppling of the regime of Sheikh Hasina in a bloody student-led uprising in August 2024 in which more than 1,000 people died.

Published: February 11, 2026, 2:00 am

Britney Spears sells rights to music catalog for undisclosed sum, say reports

Music publisher Primary Wave said to have bought rights to pop star’s music, including Toxic and Baby One More Time

Britney Spears has sold the rights to her music catalog, which includes hits such as Toxic, Baby One More Time and Gimme More, according to media reports.

The music publisher Primary Wave is said to have purchased the pop star’s music rights on 30 December, TMZ reported on Tuesday, citing legal documents. An unnamed source “familiar with the deal” confirmed the sale to the New York Times.

Published: February 11, 2026, 12:33 am

‘It still feels incredibly relevant’: the groundbreaking art of Theresa Hak Kyung Cha

Korean-American artist’s work has continued to resonate in many years since her tragic murder in 1982 at the age of 31

If there’s one thing the late avant-garde artist Theresa Hak Kyung Cha is known for, it’s almost certainly her experimental 1982 book Dictée, a hard-to-classify work that has become a mainstay of college curriculums and ambitious writers. Poet Juliana Spahr has described the work as “part autobiography, part biography, part personal diary, part ethnography, part auto-ethnography, part translation”, noting that it collages “multiple voices – American, European, and Asian – so as to build a history”.

A major new retrospective of Cha at the Berkeley Art Museum – Theresa Hak Kyung Cha: Multiple Offerings – aims to go far beyond Dictée to present the artist’s varied and prodigious output, bringing attention to her full complexity as a creative force and the many contemporary thinkers who have been inspired by her career.

Published: February 11, 2026, 10:03 am

​AI slop, begone! The viral musical virtuosos bringing brains and brilliance back to social media

Whether making microtonal pop or playing Renaissance instruments with sheep bones, a crop of bold artists are making genuinely strange music go mainstream – but are they at the mercy of the algorithm?

Chloë Sobek is a Melbourne musician who plays the violone, a Renaissance precursor to the double bass. But instead of playing it in the traditional manner, she puts wobbling bits of cardboard between its strings or uses a sheep’s bone as a bow, and these weird interventions have become catnip for Instagram’s algorithm, getting her tens of thousands – sometimes hundreds of thousands – of views for each of her self-made performance videos. “Despite how it might appear, I’m a reasonably shy person,” she says.

When Laurie Anderson’s robo-minimalist masterwork O Superman hit No 2 in the UK charts in 1981, thanks to incessant airplay on John Peel’s radio show, it was a signal of a media outlet’s power to propel experimental music into the mainstream. That’s now happening again as prepared-instrument players such as Sobek, plus experimental pianists, microtonal singers and numerous other boundary-pushing solo performers, are routinely breaking out of underground circles thanks to videos – generally self-recorded at home – going viral on TikTok and Instagram.

Published: February 11, 2026, 10:38 am

The President’s Cake review – toughly revealing story of kid on a baking mission for Saddam Hussein’s birthday

Nine-year-old Lamia is obliged by her school to make a birthday cake for the Iraqi president, and meets a series of vivid characters as she shops for sanctioned ingredients

There’s a terrific charm and sweetness in this debut from Iraqi film-maker Hasan Hadi, a Bake Off-style adventure about a little girl in early-90s Iraq required by her school to make a birthday cake in Saddam Hussein’s honour, despite sanctions and the consequent shortage of every single cake-making ingredient. Hadi is a former Sundance Lab fellow and his film lists Hollywood heavy-hitters Chris Columbus and Eric Roth among its executive producers – who may just have induced Hadi to sprinkle some old-fashioned Tinseltown sugar into the mix. The moment when the little girl gazes at her reflection in the river is surely inspired by The Lion King.

Among the largely nonprofessional cast is the unselfconsciously excellent Baneen Ahmad Nayyef as nine-year-old Lamia, whose greedy teacher gobbles the apple she has brought to school for her lunch. This blowhard announces that the class must draw lots for which of them will bake the Saddam cake; it falls to Lamia. In addition, her pal Saeed (Sajad Mohama Qasem) – who has a crush on Lamia – has to supply the fruit for this party, on which only the teacher will be gorging himself. Lamia sets off into town with her grandmother Bibi (Waheed Thabet Khreibat) on a desperate shopping expedition, carrying her pet cockerel, Hindi, who gives a great animal performance and whose unpredictable crowings clearly forced the actors to improvise lines around him.

Published: February 11, 2026, 7:00 am

Beyond Trainspotting: The World of Irvine Welsh review – uniquely funny writer holds court

The author discusses his writing, the movies it created and his own youth, but not all the interviewees in this documentary are quite so gripping

Here, in addition to Paul Sng’s recent documentary about Irvine Welsh, is another one; it is watchable enough, though with less original interview material. The extended footage of Welsh in conversation is certainly engaging, as he discusses his writing and the movies it created, and his own youth in Edinburgh.

Some of the rest of the interviewees aren’t quite so gripping, however, and the film is padded out with a fair bit of redundant anecdotage from people on the subject of getting hilariously wasted in Irvine’s company — or at least his approximate vicinity. As for one 90s ladmag-style story about Irvine doing some kind of Marquis de Sade-themed photoshoot in Ibiza’s Manumission club involving prising apart young women’s buttocks for the camera … well maybe you had to be there.

Published: February 11, 2026, 11:00 am

Little Amélie review – tender and poignant study of the fragility of early childhood

Based on a 2000 novella, this sweet animation follows a young girl who wakes from a vegetative state on the verge of feral, but begins to bond with others after an intervention by her grandmother

This tender and sweet animation from film-makers Maïlys Vallade and Liane-Cho Han is an involving, poignant study of early childhood; how fragile it is, and how strong you feel yourself to be to have outlived or surpassed it. It is based on the autobiographical novella The Character of Rain by Belgian author Amélie Nothomb, published in 2000.

Loïse Charpentier voices the role of Amélie, a little girl living in Kobe, Japan, with her Belgian family in the late 60s; mum, dad and older brother and sister. Until the age of three, she was in a persistent vegetative state, but was miraculously jolted free of it by a terrifying earthquake; yet she emerges quarrelsome and almost feral, to the despair of her parents. That is until her elegant grandmother Claude (Cathy Cerda) comes to visit and gives her a piece of narcotically delicious white Belgian chocolate, which causes Amélie to bloom into a lovely, biddable child who adores her Japanese nanny Nishio-san (Victoria Grosbois).

Published: February 11, 2026, 9:00 am

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was never a love story. It was a warning

Watch Michel Gondry’s 2004 time-twister as a hard sci-fi film and you might heed its advice

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Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is a film about the gap between what we think we can control and what happens when reality hits. Over the years, many critics and fans have celebrated Michel Gondry’s film as a tender-hearted love story. But a rewatch might reveal that Gondry’s second collaboration with postmodern American screenwriter Charlie Kaufman is much closer to another, twistier genre: hard sci-fi.

By now, the story of Eternal Sunshine is familiar. Depressed introvert Joel (Jim Carrey) meets Clementine (Kate Winslet), whose box-dyed hair colour and moods change as often as the weather. A mismatch made in heaven. The troubled couple eventually find a fix for their rocky, codependent relationship: a service provided by a sketchy medical company called Lacuna Inc that offers to erase their memories of each other. Clementine goes first. Out of spite, Joel follows.

Published: February 10, 2026, 2:00 pm

Florence + the Machine review – ​a thrilling shift in tone towards stark, sombre catharsis

OVO Hydro, Glasgow
Florence Welch is backed by the folk-horror dramatics of a petticoat-clad choir – but quite capable of transfixing the crowd with her billowing voice alone

‘I’ve only sung this once before and it makes me shake,” Florence Welch admits, crouching alone at the far end of a long, narrow thrust stage. Watching her command this arena during the first of two sold-out shows in Glasgow in honour of Florence + the Machine’s sixth album Everybody Scream, it’s hard to imagine Welch fearing anything. Just seconds ago, she was racing barefoot, flouncy skirts gathered in one hand, ripping through Spectrum (the band’s first UK No 1, back in 2012) and its searing demand: “Say my name!”

But the new song she is steeling herself to sing presses on a bruise. With ratcheting intensity, You Can Have It All grieves an ectopic pregnancy which almost killed her, as well as a music industry that punishes its stars for motherhood. Over grungy electric guitar, her tempestuous voice billows like sails in high wind: “Am I a woman now?” It leaves the arena in stunned silence. She gives a wry curtsey.

Published: February 10, 2026, 12:35 pm

J Cole: The Fall Off review – rap legend’s final album is a self-obsessed hip-hop history lesson

(Interscope)
Bowing out after six consecutive US No 1 albums, Cole references rap greats and even conjures a convo between Biggie and 2Pac – but the lens rarely strays from himself

J Cole released his debut mixtape in 2007, and now, nearly two decades later and after six back-to-back US No 1 albums, the North Carolina MC is still wrestling with the weight of so much hope heaped upon him. He is framing The Fall Off as a graceful bowing out – “to do on my last what I was unable to do on my first”, he has said – and it’s almost as if he is a student coming to the end of a long period of study, with this double album as his graduate thesis.

Across 24 tracks and 101 minutes, The Fall Off is full of technical proficiency, raw lyrical skill, citation, interpolation and sampling, and it attempts nothing less than to embody a half-century of hip-hop. Through direct and indirect references, lessons unfold throughout. The Fall-Off Is Inevitable is inspired by Nas’s 2001 Stillmatic track Rewind. I Love Her Again is an obvious nod to Common’s I Used to Love HER. Bunce Road Blues borrows lyrics from Usher’s Nice & Slow but connects to R&B’s present with guest vocals from Nigerian singer Tems. The Let Out is reminiscent of SpottieOttieDopaliscious from OutKast’s Aquemini, and so forth: all ample material for audiences to think through hip-hop’s past and future.

Published: February 10, 2026, 3:50 pm

Stay Alive: Berlin 1939-45 by Ian Buruma – how Berliners defied their Nazi masters

An immersive account of how the inhabitants of a liberal city – including the author’s father – survived fascism

In December 1941, the Nazi authorities received a letter from a soldier complaining that, on his recent leave in Berlin, he had been thoroughly disgusted by what he saw. While his comrades were dying at the front, plenty of young men appeared to have dodged military duty and were now to be found carousing in Berlin’s packed bars. The women were no better: husbandless but flush with ration coupons purloined from soldiers on leave, they were busy gorging themselves. “If Berlin were Germany,” huffed the complainant, “we would have lost this war years ago.”

Berlin had always been a case apart. The legacy of the wild Weimar years – all that artistic and political radicalism, not to mention louche living – had continued under the Third Reich. The city remained defiantly itself and, despite the efforts of high command, mulish about being told what to do. That, at least, had been the situation in 1941.

Published: February 11, 2026, 7:00 am

This month’s best paperbacks: Susan Choi, Sarah Perry and more

Looking for a new reading recommendation? Here are some fantastic new paperbacks, from a Facebook exposé to a globetrotting family saga

Published: February 11, 2026, 12:00 pm

‘A white man’s war, a Black man’s fight’: the eye-opening story of Black soldiers in Vietnam

At a time when Black military history is being rewritten under Trump officials, new book The War Within a War provides a vital reminder

Wil Haygood’s new book, his 10th, is The War Within a War: The Black Struggle in Vietnam and at Home. Meeting in Washington DC to discuss it, he produces from between the pages a small Ziploc bag. Carefully, he takes out a flier, yellowed and brittle with age. The text at the top is Vietnamese. Underneath there is English.

It reads: “Colored GI’s! The South Vietnamese people, who are struggling for their independence and freedom, are friends with the American colored people being victim of barbarous racial discrimination at home. Your battlefield is right in the USA! Your enemy is the war lords in the White House and the Pentagon!”

Published: February 10, 2026, 10:03 am

Your Life Without Me by James Meek review – angel of destruction haunts a domestic drama

A plot to blow up St Paul’s Cathedral is seen through the lens of family tragedy

A great demolition is also an act of creation, so long as its execution is bold and impressive enough, so long as it clears out the dead wood and opens up the terrain. It’s the ethos that links Pablo Picasso to 1970s punk, Shiva the Destroyer to the anarchist hero of Joseph Conrad’s The Secret Agent. Rip it up and start again. Or rip it up for the pure thrill of the ripping. In Graham Greene’s short story The Destructors, the schoolboy vandals of the Wormsley Common Gang systematically unpick a Christopher Wren-designed London house, working from the inside out so that it dissolves into rubble the moment a supporting post is pulled down. The crime’s one adult witness, a lorry driver, guffaws at the sight. “I’m sorry, I can’t help it,” he tells the home’s distraught owner. “There’s nothing personal, but you got to admit it’s funny.”

Raf, the angel of destruction who haunts the wings of James Meek’s graceful, death-haunted domestic drama, is likewise drawn to the work of Wren – although his project is conceived on a much grander scale. Raf is a professional demolition man, a gifted young engineer and natural born radical, easily moved to laughter or tears and effortlessly dazzling everyone in his orbit. For his PhD project, he has been granted free run of St Paul’s Cathedral in order to test the old building’s resistance to modern traffic vibration. He drills discreet holes in the masonry to install movement censors. But he also packs the cavities with Semtex.

Published: February 10, 2026, 7:00 am

Romeo Is a Dead Man review – a misfire from a storied gaming provocateur

PlayStation 5 (version tested), Xbox, PC; Grasshopper Manufacture/Marvelous Inc
After some dumb fun hacking at zombies, legendary developer Suda51’s first original game in a decade sadly only delivers a host of incoherent disappointments

Ever since he baffled GameCube owners with 2005’s Killer7, Japanese game director Suda51 has had a reputation for turning heads. From parodying the banality of open-world games with 2007’s No More Heroes to collaborating with James Gunn for 2012’s pulpy Lollipop Chainsaw, his games often offer a welcome reprieve from soulless, half-a-billion-dollar-budget gaming blockbusters. It was with considerable excitement that I fired up Suda’s first new game in 10 years.

The game kicks off with a slick cartoon that shows our hero, Romeo Stargazer, being eaten by a zombie. Hastily resurrected by his zany scientist grandfather, Romeo returns from the brink imbued with new powers – and then we’re off. Almost immediately I am bombarded by an impenetrable wall of proper-noun nonsense. It’s like this for the next 20 hours.

Published: February 10, 2026, 2:11 pm

At the Super Bowl, Bad Bunny challenged the meaning of ‘America’

The Puerto Rican star’s vision of American identity moved beyond colonial tropes to span an entire hemisphere

By now, many of us have a favorite part of Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl half-time performance. It’s a dense, rich set that invites rewatching to take in every thoughtful, exuberant detail – even though it’s barely 14 minutes long.

My most beloved part occurs a little more than nine minutes into the homage, when the cuatro puertorriqueño appears. The stringed instrument has its own moment in the spotlight, shown in the talented hands of the cuatrista José Eduardo Santana just before Ricky Martin performs.

Published: February 10, 2026, 2:28 pm

From Melania to Kid Rock’s halftime show: why is Maga art so dreadful?

As the right stokes culture wars, their alternatives to ‘woke’ Hollywood prove to be shoddily made and uninspired

It’s not fair, what they did to rightwing folks on Super Bowl Sunday. Regular viewers could either take in an elaborate and joyful halftime performance from Puerto Rican recording artist Bad Bunny, one of the most popular music stars in the world, or, if they weren’t interested in football or in Bad Bunny’s music, they could quietly find something else to watch or listen to. There are a lot of options out there. Those who wanted to prove their Maga bona fides or loyalties, however, may have felt obligated to watch a parade of similar-sounding country singers lead into a performance from a shorts-wearing Kid Rock, jumping around and seemingly lip-syncing to a novelty hit from 1999.

For rightwingers who couldn’t stomach the Spanish lyrics to Bad Bunny songs, they could take comfort in the clear English of the man also known as Robert Ritchie: “Bawitdaba, da-bang, da-bang, diggy-diggy-diggy.” (These lyrics are actually just what a certain segment of white listeners prefer: something ripped off from Black culture, in this case rapper Busy Bee.) This sad spectacle was provided by Turning Point USA, which is not actually a charity organization for faded turn-of-the-century rap-rockers, but a rightwing advocacy group co-founded by the late Charlie Kirk. When Kid Rock pivoted back to Ritchie and covered the country tune Til You Can’t (with a pious and half-assed new verse added by Ritchie himself), the music was chased with a tribute to Kirk. This means that viewers were treated to all the artistry of a Kid Rock show plus all the cheerfulness of a funeral.

Published: February 10, 2026, 5:44 pm

Masterpiece, fridge magnet, phone case … opera: how Hokusai’s The Great Wave hit the stage

He survived a stroke, a lightning strike, a fire – and created one of the world’s most recognisable images. Now the Japanese artist’s ‘wild, fascinating’ life has inspired an opera

Opera has inspired many of the 20th century’s greatest artists to create extraordinary sets. Oskar Kokoschka designed a Magic Flute for Salzburg and a Ballo in maschera for Florence. Salvador Dalí produced a controversial Salome for London; David Hockney’s designs for Glyndebourne’s Rake’s Progress complement Stravinsky’s sound-world so miraculously that they are still in use 50 years after their creation. Marc Chagall’s ceiling fresco for Paris’s Opéra Garnier and murals for the New York Met testify to the intimate connection between opera and painting.

And yet remarkably few operas portray visual artists. Something about their painstaking work seems to resist representation in this most extravagant of artforms. Only two operas about artists are regularly performed: Hindemith’s Mathis der Maler, depicting the German Renaissance painter Matthias Grünewald, and Berlioz’s Benvenuto Cellini – and Cellini gave Berlioz a head-start with his rollicking memoirs about his scandalous adventures in 16th-century Florence.

Published: February 10, 2026, 4:05 pm

Wallace, Gromit and a new use for lentils: blockbuster Aardman exhibition opens at Young V&A

Children are encouraged to get hands-on as the world’s leading stop-motion studio showcases its work in east London

What would Wallace – everyone’s favourite amateur inventor – look like with a moustache and straw boater? Would a massive set of teeth suit his faithful beagle, Gromit? How about a nose shaped like a banana?

Such questions are answered by an illuminating and sometimes alarming exhibition at east London’s Young V&A that showcases the work of the world’s leading stop-motion outfit, the Bristol-based Aardman studios. Early sketches for Nick Park’s much-loved characters reveal that Wallace was once just a few bristles short of Hitler, while Gromit had fangs and the ability to speak.

Published: February 10, 2026, 6:26 pm

Ralph Lauren opens New York fashion week – and shows how at 86, he’s the US poet laureate of style

Collection is unabashedly grand, while reflecting an awareness of fashion as it looks in the real world right now

Ralph Lauren is the US’s poet laureate of style. His brand came of age in a gilded era of American charm, when Bill Clinton was President, the economy was booming and the twin towers glittered on the Manhattan skyline. His clothes speak to an America of sportsmanship and vigour, where everyone has a firm handshake and perfect teeth.

The US could use some poetry right now, and at 86, Lauren is still the man. To open New York fashion week, he transformed a grand marble palazzo in the city’s financial district – a showpiece of the young city’s financial muscle when it opened in 1894 – in the style of his own country estate upstate.

Published: February 11, 2026, 2:36 pm

My helicopter went into freefall – inside an active volcano

Christopher Duddy was shooting a film in Hawaii when disaster struck. For 28 hours he choked on fumes near a lava lake, fighting to get to safety

The 1993 erotic thriller Sliver should have ended differently: Zeke, played by William Baldwin, was scripted to fly a helicopter towards an active volcano, after Sharon Stone’s character, Carly, reveals she’s the killer. The pilot, Craig Hosking, had been tasked with flying low over Hawaii’s Kīlauea volcano, accompanied by the director of photography, Mike Benson, and his assistant Christopher Duddy, to film the bubbling lava and white plumes of smoke escaping from the Puʻu ʻŌʻō vent. It was a clear day on the Big Island when Duddy watched a corkscrew trail form in the smoke behind the helicopter, and he remembers thinking: “I can’t believe I’m getting paid to do this.”

It was November 1992, and a big storm was due to hit the area, so they were shooting as much footage as they could along the coast, capturing the rainforest and brilliant blue ocean shimmering against the black lava of the volcano, before the weather disrupted production. But as they dipped over Puʻu ʻŌʻō for a second time, the helicopter’s engine failed. Their visibility faded as thick smoke engulfed them. Duddy jolted his eyes away from the camera monitors towards the open doors and saw that they were heading straight for a cliff. There was a loud crash as the rotor sheared off on impact and the helicopter went into freefall.

Published: February 10, 2026, 6:00 am

‘Boy kibble’: why are young men turning to dog food for meal inspiration?

The dried food, traditionally for pets, has become an unlikely influence for meal preppers. Some commenters have even claimed the trend could be an antidote to toxic masculinity

Name: Boy kibble.

Age: It’s new.

Published: February 10, 2026, 5:43 pm

‘Every shirt has a story’: the designers saving football kits from landfill

The beautiful game has a fast fashion problem, with clubs bringing out multiple kits every season. But a move towards upcycling old shirts and wearing vintage garments is on the rise

It may have been a quiet January transfer window, but even so, thousands of new shirts will be printed for Lucas Paquetá, returning to his former Brazilian club Flamengo, while his West Ham shirt instantly feels old. Not to mention the thousands of other players moving from one club to another. Uefa estimates that up to 60% of kits worn by players are destroyed at the end of the season, and at any one time there are thought to be more than 1bn football shirts in circulation, many of which are discarded by fans once players leave.

The good news is that lots of designers are bringing their upcycling skills to old kits, taking shirts and shirring them, sewing them or, as in the case of designer and creative director Hattie Crowther, completely transforming them into one-of-a-kind headpieces. “I’m not here to add more products into the mix, I’m here to reframe what’s already in circulation and give it meaning, context, and longevity while staying culturally relevant,” says Crowther, whose creations involving the colours and emblems of Arsenal, Liverpool and Paris Saint-Germain, are, she says, “a response to how disposable football product has become”.

Published: February 10, 2026, 8:00 am

Sali Hughes on beauty: moisturisers for combination skin are rare – these are some of the best

Surprisingly few products cater for people with a mixture of dry, balanced and oily skin. The ones that do shoulld be key to your regime

Given that combination is probably the most common skin type, it’s frustratingly under-served, especially when it comes to moisturisers.

In practice, day creams, lotions and gels marketed for those with a combination of dry, balanced and oily areas often only play to the latter condition. They add no oil and shine to the chin, nose and forehead, but offer only fleeting comfort to tight, parched areas around the cheeks.

Published: February 11, 2026, 10:00 am

Underwear optional? The health pros and cons of going commando

There are times when it is better to wear underwear than not. Here’s what the experts say

In 2015, during a particularly energetic performance of the song American Woman in Stockholm, Lenny Kravitz split a pair of leather pants right down the crotch, revealing his manhood to the world.

I’m sorry to say I think about this incident somewhat regularly. Not out of titillation, but because it planted in my head a troublesome question: just how many people, rock stars or otherwise, aren’t wearing underwear in public?

Published: February 10, 2026, 5:00 pm

Beats Powerbeats Fit review: Apple’s compact workout earbuds revamped

Secure, noise-cancelling Bluetooth earbuds that shine for exercise and everyday use on Android and iPhone

Apple’s revamped compact workout Beats earbuds stick to a winning formula, while slimming down and improving comfort.

The new Powerbeats Fit are the direct successors to 2022’s popular Beats Fit Pro, costing £200 (€230/$200/A$330). They sit alongside the recently redesigned Powerbeats Pro 2 as Apple’s fitness alternatives of the AirPods.

Published: February 10, 2026, 7:00 am

What is fibremaxxing – and how much is too much? | Kitchen aide

Most of us aren’t getting enough fibre in our diet, but, as our panel of experts explain, upping your intake is a case of taking baby steps …

Why is everyone talking about fibremaxxing?
Chris, by email
TikTok-born trends rarely go hand in hand with sage health advice, but that’s not to say upping our fibre – an often-forgotten part of our diets – is a bad idea. “Fibre needed its moment, so this is a good thing,” says dietitian Priya Tew. The non-digestible carbohydrate has two main functions: “There’s insoluble fibre, which is found in things such as whole grains, brown rice or vegetable skins, and I think about it like a broom,” Tew says, “in that it brushes the system out.” Then there’s soluble fibre (oats, beans, lentils), which she likens to a sponge: “It turns into this gel in your gut, and aids digestion and keeps us regular.” But that’s only part of the story, because fibre can also help lower cholesterol and stabilise blood sugar.

So, are you getting enough? “The aim is 25-30g fibre a day, but in reality most of us are maybe getting 15-18g,” Tew says, so we’ve got a little way to go. That said, some folk on the #fibremaxxing train have set their sights higher, which is where things can become problematic. “If you’re having too much fibre, you can end up feeling bloated, constipated or have abdominal pain,” she says, and that can occur when you increase your fibre intake too quickly: “The body needs time to get used to what’s happening.”

Got a culinary dilemma? Email feast@theguardian.com

Published: February 10, 2026, 1:00 pm

Houseplant hacks: is candle wax useful for taking cuttings?

There’s a new trend for propagating plants by dipping cuttings in melted wax. Is it worth all the faff?

The problem
Plants like pothos are easy to propagate. But the internet loves anything that resembles a scientific experiment, so now there’s a trend for using candle wax.

The hack
Putting a wax “cap” on a cutting is supposed to keep bacteria out and force new roots to sprout from the nodes above. In practice, you’re coating a wound that already knows how to heal, with a substance that does nothing to help it.

Published: February 10, 2026, 10:00 am

Say no to fake snow: the Austrian ski resort that likes to keep it real

Like many Alpine areas faced with declining snowfall, Villach had to make a difficult choice: bring in the snow cannons or reinvent itself

Walking up a winding trail in the Dobratsch nature park in Carinthia, surrounded by picturesque snowy slopes dotted with pines, we hear shrieks coming from round the corner. The path is as wide as a one-way street but Birgit Pichorner, the park ranger I’m taking a tour with, motions for me to move to the side, where we watch a couple with wide grins glide past on a wooden toboggan.

We have seen families out hiking with young children and speed walkers pacing for the summit, while on a trail above us, four skiers are zigzagging up one of the nature park’s designated ski touring routes. For residents of Villach, the southern Austrian town at the foot of Dobratsch, this is very much their Hausberg, a much-loved “locals’ mountain”, says Birgit.

Published: February 10, 2026, 7:00 am

Gentrification is pricing artists out of New York, threatening its cultural edge

The city’s artist population has fallen for the first time in decades, a report finds, for want of affordable housing

Rowynn Dumont, a curator, painter, photographer and writer, lived in about 25 places around the world before settling in New York in 2017.

“It’s where my community and the art world infrastructure already were,” said Dumont.

Published: February 10, 2026, 4:00 pm

‘So shameful’: backlash as US national monuments conform to Trump’s rewrite of history

From Pennsylvania to Montana, the White House’s war on ‘woke’ has targeted US monuments that address topics like racism and Indigenous history

Blank spaces now exist where a series of panels about enslavement once appeared on the walls of the President’s House in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The site, which honors the home of George Washington and John Adams, is a major landmark that bore artwork and informational signs for more than a decade. But on 22 January, National Park Service (NPS) workers used hand tools to pry off 34 panels to comply with a presidential executive order designed to reframe the national narrative. The panels that highlighted the lives of people enslaved by George Washington when Philadelphia was the US capital in the 1790s are now in storage.

The removal is one of several across the nation, as NPS staff aim to conform with Donald Trump’s executive order “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History” issued on 27 March 2025. Public markers, monuments and statues that the Trump administration considers disparaging to past or current Americans have been flagged at more than a dozen parks. Two exhibits at Montana’s Little Bighorn battlefield national monument that discuss Indigenous history and the Battle of the Little Bighorn have been targeted and deemed noncompliant. Additionally, signage about climate change at Muir Woods national monument in California and visitor brochures at Medgar and Myrlie Evers home national monument in Mississippi that referred to Medgar Evers’s killer as racist were also removed.

Published: February 10, 2026, 3:00 pm

‘We feel kinda bad when a solo bird shows up’: Canada sees its first European robin – but how did it get there?

Birdwatchers flock to Montréal for rare sighting of ‘vagrant’ bird that has made its home during a bitterly cold winter

On a quiet Montréal street of low-rise brick apartment buildings on one side and cement barrier wall on the other, a crowd has gathered, binoculars around their necks and cameras at the ready. A European robin has taken up residence in the neighbourhood, which is sandwiched between two industrial areas with warehouses and railway lines and, a few blocks away, port facilities on the St Lawrence River.

Ron Vandebeek from Ottawa, Ontario, is here on a frigid February morning hoping to see the rare bird, which was first spotted at the beginning of January.

Published: February 10, 2026, 12:00 pm

Tell us: what is your top piece of relationship advice?

Ahead of Valentine’s Day, we want to hear from readers on their one top tip for healthy romantic relationships

There is a lot of free relationship advice out there, much of it conflicting:

“Never go to sleep angry.”

Published: February 10, 2026, 3:00 pm

People living in Cuba: tell us how you are affected by the fuel blockade

Cancelled flights and petrol shortages are disrupting daily life across the island. We want to hear from people living in Cuba about what it’s like right now

Severe fuel shortages are disrupting daily life across Cuba after the US tightened its oil blockade on the island. International flights have been cancelled and petrol stations have closed with people reportedly struggling to access fuel.

The US has threatened any country that sends oil to Cuba with increased tariffs, claiming the island’s government is a threat to US national security and comes amid wider tensions between Havana and the Trump administration.

Published: February 11, 2026, 10:23 am

Displaced Palestinians, protests and the pope: photos of the day – Wednesday

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

Published: February 11, 2026, 2:32 pm