The Jerome Powell investigation shows Trump’s need for limitless power | Austin Sarat

The inquiry into the Federal Reserve chair sends a message to anyone standing in Trump’s way – including the supreme court

News that Donald Trump’s justice department has launched an investigation of Jerome Powell, chair of the Federal Reserve, is the latest example of the president’s governing philosophy: do what I want, or I will crush you. The desire to make Powell’s life miserable is also a warning sign to anyone who thinks that they have an independent source of authority.

What is happening to Powell is a test, not just for him and the Fed, but for any other person or institution that dares to stand up to the president.

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

Published: January 13, 2026, 11:00 am

‘Uncomfortably relatable’: writers on their favourite unlikable movie characters

With debate still swirling over the unlikable nature of Marty Supreme’s careless protagonist, Guardian writers have picked their all-time love-to-hate leads

Spoilers ahead

I can remember seeing As Good As It Gets in theaters as a teenager and being pleasantly startled by the sight of Jack Nicholson’s Melvin Udall, romcom super grouch. Here’s a bestselling romance author who disdains love, an OCD sufferer who weaponizes his affliction, a New Yorker who hates crowds (who can’t relate?). In one scene, an adoring fan asks Melvin his secret to writing women. “I think of a man, and I take away reason and accountability,” he says, an epic burn forever seared in my brain. Of course Melvin’s anti-charm offensive only goes so far in a James L Brooks project. Before long, the rudeness erodes as Melvin is forced on to a journey of self-discovery with the nextdoor neighbor he can’t abide (Greg Kinnear) and the diner waitress he can’t live without (Helen Hunt). Melvin comes out a changed man in the end, but retains the essence of his super grouch-dom. That was the moment I fell in love with the writer’s life. Andrew Lawrence

Published: January 13, 2026, 10:01 am

‘It’s not the 90s any more’: the all-women team reinventing abortion advice for the TikTok age

The irreverent approach of the Colombian hotline Jacarandas has made it the most-followed abortion account on social media in the Spanish-speaking world

What do a purple cartoon cat and abortion have in common? Nothing – and that is the point, say the women behind Jacarandas, a Colombian abortion helpline. Determined to set themselves apart from more traditional reproductive health organisations, Jacarandas commissions street and graphic artists to create eye-catching illustrations – most recently a cartoon feline called Gataranda, inspired by the team’s much-loved office pet.

The aim is not to make light of abortion but to appeal to the teenagers and young women who use Jacarandas’ services. “A lot of people do not connect with [an image of] the uterus on fire, so we thought ‘what can we do to connect more with young women?’” says Carolina Benítez Mendoza, the deputy director.

Published: January 13, 2026, 10:00 am

Iran’s protesters need our support – not another western-intervention disaster | Owen Jones

Previous meddling has damaged the region, and once again the the US and Israel don’t have Iranians’ best interests at heart

What does it take to shake illusions in western intervention? This is not a question designed to deflect from the barbarism being unleashed by Iran’s theocratic regime. Because it severed the country’s internet connection, facts are difficult to establish, but the respected Human Rights Activists in Iran has confirmed 544 have been killed and well over 10,000 arrested – those numbers are probably significant underestimates.

Here is a regime that consolidated its power in the 1980s by butchering leftists – helped, it should be noted, by both MI6 and the CIA, who supplied them with lists of alleged Soviet agents. Today, trade union activists are arrested and tortured, while women’s activists languish in jails. The economic disaster resulting from sanctions may have helped spark these latest protests, but millions of Iranians are fed up with living under fundamentalist rule – underlined by surveys confirming growing religious non-observance and opposition to the compulsory hijab.

Owen Jones is a Guardian columnist

Published: January 13, 2026, 10:00 am

Can X be banned under UK law and what are the other options?

UK media regulator is investigating whether X has breached the Online Safety Act – what could happen next?

The UK government is threatening Elon Musk’s X with the nuclear option under the country’s online safety laws: a ban. The social media platform is under pressure from ministers after it allowed the Grok AI tool, which is integrated within the app, to generate indecent images of unsuspecting women and children.

The government has said it will support the media regulator Ofcom, which has launched an investigation into X, if it decides to push ahead with a ban. But is such a move likely?

Published: January 13, 2026, 9:39 am

‘The real ringleader’: the Venezuelan security chief with a $25m bounty on his head

Security chief Diosdado Cabello is nicknamed the Octopus for good reason, with the regime’s fate said to rest with him

His nickname is the Octopus, he hosts a TV show called Hitting it with a Sledgehammer and many Venezuelans consider him the real power in the land.

Diosdado Cabello runs the regime’s security apparatus and is perhaps the most feared, reviled and, in some quarters, revered government figure, with influence to rival that of the interim president, Delcy Rodríguez.

Published: January 13, 2026, 5:00 am

The trans youth athletes in the US fighting for their rights: ‘Playing is an act of resistance’

As the US supreme court weighs bans on trans athletes, five students speak about the joy of sports and toll of exclusion

The US supreme court on Tuesday is considering state laws banning transgender athletes from school sports.

The cases were brought by trans students who challenged bans in West Virginia and Idaho barring trans girls from girls teams. The outcome could have wide-ranging implications for LGBTQ+ rights. A total of 27 states have passed sports bans targeting trans youth while more than 20 states have maintained pro-LGBTQ+ policies.

Published: January 13, 2026, 1:00 pm

Iran crisis live: UN says ‘cycle of horrific violence’ in Iran must end as official says 2,000 killed in crackdown

UN rights chief says ‘killing of peaceful demonstrators must stop’ as Iranian official tells Reuters around 2,000 have died

• Trump says countries doing business with Iran face 25% tariff on US trade

• People in Iran: share your views on the current situation

Non-essential French embassy staff have left Iran, two sources with knowledge of the matter told Agence France-Presse. The personnel left on Sunday and Monday, the sources added, without saying how many people had departed. “The protection of our personnel and our citizens is a priority,” a French foreign ministry official told AFP.

Commenting on the protests, the UN high commissioner for human rights Volker Türk said:

This cycle of horrific violence cannot continue. The Iranian people and their demands for fairness, equality and justice must be heard.

Published: January 13, 2026, 1:25 pm

Global central banks offer ‘full solidarity’ to US Fed’s Powell amid Trump threats

Nine governors including Bank of England’s Andrew Bailey and ECB’s Christine Lagarde say independence is critical

• Business live – latest updates

Global central banks have issued an extraordinary joint statement offering “full solidarity” to the US Federal Reserve chair, Jerome Powell, in the face of the latest threat to his independence from Donald Trump’s White House.

“The independence of central banks is a cornerstone of price, financial and economic stability in the interest of the citizens that we serve. It is therefore critical to preserve that independence, with full respect for the rule of law and democratic accountability,” the statement said.

Published: January 13, 2026, 12:15 pm

US inflation held firm in December amid pressure on Trump over cost of living

Consumer price index rose 2.7% in year to December, in line with November, as president feuds with Fed over rate cuts

• US politics live – latest updates

US inflation held firm last month as Donald Trump faces mounting pressure over the cost of living for millions of Americans.

The closely-watched consumer price index rose 2.7% in the year to December, in line with the previous month, according to official data published on Tuesday morning, ahead of a speech by the US president on the economy.

Published: January 13, 2026, 1:36 pm

House Democrat and Republican to reintroduce ‘click-to-cancel’ bill

Exclusive: Unsubscribe Act, to be reintroduced in the House on Tuesday, would ban complex subscription cancellations

The average American is losing hundreds of dollars each year on subscriptions they forget to cancel or struggle to end, even as federal consumer protections meant to address the problem remain blocked by a federal court ruling.

With the regulatory route stalled, two representatives are offering a bipartisan fix: California Democrat Mark Takano and Nevada Republican Mark Amodei are reintroducing the Unsubscribe Act Tuesday morning that would prohibit deliberately complex cancellation processes.

Published: January 13, 2026, 12:00 pm

JD Vance to host Greenland talks at the White House

Foreign ministers from the Arctic island and Denmark are to meet in Washington amid tensions over Trump’s claim on the territory

• Europe live – latest updates

JD Vance will host a meeting with the foreign ministers of Greenland and Denmark amid rising tensions over Donald Trump’s push to gain control of the Arctic island.

Denmark’s top diplomat, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, said he and his Greenlandic counterpart, Vivian Motzfeldt, had requested the meeting with the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, and the vice-president had asked to take part and would host it at the White House on Wednesday.

Published: January 13, 2026, 1:33 pm

Red-state Republicans seek climate ‘liability shield’ for fossil fuel industry

If enacted, Utah and Oklahoma measures would restrict litigation against oil companies over role in climate crisis

US lawmakers in two red states are attempting to shield the fossil fuel industry from climate liability.

In Oklahoma, a newly introduced bill would bar most civil lawsuits against oil companies over their role in the climate crisis, unless plaintiffs allege violations of specific environmental or labor laws. A similar proposal in Utah would block lawsuits over climate-warming emissions, unless a court finds the defendant violated a statute or permit.

Published: January 13, 2026, 12:00 pm

‘We are living in an age of cruelty’: George Clooney rebukes Tarantino for insulting Paul Dano

The Jay Kelly star says he would be honoured to work with Dano, Owen Wilson and Matthew Lillard after all three actors were criticised by the director

George Clooney has said he would be “honoured” to work with three actors who were heavily criticised by Quentin Tarantino last month. Speaking at AARP’s Movies for Grownups awards on 10 January, Clooney said: “By the way, Paul Dano and Owen Wilson and Matthew Lillard, I would be honoured to work with those actors. Honoured.”

Clooney continued by describing his new film, Noah Baumbach’s Jay Kelly, as a movie “made by people who love actors – that’s an important part. People I’ve known most of my life … actually, most of them are actors. I have a great affinity [for them], and I don’t enjoy watching people be cruel.”

Published: January 13, 2026, 12:11 pm

‘Unimaginable loss’: Renee Good family urges ‘empathy’ in call for justice

Relatives pay tribute to ‘extraordinary mother’ and hope killing by ICE agent leads to meaningful change

Renee Good’s extended family said on Monday it wanted justice and accountability for her death at the hands of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer, but urged people stirred to outrage by the shooting of the 37-year-old Minneapolis mother of three to root their conversations in “humanity, empathy, and care for the family most affected”.

In a statement and in interviews with the Guardian, the family members – most of them relatives of Good’s late husband Timmy Macklin Jr, the father of her youngest son – paid tribute to Good, her children, and to Macklin, and said they hoped the “unimaginable loss” the family had suffered would lead to meaningful change and “fewer families [who] have to endure this kind of pain”.

Published: January 13, 2026, 2:19 am

Hyperlocal and highly visible: the power of freeway overpass protests amid Trump 2.0

Since Trump retook office, protesters across the US are sending messages that are hard for drivers to miss

Bonnie Connery was horrified when she read the news about the death of ICE observer Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis on 7 January. Within minutes, she and her local Missoula Visibility Brigade were messaging each other. By 3.30pm, the group of 20 was standing on the South Reserve Street Pedestrian Bridge, arranging letters cut out of craft paper and glued onto black foam and hanging them across the bridge using bungee cords. Thousands of cars driving by during rush hour passed under their messages: “ICE THUGS KILL CITIZEN” and “DHS LIES.”

The idea was to grab drivers’ attention quickly, which often means using a short, shocking message. When asked why the group chose this location, Connery said: “These cars are driving out of Missoula, which is blue, into the very red areas outside of the city.”

Published: January 13, 2026, 12:00 pm

Ex-FDA workers warn Trump cuts will increase risk of food safety lapses in US

Current and former workers caution administration’s ‘politicization of science’ will negatively affect Americans

Sweeping cuts and the “politicization of science” inside the Food and Drug Administration have increased the risk of safety lapses across the US, former agency workers warned.

Less than a year after Donald Trump returned to power, and his administration oversaw the firing and resignation of thousands of FDA employees, a listeria outbreak that killed six people and sickened 27 across 18 states due to contamination of prepared pasta meals underlined the danger posed by safety failings.

Published: January 13, 2026, 12:00 pm

Trump news at a glance: White House doubles down on threat of ‘lethal force’ against Iran amid unrest

Trump also announced a 25% tariff for ‘any country doing business with the Islamic Republic of Iran’ – key US politics stories from 12 January

Last week, as growing protests in Iran were met with violent crackdowns, Donald Trump issued a threat to the country’s leadership: “You’d better not start shooting, because we’ll start shooting too.”

This week the White House is doubling down on Trump’s saber-rattling.

Published: January 13, 2026, 2:32 am

US judge lets Danish firm resume Rhode Island offshore wind project halted by Trump

Ørsted and other wind developers have faced repeated disruptions to multibillion dollar projects under Trump

A federal judge on Monday cleared Danish offshore wind developer Ørsted to resume work on its nearly finished Revolution Wind project, which Donald Trump’s administration halted along with four other projects last month.

The ruling by US district judge Royce Lamberth is a legal setback for Trump, who has sought to block expansion of offshore wind in federal waters.

Published: January 12, 2026, 10:29 pm

Mapped: how the world is losing its forests to wildfires

Wildfires now destroy twice as much tree cover per year as two decades ago – a crisis fuelled by climate change

The world is losing forests to fire at an unsustainable rate, experts have warned.

Wildfires have always been part of nature’s cycle, but in recent decades their scale, frequency and intensity in carbon-rich forests have surged.

Published: January 13, 2026, 1:00 pm

‘A perfect, wild storm’: widely loathed datacenters see little US political opposition

Issue dubbed ‘great unifier’ but Republicans and Democrats are instead jockeying for big tech’s financial favor

In late October, an unlikely coalition formed to fiercely oppose controversial plans for more than a dozen Michigan datacenters – rightwing “Stop the Steal” activists joined forces with groups like the Democratic Socialists of America, and people of all political stripes in between.

Polling showed just 28% of residents supported new datacenters, and, amid the furor, Michigan state congressman Dylan Wegela introduced a bill to repeal datacenter tax credits. Despite an opportunity for what looked like an easy political win, the bill has few co-sponsors, is unlikely to move in the state house, and most datacenter plans are poised to be built.

Published: January 13, 2026, 1:00 pm

Women are feral for Heated Rivalry. What does that say about men?

The explosive popularity of the gay hockey TV drama reveals women’s desire for sex and romance without violence or hierarchy

The first time gay hockey romance crossed Mary’s radar, she was warned off it. A 64-year-old non-profit executive from Toronto, Mary recalled mentioning the Canadian author Rachel Reid’s Game Changers series to her son, a twentysomething queer writer and fellow hockey-obsessive, a few years ago.

“I said: ‘Have you heard of these books?’ and he said: ‘Yeah.’ I said: ‘Should I read these books?’ And he said: ‘No. They’re not for you.’”

Published: January 13, 2026, 1:00 pm

‘We’re a hot button topic’: is intimacy coordination the most misunderstood job in film-making?

Specialists in choreographing sex scenes have come under fire from the likes of Gwyneth Paltrow and Mikey Madison – is there any weight to their complaints?

When intimacy coordinator Adelaide Waldrop gets asked about her job at parties, she contemplates lying. “I’ve considered saying I’m an accountant,” she says. When she reveals the truth, the response is almost always seedy. There are questions about erections, merkins, and inappropriate celebrities. “Or it’s a lot of, ‘Oh we could use one of you at home with me and the missus’, and questions about my sex life,” Waldrop adds. “We’re a hot button topic.”

Lately, the heat has been on high. To some, intimacy coordinators are an auspicious part of a post-#MeToo industry, one that protects cast and crew while providing crucial creative input – Michelle Williams, Alexander Skarsgård, and Emma Stone are among those to have gushed about their experiences. To others, they’re the sex police, impeding artistry for the sake of avoiding an HR headache. Mikey Madison didn’t want an intimacy coordinator for her Oscar-winning sex worker film Anora. Gwyneth Paltrow asked hers to “step back a little bit” while making Marty Supreme. Jennifer Lawrence couldn’t even remember if she had one while filming Die My Love (she did), but said it wouldn’t have been necessary because her co-star, Robert Pattinson, “is not pervy”.

Published: January 13, 2026, 8:00 am

Houseplant hacks: do moisture meters prevent overwatering?

Given how easy it is to kill plants by overwatering, these devices are tempting – but can they beat simply sticking your finger in the soil?

The problem
Houseplants often die from too much water, not neglect. Might a moisture meter help?

The hack
For around £10, a probe promises to tell you exactly when to water.

Published: January 13, 2026, 10:00 am

An Australian writers’ festival cut a Palestinian author in the wake of a terror attack. Then it fell apart

Randa Abdel-Fattah, who is Palestinian Australian, has faced criticism for controversial comments on Israel, including alleging Zionists had ‘no claim or right to cultural safety’

When the board of a South Australian festival cut a prominent Palestinian Australian author from its lineup, citing her “past statements” in the context of the deadly Bondi terror attack, it no doubt braced itself for controversy.

What it may not have foreseen, however, is an implosion.

Published: January 13, 2026, 8:21 am

He invented mini saunas for frogs – now this biologist has big plans to save hundreds of species

A deadly fungus has already wiped out 90 species and threatens 500 more but Anthony Waddle is hoping gene replacement could be their salvation

Standing ankle-deep in water between two bare cottonwood trees on a hot spring day, eight-year-old Anthony Waddle was in his element. His attention was entirely absorbed by the attempt to net tadpoles swimming in a reservoir in the vast Mojave desert.

It was “one of the perfect moments in my childhood”, he says.

Published: January 13, 2026, 5:00 am

One bizarre expression after another: DiCaprio’s viral moment won the Golden Globes

Famously serious Oscar-winner gave rare insight into what might be the real Leo with his commercial break antics

The fact that nobody really knows anything about Leonardo DiCaprio is well-established at this point. Indeed, the best joke of Nikki Glaser’s Golden Globes monologue last night revolved around that fact that DiCaprio gives so little of himself away that the only things she could find to joke about him were his notoriously younger girlfriends and an obscure magazine interview he gave when he was 17, where he announced that his favourite food was “pasta, pasta and more pasta”.

However, DiCaprio then went and instantly gave some of himself away. A camera remained on him during a commercial break, and it caught him giving one of the most flamboyant demonstrations of his personality ever seen.

Published: January 12, 2026, 3:43 pm

Monochrome marvels: LensCulture’s best black-and-white photography – in pictures

A brutal nomadic sport, quiet childhood reveries and stark human endurance define the photographs that wowed this year’s judges

Published: January 13, 2026, 7:00 am

2026 is already pure chaos. Is that Trump’s electoral strategy? | Moustafa Bayoumi

Less than two weeks into the year, the US is stoking mayhem at home and abroad – with midterms coming in the autumn

Have we ever seen a year in recent memory begin with as much deliberate turmoil as 2026 has? Less than two weeks into 2026, we have witnessed Donald Trump deploy US forces to depose and abduct the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, along with Cilia Flores, his wife and close political adviser. The US president then informed the world that the United States would “run” Venezuela for the time being, which he later explained could potentially last for several years.

Trump has also threatened – and then seemingly made peace with – the president of Colombia; seized at least five oil tankers in the Caribbean (actions that UN experts label illegal armed aggression); promised US military strikes targeting cartels in Mexico against the wishes of Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum; and frightened the people of Cuba with the prospect that Marco Rubio could be their next president.

Published: January 13, 2026, 1:00 pm

I am moving house – and being a lifelong hoarder has finally caught up with me | Zoe Williams

As I pack up for pastures new, I’m wondering why I still can’t tell the difference between a knick-knack and a mess

I’m trying to move house; so are more than one pair of friends. We spend a lot of time trying to get on the insurance for each others’ cars, because some can fit a sideboard, and others can’t fit a handbag. We swap recommendations for things like secondhand book exchangers, and avoid talking about fond memories of the home about to be departed, concentrating on all the brilliant things there are to be said about new pastures. The main thing we don’t talk about is that none of us know how to do anything and that all of us are hoarders.

There’s a reason not to know the big stuff – how to paint a skirting board, how to mend a bannister spindle – never doing a thing without landing in a place of pure ignorance. Probably if any of us were 25, we’d be no worse at painting than any other 25-year-old.

Published: January 13, 2026, 11:00 am

Charlie Hebdo tried to humiliate me. Instead it debased the freedom of speech it symbolises | Rokhaya Diallo

The satirical title targeted in an Islamist attack 10 years ago published a racist, sexist caricature of me that speaks volumes about its values

The day before Christmas Eve, just as France readied itself to slip into the holiday slowdown, something abruptly shook me out of any festive torpor. The satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, known globally and tragically for being the target of an Islamist attack in 2015 published a caricature – of me. And it was appallingly racist. A huge, toothy grin, an enormous mouth, the cartoon depicts me dancing on a stage before an audience of laughing white men, adorned with a banana belt on a largely exposed body. The headline: “The Rokhaya Diallo Show: Mocking secularism around the world.”

Stunned by the violence of this grotesque cartoon, I shared it on social media with a brief analysis: “In keeping with slave-era and colonial imagery, Charlie Hebdo once again shows itself incapable of engaging with the ideas of a Black woman without reducing her to a dancing body – exoticised, supposedly savage – adorned with the very bananas that are hurled at Black people who dare to step into the public sphere.”

Rokhaya Diallo is a French journalist, writer, film-maker and activist

Published: January 13, 2026, 1:00 pm

Greenland is Europe’s credibility litmus test – it must show Trump that aggression carries a price | Fabian Zuleeg

In the new dog-eat-dog world order, appeasement doesn’t work. Time for the EU to grow up

• Fabian Zuleeg is chief executive of the European Policy Centre

Donald Trump’s intervention in Venezuela is not a one-off shock. It epitomises his approach of interventionist isolationism based on a revisionist, neo-nationalist agenda in which power is exercised bluntly, international rules are optional and alliances are transactional. In such a dog-eat-dog world, hesitation and ambiguity do not stabilise the system; they become vulnerabilities to be exploited by a volatile and predatory Washington.

The seizure of Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, combined with Trump’s renewed musings about acquiring Greenland, potentially by using the US military, should dispel any lingering illusion that this is merely erratic behaviour. It reflects a worldview in which sovereignty is conditional, spheres of influence are legitimate, and coercion is normalised when it delivers results in the interest of Trump and his administration. The real question now is not whether Europeans disapprove, but how pro-European liberal democratic forces respond. Three imperatives stand out.

Fabian Zuleeg is chief executive and chief economist at the European Policy Centre

Published: January 13, 2026, 5:00 am

The Guardian view on Europe’s crisis of self-confidence: a new mindset needed for new times | Editorial

The tumultuous start to 2026 should force a reckoning in Brussels and European capitals, and a recognition of the power the EU can exert

Another week, another set of dilemmas for Europe’s beleaguered political class to deal with. On Wednesday Brussels is due to outline the terms of the €90bn loan it has promised to Ukraine, amid internal tensions over whether Kyiv can use the money to buy US as well as EU weapons. On the same day, the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, is due to meet ministers from Denmark and Greenland, as Donald Trump continues to insist that the US will take ownership of the latter “one way or another”. And as the body count of protesters rises in Iran, the EU is under mounting pressure to do more than merely “monitor” the situation, as the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, somewhat feebly put it over the weekend.

Beyond the crisis management, a deeper reckoning is overdue after a tumultuous beginning to 2026. It has long been a truism that there is a profound mismatch between the EU’s economic heft and its geopolitical clout. But only a year into Mr Trump’s second term, the disjunction looks unsustainable in the “America first” era.

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

Published: January 12, 2026, 6:49 pm

The Guardian view on regulating big tech: politicians must back Ofcom’s challenge to Musk | Editorial

A flood of non-consensual deepfake bikini shots on X is putting the UK’s Online Safety Act to the test

The unleashing on X (formerly Twitter) of a torrent of AI-generated images of women and children wearing bikinis, some in sexualised poses or with injuries, has rightly prompted a strong reaction from UK politicians and regulators. Monday’s announcement that X is being investigated was Ofcom’s most combative move since key provisions in the Online Safety Act came into force. None of the other businesses it has challenged or fined have anything like the global reach or political clout of Elon Musk’s social media giant. Whatever happens next, this is a defining moment. What is being defined is the extent to which some of the wealthiest companies on the planet are under democratic control.

But the announcement is only a first step. Ofcom has given no indication of how long its investigation will take. On Friday Downing Street described as insulting the decision to limit the use of the image‑making Grok AI chatbot to X’s paying subscribers. The government said that this amounted to turning the creation of abusive deepfakes into a “premium service”.

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

Published: January 12, 2026, 6:50 pm

Texans extend Steelers’ playoff losing streak in possible farewell for Aaron Rodgers

• Houston Texans 30-6 Pittsburgh Steelers

• Rodgers says he is yet to make decision on future

• Texans will face Patriots in divisional round

Sheldon Rankins returned a fumble by Aaron Rodgers 33 yards for a touchdown early in the fourth quarter to highlight a dominant performance by the NFL’s top-ranked defense, and the Houston Texans beat the Pittsburgh Steelers 30-6 on Monday night for the first road playoff win in franchise history.

The Texans’ win means they will play the New England Patriots in the divisional round on Sunday night.

Published: January 13, 2026, 4:35 am

40 years on, did Proposition 48 protect US college sports – or punish Black athletes?

When the NCAA tied eligibility to standardized test scores in 1986, hundreds of recruits were barred from competition. But its legacy is still a subject of debate

Tony Rice noticed the looks and smirks during his first week of freshman classes in the fall of 1986 at Notre Dame.

He had accepted his fate a few months earlier when standardized test results led to the decision that he would not be eligible to participate in collegiate sports his freshman year. But nothing prepared him for this.

Published: January 13, 2026, 11:00 am

Michael Carrick adds Steve Holland and Woodgate to staff at Manchester United

• Carrick to be confirmed as interim manager on Tuesday

• Darren Fletcher returns to job with United’s under-18s

Michael Carrick has handed Steve Holland and Jonathan Woodgate roles on his staff at Manchester United. Carrick will be confirmed on Tuesday as the club’s interim manager until the end of the season and four spots on his backroom team have been filled.

Holland was the assistant to Gareth Southgate with England and more recently the manager of the Japanese club Yokohama F Marinos, who sacked him last April. Woodgate coached alongside Carrick at Middlesbrough and had a spell there and at Bournemouth as manager. Retained on the staff after working with Darren Fletcher are Travis Binnion, who was promoted from his role as under-21s lead coach, and Jonny Evans.

Published: January 13, 2026, 10:59 am

Watching James Bond play my great uncle Brendan in Giant was surreal and spooky | Sean Ingle

Biopic charting Naseem Hamed’s rise has reopened old wounds but is also a reminder of what was and what might have been

The first time I watched Prince Naseem Hamed train, my jaw couldn’t have dropped any faster if he had hit me with one of his lassoing uppercuts. I had followed all his fights on TV, of course. But to see him in the flesh in September 1994, a year before he became world champion, was an altogether more visceral and mesmeric experience.

Hamed’s punches sounded like firecrackers welcoming in the new year as they smashed into the pads. He was almost impossible to hit. And, most staggering of all, despite standing 5ft 4in tall and weighing only nine stone, he would bully far bigger men in sparring – including fighters such as John Keeton, who went on to become the British cruiserweight champion – until my great uncle, Brendan Ingle, called time.

Published: January 13, 2026, 8:00 am

Amad Diallo sparkled at Afcon. What does it mean for Manchester United?

The Côte d’Ivoire winger was his nation’s best player in Morocco, but his place in a post-Amorim world is uncertain

It’s often easy to forget that Amad Diallo is only 23. In the five years since he joined Manchester United from Atalanta for a reported £19m (about $25m) plus add-ons, the winger has seen plenty of ups and downs.

Once a much-hyped prospect, Amad struggled to earn minutes at United in his first season with the club and was soon sent out on loan to Rangers and Sunderland. Now, three years since he returned to Manchester, Amad is no longer sidelined or dismissed; he has become a difference maker.

Published: January 13, 2026, 11:00 am

Brooks Koepka returns to PGA Tour after $5m charitable donation

• PGA offers re-entry to LIV Golf players via new program

• Koepka stands to miss out on at least $50m in equity

Brooks Koepka is returning to the PGA Tour just five weeks after bolting from LIV Golf, agreeing to a one-time program for elite players that comes with a financial penalty that could rank among the largest in sports.

Koepka plans to resume his PGA Tour career in the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines at the end of the month. But he will not be eligible for PGA Tour equity grants for five years, he will not receive FedEx Cup bonus money in 2026 and he cannot play signature events unless he earns his way in.

Published: January 12, 2026, 8:16 pm

Xabi Alonso leaves Real Madrid after seven months and replaced by Álvaro Arbeloa

• Super Cup final defeat by Barcelona spells the end

• Madrid are four points off Catalan club at top of La Liga

Xabi Alonso has left his job as coach of Real Madrid, only seven months after arriving for his first day at the club’s Valdebebas training ground. A brief statement announced his departure “by mutual consent” on Monday evening after Madrid’s 3-2 defeat in the final of the Spanish Super Cup against Barcelona the previous night.

He will be replaced, at least in the short term, by his former Real Madrid and Liverpool teammate and friend Álvaro Arbeloa, who was coach of Castilla, Madrid’s B team.

Published: January 12, 2026, 5:19 pm

Brilliant, battered and unkillable: Josh Allen lurches towards the Super Bowl

The Buffalo Bills quarterback is not only a danger to opponents. His bravery and skill inspire his teammates to elevate their play

Two things about the NFL playoffs are predictable: Josh Allen will play out of his skin ... and Josh Allen will suffer a soul-sucking, stupefying loss. Except, maybe, this year.

We all know about the postseason heartbreaks and shortfalls over the years for Allen and the Buffalo Bills. In each season since 2019, Buffalo’s ride has ended in either the divisional or conference championship round, usually at the hands of Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs. But with no dominant team coming out of the regular season and no Mahomes this postseason, maybe it’s time for Allen and the Bills to finally capture the franchise’s first Lombardi Trophy.

Published: January 12, 2026, 8:30 am

Olympic tensions flare as US skeleton star alleges Canadian coach rigged qualifying event

• Katie Uhlaender misses sixth trip to Olympics

• Athlete says she was deliberately deprived of points

Sporting tensions between the USA and Canada have erupted once again, this time in skeleton as next month’s Winter Olympics approach.

The USA’s Katie Uhlaender, a five-time Winter Olympian in skeleton, has accused the Canadian team of depriving her of a place at the Milan-Cortina Games by manipulating a qualifying event over the weekend.

Published: January 12, 2026, 2:10 pm

Israel poised to start construction of bypass through heart of West Bank

Road project, part of blueprint for new illegal settlement in E1 area east of Jerusalem, is considered a tool of annexation

Israel plans to start work next month on a bypass road that will close off the heart of the occupied West Bank to Palestinians and cement the de facto annexation of an area critical for the viability of a future Palestinian state.

The road is a key part of the blueprint for a vast illegal new settlement in the E1 area east of Jerusalem, which would fragment the occupied West Bank. The Israeli finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, said the plans were intended to “bury the idea of a Palestinian state”.

Published: January 13, 2026, 9:37 am

Russia working to circumvent sanctions to ensure India oil imports continue

Delhi is world’s second largest purchaser of Russian crude, which is now cheaper than oil from Middle East

Russia is already working to circumvent the latest US sanctions to ensure India can continue to import high levels of cheap Russian crude oil, according to industry analysts.

Since the outbreak of the Ukraine war, India has become the world’s second largest purchaser of Russian crude oil, which has been heavily discounted due to the impact of western sanctions.

Published: January 13, 2026, 5:00 am

Ueli Kestenholz, Olympic snowboard medallist, dies after being trapped in Swiss avalanche

• 50-year-old was snowboarding in Switzerland on Sunday

• Kestenholz won bronze in giant slalom at Nagano 1998

Snowboarder Ueli Kestenholz, who won a bronze medal in the sport’s first Olympic race, has died after being trapped in an avalanche, the Swiss Ski federation said on Tuesday. He was 50.

Kestenholz was third in snowboard giant slalom at the 1998 Nagano Olympics – a debut event that became a story of the Games when Canadian gold medallist Ross Rebagliati fought to keep his title after a positive test for cannabis.

Published: January 13, 2026, 1:21 pm

Workers at Chinese factory that produces Labubu toys are being exploited, says NGO

Exclusive: China Labor Watch says people aged 16-18 employed without required special protections

A labour rights NGO says it has found evidence of worker exploitation in the supply chain of Labubus, the furry toys that took the world by storm last year and which are expected to continue to grow in popularity in 2026.

Labubus, toothy gremlins made by the Chinese toy company Pop Mart, have become one of China’s hottest cultural exports. In the first half of 2025 alone, “the Monsters” line of toys, which includes Labubus, generated 4.8bn yuan (£511m) in sales for the Hong Kong-listed company. In August, Pop Mart’s chief executive, Wang Ning, said the company was on track to reach 20bn yuan in revenues in 2025.

Published: January 13, 2026, 9:55 am

Search for single-tusked elephant after 22 killed in India rampage

Eastern region on high alert as authorities try to track animal tearing through villages in Jharkand after apparently becoming separated from herd

Forest officials in India are on the hunt for an elephant that has killed more 20 people in a days-long rampage through the eastern state of Jharkand.

Since the beginning of January, 22 people have been killed by a single-tusked elephant that has been tearing through forests and villages in West Singhbhum district of Jharkand.

Published: January 13, 2026, 7:07 am

Kyiv battles cold snap as homes left without heating by Russian attack – video

The Guardian's Peter Beaumont is in Kyiv where temperatures are expected to fall to -20C during the night. Many residents are forced to use emergency shelters to warm up and use electricity after a large-scale Russian attack on the capital on 9 January damaged energy facilities. Hundreds of homes have been left without power or heating after the strikes

Published: January 13, 2026, 1:22 pm

BBC seeks dismissal of $10bn Trump lawsuit over Panorama ‘fight like hell’ clip

Broadcaster’s submission calls on Florida court to throw out defamation case where US president is suing over editing of 6 January 2021 speech

The BBC is to attempt to have Donald Trump’s $10bn defamation lawsuit over the editing of a speech for Panorama thrown out, according to court documents.

The broadcaster faced criticism for airing an episode of the investigative documentary series that featured an edited clip of Trump’s address to a rally on 6 January 2021, which it is alleged gave the impression he encouraged supporters to storm the Capitol building in Washington DC.

Published: January 13, 2026, 7:52 am

US plan to exploit Venezuela’s oil could eat up 13% of carbon budget to keep 1.5C limit

Exclusive: ClimatePartner analysis shows how move would risk plunging Earth further into climate catastrophe

US plans to exploit Venezuela’s oil reserves could by 2050 consume more than a tenth of the world’s remaining carbon budget to limit global heating to 1.5C, according to an exclusive analysis.

The calculation highlights how any moves to further exploit the South American nation’s oil reserves – the largest in the world, at least on paper – would put increasing pressure on climate goals, and risk plunging the Earth further into climate catastrophe.

Published: January 12, 2026, 5:38 pm

Weather tracker: Canada issues warnings for freezing rain, heavy snow and strong winds

Severe weather, driven by two low-pressure systems merging, is expected to bring power outages and hazardous road conditions

Atlantic Canada is under widespread weather warnings for snow, freezing rain and strong winds as a winter storm moves across the region. In Newfoundland, up to 40cm of snow fell on Sunday, along with wind gusts of about 74mph, creating blizzard-like conditions.

The storm began late on Sunday and is forecast to persist until Tuesday morning. Freezing rain warnings are in place across Nova Scotia, including Annapolis and Kings counties, while parts of New Brunswick could get up to 25cm of snow on Monday.

Published: January 12, 2026, 3:40 pm

Berry nice to meet you: bumper fruit crop could lead to huge mating season for NZ’s endangered kākāpō

After a four-year wait, the abundant fruiting of the rimu tree could inspire the world’s heaviest parrots to boost their population

It has been four long years, but the world’s heaviest parrots, the kākāpō, are finally about to get it on again. The mass fruiting of a native New Zealand tree has triggered breeding season – a rare event conservationists hope will lead to a record number of chicks for the critically endangered bird.

Kākāpō, the world’s only nocturnal and flightless parrot, were once abundant across New Zealand. But their population plummeted after the introduction of predators such as cats and stoats, and by the 1900s they were nearly extinct.

Published: January 13, 2026, 4:21 am

Music executive LA Reid settles sexual assault lawsuit on day civil trial was due to begin

The former Arista Records chief executive had faced allegations that he derailed the career of former employee Drew Dixon after she rejected his advances

The Grammy-winning music executive LA Reid settled a lawsuit by a former employee who accused him of sexual assault and harassment, on the day the civil trial was due to begin.

In 2023, Drew Dixon alleged that the former Arista Records chief executive born Antonio Reid – who helped develop Mariah Carey, TLC, Pink and Usher – derailed her career after she rejected his advances in 2021. Dixon said that he groped, kissed and digitally penetrated her without consent on two occasions.

Published: January 13, 2026, 10:26 am

Mamdani demands release of New York council employee detained by US agents

Mayor decries ‘assault on our democracy’ after employee detained during ‘routine immigration appointment’

Federal immigration agents detained an employee of the New York City council on Monday, sparking outrage from the city’s leaders and renewed rebukes against the Trump administration’s immigration actions.

“This is an assault on our democracy, on our city, and our values,” Mayor Zohran Mamdani said in a statement on X. “I am calling for his immediate release and will continue to monitor the situation.”

Published: January 13, 2026, 2:45 am

Mark Kelly sues Hegseth over ‘chilling’ effort to reduce military retirement rank

US defense secretary Pete Hegseth tried to reduce veteran’s pension for speaking out against Trump administration

Democratic US senator Mark Kelly filed a lawsuit on Monday seeking to nullify the “chilling” attempt by the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, to reduce the military veteran’s rank and pension as punishment for speaking out against the Trump administration.

Hegseth had previously issued a formal censure to Kelly, a decorated retired navy captain and Nasa astronaut, for alleged “seditious statements” he made urging service members to resist unlawful orders. It began a process that could lead to Kelly, a senator for Arizona since 2021, being demoted and having his pension cut.

Published: January 12, 2026, 8:14 pm

Peter Thiel makes $3m donation to fight California’s proposed billionaire tax

Ballot proposes one-time, 5% tax on anyone in state worth more than $1bn and grant a five-year period for payment

Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel has donated $3m to a California lobbying group advocating against a proposed wealth tax that would target billionaires in the state. The seven-figure contribution comes as several ultra-wealthy tech moguls have left or threatened to leave California over the tax.

Thiel, worth some $26bn, made the donation last month to the California Business Roundtable’s political action committee, according to a public disclosure filing which was first reported by the New York Times. A representative for Thiel did not respond to requests for comment.

Published: January 12, 2026, 11:19 pm

Guinness and Johnnie Walker owner Diageo ‘could sell Chinese assets’

Reported move would be part of new CEO Dave Lewis’s streamlining of world’s largest spirits maker

• Business live – latest updates

Diageo’s new boss, Dave Lewis, has barely started in the role, and the maker of Guinness and Johnnie Walker is already reportedly considering selling off its Chinese assets to trim down its portfolio.

The world’s largest spirits maker, whose other brands include Smirnoff vodka, Captain Morgan rum and Don Julio tequila, is working with Goldman Sachs and UBS to review its operations in China, where sales have been falling, according to Bloomberg News.

Published: January 13, 2026, 11:17 am

Marine Le Pen’s appeal against embezzlement conviction to begin

Paris trial’s outcome will determine whether leader of far-right National Rally can run for French presidency in 2027

The French far-right party leader Marine Le Pen will face a fresh trial on appeal on Tuesday over the embezzlement of European parliament funds in a case that will determine whether or not she can run in the 2027 presidential election.

Le Pen, 57, who leads the far-right, anti-immigration National Rally (RN), was considered to be a contender for next year’s election until she was barred from running for public office last March after being found guilty of an extensive and long-running fake jobs scam.

Published: January 13, 2026, 5:00 am

China pressing European countries to bar Taiwan politicians or face crossing a ‘red line’

Exclusive: Chinese officials are using a ‘highly specific’ interpretation of EU rules to suggest Taiwanese figures should not be granted visas, officials say

Chinese officials have been pushing “legal advice” on European countries, saying their own border laws require them to ban entry to Taiwanese politicians, according to more than half a dozen diplomats and officials familiar with the matter.

The officials made demarches to European embassies in Beijing, or through local embassies directly to European governments in their capital cities, warning the European countries not to “trample on China’s red lines”, according to the European diplomats and ministries who spoke to the Guardian.

Published: January 13, 2026, 1:26 am

Peter Mandelson apologises for Epstein association in sudden U-turn

Former ambassador to US had earlier declined to give apology for keeping in touch with sex offender after his conviction

Peter Mandelson has issued an apology for his association with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein – after declining to do so in an interview broadcast on Sunday.

The Labour peer, who was sacked as US ambassador when details of his support for Epstein emerged in September, gave an interview to the BBC in which he suggested that as a gay man he knew nothing of the disgraced financier’s sex life.

Published: January 12, 2026, 11:36 pm

Punchdrunk’s new mission: inside ‘live action video game’ Lander 23 – in pictures

The celebrated immersive theatre company has launched a new multiplayer stealth game at its headquarters in Woolwich, south-east London. Photographer Tristram Kenton was granted special access

Published: January 13, 2026, 12:00 pm

Love Machines by James Muldoon review – inside the uncanny world of AI relationships

A sociologist talks to the people putting their faith – and their hearts – in the hands of robots

If much of the discussion of AI risk conjures doomsday scenarios of hyper-intelligent bots brandishing nuclear codes, perhaps we should be thinking closer to home. In his urgent, humane book, sociologist James Muldoon urges us to pay more attention to our deepening emotional entanglements with AI, and how profit-hungry tech companies might exploit them. A research associate at the Oxford Internet Institute who has previously written about the exploited workers whose labour makes AI possible, Muldoon now takes us into the uncanny terrain of human-AI relationships, meeting the people for whom chatbots aren’t merely assistants, but friends, romantic partners, therapists, even avatars of the dead.

To some, the idea of falling in love with an AI chatbot, or confiding your deepest secrets to one, might seem mystifying and more than a little creepy. But Muldoon refuses to belittle those seeking intimacy in “synthetic personas”.

Published: January 13, 2026, 7:00 am

Sex giggles! Nail clippings on the sofa! The new TV romance so realistic it’s close to perfect

Fans of Normal People and One Day will adore The New Years, which follows a relatable on-off couple in Madrid. It is the best relationship drama you haven’t seen yet

It is rare to watch a fictional romance and feel genuinely invested in the question of will-they-won’t-they – and even rarer for it to reflect familiar relationship turbulence. Many love stories on TV skip straight to wish-fulfilment, delivering instant chemistry, no challenges that can’t be overcome within the runtime and glib reassurance that Love Conquers All.

Netflix’s Nobody Wants This, for instance – based on a real couple, and ostensibly exploring whether a relationship can survive differences of faith – didn’t wait to resolve that question before bringing its leads together. In real life, promising connections fall at much lower hurdles, for such banal reasons as incompatible schedules.

Published: January 13, 2026, 12:59 pm

The Knife review – audaciously taut film about police encounter is intense drama of mutual suspicion

A crime committed in the home of a regular black American family results in paranoia on all sides in this 81-minute film from Nnamdi Asomugha

Here is a compact drama that twists itself like a tourniquet over 81 minutes, as a bad situation turns into a catastrophe for an ordinary American family.

Late one night in an unnamed city, construction worker Chris (Nnamdi Asomugha, also the film’s director and co-writer) finishes a DIY project in his own home and sinks a beer or two. He takes a couple of pills before checking on his two young daughters Kendra (Amari Alexis Price) and Ryley (Aiden Gabrielle Price), who have been sneakily pretending to be asleep. Then he gets into bed with wife Alex (Aja Naomi King) for a chat and a soon-abandoned attempt to have exhausted marital sex while their infant baby sleeps next door.

Published: January 13, 2026, 9:00 am

State of Statelessness review – Dalai Lama presides over intimate dramas about Tibetans’ life of exile

Tibetan directors, who all live outside Tibet, deliver a quartet of films that explore the pain of separation and migration

The wrench of exile is the theme of this quartet of short films from Tibetan directors, who themselves all live outside Tibet. Their intimate, emotional family dramas tell stories of separation and migration. In two of them, the 90-year-old Dalai Lama smiles out from photographs on shrines, a reminder of the precariousness of Tibet’s future. As a character in one of the films puts it bluntly: will there be anything to stop China erasing Tibetan identity when its rock-star spiritual leader is no longer around?

In the first film a Tibetan man lives in a kind of complicated happiness in Vietnam. He loves his wife, and they both adore their sunny-natured little daughter, but he has mournful eyes. Home is a town on the banks of the Mekong River, which has its source in Tibet. The river is a constant reminder of the region – and of Chinese might too, since Chinese hydropower dams are the cause of drought downstream in Vietnam.

Published: January 13, 2026, 7:00 am

‘A celebration of the carefree’: why Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is my feelgood movie

The latest in our series of writers celebrating their favourite comfort watches is an ode to John Hughes’s 1980s classic

It’s hard to ignore a film’s message when the main character is addressing you directly down the barrel of the camera. Granted, the first time I watched the 1986 teen comedy Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, I was the impressionable age of 11 and “Look people in the eyes when they’re talking to you” was on constant rotation in my household. So my green eyes met Ferris’s brown ones and I took it all in.

Centred around Matthew Broderick’s playful turn as Ferris Bueller, a high school senior faking illness to skip school, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is certainly a celebration of the carefree, though the story is by no means languid. Made frantic by doing the thing you’re not supposed to do with the aid of a red Ferrari, the day speeds by in comparison to the fictional days of other American teen films, such as American Graffiti and Dazed & Confused – which, to be fair, features a decent amount of marijuana.

Published: January 12, 2026, 10:00 am

Truckin’ on: Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead’s 10 best recordings

From 46-minute jams to MTV video hits, here are the freedom-loving Dead guitarist and singer’s finest songs about ‘rainbows of sound’ and ‘enjoying the ride’

• Bob Weir, co-founder of rock group the Grateful Dead, dies at age 78
• Alexis Petridis: ‘Bob Weir was the chief custodian of the Dead’s legacy’
• Aaron Dessner: ‘I’ll never forget playing with him’

The Dead’s love for the road is in evidence on this segment from That’s It for the Other One, the four-part opening track of their second LP, Anthem of the Sun. A rare Bob Weir-penned lyric details the Dead’s youngest member being busted by the cops “for smiling on a cloudy day” – referencing a real-life incident when Weir pelted police with water balloons as they conducted what he took to be illegal searches outside the group’s Haight-Ashbury hangout. It then connects with the band’s spiritual forebears the Merry Pranksters by referencing Neal Cassady, driver of “a bus to never-ever land”. The song later evolved into The Other One, one of the Dead’s most played tunes and a launchpad for their exploratory jams – as in this languid, brilliant version at San Francisco’s Winterland in 1974.

Published: January 12, 2026, 12:11 pm

‘It was inspired by a snog in a photo-booth’: how Thompson Twins made Hold Me Now

‘We had a disagreement that spilled over into personal insults. But we soon made up – and wrote this about the process’

Thompson Twins were a seven-piece, rag-bag, guitar-based band living in a squat when I met Alannah Currie, who was also squatting in London. She was in an anarchic improv band, the Unfuckables, who were clearly not destined for Top of the Pops, but there was something very exciting about her. When I invited her to come on at the end of a Thompson Twins gig, she stole the show.

Published: January 12, 2026, 3:28 pm

How a family were shocked by allegations about a dead dad’s double life: best podcasts of the week

Was British army major Robbie Mills leading a secret double life? Or was his posthumous accuser hoodwinking Mills’ family? A true-crime investigation finds out

A true-crime investigation into the supposed secret double life of British army major Robbie Mills. After Mills died in 1955, apparently from an accident on a submarine, a man called John Cotell turned up at his home claiming to be a friend of his – and a fellow spy. Journalist Eugene Henderson tells the troubling tale of Cottell, who rapidly insinuated his way into the Mills family’s lives. Alexi Duggins
Widely available, episodes weekly

Published: January 12, 2026, 7:00 am

The Only Cure by Mark Solms review – has modern neuroscience proved Freud right?

An expert in both disciplines makes a bold attempt to convince sceptics, and partially succeeds

Vladimir Nabokov notoriously dismissed the “vulgar, shabby, and fundamentally medieval world” of the ideas of Sigmund Freud, whom he called “the Viennese witch doctor”. His negative judgment has been shared by many in the near 90 years since Freud’s death. A reputational high-water mark in the postwar period was followed by a collapse, at least in scientific circles, but there are signs of newfound respectability for his ideas, including among those who once rejected him outright. Mark Solms’s latest book, a wide-ranging and engrossing defence of Freud as a scientist and a healer, is a striking contribution to the re-evaluation of a thinker whom WH Auden described as “no more a person now but a whole climate of opinion”.

It would be difficult to improve on Solms’s credentials for the task he sets himself. He is a neuroscientist, expert in the neuropsychology of dreams, the author of several books on the relationship between brain and consciousness, a practising psychoanalyst and the editor of the 24-volume revised standard edition of Freud’s complete works. He is also a wonderfully witty and lucid writer.

Published: January 12, 2026, 9:00 am

Poem of the week: Dream-Pedlary by Thomas Lovell Beddoes

From an almost whimsical beginning, these verses on wishing to overcome mortality grow lyrical and deeply moving

Dream-Pedlary

i.

Published: January 12, 2026, 10:00 am

Seven by Joanna Kavenna review – a madcap journey to the limits of philosophy

With its cast of thinkers, gamers and artists, this romp across Europe explores our desire to define reality – even as it slips from our intellectual grasp

Joanna Kavenna’s two decades as a writer have seen her beat a gorgeously unconventional path through a plethora of subjects and genres, from polar exploration to motherhood to economic inequality, and from travelogue to academic satire to technological dystopia. “I like genre,” Kavenna said in a 2020 interview, “because there’s a narrative and you can kind of work against it, test it.” That being said, her seventh published book, Seven, is a curiously uncategorisable, protean thing: a slim, absurdist novel, but chunky with ideas.

Of all the genres Kavenna has worked within – or, more accurately, vexed the boundaries of – Seven (Or, How to Play a Game Without Rules) is probably closest to an academic satire. We first encounter the novel’s thoroughly anonymised first-person narrator in Oslo in the summer of 2007, where he or she or they are employed as a research assistant to a renowned Icelandic philosopher named Alda Jónsdóttir. Jónsdóttir is described as “eminent, tall, strong and terrifying”, and likes to host dinner parties for her histrionic institutional peers. The hapless narrator’s job is to help facilitate her work in “box philosophy”: “the study of categories, the ways we organise reality into groups and sets […] the ways we end up thinking inside the box, even when we are trying to think outside the box”.

Published: January 12, 2026, 7:00 am

Four months and 40 hours later: my epic battle with 2025’s most difficult video game

When Hollow Knight: Silksong came out last summer I was in so much pain that I didn’t know if I’d be able to play it. Could a video game teach me anything new about suffering?

Last year I became uncomfortably well acquainted with suffering. In March I started experiencing excruciating pain in my right arm and shoulder – burning, zapping, energy-sapping pain that left me unable to think straight, emanating from a nexus of torment behind my shoulder blade and sometimes stretching all the way up to the base of my skull and all the way down into my fingers. Typing was agony, but everything was painful; even at rest it was horrible. I couldn’t play my guitar; I couldn’t play video games; I couldn’t sleep. I learned how quickly physical suffering lacerates your mental wellbeing.

I’d had episodes of nagging pain from so-called repetitive strain injuries before, the product of long hours hunched over laptops and game controllers over the course of decades, but nothing like this. A few months later, after the initial unrelenting agony had subsided to a permanent hum of more moderate pain, it was diagnosed as brachial neuritis, inflammation of the nerve path that travels from the base of your neck down to your hand. (Nobody knows what causes it, but it sometimes happens after an infection or an injury.) The good news, I was told by a neurologist, was that it usually gets better in about one to three years, and I hadn’t lost any function in my right hand. The bad news was that there was nothing much to be done about the pain in the meantime.

Published: January 12, 2026, 11:10 am

Owen Cooper: how schoolboy conquered Golden Globes and changed acting for a generation

Warrington 16-year-old is inspiring young boys to embrace drama

Standing on stage at the Golden Globes in front of Hollywood’s elite, Owen Cooper said that the experience simply “did not feel real”.

The 16-year-old from Warrington picked up best supporting male actor for his performance in Netflix’s “incel” drama, Adolescence, which was one of the big winners at the ceremony and dominated the cultural conversation around male toxicity for much of 2025.

Published: January 12, 2026, 6:46 pm

Biffy Clyro review – triumphant set marks a thunderous renewal

Motorpoint Arena, Nottingham
Coming off the back of a rough period, the Scottish band find reconnection, renewal and purpose in their singular mix of pop, rock and metal

‘With a little love, we can conquer all,” Simon Neil croons on Biffy Clyro’s opening song A Little Love, over its huge, infectious arena-rock chorus. It’s a line that feels like a mantra for the Scottish band 30 years and 10 albums in: they’re currently touring 2025’s Futique having come through a rough period. They experienced major burnout, band members fell out for the first time and founding member James Johnston pulled out of this tour due to mental health and addiction issues. But their new songs feel rooted in renewal, reconnection and newfound purpose. Neil pays tribute to his departed bandmate on the urgent and zippy Friendshipping, which is an ode to the importance of maintaining such relationships.

Futique was recorded in Berlin; the band said that the ghosts of Bowie, Iggy and Nick Cave’s the Birthday Party “bled into the songs”. No such art-pop apparitions feel present tonight. Instead there’s a rousing pop sensibility to these new tracks. Goodbye is a slow-burn ballad that explodes into an arms-aloft anthem, while Shot One embodies the band’s knack for merging sugary melodies and meaty riffs – existing in the blurred middle ground between rock, pop and metal that they comfortably own.

Published: January 13, 2026, 10:21 am

Adelaide writers’ week 2026 cancelled as board apologises to Randa Abdel-Fattah for ‘how decision was represented’

Almost all remaining festival board members have resigned after backlash to decision to disinvite the Palestinian Australian author

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Adelaide writers’ week 2026 has been cancelled after days of turmoil as more than 180 authors and speakers dropped out in protest of the decision to disinvite the Palestinian Australian author Randa Abdel-Fattah.

In a statement on Tuesday afternoon, the Adelaide festival board announced the event, which was scheduled to begin on 28 February, would no longer go ahead. The three remaining members of the festival board have resigned immediately, after the resignations of four others – with the exception of the Adelaide city council representative, whose term expires in February.

Published: January 13, 2026, 6:43 am

‘Her time has come’: did Mondrian owe his success to a cross-dressing lesbian artist who lived in a Cornish cove?

Piet Mondrian found fame, fortune and glory with his grid-like paintings lit with basic colours. But did many of his ideas come from Marlow Moss? Our writer celebrates an extraordinary British talent who died in obscurity

In 1972, the mighty Kunstmuseum in the Hague bought three paintings by a little known British artist called Marlow Moss. The prestigious art gallery was keen to show the enormous influence of Piet Mondrian – the famous Dutch painter acclaimed for his black grids lit with bold blues and brash yellows – on such lowly also-rans as Moss.

Yet, should you visit the Kunstmuseum today, you’ll find the Moss works positioned front and centre, while a similar piece by the great Mondrian, who would later become the toast of New York, is hidden behind a pillar. Why the volte-face? Because it is now widely recognised in the art world that it was as much Moss who influenced Mondrian as the other way round, at least when it came to the double or parallel lines he started using in the 1930s to add tension to his harmonious abstract paintings, one of which hammered last May for $48m.

Published: January 12, 2026, 4:14 pm

What does sugar do to your body – and how can you avoid a slump?

We evolved to like energy-dense foods such as honey, but modern diets tend to include too much sugar. Here’s how to make sure you eat the right amount, at the right time

Sugar tastes great for good reason: we evolved to like it, back when honey was a hard-to-get, energy-dense treat and we spent half of our time running around after antelope. Now that it’s much easier to get and we don’t move as much, that sweet tooth is working against us: many of us are consuming far too much of it, and suffering from poor health as a result. But is there anything specifically bad about it beyond it providing too many calories and not enough nutrients?

“When we taste sugar, the body starts reacting the moment sweetness touches the tongue,” says Dawn Menning, a registered dietitian who works with health app Nutu. “The brain recognises it as a quick source of energy and activates the reward system, releasing the feelgood chemical dopamine that makes it so appealing.” Interestingly, not everyone tastes sugar in exactly the same way – in 2015, researchers compared different types of siblings’ perception of sugar and sweeteners, and found that identical twins were more similar to each other in their sweet taste perception than fraternal twins or non-twin siblings. They concluded that genetic factors account for about 30% of the variance in how sensitive people are to sweet tastes – but it’s unclear whether that actually affects how much we eat.

Published: January 12, 2026, 10:00 am

January tips if you’re cooking for one | Kitchen aide

From one-pot meals to versatile dishes that last all week, our panel of experts serves up ideas for solo chefs

I really struggle with cooking for one, so what can I make in January that’s interesting but easy and, most importantly, warming?
Jane, via email
“There’s an art to the perfect solo meal,” says Bonnie Chung, author of Miso: From Japanese Classics to Everyday Umami, “and that’s balancing decadence with ease.” For Chung, that means good-quality ingredients (“tinned anchovies, jarred beans”), a dish that can be cooked in one pan (“a night alone must be maximised with minimal washing-up”) and eaten with a single piece of cutlery, “preferably in front of the telly and out of a bowl nestling in your lap”. Happily, she says, all of those requirements are met by miso udon carbonara: “It has all the rich and creamy nirvana of a cheesy pasta, but with a delicious, mochi-like chew that is incredibly satisfying.” Not only that, but you can knock it up in less than 10 minutes. “Melt cheese, milk and miso in a pan to make the sauce base, then add frozen udon that have been soaked in hot water.” Coat the noodles in the sauce, then serve with crisp bacon or perhaps a few anchovies for “pops of salty fat”. Crown with a golden egg yolk (preferably duck, but hen “will suffice”), which should then be broken: “Add a crack of black pepper, and your cosy night in has begun.”

“January feels like a time for fresh, bright flavours,” says the Guardian’s own Felicity Cloake, which for her often means pasta con le sarde made with tinned fish, fennel seeds and lots of lemon juice; “or with purple sprouting broccoli and a generous helping of garlic and chilli”. A jar of chickpeas, meanwhile, mixed, perhaps, with harissa, chopped herbs and crumbled feta, brings the possibility of a quick stew, Cloake adds, while it’s always a good shout to braise some beans, because cook-once, eat-all-week recipes are a godsend – so long as they’re versatile, that is.

Got a culinary dilemma? Email feast@theguardian.com

Published: January 13, 2026, 1:00 pm

A new start after 60: I adopted a Guide Dog mum – and found true love, community and confidence

After her husband died suddenly, and her children left home, teacher Helen Smith started to question everything in her life. Then a radio programme about a shortage of Guide Dogs gave her an idea

Helen Smith was cleaning her bathroom and listening to the radio, some time after the pandemic, when a story came on about a shortage of guide dogs. The pandemic had made it hard to breed puppies. One vision-impaired owner faced a two-year wait for a new dog. Knowing the importance of her own relationship with dogs, Smith was overcome with sadness for him. Right then, she thought, “Well, what am I going to do with the rest of my life?”

She was living in the south of Hesse, in Germany, having moved in 1998 from Shropshire for her husband’s work. Their daughters were nine and three. The family settled. They got a dog. Smith found tutoring work and started a business teaching English.

Tell us: has your life taken a new direction after the age of 60?

Published: January 12, 2026, 6:45 am

Is it true that … stretching before exercise prevents injury?

Loosening your muscles is beneficial, but choosing the right type of movement for your chosen exercise is key

It depends on what kind of stretching you’re doing, says Dr Alex Dinsdale, senior lecturer in sport and exercise biomechanics at Leeds Beckett University.

Injuries, he says, happen for all sorts of reasons, from poor footwear to fatigue. Two key factors are not having the range of motion required or not being strong enough to control that motion. “You might go for a run and lift your knees higher than your hamstrings can manage,” he says. Or you might lack the muscle strength needed to handle moving a limb at speed.

Published: January 12, 2026, 8:00 am

The friendship secret: why socialising could help you live longer

Neuroscientist Ben Rein is on a mission to show that being around others not only feels good, but can even improve recovery from strokes, cancer and heart attacks. So why are so many of us isolated and glued to our phones?

‘I hate it.” I’ve asked the neuroscientist Ben Rein how he feels about the online sea of junk neuroscience we swim in – the “dopamine fasts”, “serotonin boosts” and people “regulating” their “nervous system” – and this is his kneejerk response. He was up early with his newborn daughter at his home in Buffalo, New York, but he’s fresh-faced and full of beans on a video call, swiftly qualifying that heartfelt statement. “Let me clarify my position: I don’t hate it when it’s accurate, but it’s rarely accurate.”

He draws my attention to a reel he saw recently on social media of a man explaining that reframing pain as “neurofeedback, not punishment” activates the anterior cingulate cortex (a part of the brain involved in registering pain). “That’s genuinely never been studied; you are just making this up,” he says. He posted a pithy response on Instagram, pleading with content creators to “leave neuroscience out of it”. “That’s why I think it’s especially important for real scientists to be on the internet,” he says. “We need to show the public what it looks like to speak responsibly and accurately about science.”

Published: January 12, 2026, 5:00 am

The pet I’ll never forget: Dory the 10kg rabbit, who saved me from a diabetic coma

My Flemish giant bunny loved chomping on carrots, computer cables and my skirting board – and being walked on a leash. When I suffered a medical emergency, she jumped into action

The first time I saw a Flemish giant rabbit was at TruckFest in Peterborough in 2002. Among a sprawling maze of stalls at the East of England showground, I was led into a tent filled with the biggest rabbits I’d ever laid eyes on. I’d never heard of Flemish giants before, but I knew then that I needed one. I couldn’t have predicted in that moment that one of these beautiful creatures might save my life.

Dory was a baby when I met her, but even as a bunny she was already bigger than most normal-sized rabbits. We brought her home in a cat carrier, but she soon outgrew it. By the time she was fully grown, she weighed nearly 10kg, and I was walking her on a leash like a dog.

Published: January 12, 2026, 11:00 am

My favourite family photo: ‘We’re plainly not allergic to our mother here, as her legend always had it’

Our politically engaged mother loved deriding me and my sister for being stroppy and delinquent. This picture tells another story – and is a testament to our sunny dispositions

My mother, Gwen, liked to describe things in broad brush strokes. Me and my sister’s teenage years, mid-80s to early 90s, she’d cover with: “Zoe was delinquent, couldn’t get a word of sense out of her.” Or: “1986? That was the year Stacey was awful.” Going through photo albums to make a montage for her funeral, all her pictures from that era were testament to our ill-behaviour: me, sniffing a geranium, sarcastically; Stace, outside a cafe in an indeterminable European city where you can almost lip-read her stroppy “piss off” to camera in the still moment.

Gwen was politically engaged – you’d come downstairs on a Wednesday morning to find a handwritten letter starting, “Dear Pérez de Cuéllar, I cannot deplore enough your silence on the matter of the Western Sahara” – and heavily involved in progressive politics: our kitchen was full of posters that would have to catch on fire before they’d ever get taken down. There was one fighting pit closures, for example, right next to one about having no planet B, and mum went heavy on the spoof public information campaigns. Instead of the government’s “protect and survive” leaflets, telling you how to survive a nuclear war by taking a door off its hinges and propping it against a wall, there was a “protest and survive” poster; a rip-off of the “Don’t Die of Ignorance” HIV campaign, which said something like “Don’t Die of Tories”, and “Heroin isn’t the only thing that damages your mind”, featuring a man reading (I think?) The Sun.

Published: January 12, 2026, 5:00 am

The rise of ‘unc’: is this gen Alpha’s way of saying ‘OK boomer’?

Timothée Chalamet celebrated his 30th birthday by embracing his unc status – and Sabrina Carpenter has used the word to describe her record producer. Why is it suddenly everywhere?

Name: Unc.

Age: Younger than you might think.

Published: January 12, 2026, 2:40 pm

Brutal, vibrant and creative: capturing the soul of Latin America in 100 photographs

The journalist Paulo Antonio Paranaguá uses images from the turbulent continent to weave a history of the region, covering colonisation, slavery and dictatorship

Its tumultuous past, marked by massacres, slavery, violent domination, coups d’état, revolutions and uprisings, often overshadows another narrative of Latin America: that of a vibrant, culturally rich region where art, creativity and solidarity hold a central place in society.

Throughout its post-Columbian history – the period after Christopher Columbus’s arrival in the Americas in 1492 – Latin America has grappled with the tension between subjugation to colonial and imperial powers, resistance and the pursuit of independence.

Published: January 12, 2026, 1:00 pm

People in the US: how has the end of Affordable Care Act subsidies affected you?

Premiums have risen for at least 22 million Americans – we’d like to hear about the impact on your household

Enhanced subsidies that have kept health insurance premiums affordable for millions of Americans who use the Affordable Care Act (ACA) expired at the end of last year.

Premiums have risen sharply for at least 22 million Americans who purchased their coverage through the ACA marketplaces using the tax credits, according to research.

Published: January 12, 2026, 3:12 pm

Orthodox new year celebrations and Larry the cat: photos of the day – Tuesday

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

Published: January 13, 2026, 1:30 pm