America’s contract to protect white women has always been tenuous | Saida Grundy

ICE’s killing of Renee Good has revealed how the state will only defend those who uphold a white racial order. A 1915 film points to the origins of this social pact

In the hours after the 7 January fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old Minneapolis mother of three, gut-wrenching footage of her killing was released, discrediting initial claims from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and the Department of Justice that she was shot in self-defense. As a response to the public outcry, the Trump administration and a chorus of conservative public figures unleashed a litany of dehumanizing and defamatory remarks about Good, a beloved wife, neighbor and dental assistant, in ways that were unduly callous.

The Fox News host Jesse Watters derided Good’s queer identity, and mocked her as a “self-proclaimed poet from Colorado with pronouns in her bio”. The homeland security secretary Kristi Noem vilified Good as a domestic terrorist who “weaponized” her vehicle in an attempt to run over officers – a patently false comment. Laura Loomer, a personal adviser to the president, posted to social media, “She deserved it … I’m shocked her lesbian girlfriend wasn’t shot with her.” JD Vance lobbed the biting accusation that the victim was “a deranged leftist”, before adding that “it’s a tragedy of her own making”. Donald Trump justified the shooting, telling reporters that “at a very minimum, that woman was very, very disrespectful to law enforcement”. And on 17 January, the justice department announced a criminal investigation into claims tying her grieving widow, Becca Good, to unnamed “activist groups” (six federal prosecutors resigned in objection to the investigation).

Published: February 1, 2026, 2:00 pm

‘Adjustments must be made’: how to live well after mid-life

We are living longer and longer, but many of us are unprepared for the challenges age brings, says the novelist and psychotherapist Frank Tallis

We have never lived so long, so well, nor had more available advice on how to do so: don’t smoke, don’t drink, don’t eat ultraprocessed foods; lift weights, get outside, learn a language. Cosmetics – or surgery – have never been so available, so advanced, nor so widely used; we take for granted medical procedures that previous ages would have considered miracles. And something’s clearly working: average global life expectancy is the highest in recorded history. The fastest growing demographic is now the over-80s.

There is much public hand-wringing about the burdens this ageing population will place on health and care systems, and on younger people. But what is far less talked about, argues the clinical psychologist Frank Tallis in his new book, Wise, is how to get older well: not just in physical, but in mental good health.

Published: February 1, 2026, 4:00 pm

15 reusable essentials to host a winning Super Bowl party

Make throwing any home party easier – and without waste – using tools including an oven-to-table platter and frozen drink maker

• Get the cheap wine glasses: how to spend less on a dinner party in the US – and impress people more

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

Throwing a party usually goes like this: step one, you buy things for the party. Step two, you trash those things after the party and stuff everything else in the dark recesses of your cupboards to collect dust.

To release you from this cycle and cut down on waste and prep, I asked event designers, including Edward Perotti, and several other chefs, bartenders and hotel managers to help me find a more sustainable arsenal of everyday tools that won’t languish in storage or end up in a landfill.

For cooking dozens of wings:
Typhur Sync Oven

For blending big batches of dip:
Braun MultiQuick Immersion Blender

Published: February 1, 2026, 3:15 pm

Saturday Night Live: Alexander Skarsgård makes for a game first-time host

The Pillion star gives a so-so episode his all with sketches targeting the tactics of ICE officers, Tarzan and Trump voters changing their minds

The thousandth episode of Saturday Night Live opens with White House “border czar” Tom Homan (Pete Davidson) addressing members of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) amid the continuing chaos in Minneapolis. He stresses that ICE commander Greg Bovino wasn’t dismissed for doing a bad job, publicly lying about the killing of civilians, or even dressing like a Nazi, but because he “was filmed doing these things – the president no likey that.”

When asked what the mission in Minneapolis is, his ICE goons plead ignorance, causing him to flip out: “I’m Tom Homan, OK? I’m the separating families at the border guy. I’m the on film taking a $50,000 bribe guy, and you all are making me look like the upstanding, reasonable adult in the room. That’s crazy!”

Published: February 1, 2026, 4:17 pm

Adolescence lasts into your 30s – so how should parents treat their adult children?

There are lots of guidebooks for parents of young children – but what happens when your offspring hit adulthood? A psychotherapist shares her guiding principles for raising grownups

When one of my daughters turned 18, our relationship hit a crisis so painful it lasted longer than I knew how to bear. I was a psychotherapist, trained in child and adult development, yet I was utterly flummoxed. Decades have passed since then, but when I recently spoke to her about that time, a flood of distress washed through me as if it were yesterday.

This is how my daughter, now a mother herself, put it when I asked her to describe that era:

Published: February 1, 2026, 12:00 pm

Catherine O’Hara obituary

Brilliant actor known for her roles in Home Alone, Beetlejuice and Schitt’s Creek who specialised in the comedy of delusion

“Kevin!” With that panicked exclamation, delivered in wide-eyed, straight-to-camera close-up in the festive comedy Home Alone (1990), the actor Catherine O’Hara, who has died aged 71 after a short illness, cemented her place as one of cinema’s most neglectful screen parents.

After inadvertently leaving her young son (played by Macaulay Culkin) behind in Chicago at the mercy of burglars while the rest of the McCallister family flies to Paris for Christmas, O’Hara’s character, Kate, spends the film struggling to get back to him. On her return trip, she accepts a lift from a polka band. Its leader is played by John Candy, one of O’Hara’s stablemates – along with Martin Short, Eugene Levy and Gilda Radner – from her early days in Toronto’s improvisational comedy troupe Second City.

Published: February 1, 2026, 1:05 pm

Todd Blanche says review of Jeffrey Epstein sex-trafficking case ‘is over’

Deputy US attorney general says victims ‘want to be made whole’ but that doesn’t mean ‘we can just create evidence’

The deputy US attorney general, Todd Blanche, the point person on the Trump administration’s Epstein files release, told ABC News on Sunday that prosecutors’ review of the Jeffrey Epstein-Ghislaine Maxwell sex-trafficking case “is over”.

Separately, in comments to CNN about Epstein, Blanche said that “victims want to be made whole” after surviving the scheme attributed to the late convicted sex offender and which led to a 20-year prison sentence for Maxwell beginning in 2022.

Published: February 1, 2026, 6:48 pm

Two federal agents reportedly identified in fatal shooting of Alex Pretti

Jesus Ochoa and Raymundo Gutierrez are both officers with Customs and Border Protection, ProPublica reports

Government documents have identified the two federal officers who fatally shot Alex Pretti in Minneapolis as Jesus Ochoa, a border patrol agent, and Raymundo Gutierrez, an officer with Customs and Border Protection (CBP), according to ProPublica.

According to those records, Ochoa, 43, and Gutierrez, 35, were the agents who fired their weapons during the confrontation last weekend that resulted in Pretti’s death. The shooting sparked widespread demonstrations and renewed demands for criminal inquiries into federal immigration enforcement actions. Immediately following Pretti’s killing, the Trump administration repeatedly pushed false claims about the shooting.

Published: February 1, 2026, 11:30 pm

Grammys 2026: the winners, the losers, the performances – live

Tonight has already seen wins for Lady Gaga and Bad Bunny with major performances and big awards still to come

• Grammy awards 2026: list of winners

• Grammy awards 2026: nominations in major categories
  

The women of pop have started to arrive:

Steven Spielberg has won his first Grammy award, making him just the 22nd artist in history to become an Egot winner — an artist with an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony.

Published: February 2, 2026, 12:34 am

Democrat flips reliably red Texas district in victory that stuns Republican party

Taylor Rehmet’s win adds to Democrats’ record of overperforming in special elections so far this cycle

Democrat Taylor Rehmet won a special election for the Texas state senate on Saturday, flipping a reliably Republican district that Donald Trump won by 17 points when he clinched a second presidency in 2024.

Rehmet, a labor union leader and veteran, easily defeated Republican Leigh Wambsganss, a conservative activist, in the Fort Worth-area district. With almost all votes counted, Rehmet had a comfortable lead of more than 14 percentage points.

Published: February 1, 2026, 2:33 pm

Kyrsten Sinema gave $9,000 to man she’s accused of having an affair with

Funds, paid to former security guard Matthew Ammel, were from former US senator’s campaign committee in October

A man identified in court filings as having an affair with former senator Kyrsten Sinema received almost $9,000 from Sinema’s former campaign committee in October, according to newly filed documents. The filings come just weeks after the man’s estranged wife accused Sinema of wrecking their marriage.

According to a report from Notus, which cites a newly filed Federal Election Commission (FEC) document, the recipient was Matthew J Ammel, who worked as a security guard for Sinema. He was paid $1,815.91 on 15 October and $7,136.14 on 31 October in payments listed as “payroll”, according to a filing submitted on Saturday by Sinema for Arizona.

Published: February 1, 2026, 7:37 pm

Bomb cyclone brings freezing temperatures and snow to millions in US

About 150m faced cold weather advisories along eastern US, and two in North Carolina died in storm-related conditions

A bomb cyclone produced freezing temperatures across a large portion of the US from the Gulf coast to New England, bringing heavy snow to North Carolina where two were killed in storm-related conditions, and setting records in Florida, where officials warned of ice and falling iguanas.

About 150 million people were under cold weather advisories and extreme cold warnings in the eastern portion of the US, with wind chills near zero to single digits in the south and the coldest air mass seen in south Florida since December 1989, said Peter Mullinax, a meteorologist with the weather prediction center in College Park, Maryland.

Published: February 1, 2026, 10:51 pm

Melania film earns $7m in US, strongest documentary debut in over a decade

Melania, however, cost quite more than a typical documentary, at $40m to make and $35m to promote.

Amazon’s Melania Trump documentary has reportedly beaten box office expectations and recorded the strongest start of any documentary in over a decade, taking $7m at the US box office during its lavishly-promoted opening weekend. But it also cost quite more than a typical documentary, at $40m to make and $35m to promote.

And Amazon – which recently cut 16,000 corporate jobs – has been hit with criticism that making the documentary about the first lady, and paying so highly for it, was little more than a ploy to curry favor with her husband, Donald Trump, during his second presidency.

Published: February 1, 2026, 7:08 pm

Demond Wilson, who played Lamont on Sanford and Son, dies aged 79

Wilson found fame in the seminal 1970s sitcom and then went on to become a minister in the 1980s

Demond Wilson, who found fame in the 1970s playing Lamont on Sanford and Son and went on to become a minister, has died. He was 79.

Mark Goldman, a publicist for Wilson, confirmed to the Associated Press that he died following complications from cancer on Friday.

Published: February 1, 2026, 5:49 pm

Likeness of restored angel to Giorgia Meloni triggers investigations in Rome

Cherub at landmark church causes ecclesiastical and political uproar with alleged resemblance to Italian PM

Italy’s culture minister and the diocese of Rome have launched investigations after claims were made that an angel in a landmark church in Rome was restored in the likeness of the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni.

The resemblance was first flagged by the newspaper La Repubblica, which noted that one of the two angels flanking a marble bust of Italy’s last king in the Basilica of St Lawrence in Lucina now had “a familiar, astonishingly contemporary face”.

Published: February 1, 2026, 4:04 pm

US is in talks with Cuban leadership, says Trump, after blockade threats

US president announces efforts being made to strike a deal having earlier threatened to stop island importing oil

Washington is negotiating with Havana’s leadership to strike a deal, Donald Trump has said, days after threatening Cuba’s reeling economy with a virtual oil blockade.

“Cuba is a failing nation. It has been for a long time but now it doesn’t have Venezuela to prop it up. So we’re talking to the people from Cuba, the highest people in Cuba, to see what happens,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida on Sunday.

Published: February 1, 2026, 9:32 pm

US committee is reconsidering all vaccine recommendations

Move is dramatic departure for advisory group under Kirk Milhoan, who says he doesn’t like the term ‘established science’

All vaccine recommendations are being reconsidered by the US’s vaccines committee, according to its top adviser, who in recent interviews slammed vaccination requirements for attending school and said vaccines should be taken on the advice of an individual’s doctor.

The stance from Kirk Milhoan, chair of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), represents a dramatic departure for the group tasked with making US vaccine recommendations for decades, signaling an increasingly hostile approach from the Trump administration to routine vaccines.

Published: February 1, 2026, 1:00 pm

Ukraine war briefing: US reports ’constructive’ peace talks with Russia as Zelenskyy pushes for ‘results’

Steve Witkoff encouraged ‘that Russia is working toward securing peace’ as Ukraine president looks to meetings ‘next week’. What we know on day 1,439

The US envoy Steve Witkoff has said he held constructive talks with a Russian envoy in Florida as part of Washington’s drive to end the war in Ukraine. The meeting on Saturday came just a day before Ukrainian and Russian negotiators were scheduled to meet in Abu Dhabi to discuss a US-backed plan to halt the conflict.

“Today in Florida, the Russian Special Envoy Kirill Dmitriev held productive and constructive meetings as part of the US mediation effort toward advancing a peaceful resolution of the Ukrainian conflict,” Witkoff posted on X. “We are encouraged by this meeting that Russia is working toward securing peace in Ukraine.” He said the US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and White House senior adviser Josh Gruenbaum also attended the talks. Neither side released details of what was discussed.

The second round of peace talks in Abu Dhabi were set to start on Sunday, even if the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, suggested earlier this week that it might be postponed because of the US-Iran crisis. Zelensky said in his evening address on Saturday his negotiators were also waiting to hear from the US on further meetings. “Ukraine is ready to work in all working formats,” Zelenskyy said. “It is important that there are results and that the meetings take place. We are counting on meetings next week and are preparing for them.”

Teams from Ukraine and Russia met last week in Abu Dhabi in their first in-person negotiations on a plan being pushed by Trump. The US says both sides are close to a deal, but they have so far been unable to find a compromise on the key issue of territory in a postwar settlement, according to Kyiv.

An overnight Russian strike in the central Ukrainian region of Dnipropetrovsk killed two people, authorities said on Sunday. A man and a woman in the city of Dnipro “died due to an enemy UAV strike”, Oleksandr Ganzha, the head of the regional military administration, said in a statement posted on Telegram. Ganzha said the drone caused a fire, destroyed a house and caused damage to two more residences and a car.

Emergency power cuts swept across several Ukrainian cities and neighbouring Moldova on Saturday, officials said, amid a commitment from Russia to pause strikes on Kyiv as Ukraine battles one of its bleakest winters in years. Donald Trump on Thursday claimed Vladimir Putin had agreed to halt strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure for a week. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov confirmed that Trump “made a personal request” to Putin to stop targeting Kyiv until Sunday “in order to create favourable conditions for negotiations”. In a post on social media, Zelenskyy noted Russia has turned its attention to targeting Ukrainian logistics networks.

Ukraine’s energy minister, Denys Shmyhal, said that the outages on Saturday had been caused by a technical malfunction affecting power lines linking Ukraine and Moldova. The failure “caused a cascading outage in Ukraine’s power grid”, triggering automatic protection systems, he said. Blackouts were reported in Kyiv, as well as Zhytomyr and Kharkiv regions, in the centre and north-east of the country respectively.

The outage cut water supplies to the Ukrainian capital, officials said, while the city’s subway system was temporarily suspended because of low voltage on the network. The state emergency service said its teams led 500 stranded passengers out of metro stations.

Moldova also experienced major power outages, including in the capital Chisinau, officials said. “Due to the loss of power lines on the territory of Ukraine, the automatic protection system was triggered, which disconnected the electricity supply,” Moldova’s energy minister Dorin Junghietu said in a post on Facebook. “I encourage the population to stay calm until electricity is restored.”

The large-scale outage followed weeks of Russian strikes against Ukraine’s already struggling energy grid, which have triggered long stretches of severe power shortages. Moscow has sought to deny Ukrainian civilians heat, light and running water over the course of the war, in a strategy that Ukrainian officials describe as “weaponising winter”.

Forecasters say Ukraine will experience a brutally cold period stretching into next week. Temperatures in some areas will drop to -30C, authorities said.

Published: February 1, 2026, 2:54 am

Their homes burned in the LA wildfires. A year later, thousands still can’t return

Seven in 10 residents who were forced to leave have not returned, with many living in temporary housing in other cities or even countries

Esmeralda Rodas sits on the ground in front of what was once the front door of her home, haunted by memories of her previous life. She remembers jumping for joy in 1989, when her husband, Hector Rodas, presented her with the Altadena house as a birthday gift.

It was small, Esmeralda says, but it was her castle – with windows overlooking purple mountains that, one night last January, glowed ominously red with wildfires which razed many homes on her street.

Published: February 1, 2026, 4:00 pm

‘It’s really sad’: US TikTok users rethink app over concerns about privacy and censorship

Some users are stepping away from the app after it made a deal to create a US entity and updated terms and conditions

Many TikTok users across the US say they’re rethinking their relationship with the platform since its ownership and terms and conditions have recently changed, with some citing censorship and lack of trust as reasons why they’re removing themselves from the app.

Keara Sullivan, a 26-year-old comedian, says TikTok jumpstarted her career and provided a pathway to getting a manager and a literary agent.

Published: February 1, 2026, 5:00 pm

‘We’re fighting for the soul of the country’: how Minnesota residents came together to face ICE

Networks created after police killed George Floyd were reactivated to challenge Trump’s mass deportation policy

Cory never expected he’d spend hours each day driving around after immigration agents, videotaping their moves. The south Minneapolis resident is “not the type of person to do this”, he said.

The dangers of what he’s doing, even after the killings of two observers, largely stay out of his mind when he’s watching Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents – even when he’s gotten hit with pepper spray. In quieter moments, it occurs to him that agents likely know where he lives. Alex Pretti, the 37-year-old whom agents killed while he was filming them, “100% could have been me”, Cory said.

Published: February 1, 2026, 11:00 am

Are protein bars good for you? We asked nutritionists

Is it bad to eat protein bars all the time? How much protein do we actually need? We asked a nutritionist and a sports dietician to weigh in

• ‘Tastes like compacted dust’: the best (and worst) protein bars in the US – taste tested

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

We are in a golden age of protein. Last year, Americans spent $50bn on protein snacks, and that figure is expected to double by 2032, according to Fortune Business Insights. Influencers peddle powders, shakes and supplements, urging their followers to consume amounts of protein appropriate for bodybuilders.

Recently, the Guardian conducted a taste test of the top 12 protein bar brands in the US. (Only four bars passed our standards for “yes, tasty”.) But we also wanted to know just how healthy protein bars are, especially when many of those bars are loaded with sugar and additives. Should we even be eating them?

Made with whole foods: RX Bar

Published: February 1, 2026, 1:00 pm

Readers reply: to shred or not to shred? Is it OK to throw out sensitive documents?

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions plunges into a critical privacy dilemma

• This week’s question: why does a song sometimes get stuck in our heads – and what precisely makes an earworm?

I like to shred anything with my name and address on before putting it in the recycling bin (although this usually means ripping it up and putting on the compost heap). But my children say there is no need, that the world’s digital now and no one’s going to be rooting through our rubbish to scam us or steal our identities.

I understand what they are saying, but I still feel uneasy about releasing readable information about myself into the world like that. Does anyone know what best practice is these days, and does anyone still get scammed in this way? M Palmer, Aberdeen

Published: February 1, 2026, 2:00 pm

This is how we do it: ‘Having threesomes has totally transformed us – in and out of bed’

Eric’s libido always outstripped Bea’s, but with the perimenopause she experienced a surge of desire. Is Eric fully onboard with their new ménage à trois?
• How do you do it? Share the story of your sex life, anonymously

When I kissed him in front of Eric during a meet-up in a bar, the chemistry was pretty electric

Published: February 1, 2026, 11:00 am

The FBI’s seizure of 2020 ballots in Georgia is a signal of what’s to come | Austin Sarat

The administration’s efforts show the lengths to which Trump is willing to go to lay the groundwork for 2026

While the nation’s attention was focused on the ICE invasion of Minneapolis, another part of Trump’s authoritarian state apparatus was in action more than a thousand miles away. On Wednesday 28 January, the FBI carried out a stunning raid at the central election facility in Fulton county, Georgia.

Its purpose: to seize ballots cast in the 2020 election. Such an action is unprecedented.

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: February 1, 2026, 2:00 pm

Resistance to Trump 2.0 is getting more confrontational | Dana R Fisher

In Trump’s first term, activists focused on lobbying and voting. Now tactics are shifting to nonviolent civil disobedience

On 24 January, Alex Pretti was killed by federal agents while he was helping another civilian in Minneapolis who had been knocked to the ground – just weeks after an ICE agent killed Renee Good. In response to this second killing of a Minnesotan, demonstrations spread across the United States to protest the Trump administration and its ultra-violent immigration enforcement tactics.

Minneapolis has been in a state of sustained protest. Its general strike on 23 January mobilized tens of thousands of Minnesotans to participate in an economic blackout and march in the streets. Solidarity protests, strikes and marches also took place across the country, including the Free America Walkout, which involved more than 900 local actions across all 50 states on the anniversary of Donald Trump’s second inauguration.

Published: February 1, 2026, 12:00 pm

My youngest is starting school for the first time. How can I best preserve his relentless curiosity? | Shadi Khan Saif

I wonder how Naveed will navigate his own path – and how much I must nurture and how much I must learn to let go

“Schools are finally re-opening, mate,” my volleyball friend Sardar announced, grinning with unmistakable relief. It clearly had nothing to do with how we played that evening – we lost badly. This joy was about classrooms, routines, teachers and the quiet order that schools bring back into families’ lives.

For us, it also meant something else entirely: my youngest, Naveed, is starting school for the first time.

Published: February 1, 2026, 11:40 pm

Employers are spreading raises like peanut butter – and workers are paying the price | Gene Marks

These across-the-board raises to all employees versus individual performance-based raises are simply lazy

Looking forward to a raise in 2026? You may be getting “peanut butter”.

A new report from compensation software and data provider Payscale predicts that in 2026, many employers will be giving “peanut butter raises” to their employees – increases given “across the board” as opposed to being calculated individually based on performance or merit. They’re spread evenly, like peanut butter on a slice of bread.

Published: February 1, 2026, 3:00 pm

Sure, kids can be annoying – but making public spaces ‘child-free’ is wrong | Emma Beddington

The French rail operator SNCF has recently installed new ‘adults-only’ carriages. It’s part of a sad culture of suppressing the young that forgets we were all loud and carefree once

As a disapproving, noise-sensitive harpy who once managed to communicate “use headphones” to an Italian tween on a train despite us not sharing a common language, I ought to be the ideal candidate for the French rail operator SNCF’s new “Optimum”, no-kids-allowed carriages. The service was promoted last month as a civilised space in which executives could conduct important business in cosseted peace, unmolested by sticky fingers or La Pat’ Patrouille (Paw Patrol) blaring from an iPad.

Actually, though, I hate it – and a heartening number of other people seem to be hating it, too. The initiative sparked widespread indignation in France (the high commissioner for children, Sarah El Haïry, called it “shocking”) and beyond, leading SNCF to partly backtrack, changing the original “children are not allowed” wording to say the space is only inaccessible to under-12s.

Published: February 1, 2026, 2:00 pm

Reading was the key to breaking through the fog of my parents' dementia | Jo Glanville

It was hard to communicate with my mother or father, until reading a book out loud led to a discovery

The novelist Ian McEwan has advocated for the extension of assisted dying to people with dementia, commenting on the deeply distressing experience of his own mother: “By the time my mother was well advanced and could not recognise anyone, she was dead. She was alive and dead all at once. It was a terrible thing. And the burden on those closest is also part of the radioactive damage of it all.”

My mother, Pamela, a journalist, died of vascular dementia 10 years ago. My father, the football journalist and novelist Brian Glanville, died of Parkinson’s last year after living with the illness for five years. He also had a milder form of dementia. “Radioactive damage” is certainly a vivid description of the impact of caring for someone living with a degenerative illness, but the perception that someone in the last stages of dementia may be “dead” feels wrong when I think of my parents. How are you to know what is happening in someone else’s brain?

Published: February 1, 2026, 12:04 pm

The Guardian view on the EU’s answer to Trump: trade without threats | Editorial

Europe’s India and Vietnam deals signal a historic shift away from coercion towards cooperation that respects developing countries’ sovereignty

For the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, the EU’s trade pact with India was the “mother of all deals”. Seen from the other end of the telescope, it looked like the mouse of all deals, with just €4bn (£3.5bn) in tariff reductions – a rounding error in a €180bn trading relationship. But that misses the point: this is about economic heavyweights resetting the terms of their cooperation because of Donald Trump’s use of tariffs as a tool of economic and political compulsion.

Last week marked a turning point. In upgrading ties with Vietnam in the wake of its India deal, Europe is no longer trying to lock Asian partners into fixed industrial roles. The EU wants Hanoi to move into hi-tech production. That shift will probably displace Vietnam’s labour-intensive manufacturing elsewhere. India is an obvious beneficiary, able to absorb that demand.

Published: February 1, 2026, 5:30 pm

The Guardian view on risks from biodiversity collapse: warnings must be heeded before it’s too late | Editorial

Inadequate food supplies and collapsing rainforests must be recognised as national security threats – not pigeonholed as green issues

Ecosystems and national security used not to be mentioned in the same breath all that often – unless environmental campaigners were doing the talking. For years, climate and nature experts have struggled to get across the message that species extinctions, dead rivers and deforestation are an existential threat to people as well as animals and plants. As George Monbiot wrote last week, the publication of a government report thought to have been authored by intelligence chiefs, about the threats to the UK’s national security from biodiversity collapse, should be viewed as a step forward. The risks have become too extreme to be ignored.

The document is a national security assessment, not a scientific report. The data that it relies on comes from other sources. But the warnings that it contains about the UK’s heavy dependence on food and fertiliser imports, and the probable consequences of nature depletion, must be heeded. Originally due to be published in the autumn, the review appears to have had some sections removed. An earlier version is reported to have included warnings about the risks of “eco-terrorism” and the growing likelihood of war between China, India and Pakistan due to competition over a shrinking water supply from the Himalayas.

Published: February 1, 2026, 5:25 pm

‘Already a legend’: Djokovic’s praise for Australian Open champion Alcaraz

• Spaniard beat Serbian to complete career grand slam at 22

• Alcaraz also youngest man to win seven grand slam titles

Novak Djokovic called Carlos Alcaraz a tennis legend at the age of 22 after the Spaniard became the youngest male player in history to complete the career grand slam by defeating Djokovic 2-6, 6-2, 6-3, 7-5 in the Australian Open final.

The world No 1 had entered this tournament seeking to complete his collection of grand slam titles after previously winning each of the French Open, Wimbledon and US Open twice. He played a mature match against Djokovic, the fourth seed, maintaining his composure after a blistering opening set from the Serbian to win in four sets. Alcaraz is also the youngest man in the open era to win seven grand slam titles.

Published: February 1, 2026, 3:13 pm

Tuskegee basketball coach ‘violated’ after being handcuffed by police at end of game

• Incident came after dispute over handshake line

• Coach is considering legal action over incident

Tuskegee men’s basketball coach Benjy Taylor is considering legal action after being handcuffed and led off court at the end of his team’s loss to Morehouse College on Saturday.

Tuskegee athletic director Reginald Ruffin said Taylor had attempted to make sure protocols were followed when opposing Morehouse football players joining the basketball players in the postgame handshake line.

Published: February 1, 2026, 9:40 pm

Cardinals turn to rival Rams’ OC Mike LaFleur as head coach

• LaFleur was in charge of Rams’ red-hot offense

• Cardinals last reached playoffs in 2021 season

The Arizona Cardinals hired Mike LaFleur as head coach on Sunday, turning to a division rival’s offensive coordinator to try to pull the franchise from the bottom of the NFC West. The Cardinals’ announcement brought an end to a nearly four-week hiring process.

The 38-year-old Los Angeles Rams assistant replaces Jonathan Gannon, who was fired in January after compiling a 15-36 record over three seasons, including 3-14 last year. LaFleur – who is the younger brother of Green Bay Packers head coach Matt LaFleur – has been the Rams’ offensive coordinator for the past three seasons.

Published: February 1, 2026, 8:57 pm

Familiar tale of two halves haunts Manchester City as Spurs find belated resolve | Jonathan Wilson

City again needlessly threw points away but Solanke showed what Tottenham, with their long injury list, have been missing

There are times when football is gloriously silly, times when the logic of your eyes and all your experience tells you one thing is happening, and then it turns out the reality is quite different. What seemed at the break as though it was going to be an easy away win unexpectedly became a draw and, as a result, both ends of the table looked quite different at the final whistle to how it appeared they were going to look at half-time.

It was a case of multiple immutable but incompatible laws running into each other. On the one hand, Tottenham are terrible and have picked up only 10 points at home this season. But on the other, City have developed a habit of needlessly squandering points and somehow always do worse than expected against Tottenham. The consequence was a game that simultaneously made very little sense but at the same time was predictable, at least in the way it remained true to those fundamental principles.

Published: February 1, 2026, 7:51 pm

‘Distracting and sad’: Olympics chief laments ICE protests and Epstein fallout

• ICE agents will be in Milan for opening ceremony

• LA Games chair named in new batch of Epstein files

The International Olympic Committee has admitted that it is “distracting and sad” that the buildup to the Winter Olympics has been dominated by the deployment of ICE agents to Milan-Cortina and the appearance of the Los Angeles 2028 chair, Casey Wasserman, in the Epstein files. However Kirsty Coventry, the IOC president, insisted that once the Games begin on Friday, their “magic and spirit” would take over.

Coventry refused to comment directly on the protests in Milan against immigration and customs enforcement agents and said she hadn’t spoken to Wasserman, who has apologised for flirty emails sent to Ghislaine Maxwell in 2003 when he was married, which only surfaced on Friday.

Published: February 1, 2026, 4:59 pm

Foord sees off Corinthians in extra time to put Arsenal on top of the world

• Final: Arsenal 3-2 Corinthians (aet)

• Smith 15, Wubben-Moy 58, Foord 104; Zanotti 21, Albuquerque 90+6 pen

The most decorated women’s club in England made more history in London on Sunday night, Arsenal securing a 3-2 win over the Copa Libertadores champions Corinthians in extra time to see them crowned winners of the inaugural Fifa Women’s Champions Cup.

They were made to work for their victory, the Brazilians twice coming from behind to force another 30 minutes of football, but it was something of an inevitability. The Champions League winners benefited from being mid-season with players at full fitness – in contrast to Corinthians being in their pre-season and the Concacaf Champions Cup winners Gotham FC in their off-season – and from the decision to hold the tournament in London, and play the final at the Emirates Stadium. This was a competition set up for European success and Arsenal delivered. They are officially the world’s best club and they have a nice trophy to prove it. The 13-point gap, albeit with a game in hand, between them and Women’s Super League leaders Manchester City though, says otherwise.

Published: February 1, 2026, 9:12 pm

Jarrell Miller’s hairpiece punched off during MSG fight … and boxer goes on to claim victory

• Miller’s hairpiece knocked loose during middle of fight

• Heavyweight tosses wig into crowd between rounds

• Fighter goes on to win fight despite mishap

• Stevenson outboxes López to seize title in masterclass

Jarrell “Big Baby” Miller was involved in one of the more unusual moments in recent boxing history on Saturday night when his hairpiece was dislodged during his heavyweight victory over Kingsley Ibeh on the undercard of the Teófimo López–Shakur Stevenson card at Madison Square Garden.

The incident occurred late in the second round as Ibeh landed a flurry of punches along the ropes. One shot snapped Miller’s head backward and caused his hairpiece to lift from the front, exposing his bald patch before the wig folded backward. The incident drew gasps and laughter from the crowd.

Published: February 1, 2026, 3:41 am

Shakur Stevenson: ‘I picked him apart’ after López clinic as Benn crashes ring

• Stevenson seals title in fourth weight class with win

• Britain’s Benn enters ring, sparks buzz as future foe

Shakur Stevenson described his dominant victory over Teófimo López at Madison Square Garden as the product of discipline, preparation and years of studying his opponent, after producing what many observers viewed as the finest performance of his career.

The unbeaten American outboxed López over 12 rounds to become a four-division world champion, a moment Stevenson said validated his long-held belief that he belongs among boxing’s elite.

Published: February 1, 2026, 11:00 am

Attenzione! The 1956 Winter Olympics in Cortina d’Ampezzo – in pictures

The Winter Olympics was first staged in Italy, 70 years ago. We take a look back at some archive imagery from the settimana bianca

Published: February 1, 2026, 8:00 am

Cuba on the brink as Trump turns up the pressure: ‘There is going to be a real blockade’

Country is already suffering acute fuel shortage; experts say complete cutoff will be ‘catastrophic’ to its infrastructure

It’s just gone midday on Linea, one of the main roads through Havana’s Vedado neighbourhood, and Javier Peña and Ysil Ribas have been waiting since 6am outside a petrol station. They’re passing the time fixing a leak on Ribas’s 1955 gold and white Mercury.

A tanker has pulled up on the forecourt in front of them, and so the queue behind is growing fast. Although this station only takes US dollars, at a cost far out of reach of most Cubans, Peña says it’s their only choice. “There is no gas in the national pesos,” he says, shrugging.

Published: February 1, 2026, 1:00 pm

Partial US government shutdown likely to continue amid funding standoff

Speaker Mike Johnson is ‘convinced’ the impasse over homeland security funding will be resolved by Tuesday

The ongoing partial US government shutdown is expected to continue into early next week, with no reopening likely before Tuesday, if what federal officials on both sides of the country’s political aisle are saying is any indication.

House Democrats have so far said they are refusing to guarantee the votes needed to speed passage of a funding measure that would restore government operations.

Published: February 1, 2026, 5:41 pm

Mexico moves to combat pollution following Guardian investigations

After stories revealed high levels of contamination in neighborhood around factory processing US toxic waste, government announces sweeping array of tactics

The Mexican government has announced it will pursue a sweeping array of tactics to combat industrial pollution, from $4.8m in fines against a plant processing US hazardous waste to the rollout of a new industrial air-monitoring system, following investigations by the Guardian and Quinto Elemento Lab, a Mexican investigative unit.

Those stories revealed high levels of heavy-metal contamination in the neighborhood around the factory, Zinc Nacional, in the Monterrey metropolitan area, and showed the broader extent of industrial pollution in the region, linked to Monterrey’s role in manufacturing and recycling goods for the US market.

Published: February 1, 2026, 5:08 pm

Why TikTok’s first week of American ownership was a disaster

App endured a major outage and user backlash over perceived censorship. Now it’s facing an inquiry by the California governor and an ascendant competitor

A little more than one week ago, TikTok stepped on to US shores as a naturalized citizen. Ever since, the video app has been fighting for its life.

TikTok’s calamitous emigration began on 22 January when its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, finalized a deal to sell the app to a group of US investors, among them the business software giant Oracle. The app’s time under Chinese ownership had been marked by a meteoric ascent to more than a billion users, which left incumbents such as Instagram looking like the next Myspace. But TikTok’s short new life in the US has been less than auspicious.

Published: February 1, 2026, 11:00 am

Russian drone attack on bus carrying mine workers in Ukraine kills at least 12

Employees of Ukraine’s largest private energy firm, DTEK, were travelling about 40 miles from frontline, says police

A Russian drone attack on a bus carrying mine workers in Ukraine’s central-eastern Dnipropetrovsk region has killed at least 12 people, officials said.

The bus was driving about 40 miles (65km) from the frontline, according to police. Images published by Ukraine’s state emergency service showed what appeared to be an empty bus, its side windows shattered and windscreen hanging from the front.

Published: February 1, 2026, 5:07 pm

Death toll from Crans-Montana bar fire rises to 41

Eighteen-year-old Swiss national injured in blaze at Swiss ski resort died on Saturday

A teenager injured in the fire that engulfed a bar in the Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana during new year celebrations has died in hospital, taking the death toll from the blaze to 41.

The Wallis canton’s public prosecutor, Beatrice Pilloud, said in a brief statement on Sunday: “An 18-year-old Swiss national died at a hospital in Zurich on January 31. The death toll from the fire at Le Constellation bar on January 1 2026 has now risen to 41.”

Published: February 1, 2026, 2:26 pm

Lucy Letby’s parents criticise Netflix documentary over ‘invasion of privacy’

Susan and John Letby question use of arrest footage filmed at their house in programme about daughter’s crimes

The parents of Lucy Letby have criticised the use of footage due to be aired in a new Netflix documentary about their daughter’s crimes as a “complete invasion of privacy” and said watching it would “likely kill us”.

Susan and John Letby questioned why police had released video of Letby’s arrest, which took place in the couple’s house, and said they were worried it would make their home a “tourist attraction”.

Published: February 1, 2026, 1:22 pm

‘You can never forget’: a woman remembers her three brothers, murdered one by one by the IRA

Pam Morrison, 78, has little hope of justice for the deaths of Ronnie, Cecil and Jimmy during Northern Ireland’s troubles

When the gunmen came for Jimmy Graham they were thorough. They fired the first two shots as he parked his bus in the school yard, then boarded the bus and fired another 24 shots. As the killers sped away they whooped in delight. “Yahoo,” they screamed. “Yahoo.”

It was 1 February 1985 and the IRA team had special reason to celebrate: it had bagged a third Graham brother. They had killed Ronnie Graham in June 1981, Cecil Graham in November 1981 and now, just over three years later, they got Jimmy. A hat-trick.

Published: February 1, 2026, 2:00 pm

The battle for Paris: can Rachida Dati fend off scandal to become next mayor?

Seen by rivals as a dangerous rightwinger, others hope the controversial culture minister can snatch Paris from the left

She was the first woman of north African and Muslim heritage to hold a major French government post and she redefined political celebrity in France. Now Rachida Dati wants to become mayor of Paris and take the city from the left, which has been in power for 25 years.

“I want to bring back authority,” Dati, France’s culture minister, told Le Figaro last month, promising a law and order drive to arm municipal police with guns. Her opponents call her a dangerous rightwinger who would turn the French capital into a “Trumpist laboratory”.

Published: February 1, 2026, 1:00 pm

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

Events such as Storm Chandra take a terrible toll on ecosystems, but nature can be part of the solution for mitigating flood waters

“The flood waters are only good for scavenger species,” says Steve Hussey, searching hard for a silver lining to last week’s deluges brought by Storm Chandra. When the waters recede, crows and ravens will feast on the carrion of hedgehogs, dormice and other small animals unable to escape the rising water, he says.

“It sounds very apocalyptic, doesn’t it?” says Hussey, a communications officer with the Devon Wildlife Trust.

Published: February 1, 2026, 1:00 pm

Fossil fuel firms may have to pay for climate damage under proposed UN tax

Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation could also force ultra-rich to pay global wealth tax

Fossil fuel companies could be forced to pay some of the price of their damage to the climate, and the ultra-rich subjected to a global wealth tax, if new tax rules are agreed under the UN.

Negotiations on a planned global tax treaty will resume at the UN headquarters in New York on Monday, with dozens of countries supporting stronger rules that would make polluters pay for the impact of their activities.

Published: February 1, 2026, 12:00 pm

Florida Republicans advance bill to weaken vaccine protections for children

But effort fell short of state surgeon general’s promise to end Florida’s immunization mandates altogether

Republicans advanced a bill in the Florida legislature this week to weaken vaccine protections for children, but it fell well short of state surgeon general Joseph Ladapo’s promise made last year to end immunization mandates.

The proposed new law, introduced by Jacksonville state senator Clay Yarborough, and which narrowly passed the chamber’s health policy committee on Monday in a 6-4 vote, seeks only to expand exemptions for parents who do not want their school-age children vaccinated.

Published: February 1, 2026, 4:00 pm

Trump says Iran talking to US and hints at deal to avoid military strikes

US naval battle group gathers off Iran’s shores as supreme leader in Tehran warns attack would spark regional war

Donald Trump has said Iran is talking to the US, hinting at a deal that would avoid the use of military strikes, as Iran’s supreme leader warned that any attack by the US would spark a regional war.

The US president’s comments came as Washington deployed a naval battle group led by the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln off Iran’s shores, after Trump’s threats to intervene in Iran’s deadly crackdown on anti-government protests.

Published: February 1, 2026, 12:14 pm

Shooting at Mardi Gras parade in Louisiana wounds five people, including child

Louisiana governor says the shooting in Clinton is ‘absolutely horrific and unacceptable’

Five people, including a six-year-old child, have been wounded in a shooting during a parade in Louisiana, sending people in the crowd fleeing for cover, authorities say.

The shooting occurred shortly after the midday start of the Mardi Gras in the Country parade in Clinton, East Feliciana sheriff Jeff Travis told reporters.

Published: February 1, 2026, 5:07 am

Snapchat blocks more than 400,000 Australian accounts but warns of ‘significant gaps’ in under-16s social media ban

Social media platform says there are still ‘real technical limitations to accurate and dependable age verification’

• Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates

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The accounts of more than 415,000 users in Australia identified as being under 16 were locked or disabled by Snapchat as part of its compliance with the under-16s social media ban.

The company announced in a blog post on Monday that, as of the end of January, it had disabled or locked more than 415,000 Snapchat accounts in Australia belonging to users who either declared an age under 16 or the platform believes to be under 16 based on age detection technology.

Published: February 1, 2026, 11:59 pm

Pakistan targets Balochistan separatists after ‘unprecedented’ assaults

Officials say calm restored to province day after dozens killed in suicide and gun attacks in at least 10 cities

Pakistan’s security forces have intensified their operations against separatist militants in Balochistan province who launched a large-scale assault on Saturday in which at least 31 civilians and 17 security personnel were killed.

A day after the militants carried out suicide attacks in the heart of the province’s capital, Quetta, the chief minister of the south-western region, Sarfraz Bugti, said 145 people he described as militants had been killed in 40 hours and that their bodies were in the custody of the authorities.

Published: February 1, 2026, 2:07 pm

Costa Rica heads to polls amid fears of authoritarian turn

Voters to choose president and 57 members of congress, with current president’s hardline pick Laura Fernández expected to win first round

Costa Rica heads to the polls on Sunday in an election dominated by increasing insecurity and warnings of an authoritarian turn in a country long seen as a model of liberal democracy in the region.

Crime is a big concern for many voters as criminal groups battle to control lucrative cocaine trafficking routes to Europe and the US, casting a shadow on the Central American country famous for its wildlife tourism.

Published: February 1, 2026, 10:00 am

Price of consumer goods could surge as shipping costs soar, industry body says

CIPS warns of ‘cracks’ in global supply chain affecting computers, electrical machinery and transport equipment

The price of consumer goods including computers, electrical machinery and transport equipment could surge this year as a result of soaring shipping costs, an industry body has said, adding that “cracks [are] forming in the global trading system”.

The cost of transport, energy and raw materials continues to rise and prices remain volatile, which could feed through to businesses and consumers during 2026, according to a study by the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply (CIPS).

Published: February 1, 2026, 1:00 pm

‘Made me want to punch the air’: The Night Manager’s seductive, twisty return was a TV triumph

Without a weighty Le Carré novel behind it, there were fears the steamy, stylish spy series would feel phoned in. We needn’t have worried – it’s been a delight

• This article contains spoilers for the season finale of The Night Manager

What a pleasure it is to be seduced – and The Night Manager is just about the most seductive show on television. The palatial houses and swish hotels; the expensive suits and crisp shirts (does anyone wear a button-up better than Tom Hiddleston?); all the beautiful people with their beautiful faces, elegantly stabbing one another in the back. The first season aired 10 years ago – an entirely different world – so when it was announced that a second season was coming, my first thought was: oh no, lightning doesn’t strike twice. Delightfully, I was wrong.

If you haven’t revisited The Night Manager since 2016, here are the pertinent points: Jonathan Pine (Hiddleston), a night manager in a Cairo hotel, weaseled his way into the rarefied world of arms dealer Richard Onslow Roper (Hugh Laurie), AKA “the worst man in the world”, under the direction of Angela Burr (Olivia Colman), who ran a British intelligence operation. As a supposedly loyal henchman, Pine beguiled Roper, shtupped his girlfriend, imploded his arms deal and made off with a cool $300m, as Roper was dragged off screaming to a violent fate by unhappy customers.

Published: February 1, 2026, 10:00 pm

Why you should embrace rejection

From building resilience to boosting artistic creativity, there are unexpected benefits to being rebuffed

Rejection hurts. Whether in a professional, social or romantic setting, there is a particularly painful sting to the discovery that one has been judged undesirable in some way. If you have ever experienced proper rejection – and that would be most of us – it may stand out in your mind for a long time, like a boulder lodged in the landscape of memory.

And it can hurt literally. The late anthropologist Helen Fisher, who studied human behaviour in the context of romantic love, showed that rejection and physical injury have much in common. In 2010 she led a study of people who had been recently rejected romantically. Functional MRI scans of their brains revealed that areas associated with distress and physical pain were more active. The passage of time did seem to reduce the pain response for Fisher’s participants, but for some people rejection can resonate for months or years. This overlap in the brain’s response to what we think of as physical and mental pain isn’t limited to romance. Social psychologist Naomi Eisenberger scanned the brains of people who were socially excluded from a ballgame in an experiment. Her results showed that “social pain is analogous in its neurocognitive function to physical pain, alerting us when we have sustained injury to our social connections”.

Published: February 1, 2026, 12:00 pm

Dead Souls review – Alex Cox rides into sunset with anti-Trump spaghetti western

Rotterdam film festival
The Repo Man director relocates Gogol’s surreal novella to the old west in what he says will be his final film

English film-maker Alex Cox comes riding into town with this jauntily odd and surreal western which he has indicated will be his swansong, shot on the rugged plains of Almeria in Spain and also Arizona. Cox himself is the star – an elegant, dapper presence – and his co-writer is veteran spaghetti western actor Gianni Garko.

The story has obvious relevance to contemporary America, and a flash-forward makes some of this clear. But it is also inspired by the classic novella of the same name by Nikolai Gogol, a mysterious parable of greed and vanity about a man who travels around offering to buy the souls of dead serfs on various estates in pre-revolutionary Russia so landowners can lower their tax bills, but plans to claim that they are still alive and therefore pass himself off as a wealthy man.

Published: February 1, 2026, 8:38 pm

Milli Vanilli’s Fab Morvan on his lip-syncing downfall and Grammys comeback: ‘The truth will set you free’

Three decades after having his Grammy rescinded as part of the notorious duo, he is a nominee once more, for the audiobook of his unflinching memoir. ‘I had to tell my story,’ he says

It may not be the most auspicious way to start an interview, but I have to ask: Fab, is it you reading your audiobook? Please confirm you aren’t just a pretty face hired to front it?

Fabrice Maxime Sylvain Morvan considers my question, then laughs. I’m teasing: it definitely is Morvan narrating You Know It’s True: The Real Story of Milli Vanilli. But as the recording of his book has been nominated for best audiobook, narration and storytelling recording at the 2026 Grammy awards – and Milli Vanilli are the only winners to have had their Grammy (given in 1990 for best new artist) rescinded, due to the revelation that the duo didn’t sing on their records – I do need confirmation.

Published: February 1, 2026, 10:00 am

Wimpy Kid author Jeff Kinney: ‘I’ve sold 300m books. What’s next?’

As the 20th book in his Diary of a Wimpy Kid series is published, the author shows no signs of slowing down – scripting films, opening a bookshop and making plans to rebuild his hometown

Watching Jeff Kinney sign books is akin to watching an elaborate piece of performance art. Backstage at a theatre in Chester, where the author is continuing his UK tour, three folding tables heave under the weight of thousands of copies. Kinney wheels round the table on a swivel chair, signing as he goes. He is a picture of total focus.

Today Kinney is signing copies of Partypooper, the 20th book in his blockbuster Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. Every copy bears the phrase “Over 300 million books sold”. To put that into perspective, Kinney has sold more books than Led Zeppelin have sold albums. If you’ve had – or been – a child of reading age at any point over the last couple of decades, Kinney is a rock star. And nowhere is that clearer than at his sold-out event later that evening, as he is custard-pied while a crowd of 800 children and parents scream with excitement.

Published: February 1, 2026, 12:00 pm

Michael Jackson detailed his thoughts on children in previously unheard audio

Late singer said kids loved his personality and wanted to touch and hug him, and ‘sometimes it got me into trouble’

As Michael Jackson saw it, children would become enamored with his personality as well as want to touch and hug him – and “sometimes it [got] me into trouble,” the late US pop superstar says in previously unheard audio recordings contained in a new documentary.

The UK’s Wonderhood Studios included the recordings of Jackson voicing those thoughts for a new four-episode documentary series beginning on Wednesday that explores his acquittal on child sexual abuse charges after a 14-week criminal trial near Los Angeles in 2005.

Published: February 1, 2026, 8:30 pm

Dozens of historic Maseratis recreated for movie about Italian car company

Film with a cast headed by Anthony Hopkins tells the story of a supercar marque that began in a small Bologna garage

Dozens of Maseratis of 1920s and 1930s designs have been built specially for a feature film about the Italian car company’s earliest days, with a cast headed by Anthony Hopkins.

Maserati: The Brothers tells the story of siblings driven by their love of cars to create an automotive company from scratch. It all began in a little garage in the Italian city of Bologna: in 1914 they founded a sports supercar company that went on to make some of the fastest vehicles on the planet.

Published: February 1, 2026, 3:00 pm

The best theatre to stream this month: big and bold Bacchae ushers in new era at the National

Nima Taleghani’s debut play brings a raucous Greek chorus to the Olivier theatre, while Judi Dench has an enchanting Twelfth Night reunion

The National Theatre’s new artistic director, Indhu Rubasingham, launched her tenure last autumn with a big, bold spin on Euripides in the Olivier theatre – by a debut playwright to boot. Heartstopper star Nima Taleghani’s version, featuring choreography by Kate Prince and with Clare Perkins leading the self-styled “raucous Greek chorus”, comes to NT at Home on 6 February. It’s followed by a Q&A with Rubasingham.

Published: February 1, 2026, 5:00 am

Island-hopping in Sweden: an enchanted maze of tiny isles – only a bus ride from Gothenburg

From a bioluminescent nightime sea to rare wildlife, natural wonders are on tap in the Gothenburg archipelago

Out on the water, paddling across the straits between two small rocky islands, the dusk fades and the stars appear. Jennie has done her best to coach me in local geography before darkness, showing me the map with its patchwork of islands and bays, and describing the shape of each landmark. All to no avail. I’m more than happy to be lost at sea, leaning back in my kayak to gaze at the constellations, occasionally checking that the red light on the stern of her kayak is still visible ahead. We stop in the sheltered lee of an island and hear a hoot. “Eurasian eagle owl,” says Jennie. “They nest here.” Then she switches off all the lights. “Let’s paddle slowly close to shore. Watch what happens.”

As soon as we move, the sea flickers into life, every paddle stroke triggering thrilling trails of cold, blue sparkles. When we stop, I slap my hand on the surface and the sea is momentarily electrified into a nebulous neural network of light, like some great salty brain figuring out this alien intrusion. Below that, squadrons of jellyfish pulse their own spectral contribution.

Published: February 1, 2026, 7:00 am

PMDD is ruining my life. What can I do?

You’re already doing all the right things for your premenstrual dysphoric disorder, but perhaps it’s time to ask others for more help

I’m 32, and was recently diagnosed with premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD), though I suspect I have had it for around five years. It severely affects every area of my life.

For 10 days every month I become irritable and impatient, and have debilitating brain fog. At my worst, I am depressed, with uncontrollable crying and suicidal ideation. I go to weekly therapy sessions, take a variety of supplements, and live a healthy lifestyle – exercise, minimal alcohol, eating well, etc, but all these habits become almost impossible during my luteal phase after ovulation and I feel as though I am completely stuck.

Published: February 1, 2026, 6:00 am

How to make mulligatawny – recipe | Felicity Cloake's Masterclass

Have you forgotten how good this spicy soup tastes? Here are nine easy steps to rediscovering the Indian-inspired winter warmer

I have yet to see anyone eating mulligatawny in an Indian restaurant – perhaps unsurprisingly, given that it’s a product of the British occupation, and the very name has an off-putting Victorian feel, which is a shame, because it’s aged a lot better than imperialism. Based, historians think, on the Madrassi broth molo tunny, it’s a lovely, gently spiced winter soup that’s well worth rediscovering.

Prep 15 min
Cook 50 min
Serves 4-6

Published: February 1, 2026, 1:00 pm

‘Menopause gold rush’? Boom in hi-tech products as stigma starts to recede

The march of wearable tech is coming to the aid of women in what some say is a long underserved market

For any bodily function you want to measure these days there is a gadget – a wristband for step-counting, a watch to track your heart rate or a ring for measuring sleep.

Now the march of wearable tech is coming to the aid of what some say is a long underserved market: menopausal women.

Published: February 1, 2026, 10:00 am

‘I’m loving this era I’ve been thrust into’: Denise Welch on depression, daytime TV and her dramatic renaissance

She’s gone from ‘queen of the soaps’ to Loose Woman known for her outspoken opinions and rockstar son Matty Healy. Now sober, she is enjoying another reinvention

Denise Welch doesn’t seem the kind of woman who would turn up with an entourage. But here she is having her hair primped in a makeshift changing room by two people. One tickling her fringe, the other tweaking her tufts. Blimey, I say, have you got two assistants? She grins. “No. There are three.” And now it turns out she’s got a fourth. I offer to make her a cup of coffee. She warns me she’s fussy. “Three teaspoons of Coffee-Mate, please.”

Welch is having a moment. She calls it, with a fabulously camp flourish, her renaissance. The actor and Loose Women regular has hardly been invisible in recent years. But this is on another level. For most of the 2000s, she has been best known for dishing out blithe opinions about anything and everything, and being the mother of the 1975’s frontman, Matty Healy. Now, though, it’s the acting that’s getting the attention. Earlier this month, she returned to the drama series Waterloo Road as the hopeless French teacher Steph Haydock after a 15‑year absence. This time around, she’s a supply teacher and is even more hopeless. Welch has also got parts in the new Russell T Davies drama series Tip Toe, the Josh Pugh sitcom Stepping Up, both on Channel 4, and the adaptation of Graham Norton’s novel Forever Home.

Published: February 1, 2026, 6:00 am

Venice carnival, flamenco fashion and a fire beast: photos of the weekend

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

Published: February 1, 2026, 3:46 pm