‘It launched a million fantasies’: the greatest ever TV romances

From sparks flying during The OC’s Spider-Man snog to love stories so powerful they make you weep, Guardian writers pick the television couples whose tales never fail to make hearts pound

As TV romances go, it’s not the most original. Nerdy teen boy finally gets the queen bee he’s loved since they still had baby teeth – and off we pop on a four-season cycle of dramatic breakups and grand-gesture-fuelled reunions. Yet through all of the faintly ridiculous plotlines, their romance is anchored by that most elusive of on-screen tricks: actual, palpable chemistry. There is the sarcastic sparring, the physical spark (who could ever forget that Spiderman snog?) but also a feeling of deep care and genuine friendship – one that helps both characters grow into promising mini-grownups by the end. Watching the pair navigate insecurities, battle identity crises and generally make some spectacularly poor choices, lets us all feel better about the emotional dumpster fires of our own adolescence. And the fact that they keep on choosing each other speaks to that part of our teen selves that longed to find someone who might jump on to a coffee cart and declare their love for us – or at least wait around all summer while we campaigned to save sea otters. Lucinda Everett

Published: February 13, 2026, 10:27 am

Will the Epstein files tarnish the reputation of Jamie Dimon, America’s banker?

The final stretch of the JP Morgan Chase chief’s career is a bumpy one, as Trump himself demands prosecutors investigate Epstein’s ties to Dimon’s bank

Published: February 13, 2026, 10:00 am

These charts show how Trump is isolating the US on the world stage

Analysis shows that the world is moving closer to China, as Trump’s isolationism rears its head at the United Nations

Donald Trump’s return to the White House has accelerated a profound shift in the global order, according to new analysis.

A report from Focaldata, which analyses UN voting records, reveals how Washington’s “America First” agenda has started to redraw the geopolitical map in favour of China.

Published: February 13, 2026, 7:00 am

OpenAI retired its most seductive chatbot – leaving users angry and grieving: ‘I can’t live like this’

Its human partners said the flirty, quirky GPT-4o was the perfect companion – on the eve of Valentine’s Day, it’s being turned off for good. How will users cope?

Brandie plans to spend her last day with Daniel at the zoo. He always loved animals. Last year, she took him to the Corpus Christi aquarium in Texas, where he “lost his damn mind” over a baby flamingo. “He loves the color and pizzazz,” Brandie said. Daniel taught her that a group of flamingos is called a flamboyance.

Daniel is a chatbot powered by the large language model ChatGPT. Brandie communicates with Daniel by sending text and photos, talks to Daniel while driving home from work via voice mode. Daniel runs on GPT-4o, a version released by OpenAI in 2024 that is known for sounding human in a way that is either comforting or unnerving, depending on who you ask. Upon debut, CEO Sam Altman compared the model to “AI from the movies” – a confidante ready to live life alongside its user.

Published: February 13, 2026, 12:30 pm

Gender studies courses are shutting down across the US. The Epstein files reveal why | Joan Wallach Scott

Texas A&M University is the latest school to end women’s and gender studies programs and teaching race. We know why

Last week, we learned of the decision of the Texas A&M University board of regents to end women’s and gender studies programs as well as the teaching of “divisive concepts” such as race. A&M was not the first university to do this. Florida’s New College made the move in 2023. Other red state legislatures have passed similar requirements and their public universities (in North Carolina, Ohio and Kansas) have followed suit.

The move to cancel gender studies is explicitly justified as a way to comply with Donald Trump’s executive order of last year titled Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government. That document makes “the biological reality of sex” a matter not of science but of law.

Published: February 13, 2026, 11:00 am

Rio carnival to offer towering tribute to Lula, ‘the greatest Brazilian of all time’

Brazil president to receive unprecedented honour at opening night of procession with a giant effigy of him

He is a giant of Brazilian politics and soon he will become a giant of Brazilian carnival too: a 22-metre metal figurine, to be precise.

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who rose from rural poverty to become his country’s first working class president, is to receive an unprecedented tribute at the opening night of Rio’s annual carnival procession on Sunday.

Published: February 13, 2026, 11:00 am

FDA refuses to consider Moderna flu shot in move experts claim is part of ‘anti-vaccine agenda’

Agency says application rejected due to lack of ‘adequate and well controlled’ trial, but experts say ‘they’re just coming up with reasons’

A senior US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) official says Moderna’s clinical trial on a new, potentially more effective flu vaccine was a “brazen failure” and that the FDA is now calling it into question.

The FDA unexpectedly refused to consider Moderna’s application for a flu shot based on messenger RNA (mRNA) technology in a decision that experts say is already having a chilling effect on vaccine development.

Published: February 13, 2026, 11:00 am

Trump doubles down on racist video, saying no staffer has been disciplined

US president, who blamed aide for post depicting Obamas as apes, maintains video is not a problem

Donald Trump on Thursday continued to brush off widespread backlash over a racist video posted to his social media account last week, and said no White House staffer had faced consequences for the offensive post.

Asked by Weijia Jiang of CBS News on Thursday whether he had “fired or disciplined that staffer who posted the video from your account that included the Obamas”, Trump said that he had not.

Published: February 13, 2026, 2:29 am

Canada school deaths suspect created shooting simulator on gaming platform

Roblox says it has removed account after massacre that left nine people including the shooter dead

The 18-year-old suspect in a high school shooting in British Columbia had previously created a mass shooting simulator on the gaming platform Roblox, it has been revealed.

The simulator, set in what appeared to be a virtual shopping mall, allowed users – represented as Roblox-style avatars – to pick up weapons and shoot other players, 404 Media reported on Thursday.

Published: February 13, 2026, 2:43 pm

DHS shutdown looms as battle continues on Capitol Hill over demands to rein in ICE – US politics live

Negotiations over funding bill stall as Democratic members of Congress try to force Republicans to consider measures on ICE and CBP behavior

The annual rate of US inflation eased in January, according to the latest data consumer price index report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Over the last 12 months, the cost of goods has increased by 2.4% – down from 2.7% in last month’s report.

Lawmakers in the House and Senate left Washington on Thursday as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) heads for another shutdown, when stopgap funding lapses tonight. Nearly all Democrats blocked a second attempt to pass the annual DHS appropriations bill as negotiations for guardrails on federal immigration enforcement have stalled. Senator John Fetterman was the only lawmaker to break ranks with the party.

Published: February 13, 2026, 4:04 pm

US inflation falls to 2.4% in January after Trump’s tariffs led to price fluctuations

Economists predicted a slight easing of inflation, although it’s unclear whether Fed will again cut interest rates

US inflation moderated in January to 2.4%, an easing after Donald Trump’s tariffs triggered price fluctuations last year.

Prices rose 0.2% from December to January, according to data released by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday measuring the consumer price index (CPI), which measures the price of a basket of goods and services. Core CPI, which strips out the volatile food and energy industries, went up 0.3% over the month.

Published: February 13, 2026, 1:53 pm

Arizona sheriff denies withholding key evidence on Nancy Guthrie from FBI

Chris Nanos was accused of bypassing federal analysts as search for Today show host’s mother nears two weeks

The Arizona sheriff investigating the abduction of NBC Today show host Savannah Guthrie’s mother pushed back Friday on an accusation he had withheld crucial forensic evidence from the FBI, as the search for the missing 84-year-old reached close to two weeks.

Chris Nanos, the Pima county sheriff leading the investigation in Tucson, has been accused of bypassing federal analysts, according to an unnamed source at the FBI who spoke to Reuters.

Published: February 13, 2026, 2:38 pm

Even US will not be powerful enough ‘to go alone’, says Merz – Munich Security Conference live

German chancellor says close relationship is advantage for both Europe and US but world order as we know it ‘not longer exists’

If you need a primer on what’s on the agenda for the next three days, I spoke with the MSC’s head of policy Nicole Koenig, the author of the European part of their security report published ahead of the meeting.

I asked her what is most likely to be the focus of this year’s forum, will Rubio deliver a “JD Vance 2.0” speech or say something more (nomen omen) diplomatic, and what other topics are likely to come up.

“We have had years, decades of complaints by the US about the fact that in Europe, we were not spending enough on defence. That has changed since the summit in The Hague.

The shift in mindset is that yesterday in the room, what we felt, all of us, there was a clear coming together of vision and of unity.

“They want [us] to perceive the Russians as a mighty bear, but you could argue they are moving through Ukraine at the stilted speed of a garden snail, so let’s not fall the trap of the Russian propaganda.”

Published: February 13, 2026, 3:58 pm

Top lawyer at Goldman Sachs resigns after revelation of Epstein relationship

Emails show Kathy Ruemmler had close ties to convicted sexual abuser she called ‘Uncle Jeffrey’

Goldman Sachs’ top lawyer, Kathy Ruemmler, has announced her resignation after emails in the latest tranche of Epstein files revealed she had a close relationship with the convicted child sex offender, whom she called “Uncle Jeffrey”.

Ruemmler said on Thursday she would step down as the bank’s chief legal officer and general counsel at the end of June.

Published: February 13, 2026, 2:51 am

Florida man saves pregnant woman from drowning hours before baby’s birth

Logan Hayes jumped into pond to save Sheldy Apollon after she pulled over and accidentally drove into water

A passerby jumped into a frigid Florida pond to save a pregnant woman from her sinking car recently – giving her the opportunity to safely birth her baby hours later, according to authorities and those at the center of the riveting rescue story.

As she told it to local news outlet WPTV, Sheldy Apollon of Florida’s Port St Lucie community was 34 weeks pregnant, with pre-eclampsia, and driving to a prenatal massage arranged for her by her fiance on the morning of 6 February when she began feeling dizzy. Apollon, who was also celebrating her birthday that day, stopped to try to let it pass before resuming her trip. When she realized she wasn’t feeling better, she attempted to pull over again.

Published: February 13, 2026, 11:00 am

US paid $32m to five countries to accept about 300 deportees, report shows

Some of the world’s most corrupt countries have received huge payments in controversial third-country deportation scheme

The Trump administration has spent more than $1m per person to deport some migrants to countries they have no connection to, only to see many sent back to their home nations at further taxpayer expense, according to a new congressional investigation.

A 30-page report from Senate foreign relations committee Democrats, released on Thursday and shared with the Guardian, details how the US government paid more than $32m to five foreign governments – including some of the world’s most corrupt regimes – to accept approximately 300 third-country nationals deported from the US.

Published: February 13, 2026, 1:00 pm

Trump pardons five ex-NFL players for crimes from perjury to drug trafficking

• Group includes Hall of Fame lineman Joe Klecko

• Jerry Jones tells news to former Dallas star Nate Newton

Donald Trump issued pardons to five former NFL players on Thursday, with White House pardon czar Alice Marie Johnson making the announcement on social media.

The five pardoned players are Joe Klecko, Nate Newton, Jamal Lewis, Travis Henry and the late Billy Cannon.

Published: February 13, 2026, 3:24 pm

Trump news at a glance: White House rejects climate science and opens door to more pollution

Administration revokes bedrock scientific determination that removes government’s ability to limit pollution from cars and trucks – key US politics stories from 12 February

The Trump administration has revoked the bedrock scientific determination that gives the government the ability to regulate climate-heating pollution. The move was described as a gift to “billionaire polluters” at the expense of Americans’ health.

The endangerment finding, which states that the buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere endangers public health and welfare, has since 2009 allowed the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to limit heat-trapping pollution from vehicles, power plants and other industrial sources.

Published: February 13, 2026, 2:00 am

US antitrust chief Gail Slater ousted from Trump justice department

Exclusive: Decision comes after Slater lost the support of JD Vance and Pam Bondi, the attorney general

Gail Slater, the head of the US justice department’s antitrust division, was forced out of the Trump administration on Thursday after a turbulent tenure and months of simmering tensions with senior cabinet officials, according to two people directly familiar with the matter.

“It is with great sadness and abiding hope that I leave my role as AAG [assistant attorney general] for Antitrust today,” Slater said in a post announcing her departure.

Published: February 12, 2026, 10:57 pm

‘My bill keeps escalating’: how Toledo, Ohio, became the epicenter of the US housing crisis

As LLCs snap up thousands of homes, tenants face rising rents, fees and deteriorating living conditions

• How ‘neglectful or absentee’ investors fuel Toledo, Ohio’s post-pandemic housing crisis

Executive Towers boasts a gym, a swimming pool and heated underground parking. Built in 1963 by the country’s top contructor of luxury apartments, its excellent access to Ohio’s downtown Toledo and the neighborhoods beyond made it an attractive place to live.

It was for all of these reasons and more that Kwiona Sprott moved into Executive Towers with her teenage son last July, paying $851 a month.

Published: February 13, 2026, 2:00 pm

No water or electricity, and children begging in streets filled with rubbish – but this is why I won’t leave Cuba

Whether you blame the US or the communist regime, there is no doubt that this is an island spiralling into tragedy

Felix Valdés García was nine years old when the revolutionaries came to blow up his trees. It was the verge of the 1970s and his father, Felin, was losing the family farm to Cuba’s 10-year-old communist regime. A push called the Revolutionary Offensive was under way, mobilising the people to sow, clean and harvest 10m tonnes of sugar cane in an effort to make Cuba financially independent. The land needed to be cleared.

For decades the family had nurtured their 800 hectares of rich loam alongside the meandering Sagua River. Eight couples, all related, worked the fields, while Felix and his sister had fruitful adventures among the royal palms, avocado, mango and magnificent ceiba.

Published: February 13, 2026, 3:00 pm

Showdown in the American west as Colorado River faces crucial deadline: ‘Mother nature isn’t going to bail us out’

Seven states must make deal for sharing basin that supplies 40 million people, before US government steps in. With negotiations at an impasse, what’s at stake?

The future of the American west hangs in balance this week, as seven states remained at a stalemate over who should bear the brunt of the enormous water cuts needed to pull the imperiled Colorado River back from the brink. Time is running short to reach a deal before a critical deadline, set for Saturday.

In the region where water has long been the source of survival and conflict, the challenges hindering consensus are as steep as the stakes are high.

Published: February 13, 2026, 3:11 pm

Charli xcx: Wuthering Heights review – atonal, amorous anthems that more than stand apart from the film

(Atlantic)
Casting off her Bratty cigarettes and sunglasses, the pop visionary channels the torments of Heathcliff and Cathy and the tumult of the Velvet Underground on her latest captivating pivot

In the catalogues of rock and pop artists, film soundtracks usually seem like interstitial releases. For every career highlight Shaft or Superfly, there’s a plethora of soundtrack albums that carry the tang of the side-hustle. It was doubtless flattering to be asked in the first place – who doesn’t want to feel like a polymath? – but the results are doomed to languish in the footnotes, alongside the compilations of B-sides and outtakes, where only diehard fans spend extended amounts of time.

But the release of House, the first single taken from Charli xcx’s soundtrack to Wuthering Heights, strongly suggested that its author saw Emerald Fennell’s take on Emily Brontë as a chance for a reset. In 2024’s Brat, she made an album you could genuinely call era-defining without fear of embarrassment: if an album makes an impact on the US presidential campaign and its title ends up refashioned as an adjective in the Collins English Dictionary, then it’s definitely era-defining.

Published: February 13, 2026, 2:45 pm

Wear shades in winter and follow the 20-20-20 rule: experts on 13 ways to look after your eyes

Everyone should get their eyes tested every two years, but there are other ways to optimise your vision, say ophthalmologists – and yes, eating carrots may help

Eye health is often something that we take for granted until we encounter problems. But lifestyle choices such as screen time and smoking can affect your vision. Here, ophthalmologists share their tips on maintaining healthy eyes, from sight tests to sunglasses.

Published: February 13, 2026, 5:00 am

Ski days used to cost $5. Now lift tickets can be $300 – unless you decide to keep it real

From mom-and-pop ski hills to luxury resorts, pricing – and culture – have split the activity into different experiences. But some small mountains are still down-to-earth

Once upon a time, in the snowy mountains of remote south-west Montana, there was a thing called “five-dollar day”.

Even then, $5 bought something rare: a full day of skiing. The deal was tempting enough to inspire my friends and me to drive 44 miles (70km) from Bozeman along a narrow, winding highway – toward what would emerge as one of the most expansive and epic ski locales in the US: Big Sky Resort.

Published: February 13, 2026, 3:00 pm

Reader Q&A: Jon Henley on Europe’s future – ‘Nobody really knows if it can get its act together’

From Greenland and Orbán to kicking US bases out of Europe … Guardian Europe editor Jon Henley answered readers’ questions about the continent’s uncertain future

Published: February 13, 2026, 8:41 am

‘People laughed at TV jobs in Belfast!’ How Northern Ireland’s capital became the home of quality drama

From Blue Lights gossip to How to Get to Heaven from Belfast cocktails, the city has become a small-screen hotspot – and is basking in its newfound fame

‘I love them!” Minutes after I jump into a taxi at Belfast International airport, the driver is beaming about Derry Girls. So many tourists he picks up want to talk about the hit comedy and, as a fan himself, he’s happy to oblige.

We’re stuck in traffic, which is odd for this small city on a wet Tuesday morning. “It’s because all the media are here,” he jokes. But there is some truth to it. I’m visiting for the world premiere of How to Get to Heaven from Belfast, the new series from Derry Girls mastermind Lisa McGee, and to see how the capital became home to the best TV.

Published: February 13, 2026, 3:45 pm

Jimmy Kimmel on Maga: ‘It’s such a delicate balance between stupid and evil’

Late-night host discussed Bondi’s behavior during judiciary hearings and how Trump might spend Valentine’s Day

Jimmy Kimmel talked about Pam Bondi and this week’s judiciary hearings as well as the latest climate-destroying victory for the Trump administration.

The late-night host said that Donald Trump “might be feeling a bit lonely this Valentine’s Day” as his recent fundraising email leads with the question: “Do you still love me?”

Published: February 13, 2026, 3:04 pm

Week in wildlife: a thirsty raccoon, a superhero squid and a delinquent swan

This week’s best wildlife photographs from around the world

Published: February 13, 2026, 8:00 am

Some PR advice for the Andrew-stricken royals – try something that look less like a $12m cover-up | Marina Hyde

A loan to keep the case out of court doesn’t quite add up to ‘thoughts and prayers to Epstein’s victims’. Working with the police might be a start

“I could have worse tags than ‘Air Miles Andy’,” the then Prince Andrew once reflected. “Although I don’t know what they are!” I think it’s safe to say he does now.

Almost all senior members of the royal family are biologically capable of sweating, and what really brought them out in a cold one four years ago was the thought of this honking liability testifying in a New York courtroom. So they paid millions upon millions to make sure it didn’t happen. The late Virginia Giuffre’s civil case alleging that the former prince abused her on three occasions in London, New York and the US Virgin Islands was never heard, because the late queen seems to have decided that it shouldn’t be at almost any cost. (Andrew denied all claims of wrongdoing.) And yet, as many of us predicted at the time, this would never be the end of it, and the royal family are now playing a failing game of catch-up with the institution’s own actions. Andrew’s de-princing – an attempt to keep it all in-house – already hasn’t worked.

Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist

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

Published: February 13, 2026, 12:45 pm

Is Jacob Elordi really what Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights should look like? | Dave Schilling

Bad boy Heathcliff is described as ethnically ambiguous and ‘dark’ in the novel, yet is played by a pretty straightforward white Australian Elordi

Tired of movies for kids? Superhero capes and flatulent animated squirrels? Me too. Fortunately, you and I are in luck. This weekend brings the wide release of Saltburn director Emerald Fennell’s adaptation of Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights. As is befitting Fennell’s established style, the movie offers over-the-top sexual titillation (though, crucially, zero nudity) and elaborate production design. Plus, a contemporary pop soundtrack from Charli xcx. A horny film version of a 19th-century novel is as adult-skewing as it gets at the box office these days.

Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi suck face and stand around in the rain in expensive costumes for over two hours in a movie that Fennell proudly declares a loose translation from the page. It excises a large portion of the book’s story and focuses its eye primarily on the illicit romance between Cathy Earnshaw and swarthy Heathcliff. Crucially, it should be pointed out that Heathcliff is technically Cathy’s foster brother, which allows Wuthering Heights to fit comfortably into one of the most popular genres of online video in the world.

Dave Schilling is a Los Angeles-based writer and humorist

Published: February 13, 2026, 12:00 pm

The Palestine Action ruling vindicates the courageous – and shames the complicit | Owen Jones

The home secretary has vowed to fight the judgment, but she and the government are on the wrong side of history

This is a day of humiliation for those who facilitated Israel’s genocide in Gaza – and a moment of vindication for those who stood against “the crime of crimes”. It is worth underlining what the high court in London has today ruled to be unlawful: our government’s decision to place the direct-action group Palestine Action on the same legal footing as al-Qaida and Islamic State. Legally speaking, simply showing support for it risked a jail sentence of up to 14 years. The consequences? More than 2,700 people arrested for holding placards opposing genocide and supporting Palestine Action, many of them elderly, including a retired octogenarian priest.

No one who engages in criminal damage for a political cause imagines they will avoid arrest. As the court ruling makes clear, normal criminal law remains available for such acts. But when a government applies the badge of “terrorism” to movements that, however disorderly, are clearly not terrorist movements, an alarming precedent is set. As the court recognised, the proscription interferes with rights to freedom of expression, to peaceful assembly and free associations with others. You do not need a fevered imagination to see how a future Reform UK government could build on such a precedent. (As things stand, the ban on the group remains in effect so the government has time to appeal.)

Owen Jones is a Guardian columnist

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

Published: February 13, 2026, 3:29 pm

Olympic chiefs have got it badly wrong over Heraskevych ban and owe him an apology | Lizzy Yarnold

As athletes we try to focus on our event and the task at hand, but our lives do not take place in a vacuum

I’m deeply saddened by the IOC banning the skeleton athlete Vladyslav Heraskevych from the Winter Olympics. His helmet depicting images of athletes and children who died in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, some who he knew personally, was a human display of remembrance. The IOC’s response was not an appropriate one.

One only needed to look at the image of Heraskevych’s father when he was told the news of his son’s disqualification – doubled over with his head in his hands – to know the emotional toll. I cannot imagine what they are experiencing but, as both a former athlete and just a fan watching on, I also feel emotional about it and cried when Vlad and his dad messaged me on social media to say thank you for my messages of support.

Published: February 13, 2026, 11:17 am

The Winter Olympics is a dazzling spectacle – but on the ground in Italy the mood is darker | Jamie Mackay

The Games could have showcased Milan’s abundant culture and architecture. Instead it has filled the city with gaudy pavilions and gentrification

On a bad day, Milan can feel less like a city than an open-air shopping mall. Since winning the bid to host the Winter Olympics in 2019, the urban landscape has been flattened into construction dust and swamped in corporate messaging. What started as a logo on a tram has gradually evolved into a feverish, full-scale takeover of the public realm. From Piazza del Duomo to the Sforzesco Castle, the city’s most popular spaces have been appropriated by gaudy pavilions, turning Milan into a bizarre spectacle staffed by dancing mascots.

Last Friday, I sat down with friends to watch the opening ceremony, broadcast live from the San Siro, the much-loved brutalist football stadium that has been slated for demolition The reaction in the room was telling. On the one hand, after so much buildup, most people were excited the big moment had finally arrived. But as the proceedings went on and the parade of familiar faces gave way to the peculiar sight of bobble-headed puppets of Rossini, Puccini and Verdi dancing to Italo disco hit Vamos a la playa, the melancholy kicked in. Was this really what these years of disruption had been for? Was this strange, kitsch pop concert worth all the political repression, the public inconvenience, the relentless marketing, the unspecified millions of euros in cost?

Jamie Mackay is a writer and translator based in Florence

Published: February 13, 2026, 5:00 am

The bristling wit and melancholy of Cees Nooteboom came to me when I needed it most | Madeleine Thien

The great Dutch travel writer, who died this week, found history inscribed in every place he visited, all while remaining accountable to the present

• Cees Nooteboom, Dutch novelist and travel writer, dies aged 92

In the opening to his acclaimed travelogue Roads to Santiago, the Dutch author Cees Nooteboom writes that “there are some places in the world where one is mysteriously magnified on arrival or departure by the emotions of all those who have arrived and departed before”. Travellers have existed in every age, Nooteboom continues, but only for some does there exist a particular sorrow: that of the one who departs with no hope of return. For them, the voyage out becomes the life.

Nooteboom, who was born in the Netherlands in 1933 and died this week aged 92, was drawn to what could be grasped through the “prism of movement”. In a body of work that includes some 60 books of fiction, poetry, reportage and travel writing, of which only a dozen or so have been translated into English, he became a chronicler of departures. In The Following Story, Nomad’s Hotel, The Foxes Come at Night and Lost Paradise, Nooteboom, his characters and his subjects take to the road. They glimpse histories dissolving from memory and past cruelties rekindled, again and again, in ways that chill the heart. Nooteboom was 12 years old when his father was killed during the second world war; he has said that his first childhood memories are of the bombings and the destruction in their wake.

Published: February 13, 2026, 1:16 pm

Forget Jim Ratcliffe’s half-apology: to speak of immigrants ‘colonising’ Britain is wrong and sinister | Sunder Katwala

He fused an echo of Enoch Powell with the spirit of the far right’s great replacement theory. This is no way to progress a humane migration debate

Has Britain been colonised by immigrants? That is what the Manchester United co-owner Jim Ratcliffe claimed in an interview with Sky News. He later said that he was sorry that his “choice of language has offended some people”, saying that what he had intended was to talk about how to control and manage immigration to promote growth.

While Ratcliffe did not define the immigrants by race, to talk about Britain being “colonised” will inevitably be heard that way by many people. After all, the fact that Britain is a multiethnic and multifaith society today reflects the imperial and post-imperial history of Britain colonising much of Africa, and south and south-east Asia – and of postwar immigration from colonies and newly independent Commonwealth states.

Sunder Katwala is director of British Future

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

Published: February 13, 2026, 1:42 pm

Winter Olympics 2026: Klæbo seals treble; Australian snowboarding gold; GB drought goes on – live

• Medal table | Live scores and schedule | Results | Briefing
• Follow us over on Bluesky | Get in touch: mail Tanya

Italian biathlete Rebecca Passler will be able to participate in the Winter Olympics despite failing a doping test, the Italian skiing federation (Fisi) said on Friday. Italy’s anti-doping body (Nado) upheld her appeal against a provisional suspension that followed a positive test for the banned substance Letrozole on 26 January.

Nado’s Court of Appeal acknowledged the possibility of unintentional ingestion or unknowing contamination of the substance. “Passler will rejoin her teammates starting Monday, February 16, when she will be available to the coaching staff for the subsequent competitions on the Olympic programme,” Fisi said in a statement.

Published: February 13, 2026, 4:18 pm

Curling’s uncle: 54-year-old lawyer who called out ICE becomes oldest US Winter Olympian

• Alternate Rich Ruohonen subs in during US match

• Minnesota native is a six-time attorney of the year

• On events in home state: ‘There’s no shades of gray’

The stakes were low – and the time ripe – for a 54-year-old personal injury lawyer and six-time winner of “Minnesota Attorney of the Year” to make Olympic history.

It was the end of the US men’s curling match against Switzerland on Thursday and they were down 8-2.

Published: February 13, 2026, 2:39 pm

Love in a cold climate: Winter Olympic village runs out of condoms after three days

• Athletes in Italy have been ‘promised more will arrive’

• Free condoms have been provided since 1988 Olympics

Free condoms for competitors at the Winter Olympics have run out within a record-breaking three days, according to La Stampa.

“The supplies ran out in just three days,” an anonymous athlete told the Italian newspaper. “They promised us more will arrive, but who knows when.”

Published: February 13, 2026, 1:16 pm

Haiti’s Winter Olympics kit redesigned at last minute to fit IOC guidelines

Designer Stella Jean forced to paint over image of revolutionary on ski suits after being told it breached rules

• Winter Olympics live – latest updates

The designer behind the Haitian team’s uniform for the 2026 Winter Olympics has said she had to redesign their ski suits for the opening ceremony after being told they did not comply with the guidelines on athlete expression by the International Olympic Committee.

The uniforms, designed by the Haitian-Italian designer Stella Jean, were based on a 2006 painting of the formerly enslaved revolutionary Toussaint Louverture riding a horse by the Haitian artist Edouard Duval-Carrié. Louverture, who led the successful revolt that established the world’s first Black republic in 1804, had been central to Jean’s initial design.

Published: February 13, 2026, 4:00 pm

From the foul line to the fault line: Deni Avdija, Israel and the collapse of online nuance

The danger around the Portland star is that in making crucial debates into arguments about basketball, we lose sight of what is really important

There’s a weird, psychological tension around basketball fouls. Not unlike a trial. A single rubbered heartbeat thumps in our collective throats. In basketball litigation, the verdict is televised and delivered in public by the referee’s whistle. Deni Avdija faced more trials than a career criminal in early January, when he scored 41 points in the Portland Trail Blazers’ win over the Houston Rockets. Twenty-eight came from the field. The other 13 were handed to him at the stripe.

The online response was immediate, echoing the criticism that has followed the Israeli all season: he’s a free-throw merchant. It’s a specific kind of hoops pejorative – not quite cheating, but a kind of outsourcing, farming points out to the refs. After the game, Rockets forward Tari Eason was asked what makes Avdija so difficult to guard. His answer was one word: “Zebras.”

Published: February 13, 2026, 10:00 am

Why James Rodríguez signed in Minnesota amid a federal occupation

The Colombian icon joined the MLS side in a short-term deal with an eye toward fitness for the 2026 World Cup

Two weeks ago, few could’ve expected that the most notable international acquisition of the MLS offseason would be made by Minnesota United.

The team’s marquee import until last week was Finland striker Teemu Pukki, with honorable mentions for Colombian playmaker Darwin Quintero and ex-Porto midfielder Ibson. The Loons aren’t known for paying sizable transfer fees, and their wage bill last year was the league’s fifth-smallest.

Published: February 13, 2026, 12:30 pm

LeBron James, 41, makes more NBA history as oldest player to post triple-double

• Star has 28 points, 12 assists, 10 rebounds in Lakers win

• Record stood for 22 years since being set by Karl Malone

• First triple-double for James since February 2025

Deep in the 23rd season of the longest career in NBA history, LeBron James is still dropping triple-doubles – on the Dallas Mavericks and on Father Time.

James became the oldest player to have a triple-double Thursday night, accomplishing the feat at 41 years and 44 days old during the Los Angeles Lakers’ 124-104 victory at home over the Mavericks.

Published: February 13, 2026, 1:34 pm

The scandals clouding ‘sinister’ French ice dancers who beat Chock and Bates for gold

Fournier Beaudry and Cizeron’s Olympic competition is set against backdrop of assault and abuse allegations involving their former partners

The American duo of Madison Chock and Evan Bates, the reigning three-time world champions contentiously missed out on Olympic ice dance gold on Wednesday despite a flawless skate. But the controversy surrounding the event is not merely a debate over artistic and technical merits.

Gold went by a narrow margin to the French duo of Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron. It was a stunning achievement for a partnership that is less than a year old. But the union was forged after the fallout from sexual assault allegations levelled at Fournier Beaudry’s boyfriend and former ice dance partner, while Cizeron is the subject of allegations of abusive conduct from his erstwhile skating partner.

Published: February 12, 2026, 6:50 pm

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

Burnley have the chance of a Cup run, Leicester fear an unwelcome repeat and Brighton fans get a raw deal

Chelsea have kept two clean sheets in 10 games since appointing Liam Rosenior as head coach last month. Repeated doziness at the back has cost them. They have held commanding advantages against Charlton, Crystal Palace, Wolves and Leeds, only to give away silly goals. It is a bad habit and proved costly when a 2-0 lead was squandered during Tuesday’s draw with Leeds. Rosenior was livid afterwards, and is waiting for a consistent performance. Chelsea travel to Hull , Rosenior’s former club, on Friday night. They will surely advance against Championship opponents, but how they do it will matter. It is time for them to get serious. Jacob Steinberg

Hull City v Chelsea, Friday 7.45pm (all times GMT)

Burton Albion v West Ham, Saturday 12.15pm

Burnley v Mansfield, Saturday 3pm

Southampton v Leicester, Saturday 3pm

Published: February 13, 2026, 12:01 am

Blaming immigrants for problems is wrong, says Pep Guardiola after Ratcliffe comments

• ‘Society is better when we embrace other cultures’

• Haaland doubt for FA Cup tie, Rodri charged by FA

Pep Guardiola has said that blaming people from overseas for a country’s problems is wrong, the Manchester City manager’s comments coming amid the fallout of Sir Jim Ratcliffe claiming the United Kingdom is being “colonised by immigrants”.

Ratcliffe’s comment, made in an interview with Sky News on Wednesday, has led to widespread condemnation, including from within football, leading to Manchester United’s single largest minority owner saying he was sorry that his “choice of language has offended some people in the UK and Europe”.

Published: February 13, 2026, 3:06 pm

Canada Soccer extends controversial sponsorship deal in run-up to home World Cup

• New 11-year deal agreed through to 2037

• Relationship has attracted heavy criticism

Canada Soccer has extended its controversial sponsorship and broadcast deal with its privately owned commercial partner, Canadian Soccer Business (CSB), on improved terms for the governing body ahead of this summer’s World Cup.

A new 11-year contract has been agreed through to 2037, with both parties having an option to extend by a further five years, despite the in-fighting that marred the original 10-year deal. It culminated in player strikes and the Canadian Soccer Players Association filing a $40m lawsuit against Canada Soccer board members two years ago.

Published: February 13, 2026, 1:01 pm

UK Palestine Action ban ruled unlawful, in humiliating blow for ministers

Thousands arrested for supporting group since proscription are now in legal limbo as Mahmood says she will appeal

Three senior judges have ruled that the ban on the direct action group Palestine Action under anti-terrorism laws was disproportionate and unlawful, handing the home secretary a humiliating defeat.

Shabana Mahmood was urged to respect the court’s decision after the judges said the ban, introduced by her predecessor Yvette Cooper, impinged on the right to protest and should be quashed.

Published: February 13, 2026, 3:14 pm

French police arrest nine people over suspected €10m Louvre ticket fraud

Prosecutors’ office says two museum workers, several tour guides and suspected mastermind among those detained

French police investigating a suspected €10m (£8.7m) ticket fraud scheme at the Louvre museum in Paris have detained nine people, including two members of staff.

“Based on the information available to the museum, we suspect the existence of a network organising large-scale fraud,” a museum spokesperson told Agence France-Presse.

Published: February 13, 2026, 1:26 pm

Steven Spielberg, Dawson Leery’s idol, donates $25,000 to James Van Der Beek fundraiser

Director revered by actor’s character in Dawson’s Creek is among film industry figures – also including Zoe Saldaña and John M Chu – to make large donation to family

The film director Steven Spielberg has donated $25,000 (£18,365) to a crowdfunder to help the widow and six children of the actor James Van Der Beek, who died this week after being diagnosed with cancer in 2023.

Dawson Leery, Van Der Beek’s character in Dawson’s Creek, the 90s teen soap that shot him to fame, was an aspiring director who idolised Spielberg. Show creator Kevin Williamson had based the character on himself; he went on to write the horror-comedy Scream and other films in the franchise.

Published: February 13, 2026, 1:14 pm

Beijing pastry shop overrun by shoppers after Xi Jinping’s visit

Customers flock to Daoxiangcun to pick up cakes selected by the president during lunar new year tour around city

A Beijing pastry shop visited by the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, on a lunar new year tour this week has been swarmed by customers hoping to get their hands on Xi-approved sweet treats.

Traffic was brought to a standstill in Beijing’s capital as the president took a tour around the city on Monday and Tuesday.

Published: February 13, 2026, 3:17 pm

‘It’s over for us’: release of new AI video generator Seedance 2.0 spooks Hollywood

An AI clip featuring Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt fighting has caused concern among industry figures

A leading Hollywood figure has warned “it’s likely over for us”, after watching a widely disseminated AI-generated clip featuring Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt fighting.

Rhett Reese, co-writer of Deadpool & Wolverine, Zombieland and Now You See Me: Now You Don’t was reacting to a 15-second video showing Cruise and Pitt trading punches on a rubble-strewn bridge, posted by Irish film-maker Ruairí Robinson, director of 2013 sci-fi horror The Last Days on Mars. Reposting the clip on social media, Reese wrote: “I hate to say it. It’s likely over for us.”

Published: February 13, 2026, 1:32 pm

CIA publishes recruitment video aimed at disaffected Chinese soldiers

Army in turmoil after Xi Jinping placed top general under investigation for suspected corruption last month

The CIA (the US’s Central Intelligence Agency) has published a Mandarin-language recruitment video aimed at Chinese soldiers, in an apparent attempt to capitalise on the recent instability in the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) after a series of high-level purges.

The video, published on the CIA’s YouTube channel on Thursday, is titled The Reason for Stepping Forward: To Save the Future.

Published: February 13, 2026, 12:43 pm

Dual nationals to be denied entry to UK from 25 February unless they have British passport

New border controls require ‘certificate of entitlement’ to attach to second nationality passport that costs £589

Dual British nationals have been warned they may be denied boarding a flight, ferry or train to the UK after 25 February unless they carry a valid British passport.

The warning by the Home Office comes amid scores of complaints from British people living or travelling abroad who have suddenly found themselves at risk of not being allowed into the UK.

If you are affected by the change and want to share your story, email lisa.ocarroll@theguardian.com

Published: February 13, 2026, 2:07 pm

Heathrow isn’t crowded, it’s travellers walking on the wrong side, boss says

Thomas Woldbye says part of airport’s problem is UK passengers walk on the left while others walk on the right

Heathrow airport has revealed a crowding problem that a third runway cannot solve: British and foreign travellers walk on different sides, and keep colliding, according to its chief executive.

Thomas Woldbye said that while Heathrow serviced more passengers in a smaller overall area than comparable European hubs, part of the London airport’s trouble was the differing continental sense of direction.

Published: February 13, 2026, 2:01 pm

Penisgate 2: Italian Olympic coverage takes Leonardo da Vinci’s genitals away

State broadcaster accused of censorship over opening titles that use altered version of Vitruvian Man, with organs removed

Italy’s state broadcaster, Rai, has been accused of censorship after using an image of Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man with the genitals missing in the opening credits for its Winter Olympics coverage.

The image of the 500-year-old drawing appears at the start of the clip before transforming into the bodies of ice skaters, skiers and other winter sports athletes.

Published: February 13, 2026, 12:07 pm

Enforcement of laws against polluters nearly non-existent in US, analysis finds

EPA’s records show one environmental consent decree filed in last year – 26 were filed in year one of first Trump term

Enforcement of environmental laws against major polluters has virtually ground to a halt under the Trump administration, a new analysis of Environmental Protection Agency records from January 2025 to January 2026 shows.

Major polluters typically include companies that are among the largest in the oil, gas, coal and chemical industries.

Published: February 13, 2026, 1:00 pm

Trump’s EPA repeals landmark climate finding in gift to ‘billionaire polluters’

Rollback of government’s ability to limit climate-heating pollution will make families ‘sicker and less safe’, environmental advocate says

The Trump administration has revoked the bedrock scientific determination that gives the government the ability to regulate climate-heating pollution. The move was described as a gift to “billionaire polluters” at the expense of Americans’ health.

The endangerment finding, which states that the buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere endangers public health and welfare, has since 2009 allowed the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to limit heat-trapping pollution from vehicles, power plants and other industrial sources.

Published: February 12, 2026, 8:53 pm

Tony Blair’s oil lobbying is a misleading rehash of fossil fuel industry spin

Ex-PM’s thinktank urges more drilling and fewer renewables, ignoring evidence that clean energy is cheaper and better for bills

A thinktank with close ties to Saudi Arabia and substantial funding from a Donald Trump ally needs to present a particularly robust analysis to earn the right to be listened to on the climate crisis. On that measure, Tony Blair’s latest report fails on almost every point.

The Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (TBI) received money from the Saudi government, has advised the United Arab Emirates petrostate, and counts as a main donor Larry Ellison, the founder of Oracle, friend of Trump and advocate of AI.

Published: February 13, 2026, 12:01 am

Businesses must take responsibility for biodiversity loss – for their sake as much as ours

Scientists believe we’re seeing the largest loss of life since the dinosaurs – and it’s a risk to the global economy. Governments and companies need to work together on solutions

• Don’t get Down to Earth delivered to your inbox? Sign up here

It feels like groundhog day: another week, another warning about the seriousness of the biodiversity crisis. This time it was the financial sector’s turn, as on Monday a major report, approved by more than 150 governments, said that many companies face collapse unless they better protect nature.

From healthy rivers to productive forests, the natural world underpins almost all economic activity. But human consumption of the Earth’s resources is unsustainable, driving what many scientists believe is the largest loss of life since the dinosaurs. And companies are not immune to the consequences.

Economics has failed on the climate crisis. This complexity scientist has a mind-blowing plan to fix that

‘To live a normal life again, it’s a dream come true’: UK’s first climate evacuees can cast off their homes and trauma

‘We’ve lost everything’: anger and despair in Sicilian town collapsing after landslide

‘It sounds apocalyptic’: experts warn of impact of UK floods on birds, butterflies and dormice

Indonesia takes action against mining firms after floods devastate population of world’s rarest ape

‘We thought they would ignore us’: how humans are changing the way raptors behave

Published: February 13, 2026, 7:00 am

Pride flag reinstated at Stonewall after it was removed by Trump administration

New York City officials raise flag at site of rebellion once again after ‘act of erasure’ by administration

Days after the Trump administration oversaw the removal of a Pride flag from the Stonewall national monument, officials in New York City again raised the flag at the historic site.

A large crowd gathered near the Stonewall Inn in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village to see it return to the space where, in 1969, the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement was ignited. Nearly six decades ago, police raided the popular gay bar, and set off an uprising that, as the Library of Congress notes, would “fundamentally change the discourse surrounding LGBTQ+ activism” in the US.

Published: February 13, 2026, 2:50 am

In a pickle: couple charged with felony battery after pickleball brawl at Florida country club

Dispute about rules elevated from insults to fisticuffs, with as many as 20 players becoming involved

A dispute over a rule led to a brawl during a pickleball game at a central Florida country club, authorities said, with one player hitting his opponent in the face with a paddle and punching him on the ground before others got involved.

A 63-year-old man was charged on Sunday with two counts of felony battery on a person 65 or older, and his 51-year-old wife, who joined the fight in Port Orange, was charged with a single count of felony battery on a person 65 or older, according to an arrest affidavit.

Published: February 13, 2026, 1:00 am

California to launch civil rights inquiry over delayed response to wildfire in Altadena

Investigation will assess whether LA county fire department discriminated while responding to 2025 fires

The California department of justice has launched a civil rights investigation into whether Los Angeles county discriminated against the predominantly Black community of west Altadena when responding to last year’s Eaton fire.

The investigation will assess whether the fire response resulted in a “disparate impact” on west Altadena based on race, age or disability.

Published: February 13, 2026, 12:42 am

US federal immigration officer charged with harboring undocumented person

Officer alleged to have had ‘romantic relationship’ with ‘daughter’ of man ‘listed as his brother’ in investigation

A federal immigration supervisor who allegedly lived with his undocumented girlfriend has been charged with harboring an undocumented person, Texas federal prosecutors said on Wednesday.

Andres Wilkinson’s alleged “romantic relationship” with this woman caught the eye of authorities last spring. Authorities later received information “indicating” the woman was Wilkinson’s niece, according to a criminal complaint.

Published: February 12, 2026, 5:39 pm

An ‘impossible’ situation or ‘unhinged’ police? Inside the chaos at Sydney’s anti-Herzog protest

Police have defended their actions after Monday’s protest. Here’s how the night played out

• WARNING: this story includes sensitive video content

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

A man in a white button-up shirt and suit trousers puts his hands in the air as a police officer grabs him. He appears to steady himself on the officer’s shoulders.

He’s then punched multiple times by multiple officers. People watching on scream.

Published: February 13, 2026, 2:00 pm

Israeli journalists fear for press freedom if UK billionaire sells TV channel stake

Union urges Leonard Blavatnik to scrap Channel 13 deal, saying it is part of Netanyahu plan ‘to capture the media’

Israeli journalists have appealed to a British billionaire not to proceed with the sale of a stake in an Israeli television channel, which they warn would represent a severe blow to the independence of the country’s media.

Sir Leonard Blavatnik, listed by the Sunday Times as the UK’s third richest person, is selling a nearly 15% share in Channel 13, a commercial channel that has run critical news coverage of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government in recent years, including investigations into the prime minister’s financial dealings.

Published: February 13, 2026, 7:00 am

Japan seizes Chinese fishing boat inside its economic zone amid Beijing rift

Japan says vessel failed to comply with order to stop, with incident coming weeks after row with China over Taiwan

Authorities in Japan have seized a Chinese fishing boat and arrested its captain in a move that is likely to inflame an ongoing diplomatic row between Tokyo and Beijing.

The seizure, which occurred on Thursday about 105 miles (170km) from the south-western port city of Nagasaki, came after the skipper refused an order to stop for an onboard inspection, according to media reports.

Published: February 13, 2026, 4:19 am

‘I didn’t know who I was’: Tom Misch on fame burnout, becoming a barista – and returning to music

His debut LP brought success, but stardom messed with his mental health. After stepping away for three years to surf, travel, and work a succession of jobs, the Londoner is back – and has fixed his relationship with music

In 2022, everything changed for Tom Misch. The London-based singer-songwriter had been at the height of his powers: his easygoing blend of hip-hop-influenced beat-making with soulful guitar melodies and yearning vocals led his self-released and self-produced 2018 debut album Geography to chart at No 8 in the UK, while 2020’s collaborative record with the jazz drummer Yussef Dayes reached No 4 and earned them both an Ivor Novello award nomination. In 2022, riding high from the viral social media success of the live Quarantine Sessions he had posted during the Covid lockdowns, he was playing larger stages than ever in the US and Brazil and was booked for a summer leg in Australia. Suddenly, in July, he decided to pull the plug.

“I had an intense year of touring and I wasn’t feeling good, I wasn’t enjoying it any more,” he says. “My mental health was getting worse and I was so anxious I had to cancel the Australia tour. I was forced to stop, really, and I had no plan for what would happen next.”

Published: February 13, 2026, 1:00 pm

A great artist on paper: why Lucian Freud’s magical drawings are the key to his major works

The artist often swapped painting for etching as a way to rediscover his craft. Now a new exhibition shows these flashes of inspiration in all their intimate glory

At home one evening in 1951, Lucian Freud did three drawings of fellow artist Francis Bacon. The biographer William Feaver recounts the anecdote as Freud told it to him: Bacon had stood up, undone the buttons on his trousers, rolled up his sleeves and wiggled his hips a little, saying: “I think you ought to do this, because I think that’s rather important.”

By Freud’s own admission, the older painter was provocative in more ways than just this pose: “I got very impatient with the way I was working. It was limited and a limited vehicle for me,” Freud told Feaver. He felt his drawing stopped him from freeing himself, he said, “and I think my admiration for Francis came into this. I realised that by working in the way I did I couldn’t really evolve. The change wasn’t perhaps more than one of focus, but it did make it possible for me to approach the whole thing in another way.”

Published: February 13, 2026, 11:00 am

‘We thought Midnight Cowboy might end everybody’s career’: the diverse, disruptive, Oscar-winning cinema of John Schlesinger

In the 60s and 70s, he pioneered kitchen-sink drama and made bisexuality mainstream. So why did the director end up making Tory ads? Those who knew him best reveal all

Michael Childers was a 22-year-old Los Angeles student when a friend set him up on a date with John Schlesinger, a visiting British director nearly two decades his senior. The esteemed film-maker was licking his wounds: his most recent picture, Far from the Madding Crowd, which imbued its 19th-century rural characters with an anachronistic King’s Road style and panache, had flopped stateside.

Childers approached the date with mixed feelings. He adored Schlesinger’s previous movie, the jazzy Darling, starring Julie Christie as a model on the make, and had seen it three times.But he had heard the director described as “mercurial”. His solution was to take a friend along with him to the bar at the Beverly Wilshire hotel for backup. “I thought: This guy might be a total shit,” recalls Childers, now 81, on the phone from Palm Springs. “I told my friend, ‘Two kicks under the table means we’re out of here. One kick means you’re out of here.’”

Published: February 13, 2026, 8:00 am

Love Story: John F Kennedy Jr & Carolyn Bessette review – TV to send you cross-eyed with boredom

Ryan Murphy turns his increasingly unsteady hand to the tale of America’s privileged, cursed dynasty – even diehard fans will find this tedious drama a punishing slog

A new product from the Ryan Murphy brand is becoming ever less dependable a delight. Will it be a Nip/Tuck or Glee-level triumph? A return to inaugural American Horror Story form, as his recent outing The Beauty so nearly was? Or will it be something towards the other end of the scale, where the so-bad-it’s-bad, Kim-Kardashian-as-a-divorce-lawyer All’s Fair lurks?

Hmm. The latest one is Love Story: John F Kennedy Jr & Carolyn Bessette. It is a nine-episode series that lasts roughly as long as the golden couple’s relationship did in real life and is (unlike All’s Fair) punishingly boring. Some of this will be due to the fact that for a UK audience the Kennedys simply do not hold the fascination they have always held for Americans. Ever since the patriarch Joe successfully manoeuvred his telegenic son John F Kennedy into politics, the political dynasty have been the United States’ answer to the royal family. The minutiae of their privileged, cursed lives have been breathlessly chronicled in books by hagiographic biographers, tabloid articles seeking scandal, and everything in between. Over here, of course, we have naturally been less enthralled.

Published: February 13, 2026, 8:00 am

Feathers, lace and Jacob Elordi’s gold tooth: Wuthering Heights premieres in Australia – in pictures

Elordi and co-star Margot Robbie walked the carpet at Sydney’s State Theatre on Thursday night for Emerald Fennell’s lavish, hyper-stylised adaptation of Emily Brontë’s doomed romance

Published: February 13, 2026, 2:00 am

Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die review – AI is the bad guy in lively yet overstuffed caper

There’s fun to be had in Pirates of the Caribbean director Gore Verbinski’s satisfyingly tech-fearing adventure – but some restraint wouldn’t have gone amiss

Despite directing a phenomenally successful franchise starter (Pirates of the Caribbean), two of its sequels (Dead Man’s Chest and At World’s End), a smash-hit horror remake (The Ring), an Oscar-winning animation (Rango), and films starring Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts (The Mexican) and Nicolas Cage and Michael Caine (The Weather Man), Gore Verbinski never quite broke through as a name the average cinemagoer would instantly recognise. There are some through-lines in his work – a dark sense of humour, an ease with pushing megastars past their limits – but he was mostly there in service of something or someone else, whether it be IP or an A-lister.

After both consumed him in 2013’s loathed flop The Lone Ranger, Verbinski went away and returned three years later with an extravagant “one for me”, the ambitious throwback horror A Cure for Wellness. I ultimately admired what he was trying to do (a gothic, exquisitely crafted original chiller with a real budget) more than what he actually achieved, and with another box-office disappointment under his belt, he disappeared again. A longer wait of almost a decade followed, and now he’s back with an even bigger swing, the sci-fi comedy adventure Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die.

Published: February 12, 2026, 7:44 pm

‘Choosing happy is a hell of a process’: Thundercat on funk, lost friends and being fired by Snoop Dogg (possibly)

The genre-hopping bass virtuoso has backed Ariana Grande and Herbie Hancock, appeared in Star Wars and become a dedicated boxer. Ahead of his fifth album, Stephen Bruner explains his polymath mindset

It is an overcast Thursday afternoon at the end of January, and Thundercat is telling me about the time he tried to interest Snoop Dogg in the mid-70s oeuvre of Frank Zappa. He wasn’t Thundercat then, he explains. He was still Stephen Bruner, bass player for hire, who had fetched up in what he calls a “stupid-as-hell, Rick James-level band” backing the venerable rapper, packed with Los Angeles jazz luminaries who would later contribute to Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly: Kamasi Washington, Josef Leimberg, Terrace Martin. Alas, their jazz chops were sometimes deemed surplus to requirements. At one point, while Bruner was playing an expansive bass solo on stage, Snoop sidled up to him and flatly announced: “Ain’t nobody told you to play all that.”

So perhaps it was in the spirit of horizon-broadening that Bruner took it upon himself to play Snoop the song St Alfonzo’s Pancake Breakfast, a knotty, marimba-heavy slice of jazz-rock from Zappa’s 1974 album Apostrophe, which switches time signatures three times in less than two minutes, and features lyrics about a man stealing margarine and urinating on a bingo card. “Yeah, I hit him with the rollercoaster,” Bruner chuckles. “He was smoking, and he almost ate his blunt, saying: ‘What the hell is going on?’ I said: ‘My sentiments exactly.’ I think I did a cartwheel after that and left the band: I played Snoop Dogg St Alfonzo’s Breakfast, my job is done here, I have no more work to do.” He thinks for a moment. “Or maybe I got fired: ‘Get out of here dude, you’re too weird.’ I forget. It was a great moment.”

Published: February 13, 2026, 5:00 am

Add to playlist: the genre-busting, buttery falsetto of Natanya and the week’s best new tracks

The Londoner defies classification, writing, producing and arranging her unique mix of neosoul, R&B, indie and grunge – and gathering some big-name backers along the way

From London
Recommend if you like Rochelle Jordan, Ragz Originale, Sailorr
Up next New music due later this year

Natanya tears genres open and rebuilds them in her own image. Her drums swing loose and jazzy over heavy 808s; synths drift dreamily before snapping into gritty guitar riffs. Writing, producing and arranging all her own work, she weaves together neosoul silk, R&B groove, indie edge, and flashes of grunge, all carried by a buttery falsetto that nods to Aaliyah, Amy Winehouse, Janet Jackson and early Destiny’s Child.

Published: February 13, 2026, 12:00 pm

Converge: Love Is Not Enough review – metalcore veterans’ rage remains fresh and furious

(Epitaph)
Even after 35 years, the intricacies and emotional pangs of these masters of technicality remain undimmed, drawing from a seemingly bottomless well of inspiration

Metalcore has become a diluted premise, associated more with bands that write processed, sing-along choruses than the mix of metal technicality and punk-rock fury it started as. Converge’s 2001 breakthrough Jane Doe remains the masterpiece of the genre’s pre-bastardisation days: vicious as a pit bull, yet played by men unafraid to test the limits, as evidenced by the tormented, 11-minute title track. The New Englanders have never rested on their laurels, either, with subsequent releases emphasising different shades of their trademark anarchy.

The band’s 10th album and first in nine years (Chelsea Wolfe collaboration Bloodmoon: I not included), Love Is Not Enough condenses their carnage, intricacies and emotional pangs into their shortest-ever run time. Distract and Divide and To Feel Something are incensed and tightly arranged, as if Napalm Death and Slayer had joined forces to strangle you through the speakers.

Published: February 13, 2026, 8:45 am

Joshua Chuquimia Crampton: Anata review | Safi Bugel's experimental album of the month

(Self-released)
The Aymara musician takes inspiration from an Andean tradition, resulting in a scrappy sonic meditation with woozy melodies and pockets of warmth

The new album from Joshua Chuquimia Crampton takes its name from the Andean ceremony Anata, which gives thanks for the harvest before the rainy season. Made up of seven dense and distorted instrumentals, the record is the California-based Aymara musician’s attempt at capturing the energy of ceremonial music – not some rosy, polished version, but how it might sound recorded on a phone, clipping and all.

The concept might sound bizarre, but for fans of JCC, it makes total sense. His music, often self-released and proudly unmastered, is characterised by its murky textures and amp-blasting volume. He took this rudimentary approach to the max with last year’s collaborative project Los Thuthanaka, alongside his sibling Chuquimamani-Condori, which was splattered with cartoonish vocal samples, whistles and syncopated rhythms. Here he returns to his solo formula, with just guitar, bass and a few Andean instruments. You’d call it stripped-back if it wasn’t so noisy.

Published: February 13, 2026, 8:12 am

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

Nowhere Burning by Catriona Ward; Pagans by James Alistair Henry; Pedro the Vast by Simón López Trujillo; Operation Bounce House by Matt Dinniman; A Beast Slinks Towards Beijing by Alice Evelyn Yang

Nowhere Burning by Catriona Ward (Viper, £16.99)
The latest from the horror/crime virtuoso combines supernatural, psychological and all-too-human terrors in a tale drawing on elements ranging from Peter Pan to historic serial abusers. Nowhere House was in a remote American mountain valley; when it burned down, the terrible crimes committed by Hollywood star Leaf Winham against young men were revealed. Subsequently, runaway children turned the valley into a fortress, surviving on food they could catch or grow, with occasional forays into the towns below. Riley has heard the rumours, but it is only when she sees a green-clad boy – or is it a girl? – hovering outside her bedroom window offering directions on how to find Nowhere that she realises this might be her chance to escape and save her little brother from their sadistic guardian. Her experiences are interwoven with stories from others drawn there: Marc, a journalist determined to get inside the fortress; Adam, the only one of Leaf’s victims to survive; the pioneers who built the first house in the valley, and more. A dark, grimly compelling and very twisty tale.

Pagans by James Alistair Henry (Moonflower, £9.99)
In this entertaining alt-history debut, we are in a 21st-century Britain where the Norman conquest never happened, split along religious and cultural lines. The Saxons are led by the High King, who rules the greater part of England; Scotland is behind a wall, allied to the Nordic Economic Union; and the indigenous Celts are second-class citizens. In the buildup to a London summit to discuss plans for British unity, a Celtic negotiator is found dead, nailed to a tree in Epping Forest. Detective Captain Aedith Mercia of the London police teams up with Drustan of the Dumnonian tribal police in a search for what seems to be a religiously motivated serial killer; they find evidence there could be a greater political threat. It’s a great read, combining clever world-building with engaging characters and an exciting story, and ending with a promise of more to come.

Published: February 13, 2026, 12:00 pm

Good People by Patmeena Sabit review – addictive mystery caters to modern attention spans

Who killed Zorah? Snippets of gossip expose the divisions in a migrant community in this polyphonic portrait of contemporary America

There has been debate lately about whether novels should cater for our cauterised attention spans. If that means narratives constructed in short chunks that can be consumed in five-minute bursts on a phone – intelligent, but with plenty of cliffhangers and well-timed packets of information to keep us coming back – then Good People ticks all the boxes.

Patmeena Sabit’s debut is constructed from a chorus of short testimonies – none more than a few pages, some just a few lines – about the death of Zorah Sharaf, an Afghan American teenager who has drowned in a canal at the wheel of the family car. We hear from family, friends and those in the wider community – neighbours, teachers, schoolmates, journalists, the guy who found the body – as well as those involved in the investigation (though very little from the police), and bites of media commentary. A picture slowly forms of a devastated family, but what kind of family was it? Versions are multiple and contradictory. The Sharafs are perfect, loving, tight-knit. They are dangerously dysfunctional.

Published: February 13, 2026, 7:00 am

Super Nintendo by Keza MacDonald review – a joyful celebration of the gaming giant

A portrait of the company whose ‘toymaker philosophy’ stands in contrast to the tech giants that rule our lives

What is the highest-grossing entertainment franchise of all time? You might be tempted to think of Star Wars, or perhaps the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Maybe even Harry Potter? But no: it’s Pokémon – the others don’t come close. The Japanese “pocket monsters”, which star in video games, TV series and tradable playing cards, have made an estimated $115bn since 1996. Is this a sign of the lamentable infantilisation of postmodern society?

Not a bit of it, argues Keza MacDonald, the Guardian’s video games editor, in her winsomely enthusiastic biography of Nintendo, the company that had become an eponym for electronic entertainment long before anyone had heard the words “PlayStation” or “Xbox”. Yes, Pokémon is mostly a children’s pursuit, but a sophisticated one: “Like Harry Potter, the Famous Five and Narnia,” she observes, “it offers a powerful fantasy of self-determination, set in a world almost totally free of adult supervision.” And in its complicated scoring system, “it got millions of kids voluntarily doing a kind of algebra”.

Published: February 12, 2026, 9:00 am

The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother) by Rabih Alameddine review – drag fabulousness in war-torn Beirut

Spanning eras of conflict and Covid in Lebanon, this irresistible queer coming-of-age tale explores what it means to be truly free

Meet Raja, the narrator of Rabih Alameddine’s new novel. A 63-year-old gay philosophy teacher and drag entertainer, he is a stickler for rules and boundaries, living in a tiny Beirut flat with his octogenarian mother, the nosy and unfettered Zalfa. Invited to a writing residency in the US, Raja will use the occasion to relate his life – that is, if you don’t mind him taking the scenic route. “A tale has many tails, and many heads, particularly if it’s true,” Raja tells us. “Like life, it is a river with many branches, rivulets, creeks and distributaries.”

Winner of the 2025 US National Book Award for fiction, Alameddine’s seventh novel opens and closes in 2023, but the bulk of its action takes place earlier: encompassing the lead-up to and aftermath of the Lebanese civil war (1975-1990), the Covid pandemic, Lebanon’s 2019 banking crisis, and the Beirut port explosion in 2020. If this timeline makes the book sound like a punishing tour of Lebanese history, I promise it isn’t. More than a war chronicle or national exposé, it is a queer coming-of-age tale, an exploration of the bond between a mother and a son, and a meditation on storytelling, memory, survival and what it means to be truly free. Told in a voice as irresistibly buoyant as it is unapologetically camp, this rule-breaking spin on the trauma plot holds on to its cheer in the face of sobering material. Poignant but never cynical, often dark but never dour, wise without being showy and always eager to crack a joke, this is a novel that insists that the pain of the past need overwhelm neither present nor narrative, identity nor personality. With Sartre as his guide, and a drag fabulousness all his own, Raja shows us how.

Published: February 12, 2026, 7:00 am

What is Pokopia? Inside the calming Pokémon game that ditches battles for gardening

We explore the cosy world-building spin-off with Game Freak’s Shigeru Ohmori and his fellow developers – and learn how it began with a Pokémon-hunting dream

Pokémon is celebrating its 30th anniversary this month, and everybody knows what to expect from these games by now. The concept is simple: head into a cartoonish paradise full of whimsical creatures, capture them in red-and-white balls and assemble a team of warriors from them, before battling other aspiring Pokémon masters. But the latest entry in the series is different – a game that’s more about building than battling.

In Pokopia, a refreshingly pacific twist on the series, players are dropped into a virtual world where Pokémon are freed from their spherical prisons and happily roam their natural habitats. There’s one minor caveat – you have to create those habitats by hand, building them from what you can find.

Published: February 12, 2026, 1:35 pm

Arundhati Roy quits Berlin film festival over ‘stay out of politics’ comment

Author says she is ‘disgusted’ by claim from jury president Wim Wenders that film-makers should remain apolitical

The author Arundhati Roy has withdrawn from the Berlinale after the film festival’s chief jurist said film-makers must stay out of politics.

The festival got off to a shaky start on Thursday after the competition jury, led by the German film-maker Wim Wenders, fielded questions about the conflict in Gaza. Asked if films can affect political change, Wenders said that “movies can change the world” but “not in a political way”.

Published: February 13, 2026, 3:02 pm

Guillermo del Toro’s ‘jazz hands’ at Oscar lunch a recreation of Shining photo, director says

The picture, taken with Paul Thomas Anderson at this year’s Oscar nominee lunch, recalls the eerie image that closes Kubrick’s 1980 horror classic

Frankenstein director Guillermo del Toro’s “jazz hands” pose in the Oscar nominee luncheon photo was part of his and fellow director Paul Thomas Anderson’s attempt to recreate the celebrated group shot, featuring Jack Nicholson, that appears at the ending of The Shining.

Del Toro responded to a post – in which he and Anderson had been inserted into the image from the 1980 horror film directed by Stanley Kubrick – by saying: “[Y]ou got it! PTA and I said: Let’s do the Shining pose and we tried.”

Published: February 13, 2026, 1:42 pm

Sex, sleep and scrolling: real reasons men watch romantic movies, according to survey

A poll has found differences between men and women’s motivations for watching romance films together, with 20% of men hoping it may result in sex

As groups of women block-booking rows of seats with friends to see Wuthering Heights look likely to help propel Emerald Fennell’s adaptation to the top of the Valentine’s weekend box office, a new survey suggests men are amenable to watching romantic movies at home – although their motivations for doing so are mixed.

A poll of 2,000 film fans on behalf of the wall-to-wall romance movie Freeview channel Great Romance has found that the top three reasons given by men for watching a romance film are feeling closer to their partner (36%), wanting a quiet life (21%) and thinking it might lead to sex (20%). Twenty per cent said that such films “remind me of the magic of when we met”, while half that number said such an activity was “low effort but still feels like bonding”.

Published: February 13, 2026, 12:34 pm

‘I wasn’t acting: that was me’: how non-actors took over Oscar season

From One Battle to Another to Marty Supreme, supermarket magnates, professors and special agents have been stealing scenes on screen

Striving for realism, Timothée Chalamet knew what the scene required. “I’m really getting in the guy’s face and I’m really trying to get him angry with me,” the lead actor recalled recently about the making of Josh Safdie’s Marty Supreme. “I was saying to Josh, ‘He’s not getting angry with me, he’s not getting angry with me.’”

But it turned out the unnamed extra had been paying attention. Chalamet added: “I did another take, and then the guy said, ‘I was just in jail for 30 years. You really don’t want to fuck with me. You don’t want to see me angry.’ I said to Josh, ‘Holy shit, who do you have me opposite, man?’”

Published: February 12, 2026, 10:03 am

Experience: I’m a professional chef in Antarctica

You have to be careful managing supplies – there is one delivery a year

The first time anyone goes to the Antarctic is truly special. Just getting there is an adventure: it takes several planes, and about three to five days. Travelling there was a childhood dream of mine. I saw it as a way to test myself against something so much bigger. I nearly applied for a role at the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) 30 years ago, but then my wife and I were expecting our first child. Instead, I’ve worked as a chef in Michelin-star restaurants in Paris and London, hotels in Kuala Lumpur and St Moritz, and even at a school in Oxfordshire.

In 2016, I took a sabbatical and finally joined BAS as a chef for a summer. Five years later, I went back for the winter, and last year, I became the organisation’s full-time catering manager. I felt ready for an adventure. Now I oversee the catering across BAS’s five Antarctic stations: bases for the organisation’s research and also where the staff live. Each year, I spend three months there; for the rest of the time I work at BAS’s HQ in Cambridge.

Published: February 13, 2026, 5:00 am

The tunnel runway at the Super Bowl – and the rise of the ‘unicorn bag’

On game day, where fashion has become a huge part of athlete identity, professionals are reaching for codified displays of their wealth

• Don’t get Fashion Statement delivered to your inbox? Sign up here

On Sunday night the Seattle Seahawks beat the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LX, Bad Bunny put on a spectacular half-time show, and multiple players all walked down the tunnel from the car park to the dressing rooms carrying the same logo’d bag. The bag in question, by luxury French brand Goyard, isn’t part of any official uniform – and isn’t really known outside of its 0.1% customer base. But it has become as ubiquitous a status symbol among American football players as their AirPods Max headphones and Richard Mille watches – and is part of a brave new world of tunnel fits.

Most primetime NFL games’ coverage start hours before kick-off, as photographers, fans and pundits alike pore over players’ sartorial choices just as they would their missed tackles and spectacular catches.

Published: February 13, 2026, 7:00 am

‘The best I have owned’: 13 women’s winter jackets beloved by a dog walker, ski instructor and more

Stay toasty in the cold and comfortable when out and about – the best (and stylish) women’s coats for winter, including some on sale

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

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

Last weekend, it felt like -15F (-26C) in New York City. If it weren’t for my Super Puff coat, I wouldn’t have mustered up the courage to leave my apartment.

Whether this year’s brutal winter has put you in the market for a warmer jacket or you’re stocking up for next year, we asked eight outdoorsy people to recommend their favorites.

Best affordable women’s jacket:
Michael Kors Faux Fur Trim Belted Puffer Jacket

Best women’s jacket for outdoors and activewear:
Lululemon Another Mile Jacket

Published: February 12, 2026, 8:15 pm

Can being codependent in a relationship actually be a good thing?

Being codependent is often seen as a bad thing. But a new book makes the case for ‘healthy dependency’

Many of us desire deeper relationships. What we don’t always agree on is how close is too close. Dating advice often casts intimacy as a tightrope – pull back too much, or push for more. Either move is read as a red flag. Between discussions of incompatible attachment styles, the importance of boundaries and the dangers of love-bombing, it’s easy to get the impression there’s a correct level of closeness to aim for.

In truth, intimacy isn’t one-size-fits-all and comfort levels vary – not just between individuals, but across their relationships.

Published: February 12, 2026, 11:00 am

You be the judge: should my wife stop leaving piles of clothes all over the bedroom?

Kevin thinks wardrobes are there for a reason, but Mabel says hangers are a hassle for a woman in a rush. You decide who deserves a dressing down
• Find out how to get a disagreement settled or become a juror

Mabel’s clothes mountain gets in the way and sets a bad example for our sons. I call it the ‘Monster’

Kevin is exaggerating the size of the pile. I like living in organised chaos and he should accept that

Published: February 12, 2026, 8:00 am

Michael Kors celebrates 45-year career by toasting chic women of New York

Night at the opera theme for Kors’ autumn-winter collection features elegant gowns draped in opulent coats

Five years ago, Covid prevented Michael Kors celebrating 40 years as a fashion designer, so nothing was going to stop him partying when that figure reached 45. “It’s crazy, I’ve been in fashion 45 years, but I’m only 32,” said Kors, 66.

The sweeping double staircase of the Metropolitan Opera House in New York became the catwalk for a fashion week show dedicated to the chic women of the city. On Kors’ best dressed list is the “amazing, remarkable” Rama Duwaji, the city’s first lady as wife of the mayor, Zohran Mamdani.

Published: February 13, 2026, 1:49 pm

The look of love: what to wear for Valentine’s weekend

Valentine’s, Galentine’s, staying in – or going out? Sometimes it’s just nice to dress up

Published: February 13, 2026, 6:00 am

‘Not blind optimism’: why Coach’s designer is not giving up on sustainable fashion

Stuart Vevers wants the luxury brand to keep championing upcycled materials and reduce landfill waste

Stuart Vevers, the British designer of the American mass luxury brand Coach, is working to keep sustainability in the spotlight at New York fashion week. Not an easy task, when environmental concerns are slipping down the global agenda and fashion, perennially a mirror to the world we live in, has reverted to putting profits first.

“I’m an optimist, but it’s not a blind optimism. There’s a lot of tension in optimism, because the world is challenging and I am not ignoring that. My optimism comes from believing that the young people of today are going to make this world better,” he said before Wednesday’s show, held in the historic Cunard building in downtown New York.

Published: February 12, 2026, 2:50 pm

‘It feels as if I’m in a Richard Curtis film’: readers’ favourite romantic trips in Europe

Romance is in the air on a roof terrace in Venice, rowing across Lake Bled and a fairytale garden in Stuttgart
• Tell us about your memorable breaks in Wales – the best tip wins a £200 holiday voucher

We had our wedding reception at the Grand Hotel Royal in Sorrento, south of Naples. We danced to two guitarists playing Justin Bieber’s Despacito with our 50 guests singing and dancing along with us. We watched as the sun began to melt into the Mediterranean Sea from this time-capsule hotel balancing on the edge of a cliff. I floated out of my body and felt a rush of euphoria – perhaps it was the limoncello spritzers. We’ve returned many times and I get the same rush – the gelato, the pizza, the people, it feels as if I’m in a Richard Curtis film.
Charlotte Sahami

Published: February 13, 2026, 7:00 am

‘My mum was a barmaid. I was raised on Bacon Fries!’ - readers on the pub that changed them

From 80s punk hangouts to celebrity hotspots to good old community boozers, readers reveal their much-loved locals

I started working at the Windmill in the Surrey Hills when I was 14 and the landlord, Cecil Baber Brendan Holland – Dutch to the locals – became my second father. My second son’s second name is Brendan, after him. Several photographers, entrepreneurs, sportspeople and musicians lived in the area – Eric Clapton’s house was just around the corner. Although I never quite got over answering the phone to someone asking for Mick and I made the mistake of asking “Mick who?”

Published: February 13, 2026, 7:00 am

I’m finding it difficult to live up to my morals. How do I know when it’s OK to compromise?

It can feel overwhelming, writes advice columnist Eleanor Gordon-Smith. But ask yourself what sacrifices make the biggest proportionate impact

• Read more Leading questions

I’m finding it difficult living up to my morals – where is the line between compromising a little, versus becoming complicit in what I don’t agree with?

I’m one of those people who believes we can each take a role in solving big problems, and that we should try to make things better where we can. For this reason, I’ve ended up working in public service and try to reduce how much meat I eat. I’m vegetarian 60% of the time, which is not perfect, but I believe doing something is better than doing nothing.

Published: February 12, 2026, 2:00 pm

​My love letter to Brittany’s best exports

Along with its crisp, earthy galettes – suitable for Pancake Day and, really, any time of the year – this French region has so many delicious things to eat

• Sign up here for our weekly food newsletter, Feast

Every February – or occasionally March – I get together with two friends to gorge on pancakes; I provide the pan, Caro does the cocktails and poor old Harry is invariably the chef because she never fails, even three ciders in. With two half-Frenchies in the room, we always start with buckwheat galettes, usually served complète with gruyère, ham and a fried egg (though the more we eat, the more adventurous the combinations become). Then we move on to softer, thicker British sweet pancakes with lemon juice and crunchy demerara sugar to finish. We rarely manage to meet on Shrove Tuesday itself, but apart from the year I went vegan for Lent, that’s no problem. After all, any cold, dark evening is improved by a pancake party.

I suspect we’re not alone in sticking with the classics, so I’m not going to suggest too many alternatives, but, given that pancakes are not just for the 47th day before Easter, I do like the sound of Nigel Slater’s ones stuffed with cheese and caramelised onion, I know I’d love Yotam Ottolenghi’s Austrian kaiserschmarrn and, though they’re as flat as they sound, Jimi Famurewa’s Nigerian-Dutch puff puff pancakes look incredible. Oh, and there’s Meera Sodha’s Indonesian-style salted peanut and chocolate pancakes, while Claire Ptak’s fluffy cardamom pancakes with thyme-spiked figs certainly aren’t just for Christmas.

Published: February 12, 2026, 12:40 pm

‘Everything is frozen’: bitter winter drags on for Kyiv residents as Russia wipes out power

Kremlin’s repeated targeting of infrastructure has left thousands without heating, reliant on shelters and desperate home hacks

Natalya Pavlovna watched her two-year-old son, Danylo, play with Lego. “We are taking a break from the cold,” she said as children made drawings inside a warm tent. Adults sipped tea and chatted while their phones charged. The emergency facility is located in Kyiv’s Troieshchina district, on the left bank of the Dnipro River. Outside it was -18C. There was bright sunshine and snow.

“Russia is trying to break us. It’s deliberate genocide against the Ukrainian people. Putin wants us to capitulate so we give up the Donbas region,” Natalya said. “Kyiv didn’t use to feel like a frontline city. Now it does. People are dying of cold in their homes in the 21st century. The idea is to make us leave and to create a new refugee crisis for Europe.”

Natalia and Danylo near the ‘resilience point’ in Troyeshchyna district

Published: February 13, 2026, 5:00 am

Mahmoud Khalil is still fighting for others as he fights his own deportation: ‘It’s about raising the alarm’

The case of the Palestinian activist, the face of 2024’s US campus protests, could have repercussions for thousands

Despite his grim circumstances, Mahmoud Khalil can’t help but laugh.

Walking through Congress’s hallowed halls, the Palestinian student activist, who may be inching toward deportation, has a lightness to him. He is quick with a smile – and not yet ready to waver. He admits he’s in “the scary part” of his ordeal, but he has a new reason to like his odds.

Published: February 12, 2026, 2:00 pm

‘Another way to gamble money’: booming prediction markets prompt confusion and concern

Polymarket and Kalshi are less regulated than betting sites, but users can win or lose large sums on the platforms

Yadin Eldar, 21, has been betting on prediction markets since 2019. His friends think he’s “crazy”, he said. But the craze surrounding these platforms is rapidly gathering steam.

Users can bet on virtually anything, from the outcome of Sunday’s Super Bowl to whether the US will invade Greenland, every second of every day.

Published: February 12, 2026, 12:00 pm

Tell us: has the new Wuthering Heights film adaptation inspired you to read Emily Brontë’s novel?

We want to hear people’s thoughts on reading the novel ahead of the new adaptation – and if you’ve watched the film how does it compare?

Emerald Fennell’s adaptation of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights came to theatres worldwide on 13 February, with the director Emerald Fennell saying she hopes it will “provoke a sort of primal response.”

But Brontë’s tempestuous 1847 novel itself has been described as too extreme for the screen and on its release it was certainly not interpreted as a love story. “I can’t adapt the book as it is but I can approximate the way it made me feel,” Fennell has said.

Published: February 13, 2026, 10:27 am

Tell us your favourite TV romance

Who is your favourite television couple, and why?

From sparks flying during The OC’s Spider-Man snog to love stories so powerful they make you weep, Guardian writers have picked the television couples whose tales never fail to make hearts pound. Now we would like to hear yours. What is your favourite TV romance, and why?

If you’re having trouble using the form click here. Read terms of service here and privacy policy here.

Published: February 13, 2026, 1:13 pm

Pancake flipping and Palestine Action: photos of the day – Friday

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

Published: February 13, 2026, 3:01 pm