‘She will go down as one of the best’: the rise of Jessie Buckley

From talent shows to the big screen, the actor’s performance in Hamnet has made her a leading awards contender

Hamnet, Chloé Zhao’s film adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s bestselling novel about William Shakespeare and his wife, Agnes (or Anne) Hathaway, is a tender meditation on love and grief. Charting the couple’s anguish over the death of their 11-year-old son – said to have inspired the play Hamlet – it has moved audiences to tears and united critics in their praise.

The film’s emotional force is carried by the Irish actor and singer Jessie Buckley, who portrays Hathaway (opposite Paul Mescal’s Shakespeare) with a rawness and intimacy that has already earned her a Critics’ Circle award for best actress, and marked her out as a leading contender for the Golden Globes, Baftas and Oscars. The Guardian film critic Peter Bradshaw called her “unselfconsciously beguiling”, while Rolling Stone predicted audiences “will be talking about Jessie Buckley’s performance for years”.

Published: January 9, 2026, 4:00 pm

The five best induction cookware in the US, thoroughly tested and cooked in

From Caraway to Our Place and Staub, here are our picks for the best induction-compatible cookware

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

Induction cooking might feel like a shiny new kitchen flex, but the technology itself has been around since the early 20th century. What is new is how widely it’s catching on. For more and more home cooks, induction cooktops sit at the top of their kitchen upgrade wish lists.

“To be able to control temperature precisely, to be able to boil water rapidly, it’s awesome,” says Joseph DeCasperis of southern California–based home design firm the High End. He estimates that induction stovetops take up a little over a third of his firm’s installations.

Best overall: Caraway 12-Piece Ceramic Cookware Set With Complimentary Storage

Published: January 9, 2026, 8:15 pm

From Caracas to Minneapolis, the threat is the same – an American president ruling like a global emperor | Jonathan Freedland

Trump’s admission that he recognises no constraint outside his own morality was a horrifying moment of truth. It should galvanise all those who oppose him

For a serial liar, Donald Trump can be bracingly honest. We’ve known about the mendacity for years – consider the 30,573 documented falsehoods from the president’s first term, culminating in the big lie, his claim to have won the 2020 election – but the examples of bracing candour are fresher. This week both began and ended with the US president speaking the shocking truth.

At a press conference to celebrate his capture of the Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro, Trump announced that from now on the US would “run” that country, before moving in the very next breath to Venezuela’s oil. There was no pious talk of democracy, scant mention even of the drug trafficking that earlier served as a pretext for military action. Instead, Trump said out loud what had once been a slogan on leftist placards in protest at past US interventions, admitting that it really was all about the oil. It was as transparent a revelation of Trump’s true motive as you could have asked for.

Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist

Guardian newsroom: Year One of Trumpism: Is Britain Emulating the US? On Wednesday 21 January 2026, join Jonathan Freedland, Tania Branigan and Nick Lowles as they reflect on the first year of Donald Trump’s second presidency. Book tickets here or at guardian.live

Published: January 9, 2026, 5:24 pm

Did Leonardo da Vinci paint a nude Mona Lisa? I may have just solved this centuries-old mystery

It is one of the most tantalising – and entertaining – puzzles in art, stretching from the Louvre to the Loire via, well, Norfolk. And our critic thinks he has just worked it out

Increased security after the recent heist has made the queues at the Louvre even slower, yet on this rainswept, very wintry morning, no one grumbles. After all, the Mona Lisa is waiting inside for all these tourists who have come from the world over. Leonardo da Vinci’s woman – swathed in dark cloth and silk, smiling enigmatically as she sits in front of a landscape of rocks, road and water – draws crowds like no other painting. But if the Mona Lisa can attract such attention fully clothed, what would the queues be like if she was nude?

Strangely, this is not just amusing speculation – because in 18th-century Britain, she was. An engraving issued by a publisher called John Boydell gave libertine Georgians the opportunity to hang “Joconda” in their boudoir. It must have been popular because many copies survive. This Mona Lisa sits in a chair with her hands crossed in front of a fading view of distant rock formations. And, like the Mona Lisa in the Louvre, she smiles enigmatically. But there is one key difference. She is naked from the waist up.

Published: January 9, 2026, 3:43 pm

Robots that can do laundry and more, plus unrolling laptops: the standout tech from CES 2026

Robot vacuums that can climb stairs and device for BlackBerry lovers also on display at annual Las Vegas tech show

This year will be filled with robots that can fold your laundry, pick up objects and climb stairs, fridges that you can command to open by voice, laptops with screens that can follow you around the room on motorised hinges and the reimagining of the BlackBerry phone.

Those are the predictions from the annual CES tech show in Las Vegas that took place this week. The sprawling event aims to showcase cutting-edge technology developed by startups and big brands.

Published: January 9, 2026, 2:30 pm

Ten years after his death, is David Bowie’s musical legacy at risk of fading from view?

From the V&A to the Stranger Things finale, the pop icon still looms large – but with lower streaming figures than his peers, how many new listeners are discovering his music?

• ‘A perplexing, astonishing finale’: world pays tribute to David Bowie a decade after his death

When David Bowie died on 10 January 2016, such was the scale of media coverage and public mourning that one would have presumed his music would be everywhere for ever, elevated as he was, to misquote Smash Hits, to the position of the People’s Dame. It was briefly – Starman reached No 18, and Space Oddity No 24 – but then it wasn’t.

Each year, Forbes compiles a posthumous celebrity rich list. Bowie appeared in 2016, ranked at No 11 with estimated earnings of $10.5m (£7.8m), and again in 2017, in the same position but with earnings of $9.5m (£7m). This was unsurprising given the enormous spike in interest there is in the immediate aftermath of a superstar’s death. Yet he didn’t appear in the Forbes list again until 2022, when he was at No 3 with earnings of $250m (£195m) – the highest-ranked musician that year – but that was almost all attributable to the sale of his music publishing rights to Warner Chappell.

Published: January 9, 2026, 12:14 pm

Renee Nicole Good said ‘I’m not mad at you’ before ICE agent shot her, video shows

Clip first posted by partisan outlet Alpha News shows perspective of ICE agent as Good was fatally shot

Renee Nicole Good calmly said everything was “fine” and “I’m not mad at you” seconds before an on-duty Immigration Customs Enforcement agent fatally shot her in Minneapolis as she drove away, according to a cellphone video shared on Friday by Donald Trump’s White House.

The partisan media outlet Alpha News first posted the video on X, a 47-second clip that showed the perspective of the ICE agent – and captured a man’s voice calling Good a “fucking bitch” after she was mortally wounded. It was then shared by the White House’s official Rapid Response X account as well as JD Vance, with the vice-president writing in part that he agreed with the notion that Good’s death was “a tragedy” but accused the media of dishonestly covering the circumstances of her killing.

Published: January 9, 2026, 11:50 pm

Iran’s supreme leader sets stage for harsher crackdown as protest movement swells

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei calls protesters ‘vandals’ and ‘saboteurs’ and blames US for instigating the unrest

Iran’s supreme leader has vowed that authorities will not back down in the face of a rapidly growing protest movement, setting the stage for an intensified violent crackdown as demonstrations and a nationwide internet shutdown continued on Friday.

Protests have raged in cities and towns across the country in recent days, posing a threat to the authority of the regime, which has been significantly weakened since the last large protest movement in the country in 2022.

Published: January 9, 2026, 11:17 pm

Trump promises oil companies ‘total safety’ in Venezuela as he urges them to invest billions

Country is ‘uninvestable’ today, president told, but CEOs signal they are ready to spend with support

Donald Trump promised oil giants “total safety, total security” in Venezuela in an effort to persuade them to invest $100bn in the country’s infrastructure after US forces toppled Nicolás Maduro from power.

At a roundtable press conference at the White House on Friday afternoon with more than a dozen oil executives, including leaders from Chevron, ExxonMobil and ConocoPhilips, the US president doubled down on claims that Maduro’s arrest presents American oil companies with an unprecedented opportunity for extraction.

Published: January 9, 2026, 10:07 pm

Trump ramps up Greenland threats and says US will intervene ‘whether they like it or not’

US president doubles down on threats to acquire territory at White House meeting with oil and gas executives

Donald Trump has doubled down on his threats to acquire Greenland, saying the US is “going to do something [there] whether they like it or not”.

Speaking at a meeting with oil and gas executives at the White House, the US president justified his comments by saying: “If we don’t do it, Russia or China will take over Greenland. And we’re not going to have Russia or China as a neighbor.”

Published: January 9, 2026, 11:01 pm

Washington National Opera to move out of Kennedy Center after Trump ‘takeover’

Artistic director of US’s national opera also cites ‘shattered’ donor confidence and box office revenue

The Washington National Opera (WNO) announced on Friday it is moving its performances out of the John F Kennedy Center, in what could be one of the most significant departures from the institution since Trump took control of it.

“Today, the Washington National Opera announced its decision to seek an amicable early termination of its affiliation agreement with the Kennedy Center and resume operations as a fully independent nonprofit entity,” the opera said in a statement to the New York Times. A separate website appears to be set up for the opera.

Published: January 9, 2026, 11:23 pm

Vivek Ramaswamy ‘alarmed’ after family’s bodyguard charged for drug trafficking

Authorities said about 261 drug parcels were sent to home of Justin Salsburey and his wife Ruthann Rankin since 2024

Republican Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has expressed concern after his family’s bodyguard was arrested recently on federal drug-trafficking charges.

Justin Salsburey, 43, and his wife, 38-year-old Ruthann Rankin, were each charged on 30 December with conspiracy and possession with the intent to distribute large amounts of narcotics through the US mail.

Published: January 9, 2026, 9:57 pm

California is completely drought-free for the first time in 25 years

Some wet years and recent winter storms have helped bring the state out of drought after years of insufficient rainfall

California is completely drought-free for the first time in a quarter of a century, a significant development in a state that endured grueling years with insufficient rainfall.

Over the last 25 years, drought conditions in California have intensified the state’s wildfire crisis and created challenges in its massive agricultural sector. But a few wet years, and a recent spate of winter storms, helped bring the state out of drought.

Published: January 9, 2026, 7:15 pm

France taps out as G7 summit moved to avoid clash with White House UFC event

Paris has shifted this year’s Group of 7 summit after Donald Trump confirmed plans for a UFC fight card on the White House lawn on 14 June, his 80th birthday

France has delayed this year’s Group of 7 summit by one day to avoid a scheduling conflict with an Ultimate Fighting Championship fight card planned at the White House on 14 June, according to two officials with direct knowledge of the G7’s preparations.

The summit, hosted by France in the Alpine resort town of Evian-les-Bains, was originally scheduled for 14 to 16 June, a date that coincides with US Flag Day and US president Donald Trump’s 80th birthday. It will now run from 15 to 17 June, a change that has been reflected on the G7’s official website.

Published: January 9, 2026, 8:05 pm

‘Boom, he’s out’: bear living ‘rent-free’ under California home has been removed

The 550lb black bear was drawn out with paintball guns after it had resided under the home for more than a month

Getting rid of an unwanted houseguest can be difficult, but seldom does it involve a paintball gun and an electrified mat. A 550lb black bear that took residence under a southern California home for more than a month has finally been removed, KTLA has reported.

Altadena resident Ken Johnson first noticed the bear was living in the crawl space below his home in late November.

Published: January 9, 2026, 9:31 pm

‘In isolation, we’ll never flourish’: What Iranians think about the protests and an end to the Islamic Republic

In Tehran this week, young adults told the Guardian about collapsing living standards, the mass anti-government protests and their hopes for the future

Mahsa is single and lives with her family. She has a page online where she sells her clothes and had arranged for a prominent influencer to run a major promotion for her. But because of the current situation, the influencer returned the money, and her sales and page activity came to a halt.

Published: January 9, 2026, 8:34 am

‘An incomprehensible nightmare’: grief turns to anger over Swiss bar fire as Le Constellation owner arrested

Jacques Moretti arrested on Friday as lawyers representing families of victims say investigators are not moving fast enough

Like many young people across Switzerland, Kenzo Ronnow, a university student in Lausanne, slept in on 1 January after celebrating the new year.

But as he scrolled through his phone soon after waking, he saw the lead story of a foreign news website was about Switzerland.

Published: January 9, 2026, 4:18 pm

Doge cuts cost US taxpayers $10bn to cover workers’ paid leave, analysis finds

Analysis estimates Trump administration ‘wasted’ billions to compensate over 154,000 federal employees on leave

The Trump administration “wasted” $10bn on paid leave, or paying workers to stay home, as part of the “department of government efficiency’s” assault on the federal workforce, a new analysis by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (Peer) estimates.

In a letter sent to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), Peer estimates that more than 154,000 employees were put on paid leave in 2025, making up nearly 7% of the federal civilian workforce. That costs taxpayers approximately $10bn in compensation for workers who were staying home and not working.

Published: January 9, 2026, 1:00 pm

How independent journalism is a form of resistance: ‘I’m not answering to anyone’

Trump’s attacks on mainstream media have opened a window for journalists who want to operate independently

When Donald Trump retook office last January, many national newsrooms braced for what lay ahead. There was the expected firehose of news, with the president issuing dozens of executive orders in his first week alone. Then there was the fear and tension over the president’s history of attacking and suing news organizations over unfavorable coverage. Meanwhile, audience trust in media was at an all-time low.

While it was a turbulent time for traditional media, it opened a window for independent journalists like Marisa Kabas, who is not beholden to covering Trump’s every move, nor saddled with decades of institutional distrust. On 27 January, she received a massive scoop she published in her newsletter, the Handbasket: the US office of management and budget was freezing federal grants. Getting to that news first only led to more exclusives and subscribers.

Published: January 9, 2026, 1:49 pm

High Noon review – Billy Crudup brings classic Hollywood western back with a bang

Harold Pinter theatre, London
Crudup and Denise Gough lead a tense adaptation that turns the film into a debate play whose McCarthy-era roots resonate powerfully today

How do you turn a classic Hollywood western into West End musical fare? Add songs, many of Bruce Springsteen’s in this case, along with a few rounds of line dancing and a sizzling star in Billy Crudup. Still, it’s an odd experience initially as Thea Sharrock’s production switches from one brief filmic scene to the next, and the endeavour seems as wooden as the clapboard saloon-bar slats that comprise the handsome set.

As a piece of theatre, it finds its flow. As a debate play, though, it gathers a locomotive energy as it travels towards the showdown between Frank Miller (James Doherty), who is returning to this “dirty little village in the middle of nowhere”, and the marshal Will Kane (Crudup) who put him behind bars. That is mostly because of the uncanny and urgent relevance of this 1952 film about a community working out (or rather, squirming out of) its civic responsibilities around institutional wrongdoing.

Published: January 10, 2026, 12:01 am

The trouble with friendlords: the pitfalls of renting from a mate

Amid an affordable housing crisis, renting a room from a friend can seem like the perfect solution. But without clear rules, it can lead to power imbalances, feuds and even unfair evictions …

When Rachel needed a place to live, Maya was only too happy to offer her spare room. What are friends for?

Rachel had recently returned to her home town to start afresh, having been made redundant. Maya, a childhood friend, owned her three-bedroom home, having been helped to buy it by her parents.

Published: January 9, 2026, 3:00 pm

I see sounds as shapes. Synaesthesia has given me an extraordinary ability for languages

Kim Elms, a speech pathologist, shares her experience as an auditory-visual synaesthete

• Read more stories of synaesthesia in the way I feel series

Car journeys with my partner are a nightmare. He’s an ex-DJ so he likes to crank the music up, but for me this means seeing static images and flashes of light in my mind’s eye while I’m trying to drive. It’s hard to describe exactly what I see when I hear sound. But it’s almost like the sound waves you’d see if you watched an audio recording on a screen, or these little neurons connecting and space nebulas exploding in front of me.

I’m 44 now and only realised I had auditory-visual synaesthesia in my 30s. What I did know was that I seemed to have an extraordinary ability for linguistics. In school I studied Japanese and did really well without trying because I could literally see the words and sounds presented as images in front of me, making them easy to remember. At university I majored in Spanish, Korean and Indonesian and it was no effort at all. I then joined the air force as an intelligence officer because I didn’t want to become a teacher or translator. I walked away from the language aptitude test thinking I’d either messed it up or that it had been the easiest thing I’d ever done in my life. No one’s ever managed to get every answer right, they said when the results came back. But I hadn’t even tried. It just came naturally.

Published: January 9, 2026, 2:00 pm

Grok is undressing women and children. Don’t expect the US to take action | Moira Donegan

Elon Musk’s reckless and degrading AI could be built differently. But Americans will have to speak up

Over the past year, Elon Musk has made a series of protocol changes to Grok, the proprietary AI chatbot of his company xAI, which runs prominently on his social media site X, formerly Twitter. Many of these changes have been geared to make the bot more amenable to producing pornography. In August, Grok launched an image generator, branded as Grok Imagine, which featured a service geared toward creating nude, suggestive or sexually explicit content, including computer-generated pornographic images of real women. The feature, which was quickly used to create naked images of celebrities such as Taylor Swift, also allowed users to create brief videos, complete with animations and sounds.

Musk also rolled out AI girlfriends on the platform: animated personas – including female characters with exaggerated breasts and hips – that interacted in sexually explicit ways with users. One of the characters, “Ani”, was an anime-style cartoon blonde with a series of skimpy outfits; the bot blew kisses and addressed users as “my love” while directing the chats toward sexual content.

Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist

This article was updated on 9 January 2026 to note that Grok said the image-generating service had been turned off for users who do not subscribe.

Published: January 9, 2026, 7:15 pm

Six years after George Floyd, we must stand against an ICE killing in Minneapolis | Austin Sarat

Barely a mile from Floyd’s murder, an officer killed Renee Nicole Good. We must peacefully say no to this violence

On 25 May 2020, America witnessed a stunning act of police brutality when a police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, murdered George Floyd. The killer, Derek Chauvin, apparently confident that he would be immune to accountability, did his deed in the open, with other officers standing by and in front of a crowd of onlookers.

The video of Floyd’s murder shocked the nation.

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 9, 2026, 10:00 am

Trump’s Venezuela strike won’t distract voters from the crises at home | Steven Greenhouse

As Americans worry about healthcare and affordability, the ‘no more wars’ president is helping oil companies instead

Immediately after Donald Trump ordered a military strike in Venezuela, many critics focused on how that attack violated international law as well as the US War Powers Resolution. But there hasn’t been nearly enough focus on the domestic implications of Trump’s move.

Trump seems to have ordered his Venezuela venture in part to flip the script away from domestic matters, where things aren’t going well for him. His approval ratings are underwater, and he’s getting low marks on the economy, health policy (just 30% approval), inflation (31% approval on the cost of living), his immigration crackdown (41% approval) and his sending the national guard into US cities. Then there’s the big thumbs down that Americans are giving to his tariffs, which have helped push up prices even though candidate Trump promised to lower prices on day one.

Steven Greenhouse is a journalist and author, focusing on labour and the workplace, as well as economic and legal issues

Published: January 9, 2026, 12:00 pm

After Trump’s attack, we Venezuelans need to know what comes next – authoritarianism or democracy | Jesús Piñero

There is palpable tension: not because anyone trusts the president and the US, but because now there is opportunity for change

• Jesús Piñero is a historian at the Central University of Venezuela

In 1936, Venezuelans learned for the first time what it meant to transition towards democracy. While this was not the only period of transition the country would experience (since the process that began in 1958 consolidated a more open and enduring political regime), the transition of 1936 was longer and more complex, resembling the one Venezuelans are now experiencing after the capture of Nicolás Maduro on 3 January 2026.

Coromoto Escalona, a 35-year-old woman, was preparing her baby’s feeding bottle when she heard some strange noises in the house. It was two o’clock in the morning. She wondered whether the fridge had broken down, since it sometimes made strange noises when it was damaged. Her eldest daughter, who was scrolling on WhatsApp, shouted from her room: “Mum, they’re bombing us.” The two of them stopped what they were doing, grabbed the essentials – the feeding bottle, water and some food – and ran to an underground room in their house, an old colonial mansion in La Pastora, a working-class neighbourhood in central Caracas.

Jesús Piñero is a journalist and a historian at the Central University of Venezuela

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 9, 2026, 11:43 am

Martin Rowson on Keir Starmer’s relationship with Donald Trump – cartoon

Continue reading...

Published: January 9, 2026, 4:46 pm

The Guardian view on Iran’s protests: old tactics of repression face new pressures | Editorial

A brutal regime has failed to safeguard either the country’s physical security or basic living standards. But Donald Trump’s threats to intervene won’t help civilians

The internet blackout across Iran is meant to prevent protests from spreading, and observers from witnessing the crackdown on them. But it’s also emblematic of the deep uncertainty surrounding this unrest and the response of a regime under growing pressure.

Rocketing inflation and a tanking currency sparked the protests in late December. They have since broadened and spread. Videos showed thousands marching in Tehran on Thursday night and people setting fire to vehicles and state-owned buildings.

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 9, 2026, 5:52 pm

The Guardian view on living more creatively: a daily dose of art | Editorial

It can make us healthier, happier and live longer. Engaging in culture should be encouraged like good diet and exercise

The second Friday in January has been dubbed “Quitter’s Day”, when we are most likely to give up our new year resolutions. Instead of denying ourselves pleasures, suggests a new batch of books, a more successful route may be adding to them – nourishing our minds and souls by making creativity as much a daily habit as eating vegetables and exercising. Rather than the familiar exhortations to stop drinking, diet, take up yoga or running, there is an overwhelming body of evidence to suggest that joining a choir, going to an art gallery or learning to dance should be added to the new year list.

Art Cure by Daisy Fancourt, professor of psychobiology and epidemiology at University College London, brings together numerous research projects confirming what we have always suspected – art is good for us. It helps us enjoy happier, healthier and longer lives. One study found that people who engaged regularly with the arts had a 31% lower risk of dying at any point during the follow-up period, even when confounding socioeconomic, demographic and health factors were taken into account. Studies also show that visiting museums and attending live music events can make people physiologically younger, and a monthly cultural activity almost halves our chances of depression. As Fancourt argues, if a drug boasted such benefits governments would be pouring billions into it. Instead, funding has been slashed across the culture sector and arts education has been devalued and eroded in the UK.

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 9, 2026, 5:51 pm

NFL playoff predictions: who will seize a wide-open Super Bowl race?

The postseason kicks off on Saturday. Our writers pick the dark horses, players to watch and make their tips for the NFL’s championship game

Melissa is right about the Lions (see below), but how about the Dallas Cowboys? Their defense was nauseating, and nobody wants a playoff weekend spoiled watching that. But their offense was electric. They finished fifth in the league in EPA/play in the regular season. And with Dak Prescott, a solid o-line and George Pickens and CeeDee Lamb, they had the potential to drop 30 points on any playoff group. If they’d snuck in and managed to knock off a top seed, it would have convinced Jerry Jones that he was on the right path. And nothing is funnier than Jones failing to recognize that the reason why Dallas is stuck is the reflection in his mirror. Oliver Connolly

Published: January 9, 2026, 9:00 am

Free agent outfielder Max Kepler hit with 80-game ban for positive drug test

• Kepler banned after testing positive for epitrenbolone

• Suspension applies if free agent signs in 2026

• Veteran outfielder spent last season with Phillies

Free agent outfielder Max Kepler has been suspended for 80 games after testing positive for a banned performance-enhancing substance, Major League Baseball announced on Friday, a ruling that sidelines the veteran as he looks for his next club.

The suspension stems from a positive test for epitrenbolone, a metabolite of the prohibited steroid trenbolone prohibited under MLB’s Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program. The ban takes effect immediately and would apply if Kepler signs with a team during the 2026 season.

Published: January 9, 2026, 8:44 pm

Morocco sail into Afcon semi-finals as Díaz sparks fine win over Cameroon

At last, Morocco have arrived at the tournament they are hosting. For four games they had played scratchy, crabbed football. Finally, in a spiky, ill-tempered quarter-final, there was something more like the Morocco that reached the semi-finals of the World Cup two years ago. If the game wasn’t fluent, that was largely Cameroon’s doing as they spoiled and delayed and sought treatment for injuries. But the hosts, for the most part, retained their cool, protecting a lead earned with verve in the first half with maturity in the second.

In previous games, Morocco had looked tense, limbs leadened by the expectation of a country that last won the Cup of Nations 50 years ago and that has spent a vast amount on football-related infrastructure as it prepares to co-host the 2030 World Cup. The coach, Walid Regragui, was even booed in the last-16 victory over Tanzania, his football deemed overly cautious despite a record of only four defeats in his 46 games as national coach before this quarter-final. “I always say that we are a family,” said Regragui. “Even if many people don’t believe in us or in me … that’s OK. We play for the country and for the supporters who want to see Morocco at the top.”

Published: January 9, 2026, 9:25 pm

Beck’s late scramble sends Miami past Ole Miss into College Football Playoff title game

• Beck’s late TD run seals 31-27 CFP semi-final win

• Ole Miss rallies late after coach Kiffin’s LSU departure

• Miami to chase first title since 2001 on home field

Carson Beck scrambled for a three-yard touchdown with 18 seconds left, and Miami will head back home for a shot at their first national championship since 2001 after beating Mississippi 31-27 in an exhilarating College Football Playoff semi-final at the Fiesta Bowl on Thursday night.

“We never flinched,” said Beck, who threw for 268 yards and two touchdowns with an interception. “In the face of adversity, when we had to respond, we responded.”

Published: January 9, 2026, 4:56 am

Goalkeeper Okonkwo is the hero as Wrexham shock Nottingham Forest in FA Cup shootout

North Americans have rarely been fans of draws in sport, so the unscripted FA Cup drama of seeing Arthur Okonkwo take a starring role in a penalty shootout after Wrexham were pegged back in the final minute of normal time must have brought joy to co-owner Ryan Reynolds in the stands. The club the Hollywood actor invested in were just about underdogs against Premier League Nottingham Forest in a game that included numerous plot twists, only to provide the romantic ending the majority wanted.

The heroic Okonkwo saved from Igor Jesus and Omari Hutchinson in the shootout to ensure James McClean’s miss was irrelevant. It should have been easier for ­Wrexham, who had a two-goal lead at 3-1 before Callum Hudson-Odoi’s double forced extra time on an energy-sapping and freezing night.

Published: January 9, 2026, 10:34 pm

Ilia Malinin electrifies US nationals with quad-packed short program

• Malinin shines with quad-heavy short to lead nationals

• Naumov honors late parents in emotional moment

• Chock, Bates surge toward seventh ice dance crown

Ilia Malinin impressed even himself with a brilliant short program at the US Championships in St Louis on Thursday, electrifying the crowd and showing why he is the runaway favourite to take gold at next month’s Olympics.

Malinin, 21, punched the air as spectators rose to their feet after he landed a quad flip, a quad Lutz-triple toe loop, and an audacious back flip.

Published: January 9, 2026, 4:51 am

Bukayo Saka agrees new five-year Arsenal contract with big wage increase

• Deal understood to lift pay to about £300,000 a week

• Arsenal keen to reward Declan Rice with new deal

Bukayo Saka has agreed a new five-year contract at Arsenal that will make him one of the highest-paid players in the club’s history.

The England forward’s deal that he signed in May 2023 is thought to be worth about £200,000 a week and is due to expire in 2027. Saka said before the Champions League quarter-final victory against Real Madrid in April that he wanted to “win wearing this badge” but also said he was in “no rush” to sign a new contract.

Published: January 9, 2026, 3:54 pm

US hiring held firm in December capping weakest year of growth since pandemic

White House is meanwhile facing questions about an apparent embargo breach over Trump’s social media post

Hiring held firm in the US last month, official data showed, amid uncertainty over the strength and direction of the world’s largest economy.

Employers added 50,000 jobs to the US labor force last month, capping the weakest year of growth since the pandemic, according to data released from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday.

Published: January 9, 2026, 6:30 pm

Russia fires hypersonic Oreshnik missile at Ukraine in massive attack

Kyiv dismisses as ‘absurd’ Moscow’s attempt to portray missile launch as retaliation for supposed attempted drone strike on Putin residence

Russia’s military has fired its new hypersonic Oreshnik missile at a target in Ukraine during a massive overnight strike.

Ukraine confirmed the attack, saying it took place in the west of the country near the EU border. Moscow said the launch of the intermediate-range ballistic missile was retaliation for a supposed attempted Ukrainian drone attack on Vladimir Putin’s residence late last month – an allegation Kyiv and Washington have said is false.

Published: January 9, 2026, 1:38 pm

Elon Musk’s X threatened with UK ban over wave of indecent AI images

Platform has restricted image creation on the Grok AI tool to paying subscribers, but victims and experts say this does not go far enough

Elon Musk’s X has been ordered by the UK government to tackle a wave of indecent AI images or face a de facto ban, as an expert said the platform was no longer a “safe space” for women.

The media watchdog, Ofcom, confirmed it would accelerate an investigation into X as a backlash grew against the site, which has hosted a deluge of images depicting partially stripped women and children.

Published: January 9, 2026, 10:49 pm

Pennsylvania man charged after alleged ‘horrific’ grave robbing from cemetery

Over 100 pieces of human remains including skulls and headless torsos found in car and home of Jonathan Gerlach

A Pennsylvania man suspected of desecrating a historic cemetery in his state is facing hundreds of charges pertaining to grave robbery after authorities recently found more than 100 pieces of human remains in his possession, prompting one official to call the case “the most horrific thing”.

Jonathan Gerlach, 34, had human skulls, bones, mummified feet, headless torsos and other corpse parts – including in his car, home and storage locker – after his arrest on Tuesday, according to a sworn police statement reported by NBC News.

Published: January 9, 2026, 5:49 pm

Princess of Wales says nature ‘helped me heal’ in 44th birthday video

Catherine says she feels deeply grateful in final instalment of Mother Nature series a year on from cancer treatment

The power of nature has been a huge theme for the Princess of Wales in the year since her announcement that she was in remission from cancer.

Now, on her 44th birthday, she has embraced it again, reflecting in a short video on how deeply grateful she is, how important it is to be at one with nature and its power to heal.

Published: January 9, 2026, 1:15 pm

‘Damage is piling up’: has the Netherlands forgotten how to cope with snow?

Cyclists and others voice frustration as transport infrastructure descends into chaos amid increasingly rare cold snap

A week-long winter cold snap that would once have been normal in the Netherlands has caused more than 2,000 flight cancellations, chaos on roads and railways, buildings to partially collapse, and a stream of angry cyclists asking why roads seem better gritted than cycle lanes.

Since Saturday, up to 15cm of snow has fallen across the country, with temperatures of -10C (14F) including wind chill, sparking angry commentary over how some nations manage months of snow but the Netherlands, no longer used to it, appears paralysed.

Published: January 9, 2026, 5:00 am

Some want to ban geoengineering research. This would be a catastrophic mistake for our planet | Craig Segall and Baroness Bryony Worthington

We’ve already geoengineered the planet through the careless release of greenhouse gases. Now we need a plan to manage the risks we’ve set in motion

A few months ago, Marjorie Taylor Greene, then a Georgia representative, held a hearing on her bill to ban research on “geoengineering”, which refers to technological climate interventions, such as using reflective particles to reflect away sunlight. The hearing represented something of a first – a Republican raising alarm bells about human activity altering the health of the planet. Of course, for centuries, people have burned fossil fuels to power and feed society, emitting greenhouse gases that now overheat the planet.

Unfortunately, her hearing waved past an urgent debate that policymakers are confronting around the world: after centuries of accidental fossil-fuel geoengineering, should we deliberately explore interventions to cool the planet and give the energy transition breathing room?

Craig Segall is the former deputy executive officer and assistant chief counsel of the California Air Resources Board. He is also former senior vice-president of Evergreen Action and a longtime climate advocate. He has academic seats at the University of Edinburgh, New York University, and the University of California at Berkeley The opinions in this piece are his own.

Baroness Bryony Worthington was created a life peer in 2011, giving her a seat in the UK’s House of Lords where she served as shadow energy minister She has over 25 years of experience working on climate, energy and environmental policy in the NGO and public sectors, and in the private sector.

Published: January 9, 2026, 11:00 am

‘Profound impacts’: record ocean heat is intensifying climate disasters, data shows

Oceans absorb 90% of global heating, making them a stark indicator of the relentless march of the climate crisis

The world’s oceans absorbed colossal amounts of heat in 2025, setting yet another new record and fuelling more extreme weather, scientists have reported.

More than 90% of the heat trapped by humanity’s carbon pollution is taken up by the oceans. This makes ocean heat one of the starkest indicators of the relentless march of the climate crisis, which will only end when emissions fall to zero. Almost every year since the start of the millennium has set a new ocean heat record.

Published: January 9, 2026, 8:00 am

Week in wildlife: rare gorilla twins, racing camels and a psychedelic spider

This week’s best wildlife photographs from around the world

Published: January 9, 2026, 8:00 am

One awards battle after another: A-listers face off at this year’s Golden Globes

Big names from Leonardo DiCaprio to Timothée Chalamet are aiming for a win at Hollywood’s most important Oscars precursor

Hollywood’s A-list will assemble this weekend for the 83rd Golden Globes ceremony, a night that will reveal where this year’s Oscars race is headed.

Stars including Leonardo DiCaprio, Timothée Chalamet, Jennifer Lawrence, Emma Stone, Michael B Jordan and Ariana Grande are among those nominated for film awards while small-screen nominees include Helen Mirren, Jenna Ortega, Jude Law and Glen Powell.

Published: January 9, 2026, 10:03 am

Spotify no longer running ICE recruitment ads, after US government campaign ends

The ad campaign ended in late 2025, the Swedish streaming giant confirmed, having previously said, despite protests, that it did not violate advertising policies

Spotify is no long running advertisements for the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the streaming service has confirmed, after the Trump administration campaign ended in late 2025.

“There are currently no ICE ads running on Spotify,” the Swedish company said in a statement. “The advertisements mentioned were part of a US government recruitment campaign that ran across all major media and platforms.”

Published: January 9, 2026, 12:19 pm

Thousands of New York City nurses set to strike amid contract disputes

Nearly 16,000 nurses to join union-led strike on Monday to demand large hospitals across NYC ‘put patients over profit’

Nearly 16,000 nurses in New York City are set to strike on Monday amid a battle over safe staffing, healthcare benefits, pay and workplace safety during contract negotiations.

The action, due to take place across five large hospitals, is being organized by the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA), which is demanding the hospitals put patients over profit.

Published: January 9, 2026, 12:00 pm

‘We are not for sale’: chair of Greenland’s top labor union rebukes Trump’s call for annexation

Exclusive: SIK leader Jess Berthelsen rejects Trump claim that the US needs Greenland for ‘national security’

Greenland “will not be annexed”, the longtime leader of its largest labor union has declared, refuting Donald Trump’s claims that the Arctic territory’s current status poses a national security threat to the US.

In an interview with the Guardian, Jess Berthelsen, chair of SIK, Greenland’s national trade union confederation, said people in the territory do not recognize the US president’s allegations that Russian and Chinese ships are scattered throughout its waters. “We can’t see it, we can’t recognize it and we can’t understand it,” he said.

Published: January 9, 2026, 10:00 am

Syrian army says it will renew Aleppo attacks after Kurds reject ceasefire terms

Military opens window for civilians to leave as Kurdish groups turn down demand their fighters withdraw from city

Syria’s army says it will renew attacks against a Kurdish-majority district of Aleppo where clashes have raged this week, after Kurdish groups rejected Damascus’s ceasefire terms that demanded their fighters withdraw from the city.

The army said it would target military sites used by Kurdish fighters in the Sheikh Maqsoud district, announcing the opening of a humanitarian corridor from 4pm (1300 GMT) to 6pm on Friday for civilians to leave.

Published: January 9, 2026, 4:41 pm

Anonymous painting bought at auction on ‘hunch’ identified as two-in-one Rubens

Study of man often featured in works by the Flemish master reveals hidden painting of woman beneath model’s beard

Is it a bald elderly man with a big bushy beard and a wine-addled stare? Or a friendly young woman with flowing locks and a crown of braids?

To Belgian art dealer Klaas Muller, an answer to that question mattered less than the fact that this particular take on the duck-rabbit optical illusion was painted by one Peter Paul Rubens.

Published: January 9, 2026, 1:53 pm

Face masks ‘inadequate’ and should be swapped for respirators, WHO is advised

Experts are urging guideline changes on what health professionals should wear to protect against flu-like illnesses including Covid

Surgical face masks provide inadequate protection against flu-like illnesses including Covid, and should be replaced by respirator-level masks – worn every time doctors and nurses are face to face with a patient, according to a group of experts urging changes to World Health Organization guidelines.

There is “no rational justification remaining for prioritising or using” the surgical masks that are ubiquitous in hospitals and clinics globally, given their “inadequate protection against airborne pathogens”, they said in a letter to WHO chief Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

Published: January 9, 2026, 9:49 am

Germany braces for more heavy snowfall as Storm Goretti hits northern Europe

France and Germany battered by strong winds and plunging temperatures, as schools closed and travel disrupted

Germany is expecting heavy snowfalls of up to 20cm after record winds of more than 210kph left almost 400,000 homes in France without electricity, as Storm Goretti battered north-western Europe.

No major or widespread damage to property was reported in France on Friday but one man was seriously hurt after slipping from his roof while trying to replace fallen tiles and 27 others suffered minor injuries, several requiring hospital treatment.

Published: January 9, 2026, 3:13 pm

Béla Tarr obituary

Film director of poetic narratives set in remote Hungarian communities, filled with desolation and foreboding

Susan Sontag once claimed she would be “glad to see” Béla Tarr’s 1994 masterpiece Sátántangó “every year for the rest of my life”. No small compliment given that the film is more than seven hours long.

Tarr, who has died aged 70, earned the reverence of cinephiles on the basis of a handful of austere, poetic and painstakingly slow black-and-white films including Damnation (1987), Werckmeister Harmonies (2000) and his swansong The Turin Horse (2011).

Published: January 9, 2026, 4:33 pm

Stephen Colbert on ICE killing of Minnesota woman: ‘A senseless yet entirely predictable tragedy’

Late-night hosts discuss the Trump administration’s torrent of untruths over the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good

Late-night hosts expressed outrage over the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) officer in Minneapolis.

Published: January 9, 2026, 4:24 pm

A Thousand Blows season two review – Erin Doherty is so good it’s hard to think about anything else

Almost every scene in Steven Knight’s late-Victorian thriller is stolen by its female lead. You absolutely marvel at her in this darker second outing

The problem with having Erin Doherty star in your TV drama is that it makes it extremely difficult to tell whether it’s any good or not. The 33-year-old is more than an impressive actor – she is a magnetic presence, able to sell the idea that she actually is her character in a way few others can (a particularly impressive feat considering her breakthrough was playing Princess Anne in The Crown). As such, Doherty’s participation in a series can elevate the premise, plot and script in a slightly confusing way. Watching the first few episodes of Steven Knight’s late-Victorian thriller A Thousand Blows, I wasn’t sure whether I was genuinely enjoying the programme or simply marvelling at Doherty’s effervescent turn as wily, tough-as-boots pickpocketing queen Mary Carr.

Series two makes it easier to spot the difference. While the first outing suffered from its share of heavy-handed exposition, the tale of an East End boxer (played by Doherty’s Adolescence co-star Stephen Graham) whose local dominance is undone by a smart Jamaican fighter (Malachi Kirby) was propulsive and slick, and the presence of the Forty Elephants – a real all-female crime syndicate – was giddily novel. The rivalry between Henry “Sugar” Goodson (old school, bare-knuckle, chip-on-both-shoulders, mildly deranged) and Hezekiah Moscow (young, fun, good-hearted, and willing to cash in on the gentrified west London boxing scene) was a framework that allowed room for commentary on colonialism, racism, tradition and class. Throw in Mary and her mischievous colleagues and you also had a compelling exploration of female empowerment, poverty and the psychology of risk and reward.

Published: January 9, 2026, 8:00 am

Stop the blues a-callin’! It’s our guide to the ultimate comfort TV

An afterlife sitcom, an angry penguin, tossed salad and scrambled eggs, and a Corby trouser press … our writers pick the shows they would happily watch on a loop for ever

I love every character and every aspect of Brooklyn Nine-Nine. There isn’t a weak link in the cast and they work together as seamlessly and apparently joyfully as you could wish.

Published: January 9, 2026, 1:00 pm

People We Meet on Vacation review – Netflix travel romcom is a dull journey

Emily Henry’s hit book has been adapted into a glossily made yet charmless attempt to resurrect the friends-to-lovers formula

Released just as the weather turns to freezing and we’re all daydreaming of an escape, Netflix’s early January romcom People We Meet on Vacation is at the very least smartly timed. Produced as part of the streamer’s Sony deal, it benefits from some real studio gloss (proper lighting!) and as Polo & Pan’s perfectly balmy Nana plays over a transporting shot of our heroine lounging on a beach (the song was also used in Netflix’s underrated Christmas romcom Let it Snow), I was ready to relax with her. But what a brief escape it turned out to be …

The adaptation of Emily Henry’s much-loved 2021 novel has the superficial trappings all in check (eyes with permanent twinkles, unrealistic main character job in this climate, more easily affordable Taylor Swift song on the soundtrack) but no heart or soul to go with it. There’s simply nothing to root for or care about or grasp on to, just the limp tracing of something we’ve seen many many times before. Its closest comparison would be When Harry Met Sally, a similar journey that turns friends into lovers over a fairly epic time span (the pair even meet in the exact same way, forced to drive home together from college). But what felt lived in and genuinely human back in 1989 now feels shallow and synthetic in 2026, a grim start to the year for a genre I keep hoping and praying for.

Published: January 9, 2026, 12:00 am

‘There’s serendipity to my story’: Emmylou Harris on Gram Parsons, her garlanded career – and her dog rescue centre

Ahead of her final European tour, the US songwriter discusses her unlikely life as a country star, seeking advice from Pete Seeger – and why retirement isn’t on the cards just yet

When Emmylou Harris was starting out in the late 1960s, she thought country music wasn’t for her. “I hadn’t seen the light,” she says. “I was a folk singer who believed you don’t ever work with drummers as they wreck everything.” It was Gram Parsons, of the Byrds and the Flying Burrito Brothers, who changed her mind. Their musical partnership was brief – Parsons died after an accidental drug overdose at the Joshua Tree national park in 1973, aged 26 – but his impact on her was profound. “He had one foot in country and one in rock and was conversant in both. It changed my thinking completely.”

Is Harris, legendary doyenne of the country ballad and distinguished recipient of three Country Music Association awards whose guitar was exhibited in Nashville’s Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, really saying she hated country? “It can be corny!” she says. “Country music aims straight for the heart and when it misses, it misses really badly. And that’s the stuff that makes the most noise and takes up most space.” She pauses. “But then you hear something like George Jones’s Once You’ve Had the Best, and you hear the simplicity of his phrasing and the earnestness with which he sings. There’s a soulfulness to country music that can elude you if you just look at the big picture.”

Published: January 9, 2026, 5:00 am

Toni Geitani: Wahj review | Ammar Kalia's global album of the month

(Self-released)
The Beirut-born producer’s masterly second album revels in dark tension to cinematic effect, finding beauty in ruinous sound

Arabic electronic experimentalism is thriving. In recent years, diaspora artists such as Egyptian producer Abdullah Miniawy, singer Nadah El Shazly and Lebanese singer-songwriter Mayssa Jallad have each released records that combine the Arabic musical tradition of maqam and its slippery melodies with granular electronic sound design, rumbling bass and metallic drum programming to create a dramatic new proposition.

Beirut-born and Amsterdam-based composer Toni Geitani is the latest to contribute to this growing scene with his masterfully produced second album Wahj (“radiance” in Arabic). Working as a visual artist and sound designer, Geitani is well versed in creating imaginative soundscapes for films such as 2024 sci-fi Radius Collapse, as well as referencing the shadowy nocturnal hiss of producers such as Burial on his dabke-sampling 2018 debut album Al Roujoou Ilal Qamar. On Wahj, he harnesses soaring layali vocalisations, reverb-laden drums and analogue synths to leave a cinematic impression.

Published: January 9, 2026, 9:00 am

Jenny on Holiday: Quicksand Heart review – Let’s Eat Grandma innovator’s knowing new-wave reinvention

(Transgressive)
In Jenny Hollingworth’s first solo venture, her singular songwriting powers shine in swooping vocals and transcendent pop melodies

Over the past decade, 27-year-old Jenny Hollingworth’s musical output has become steadily less strange. As half of Let’s Eat Grandma, the Norwich native started out making freaky synth-folk the arch syrupiness of which chimed with the then-nascent hyperpop scene: I, Gemini, the duo’s 2016 debut, was outsiderish juvenilia of the most thrilling variety. For its follow-up, I’m All Ears, Hollingworth and her bandmate, Rosa Walton, sharpened their songwriting skills while holding tight to their eccentricities; the result was an album of sensational futurist pop. By 2022’s Two Ribbons, they were slipping into slightly more subdued, conventional territory – albeit retaining enough idiosyncratic sonic detailing to maintain their place at the edge.

So it takes a moment to adjust to the overt familiarity of Hollingworth’s first solo venture. Like Two Ribbons, it reflects on grief (she lost her partner in 2019) and the temporary disintegration of her lifelong friendship with Walton, except this time the introspection is set to knowingly nostalgic 1980s new wave. When the choruses don’t sparkle, Quicksand Heart can feel like plodding through the past, but the moment Hollingworth lands on an irresistible melody – see: Every Ounce of Me, whose bittersweet bounce bridges the gap between Olivia Rodrigo and the Waterboys – the effect is transcendent. The record peaks with the archetypally perfect powerpop number Appetite and the genre-bending Do You Still Believe in Me? in which Hollingworth patchworks together breakbeats, vertiginously swooping vocals, squealing hair metal bombast and shoegazey dissonance, reminding us of her singular powers in the process.

Published: January 9, 2026, 8:38 am

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

Godfall by Van Jensen; The Salt Bind by Rebecca Ferrier; The Poet Empress by Shen Tao; A Hole in the Sky by Peter F Hamilton; Hello Earth, Are You There? by Brian Aldiss

Godfall by Van Jensen (Bantam, £20)
The debut novel by a popular comic-book writer is set in a small town in Nebraska, after the landing of a three-mile-long alien figure dubbed “the Giant”. Local sheriff David Blunt is struggling to do his job following the sudden boom in population: in addition to scientists, government agents and soldiers at the highly classified research area established around the mystery from outer space, many more enthusiasts flood to the town, possibly including a serial killer. Two people have been killed in a horrifically brutal way when the FBI takes over and tries to shut him out. But when the next victim is a man he’s known all his life, Blunt is more determined than ever to catch the killer. His investigation draws him to infiltrate a doomsday cult and to discover more about the tangled lives of the people he grew up with, along with the possibility that there could be a clue in the physical composition of the Giant. A suspenseful, well-written blend of science fiction and serial killer thriller.

The Salt Bind by Rebecca Ferrier (Renegade, £18.99)
In 1770s Cornwall, Kensa’s father was hanged as a smuggler, and she now feels a despised outsider, especially in contrast to her quiet half-sister. Only when the local wise woman, Isolde, accepts Kensa as her apprentice can she imagine a future in which she could be respected as a healer. But there’s more than useful potions and a helpful dose of trickery to the role: the wise women of Cornwall are responsible for making sure an ancient pact between land-dwellers and the creatures of the sea continues to hold. Kensa has learned little of the Old Ways when she must suddenly act alone. She has seen Isolde summon the Father of Storms from under the sea, but when she does the same, she finds she has made a horrifying bargain. If she can’t put things right, the sea will rise and drown the whole area. A moving exploration of sisterhood and community, this is an evocatively written folkloric fantasy.

Published: January 9, 2026, 12:00 pm

Sarah Moss: ‘I never liked Wuthering Heights as much as Jane Eyre’

The author on the trouble with the Brönte novels, what she gained from reading John Updike and Martin Amis – and the brilliance of Barbara Pym

My earliest reading memory
Swallowdale by Arthur Ransome, aged seven. I didn’t learn to read in the first years of school and became entrenched in illiteracy until my grandmother, a retired primary school teacher, intervened. I loved the Swallows and Amazons series, and especially Swallowdale in which a shipwreck is redeemed and the adults provide exactly the right support when the children mess up.

My favourite book growing up
The Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder, whose politics I now find obviously objectionable. I often tell students that what you don’t get is what gets you, and I’m sure the obsession with rugged independence and the repression of foundational violence did me no good, but I liked the landscapes and the combination of domesticity and adventure.

Published: January 9, 2026, 10:00 am

Belgrave Road by Manish Chauhan review – a tender tale of love beyond borders

This poignant debut about two strangers who fall in love offers a powerful portrait of the lived realities of immigrants in Britain

“Love is not an easy thing … It’s both the disease and the medicine,” a character says in Manish Chauhan’s meditation on modern love. This poignant and perceptive coming-of-age story, about two strangers who become star-crossed lovers, is a powerful portrait of the lived realities of immigrants in Britain, and of love as home, hope and destiny.

Newly arrived in England following an arranged marriage with British-Indian Rajiv, Mira feels increasingly out of place as she finds out that Rajiv holds secrets and loves someone else. On the eponymous Belgrave Road in Leicester, entire days go by “without sight of an English person”, and Mira feels “disappointed that England wasn’t as foreign or as mysterious as she had hoped”. She takes English classes, finds companionship in her mother-in-law and fills her days with household chores, but nothing shifts her deep loneliness.

Published: January 9, 2026, 7:00 am

The 15 best Nintendo Switch 2 games to play in 2026

From cosy museums and tropical islands to nightmarishly difficult adventures – and revamps of favourites including Mario Kart and Pokémon – there’s something for everyone

Nintendo’s newest console has been out for a less than a year but it already boasts an impressive catalogue of excellent new games, as well as a variety of enhanced Switch greats. Here’s our selection of the 15 best titles currently on offer, ranging from family favourites to grittier, more adult challenges.

Published: January 9, 2026, 10:00 am

​The Guide #225: Everyone loves an origin story: Guardian debuts, from the Beatles to Donkey Kong

​In this week’s newsletter: In the first of a new series, we’re digging into the archives to find the first fleeting mentions of pop culture’s great and good. But who’s this little lady?

• Don’t get The Guide delivered to your inbox? Sign up here

From Radiohead playing in backroom pubs as On a Friday to Timothée Chalamet’s early days as an Xbox YouTuber, it’s always fascinating to see the faltering first steps of famous folk. So in this week’s newsletter we’re launching a new regular feature, Origin stories, where we’ll look at how the Guardian first covered some now very familiar pop culture figures or institutions. And you’ll find out who the tyke above is, from a 1973 photoshoot, at the end.

To the archives!

Published: January 9, 2026, 5:00 pm

Bafta 2026 film awards longlists hope to avoid #BaftasSoWhite diversity criticism

With strong showings for Ryan Coogler’s Sinners and target hit for 50% female directors, criticism that has dogged the prizes in recent years may have been headed off

For now, the Bafta film awards appears to have headed off further criticism over its long-running diversity crisis after revealing its longlists on Friday.

Despite Bafta overhauling its awards voting system in 2020 after claims of “systemic racism”, outrage re-emerged in 2023 after no people of colour won awards. The longlists, which are an intermediate stage on the way to the final nominations with each category determined by different mixes of membership voting and jury selection, suggest that some progress is being made.

Published: January 9, 2026, 3:27 pm

‘I haven’t mellowed my violence’: Park Chan-wook on cultural dominance, the capitalist endgame and why we can’t beat AI

His brutal movies put Korean cinema on the map. Now the director of Oldboy is back with a blistering satire about a man driven to murder after redundancy

The Korean wave is being feted around the world right now but Park Chan-wook is not feeling too celebratory. From the outside, South Korea seems to be a well-oiled machine pumping out a stream of world-conquering pop music, cuisine, cars, cinema (especially the Oscar-winning Parasite) and TV shows, as well as the Samsung flat-screens to watch them on. But Park’s latest film, No Other Choice, bursts the balloon somewhat. It paints modern-day Korea as an unstable landscape of industrial decline, downsizing, unemployment and male fragility – with no KPop Demon Hunters coming to save the day.

“I did not mean it for it to be a realistic portrayal of Korea in 2025,” says Park, a serene, almost professorial 62-year-old. “I think it’s more accurate to view it as a satire on capitalism.”

Published: January 9, 2026, 8:00 am

Hawaiian headwear, Beuys’ bathtub and Nan Goldin’s photo diaries – the week in art

Jewels of island life go on display, Beuys introduces heroism to washtime and Nan Goldin’s classic The Ballad of Sexual Dependency reveals itself – all in your weekly dispatch

Hawai‘i
Some of the most spectacular masterpieces in the British Museum, including feathered war helmets and glaring gods collected by Captain Cook, make this exhibition created in collaboration with Hawaii community leaders and artists entrancing.
• The British Museum, London, from 15 January to 25 May

Published: January 9, 2026, 12:00 pm

Experience: I’m Britain’s best gravedigger

People say my job must make me morbid, but I think the opposite is true, I truly appreciate life

Not many people can say their happy place is a cemetery, but mine certainly is. I didn’t set out to dig graves for a living – it’s nobody’s childhood dream – but working as a contract gardener for the council in Oxfordshire, I did some work tending cemeteries, and eventually I was offered a job digging graves.

I found it quite daunting at first. I was responsible for digging the plots and being on hand during the funeral service, as well as filling in the grave. It felt like a huge responsibility. I’d recently lost my nan and I’d sit and watch the funerals with a lump in my throat. From the beginning, I treated every grave as though it were for a member of my own family. For the first time, I felt like my job really mattered.

Published: January 9, 2026, 5:00 am

My favourite family photo: ‘I was six, with mumps and diarrhoea – and having the time of my life’

When I went to Saudi Arabia in the 1980s to see my Dad it felt like visiting another planet. But beyond the scale and shininess of the country was the feeling of my family finally being together

In the 1980s, the British construction industry was hit hard by recession. At the same time, Saudi Arabia had the opposite problem; lots of money and a desire to build infrastructure, but not enough skilled workers. As a result, thousands of British labourers found it was the only place where they could earn a wage. My dad – freshly out of work with a young family to support – was one of them. We travelled out to see him twice, once to Riyadh and once to Jeddah.

Objectively, the Riyadh trip was better. Dad lived on a worker’s compound, and there was a pool and a restaurant and loads of room to run around. Jeddah, less so – but that’s where this photo was taken. Dad shared a tiny flat on the city’s noisy Palestine Street with one of his colleagues. I caught mumps basically upon landing and (according to the diary I kept at the time) experienced excessive diarrhoea for the duration of the visit. My dad bought me and my brother novelty karate-style pyjamas on arrival, which my brother used as an excuse to beat me up as often as possible. But I was six years old, and I still had the time of my life.

Published: January 9, 2026, 5:00 am

The rise of the analogue bag: fashion’s answer to doomscrolling

As screen fatigue grows, a new trend is swapping smartphones for crosswords and sketchbooks – turning the humble bag into a tool for offline living

There’s a new “it” bag – but this time it is not about a designer label or splashy logo. Instead, it’s what is inside that counts.

So-called analogue bags, filled with activities such as crosswords, knitting, novels and journals, have become the unexpected accessory of the season.

Published: January 9, 2026, 3:00 pm

Home truths: my Nanna provided me with the two words that would eventually guide me – ‘never weaken’ | Tony Birch

My grandmother’s words didn’t register with me as a child, their influence grew as I came to know more about her past

• Read more in the home truths series

I was raised in a house of suspicion and superstition. We knew that the world was out to get us and took every precaution to protect ourselves. The front door of the house had never had a lock, but it did have a chair jammed under the brass doorknob of a night. My mother slept with a rolling pin under her pillow and my father a crowbar. Or perhaps it was the other way around?

As children, we had mantras, fractured commandments, drilled into us on a daily basis. I would not have been more than four years of age when one of my uncles schooled me that I should never sign a police statement. My father, a retired boxer, provided me with a handwritten list of survival skills on my first day of school. His guiding principle for a safe life was “hit before you get hit”. He lived by the rule and had the scars to show for the failure of his particular brand of street philosophy.

Tony Birch is the author of the novels Women and Children, The White Girl, Ghost River, and Blood

Published: January 9, 2026, 2:00 pm

My favourite family photo: ‘I can still feel my mother’s arm around my shoulder’

I love the way we are both looking in astonishment at my son. It shows the unwavering support she gave me when he was born

This picture of my mother, me and my eldest son, Theo, was taken the morning after he was born in May 2002, in University College Hospital, London.

There are a lot of things I love about it. I love the fact my mother is exquisitely dressed – she’s wearing her pearls! She always looked very elegant at this time in her life and enjoyed clothes (we bought that suit on a day out together). I love the composition too – our three dark heads, faces in profile and the way our three hands are aligned. I love the miracle of my son’s intricate little shell of an ear, the nose (his dad’s) and lips (mine) still visible now in his 23-year-old face.

Published: January 9, 2026, 12:00 pm

Want to keep growing through winter? Try microgreens, indoor miracles bursting with flavour

The whole plant is edible and they don’t need much light – so they’re an easy, tasty treat

January can hardly be considered an abundant time of year. All but the evergreens are barren and bare. Yet there is an approach to year-round growing that, in the depths of winter, feels all the more miraculous. Microgreens are not a “type” of plant, but a method of growing leafy crops which doesn’t require much space or effort – and, importantly for now, can be done indoors – in order to achieve an unseasonably fresh burst of flavour on your dinner plate.

Any plant that is edible from top-to-toe can be grown as a microgreen. From salad leaves like lettuce and sorrel to herbs such as basil, dill, coriander and fennel, plus all the brassicas from the very delicious mustard greens and rocket to the far less spicy broccoli and kale. Also on the fuller side of the flavour profile are nasturtiums and sunflowers, which produce juicy shoots with a nutty flavour. Peas also produce a substantial shoot with pretty leaves and tendrils. Amaranth, carrot and perilla are other edible plants I am eager to try.

Published: January 9, 2026, 11:00 am

Helen Goh’s recipe for baked apples with lemon and tahini | The sweet spot

A wholesome and indulgent pudding that’s a great way to use up dried fruit left over from the festive season

After the excesses of December, these baked apples are a light, refreshing vegan pudding. The filling makes good use of any dried fruit lingering still from Christmas, and is brightened with lemon and bound with nutty tahini. As the apples bake, they turn yielding and fragrant, while the sesame oat topping crisps to a golden crown. Serve warm with a splash of cream, yoghurt or ice-cream (dairy or otherwise), and you have comfort that feels wholesome and indulgent.

Published: January 9, 2026, 6:00 am

The week around the world in 20 pictures

Nicolás Maduro seized, Russian drone strikes rock Kyiv, anti-ICE protests erupt in Minneapolis and Storm Goretti lashes Britain – the past seven days as captured by the world’s leading photojournalists

Published: January 9, 2026, 6:35 pm