'Long johns for my fingers': what people are wearing in the world's coldest places

Whether dog-sledding in Mongolia or braving grocery store trips in Alaska’s 40mph winds, these writers recommend the gear they swear by

• Eight winter clothing essentials Scandinavians swear by – from heated socks to ‘allværsjakke’

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In New York City’s winter months, I’m bundling up for runs and throwing on layers for the office. But compared to Alaska’s glacial mountains and Finland’s snowy forests, the streets of Manhattan are practically a tropical paradise.

If anyone knows exactly what to wear to stay warm in cold weather, it’s the people who live in these places. So I asked seven writers who reside in some of the coldest cities on Earth to recommend the gear they swear by. One writer in Mongolia wore a pair of foot warmers on a nine-day dog sledding adventure. Another in Winnipeg, Canada, shared a pair of gloves she’s dubbed “long johns for your fingers”.

Eight winter clothing essentials Scandinavians swear by – from heated socks to ‘allværsjakke’

I run over 20 miles a week in the winter. Here’s everything I wear to stay warm

The best winter gloves are two pairs, actually (and one is hiding at Home Depot)

Published: January 15, 2026, 8:15 pm

The FBI’s raid of journalist’s home was the product of decades of backsliding | Seth Stern and Chip Gibbons

The trend of invading newsrooms, in violation of federal law, has now spread to the highest levels of the federal government

The raid of a journalist’s home, along with the jailing of their alleged source, are shocking acts of authoritarianism. And they are in line with Trump’s willingness to use the national security state as a weapon against the press, which is a serious threat to our democracy. But those weapons were not invented by Trump nor did he pioneer their use against free press.

The raid of Hannah Natanson, is a shocking escalation, not a rupture. The United States has been backsliding to this point – at both the federal and local levels – for quite some time.

Seth Stern is the director of advocacy at Freedom of the Press Foundation and a first amendment lawyer

Chip Gibbons is the policy director of Defending Rights & Dissent. A journalist and researcher focusing on the US national security state, Gibbons is currently working on The Imperial Bureau, forthcoming from Verso Books; based heavily on archival research and documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act

Published: January 15, 2026, 1:00 pm

AI as a life coach: experts share what works, what doesn’t and what to look out for

It’s becoming more common for people to use AI chatbots for personal guidance – but this doesn’t come without risks

• Sign up for our free newsletter course on how to make AI work for you

If you’re like a lot of people, you’ve probably ditched your new year resolutions by now. Setting goals is hard; keeping them is harder – and failure can bring about icky feelings about yourself.

This year, in an effort to game the system and tilt the scales toward success, some people used AI for their 2026 resolutions. It’s the latest step in an ongoing trend: in September 2025, OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, released findings showing that using the AI chatbot for personal guidance is very common.

Published: January 15, 2026, 5:00 pm

From Dylan to disco, Beyoncé to Bob Marley: the 30 best live albums ever – ranked!

Peter Frampton’s Frampton Comes Alive!, one of the bestselling live albums of all time, is turning 50. You won’t find that on this list, however: instead there’s metal, soul, and an ‘indecently exciting’ No 1 …

Already stars in Black America, Maze became the ultimate if-you-know-you-know band among British fans of underground soul thanks to Live in New Orleans. It perfectly encapsulated their appeal: smooth but not slick, an awesomely tight band making breezily relaxed music, one fantastic song after another.

Published: January 15, 2026, 3:00 pm

Each NFL playoff team’s fatal flaw: the Bills’ run defense to the Sam Darnold problem

The eight remaining teams all have elements of brilliance. But they also have weaknesses that could send them crashing out of the postseason

Defending the run has long been a sore spot for the Bills – they finished the season 25th in defensive rush success rate. Inside, they lack mass, and are too easily pushed around by teams committed to a smashmouth approach. Outside, they struggle with discipline and technique. Against Jacksonville last weekend, both fell apart. The Jaguars rushed for 154 yards, with 119 of those yards coming on outside runs. It was the Jags’ highest total on outside runs this season. This weekend, against a Broncos offense that is happy to punch anyone in the mouth, that could put the Bills in a lot of trouble.

Published: January 15, 2026, 10:00 am

Has Joe Rogan fully soured on Trump’s presidency?

With a huge audience and serving as an avatar for millions of centrist Americans, Rogan compares ICE raids to Gestapo

Joe Rogan’s comparison of US immigration raids to Gestapo operations, made during a podcast episode earlier this week, has sparked speculation about whether the wildly popular podcaster, who endorsed Donald Trump in 2024, has fully soured on Trump’s presidency – and what that might say of the millions of mainly young men who listen to Rogan’s show.

Rogan’s views, as expressed in the podcast discussion, were more complicated than the Gestapo remark taken alone might make them seem. Yet even his more measured skepticism about Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids feels somewhat significant, given Rogan’s cultural status and the evidence that Americans in general are turning against Trump’s hardline anti-immigration efforts.

Published: January 15, 2026, 1:00 pm

ACLU sues Trump administration over ‘racial profiling and unlawful arrests’ in Minnesota ICE surge

Civil rights organization says federal immigration agents are violating US citizens’ constitutional rights

The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, accusing federal immigration authorities in Minnesota of racial profiling and unlawful arrests amid widespread Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids.

In a 72-page lawsuit filed on Thursday on behalf of three community members who are all US citizens, the ACLU accused federal immigration agents of violating citizens’ constitutional rights, arguing that Somali and Latino communities in the state have been disproportionately targeted.

Published: January 15, 2026, 11:02 pm

María Corina Machado says she presented Trump with her Nobel peace prize medal

The Venezuelan opposition leader did not confirm whether the US president accepted the award

The Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado has said she “presented” her gold Nobel peace prize medal to Donald Trump after meeting him in the White House, nearly a fortnight after he ordered the abduction of Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro.

Machado, who received the award last year for her struggle against Maduro’s “brutal, authoritarian state”, told reporters on Thursday she had done so “in recognition [of] his unique commitment [to] our freedom”.

Published: January 16, 2026, 1:39 am

‘Absolutely no detail’: experts alarmed as Trump unveils healthcare plan

Months after Trump spoke of ‘concepts of a plan’, framework offers few specifics – and could stall in Congress

Donald Trump has finally unveiled his long-awaited framework for healthcare affordability, almost a year and a half after announcing during a pre-election presidential debate that he had the “concepts of a plan” for healthcare reform.

The short document, titled the Great Healthcare Plan, provides four headline objectives, but few specific details as to how they will be achieved.

Published: January 15, 2026, 8:43 pm

Greenland’s defence is ‘common concern’ for Nato, Danish PM says as European troops fly in

British troops among those to take part in joint exercises as Trump’s desire to own Greenland still ‘intact’ despite talks

The Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, has said Greenland’s defence is a “common concern” for the whole of Nato, as troops started arriving from across Europe as a result of Donald Trump’s threats to take the Arctic island by force.

Troops from France, Germany, the UK, Norway and Sweden, among others, were on their way to Greenland, a largely autonomous territory of the kingdom of Denmark, on Thursday. Denmark also announced it would be increasing its military presence.

Published: January 15, 2026, 12:51 pm

Gulf states and Turkey warned Trump strikes on Iran could lead to major conflict

US allies’ lobbying appears to have helped persuade president to hold off for now on military assault

Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey and Oman urged Donald Trump not to launch airstrikes against Iran in a last-minute lobbying campaign prompted by fears that an attack by Washington would lead to a major and intractable conflict across the Middle East.

The warnings of chaos from the longstanding US allies appear to have helped persuade Trump late on Wednesday to hold off for the moment on a military assault. In the case of Saudi Arabia, its reticence led it to deny the US use of its airspace to mount any attacks.

Published: January 15, 2026, 5:39 pm

US says it reached deal with Taiwan to lower tariffs and boost investments

US to lower tariffs on Taiwanese goods to 15% as chip and tech businesses pledge $250bn spending in US operations

The US said on Thursday that it had signed a deal with Taiwan to reduce tariffs on goods from the democratic island, while increasing Taiwanese semiconductor and tech companies’ investments in America.

The agreement, the US commerce department said, “will drive a massive reshoring of America’s semiconductor sector”.

Published: January 15, 2026, 10:07 pm

San Francisco to make childcare free for families earning up to $230,000

Officials to offer 50% subsidy up to $310,000 in effort to make one of world’s most expensive cities more affordable

San Francisco will offer free childcare to families earning less than $230,000 a year, and a 50% subsidy to those earning up to $310,000, in an expansion of the city’s childcare offerings designed to make one of the world’s most expensive cities more affordable for residents.

San Francisco’s mayor, Daniel Lurie, announced the initiative as part of his “Family Opportunity Agenda” on Wednesday, alongside a package of housing, education, food, healthcare, transportation and other programs focused on affordability.

Published: January 15, 2026, 9:49 pm

Elon Musk’s xAI datacenter generating extra electricity illegally, regulator rules

Win for Memphis activists who say ‘Colossus’ facilities add extra pollution to already overburdened communities

A US regulator ruled on Thursday that Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company had acted illegally by using dozens of methane gas turbines to power massive data centers in Tennessee.

xAI has been fighting for a year and a half over truck-sized gas turbines the company had parked near its Colossus 1 and 2 facilities, arguing to local authorities that the electricity-generating turbines were exempt from requirements for air quality permits.

Published: January 16, 2026, 12:09 am

Harry Styles announces fourth solo album, Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally

After a series of cryptic billboards teasing fans, the As It Was singer reveals the title and release date of his first record since 2022

After a brief teaser campaign in which billboards around the world promised “we belong together” and “see you very soon”, Harry Styles has announced his fourth solo album.

Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally will be released on 6 March. It was produced by Kid Harpoon, the British songwriter and producer who has worked on all of Styles’ previous albums. The artwork shows the 31-year-old pop star wearing sunglasses and ducking beneath a disco ball seemingly suspended from the night sky.

Published: January 15, 2026, 5:02 pm

Trump news at a glance: The medal may be in Trump’s hands, but peace prize is not his, Nobel officials say

Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado ‘presented’ her Nobel prize to Trump in White House meeting – key US politics stories from Thursday 15 January at a glance

In an apparent attempt to win back Donald Trump’s favour, Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado told reporters she had “presented” her gold Nobel peace prize medal to the US president during a private meeting at the White House on Thursday.

Machado, who received the award last year for her struggle against Nicolás Maduro’s “brutal, authoritarian state”, told reporters she had done so “in recognition [of] his unique commitment [to] our freedom”. It was not immediately clear whether Trump had accepted the gift.

Published: January 16, 2026, 2:00 am

Judge allows offshore windfarm halted by Trump to resume construction

Setback for president, who has called windfarms ‘losers’, as Empire Wind project allowed to move forward

A federal judge on Thursday cleared the way for a New York offshore wind project to resume construction, a victory for the developer who said a Trump administration order to pause it would probably kill the project in a matter of days.

District judge Carl J Nichols, an appointee of Donald Trump, ruled construction on the Empire Wind project could go forward while he considers the merits of the government’s order to suspend the project. He faulted the government for not responding to key points in Empire Wind’s court filings, including the contention that the administration violated proper procedure.

Published: January 15, 2026, 10:22 pm

Trump press secretary launches tirade against reporter who asked about ICE

Karoline Leavitt brands journalist who asked about deaths in ICE custody and killing of Renee Good ‘a leftwing activist’

The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, accused a reporter of being a “leftwing activist” during a heated confrontation on Thursday over the killing of Renee Good by an ICE agent last week.

Beginning his question during the White House press briefing, Niall Stanage, a White House columnist for the Hill, referred to the Trump administration’s staunch defense of ICE agents and the assertion by the homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, that ICE are “doing everything correctly”. He pointed to statistics showing that last year 32 people died in ICE custody and 170 US citizens were detained by ICE, before noting that Good was “shot in the head and killed by an ICE agent”.

Published: January 15, 2026, 10:27 pm

Trump ally and ICE deputy director resigns to run for Congress in Ohio

Madison Sheahan was appointed to DHS position in March despite having no law enforcement experience

Madison Sheahan, a Trump ally and the second-ranking official at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), said on Thursday she was ditching her leadership position to run for Congress in Ohio.

The 28-year-old, who describes herself as a “Trump conservative”, announced her candidacy in a video in which she highlighted the agency’s expansion under her tenure.

Published: January 15, 2026, 8:38 pm

Kids with brain cancer were already in a life and death struggle. Then came Trump

The US president vowed to ‘end childhood cancer’. But his administration is dismantling the search for a cure and sending families scrambling for treatment

For seven years, Jenn Janosko cared for children with cancer on the ninth floor of New York’s Memorial Sloan Kettering hospital.

It’s the happiest sad place she knows.

Published: January 15, 2026, 11:00 am

How ‘day zero’ water shortages in Iran are fuelling protests

Supply failures are dramatic example of way climate crisis threatens basic human needs – and with it political stability

• Iran protests – live updates

Gripped by a terrible drought now entering its sixth year, Iran’s cities are on the brink of what its meteorological organisation calls “water day zero”: the boundary beyond which supply systems no longer function. This was crossed by Chennai in India in summer 2019 and is now threatening Mashhad, Tabriz and Tehran, where taps in the city’s southern districts had already run dry by early December.

Nightly “pressure cuts”, in which the water supply is halted to whole districts in the capital, have become the norm. Protesters demanding “Water, electricity, life – our basic right” over the summer were already risking a clampdown.

Published: January 15, 2026, 11:00 am

Greenland: new shipping routes, hidden minerals – and a frontline between the US and Russia?

Key maps show the growing strategic importance of Greenland as Arctic ice melts under global heating

Lying between the US and Russia, Greenland has become a critical frontline as the Arctic opens up because of global heating.

Its importance has been underscored by Donald Trump openly considering the US taking the island from its Nato partner Denmark, either by buying it, or by force.

Published: January 15, 2026, 12:10 pm

The Rip review – Ben Affleck and Matt Damon tear through flashy Netflix bro thriller

The longtime friends and colleagues add weight to Joe Carnahan’s enjoyably boisterous Friday night crowdpleaser

January has long been a B-movie buffet for those exhausted by prestige awards bait, a month when Gerard Butler and Jason Statham are suddenly commanding wide releases and often No 1 mini-hits. But as the former’s apocalyptic sequel Greenland 2: Migration lingers in the top five and the latter’s action romp Shelter prepares to premiere, we find two more prominent stars – Oscar winners Ben Affleck and Matt Damon – resigned to the small screen instead.

In a non-Netflix world, a film like The Rip – flashy, action-heavy, led by two household names – should be available this weekend on the biggest high-format screens across the country. But then in that same world, at this particular time, it’s doubtful that a film like this would even get made, granted a budget that’s reportedly close to $100m, highly unusual for R-rated non-IP. The streamer was, in fact, so keen to get it made that it has briefly agreed to change its pay structure, allowing Affleck and Damon to bring across their profit-sharing Artists Equity rule, by which each member of the cast and crew gets a bonus if the film performs well. So, as with many films at this weird moment, it’s a take-what-you-can-get situation and while it would have been preferable to see a film like this, which looks and feels like it was made in 2002, on the big screen, the landscape has dictated that the small will have to do.

Published: January 16, 2026, 12:00 am

‘Soon after my baby’s birth came a bottle of champagne’: readers remember Alan Rickman

Following the anniversary of the actor’s death, fans recall his joy at a train platform mishap, enthusing about experimental theatre and an embarrassed double-take

• ‘I fell in love with him on the spot’: friends remember Alan Rickman, 10 years after his death

One of the highlights of my late wife’s life involved Alan Rickman. Returning to university in Manchester in the mid-90s for a new term, she was attempting to put on an enormous rucksack full of books (she did English). As she managed to get the thing on, she experienced an error in balance, fell backwards and laid on the platform, wiggling her arms and legs like an inverted tortoise, unable to move.

Published: January 15, 2026, 2:22 pm

Melissa Leo: ‘Winning an Oscar was not good for me or my career’

The actor answers your questions on her preference for playing goodies or baddies, kissing Denzel Washington and sneaking a nap on set

Why didn’t you insist on a “must kiss Denzel” scene in your two Equalizer films? nivlek47
Well, if you go back to the first Equalizer, he comes to my character seeking permission to do his “equalizing”. I’d been his boss and trained him, so kissing him would be highly inappropriate. However, if somebody is looking to see me kiss Mr Washington, please whisper that into his ear.

I hear you’re a big fan of knitting. What’s been your greatest knitted creation? TopTramp
The knitting has been eclipsed by pottery the past three years. I go to a local pottery studio, do what I can on a wheel, and get my creativity out there. The knitting was a wonderful thing. I’d make simple squares without having to count stitches, then sew them all together. I must have made about a dozen blankets, most of which are still in a trunk upstairs. If I get another job in television – which I hope I do – that has you sitting around quite a bit, so knitting is a good mobile craft.

Published: January 15, 2026, 1:01 pm

‘A nasty little song, really rather evil’: how Every Breath You Take tore Sting and the Police apart

Sting and his former bandmates go to the high court over a royalties dispute this week – the latest chapter in the song’s remarkably fractious story

This week’s high court hearings between Sting and his former bandmates in the Police, Stewart Copeland and Andy Summers, are the latest chapter in the life of a song whose negative energy seems to have seeped out into real life.

Every Breath You Take is the subject of a lawsuit filed by Copeland and Summers against Sting, alleging that he owes them royalties linked to their contributions to the hugely popular song, particularly from streaming earnings, estimated at $2m (£1.5m) in total. Sting’s legal team have countered that previous agreements between him and his bandmates regarding their royalties from the song do not include streaming revenue – and argued in pre-trial documents that the pair may have been “substantially overpaid”. In the hearing’s opening day, it was revealed that since the lawsuit was filed, Sting has paid them $870,000 (£647,000) to redress what his lawyer called “certain admitted historic underpayments”. But there are still plenty of future potential earnings up for debate.

Published: January 15, 2026, 6:00 am

Seth Meyers on ICE: ‘An army of out-of-shape uncles’

Late-night hosts discussed the bare minimum standards for new ICE recruits wreaking havoc in US communities

Late-night hosts talked cratering public opinion on the Trump administration’s deployment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in US communities and the president’s apparent preference for whole milk.

Published: January 15, 2026, 4:26 pm

Here in Greenland we are scared, but certain of one thing: our home is not for sale | Malu Rosing

A summit between Greenland, Denmark and Washington has done nothing to calm our fears as the US steps up its efforts to take control of my country

The year has started out in familiar fashion for Kalaallit – the people of Greenland. The US president has once again threatened to take control of the world’s biggest island, just like he did back in 2019 and in 2024/25. Yet it feels different this time.

This time it seems as if there are more concrete plans being shaped within the Trump administration to annex Greenland. Trump wants to “take” it “whether they like it or not”, as he stated at a recent White House press conference. And the only option he seems to be offering currently is to do it “either the nice way or the more difficult way” – whatever that means. These are obviously plans for the forceful theft of Indigenous land and a self-governing territory; they are loud threats against our democracy – threats that are coming directly from the US president, again and again, through the media. That is scary. And the Greenlandic people do not feel safe.

Malu Rosing is a Greenlandic writer and an Arctic adviser

Published: January 15, 2026, 12:11 pm

US sports say parity is essential for success. The Premier League proves that’s untrue | Leander Schaerlaeckens

There are no salary caps and no luxury taxes, yet the world’s most-watched soccer league is only getting more balanced

David Stern used to tell a joke. In his early years as NBA commissioner, he liked to say, his job was essentially to travel back and forth between Boston and Los Angeles to hand out the championship trophy. In the first five NBA Finals after he took the helm in early 1984, the Celtics and Lakers won all five titles, each missing the decisive series just once.

Current commissioner Adam Silver recalled the anecdote last June, ahead of the 2025 NBA Finals, by which time the league was guaranteed a seventh different champion in seven years. “We set out to create a system that allowed for more competition around the league,” Silver said then in his annual news conference. “The goal being to have 30 teams all in the position, if well managed, to compete for championships. And that’s what we’re seeing here.”

Published: January 15, 2026, 11:00 am

I know the terrible cost of speaking out in Iran – and I beg the world to stand with those speaking out now | Nasrin Parvaz

Survivors of the regime like me are reliving our nightmares as brave Iranians fight for their freedom. They say they have nothing to lose but their chains

It has been more than 40 years since I was imprisoned in Iran for speaking out against human rights abuses and state executions, and for defending women’s rights. I spent eight years behind bars in Iran’s notorious Evin prison. I was tortured. I remember it as if it happened yesterday.

Every few years, uprisings erupt across Iran – and each wave of resistance is deeper and more widespread than the one before. In 2022, it was women who led the Woman, Life, Freedom movement after the murder of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini by the country’s “morality police”, and it revolutionised my country. Today, women wear what they want, go out in public with their boyfriends – even live with them – without fear of being arrested. Women earned these rights with their lives. In late December 2025, the spark was once again lit – this time in an old bazaar in Tehran.

Nasrin Parvaz is a women’s rights activist and torture survivor from Iran. Her books include A Prison Memoir: One Woman’s Struggle in Iran, and the novel The Secret Letters from X to A

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: January 15, 2026, 5:25 pm

Whether or not Trump invades Greenland, this much is clear: the western order we once knew is history | Timothy Garton Ash

The EU must be more robust in order to stem the tide of international disorder, or it risks falling to authoritarian imperialism

Donald Trump is threatening to take over Greenland, the territory of a Nato ally, possibly by military force, as Vladimir Putin is trying to take over Ukraine. Even if he doesn’t actually do it, this is a new era: a post-western world of illiberal international disorder.

The task now for liberal democracies in general, and Europe in particular, is twofold: to see this world as it is and to work out what the hell we’re going to do about it.

Timothy Garton Ash is a historian, political writer and Guardian columnist

Published: January 15, 2026, 8:00 am

My Danish-Indian family has experienced empire first-hand. For all of us, Trump’s imperialism is terrifying | Mira Kamdar

The US I grew up in was built on the rule of law. Now my Indian-born dad is scared ICE will take him from his American care home

As an American of mixed Danish and Indian heritage, who is also a citizen of France and, therefore, of the EU, Donald Trump’s contempt for the rule of law fills me with dread. “I don’t need international law,” he boasted on 7 January in an interview with the New York Times. For Louis XIV, it was “L’état, c’est moi”. For Trump, it’s the “Donroe doctrine”, or “the western hemisphere is mine for whatever profit I and my elite group of loyal courtiers can wring from it”.

At the same time, Trump’s honesty about his intention to use the astonishing military power he wields for unfettered plunder is at least refreshing. No more American pieties to democracy and human rights. The world hasn’t seen this kind of unabashed dedication to amassing wealth since the British East India Company. All hail the new king emperor! Or else.

Mira Kamdar is a Paris-based writer and author of India in the 21st Century. She writes Mixed Borders on Substack

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: January 15, 2026, 5:00 am

The Guardian view on Trump’s world: from Venezuela to Iran to Greenland, the madness is the method | Editorial

The US president delights in his inconsistency. But his short-term victories have profound long-term costs for his country and the world

The Middle East was braced on Wednesday night, but the anxious petitioning of Gulf states and Iran’s attempts to appease the US president appeared to win out – at least for the moment. No bombs fell on Tehran. After all his threats, and with military options under discussion in Washington, Donald Trump stepped back, announcing that “the killing [of protesters] has stopped”.

Despite the telecommunications blackout, it seems clear that a ruthless regime has shed still more blood than in previous protest crackdowns. Rights groups say that thousands have been killed and vast numbers arrested; one official spoke of 2,000 deaths. Witnesses compared the streets to a war zone. If the large-scale killings have indeed ebbed, that is probably because Iranians have been terrified out of the streets – for now, at least. Iran’s foreign minister chose Fox News to insist no hangings were imminent, in case the identity of the message’s one-man audience was in any doubt. But while retribution may have been postponed, it will not be cancelled as it should be: the calls for the regime’s downfall are seen as an existential threat. The Iranian authorities can wait. Mr Trump will move on.

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: January 15, 2026, 7:09 pm

Premier League: 10 things to look out for this weekend

Chelsea need to avoid long-throw blues, plus: a vacant spot for Liverpool and West Ham’s best hope for survival

• Race for the golden boot: Premier League top scorers

Can the 198th derby be any spicier for Manchester United and their latest interim manager, Michael Carrick? This is his second caretaker tenure though the three games of November-December 2021 (beating Villarreal and Arsenal, drawing with Chelsea) hardly compares to sending out an XI to try to beat Manchester City in Saturday’s early kick-off. Pep Guardiola’s high-performing unit remain in contention on all fronts. Carrick takes charge of a United suffering the aftershocks of a latest manager sacking, hoping to salvage the season via European qualification. The lad from Wallsend has 17 games to do so – his new team are in seventh place on 32 points, so victory over City would be a fine start. But you wonder if the match might end with Carrick and United humbled or, even worse, humiliated. Jamie Jackson

Manchester United v Manchester City, Saturday 12.30pm (all times GMT)

Chelsea v Brentford, Saturday 3pm

Leeds v Fulham, Saturday 3pm

Liverpool v Burnley, Saturday 3pm

Published: January 16, 2026, 12:00 am

Geopolitical football: Iran? Trump? How the game can stand strong in a fractured world

The 2026 World Cup is set to be a polarising event but, even if it will not be the first to be politically contentious, it will expose a growing unease

Five months out from the World Cup the politics are impossible to avoid. There are concerns relating to one of the host countries, the US, with armed immigration officials roaming through its cities and visa restrictions stepped up against foreign visitors. One qualifying nation, Iran, is experiencing a public uprising against its leadership, with the regime attacking its citizens in response. Among other qualifiers there are concerns over democratic backsliding in Tunisia, ecological crimes in Ecuador and , in the future host country Saudi Arabia. And that’s just for starters.

It sometimes feels as if this summer’s tournament, the one Gianni Infantino recently described as “the greatest show ever on planet Earth”, will serve as an inescapable reminder of the depressing state of the world in 2026. It could yet be an event that goes down in infamy. But it is hardly the only tournament to have prompted ethical concerns and serves as a reminder that the issue of how global sport should engage with such issues has remained largely unresolved.

Published: January 15, 2026, 7:56 pm

‘It’s a long and difficult dream’: João Fonseca on practice, patience and matching Sinner and Alcaraz

Brazilian teenage tennis sensation says he cannot control expectations but is looking forward to challenging the best again in 2026, starting at the Australian Open

‘My dream is to become world No 1, win grand slam titles and make history for Brazil,” João Fonseca says with simple purity as we reach the crux of his huge ambition. Fonseca is 19 and he makes that succinct list of his goals sound almost as casual as a few fun things a more ordinary teenager might aim to do this weekend. But Fonseca is different.

He is a generational talent who, in recent years, has been spoken of as a future superstar amid predictions that he might have the best chance of denting the dominant hold that Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner exert over men’s tennis. But, as time in Fonseca’s company proves, he is remarkably grounded and mature for his age. Those attributes underline his credentials far more effectively than the hype that has trailed him.

Published: January 15, 2026, 8:00 pm

Tour de France reveals the six UK stage plans for historic 2027 Grands Départs

• British roads will host the start of both races next year

• First time both Grands Départs have been outside France

The men’s Tour de France will start in Scotland for the first time in 2027 and make its first visit to Wales when Britain stages the Grand Départ of the men’s and women’s races in the biggest festival of elite cycling on the isles since London 2012.

Across six days of racing on British roads, the men’s Tour will visit Edinburgh, Carlisle, Keswick, Liverpool, Welshpool and Cardiff, while the Tour de France Femmes races from Leeds to Manchester, then to Sheffield and also includes a central London stage. On Thursday night all host cities were illuminated by yellow beams in recognition of them staging the Tour.

Published: January 15, 2026, 6:01 pm

College basketball players among 26 charged in ‘international criminal’ betting scheme

• Games allegedly fixed as recently as last season

• ‘Bribe payments’ said to be up to $30,000

A sprawling betting scheme to rig NCAA and Chinese Basketball Association games has led to charges against 26 people, including more than a dozen college basketball players who tried to fix games as recently as last season, federal prosecutors said on Thursday.

The scheme generally revolved around fixers recruiting players with the promise of a big payment in exchange for those players purposefully underperforming during a game, prosecutors said. The fixers then placed large bets against those players’ teams, defrauding sportsbooks and other bettors, according to the indictment unsealed on Thursday.

Published: January 15, 2026, 4:12 pm

Katie Ledecky clocks second-fastest 1500m free ever in Pro Swim win

• Ledecky posts second-fastest 1500m time ever

• American wins by more than a minute in Austin

• Finke, McIntosh and Marchand also shine

Nine-time Olympic gold medalist Katie Ledecky clocked the second-fastest women’s 1500m freestyle time in history on Wednesday to launch the US Pro Swim Series event in Austin, Texas, with a dominant victory.

Ledecky was untouchable as she cruised to victory in 15min 23.21sec, more than a minute in front of 16-year-old runner-up Brinkleigh Hansen, who touched in 16:31.31.

Published: January 15, 2026, 7:19 am

Canada cleared of US allegations they rigged skeleton qualifying for Winter Olympics

• US athlete said she was deliberately deprived of points

• Investigation says Canada acted within rules

Canada’s skeleton team have been cleared of allegations they rigged a qualifying event for the Winter Olympics and denied rival athletes the chance to qualify for next month’s Games.

USA’s Katie Uhlaender, a five-time Winter Olympian in skeleton, accused the Canadian team of deliberately pulling four of its six athletes from a race in Lake Placid, New York, last weekend in order to make it harder for athletes from other countries to qualify. The reduced field meant fewer qualifying points were available and Uhlaender, who won the event, did not secure her place at this year’s Milano Cortina Games in Italy. Uhlaender claims Joe Cecchini, the head coach of Canada’s skeleton team, told her he had come up with the scheme.

Published: January 15, 2026, 1:25 pm

US appeals court reverses decision that freed Mahmoud Khalil from ICE detention

Ruling delivers victory to Trump administration in its efforts to deport the pro-Palestinian activist

• People affected by the US visa freeze: share your experience

A federal appeals court on Thursday reversed a lower court decision that ordered the release of the former Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil from immigration detention, delivering the Trump administration a victory in its efforts to deport the pro-Palestinian activist.

A 2-1 panel of the Philadelphia-based third US circuit court of appeals ordered the dismissal of a lawsuit Khalil filed challenging his detention after finding that federal immigration law stripped the lower court of jurisdiction over his claims.

Published: January 15, 2026, 5:02 pm

See how Victoria’s bushfires spread: a visual guide to the scale of devastation

Authorities and firefighters say the Victorian fires of January 2026 were unlike anything seen before in speed, scale and destruction. And they came much earlier than normal

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• A new fight for Victorian farmers – saving livestock that survived devastating bushfires

Victoria has been battered by some of the most destructive bushfires in its history, with blazes tearing through 400,000 hectares across the state and claiming the life of a cattle farmer, Maxwell Hobson. Almost 900 buildings have been destroyed, including more than 250 homes, and more than 15,000 livestock have been killed, along with countless wildlife.

Both authorities and firefighters on the ground have reported the fires were unlike anything seen before in their speed, scale and destruction. They also came much earlier than the traditional bushfire season, which typically peaks in February.

Published: January 16, 2026, 1:45 am

Rights groups hail acquittal after seven years of aid workers prosecuted during Greece refugee crisis

Lesbos court clears aid workers of people smuggling, a move Human Rights Watch called a vindication of their lifesaving activities at sea

Two dozen aid workers, who had faced up to 20 years in prison if found guilty of smuggling migrants into Greece, have been acquitted by a court on Lesbos.

The verdict was met with cheers, tears and cries of jubilation as the presiding judge announced the words that would end a seven-year legal ordeal for the humanitarians. All 24 had engaged in rescue work on the Aegean island at the height of the refugee crisis.

Published: January 16, 2026, 12:12 am

More Democratic lawmakers say Trump DoJ is investigating them over military video

Three House members claim they’re being targeted for saying that troops don’t need to comply with illegal orders

Three House Democrats confirmed on Wednesday they have been approached by federal prosecutors investigating their participation in a November video about military duty, widening the circle of legislators being targeted by the Trump administration.

Representatives Jason Crow of Colorado, Maggie Goodlander of New Hampshire, and Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania disclosed that the US attorney’s office for the District of Columbia, led by Jeanine Pirro, had requested interviews about the 90-second video in which they said troops don’t need to comply with illegal orders.

Published: January 15, 2026, 3:58 pm

California refuses to extradite doctor over abortion pill: ‘Not today. Not ever’

Gavin Newsom says state will reject Louisiana’s ask, citing laws protecting providers from out-of-state prosecution

California will defy Louisiana’s request to extradite a doctor indicted for mailing abortion pills into the southern state, Gavin Newsom, California’s governor, said on Wednesday.

“Louisiana’s request is denied,” Newsom, a Democrat, said in a statement. “We will not allow extremist politicians from other states to reach into California and try to punish doctors based on allegations that they provided reproductive health care services. Not today. Not ever.”

Published: January 15, 2026, 4:02 pm

Boeing knew of engine defect on UPS plane that crashed in Kentucky, report says

US transportation safety board releases initial report on November 2025 crash that killed 15 people in Louisville

An engine part suspected of causing the crash of a UPS cargo plane and loss of 15 lives in Louisville in November was the subject of at least four previous failures on three separate aircraft, investigators have found.

A preliminary report by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) released on Wednesday determined that Boeing warned plane owners about the defect, but did not believe it was a flight safety issue and did not require immediate repairs.

Published: January 15, 2026, 2:40 pm

Spanish police break up gang that used swimmers to hide cocaine on ships

Almost 2.5 tonnes of narcotic seized and 30 people arrested after 15-month investigation into drug-smuggling network

• Falling price of cocaine forces drug traffickers to reuse narco-submarines, say Spanish police

Spanish police have arrested 30 people and seized almost 2.5 tonnes of cocaine after breaking up a criminal network that used teams of young swimmers to hide the drugs on moving, Europe-bound ships which were then attacked and relieved of their unwitting cargo before reaching port.

The 15-month investigation began in October 2024 when Policía Nacional officers found 88kg of cocaine in a vehicle in the southern Spanish town of Mijas. The drugs led them to three gangs, including a Balkan cartel, who were working together to bring huge quantities of cocaine into Spain from Colombia.

Published: January 15, 2026, 7:27 pm

Pesticides may drastically shorten fish lifespans, study finds

Even low levels of widely used agricultural chemicals were linked to accelerated ageing, research suggests

The lifespan of fish appears to be drastically reduced by pesticides, a study has found.

Even low levels of common agricultural pesticides can stunt the long-term lifespan of fish, according to research led by Jason Rohr, a biologist at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana.

Published: January 15, 2026, 7:00 pm

Africa’s great elephant divide: countries struggle with too many elephants – or too few

In countries such as South Sudan, the great herds have all but disappeared. But further south, conservation success mean increasing human-wildlife conflict

It is late on a January afternoon in the middle of South Sudan’s dry season, and the landscape, pricked with stubby acacias, is hazy with smoke from people burning the grasslands to encourage new growth. Even from the perspective of a single-engine ultralight aircraft, we are warned it will be hard to spot the last elephant in Badingilo national park, a protected area covering nearly 9,000 sq km (3,475 sq miles).

Technology helps – the 20-year-old bull elephant wears a GPS collar that pings coordinates every hour. The animal’s behaviour patterns also help; Badingilo’s last elephant is so lonely that it moves with a herd of giraffes.

Published: January 15, 2026, 5:00 am

Renaming US defense department the Department of War could cost $125m

Congressional Budget Office analysis says renaming – which Congress must approve – would cost US taxpayers millions

Renaming the Department of Defense the Department of War could cost US taxpayers as much as $125m depending on how broadly and quickly the change is made, according to an analysis released on Wednesday from the Congressional Budget Office.

Donald Trump signed an executive order in September that authorized the Department of War as a secondary title for the Pentagon. At the time, Trump said the switch was intended to signal to the world that the US was a force to be reckoned with, and he complained that the Department of Defense’s name was “woke”.

Published: January 15, 2026, 12:53 pm

US health officials reverse course and reinstate $1.9bn to mental health and substance use

Health department unexpectedly announced nearly $2bn in program cuts Tuesday before rolling back decision

US health officials reversed course and began reinstating nearly $2bn in cuts to mental health and substance use programs on Wednesday night, one day after they unexpectedly announced the immediate shutdown of programs.

The reversal is a blow to the agenda of Robert F Kennedy Jr, the secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services, who has made aggressive and legally contested cuts to health agencies in the first year of the Trump administration and has proposed folding the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (Samhsa) into a new agency he would call the Administration for a Healthy America (AHA).

Published: January 15, 2026, 2:04 pm

Alarm as Trump DoJ pushes for voter information on millions of Americans

Officials ask at least 43 states for sensitive details as critics fear effort to sow doubt about midterm election results

The justice department is undertaking an unprecedented effort to collect sensitive voter information about tens of millions of Americans, a push that relies on thin legal reasoning and which could be aimed at sowing doubt about the midterm election results this year.

The department has asked at least 43 states for their comprehensive information on voters, including the last four digits of their social security numbers, full dates of birth and addresses, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. Eight states have voluntarily turned over the information, according to the Brennan Center, and the department has sued 23 states and the District of Columbia for the information.

Published: January 15, 2026, 12:00 pm

New York bakery staff push for union, claiming they were forced to bake for Israeli fundraisers

Breads Bakery workers demand better pay and conditions and criticize chain for supporting ‘the genocide in Palestine’

Workers at popular New York City bakery chain Breads Bakery announced a move to unionize, claiming it has “underpaid, undervalued, disrespected, discriminated against, intimidated and hurt” staff, as well as supported “the genocide happening in Palestine”.

The company, which has ties to Israel, expressed concern that “divisive political issues” had been introduced into its stores. “We make babka; we don’t engage in politics,” a spokesperson said.

Published: January 15, 2026, 12:00 pm

Prado cannot be like ‘the Metro at rush hour’, says Madrid museum’s chief

Record 3.5 million visited in 2025 and plans are afoot to ensure gallery does not become overburdened like Louvre

The head of the Prado has said the Madrid art museum does not need “a single visitor more” after it welcomed a record 3.5 million people last year, adding that plans are being drawn up to ensure it does not become a victim of its own success like the Louvre in Paris.

In 2025 the Prado, which is home to such masterpieces as Velázquez’s Las Meninas and Hieronymus Bosch’s The Garden of Earthly Delights, was visited by 3,513,402 people, an increase of more than 56,000 from the previous year. Visitor numbers have risen by more than 816,000 over the past decade.

Published: January 15, 2026, 4:00 pm

‘It’s AI blackface’: social media account hailed as the Aboriginal Steve Irwin is an AI character created in New Zealand

More than 180,000 people follow the Bush Legend’s accounts across Meta platforms, but its Aboriginal host is a work of digital fiction

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With a mop of dark curls and brown eyes, Jarren stands in the thick of the Australian outback, red dirt at his feet, a snake unfurling in front of him.

In a series of online videos, the social media star, known online as the Bush Legend, walks through dense forests or drives along deserted roads on the hunt for wedge-tailed eagles. Many of the videos are set to pulsating percussion instruments and yidakis (didgeridoo).

Published: January 15, 2026, 2:00 pm

Controversial US study on hepatitis B vaccines in Africa is cancelled

$1.6m project drew outrage over ethical questions about withholding vaccines proven to prevent disease

The controversial US-funded study on hepatitis B vaccines among newborns in Guinea-Bissau has been halted, according to Yap Boum, a senior official at the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

“The study has been cancelled,” Boum told journalists at a press conference on Thursday morning.

Published: January 15, 2026, 6:11 pm

Dutch far-right activist Eva Vlaardingerbroek appears to lose right to UK visa-free travel

Influencer, who promotes conspiracy theories and anti-immigration rhetoric, posts notification that her ETA has been cancelled

A Dutch anti-immigration influencer who has promoted conspiracy theories such as the “great replacement” appears to have had her authorisation for visa-free travel to the UK revoked.

Eva Vlaardingerbroek posted an image online of what appeared to be a notification from the British government that her UK electronic travel authorisation (ETA) had been cancelled on Tuesday.

Published: January 15, 2026, 3:30 pm

‘​How do you really tell the truth about this moment?’: George Saunders on ghosts, mortality and Trump’s America

The Lincoln in the Bardo author is back with another metaphysical tale. He discusses Buddhism, partisan politics and the terrifying flight that changed his life

Like his first novel, Lincoln in the Bardo, which won the Booker prize in 2017, George Saunders’s new novel is a ghost story. In Vigil, an oil tycoon who spent a lifetime covering up the scientific evidence for climate change is visited on his deathbed by a host of spirits, who force him to grapple with his legacy. What draws Saunders to ghost stories? “If I had us talking here in a story and I allowed a ghost in from the 1940s, I might be more interested in it. It might be because they are in fact here,” he says, gesturing to the hotel lobby around us. “Or even if it’s not ghosts, we both have memories of people we love who have passed. They are here, in a neurologically very active way.” A ghost story can feel more “truthful”, he adds: “If you were really trying to tell the truth about this moment, would you so confidently narrow it to just today?”

Ghosts also invite us to confront our mortality and, in so doing, force a new perspective on life: what remains once you strip away the meaningless, day-to-day distractions in which we tend to lose ourselves? “Death, to me, has always been a hot topic,” Saunders says. “It’s so unbelievable that it will happen to us, too. And I suppose as you get older it becomes more …” he puts on a goofy voice: “interesting”. He is 67, grizzled and avuncular, surprisingly softly spoken for a writer who talks so loudly – and with such freewheeling, wisecracking energy – on the page. He says death is close to becoming a “preoccupation” for him and he worries that he is not prepared for it.

Published: January 15, 2026, 11:00 am

From Anya Taylor-Joy to Jodie Comer: who will star in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo’s TV remake?

The previous actors to take the lead in Stieg Larsson’s franchise were excellent. So the successor to Noomi Rapace, Rooney Mara and Claire Foy is bound to be brilliant – whoever they are …

This week Sky announced that it will be remaking Stieg Larsson’s 2005 novel The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo as an eight-part television series. So far, all we know is that it will be set in the present day and will be written by Steve Lightfoot and Angela LaManna.

What we don’t know is who will play Lisbeth Salander, the aforementioned girl with the dragon tattoo. And this will be a big deal, because previous screen adaptations of Larsson’s books have made stars of whoever was cast as Salander. In 2009’s Swedish adaptation, she was played by Noomi Rapace, who was nominated for a Bafta. In David Fincher’s 2011 remake, she was played by Rooney Mara, who was nominated for an Oscar. And in 2018’s The Girl in the Spider’s Web adaptation, she was played by Claire Foy, who wasn’t nominated for a Bafta or an Oscar, but was still very good.

Published: January 15, 2026, 2:41 pm

Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials review – think Downton Abbey is real? This terrible adaptation is for you

Martin Freeman does his best to lift this three-parter, but it feels like Enid Blyton – made for an international market that thinks Paddington Bear is holding the queen’s hand in heaven

‘Tis the season, just, for your annual Agatha Christie. In recent years, the adaptations have been infused with the grief and instability of the postwar backdrop against which they all exist, and been given rich, dark, adult inflections by Sarah Phelps for the BBC.

The latest, however, is for Netflix by Chris Chibnall and we are back in the world of period costume, clipped vowels and dialogue infused with nothing but plot, designed to get the puzzle pieces recited into the right position for the next bit then the next bit then the solving – this time at the end of three very hour-long episodes.

Published: January 15, 2026, 8:01 am

Clickbait review – gripping drama about the human cost of moderating the internet

A social media content moderator becomes obsessed with a violent video in this restrained, unsettling workplace thriller starring Lili Reinhart

Here is a workplace drama, of sorts. Like many people, Daisy (Lili Reinhart) works a desk job using a computer. Unlike most people, fainting at work is a rite of passage; she moderates videos on social media that have been reported for violating the terms of service. That means watching everything from horrible porn to horrible politics to horrible accidents and everything in between, a non-stop diet of videos with titles such as “fetus in blender” or “strangulation but she doesn’t die”.

Her boss takes her to task for deleting a graphic video showing a suicide, which supposedly has news value and should have been left up. But the tipping point for Daisy is a really nasty video titled “nailed it”, which shows violence and cruelty that she believes is real and non-consensual. So begins a low-key quest to track down the perpetrator, though she is far from sure what she will do when she finds them. Nor is she altogether sure why it is this particular video, of all the trash and hatred washing over her, day in, day out, that has inspired her obsession. Her colleagues and boss shrug off her concerns: this video is nothing special.

Published: January 15, 2026, 7:00 am

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy review – Holly Hunter is a transgressive thrill in this horny high-school spinoff

This hormone-fuelled tale of the training college for space voyagers is like Grange Hill, with phasers – and it has a female lead unlike any captain before

The original Star Trek TV series debuted in 1966, so trying to get your head round all the sequels, prequels and timeline-splitting spin-offs can often feel like homework. It was only a matter of time before the venerable sci-fi franchise used a school as a setting. But Starfleet Academy, the latest streaming series, is not some random cosmic polytechnic for aliens to study humanities or vice versa. This is the oft-referenced San Francisco space campus sited right next to the Golden Gate Bridge. With James T Kirk and Jean-Luc Picard on the alumni list, it is basically Hogwarts for wannabe starship captains.

Or at least it used to be. As this newest Trek opens we are in the 32nd century: as far into the future as the franchise has ever gone, boldly or otherwise. (The original 1966 five-year mission for Kirk and co took place in the 23rd century.) The universe is still recovering from the Burn, an all-encompassing cataclysm from 2020’s season three of Star Trek: Discovery that put the kibosh on faster-than-light warp travel. After an extended period of intergalactic isolationism, Starfleet Academy is about to receive its first new intake for over a century. Mega-fan Stephen Colbert is already on board as the school’s PA announcer. All it needs is a new chancellor.

Published: January 15, 2026, 5:00 am

Igor Stravinsky: Late Works album review – kudos to Reuss for bringing this spellbinding music to life

Daniel Reuss/Noord Nederlands Orkest/Cappella Amsterdam
(Pentatone)
Noord Nederlands Orkest and Cappella Amsterdam breathe colour and light into work from the composer’s most austere period

In his later years, Igor Stravinsky became fascinated by serialism, both as a means of distilling musical thought and as an intellectual and stylistic challenge for a composer entering his 70s and 80s. The results struck some contemporary listeners as austere, but there’s a self-effacing purity and beauty about this complex, intellectually probing music that deserves a wider audience than hitherto. Kudos, then, to conductor Daniel Reuss, whose precise yet vital interpretations teem with colour and light.

There are four main works here. In Memoriam Dylan Thomas from 1954 is an extended, impassioned setting for solo tenor of Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night. Threni, a spiny, multifaceted jewel from 1958, sets words from the Book of Lamentations. The haunting Introitus and bristling Requiem Canticles, from 1965 and 1966 respectively, complete the set, interspersed with briefer pieces including an unpretentious Lord’s Prayer and the severely cerebral two-minute Elegy for JFK.

Published: January 15, 2026, 3:00 pm

H Is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald audiobook review – a soaring journey through grief

The author brings introspection and humour to their inspiring account of how a young goshawk helped them cope after the loss of their father

It is coming up to 12 years since the publication of H Is for Hawk, about the historian, writer and naturalist Helen Macdonald’s time spent training a Eurasian goshawk after an intense period of grief. Showered with awards, the book was a runaway hit and sparked a literary trend for shared transformative encounters with animals including cats, dogs, magpies and hares.

This month, H Is for Hawk comes to the big screen in a new adaptation starring Claire Foy. But there is still time to get to know the source material, which tells of the sudden death of the author’s father and how Macdonald, an experienced falconer who had previously trained kestrels and peregrines, took delivery of a temperamental young goshawk named Mabel with the aim of taming her and teaching her to hunt. Macdonald, who is non-binary, is the audiobook’s narrator. Their reading is characterised by introspection, curiosity and flashes of humour as they observe this “spooky, pale-eyed psychopath” who, as well as feeding and flying, likes to play ball with scrunched-up bits of paper.

Available via Penguin Audio, 11hr 5min

Published: January 15, 2026, 3:00 pm

Off the Scales by Aimee Donnellan review – inside the Ozempic revolution

A fascinating deep dive into the discovery, use and implications of a revolutionary new treatment

Few aspects of being human have generated more judgment, scorn and condemnation than a person’s size, shape and weight – particularly if you happen to be female. As late as 2022, the Times’s columnist Matthew Parris published a column headlined “Fat shaming is the only way to beat the obesity crisis” in which he attributed Britain’s “losing battle with fat” to society’s failure to goad and stigmatise the overweight into finally, shamefacedly, eating less. The tendency to equate excess weight with poor character (and thinness with grit and self-control) treats obesity as a moral as well as physical failing – less a disease than a lifestyle choice.

One of the great strengths of Reuters journalist Aimee Donnellan’s first book is its insistence on framing the discovery of the new weight-loss drugs within the fraught social and cultural context of beauty norms, body image and health. For those who need them, weekly injections of Ozempic, Wegovy or Mounjaro can be revolutionary. Yet for every person with diabetes or obesity taking the drugs to improve their health, others – neither obese nor diabetic – are obtaining them to get “beach-body” ready, fit into smaller dresses, or attain the slender aesthetic social media demands of them. Small wonder some commentators have likened the injections to “an eating disorder in a pen”.

Published: January 15, 2026, 7:00 am

Commodore 64 Ultimate review – it’s like 1982 all over again!

Showing the value of great design over visual impact, this faithfully resurrected home computer seamlessly integrates modern tech with some wonderful additional touches

The emotional hit was something I didn’t expect, although perhaps I should have. The Commodore 64 Ultimate, a new version of the legendary 8-bit computer, comes in a box designed to resemble the original packaging – a photo of the machine itself on a background of deep blue fading into a series of white stripes. Then when you open it, you find an uncannily accurate replica of what fans lovingly referred to as the breadbox – the chunky, sloped Commodore 64, in hues of brown and beige, the red LED in one corner above the row of fawn-coloured function keys. It’s like 1982 all over again.

My dad bought us a C64 in late 1983. It was our second computer after the ZX81 and it felt like an enormous leap into the future with its detailed colour graphics, advanced sound chip and proper grown-up keyboard. We unpacked it on our dinner table, plugging it into a small portable TV and loading the one game we had, a very basic Donkey Kong clone named Crazy Kong. My life would never be the same again. This contraption was my obsession for the next four years – my friendships and free-time would revolve around games such as Bruce Lee, Paradroid and Hyper Sports. To this day, I treasure the memories of playing golf sim Leaderboard with my dad. The sound effects, speech samples and graphics conjured by that computer have lived rent free in my head for, god, almost 40 years.

Published: January 15, 2026, 10:14 am

Diary of a degenerate: mapping the music and the madness of Carlo Gesualdo

The Renaissance composer wrote hauntingly sublime music – and committed a grisly double murder before descending even further into psychosis. As a new stage work revisits his life, its director asks if art can be separated from artist

Carlo Gesualdo wrote some of the most darkly sublime music of the late Renaissance. He also savagely murdered his wife and her lover in their bed. Now be honest: which would you like to discuss first?

The art will always be secondary to the atrocity, however magnificent the madrigals and sacred music. Gesualdo, Prince of Venosa, had been cuckolded by the Duke of Andria in a long-running tryst that had become the scuttlebutt at court. The premeditated double murder of 1590 was a truly grisly affair, concluding in the public display of their mutilated bodies on the steps of the palazzo for several days.

Published: January 15, 2026, 4:31 pm

Eurovision song contest to go on tour to celebrate 70th anniversary

‘Iconic performers’ will visit 10 European cities, as event reels from boycott over Israel’s 2026 participation

The Eurovision song contest will go on its first ever tour to celebrate its 70th anniversary, its organiser has said, as it reels from a boycott due to Israel’s participation.

Five countries have pulled out of the contest over Israel’s war in Gaza, leaving 35 to participate in the world’s biggest live televised music event – the fewest since entry was expanded in 2004.

Published: January 15, 2026, 6:04 pm

Andy Warhol would have hated safe spaces. So why keep dragging dead artists into today’s culture wars?

Critics and curators are reframing great artists, from Gentileschi to Soutine, to fit with modern ethical narratives. But this ignores the glorious ambivalence of their creations

One rainy afternoon last winter, sitting under a blanket with a cup of tea, I found myself Googling paintings by Chaïm Soutine. It’s a pastime I’ve indulged ever since visiting an exhibition of his portraits of hotel staff on the French Riviera during the 1920s – paintings that combine such a mixture of tenderness and debasement that it’s as if his brush is kissing and beating his subjects at the same time.

I flicked through images of hopelessly innocent cooks and bellboys, with complexions the colour of raw sausage and ears that look as if they have been brutally yanked. And as I did, I came across a review of the very show where I had first encountered Soutine’s works. Ah, I thought, looking forward to luxuriating in literature about his particular genius for kindly sadism.

Published: January 15, 2026, 8:00 am

I’m Ann Lee, and this is my testament about the mind-scramble of sharing your name with a movie character

From amused texts to awkward introductions, the run-up to the release of awards-tipped Shaker biopic The Testament of Ann Lee has been a strange experience

The messages started over a year ago. “The title cracked me up,” my film-loving friend Matt texted me, along with a tweet announcing a new musical called Ann Lee, starring Amanda Seyfried and directed by Mona Fastvold, about an 18th-century leader of the Shaker movement. Why would such innocuous film news delight him so much? Well, because my name is Ann Lee too.

“Yes! Fame at last!” I replied. I’ve answered in a similar vein to all the messages since then from other friends eager to break the news to me that my name was getting top billing in a prestigious Hollywood film. And I was genuinely amused and excited; for most of my life Ann Lee had seemed the beigest of names. Lee, or Li as it’s also spelled, is one of the most common surnames in the world and shared by more than 100 million people in Asia. I was sure there were many many Ann Lees out there. But when you get a film title dedicated to it? Now that’s when you start to feel your name might be special after all.

Published: January 15, 2026, 7:00 am

You be the judge: should my daughter pay the fine we incurred dropping her at the airport?

Margaret says her daughter didn’t pay the airport charge, so it’s on her. Georgie says this cock up is all her mum’s doing. You decide who got them into this fine mess
• Find out how to get a disagreement settled or become a juror

We dropped Georgia off in her own car and she didn’t pay the drop-off fee, so the fine is hers

I didn’t know you had to pay for drop-off. Mum knew and didn’t tell me, so she should help pay

Published: January 15, 2026, 8:00 am

The pub that changed me: ‘We would flirt and mingle with the wild children of the wealthy’

To me and my friends from a Battersea council estate, the Dome seemed the very height of Thatcherite hedonism – and seeing ‘successful’ people up close was an eye-opener

In the mid-1980s, as a Black kid from a Battersea council estate, pubs were not part of my life. To my mind, they were where white blokes got lagered-up before rolling out on to the streets to abuse people who looked like me. None of my mates were big drinkers; we were much more interested in music (rare groove and hip-hop) and trying to meet girls. Rooms full of aggressive-looking men held no attraction for any of us.

Published: January 15, 2026, 11:00 am

Is it the end of the line for one of India’s most distinctive garments?

The bandhgala jacket will no longer be part of the formal uniform for Indian Railways staff, following claims it symbolises a ‘colonial mindset’

It is one India’s most ubiquitous garments, with origins in the grand Mughal courts and Rajasthani kingdoms of times past, and still widely favoured by sharply dressed grooms at wedding receptions.

But this week, the distinctive high-collared bandhgala jacket – known to many as the “princely jacket” in a nod to its royal origins – found itself at the centre of a lively debate after it was denounced by the Indian railways minister as a symbol of a “colonial mindset”.

Published: January 15, 2026, 5:00 am

Grief over pet death can be as strong as that for family member, survey shows

Researcher calls for guidelines for diagnosing prolonged grief disorder to be expanded to cover people who lose pets

Grief over the death of a pet could be as chronic as that for a human family member, research has shown, confirming what many people already know about their bond with their furry friends.

People grieving the loss of a pet can suffer from prolonged grief disorder (PGD), a mental health condition brought about by the death of a loved one, a survey published in the academic journal PLOS One has found.

Published: January 15, 2026, 12:55 pm

‘I’ve never felt such a skin-zinging feeling of being alive’: my year of swimming in Nordic seas

Dipping in the freezing waters of Scandinavia, Greenland and Finland was life-changing – and full of warmth thanks to saunas, hot springs and like-minded people

Warm lights shine from the houses that dot the wintry slopes of Mount Fløyen and a cold wind blows as I stand in a swimming costume trying to talk myself into joining my friends in Bergen harbour. Stars are already appearing in the inky mid-afternoon sky.

Life-changing moments are easy to spot in retrospect, but at the time they can feel so ordinary. I didn’t know then that my wintry swim would lead to a year of adventures. I was a hair’s breadth from wimping out, but then I was in. The water was so cold it burned. I gasped for breath. The bones in my feet ached with cold as I trod water, legs frantic under the dark surface. It lasted under a minute and then we were out.

Published: January 15, 2026, 7:00 am

The pub that changed me: ‘The barman banned me – no process, no second chances, no appeal’

The world’s largest Wetherspoon’s has seal-spotting views, a green leather banquette and a grand central staircase. I would do anything for that pub, so imagine my surprise when I was given my marching orders

In the most prime imaginable bit of Ramsgate beach real estate, right on the sand, stands a handsome, turn-of-the-last-century building that had claimed for the longest amount of time, some years in neon, to be a casino. I’d never been allowed in as a kid. Then in the 90s it was leaning towards defunct, by the 00s it looked a bit haunted, then there was a fire, and wham, 2017, it turned into a Spoons. It had been trailed for a few months ahead, and I’d sworn off it; the living nightmare that was Brexit was only a few months old and Wetherspoon’s Tim Martin was one of its most gracelessly triumphant fuglemen. He could keep his (incredibly cheap) pints and his (superhumanly fast) nuggets.

Published: January 15, 2026, 5:00 am

The crisis whisperer: how Adam Tooze makes sense of our bewildering age

Whether it’s the financial crash, the climate emergency or the breakdown of the international order, historian Adam Tooze has become the go-to guide to the radical new world we’ve entered

In late January 2025, 10 days after Donald Trump was sworn in for a second time as president of the United States, an economic conference in Brussels brought together several officials from the recently deposed Biden administration for a discussion about the global economy. In Washington, Trump and his wrecking crew were already busy razing every last brick of Joe Biden’s legacy, but in Brussels, the Democratic exiles put on a brave face. They summoned the comforting ghosts of white papers past, intoning old spells like “worker-centered trade policy” and “middle-out bottom-up economics”. They touted their late-term achievements. They even quoted poetry: “We did not go gently into that good night,” Katherine Tai, who served as Biden’s US trade representative, said from the stage. Tai proudly told the audience that before leaving office she and her team had worked hard to complete “a set of supply-chain-resiliency papers, a set of model negotiating texts, and a shipbuilding investigation”.

It was not until 70 minutes into the conversation that a discordant note was sounded, when Adam Tooze joined the panel remotely. Born in London, raised in West Germany, and living now in New York, where he teaches at Columbia, Tooze was for many years a successful but largely unknown academic. A decade ago he was recognised, when he was recognised at all, as an economic historian of Europe. Since 2018, however, when he published Crashed, his “contemporary history” of the 2008 financial crisis and its aftermath, Tooze has become, in the words of Jonathan Derbyshire, his editor at the Financial Times, “a sort of platonic ideal of the universal intellectual”.

Published: January 15, 2026, 5:00 am

Tell us: how were you affected by grief over a pet?

We would like to hear about what your pet meant to you and your family

Grief over the death of a pet could be as chronic as that for a human family member, according new research published in the academic journal PLOS One.

According to the study, grieving pet owners can suffer from prolonged grief disorder (PGD) – although currently only those grieving the loss of a person can be diagnosed.

Published: January 15, 2026, 1:41 pm

Returning astronauts and burning dolls: photos of the day – Thursday

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

Published: January 15, 2026, 1:07 pm