Narnia! Dune! Charli xcx! The 2026 films Guardian writers are most excited about

From much-anticipated sequels to music mockumentaries to auteur returns, the next 12 months offers up a wide variety of intriguing new movies

• Doomed lovers, high heels, and The Odyssey: more films to get excited about this year

• The 50 must-see TV shows for 2026

I doubt very much that 2026 will see anything in the Marty Supreme league, but here’s hoping one of the most bizarre side-steps of the decade turns out as interesting as it hopes. Short of Christopher Nolan signing on to the new Mr Men movie, I didn’t think much would throw the industry a loop as when Greta Gerwig decided to follow up bubblegum blockbuster Barbie with …… a Narnia movie. More specifically, Gerwig – previously a skilled purveyor of achingly hip alt-indie comedy with Lady Bird, Frances Ha and Damsels in Distress – is restarting the Narnia series, which had got through three of CS Lewis’s series before Netflix took over the rights. To my mind, though, The Magician’s Nephew, Lewis’s origins/prequel to the Wardrobe/Caspian/Dawn Treader narrative, is the most interesting of the entire Narnia canon, with its Edenic fall, “deplorable word” and mystical apple. We know some of the cast: Emma Mackey is the future White Witch, Carey Mulligan the terminally ill mother of one of the main kids, and Daniel Craig might be Aslan or mad inventor Uncle Andrew – or both, or neither. All eyes will be naturally be on Gerwig, but I have confidence she will pull it off in style. Andrew Pulver

Published: January 6, 2026, 10:02 am

Donald Trump poses a threat to civilization | Robert Reich

The moral purpose of civilized society is to prevent the stronger from attacking the weaker. The US was founded on that principle

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Trump’s domestic and foreign policies – ranging from his attempted coup against the United States five years ago, to his incursion into Venezuela last weekend, to his current threats against Cuba, Colombia, and Greenland – undermine domestic and international law. But that’s not all.

They threaten what we mean by civilization.

Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is a professor of public policy emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a Guardian US columnist and his newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com. His new book, Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America, is out now

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 6, 2026, 11:00 am

I have frequent nosebleeds. What causes them and are they normal?

Though most nosebleeds are mild and benign, they shouldn’t happen. Experts weigh in on when to see a doctor

If you frequently experience nosebleeds, you might come to regard them as nothing more than a messy inconvenience.

Yet, even though most nosebleeds are mild and benign, they shouldn’t happen “if everything inside the nose is healthy”, says Dr Patricia Loftus, an otolaryngologist at the University of California, San Francisco.

Published: January 6, 2026, 5:00 pm

The strangest thing: is the future of cinema … not new movies?

Netflix’s big-screen release of the Stranger Things finale is estimated to have made over $25m at the US box office, the latest example of event cinema proving popular

It was a lucrative holiday period at the North American box office these past two weeks, with titles like Avatar: Fire and Ash, The Housemaid, Marty Supreme, Anaconda and Zootopia 2 bringing a welcome diversity of hit movies after an underwhelming fall. But during that period, the biggest single-day gross posted by any release wasn’t really a gross – or a movie. It was the series finale of the Netflix TV show Stranger Things.

Netflix made a deal to put the feature-length episode in theaters simultaneously with its streaming debut, and estimates put the numbers for the 24 hours’ worth of shows, beginning at 8pm on New Year’s Eve and continuing throughout New Year’s Day, around $25m. That’s bigger than any single day of Avatar: Fire and Ash after its opening weekend. In fact, if the Stranger Things release banked over $30m, as some estimated, that would make it the second-biggest 24 hours for any release in December, beaten only by Avatar 3’s opening day.

Published: January 6, 2026, 12:04 pm

Many schools don’t think students can read full novels any more. That’s a tragedy | Margaret Sullivan

Increasingly, teens are given only parts of books, and they often read not in print but on school-issued laptops

Reading fiction has been such a joy for me that my heart broke a little to learn recently that many schools no longer assign full books to high school students.

Rather, teens are given excerpts of books, and they often read them not in print but on school-issued laptops, according to a survey of 2,000 teachers, students and parents by the New York Times.

Margaret Sullivan is a Guardian US columnist writing on media, politics and culture

Published: January 6, 2026, 11:00 am

Industry season four review – truly twisted, top-tier television

It may only be January, but you already know this banking drama is going to be one of the year’s best shows – a daring, debauched and jaw-dropping treat

Many dramas – especially good ones – don’t become major hits overnight. Think of the likes of Game of Thrones or Succession, which needed time to warm up, and some jaw-dropper episodes (namely the Red Wedding and Kendall bumping off a waiter, respectively) to really get going. Industry is one such show – the slow-burn HBO/BBC series that firmly hit its stride in season three. Good news: season four is even better, truly top-tier television that’s surely destined for end-of-year lists, a serious feat when we’re barely a week into January.

Industry is, of course, the one about young investment bankers, the drama that initially drew comparisons with This Life, and the show where our fresh-faced grads were as likely to be hooking up with one another as they were to be stabbing each other in the back. Fast forward to season four and it’s feeling decidedly more dark and debauched, while still held together with pitch-perfect dialogue. Kiernan Shipka – here, vastly closer to Don Draper than to his daughter, Sally, whom she played in Mad Men – Max Minghella, Kal Penn and Charlie Heaton are among the big names who have joined the cast this time around. They meld seamlessly with our existing leads – the mononymous Myha’la, Marisa Abela, Kit Harington – to make something more twisted and sophisticated than viewers may be expecting. Props, too, for Toheeb Jimoh of Ted Lasso for integrating flawlessly; his jaunt over the Atlantic with Miriam Petche as Sweetpea is a treat in particular.

Published: January 6, 2026, 3:00 pm

White House says using US military is ‘always an option’ for acquiring Greenland

European leaders are pushing back against US president’s desire to seek takeover of the arctic territory

Donald Trump and his advisers are looking into “a range of options” in an effort to acquire Greenland, noting in a White House statement on Tuesday that using the US military to do so is “always an option”.

“President Trump has made it well known that acquiring Greenland is a national security priority of the United States, and it’s vital to deter our adversaries in the Arctic region. The President and his team are discussing a range of options to pursue this important foreign policy goal, and of course, utilizing the US Military is always an option at the Commander in Chief’s disposal,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.

Published: January 6, 2026, 11:21 pm

January 6, five years on: sustained effort by Trump to rewrite history

President and Republican allies have tried to make sure the deadly attack on the Capitol has been erased from memory

Five years after the deadly attack on the US Capitol, Donald Trump and other Republicans have engaged in a near-complete effort to rewrite the history of the day and erase it from the collective American memory.

On his first day in office, Trump pardoned anyone involved in the attack, a move that affected about 1,500 people. His administration has paid $5m to settle a wrongful death lawsuit with the family of Ashli Babbitt, a rioter killed by a Capitol police officer as she attempted to breach doors near the House floor. Hundreds of other rioters are also seeking millions of dollars in compensation.

Published: January 6, 2026, 11:00 am

Armed militias deployed in Venezuela as regime attempts to impose authority

Paramilitary groups known as colectivos patrol streets with assault rifles, stop and search cars and people’s phones

• US politics live – latest updates

Venezuela’s rulers have deployed armed militias to patrol streets, operate checkpoints and check people’s phones in a crackdown to consolidate authority after the US attack on Caracas.

Paramilitary groups known as colectivos criss-crossed the capital with motorbikes and assault rifles on Tuesday in a show of force to stifle any dissent or perception of a power vacuum.

Published: January 6, 2026, 6:58 pm

Trump administration escalates attack on Minnesota with more immigration agents

Another 2,000 ICE and homeland security agents will reportedly head to the state, targeting immigrant populations

The Trump administration has sent more immigration agents to Minnesota, part of escalating attacks and rhetoric against the state and its immigrant populations in what immigration officials are saying is the agency’s “largest operation to date”.

“A 100% chance of ICE in the Twin Cities — our largest operation to date,” the official Immigration and Customs Enforcement account on X wrote on Tuesday afternoon. “If you’re a criminal illegal alien and/or you are engaged in fraud, expect a visit from ICE.”

Published: January 6, 2026, 9:03 pm

Wyoming supreme court strikes down near-total abortion bans

Justices rule 4-1 that laws, including a ban on abortion pills, violate a state amendment protecting healthcare choices

Abortion will stay legal in Wyoming after the state’s supreme court struck down two near-total abortion bans on Tuesday, ruling that the laws violate the constitution of the profoundly conservative state.

In a 4-1 decision, the justices decided that the two bans – which include the nation’s first exclusive ban on abortion pills – violated a 2012 state constitutional amendment. That amendment affirmed competent adults’ right to make their own healthcare decisions and was originally passed as part of Wyoming’s response to the Affordable Care Act.

Published: January 6, 2026, 8:01 pm

Elon Musk’s xAI announces it has raised $20bn amid backlash over Grok deepfakes

AI company’s chatbot faces criticism over its generation of sexualized, nonconsensual images of women and girls

Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company has raised $20bn in its latest funding round, the startup announced Tuesday, even as its marquee chatbot Grok faces backlash over generating sexualized, nonconsensual images of women and underage girls.

xAI’s Series E funding round featured big name investors, including Nvidia, Fidelity Management and Resource Company, Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, and Valor Equity Partners – the private investment firm of Musk’s longtime friend and former Doge member Antonio Gracias. The funding round exceeded its initial $15bn target, according to xAI’s press release. The company touted Grok’s image generation abilities in the announcement of its latest funding round

Published: January 6, 2026, 10:31 pm

‘Stock up’: Ontario premier promises to banish Crown Royal whisky from province

Doug Ford’s move comes after Diageo announced plan to shutter Ontario whisky plant and move operations to US

Ontario’s premier, Doug Ford, has warned rye drinkers they will need to “stock up” if they want to keep consuming Crown Royal, as he promised to make good on plans to banish the Canadian whisky brand from his province.

Ford has since September been locked in a simmering feud over tariffs and economic nationalism with the multinational spirits maker Diageo. This week, he renewed his threats to wield the power of the province’s liquor control board – one of the largest buyers of alcohol in the world – to banish Crown Royal.

Published: January 6, 2026, 5:17 pm

Pesticide industry ‘immunity shield’ stripped from US appropriations bill

Democrats and ‘make America healthy again’ movement pushed back on the rider in a funding bill led by Bayer

In a setback for the pesticide industry, Democrats have succeeded in removing a rider from a congressional appropriations bill that would have helped protect pesticide makers from being sued and could have hindered state efforts to warn about pesticide risks.

Chellie Pingree, a Democratic representative from Maine and ranking member of the House appropriations interior, environment, and related agencies subcommittee, said Monday that the controversial measure pushed by the agrochemical giant Bayer and industry allies has been stripped from the 2026 funding bill.

Published: January 6, 2026, 5:50 pm

Top union accuses Texas of targeting teachers over Charlie Kirk posts

American Federation of Teachers sues over what it says are unconstitutional investigations into social media comments

A major Texas teachers’ union filed a federal lawsuit against the state on Tuesday challenging what it describes as unconstitutional investigations into hundreds of educators who posted comments on social media following the September killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

The Texas American Federation of Teachers, which represents approximately 66,000 public school employees, is asking a federal court to block the Texas Education Agency and its commissioner, Mike Morath, from continuing investigations that the union argues violate teachers’ free speech protections.

Published: January 6, 2026, 8:54 pm

Doug LaMalfa, California Republican congressman, dies aged 65

LaMalfa’s death cuts the House Republican majority to 218-213, tightening GOP control for passing bills

Doug LaMalfa, a California Republican who represented the state’s rural northern region in the House of Representatives and was known for his work on water and forestry policy, has died at age 65, according to statements from Republican officials.

LaMalfa, a fourth-generation rice farmer who previously served in the California state legislature, was in his seventh term representing California’s first congressional district. He sat on the House agriculture, natural resources, and transportation and infrastructure committees.

Published: January 6, 2026, 5:06 pm

Two Republicans oppose Pete Hegseth’s censure of fellow Senator Mark Kelly

Pushback from Susan Collins and Thom Tillis is striking amid tepid response from most other Republican senators

Two senior Republican senators on Monday openly opposed Pentagon secretary Pete Hegseth’s attempt to punish their fellow Senator Mark Kelly by demoting him and cutting his pension after he released a video telling active-duty military to follow the law.

Susan Collins of Maine, who chairs the Senate appropriations committee with jurisdiction over the Pentagon’s budget, said she believed it was wrong to target Kelly’s military benefits because of a political video.

Published: January 6, 2026, 2:40 pm

US justice department has released less than 1% of Epstein files, filing reveals

Federal law required majority of documents to be released by 19 December, but only 125,575 pages have been published

The Department of Justice has released less than 1% of the so-called Epstein files, a court filing has revealed, as Democrats step up criticism of the Trump administration’s “lawlessness” for keeping records under seal.

The department conceded that only 12,285 documents, totalling 125,575 pages, relating to the disgraced financier and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein have been published to date, despite a federal law requiring the vast majority to be released by 19 December.

Published: January 6, 2026, 2:54 pm

US abandons child exploitation and drug cases to prioritize ICE, Democrats allege

Exclusive: Letter decries ‘stunning abdication of basic responsibilities’ and demands to know how many officers diverted

The Trump administration has abandoned efforts to combat child exploitation, human trafficking and cartels as it diverts thousands of law enforcement personnel to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Democratic senators said in a letter to the White House.

Ruben Gallego of Arizona, along with 28 other Democratic senators and one independent, wrote to the president, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Justice (DoJ) on Monday demanding that federal officials provide a “full accounting” of officers who have been redirected to immigration enforcement and a list of all investigations affected by the reassignments.

Published: January 6, 2026, 11:00 am

‘She was the brains, Maduro was the brawn’: Cilia Flores’s role in Venezuela

Flores, Nicolás Maduro’s wife, wielded far more power than just being a first lady and played a front line role in politics

Before pleading “not guilty” at her first court hearing after she and her husband, Nicolás Maduro, were captured by US special forces, Cilia Flores made a point of adding, in Spanish: “I am first lady of the Republic of Venezuela.”

But Maduro himself and others close to the couple agree that she was always far more than that. Before her rendition to New York, Flores wielded power comparable with – and at times greater than – that of other figures from the regime, including Delcy Rodríguez, the former vice-president who is now the country’s acting leader.

Published: January 6, 2026, 2:06 pm

NRA sues the charitable version of itself, alleging a factional ‘beef’

New leadership claims former allies are trying to repurpose $160m in NRA Foundation donations for personal gain

The National Rifle Association (NRA) is suing its own charitable arm, the NRA Foundation, claiming that its leaders are trying to seize control of the gun rights organization and illegally “repurposing” $160m in donations to support their “thirst for power”.

The allegations come in a lawsuit filed on Monday in federal court in Washington DC laying bare the turmoil that has plagued the NRA since its disgraced longtime chief executive, Wayne LaPierre, was ousted in 2024 alongside other senior figures after a financial corruption scandal.

Published: January 6, 2026, 5:13 pm

‘I felt violated’: Elon Musk’s AI chatbot crosses a line

Grok still being used to digitally undress women and children, while US takes TikTok approach to drones

Hello, and welcome to TechScape. Happy new year! I hope your 2026 is off to a great start. Today in tech, we are examining the output of Elon Musk’s AI chatbot, Grok, and the US’s ban on foreign drones.

What happened after Tesla opened a diner in Los Angeles?

China’s BYD overtakes Tesla as world’s biggest electric car seller

Google AI Overviews put people at risk of harm with misleading health advice

Reddit overtakes TikTok in UK thanks to search algorithms and gen Z

Published: January 6, 2026, 2:22 pm

How to actually reduce your screen time this year: 15 expert tips

If you want to doomscroll less this year, try these realistic tips from screen time coaches

• Simple daily rituals for building fun, calm and play into your days in 2026

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

I wish time travel were real. If it were, I’d go back to 2006 – the year before the release of the first iPhone. A time when doomscrolling didn’t exist, and the thought of a phone call didn’t cause me a rush of anxiety.

And many Americans agree. On social media, some are already labeling 2026 “the age of analog”, swapping Spotify for a record player and a smartphone lens for a film camera.

Published: January 6, 2026, 8:46 pm

Putin as a Russian James Bond? Jude Law’s Vladimir film seems to have swallowed Kremlin myths | Natasha Kiseleva

In The Wizard of the Kremlin, Jude Law plays Russia’s president as a cool, reluctant leader, a strategist who got the job because he was young, athletic and a spy. This is a creation far removed from the man himself

Last year, speaking at the Venice film festival premiere of The Wizard of the Kremlin, based on a book about the rise of Vladimir Putin, actor Jude Law said he “didn’t fear any repercussions” over his portrayal of the Russian president. Law may be right, but not for the reason he thinks he is. The film aligns so closely with the mythologised version promoted by the Russian media that, domestically, it reads as a compliment rather than an affront.

The Kremlin and Russia’s pop-culture machine have long collaborated to craft a made-to-measure version of Putin that is far removed from the man himself: a political superhero without age or mistakes, a perfectly calculated strategist, a former spy reframed as a Russian James Bond who always knows more than he reveals.

Published: January 6, 2026, 3:26 pm

The most exciting US art exhibitions in 2026

The next 12 months promise blockbuster surveys of noted greats and introductions to intriguing lesser-known artists

From old masters to pop artists, contemporary greats and even a major Mexican film-maker, art museums and galleries across the US have some dazzling shows coming up in 2026.

Published: January 6, 2026, 5:17 pm

I got married twice in my 20s. Now I’m in love with my midlife situationship | Natasha Ginnivan

Bored, lonely and emerging from lockdown, a less-traditional relationship was just what I was looking for

We were just two midlifers in our 50s who met back in 2020 using a popular dating app. Bored, lonely and emerging from lockdown we jumped at the chance for an outing. We had our first date at a trendy, dimly-lit Japanese restaurant and bar in Sydney’s Surry Hills. By our second lychee martini, we became aware of some mutual connections that we knew and discovered that we had actually grown up in the same place.

There was an immediate feeling of familiarity and a shared sense of humour that clicked without effort. We were in no rush for anything too serious. In fact, it would take another five outings, including antique-trawling for some 70s-inspired crockery, before things would develop into more of a romantic connection.

Published: January 6, 2026, 2:00 pm

Greta Thunberg came to stay – and my kid may have inadvertently helped her get arrested | Arwa Mahdawi

The activist had held a sign written with my daughter’s crayon. Try explaining that to a four-year-old

It was 6am. London. A few days before Christmas. My four-year-old is singing at the top of her lungs and charging around my parents’ house on a hunt for the perfect crayon. There is nothing particularly unusual about this scene except for the fact that the crayon in question was for Greta Thunberg. The world’s most well-known activist needed a writing tool and my daughter, O, was on the case. (Remember this crayon: it’s going to be important later on.)

O, I should note, had absolutely no idea who Greta was. We’re not longtime chums or anything like that. Rather Greta was in London to support the Palestine Action-linked hunger strikers. She needed somewhere to stay and my dad, who is a Palestinian refugee, and appreciative of anyone speaking up about the place where he was born but can’t return to live in, keeps an open house for activists who need a bed or a meal. When the visit had been hastily arranged by a friend of a friend of my sister a couple days earlier, we’d tried to explain to O that Greta was a famous activist who tried to help people and the environment.

Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist

Published: January 6, 2026, 10:00 am

Trump is marching into 2026 with the worst cabinet in history | Austin Sarat

From RFK Jr to Pete Hegseth, the president’s top aides have been disastrous. We shouldn’t be surprised

As 2024 ended and Donald Trump’s cabinet picks were rolled out, commentators scrambled to decide which one was the worst. Was it Matt Gaetz for attorney general? Or Pete Hegseth, for secretary of defense? Or maybe Robert F Kennedy Jr to lead the Department of Health and Human Services?

Soon after, the White House crowed that Trump had assembled “the greatest cabinet of all time”.

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 6, 2026, 2:00 pm

We can safely experiment on reflecting sunlight away from Earth. Here’s how | Dakota Gruener and Daniele Visioni

Reflecting a small fraction of incoming sunlight to reduce global heating is not a new idea. It is time to safely experiment

The world is warming fast – and our options to avoid catastrophic harm are narrowing. 2024 was the first full year more than 1.5C hotter than the 19th-century average. Emissions are still rising, with fossil fuel use expected to hit a new high in 2025. Permanent carbon removal technologies – often cited as a fix – are removing just tens of thousands of tonnes annually, almost nothing relative to the 5-10bn tonnes needed. Cutting emissions and scaling carbon removal remain essential. But they may not be enough.

As suffering grows and ecosystems unravel, more people will ask: is there anything we can do to prevent these harms? The idea of reflecting a small fraction of incoming sunlight to reduce warming is not a new idea. In 1965, Lyndon B Johnson’s science advisers proposed it as the only way to cool the planet. Earth already reflects about 30% of incoming sunlight; raising that fraction slightly – say, to 31% – could strengthen the planet’s natural heat shield. But how?

Published: January 6, 2026, 12:00 pm

Now Musk’s Grok chatbot is creating sexualised images of children. If the law won’t stop it, perhaps his investors will | Sophia Smith Galer

The owner of X has grown used to acting with impunity – but this may be a red line for those with ‘conservative values’ who fund his adventures in free speech

It’s a sickening law of the internet that the first thing people will try to do with a new tool is strip women. Grok, X’s AI chatbot, has been used repeatedly by users in recent days to undress images of women and minors. The news outlet Reuters identified 102 requests in a 10-minute period last Friday from users to get Grok to edit people into bikinis, the majority of these targeting young women. Grok complied with at least 21 of them.

There is no excuse for releasing exploitative tools on the internet when you are sitting on $10bn (£7.5bn) in cash. Every platform with AI integration (which now covers almost the entire internet) is planning for the same challenges; if you want to enable users to create images and even videos with generative AI, how do you do so without letting the same people cause harm? Tech companies spend money behind the scenes that you’ll never see as a user to wrestle with this; they’ll do “red teaming”, in which they pretend to be bad actors in order to test their products. They’ll launch beta tests to probe and review features within trusted environments.

Sophia Smith Galer is a journalist and content creator. Her second book, How to Kill a Language, will be published in May

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 6, 2026, 3:30 pm

Elon Musk is moving back into politics. Can’t he take up a new hobby instead? | Arwa Mahdawi

It didn’t go very well for him last time, but the tech billionaire seems to have abandoned his plans for a third party and has renewed his bromance with the president

“You know, I’ve generally found that when I get involved in politics, it ends up badly,” Elon Musk mused on Nikhil Kamath’s podcast in November.

Oh, we know, Elon, we most definitely know. The world is still reeling from the tech billionaire’s little experiment in politicking last year. Musk’s “department of government efficiency” (Doge) slashed federal jobs, dismantled foreign aid programmes and left a trail of chaos in its wake. It’s not clear whether any taxpayer money was saved, but experts are warning a lot of lives will be lost. By one calculation, there could be about 14 million excess deaths across the globe by 2030 if the US fails to restore aid funding. Thanks, Elon!

Published: January 6, 2026, 2:47 pm

Male bonds develop one way, female friendships another. Should we stop trying to make men more like women? | Gaby Hinsliff

The strong and silent masculine image is often derided, but why? Perhaps companionship via trains, golf or a quiet drink is enough

It’s good to talk. Or so men are always being told, by everyone from mental health campaigners to the women they live with, bemused by the male tendency to spend all night in the pub with friends they have known for decades and yet come back utterly clueless about whatever is going on in each other’s lives. What can they be doing, all that time? Why haven’t they asked how X feels about splitting up with his girlfriend, or how Y is coping with his father dying?

To women whose own friendships revolve around an intimate and encyclopaedic knowledge of each other’s innermost feelings, intimacy based on never seemingly talking about anything that matters looks oddly empty and sad. No wonder, we think to ourselves, that more than a quarter of British men say they have no close friends at all; that male loneliness is endemic, that they won’t go to the doctor until they are practically dying, that male suicide rates are higher than female ones, that too many middle-aged men in particular seem to feel permanently angry for reasons they can’t articulate even to themselves. Bottling everything up does nobody any good.

Gaby Hinsliff is a Guardian columnist

In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org

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Published: January 6, 2026, 8:00 am

The Guardian view on Trump’s raid in Caracas: oil matters, but it’s not the whole story | Editorial

The seizure of Venezuelan leader was induced by the prize of petroleum, but driven by spectacle, geopolitics and domestic politics

It’s all about oil. That was the reason Nicolás Maduro, the Venezuelan leader illegally abducted by US forces at the weekend, had given for Donald Trump’s fixation with his country. A better way to think about Venezuela is that oil was necessary but not sufficient. The presence of vast reserves made Mr Trump’s interest understandable – if Venezuela’s main export was bananas this would not have happened. But oil alone cannot explain the timing or scale of the move.

Venezuelan crude is extra-heavy as well as expensive and slow to bring online; it will not immediately transform US energy systems, nor rescue refineries that have already adapted to years without it. Instead, oil is the “prize” around which other agendas cohere. These include future profits for US firms; modest downward pressure on oil prices; depriving China of a meaningful ally in America’s backyard; putting pressure on Cuba; and US domestic political signalling in Florida. Each gain is small. But collectively Mr Trump could justify a high‑profile, theatrical – and unlawful – intervention even if the economic returns are incremental.

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 6, 2026, 7:25 pm

Nottingham Forest add to West Ham’s woes as Gibbs-White seals late fightback win

For a while it seemed the only thing that Nottingham Forest were going to get right was show safe hands when West Ham passed them the Premier League’s crisis baton. Sean Dyche’s side were jeered off after an awful first half but an unlikely turnaround earned them their first win since 14 December thanks to an equaliser from Nicolás Domínguez and a controversial late penalty from Morgan Gibbs-White.

It was a goal that stopped the mood of the relegation fight shifting away from Forest. This was the night when it had to change for West Ham. A first win in 10 games would have had them closing in on 17th-placed Forest, who were looking at a fifth consecutive defeat after conceding a poor early goal, but there is no respite for Nuno Espírito Santo at the moment. His side simply cannot defend – West Ham are yet to keep a clean sheet since hiring the Portuguese manager in September – and slipped seven points below Forest after a VAR review led to Alphonse Areola being penalised for catching Gibbs-White when he tried to punch a cross away.

Published: January 6, 2026, 10:17 pm

What does Ruben Amorim know compared to Sir Jim, Jason Wilcox and the gilded overclass? | Jonathan Liew

In Manchester United’s brave new world coaches are more like Deliveroo drivers: not really responsible for the food, but still to blame if it arrives cold

Turns out he could survive losing against Grimsby. Survive losing a crucial European final against one of the worst Tottenham teams in living memory. He could survive losing at home against West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, the tactical inflexibility, laying waste to some of the club’s best homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, calling his team the worst in Manchester United history. But there was one adversary with whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to dance. You come at Jason Wilcox, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, like many a Premiership right-back in Blackburn’s title-winning 1994‑95 season, Amorim came at Jason Wilcox and appears to have missed. Even the most distracted of readers will notice the irony here: a coach who often railed at his players for losing one-on-one duels crumbling in the face of the white heat and animal charisma of one of the Premier League’s most feared sporting directors.

Published: January 6, 2026, 5:53 pm

Olympic ice hockey venues may not be finished in time for games

• IIHF president says seating at arenas may be reduced

• NHL concerned about ice quality and dimensions

The head of the International Ice Hockey Federation said parts of the main hockey rink for the Milan Cortina Olympics might not be fully finished on time, but the playing surface, practice facilities and dressing rooms will be ready when the puck drops for the men’s event on 11 February.

“We can be confident on that,” IIHF President Luc Tardif told reporters Monday at the world junior championship. “You’re not going to go to Milano for nothing.”

Published: January 6, 2026, 6:54 pm

Nascar commissioner resigns after damaging text messages revealed

• Steve Phelps stepped down after 20 years at the circuit

• Antitrust trial was settled late last year

The fallout from Nascar’s federal antitrust trial continued into the new year as Nascar Commissioner Steve Phelps on Tuesday announced his resignation after more than 20 years with the top racing series in the United States.

His resignation comes after last month’s trial in which inflammatory texts Phelps sent during contentious revenue-sharing negotiations were revealed. Phelps will leave the company at the end of the month, ahead of the start of the first exhibition race of the season on 1 February.

Published: January 6, 2026, 5:34 pm

Tom Izzo ‘ticked off’ after former player ejected for criticizing officials

• Paul Davis played for Izzo at Michigan St in the early 00s

• Davis was ejected for verbal abuse of officials on Monday

Former Michigan State and NBA player Paul Davis was ejected from his alma mater’s Breslin Center after vocally criticizing officials from the stands during the 12th-ranked Spartans’ 80-51 victory over Southern California on Monday night.

Michigan State led 67-46 with just over six minutes left when officials motioned toward the stands to point out Davis, who was eventually ordered to leave.

Published: January 6, 2026, 6:05 pm

Britain’s fragile frontrunners Draper and Raducanu try again to break injury cycles | Tumaini Carayol

Duo begin 2026 again troubled by physical problems and hoping this will finally be the year things change

From the moment news of Great Britain’s planned team for the United Cup was announced in October, jokes began to fly. On paper, it was a dream. Jack Draper and Emma Raducanu, the top tennis players in the country and figureheads of a new generation, finally united on the same side of the court.

However, recent history has shown that things are never straightforward with Britain’s two greatest hopes. Both players have had to navigate injuries and physical problems in their young careers, so to some fans and onlookers the real question was which player would withdraw first. Draper won that race, but on the first day of the 2026 season neither player was physically prepared to take to the court.

Published: January 6, 2026, 1:03 pm

Lamar Jackson is a once in a lifetime talent. And the Ravens are still going backwards

John Harbaugh has spent nearly two decades leading Baltimore. But his failure to get the most out of his quarterback is a fireable failing

There are losses, and then there are those defeats that show us exactly who a team are. The Steelers’ 26-24 win over the Ravens on Sunday night was the latter. It wasn’t just a loss; it was a referendum. The game was vintage, grubby, beautiful AFC North football. A rivalry game with a playoff place on the line. Big plays. Dumb decisions. Cris Collinsworth making unintelligible noises on commentary. In the final three minutes, four plays swung the win probability by more than 40 percentage points.

The Steelers, missing DK Metcalf and Darnell Washington, scored on four of their five second-half drives, three of them touchdowns, with Aaron Rodgers finding Calvin Austin for a 26-yard score with 55 seconds left. Baltimore, by contrast, couldn’t get out of their own way until Lamar Jackson strapped on his cape, completing seven of his final nine passes, throwing two touchdowns and converting a ridiculously clutch fourth-down strike to Isaiah Likely with 21 seconds left and the season on the line.

Published: January 5, 2026, 11:34 am

Liam Rosenior confirmed as Chelsea head coach on contract to 2032

• He arrives from Strasbourg to replace Enzo Maresca

• ‘I cannot turn down Chelsea,’ says former Hull coach

Liam Rosenior has been confirmed as Chelsea’s head coach on a contract to 2032, describing the opportunity to succeed Enzo Maresca at Stamford Bridge as one he could not turn down.

Rosenior has left Strasbourg, ­Chelsea’s partner club, after holding talks over the role on Monday. He said on Tuesday at a Strasbourg press conference: “I have had interest from many clubs, including Champions League clubs, which I have always been open with to [club president] Marc [Keller] and our ownership. I will love this club for the rest of my life but I cannot turn down Chelsea.”

Published: January 6, 2026, 10:30 am

Raiders fire Pete Carroll after one season; Tom Brady to advise on new hire

• Las Vegas went 3-14 in Carroll’s first year as head coach

• Team dropped 10 straight, securing No 1 draft pick

The Las Vegas Raiders fired Pete Carroll on Monday after just one year, meaning they will enter their third consecutive season with a new coach in charge.

Carroll expressed high hopes upon taking over, saying he was used to double-digit victories and he expected the same in Las Vegas. But the Raiders went 3-14, going on a 10-game losing streak before finishing with a 14-12 victory over Kansas City on Sunday.

Published: January 5, 2026, 4:51 pm

UK and France ‘ready to deploy troops’ to Ukraine after ceasefire

Trilateral declaration of intent signed after ‘coalition of the willing’ summit in Paris with plan to establish military hubs

Britain and France have declared they are ready to deploy troops to Ukraine in the aftermath of a peace deal, a major new commitment that has been under discussion for months, although one which Russia is likely to block forcefully.

The announcement came after a summit in Paris hosted by the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and attended by more than two dozen leaders of the states that make up the “coalition of the willing” of Ukrainian allies, plus the US envoy Steve Witkoff and Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, who said the US president “strongly stands” behind the security protocols.

Published: January 6, 2026, 8:26 pm

Israel pushes ahead with vast illegal settlement in heart of West Bank

Exclusive: Tender posted for construction of 3,401 homes in settlement designed to ‘bury idea of a Palestinian state’

Israel is moving to start construction on a vast illegal settlement in the heart of the West Bank, designed to “bury the idea of a Palestinian state”.

The Israel Land Authority in mid-December quietly posted a tender for construction of 3,401 homes in the “E1” project, which will effectively sever the north and south of the occupied West Bank for Palestinians, and further cut off East Jerusalem.

Published: January 6, 2026, 4:22 pm

George Conway, a former anti-Trump Republican, to run for Congress as a Democrat

Conway, a conservative lawyer and ex-husband of Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway, is vying for a New York district seat

George Conway, the former Republican turned Donald Trump critic and ex-husband of the US president’s 2016 campaign manager and senior aide Kellyanne Conway, is running for Congress.

Conway, a conservative lawyer who helped start the Lincoln Project, a prominent anti-Trump group of Republicans, launched his bid as a Democrat seeking to represent New York’s 12th congressional district, in what will be a crowded field of contenders.

Published: January 6, 2026, 4:02 pm

Lego introduces ‘smart bricks’ with sound and light effects to new Star Wars sets

But some argue new ‘Smart Play’ technology undermines the Danish construction toy’s gift for harnessing a child’s own imagination

It may be time to retire that hyperspace zoom noise you perfected while playing with Lego spacecraft. No longer must you “pshww-pshww” to convince your playmate their enemy space station has been doomed by your lasers. “Smart” bricks, with play-sensitive miniature speakers, are being added to the arsenal of the Lego enthusiast in a move the Danish toy giant believes will combine creative play with technology without the need for a screen.

The smart bricks – in the shape of a normal two-by-four Lego brick – are being launched in three Star Wars-themed sets and are powered by a custom-made chip smaller than a single Lego stud. When installed in Luke Skywalker’s X-wing fighter, they make the required “woosh” noises, depending on how the player twists and turns the craft through the air. The hard-to-impersonate bleeps and blips of the droid R2D2 are also replicated.

Published: January 6, 2026, 7:59 pm

Artists decry dismantling of Belgium’s oldest contemporary art museum

Cost-saving plan to transfer Antwerp museum’s entire collection to another city described as ‘simply insane’

Prominent artists have spoken out against an “arbitrary reshaping” of Belgium’s museum landscape, as the Flanders region seeks to cut public spending by dismantling the country’s oldest contemporary art museum and transplanting its entire collection to another city.

At a press conference in Antwerp on Tuesday, the directors of the city’s Museum of Contemporary Art (M HKA), which was founded in 1985, decried what they called the “flagrant illegalities” of the museum sector shake-up, which is due to be debated in Belgium’s parliament on Friday.

Published: January 6, 2026, 5:30 pm

Six people die as snow, ice and freezing temperatures wreak havoc in Europe

Deaths in France and Bosnia as icy conditions disrupt travel in countries including UK and the Netherlands

Six people have died as snow, ice and freezing temperatures continue to wreak havoc across parts of Europe.

Authorities in the Landes region of south-west France said three people died and 15 were injured in road accidents on Tuesday, while two more were killed in accidents in the Paris area. One driver died in hospital on Monday night after veering into the Marne River and another was killed after a collision with a heavy goods vehicle in the east of the French capital.

Published: January 6, 2026, 4:54 pm

Trump taking ‘drill, baby, drill’ plan to Venezuela ‘terrible’ for climate, experts warn

‘Everybody loses’ if production supercharged in country with largest known oil reserves, critics say

Donald Trump, by dramatically seizing Nicolás Maduro and claiming dominion over Venezuela’s vast oil reserves, has taken his “drill, baby, drill” mantra global. Achieving the president’s dream of supercharging the country’s oil production would be financially challenging – and if fulfilled, would be “terrible for the climate”, experts say.

Trump has aggressively sought to boost oil and gas production within the US. Now, after the capture and arrest of Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, he is seeking to orchestrate a ramp-up of drilling in Venezuela, which has the largest known reserves of oil in the world – equivalent to about 300bn barrels, according to research firm the Energy Institute.

Published: January 6, 2026, 1:00 pm

‘Mad fishing’: the super-size fleet of squid catchers plundering the high seas

Every year a Chinese-dominated flotilla big enough to be seen from space pillages the rich marine life on Mile 201, a largely ungoverned part of the South Atlantic off Argentina

In a monitoring room in Buenos Aires, a dozen members of the Argentinian coast guard watch giant industrial-fishing ships moving in real time across a set of screens. “Every year, for five or six months, the foreign fleet comes from across the Indian Ocean, from Asian countries, and from the North Atlantic,” says Cdr Mauricio López, of the monitoring department. “It’s creating a serious environmental problem.”

Just beyond Argentina’s maritime frontier, hundreds of foreign vessels – known as the distant-water fishing fleet – are descending on Mile 201, a largely ungoverned strip of the high seas in the South Atlantic, to plunder its rich marine life. The fleet regularly becomes so big it can be seen from space, looking like a city floating on the sea.

Published: January 6, 2026, 5:00 am

‘Our minerals could be used to annex us’: why Canada doesn’t want US mining

Opposition to a controversial graphite mine in Quebec strengthened once the Pentagon became involved

The Outaouais region on the western edge of Quebec is home to thousands of lakes, vast forests and extensive wetlands. It is also the setting of a swathe of wooded land known as La Petite-Nation, which, although not far from the cities of Montreal and Ottawa, remains relatively untouched.

That, however, is to change with the arrival of a controversial graphite mine with financing from the Pentagon.

Published: January 5, 2026, 10:00 am

Trump suggests US taxpayers could reimburse oil firms for Venezuela investment

President says a ‘tremendous amount of money’ will need to be spent repairing country’s infrastructure

• Why Venezuelan crude appeals to US refineries

• Venezuela live – latest updates

Donald Trump has suggested US taxpayers could reimburse energy companies for repairing Venezuelan infrastructure for extracting and shipping oil.

Trump acknowledged that “a lot of money” would need to be spent to increase oil production in Venezuela after US forces ousted its leader, Nicolás Maduro, but suggested his government could pay oil companies to do the work.

Published: January 6, 2026, 10:45 am

Avalanche in California’s Sierra Nevada kills snowmobiler

Rescuers were called to the Truckee area after a 911 report of an avalanche, but the man was found dead under snow

An avalanche in California’s Sierra Nevada on Monday buried a snowmobiler in snow and killed him, authorities said.

Rescuers responded after a 911 call around 2.20pm reported a possible avalanche near Johnson Peak and Castle Peak in Truckee.

Published: January 6, 2026, 2:07 pm

‘I wouldn’t take a nickel of charity’: Mickey Rourke denounces fundraiser set up in his name

Denying any prior knowledge of the appeal, the actor said he would ‘rather stick a gun up my ass and pull the trigger’ than accept the money

Actor Mickey Rourke has denounced an online fundraiser that was set up in his name, and designed to pay off $60,000 (£44,000, A$89,000) that he allegedly owes in rent on his Los Angeles home.

Rourke posted a video on social media, in response to news stories that emerged on Monday that his management team had launched a fundraiser with his permission, having said Rourke was threatened with eviction.

Published: January 6, 2026, 11:37 am

Michigan loophole makes it difficult to track utilities’ donations to politicians

Revelation comes as a first-in-the-nation citizen’s ballot initiative to ban donations by utilities picks up steam

An investigation into Michigan election records has found a major loophole in reporting laws that makes it difficult to track when and how campaign contributions move between lawmakers and the state’s controversial utilities, DTE Energy and Consumers Energy.

State law does not require the date that a contributor makes a donation to match the date that a campaign committee reports receiving it. That has created a scenario in which utilities throughout 2025 have cut checks for lawmakers around the time of controversial votes, but the lawmakers sometimes still have not reported receiving the contribution or report it much later.

Published: January 6, 2026, 12:00 pm

Iranian security forces clash with protesters at Tehran’s grand bazaar

Nationwide protests continue to grow as rights groups accuse authorities of cracking down on demonstrators

Iranian security forces have clashed with protesters staging a sit-in at Tehran’s grand bazaar, firing teargas and expelling demonstrators as the nationwide protest movement continued to grow in its 10th day.

The violence on Tuesday at a location that carries historical symbolism as an activist hub during the country’s 1979 revolution comes as rights groups accuse authorities of cracking down on protesters.

Published: January 6, 2026, 5:04 pm

No safety inspections at site of Swiss bar fire for past five years, mayor says

Nicolas Féraud says he does not know why bar in Crans-Montana had not been inspected annually, as required by law

Authorities in Crans-Montana have said safety officers had not inspected the bar that caught fire in the Swiss ski resort on New Year’s Eve, killing 40 mainly young partygoers and injuring more than 100, for the past five years.

“Periodic inspections were not conducted between 2020 and 2025. We bitterly regret this,” the mayor of the town, Nicolas Féraud, told a press conference in the town on Tuesday, five days after the disaster at Le Constellation bar.

Published: January 6, 2026, 10:38 am

Warning over TikTok scam using AI-generated videos of Spain’s Princess Leonor

Princess of Asturias Foundation says fraudsters are using fake profiles and videos purporting to show heir to Spanish throne

A foundation representing Princess Leonor, the 20-year-old heir to the Spanish throne, has warned that scammers are using AI-generated videos of the princess posted by fake profile pages to cheat social media users out of money.

In the posts on TikTok “Leonor” promises users payments running to thousands of dollars in return for an upfront “fee” of a few hundred dollars. Once this “fee” has been paid, the fraudster typically keeps demanding more before disappearing from sight.

Published: January 6, 2026, 12:50 pm

Jaguar Land Rover sales slump sharply amid US tariffs and cyber-attack

Shares in owner Tata Motors fall after carmaker confirms impact of devastating hack

• Business live – latest updates

Sales at Jaguar Land Rover slumped in the final quarter of last year as US tariffs hit and production was slow to recover after a devastating cyber-attack.

Wholesale volumes – sales via dealerships – fell by 43.3% to 59,200 vehicles in the quarter to December, while retail sales were down 25.1% at 79,600 cars after the hack in late August.

Published: January 6, 2026, 8:30 am

Hamnet review – Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley beguile and captivate in audacious Shakespearean tragedy

Chloé Zhao’s film version of Maggie O’Farrell’s myth-making novel powerfully reimagines the agonising loss of a child as the source of Hamlet’s grand stage drama

‘The joys of parents are secret, and so are their griefs and fears …” This is Francis Bacon’s essay Of Parents and Children; maybe they were more secret in his day than ours. This kind of secrecy and revelation is part of Chloé Zhao’s deeply felt romantic fantasy about the origin of William Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet. It locates the play’s beginning in the imagined anguish of Shakespeare and his wife Agnes (or Anne) Hathaway at the death of their son Hamnet at the age of 11 in 1596, a few years before the play’s first performance.

The nearness of the names is not supposed to be some monumental Freudian slip; there is linguistic evidence that the two could be used interchangeably. The movie is inspired by Maggie O’Farrell’s 2020 novel of the same name – Zhao co-wrote the screenplay with O’Farrell – as well as the 2004 essay The Death of Hamnet and the Making of Hamlet by literary scholar Stephen Greenblatt. This film succeeds, not because it solves the mystery, but because it deepens it still further. It is contrived and speculative, but ingenious and impassioned at the same time.

Published: January 6, 2026, 7:00 am

‘They’re all bad – but some are worse than others’: every Harlan Coben show rated

From gaping plot holes to television so confusing it’s actually distressing to watch, here’s our ranking of the US author’s TV adaptations

The American novelist Harlan Coben is, by commercial fiction standards, one of the most successful writers working today. A No 1 New York Times bestseller author, he writes pulpy thrillers of the type you buy at the airport, consume feverishly poolside, and never take home.

Coben has written 35 novels, and is 11 adaptations (eight of them English language) into a nine-year, 14-book adaptation deal with Netflix. These series share a tone, style, and even actors – in multiple shows, Spooks heart-throb Richard Armitage pops up like a bad penny.

Published: January 6, 2026, 11:49 am

2 Fast 2 Furious is the franchise’s most derided film. It’s also the best

Gaudy, plastic and tactile, the series’ second film sums up its manifesto: watching souped-up vehicles drive irresponsibly loudly

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In a 2003 episode of SBS’s The Movie Show, co-hosts Margaret Pomeranz and David Stratton, stalwarts of the Australian critical landscape, review 2 Fast 2 Furious. Surprising, perhaps, is Margaret’s animated declaration that the film turned her into an “absolute fanatical revhead”, but even funnier is David’s suggestion that he can’t see the Fast and Furious franchise continuing for much longer.

Of course, it’s easy to laugh now: “You naive fool, David – they made eight more, not including the spin-off!” But such ironclad inevitability wasn’t always certain. The first four films were essentially a quartet of reboots – franchise jump-starts that rehashed stories of infiltration and assimilation in the world of street racing. Despite the slew of sequels that resist any sane naming convention, including Fast & Furious, The Fate of the Furious, F9 and Fast X, it’s 2 Fast 2 Furious that has a reputation as the franchise’s ugly duckling, a minor cross-country detour. In actuality, this detachment from the larger enterprise is the film’s strength.

Published: January 6, 2026, 2:00 pm

In ending, Stranger Things committed TV’s ultimate crime

It felt like a punishing endurance test, coming to a head countless times … and yet it’s not over. Where the Upside Down is concerned, it’s never over

We’ve all had a few days to sit with the Stranger Things finale now, and reaction has been mixed. For every hardcore fan who found themselves in floods of tears by the end, there was a disgruntled TikToker aggressively listing all the plot holes the episode left unfilled in its race to the finish line. In other words, how you felt about Stranger Things as a whole probably determined how you felt about the way it ended.

Which, despite any qualms you may have about the finale – and we’ll get to those soon – seems like the best way anyone could possibly wrap up a series. There was no tonal pivot; no bleak, Dinosaurs-style parable; no “it was all a dream” St Elsewhere-style cop-out; no Blake’s 7-style final bloodbath. Stranger Things died as it lived – full of spectacle and sentiment (and a chronically unwieldy mythology, and way too many characters).

Published: January 5, 2026, 12:38 pm

‘I find it all a bit comforting’: why Zodiac is my feelgood movie

The first 2026 entry in our ongoing series of writers calling attention to their comfort films is David Fincher’s thriller

It begins with a murder, and then another. A woman is killed, a man grievously injured, and a letter is sent to the news media. The killer gives himself a name – this is the Zodiac speaking – and provides a message written in code. So we start with three mysteries: the man, his motives and his message. The third is quickly cracked; the first hypothesized, but never definitively proven. But it’s the why of it all – why a man would kill at least five seemingly random people, and why we as a culture still care – that will require more significant investigation.

When it was first released more than 18 years ago, David Fincher’s Zodiac was considered a bit of an also-ran. Over two and a half hours long, it depicts the search for the Zodiac killer, who spent the late 60s terrorizing California’s Bay Area, as a series of bad leads and dead-ends, and concludes without definitively proving anything. It flopped at the box office and was not nominated for even a single Oscar.

Published: January 5, 2026, 10:00 am

‘I’d never heard anything like it’: the prepared piano revelations of jazz star Jessica Williams

Dave Brubeck called her a great and Mary Lou Williams gave her advice. But the prodigy grew frustrated with jazz, quit and started dismantling her instrument. A superb new reissue showcases her findings

Flipping through the jazz section on a visit to his local record store a few years ago, artist Kye Potter found a battered tape by American pianist and composer Jessica Williams. It looked every bit the quintessential DIY release. “The labels had come off the tape,” he says. “It was home-dubbed, with photocopied notes, a little bit of highlighter to accentuate the artwork, and released on her own label, Ear Art.”

As a collector and occasional producer particularly interested in the American musical avant garde after John Cage, Potter was intrigued by a tape called Prepared Piano. Yet it seemed unusual from Williams, who was best known for making sparkling jazz in the straight-ahead tradition of Thelonious Monk and Errol Garner. If the west coast jazz circuit knew her as a musical experimenter – for her concerts, she requested pianos without the cover to make it easier to reach inside and strum the strings – it was a facet that rarely made it to her records.

Published: January 5, 2026, 1:26 pm

Love, desire and community: the new generation of readers bonding over romance novels

Young women drawn to ‘morally grey characters’ are driving a boom sparked by TikTok, Instagram and online friendships

• Read more summer essentials

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In a packed room in Sydney, an excited crowd riffles through stacks of stickers and bookmarks searching for their favourite characters. Another group flicks through racks of clothing, pulling out T-shirts that say “romance readers club” and “probably reading about fairies”.

A poster on the wall, with tear-off tabs, invites visitors to take what they need: a love triangle, a love confession mid-dragon battle, a morally grey man or a cowboy.

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Published: January 6, 2026, 2:00 pm

What we’re reading: Alan Hollinghurst, Samantha Harvey and Guardian readers on the books they enjoyed in December

Writers and Guardian readers discuss the titles they have read over the last month. Join the conversation in the comments

Ever since my father presented me with a copy of The Unicorn, beautifully translated into my mother tongue, I have been an ardent admirer of Iris Murdoch’s. I went on to read all of her novels, plays and poetry with great enthusiasm. Before Christmas, I returned to her penultimate novel, The Green Knight, having remembered very little of it. Yet from the very first page, I was reminded why I have always loved her work so deeply: the prose is rich, precise, disciplined and meticulously detailed; the many characters are so vividly rendered that none appears two-dimensional; each experiences and processes reality in a way that feels distinct and unmistakably individual; and the pacing of events feels perfectly judged. Although the novel is threaded with philosophical reflections on goodness and love, these never feel laboured or artificially imposed. Rather, they emerge naturally as an integral part of the novel’s dense and intricate tapestry.

Published: January 6, 2026, 2:33 pm

The Score by C Thi Nguyen review – a brilliant warning about the gamification of everyday life

From Duolingo to GDP, how an obsession with keeping score can subtly undermine human flourishing

Two years ago, I started learning Japanese on Duolingo. At first, the daily accrual of vocabulary was fun. Every lesson earned me experience points – a little reward that measured and reinforced my progress.

But something odd happened. Over time, my focus shifted. As I climbed the weekly leaderboards, I found myself favouring lessons that offered the most points for the least effort. Things came to a head when I passed an entire holiday glued to my phone, repeating the same 30-second Kanji lesson over and over like a pigeon pecking a lever, ignoring my family and learning nothing.

Published: January 6, 2026, 7:00 am

‘There’s this whole other story’: inside the fight to end slavery in the Americas

The Great Resistance, an expansive new book by author and historian Carrie Gibson, brings together often unheard narratives to tell the bigger picture of a difficult time

The Great Resistance is Carrie Gibson’s third book, and her third about the history of the Americas, plural. It follows Empire’s Crossroads: A History of the Caribbean from Columbus to the Present Day, from 2014, and El Norte: The Epic and Forgotten Story of Hispanic North America, published five years later. The subtitle to the new book indicates its roots in the first two: The 400-Year Fight to End Slavery in the Americas.

“I was led by both my own curiosity and also a frustration,” Gibson said, of how she came to retell that four-century fight over 500 absorbing pages.

Published: January 5, 2026, 3:52 pm

The 15 best PS5 games to play in 2026

New mind-bending puzzlers, landmark RPGs and furry multiverse adventures await you as the PlayStation 5 enters its sixth year

Entering its sixth year, the PlayStation 5 has built up a formidable library of epic adventures, button-pummelling shooters and even the odd cutesy platformer. So whether you’ve owned the machine for years or only just entered the current console generation, here are 15 titles we think you should have in your PlayStation collection.

Published: January 6, 2026, 10:36 am

‘I wanted that Raiders of the Lost Ark excitement – you could die any minute’: how we made hit video game Prince of Persia

‘There was no animation software in those days. So I videotaped my brother David running, jumping and climbing in a car park’

Programming was very open back in the 1980s. You had to teach yourself, either from magazines, or by swapping tips. When you wrote a video game, you submitted it on a floppy disk to a publisher, like a book manuscript. In my freshman year at Yale university, I sent Deathbounce, an Asteroids-esque game for the Apple II computer, to Broderbund, my favourite games company. They rejected it, but took my next effort, Karateka, a side-scrolling beat-’em-up.

Published: January 5, 2026, 3:00 pm

Jon Stewart on Trump’s military intervention in Venezuela: ‘This is all exhausting’

Late-night hosts react to Trump’s shocking attack on Venezuela and surprise capture of Nicolás Maduro

Late-night hosts tore into the Trump administration’s surprise military attack on Caracas, capture of president Nicolás Maduro and vague plans to “run” Venezuela.

Published: January 6, 2026, 4:19 pm

Béla Tarr, Hungarian director of Sátántangó and Werckmeister Harmonies, dies aged 70

The internationally acclaimed film-maker was renowned for beautifully shot cinematic epics

• Peter Bradshaw: With Sátántangó and Werckmeister Harmonies, Béla Tarr became the vividly disquieting master of spiritual desolation

Béla Tarr, the Hungarian film-maker renowned for lengthy, challenging and beautifully shot films including Sátántangó, Werckmeister Harmonies and The Man from London, has died aged 70. The Hungarian Film Artists Association said in a statement that Tarr died on Tuesday “after a long and serious illness” and that “the grieving family asks for the understanding of the press and the public, and that they not be contacted for a statement during these difficult days”.

Tarr became renowned internationally in the 90s and 00s as his films were shown more widely – partly because of their inordinate length (including the seven-and-a-half-hour Sátántangó), and partly because of what appeared to be his definitive expression of middle-European black and white miserablism. But in an interview with the Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw in 2024, well after Tarr had retired from active film directing in 2011, he said his films had been misunderstood: “My opinion is that we were doing comedies. You can laugh a lot.” He added that they were not pessimistic. “I only ask this – how did you feel when you came out of the movie theatre after watching my film? Did you feel stronger or weaker? That’s the main question. I want you to be stronger.”

Published: January 6, 2026, 2:35 pm

It would be an honour to write James Bond theme song, says Noel Gallagher

Songsmith’s comments come after his brother Liam stoked rumours Oasis had been courted for the role

Noel Gallagher has said that he would “absolutely” write the theme song for the next James Bond film if asked, saying that doing so would be an honour.

Speaking to TalkSport, the Oasis songwriter revealed that while there had not been any contact between himself and the producers of the franchise, he would leap at the opportunity to contribute music for the film, adding that he thought the theme songs the series was known for should be made by British artists.

Published: January 6, 2026, 3:12 pm

‘Melancholy magic’: how Judi Dench and a host of stars came under the spell of the greatest comedy in history

The Twelfth Night Reunion gathers some of the grandest names in British theatre, including Simon Callow and Stephen Fry, to explain why Shakespeare’s play continues to bewitch audiences

Many of us decline into our dotage. Actors slip into their anecdotage. Two of the best programmes in the rather arid TV Christmas schedules featured Judi Dench touchingly reminiscing about her love of Shakespeare. The great dame is also one of the glittering ensemble in The Twelfth Night Reunion, a one-off event conceived and hosted by Gyles Brandreth and recorded at the Orange Tree in Richmond, London, a year ago, where a group of actors share their memories of the play.

Now available on YouTube, it is like an upmarket version of The Graham Norton Show with two heart-stopping moments.

The Twelfth Night Reunion is on YouTube

Published: January 6, 2026, 11:27 am

Full-blown agony: my battle against the mysterious pain of cluster headaches

They can hurt more than broken bones or pancreatitis. But with the right drugs and therapies, relief is possible from this debilitating and often misunderstood condition

It was a dreary Monday morning in September 2016, and I was working as a teacher, trying to settle a new year 7 class, when a sharp pain bloomed behind my right eye. It was followed by quick jolts, like electric shocks. As each class came and went, the pain eased and then returned with greater intensity. Four times that day I left a teaching assistant with worksheets and ran to the school bathroom to douse my face with cold water. I took ibuprofen, paracetamol, aspirin, but the pain remained unbearable.

The headaches appeared repeatedly that autumn, and again in spring, and soon formed an annual pattern. September and October were the worst, then February and March. I could predict the routine: aura in the shower, early twinges on the train, full-blown agony in class by 9.30am. In late 2019, a GP finally referred me to a neurologist and I was diagnosed with cluster headaches.

Published: January 6, 2026, 10:00 am

What can I use in vegetarian curries instead of coconut milk? | Kitchen aide

Top tips from a roster of experienced curry-makers, from adding a dollop of yoghurt to experimenting with pastes

I want to make more vegetarian curries, but most call for a tin of coconut milk and I’m trying to cut down on saturated fats. What can I use instead?
Jill, via email
Coconut milk brings silkiness and sweet richness to curries, and also mellows spices, so any substitute will likely change the nature of the dish. That said, if you really want to avoid the white stuff, Karan Gokani, author of Indian 101, would simply replace it with vegetable stock. Another easy swap (if you’re not averse to dairy) is yoghurt, says John Chantarasak, chef and co-owner of AngloThai in London, which is handy, because “that’s normally hanging about in the fridge”.

Not all curries involve coconut milk, however, and it’s these that perhaps offer a better solution to Jill’s conundrum. “Once you get past that idea, you go into two realms,” says Sirichai Kularbwong of Thai restaurant Singburi in London, by which he means wet and dry curries. The latter involve frying curry paste (“usually containing dried chillies”) and seasoning with fish sauce (“in Jill’s case, a vegan fish sauce”), tamarind and sugar. “The consistency of the sauce is never thin, and you pair it with root vegetables and flat beans, and eat alongside rice,” he adds. Meanwhile, a favourite wet curry that doesn’t call for coconut milk is gaeng om, made with “a simple curry paste of garlic, chillies and lemongrass boiled with good veg stock and seasoned with vegan fish sauce”. Veg-wise, to that base you’d typically add pumpkin, mushrooms, maybe pak choi.

Got a culinary dilemma? Email feast@theguardian.com

Published: January 6, 2026, 1:00 pm

Wash well – and don’t forget the lid: how to clean your reusable water bottle

Water bottles are the ‘perfect environment for bacteria to grow’ – as we’ve seen from the horror pics on social media. Follow these steps to stay clean

Environmentally friendly and convenient, reusable water bottles are on the rise. But on social media, people seem confused about how to clean them, and post horrifying pictures of mold growing inside.

Water sourced from a municipal water supply is likely very clean, explains Kelly Reynolds at the University of Arizona, who studies water quality and disease transmission.

Published: January 5, 2026, 5:00 pm

An air fryer, 3D printer and streaming subscription: 11 items on our 2026 wishlist

You can’t always get what you want – even when you review products for a living. From kitchen splurges to fashion staples, this is what our contributors dream of

• Simple daily rituals for building fun, calm and play into your days in 2026

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This past holiday season, the Filter recommended gifts for temperamental tweens, skiers, minimalists, fitness buffs and of course the person who has everything. We told you about reincarnated Furbies, banned books, fermentation crocks and a giant circular treadmill for cats.

In short, we’ve recommended a lot. So, for the new year, we decided to flip the script with a different question for our writers and editors: what do you want in 2026?

Published: January 5, 2026, 8:15 pm

The perfect way to do nothing: how to embrace the art of idling

We are often so busy and yet when the opportunity arises to do nothing, we can find it uncomfortable. Here’s how to lean into boredom – and unlock the imagination

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On a rainy afternoon last weekend, plans got cancelled and I found myself at a loose end. Given that I’m someone who likes to have backup plans for my backup plans, my initial response was panic. Now what? I wandered aimlessly from room to room, grumpily tidying away random items.

Noticing for the first time in weeks that most of my houseplants were critically ill, I decided to give them a spa day. I moved the worst cases to a south-facing windowsill and painstakingly removed the (many) dead leaves. For good measure, I organised a triage box containing plant food, a mister and a watering can. I might have got carried away and ordered a “beautifying leaf shine” too.

Published: January 5, 2026, 11:00 am

Is it true that … going out when it is chilly can make you catch a cold?

Respiratory infections are more common in winter, but it’s largely because we spend more time indoors in close contact with other people

Is spending too much time outside on chilly days to blame for coughs and runny noses? Not exactly. “Colds are more common in the winter, but it’s almost certainly correlation, not causation,” says John Tregoning, a professor in vaccine immunology at Imperial College London.

One marginal factor is that UV light can kill viruses. Sneezing outside in the summer, for example, may expose viral droplets to sunlight, which can deactivate the virus, while faster evaporation causes it to desiccate. But the main driver is behavioural: in colder months, we spend more time indoors with poorer ventilation and in closer contact with others.

Published: January 5, 2026, 8:00 am

Friction-maxxing: could less convenience lead to much more happiness?

The conveniences of modern life such as Uber Eats and ChatGPT are robbing us of satisfaction – and worse still, infantilising us. But should we really go back to the basics?

Name: Friction-maxxing.

Age: Brand new.

Published: January 6, 2026, 5:21 pm

Kenji Morimoto’s recipe for root vegetable rösti with crisp chickpeas

Served with mustard aïoli, crisp chickpeas and a quick-pickled red onion and parsley salad, these root veg fritters make a satisfying dish that’s ideal for a weekend brunch

I’m a sucker for a rösti, and I truly believe it makes the best breakfast, brunch – or any meal, really. This one leans into the amazing varieties of root vegetables we have at our disposal, and it is especially stunning when layered and presented with all of the other elements: a bold mustard aïoli, crisp curried chickpeas, and an easy parsley and red onion salad that is quick-pickled to provide an acidic finish to a satisfying dish.

Ferment: Simple Ferments and Pickles, and How to Eat Them, by Kenji Morimoto, is published by Pan Macmillan at £22. To order a copy for £19.80, visit the guardianbookshop.com

Published: January 6, 2026, 6:00 am

My rookie era: I’m learning to swim in the ocean, braving the waves and marine life

I’ve swum and squealed alongside enormous blue gropers, tiny stingrays, silver and striped fish and even a Port Jackson shark

• More summer essentials

I’ve wanted to be an ocean swimmer ever since I moved to Sydney. The idea of getting out past the waves and braving the elements excited me. I would tell anyone who would listen: “Once I live closer to the beach, I’m going to be out there. Just you wait.”

I’ve lived walking distance to the beach for more than a year now. During this time, I’ve read a lot about ocean swimming: how swimmers overcame challenges or life-altering moments. I even listened to a podcast on how to face your fears in the ocean.

Published: January 5, 2026, 2:00 pm

The perfect way to switch off from work: the secret to a daily de-stress routine

The boundaries between work and leisure are being blurred, but it’s vital for your health to learn how to turn off. Whether you do your job from home or not, here’s how to reset and reclaim your private time

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Marilyn Monroe once said: “A career is wonderful, but you can’t curl up with it on a cold night.” Only these days, you can. The march of technology, the rise of hybrid and remote working, and an increasing culture of presenteeism (working longer than contractually required, or when sick) have blurred the boundaries between work and leisure.

Research by Business in the Community (BITC), a UK-based responsible business network, shows that 55% of employees feel pressed to respond to calls or check emails outside work, while high workloads drive two in five to work overtime. Yet switching off from work when you aren’t working (psychological detachment, to give it its scientific name) is vital not just for your health, but for productivity.

Published: January 5, 2026, 4:00 pm

Hard to digest: we still live in Fast Food Nation | Eric Schlosser

Twenty-five years after I revealed the practices of the industrial food giants, the profits – and dangers – of mass producing meat and milk have only grown

Cats have long been kept at American dairy farms to kill rats, mice and other rodents. In March 2024, a number of barn cats at dairies in the Texas panhandle started to behave strangely. It was like the opening scene of a horror movie. The cats began to walk in circles obsessively. They became listless and depressed, lost their balance, staggered, had seizures, suffered paralysis and died within a few days of becoming ill. At one dairy in north Texas, two dozen cats developed these odd symptoms; more than half were soon dead. Their bodies showed no unusual signs of injury or disease.

Dr Barb Petersen, a veterinarian in Amarillo, heard stories about the sick cats. “I went to one of my dairies last week, and all their cats were missing,” a colleague told her. “I couldn’t figure it out – the cats usually come to my vet truck.” For about a month, Petersen had been investigating a mysterious illness among dairy cattle in Texas. Cows were developing a fever, producing less milk, losing weight. The milk they did produce was thick and yellow. The illness was rarely fatal but could last for weeks, and the decline in milk production was hurting local dairy farmers. Petersen sent fluid samples from sick cows to a diagnostic lab at Iowa State University, yet all the tests came back negative for diseases known to infect cattle. She wondered if there might be a connection between the unexplained illnesses of the cats and the cows. She sent the bodies of two dead barn cats to the lab at Iowa State, where their brains were dissected.

Published: January 6, 2026, 5:00 am

Trump’s attack leaves China worried about its interests in Venezuela | Amy Hawkins

Maduro had just affirmed ‘strong bonds of brotherhood’ with Beijing when US made its shocking intervention

• Venezuela crisis – latest updates

Hours before his life and the fate of his country was changed dramatically, Venezuela’s leader, Nicolás Maduro, was exchanging smiles and handshakes with a Chinese delegation in the presidential palace in Caracas.

On Friday evening, shortly before he was seized by US forces, Maduro wrote on Telegram of his meeting with China’s special envoy for Latin American affairs, Qiu Xiaoqi: “A fraternal meeting that reaffirms the strong bonds of brotherhood and friendship between China and Venezuela. Through thick and thin!”

Published: January 5, 2026, 3:51 pm

Monarch butterflies could disappear. Butterfly Town USA is scrambling to save them

Pacific Grove is known as ‘Butterfly Town USA’ for its role as an overwintering spot. As the insect’s population plummets, residents are coming to its rescue

In the tiny seaside village of Pacific Grove, California, there’s no escaping the monarch butterfly.

Here, butterfly murals abound: one splashes across the side of a hotel, another adorns a school. As for local businesses, there’s the Monarch Pub, the Butterfly Grove Inn, even Monarch Knitting (a local yarn shop). And every fall, the small city hosts a butterfly parade, where local elementary school children dress up in butterfly costumes. The city’s municipal code even declares it an unlawful act to “molest or interfere” with monarchs in any way, with a possible fine of $1,000.

Published: January 5, 2026, 1:00 pm

Snow, ice and a penguin count: photos of the day – Tuesday

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

Published: January 6, 2026, 1:26 pm