It’s already yesterday again: the 20 best time-loop movies – ranked!

From commuters reliving disaster to teens stuck in deja vu – the time-loop movie turns repetition into revelation. We round up the best of this oddly resilient subgenre

An Italian-Spanish remake of Groundhog Day, with a cynical nature presenter doomed to repeat the same 24 hours while reporting on a stork colony in the Canary Islands. The best thing about it is the Italian title: È già ieri (It’s Already Yesterday).

Published: January 22, 2026, 3:45 pm

Feel your feelings and reconnect with past passions: how to recover from burnout

Recognizing the physical and psychological tells is half the battle, says author Emma Gannon

• How to start … anything: expert tips for trying something new

What do you do when you come to a hard stop? When work has got too much, even friendships feel like a drain and you feel like you simply can’t keep going with your life as it currently is?

For Emma Gannon, the answer was extreme but non-negotiable: an entire year of nothing – or close to it. Gannon, the London-based author of fiction, nonfiction and the Hyphen newsletter, burned out with a bang in late 2022. While on a spa weekend with a friend, she had a panic attack, her first ever.

Published: January 22, 2026, 5:00 pm

‘I ain’t goin nowhere’: Gullah Geechee people fight off developers with a historic referendum

A citizen referendum, only the second of its kind in Georgia history, seeks to block a zoning amendment

Ire Gene Grovner stood behind his house on a recent morning, between chicken pens on one side and rows of winter collard greens on the other, holding a knife and skinning a raccoon splayed across a wood post.

“The meat is good roasted,” Grovner said. He pointed to the collards, a burst of green in the winter cold, and the chickens, with their eggs. “If you ain’t lazy, you can live good here,” he said, referring to Sapelo Island off the coast of southern Georgia.

Published: January 22, 2026, 5:00 pm

Zach Bryan’s anti-ICE song drew ire from Trump officials. Is country music waking up?

Emerging stars are starting to critique Trump’s immigration crackdown – defying the genre’s legacy of conservatism

Thanksgiving did not go the way that Frank Ray had anticipated.

The country singer had invited his family up from Texas to Tennessee for the holiday, with plans to deep-fry a turkey, explore Nashville, and take in a show at the Grand Ole Opry. But on Thanksgiving morning, Ray received an unsettling call: TSA had flagged his sister’s husband, Juan Nevarez-Porras, at El Paso international airport due to insufficient documentation required to fly.

Published: January 22, 2026, 4:00 pm

The Trump administration has a Nazi problem | Mehdi Hasan

Think I’m exaggerating? Consider the copious amounts of evidence

Which way, western man?

That was the title of a racist tract published in 1978 by William Gayley Simpson, a former leftist Christian pastor turned one of the most influential neo-Nazi ideologues in American history. The book helped radicalize an entire generation of white supremacists in the US, with its vicious antisemitism, opposition to all forms of immigration and open praise for Hitler. The purpose of the book, wrote Simpson, was “to reveal organized Jewry as a world power entrenched in every country of the white man’s world, operating freely across every nation’s frontiers, and engaged in a ruthless war for the destruction of them all”.

Mehdi Hasan is the editor-in-chief and CEO of Zeteo

Published: January 22, 2026, 11:00 am

Deportations up, job growth down: Trump’s second term so far – in charts

Tracking data from a chaotic year, from ICE detention and job growth to inflation and the president’s popularity

The Trump administration has had an unprecedented first year. The Guardian has been hard at work tracking the social and political ramifications of Donald Trump’s second term through words and pictures. But sometimes the story is best told through charts and graphs. Here are some of the vital data points that the Guardian has been tracking on immigration, the economy and public opinion.

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Published: January 22, 2026, 12:00 pm

White House posts digitally altered image of woman arrested after ICE protest

Guardian analysis shows images are the same, with Nekima Levy Armstrong looking composed in original but sobbing after alteration

The White House posted a digitally altered image of a woman who was arrested on Thursday in a case touted by the US attorney general, Pam Bondi, to make it seem as if she was dramatically crying, a Guardian analysis of the image has found.

The woman, Nekima Levy Armstrong, also appears to have darker skin in the altered image. Armstrong was one of three people arrested on Thursday in connection to a demonstration that disrupted church services in St Paul, Minnesota, on Sunday. Demonstrators alleged that one of the pastors, David Easterwood, was the acting field director of the St Paul Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office. Bondi announced the arrests on social media on Thursday morning.

Published: January 22, 2026, 10:14 pm

TikTok announces it has finalized deal to establish US entity, sidestepping ban

Majority US-owned venture includes Larry Ellison’s Oracle, private-equity group Silver Lake and Abu Dhabi’s MGX

TikTok announced on Thursday that it had closed a deal to establish a new US entity, allowing it to sidestep a ban and ending a long legal battle.

The deal finalized by ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese owner, sets up a majority American-owned venture, with investors including Larry Ellison’s Oracle, the private-equity group Silver Lake and Abu Dhabi’s MGX owning more than 80% of the new entity.

Published: January 23, 2026, 2:36 am

Trump to Canada’s Mark Carney: you are uninvited to my ‘board of peace’ – US politics live

Trump’s attempt at a snub is the latest incident in a recent war of words between the two North American leaders

The committee is taking a recess for members to vote on the House floor. A reminder that today we’re expecting a vote on Department of Homeland Security funding bill that dozens of Democrats have vowed to vote against.

The top Democrat on the House judiciary committee, Jamie Raskin, praised Jack Smith’s handling of his investigations into the president. Raskin also noted the persistent denigration by Donald Trump as Smith conducted the probes.

Published: January 23, 2026, 2:44 am

What images of a detained five-year-old boy reveal about Trump’s draconian ICE crackdown

Liam Ramos, a preschooler, is just one of a number of kids caught up in dystopian ICE surges in Minnesota and beyond

As symbols of the indiscriminate disproportionality of the Trump administration’s militant anti-immigrant crusade in Minneapolis, the images are hard to surpass.

One recent image shows the innocent figure of Liam Ramos, a five-year-old preschooler wearing a blue bobbled winter hat, standing next to a black vehicle with a dark-clad adult figure standing behind him, whose hand is proprietorially placed on his backpack.

Published: January 22, 2026, 7:42 pm

House approves homeland security bill despite Democrats’ opposition over ICE

Outrage mounts over ICE violence but seven Democrats vote with Republicans as funding bill passes 220-207

House Republicans overcame widespread Democratic opposition on Thursday to approve a bill funding the Department of Homeland Security, the federal agency spearheading Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.

The 220-207 vote, with seven Democrats joining nearly all Republicans, came amid mounting outrage over its heavy-handed and violent tactics in Minnesota and elsewhere.

Published: January 22, 2026, 11:19 pm

Man accused of plot to murder US border patrol’s Bovino found not guilty

Acquittal of Juan Espinoza Martinez in Chicago marks latest major federal prosecution to fall apart in court

A man accused of a murder-for-hire plot targeting a top US border patrol leader was found not guilty on Thursday in Chicago, the latest high-profile prosecution by the Department of Justice to fall apart in court.

The government alleged that Juan Espinoza Martinez, 37, had offered a $10,000 bounty over Snapchat in October for the killing of Gregory Bovino, the border patrol official who has spearheaded aggressive immigration operations in cities across the country. Defense lawyers argued Espinoza Martinez was sharing an innocuous social media message that did not constitute a threat.

Published: January 23, 2026, 1:43 am

Trump claims Nato troops ‘stayed a little off the frontlines’ in Afghanistan

President again disparages allies and tells Fox News he is ‘not sure’ Nato would come to US’s defence

Donald Trump has again disparaged America’s Nato allies, claiming that troops from allied nations “stayed a little back, a little off the frontlines” while fighting in Afghanistan in support of the US campaign against the Taliban.

The only time Nato has ever invoked its mutual defence clause – stating that an attack on one member represents an attack on all – came after the terrorist attacks of September 11, when member states deployed thousands of troops to Afghanistan.

Published: January 22, 2026, 6:50 pm

Jack Smith defends move to seek criminal charges for Trump’s effort to overturn 2020 election

Ex-special counsel testifies to Republican-led House panel that he followed law in holding president to account

• US politics live – latest updates

Jack Smith, the former special counsel, has defended his decision to seek criminal charges against Donald Trump for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election in his first and perhaps only public appearance to discuss the cases after they were dropped last year.

“No one should be above the law in this country, and the law required that he be held to account,” Smith said in his opening remarks before the House judiciary committee. “So that is what I did.”

Published: January 22, 2026, 10:13 pm

Sinners becomes first film in history to earn 16 Oscar nominations

• Ryan Coogler’s ghost story breaks records

• One Battle After Another in second with 13 nods

• Marty Supreme, Sentimental Value and Frankenstein score nine apiece

• Mescal, Clooney, Paltrow and Wicked snubbed

• Full list of nominees

Sinners, Ryan Coogler’s critically and commercially acclaimed supernatural thriller, has become the first film to be nominated for 16 Academy Awards.

The film starring Michael B Jordan as twin brothers setting up a blues club in 1930s Mississippi while battling racism and vampires has so far taken $368m worldwide. It is nominated for trophies including best picture, director, leading actor, supporting actor (for the British actor Delroy Lindo), supporting actress (for British-Nigerian actor Wunmi Mosaku) and the Academy’s inaugural casting prize.

Published: January 22, 2026, 2:00 pm

Trump news at a glance: the president’s ‘board of peace’ takes shape

Some international leaders worry Trump’s new organization may attempt to supplant the United Nations – key US politics stories from 22 January at a glance

Donald Trump has claimed the world is “richer, safer and much more peaceful than it was just one year ago” as he hosted a launch event for his “board of peace” initiative at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

At a signing ceremony for the new organisation, the US president said it would be “one of the most consequential bodies ever created in the history of the world”.

Published: January 23, 2026, 2:43 am

Trump says he’s expanding defamation suit against New York Times after unfavorable poll

US president says his qualms over the opinion poll would be added to existing defamation lawsuit against the paper

Donald Trump has said he is expanding his defamation suit against the New York Times after an unfavorable opinion poll.

In a post on his Truth Social platform, the US president said his qualms about the Times Siena poll would be added to his existing defamation lawsuit against the newspaper.

Published: January 22, 2026, 6:16 pm

‘It’s like they’re hunting’: US citizens and legal residents report increase in racial profiling by ICE

Trump administration’s immigration crackdown has led some people to take drastic measures to ensure their safety

It was a normal Tuesday morning for Mohamed when he left his San Diego, California, house for his daily exercise in mid-January. But as he walked around the Colina del Sol park, four US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents approached and encircled the middle-aged father, who is using a pseudonym out of fear of retaliation from federal agents. The officers, Mohamed said, who wore jackets with ICE emblazoned on them and balaclavas that obscured their faces, asked for his green card before they began drilling him with questions about what he was doing in the park.

“I was terrified,” Mohamed, a lawful permanent resident from Somalia, said through a translator. The ordeal ended shortly thereafter, but the experience has left a lasting impact on him. “I have high blood pressure,” Mohamed said about the encounter he believes was based on racial profiling. “I used to do my daily exercises; now I don’t even do that any more because I’m scared.”

Published: January 22, 2026, 4:36 pm

Boeing jet gifted to Trump by Qatari royal family to be delivered by summer

Controversial gifted jetliner described as a ‘flying palace’ is anticipated to be used as new Air Force One plane

The Boeing 747-8 jetliner gifted to the Donald Trump administration by the Qatari royal family is set to be delivered to Trump by this summer.

Confirming the anticipated use of the aircraft as the new Air Force One jet, an air force spokesperson told the Guardian: “The Air Force remains committed to expediting delivery of the VC-25 bridge aircraft in support of the Presidential airlift mission, with an anticipated delivery no later than summer 2026.”

Published: January 22, 2026, 6:20 pm

‘Open the gates’: riots, fires and escape attempts as Syrian army takes over IS camp

Director of al-Hawl camp describes chaotic scenes as Kurdish guards fled and government fighters arrived. Will Christou reports from al-Hawl

The children crowded the wire fence, waiting for the guard to turn his back, and made a break for it. They pumped their little legs furiously but did not make it far in the squelching mud, and were quickly chased back inside, grinning and joking to their friends in Bosnian as another guard scolded them, his rifle swinging by his side while he wagged his finger.

Their mothers, foreigners who travelled to Syria to allegedly join Islamic State (IS) and its blood-soaked caliphate, stood silently behind them. Each had their belongings packed in a bag beside them, ready to leave at a moment’s notice.

Published: January 22, 2026, 5:18 pm

Terror, tension and unity in Minnesota amid Trump’s ICE surge: ‘I’ve never seen anything like this’

Minnesota residents share the fundamental ways their lives have changed since federal troops arrived in their state

The deployment of more than 3,000 federal immigration officers to Minnesota has transformed life in the cities of Minneapolis and St Paul, with residents reporting witnessing clashes between civilians and agents, carrying their passports and ID cards around for fear of being stopped, staying home as much as possible, and worrying for the safety of their children while out in public.

“I’ve never witnessed anything like this in the US,” said Dan O’Kane, 69. He came to the conclusion after watching Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers fighting with students and throwing a teacher to the ground at Roosevelt high school, three blocks from his home.

Published: January 22, 2026, 6:07 pm

Why did Trump chicken out in Greenland row? | The Latest

The US president has backed down in the row over Greenland after threatening Europe with tariffs and the potential use of military force. After talks with the Nato secretary general, Mark Rutte, Donald Trump said the 'framework of a future deal' had been agreed for the territory to allow the US to build its military presence there. Lucy Hough speaks to the Guardian's Europe correspondent Jon Henley 

Published: January 22, 2026, 5:55 pm

K-pop supergroup BTS set to trigger US economic boom with tour: ‘Every stop is going to see a boost’

As the band prepares to tour, economists say pent-up global demand could reshape how concerts boost city economies

Move over, Taylor Swift. Her Eras tour was the highest grossing in history, sparking an estimated $5bn in direct consumer spending across the US. But now another musical phenomenon is preparing to sweep through North America – and economists expect it will generate tens of billions of dollars in economic activity along the way.

K-pop sensation BTS will embark this year on their largest tour yet, spanning 34 regions across five continents, ending a hiatus due to mandatory military service that lasted almost four years.

Published: January 22, 2026, 11:00 am

Ryan Coogler’s Sinners has administered an almighty smackdown to critical favourites One Battle and Hamnet

Coogler’s vampire thriller swept the Oscar nominations over Chloé Zhao’s tearjerker and Paul Thomas Anderson’s counterculture thriller. This genre-defying drama about the black experience could now rule awards season
• Full list of nominees
• Sinners becomes first film in history to earn 16 Oscar nominations

Agree with them or not, these Oscar nominations deliver a pert slap to the accepted assumptions of awards season. The industry had been expecting landslides for classy upmarket fare such as Chloé Zhao’s Hamnet, Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another and Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein, and also for Josh Safdie’s delirious comedy Marty Supreme. And that’s what they got.

But perhaps no one expected these titles to get quite as colossal a smackdown as they got from Ryan Coogler’s vampire drama thriller Sinners: a violent, high-energy fantasia about racism, music and the black experience, which has soared ahead with 16 nominations – the most for any film in 97 years of the Academy Awards. Whatever happens on the night itself, Ryan Coogler has made Oscar history.

Published: January 22, 2026, 5:45 pm

My rookie era: I once feared water and frizz, now I’m embracing my curls

I was surprised by the dormant ringlets springing to life as I hunched over the basin, squishing in conditioner to define each tendril

• Read more summer essentials

My housemate has a special phrase for some of my old photos: “Ima’s whiteface era” – hair seared straight down the middle with brassy blond highlights.

Where I grew up, in a regional coastal town, the gold standard was sandy blond beach babe.

Published: January 22, 2026, 7:00 pm

Are Lola Blankets worth it? We found a dupe for a third of the price

The faux fur Lola Blanket has a heart-touching story – and a $275 price tag. We tested a cheaper and just-as-soft dupe

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

• The best bath towels in the US, from fluffy to quick-drying – tested

Lola faux fur blankets have conquered Instagram, TikTok and even New York fashion week. Promising “life-changing softness”, the company charges an eye-watering $275 for a throw-sized blanket. Are they worth it?

To cut to the chase, no. The more complex answer is that Lola blankets do have some advantages over the competition, but many of the features and claims put forth are pretty overblown. And for less than half the price, you can get something that’s just as good.

Published: January 22, 2026, 8:15 pm

Sundance 2026: the 10 films not to miss at this year’s festival

The first Sundance without founder Robert Redford and the last to take place in Park City, Utah, will see new films starring Natalie Portman, Ethan Hawke and Courtney Love

This year’s Sundance film festival will be notable for a major first as well as a major last. It’ll be the first to take place without its founder, Robert Redford, who died last September at the age of 89, and it’ll be the last to take place in Utah, where it has been since the very beginning back in 1978.

Emotions, which are often on display regardless thanks to films often ruthlessly designed to elicit them, will be high, with events planned to commemorate a figure who helped create a launchpad and then an ecosystem for American indies. But while saying goodbye to both Redford and Park City will be front and centre, Sundance isn’t Sundance without a roster of films to also get attenders talking. Last year, it felt like that chatter was less effusive than usual because while there were films that continued evoking conversation throughout the year (Sorry, Baby, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, Train Dreams, Lurker, Twinless, pretty much every documentary premiere) there were more that either died on arrival or crawled toward a slow death months later.

Published: January 22, 2026, 3:11 pm

A century in the Siberian wilderness: the Old Believers who time forgot

In 1978, Soviet scientists stumbled upon a family living in a remote part of Russia. They hadn’t interacted with outsiders for decades. Almost half a century later, one of them is still there

In the summer of 1978, a team of geologists exploring southern Siberia found something rarer than diamonds. While searching for a helicopter landing site amid the steep hills and forested canyons of the western Sayan mountains, their pilot caught sight of what appeared to be a garden, 150 miles from the nearest settlement. Hovering as low as he could, he saw a house. No people were visible, but someone was clearly tending the garden. He and his geologist passengers were shocked to find a dwelling in an area long considered too remote for human habitation.

When the four geologists set up camp 10 miles away, it was the mysterious homestead that was first in their mind. Who could live here? Were the inhabitants the last Mohicans of the Brezhnev era? The geologists ventured to the settlement bearing gifts – and a pistol, just in case. They were greeted by a disheveled old man dressed in patched-up sacking cloth. This was Karp Osipovich Lykov, the patriarch of the family. Inside a tiny, dark cabin, the geologists found Karp’s two adult daughters, Natalia and Agafia, weeping and praying. Four miles away, by the riverside, lived Karp’s two middle-aged sons, Savin and Dmitry. It soon became apparent that none of the members of this ageing family had interacted with outsiders in decades.

Published: January 22, 2026, 5:00 am

Ben Jennings on Donald Trump and his ‘board of peace’ – cartoon

Continue reading...

Published: January 22, 2026, 6:29 pm

Trump has defused a bomb of his own making. For now | Mohamad Bazzi

After a bombastic speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Trump backed away from his threat to impose tariffs on European countries

In the past few days, Donald Trump turned the US presidency into a tool for his personal glory and vengeance. On Saturday, he threatened to impose tariffs of up to 25% on a bloc of European countries until Denmark agrees to sell Greenland to the US. The next day, Trump texted Norway’s prime minister, saying his failure to win the Nobel peace prize was one of the reasons he’s intent on seizing control of Greenland. After being snubbed for last year’s award, Trump said he no longer felt the need “to think purely of peace”.

By Tuesday morning, as European leaders continued to absorb the shock of Trump’s threats and insults, the president posted an AI-generated meme that showed him planting a US flag on the island, flanked by his vice-president and secretary of state. “Greenland. US Territory. Est. 2026,” the image said. (Trump shared another image, also apparently edited by AI, that showed him sitting alongside a map of the US that includes Canada, Greenland and Venezuela, as he spoke with European leaders assembled at the White House.) Later on Tuesday, when he was asked at a press conference how far he was willing to go to acquire Greenland, Trump responded tersely: “You’ll find out.”

Mohamad Bazzi is director of the Center for Near Eastern Studies, and a journalism professor, at New York University

Published: January 22, 2026, 6:00 pm

David and Victoria Beckham learned the hard way – modern kids go ‘no contact’ with no guilt or stigma at all | Emma Brockes

No one is suggesting the sort of decision Brooklyn made is taken lightly, but support networks and the language of therapy seem to lessen the sting

As we continue to unpack the meaning of the Beckham family feud, I don’t think enough attention has been paid to the roast chicken. Perhaps you were busy having a life in December and missed it. But this week’s explosion by Brooklyn Beckham was the culmination of a chain of events triggered last month when Victoria Beckham, advisedly or otherwise, chucked a like at her son’s video of a roast chicken on Instagram.

For some, the takeaway was that Brooklyn’s chicken looked undercooked. For others, it was a reminder that you could draw a face on a balloon and achieve roughly the same level of sentience as Brooklyn in his cooking videos. All of which was to miss the point: that according to the new semiotics of family alienation, Brooklyn’s mother, by liking his post, had crossed a fraught boundary between “NC” (no contact) with her son to “VLC” (very low contact). Had Brooklyn not blocked her and the rest of the family immediately, she may have gone the whole hog and escalated to LC – “low contact” – at which point all bets would’ve been off.

Emma Brockes is a Guardian columnist

Published: January 22, 2026, 8:00 am

The revolutionary women of Rojava are in grave danger. That has consequences for us all | Natasha Walter

For a decade, the autonomous territory in Syria has been a bastion of gender equality. It holds important lessons for the fight against authoritarianism

A year ago, I was in north-east Syria, in the Kurdish-dominated area known as Rojava, listening to some of the most determined women that I have ever met. On my first day there, I went to a huge conference where one after another, women in Kurdish, Arab and Assyrian dress roused the audience to chants of “Jin! Jiyan! Azadi!” (Woman! Life! Freedom)!.

When I visited, this region of Syria had for more than a decade been governed not by Bashar al-Assad’s regime, but by an autonomous administration (the Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, or Daanes). Its commitment to equal rights has been remarkable – every institution it set up relied on power-sharing between men and women. No wonder many of the women I met there sounded optimistic about their future. “This will be a century of women’s freedom,” one said to me. “We are in solidarity with women in resistance throughout the world.”

Natasha Walter is the author of Before the Light Fades and Living Dolls: the Return of Sexism

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 22, 2026, 2:00 pm

The Guardian view on Trump’s Board of Peace: an international body in service to one man’s ego | Editorial

It was supposed to give Gaza a future, but the US president is using it to attack the UN, international law and multilateralism

One glance at the logo of the Board of Peace tells you all you need to know. It is the globe and laurels of the UN – only gold, because this is Donald Trump’s initiative, and showing little of the world beyond North America.

The charter of the board, formally launched in Davos on Thursday, suggests that this is less America First than Trump Always. It is not “the US president” but Mr Trump himself who is named as chair, for as long as he wishes. He can pick his successor, decide the agenda and axe whomever he chooses – even if they have coughed up the $1bn demanded for permanent membership. It is the institutional expression of his belief that he is bound not by law but “my own morality, my own mind”.

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 22, 2026, 6:45 pm

The Guardian view on toddlers and screens: more reasons to be fearful of big tech | Editorial

Growing concerns about the impact of smartphones on the youngest children must be addressed

The first UK government guidance on young children’s use of tablets, smartphones and other screens, expected in April, cannot come soon enough. The laissez-faire approach to the boom in social media, handheld devices and other digital technology was arguably nowhere less suitable than when such machines were placed in front of babies. The Department for Education’s ongoing Children of the 2020s study has found that 98% of two-year-olds watch screens on a typical day for more than two hours. Those who spent the most time had smaller vocabularies, and were twice as likely as other children to show signs of emotional and behavioural difficulties.

Correlation must not be mistaken for causation. This is still a relatively new area of research, and much remains uncertain. But the findings of a recent survey by the charity Kindred Squared, combined with observations by teachers, are highly concerning. Answers from 1,000 primary-school staff revealed that 37% of four-year-olds arrived without basic life skills such as dressing and eating in 2025 – up from 33% two years earlier.

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 22, 2026, 6:44 pm

Premier League: 10 things to look out for this weekend

Mateus Fernandes steels West Ham, Dominic Calvert-Lewin faces a homecoming and Manchester City need Marc Guéhi

• Top scorers: check out the latest standings

The absence of the wantaway Lucas Paquetá has given Mateus Fernandes a chance to take on more responsibility for West Ham. Paquetá, who is said to be nursing a minor back problem, was unavailable again for last week’s win against Spurs but Nuno Espírito Santo’s struggling side coped without the Flamengo target. They called on Fernandes to dictate the flow in midfield and the diligent Portuguese did not disappoint. Fernandes moved the ball cleverly, picked up an assist and looked like that rarest of things: a smart signing from West Ham. They will need the 21-year-old, who joined from Southampton for £38m last summer, to shine again with Paquetá looking unlikely to return against high-flying Sunderland at the London Stadium. Jacob Steinberg

West Ham v Sunderland, Saturday 12.30pm (all times GMT)

Burnley v Tottenham, Saturday 3pm

Fulham v Brighton, Saturday 3pm

Manchester City v Wolves, Saturday 3pm

Bournemouth v Liverpool, Saturday 5.30pm

Published: January 23, 2026, 12:00 am

Australian Open 2026: Sabalenka wins tense match; Medvedev, Alcaraz and Gauff in action – live

Updates from day six at Melbourne Park
Women’s and men’s No 1s on Rod Laver Arena
Any thoughts? Get in touch with an email

Sabalenka (1) 5-6 7-6 (7-4) Potapova* Potapova moves ahead. Wowee.

Hawkeye shows us that the barest of margins has seen her go long to give up the first point but she brings it back level on the next after an unforced error from Sabalenka. A big forearm winner then gets the Austrian ahead, which is followed by a backhand driven beyond Sabalenka and a big serve that cannot be returned to tee up the hold.

Published: January 23, 2026, 2:57 am

Trinity Rodman stays in NWSL, signing record contract with Spirit

• US star will reportedly be world’s highest-paid women’s player

• Rodman turned down ‘compelling’ offers to leave

• Saga spurred debate around NWSL’s ability to keep talent

Trinity Rodman, the US national team forward, has signed a new three-year contract to stay with Washington Spirit and will reportedly be the world’s highest-paid women’s player.

The record deal, announced on Thursday, ends months of uncertainty around the 23-year-old’s future. Her previous contract – a $1.1m, four-year deal – expired in December and she was understood to have received lucrative offers from Europe, which the Spirit were unable to initially match under the NWSL’s salary cap rules.

Her new deal, which runs through the 2028 season, comes after the NWSL created a new “High Impact Player Rule” that permits clubs to spend up to $1m above the salary cap if the player in question meets any one of a specific list of criteria that demonstrates their star credentials, such as being named in the top 40 of the Guardian’s Top 100 women’s footballers for the past two years or finishing in the top 30 in the Ballon d’Or for the past two years.

There was a clear perception across the NWSL that Rodman staying with the league was crucial, following the high-profile departures of several of the league’s biggest names over the past 12 months, including Naomi Girma and Alyssa Thompson’s moves to Chelsea and – earlier this month – Sam Coffey’s headline-grabbing transfer to Manchester City.

“All of us are profoundly grateful that she has chosen to stay with us, despite some compelling alternatives,” Spirit owner Michele Kang said at a press conference in Los Angeles on Thursday, before later adding: “I’m just very happy to tell you, I did deliver, didn’t I?”

Rodman, an Olympic gold medalist with the US in 2024, wore a jacket and tie as she signed her contract on stage along Kang. She has spent her entire professional career with the Spirit since the club selected her in the 2021 NWSL draft, winning a championship that season and reaching the final twice.

Published: January 23, 2026, 12:46 am

Why each playoff team can win the Super Bowl: Seattle’s defense to the good Drake Maye

One of the Broncos, Rams, Seahawks and Patriots will claim the championship in a few weeks. Here are the factors that will help decide the result

A month ago, the Rams looked like a near-complete team. Special teams aside, they had answers everywhere. Coaching. Quarterback. Playmakers. A defense that could steal a game if necessary. They’re still a formidable opponent, but cracks have started to emerge.

Published: January 22, 2026, 10:00 am

US chess star Daniel Naroditsky’s death was accidental, medical examiner says

• Report cites cardiac arrhythmia tied to sarcoidosis

• Drug use contributory but not fatal, examiner says

American chess grandmaster Daniel Naroditsky died last year after suffering a sudden heart rhythm disturbance, with an underlying heart condition identified as the primary cause, according to a report released by North Carolina medical authorities.

The 29-year-old was found dead at his townhome in Charlotte in October 2025. At the time, police said his death was being investigated as a possible overdose or suicide, and no cause had been made public.

Published: January 22, 2026, 5:28 pm

Infantino jokes about British fans’ behaviour at World Cups and defends ticket prices

• Fifa chief says he has been ‘hammered’ for 2026 prices

• Fans’ group tells Infantino to focus on cheap tickets

Gianni Infantino made a joke about British football fans’ behaviour and defended ticket prices for this summer’s World Cup in North America during a speech to world leaders on Thursday.

Fifa’s president addressed concerns around the staging of this summer’s finals in the US amid rising domestic tensions there, telling the World Economic Forum in Switzerland how there had been “a lot of critics” before Qatar 2022.

Published: January 22, 2026, 7:49 pm

Naomi Osaka battles past Cirstea but emotions boil over in ‘fair play’ row

• Romanian player accuses opponent after defeat

• Osaka: ‘I don’t react well to being casually disrespected’

The courtside photographer pit was already full 10 minutes before call time on Thursday night inside Margaret Court Arena. As all cameras pointed directly at the players’ entrance, it was not difficult to understand why they were there.

A day earlier, Naomi Osaka had produced one of the enduring images of the 2026 Australian Open, marching on to Rod Laver Arena in an outfit inspired by a jellyfish. This time, before her gritty, contentious 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 second-round win over Sorana Cirstea, she left the hat and veil back in the locker room.

Published: January 22, 2026, 3:00 pm

Champions League review: Bodø/Glimt stun again as McKennie leads a Juve revival

Arsenal remained on top of the Champions League on the penultimate matchday of the group phase, which also featured a targeted Jude Bellingham celebration

• Jonas Gahr Støre, the prime minister of Norway and the recent recipient of a Nobel peace prize-related missive from Donald Trump, took in a Champions League match on Tuesday. Bodø/Glimt’s stadium is more than 700 miles from Oslo but the prime minister’s long journey proved well worth it. Bodø beating Manchester City 3-1, a first-ever win in the group stage, was Norway’s greatest club football triumph since Rosenborg beat – and knocked out – mighty Milan from the competition in December 1996.

Published: January 22, 2026, 4:43 pm

Europa League roundup: Tielemans and Emery clash as Sancho seals Villa progress

• Manager shoves his own midfielder in stoppage time

• Aston Villa into last 16 with victory at Fenerbahce

Aston Villa sealed a top-eight finish in the Europa League after Jadon Sancho’s first goal for the club gave them a 1-0 win over Fenerbahce in Turkey. But the Villa manager, Unai Emery, was involved in a touchline spat with Youri Tielemans after the midfielder was substituted in stoppage time.

Villa’s win was their sixth from seven European matches this season and ended Fenerbahce’s unbeaten home record. Sancho opened his account in Villa colours to put the visitors in the driving seat amid a loud Sukru Saracoglu Stadium atmosphere.

Published: January 22, 2026, 11:26 pm

Trump’s bold economic promises on the campaign trail have led to a policy salad

The president’s scramble to win back voter affection after negative polls has led him to spew incoherent proposals

“A vote for Trump means your groceries will be cheaper,” Donald Trump promised Americans on the eve of the presidential election. During the US president’s first year back in office, however, food prices rose faster than they did during Joe Biden’s last.

Facing negative poll numbers, Trump is taking a tack that few Republicans have dared contemplate before: spewing out a rain of often incoherent proposals to signal he feels voters’ pain, in order to recapture their affection.

Published: January 22, 2026, 11:00 am

Six injured after knife attack at Kurdish demonstration in Antwerp

Incident outside Opera House that left two people in critical condition is not being investigated as terrorism, police say

Six people have been injured after a knife attack at a demonstration in Belgium on Thursday evening, police said.

Two of the victims were in a critical condition in hospital after the incident in the port city of Antwerp near the Operaplein (Opera Square), police spokesperson Wouter Bruyns said.

Published: January 22, 2026, 10:59 pm

Venezuela’s Delcy Rodríguez assured US of cooperation before Maduro’s capture

Exclusive: sources say powerful figures in the regime secretly told US and Qatari officials they would welcome Maduro’s departure

Before the US military snatched Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, earlier this month, Delcy Rodríguez and her powerful brother pledged to cooperate with the Trump administration once the strongman was gone, four sources involved at high levels with the discussions told the Guardian.

Rodríguez, who was sworn in on 5 January as acting president to replace Maduro, and her brother Jorge, the head of the national assembly, secretly assured US and Qatari officials through intermediaries ahead of time that they would welcome Maduro’s departure, according to the sources.

Published: January 22, 2026, 12:55 pm

Trump sues JPMorgan Chase and Jamie Dimon for at least $5bn

US president alleges JP Morgan stopped offering him banking services in wake of January 6 attack

Donald Trump has sued JPMorgan Chase and its CEO, Jamie Dimon, for at least $5bn after accusing America’s largest bank of “debanking” him.

The US president alleged that the bank stopped offering him banking services in the wake of the Capitol riot on January 6. Earlier this month, he claimed it had “incorrectly and inappropriately” discriminated against him.

Published: January 22, 2026, 11:08 pm

Japan pauses restart of world’s largest nuclear power plant one day after it went online

Operator says it does now know when the problem at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant in Niigata province will be solved, after an alarm sounded during start-up

The restart of the world’s largest nuclear power plant was suspended in Japan on Thursday just a day after it went online for the first time in about 14 years, with the operator saying it does not know when the problem will be solved.

The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant in Niigata province had been closed since the 2011 Fukushima disaster, but operations to relaunch it began on Wednesday after it received the final green light from the nuclear regulator.

Published: January 23, 2026, 12:19 am

Barron Trump told police he was ‘very close’ to alleged rape victim, court hears

Donald Trump’s son was on video call with woman when he saw a man repeatedly punch her, court told

Donald Trump’s youngest son said he was “very close” to an alleged rape victim after raising the alarm about a suspected assault against her, a court has heard.

Barron Trump was on a FaceTime video call a year ago with the woman, who cannot be named, when he saw a man repeatedly punch her, Snaresbrook crown court was told on Wednesday.

Published: January 22, 2026, 4:44 pm

Powerful winter storm to bring heavy snow across much of US this weekend

Storm expected to hit from south Rockies and plains into mid-south on Friday before spreading east

A powerful winter storm is set to sweep across much of the US this weekend, bringing potentially record-breaking cold, heavy snow and ice that forecasters warn could cause hazardous conditions, power outages and travel disruptions.

The storm is expected to bring “widespread heavy snow, sleet and freezing rain” from the southern Rockies and the plains into the mid-south on Friday, before spreading east to the mid-Atlantic and New England areas this weekend, according to the National Weather Service. The impact in New England will potentially linger into Monday.

Published: January 22, 2026, 8:59 pm

Trump claims world ‘richer, safer’ than year ago at launch of his ‘board of peace’

US president holds signing ceremony at World Economic Forum amid concerns new body seeks to replace UN

Donald Trump has claimed the world is “richer, safer and much more peaceful than it was just one year ago” as he hosted a launch event for his “board of peace” initiative at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

At a signing ceremony for the new organisation, the US president said it would be “one of the most consequential bodies ever created in the history of the world”.

Published: January 22, 2026, 6:35 pm

Former FTX crypto executive Caroline Ellison released from federal custody

Ellison testified against Sam Bankman-Fried, FTX’s founder and her ex-partner who was sentenced to 25 years in prison

The Disgraced former cryptocurrency executive Caroline Ellison has been released from federal custody after serving about 14 months for her involvement in the multibillion-dollar FTX fraud scandal. Ellison was previously head of FTX’s associated trading arm and the on-again, off-again romantic partner of the crypto exchange’s founder, Sam Bankman-Fried.

Ellison, 31, was sentenced to 24 months in prison in 2024 after pleading guilty to seven charges, including wire fraud and money laundering. She featured prominently as a witness for the prosecution of Bankman-Fried, testifying that her former paramour directed her to commit crimes. Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison.

Published: January 22, 2026, 9:38 pm

‘An environmental nuclear bomb’: documentary examines fight to save Great Salt Lake

Sundance film festival: A cautionary new film, executive-produced by Leonardo DiCaprio, warns of the devastating consequences if the Utah lake continues to disappear

The Sundance film festival kicked off its final edition on Thursday in Park City, the Utah ski enclave that has housed the independent film hub for more than four decades. Beginning in 2027, the festival will move to Boulder, Colorado, after a multi-year selection process that many assumed would end in Salt Lake City.

Utah’s largest city, a mere 30 miles from the festival center, has long hosted extra Sundance events and served as its transit center. It’s a rapidly growing metropolitan area, a mecca for outdoor enthusiasts, a major US city – and, according to a new documentary that opened this year’s festival, facing an imminent ecological crisis.

Published: January 23, 2026, 12:15 am

Blind, slow and 500 years old – or are they? How scientists are unravelling the secrets of Greenland sharks

Described by one researcher as looking ‘already dead’, the enigmatic creatures are one of the least understood species on the planet

It looks more like a worn sock than a fearsome predator. It moves slower than an escalator. By most accounts, it is a clumsy and near-sightless relic drifting in the twilight waters of the Arctic, lazily searching for food scraps.

The Greenland shark, an animal one researcher (lovingly) said, “looks like it’s already dead”, is also one of the least understood, biologically enigmatic species on the planet.

Published: January 22, 2026, 10:00 am

A bid to clean up shipping industry intensified a coral bleaching event on Great Barrier Reef, study says

The removal of sulphur from shipping fuels caused ‘a lot of extra sunlight’ to get through atmosphere and hit reef in 2022

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Steps to clean up the shipping industry by removing sulphur from fuels intensified a major coral bleaching event on the Great Barrier Reef by allowing more of the sun’s energy to hit the oceanic wonder, according to a new study.

Sulphur pollution can cause respiratory problems for humans and cause acid rain, but it also has a shading effect and can make clouds brighter, providing more shade to areas underneath.

Published: January 22, 2026, 11:00 am

Half the world’s 100 largest cities are in high water stress areas, analysis finds

Exclusive: Beijing, Delhi, Los Angeles and Rio de Janeiro among worst affected, with demand close to exceeding supply

Half the world’s 100 largest cities are experiencing high levels of water stress, with 38 of these sitting in regions of “extremely high water stress”, new analysis and mapping has shown.

Water stress means that water withdrawals for public water supply and industry are close to exceeding available supplies, often caused by poor management of water resources exacerbated by climate breakdown.

Published: January 22, 2026, 3:40 pm

Trump administration to block aid from subsizing DEI and trans rights overseas

Decision marks dramatic expansion of ‘Mexico City policy’, which abortion rights supporters call ‘global gag rule’

• US politics live – latest updates

The Trump administration will block organizations that receive US foreign aid from subsidizing diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives and what the administration calls “gender ideology”. The new policy will affect about $30bn in foreign assistance.

The decision, confirmed to the Guardian by a state department spokesperson on Thursday morning, marks a dramatic expansion of the so-called “Mexico City policy”, which blocks non-US non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from receiving some forms of US funding if they provide abortion-related services or advocate for abortion rights overseas. Now, that policy – which abortion rights supporters call the “global gag rule” – will also apply to international organizations and US-based NGOs operating abroad.

Published: January 22, 2026, 9:57 pm

Rural California is seeing its craziest election in years. Can a progressive win it?

Audrey Denney is trying to win a House seat twice – first in a special election, and then again after the district is redrawn

Inside an old Craftsman on the northern end of California’s Sacramento valley, Audrey Denney is spending the day on the phone – calling constituent after constituent to discuss rising healthcare costs, wildfire insurance premiums and cuts to benefits – and to solicit donations.

It’s the mundane way in which an epic, and uphill, battle for control of the US Congress is being fought.

Published: January 22, 2026, 2:01 pm

Senators urge Ford to disclose suspected lobbying over Trump’s climate rollbacks

Sheldon Whitehouse adds auto giant to investigation after US president claimed CEO requests changes to regulations

As the Trump administration prepares to overturn the rule underpinning virtually all US climate regulations, a Senate committee is investigating whether the US’s second-largest automaker lobbied for the rollback.

In September, the Senate environment and public works committee launched investigations into two dozen oil companies, thinktanks, law firms and trade associations, focused on how the companies may have persuaded the White House to initiate the repeal of the 2009 endangerment finding. Now, the committee, chaired by the Rhode Island senator Sheldon Whitehouse, is expanding the investigation to include Ford Motor Company.

Published: January 22, 2026, 5:00 pm

Renee Good was shot three times, autopsy into Minneapolis ICE killing finds

Private postmortem says unarmed US citizen was struck in arm, breast and head in shooting by immigration officer

A private autopsy has determined that Renee Good, the unarmed US citizen and mother killed by a federal immigration officer in Minneapolis earlier this month, was shot three times, in her forearm, breast and head.

The independent postmortem was commissioned by lawyers in Chicago representing Good’s family, and its findings were released late on Wednesday, ABC7 News reported.

Published: January 22, 2026, 1:44 pm

Two dead and six missing after landslides hit house and campground in New Zealand

Search-and-rescue teams worked through the night at the campground, but there had been no progress in finding missing people, officials say

New Zealand is ‘full of grief”, the prime minister has said, after landslides tore through a house and busy campground, leaving two dead and at least six victims still missing.

Police said emergency crews were still searching for at least six people, including two teenagers, believed missing beneath the debris of a landslide, which struck a Mount Maunganui campsite on Thursday morning. Police were attempting to contact another three people. Families enjoying the summer school holiday were among the campers. Recreational vehicles and at least one structure were crushed, images showed.

Published: January 23, 2026, 1:44 am

Experts warn of threat to democracy from ‘AI bot swarms’ infesting social media

Misinformation technology could be deployed at scale to disrupt 2028 US presidential election, AI researchers say

Political leaders could soon launch swarms of human-imitating AI agents to reshape public opinion in a way that threatens to undermine democracy, a high profile group of experts in AI and online misinformation has warned.

The Nobel peace prize-winning free-speech activist Maria Ressa, and leading AI and social science researchers from Berkeley, Harvard, Oxford, Cambridge and Yale are among a global consortium flagging the new “disruptive threat” posed by hard-to-detect, malicious “AI swarms” infesting social media and messaging channels.

Published: January 22, 2026, 7:00 pm

Second season of With Love, Meghan fails to reach Netflix’s top 1,000

Duchess of Sussex’s lifestyle programme will reportedly not return for third series

The Duchess of Sussex’s latest Netflix lifestyle show failed to crack the top 1,000 most watched programmes on the platform, figures suggest, amid reports that it will not return for a third series.

The second series of With Love, Meghan ranked 1,124th most watched shows between July and December 2025, with 2m views, according to data, coming below the second season of Miraculous: Tales Of Ladybug & Cat Noir, as well as programmes several years older including Downton Abbey.

Published: January 22, 2026, 5:56 pm

Kangaroos’ giant ancestor probably able to hop despite 250kg weight, scientists say

Research for first time suggests tendon and bones in heavier species would have made bounding possible

Giant 250kg kangaroos that once roamed Australia would probably have been able to hop despite their enormous size, researchers have said.

While modern kangaroos are known for their ability to travel large distances by jumping with both hind legs at the same time, it has long been debated whether their extinct relatives would have been so springy.

Published: January 22, 2026, 4:00 pm

Styles guide: is Harry’s album Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally. grammatically correct?

The follow-up to 2022’s Harry’s House boasts an esoteric title – but experts say ambiguity might be the goal

We don’t know much about Harry Styles’s first album in four years beyond its title – and it’s already causing some grammatical consternation.

The follow-up to 2022’s Grammy-winning Harry’s House is a bit more esoterically named: Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally. In an era when fans clinically investigate every aspect of pop stars’ lives, it was perhaps inevitable that Styles’s choice of punctuation would draw scrutiny.

Published: January 22, 2026, 12:00 pm

Arctic Monkeys release first new song since 2022 to benefit War Child

Opening Night will appear on HELP(2), a charity compilation out in March which also features Olivia Rodrigo, Depeche Mode, Pulp and more

Arctic Monkeys have released Opening Night, their first new song since 2022 album The Car, with proceeds benefiting the charity War Child.

Opening Night is taken from HELP(2), a sequel to War Child’s 1995 album Help, which brought together A-list music names to raise £1.2m for children affected by conflict, including Radiohead, Blur, Sinéad O’Connor and the Smokin’ Mojo Filters (a supergroup of Paul McCartney, Noel Gallagher and Paul Weller).

Published: January 22, 2026, 3:14 pm

‘The emotion you get from the game is insane’: the Roy Keane bust-up film leading a new type of football movie

Saipan, about Keane’s infamous World Cup row with manager Mick McCarthy, has become a hit film in its native Ireland – as it opens in the UK screenwriter Paul Fraser explains how he aimed to avoid the mistakes of the past

The best bit of football action in Saipan happens on a tennis court. The forthcoming movie about the schism between Mick McCarthy and Roy Keane that led to the latter departing the 2002 World Cup before it started does not attempt to recreate any of the action from the tournament. In fact, it largely takes place in a decrepit hotel. But we do get one exception: Keane, played by Éanna Hardwicke, practising alone in the grounds. At the back of a court, the sullen, spartan athlete stands as a ball is fired up and over the net towards him. He tracks it with his eyes, opens up his right foot, takes the ball on his instep and kills it dead. And with that, his sporting bona fides are confirmed.

Saipan is a movie about masculinity, about men and their egos. It’s also about an era in Irish history; the roaring of the Celtic tiger, where questions of national identity came to the fore. What it’s not, really, is a movie about football. Which might be a canny choice, because while the world’s most popular sport only continues to grow its audience, football’s track record on the big screen is, how shall we say, like Manchester United after Sir Alex.

Published: January 22, 2026, 7:00 am

Bach: Sonatas & Partitas album review – Capuçon brings warmth, restraint and reflection

Renaud Capuçon
(Deutsche Grammophon)
These performances of Bach’s solo works are elegant and persuasive – balancing a modern tone with an alert awareness of period style

To celebrate his 50th birthday, Renaud Capuçon has recorded Bach’s solo sonatas and partitas, works the French violinist has been familiar with since childhood. These impressive accounts are elegant and thoughtful, his generous tone lit up from within with sufficient vibrato to caress the ear while simultaneously acknowledging current thinking on period performance practice.

Tempi are steady throughout, occasionally leisurely in slow movements, but always persuasive. There’s a generous body to his sound and a tasteful restraint when it comes to decoration. Phrasing is instinctual, his articulation of Bach’s fugal elements a model of clarity, while his sure-footed handling of the various doubles and prestos eschews any sense of virtuosity for virtuosity’s sake. In the mighty chaconne that ends the D minor partitas, Capuçon finds a reflective lightness and intimacy that frequently draws the ear.

Published: January 22, 2026, 3:00 pm

Megadeth: Megadeth review – conspiracy theories and combustible fingers on thrash metallers’ curtain call

(BLKIIBLK/Frontiers)
Tuneful yet overlong, Dave Mustaine and co’s final album is a recap of Megadeth’s strengths, flaws and familiar grudges

There are long goodbyes, and then there is Megadeth’s retirement from the music industry. A final album and tour by the thrash metal pioneers was announced last August, with an AI-assisted video and a written statement that offered some classic grandstanding on the part of frontman and sole original member Dave Mustaine. Never a man to hide his light under a bushel, he equated Megadeth’s decision to quit with a global catastrophe (“some say this is the end of times”) and suggested that the US band “changed the world”.

Their decision to quit makes sense, given the state of Mustaine’s health. Having conquered throat cancer and radial neuropathy, he’s now suffering from arthritis and something called Dupuytren’s contracture – a thickening of tissue under the skin that causes the fingers to bend, commonly known as the suitably metal-sounding Viking disease – both of which impede his ability to play guitar. The call to end the band was made during the recording of their self-titled 17th studio album. But then three months later Mustaine announced that the farewell dates announced were only the beginning. The tour is scheduled to last “easily … three to five years”. So there seems every chance that Megadeth will still be bidding the world adieu in the next decade.

Published: January 22, 2026, 12:00 pm

Workhorse by Caroline Palmer review – a Devil Wears Prada-style tale of ambition

Dark obsessions drive this debut about the golden era of magazines – but its vile and hilarious heroine is not someone you want to spend so much time with

Last year the New York Times ran a quiz entitled “Could You Have Landed a Job at Vogue in the 90s?” It was based on the fabled four-page exam Anna Wintour had would-be assistants sit – a cultural literacy test containing questions about 178 notable people, places, books and films. I’m afraid that this former (British) Vogue intern did not pass muster: wrong era, wrong country.

A woman who almost certainly would pass with flying colours is the former Vogue staffer Caroline Palmer, now the author of a novel, Workhorse, set at “the magazine” during the dying days of a golden age of women’s glossies, when the lunches were boozy, the couture was free and almost anything could be expensed. In this first decade of the new millennium, we meet Clodagh, or Clo, a suburban twentysomething “workhorse” trying to make it in a world of rich, beautiful, well-connected “show horses”, and willing to do almost anything to get there.

Published: January 22, 2026, 9:00 am

On Censorship by Ai Weiwei review – are we losing the battle for free speech?

China isn’t the only country imposing limits on creative expression, argues the provocative artist

‘Chinese culture is the opposite of provocation,” Ai Weiwei once told an interviewer. “It tries to seek harmony in human nature and society.” Harmony has never been his bag. Provocation though? In spades. As a student at the Beijing Film Academy in the late 1970s, he joined an artist group called Stars that had a slogan: “We Demand Political Democracy and Artistic Freedom”. In the 1990s, returning to Beijing after a decade in downtown New York, he and a couple of friends published and distributed samizdat-style books devoted to off-piste, often-political art of the kind that government censors tend to fear.

Ai’s own work was bolshie and anathema to custodians of good taste. His Study of Perspective series showed him raising a middle finger at global sites – among them Tiananmen Square, the Eiffel Tower, the White House – that are expected to produce awe, delight, reverence. In the self-explanatory photographic sequence Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn (1995), itself the follow-up to Han Jar Overpainted with Coca-Cola Logo (1994), he asked viewers to decide who was the bigger cultural vandal: himself, a mere artist – or a Chinese state for whom iconoclasm was a defining feature of its modernising project. A 2000 exhibition in Shanghai that he helped to stage bore the name Fuck Off. (Its Chinese subtitle was “Ways to Not Cooperate’”.)

Published: January 22, 2026, 7:00 am

‘It’s the underground Met Gala of concrete murderzone design’: welcome to the Quake Brutalist Game Jam

Quake Brutalist Jam began as a celebration of old-fashioned shooter level design, but its latest version is one step away from being a game in its own right

A lone concrete spire stands in a shallow bowl of rock, sheltering a rusted trapdoor from the elements. Standing on the trapdoor causes it to yawn open like iron jaws, dropping you through a vertical shaft into a subterranean museum. Here, dozens of doors line the walls of three vaulted grey galleries, each leading to a pocket dimension of dizzying virtual architecture and fierce gladiatorial combat.

Welcome to Quake Brutalist Jam, the hottest community event for lovers of id Software’s classic first-person shooter from 1996. First run in 2022, the Jam started out as a celebration of old-school 3D level design, where veteran game developers, aspiring level designers and enthusiast modders gather to construct new maps and missions themed around the austere minimalism of brutalist architecture.

Published: January 22, 2026, 12:00 pm

R&B star Jill Scott: ‘I like mystery – I love Sade but I don’t know what she had for breakfast’

The neo-soul singer and actor answers your questions on being taken to a go-go club as a child, training as an English teacher and getting mistaken for footballer Jill Scott

In a recent interview you gave an invaluable life lesson which involved a go-go bar and your mother’s love. What are your tips for living life between adversities? Integrity411
My mother’s ex-husband was a questionable man and after he picked me up from elementary school he used to take me to a go-go bar where ladies were dancing in their panties. I was a child, so I thought: how nice for them, I hate getting dressed too! They dance all day and then some nice people put money in their panties. The ladies would give me milk or Coca-Cola and give me a dollar, so I wanted to be a go-go dancer when I grew up. At that age I didn’t know there was anything wrong with me going there and I learned not to judge people so quickly. However, when my mother discovered why I was coming home late she kicked into fifth gear. She told the bar not to let me in and instead showed me art, opera, ballet – anything that was free – and changed my palate and perspective. In a way, all that brought me here. Art can get you through things. Cry as hard as you can or even laugh as hard as you can, and hold on to the joy.

A Long Walk is my favourite song of yours, not least because I was blessed to have that same experience. Is it something you shared with a special someone or something you yearned for which has not yet come to pass? Soulisasolis33
Oh my goodness. I’ve had many long walks with dogs, my mother, my mate, my friends, my child. To just take a walk and talk is one of my favourite things to do, or just to take a walk in silence. I’d recommend it to anybody.

Published: January 22, 2026, 3:15 pm

‘Who was this golden creature?’: the stars of London’s black queer nightlife – in pictures

From newbie drag queens to wild voguing performances, a new archival exhibition boasts images from four decades of riotous nightlife

Published: January 22, 2026, 7:00 am

Liza Minnelli uses AI to release first new music in 13 years

Singing legend heralds ‘new tools in service of expression’, on compilation that also features an Art Garfunkel song using AI-generated piano backing

Liza Minnelli has released her first new music in 13 years, adding vocals to an AI-created dance track.

The track, Kids, Wait Til You Hear This – also the title of her upcoming memoir – is an unexpected foray into deep house for the 79-year-old Minnelli, who adds a handful of spoken declarations to the pumping backing.

Published: January 22, 2026, 11:07 am

Top of the props: meet the unsung heroes behind the memorable objects in your favourite films

Does your movie call for a golden, diamond-encrusted Furby or replica nuclear missile? The prop master will find one for you – or even make it from scratch

The red and blue pills in The Matrix. The Rosebud sled in Citizen Kane. Marsellus Wallace’s briefcase in Pulp Fiction, contents unknown. The (real) severed horse head in The Godfather. Every sword, gun, wand and lightsaber that has been brandished by an actor on a screen or stage. What do these items have in common? Nothing, except that they are a tiny sample of the staggering range of objects, from the iconic to the instantly forgotten, known as props – or, to use their formal name, “properties”.

Props are, properly defined, anything used in a performance that is not part of the set or costumes. Sourcing or fabricating them is the job of a team overseen by the prop master; the term is gender-neutral, although the prim-sounding “prop mistress” is occasionally heard. It’s a massive undertaking, but not one that gets much attention. “It’s nice that you are asking about props, because they’re not really acknowledged,” says Jode Mann, a TV prop master in Los Angeles.

Published: January 22, 2026, 8:00 am

You be the judge: should my husband stop quoting song lyrics during serious conversations?

Randy thinks throwing in a line or two lightens the mood. Taylor says it’s an avoidance tactic. You decide who’s out of tune

• Find out how to get a disagreement settled or become a juror

He will throw in lines from songs during serious conversations – it is an avoidance tactic

Yes I should tone it down, but a lyric can lighten the mood and there’s one for every occasion

Published: January 22, 2026, 8:00 am

Going beyond the surface in the Karst plateau: exploring the new cross-border geopark in Italy and Slovenia

GeoKarst is a new EU-funded project highlighting a unique landscape of caves, gorges and medieval villages near Trieste

Our guide turns out the lights and suddenly there is nothing. Just total darkness, the sound of gentle dripping and a creeping feeling of unease. The switch is flicked back on and the shadowy world that lies deep beneath the Karst returns. I’m in Vilenica, thought to be the first cave in the world ever opened to tourists, with records of visitors dating back to 1633. It’s a magical sight: a grand antechamber sculpted through erosion, filled with soaring stalagmites and plunging stalactites streaked in shades of red, terracotta and orange by iron oxide, and dotted with shimmering crystals.

Vilenica is just one of a network of thousands of caves located in the Karst region of western Slovenia and eastern Italy, which is known for its porous, soluble limestone rock. Above ground, this creates a distinctive landscape, filled with rocks bearing lined striations and pockmarked by hollows known as dolines, where the limestone has collapsed underneath. But below ground is where it’s really special, with enormous caves, sinkholes and subterranean rivers. Later in the day, I visit the region’s other main visitor cave, Škocjan, where I’m amazed to see an underground river thunder through a chamber almost 150 metres high. It’s an almost surreal sensory experience, with the rush of the rapids echoing around the walls.

Published: January 22, 2026, 7:00 am

The pub that changed me: ‘It taught me not to be obnoxious’

This ancient Scottish tavern was a raucous, cross-generational hangout where everyone – young and old, locals and tourists – sang themselves hoarse to Fairytale of New York

This is said to be one of Scotland’s most haunted pubs, but for me it’s haunted with happy memories, the ghosts of hazy nights out, the spectre of my younger self, and of course the cantankerous clergyman who stalks its walls from beyond the grave.

Published: January 22, 2026, 5:00 am

No more sad sandwiches and soggy salads: here’s how to make a proper packed lunch

While we’re slogging through the long, dark days of January, a little preparation can make your midday meal a source of comfort and joy

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Even if you have no truck with Blue Monday, Quitter’s Day or any of the other new-year wheezes concocted by enterprising marketeers, the last weeks of January can feel like a bit of a confused slog. Seasonal colds and lurgies abound. The weather is generally at its rain-lashed and blackly overcast worst. Well-intentioned attempts at self-improvement or abstemiousness are starting to creak in the face of a desire for whatever scraps of midwinter comfort we can find.

Nowhere is this more apparent than when it comes to food and, more specifically, the daily puzzle of how to have something nourishing as a working lunch. These can feel like lean days in more ways than one – characterised by tax payments or a painfully slow creep towards the first payday of 2026. And that’s only more apparent now that, after the remote working and pyjama-clad Zoom calls of the post-pandemic era, lots of us have returned to the office for at least the bulk of the week. Even as someone who effectively eats out for a living, there have been plenty of times when I have stood up from the desk of my chosen workspace (often one of the oversubscribed tables at the British Library) with no real plan and wandered aimlessly, only to end up forking out for some insipid sandwich, tepid heat-lamp soup or tray of indeterminate vegetable mulch that is both expensive and unsatisfying.

Published: January 22, 2026, 1:10 pm

How screen time affects toddlers: ‘We’re losing a big part of being human’

In the UK, 98% of two-year-olds watch screens on a typical day, on average for more than two hours – and almost 40% of three- to five-year-olds use social media. Could this lead to alarming outcomes?

At Stoke primary school in Coventry, there are many four-year-olds among those starting in reception class who can’t sit still, hold a pencil or speak more than a four-word sentence. Lucy Fox, the assistant headteacher and head of foundations, is in no doubt what is causing this: their early exposure to screens, and a lot of it. When the children experiment with materials and creativity, and make things in the classroom, she says, “We notice a lot of children will cut pieces of cardboard out and make a mobile phone or tablet, or an Xbox controller. That’s what they know.”

At another school in Hampshire, a longtime reception teacher says in the last few years she has noticed children getting frustrated if activities aren’t instant and seamless – something she thinks comes from playing games on a phone or tablet. There is a lack of creativity and problem-solving skills, noticeable when the children are playing with Lego or doing jigsaw puzzles and turning the pieces to fit. “I find their hand-eye coordination isn’t very good, and they find puzzles difficult. Doing a puzzle on an iPad, you just need to hold and move it on the screen. They get really frustrated and I feel like there are certain connections the brain is not making any more.”

Published: January 22, 2026, 10:00 am

The bathroom door scandal: why hotels are putting toilets in glass boxes

Solid doors are being replaced with sliding ones, or even transparent cubicles. For furious guests, this is a cost-cutting measure too far

Name: Hotel bathroom doors.

Age: Solid doors have existed since ancient Egypt.

Published: January 22, 2026, 5:00 am

‘Not a typical day’: makers of Macron’s sunglasses deluged with demand

At Davos the French president wore a pair of shades made by Maison Henry Jullien to cover up a burst blood vessel in one eye

The world leaders and company executives meeting in Davos this week were meant to be discussing the most complex and alarming geopolitical crisis most could remember.

Instead, all eyes were on Emmanuel Macron.

Published: January 22, 2026, 1:30 pm

Soldiers with red balloons and a pepper-sprayed protester: photos of the day – Thursday

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

Published: January 22, 2026, 12:36 pm