‘Full of emotional wisdom’: Guardian writers on the best movie romances you might not have seen

For Valentine’s Day, writers picked their favourite lesser-known film love stories – from a dom-sub chamberpiece to a magical teen comedy

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

It’s the first rule of romcoms that opposites attract, and you can’t imagine two more different lovers than Poinsettia (Lynn Redgrave), a spark plug of a dame convinced that she is in a relationship with the 19th-century composer Giacomo Puccini, and Fish (James Earl Jones), a gentle giant who spends his spare time wrestling a demon that only he can see. That makes for some of the film’s funniest moments, like when Poinsettia ruins a Madama Butterfly opera performance by loudly singing along to the aria. Charles Burnett’s touching film is about how Fish and Poinsettia find refuge with each other that lets them emerge from the fantasies protecting them from the real world’s cruelty, and they find a kind of late-in-life puppy love over dinner dates, cozy sleepovers and card games at their Barbary Lane-like boarding house. When I saw the restoration last 14 February, the theater was filled with couples who, like my boyfriend and I, seemed cozied up just a little closer than usual. Owen Myers

The Annihilation of Fish is available on the Criterion Channel in the US

Published: February 14, 2026, 9:07 am

Anatomy of an upset: how Ilia Malinin lost Olympic figure skating gold

Ilia Malinin entered the Olympic free skate as the runaway favorite. Early mistakes triggered a meltdown that laid bare the brutal math of modern figure skating

What made Ilia Malinin’s Olympic defeat so shocking was not simply his years-long dominance entering Friday night. It was how completely the competition had tilted in his favor before he even stepped on the ice.

For nearly three years, Malinin had been men’s skating’s guiding light: unbeaten since late 2023, winner of back-to-back world titles, the skater who recalibrated the sport’s technical ceiling and then made winning look procedural. He arrived at the Milano Ice Skating Arena leading by more than five points after the short program and carrying the most difficult planned program in the field. Under almost any normal competitive logic, that combination should have been decisive.

Published: February 14, 2026, 4:16 pm

‘Stabbed in the Face soundtracked an incredibly joyous time’: the weirdest songs we find romantic

Declarations of undying affection, comparisons to a summer’s day? Who needs ‘em! Our writers recall the offbeat songs that capture their hearts

By Easter 2004, I’d been in a relationship with my partner, Maria, for four months and I was just realising how deeply in love I was. We had become inseparable. A magazine sent me to the ATP festival at Pontins in Camber Sands to interview “the Beastie Boys of noise”, Wolf Eyes. The interview fell to pieces when the band, in a state of great psychic refreshment, all wearing Manowar T-shirts, refused to stop watching a Manowar DVD and signalled they would only answer questions if they related to Manowar.

Published: February 14, 2026, 1:00 pm

4 tips for packing light, plus ways to warm your belly and your home

How to make a personal-item backpack work for a trip – and space heaters, Valentine’s chocolates … and bath towels!

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Each week we cut through the noise to bring you smart, practical recommendations on how to live better – from what is worth buying to the tools, habits and ideas that actually last.

I’ve worn three jackets to the airport and shoved shoes in my coat pocket to avoid checking an extra bag. And with the long weekend ahead, many of you may be puzzling over how to avoid baggage fees or just hoping to skip the unsolicited arm workout that comes with overpacking.

Baboon to the Moon Go-Min 32L Backpack

Published: February 14, 2026, 2:00 pm

The moment I knew: as soon as we parted I realised Hitomi was the one. I waited years to see her again

There was a language barrier, a mother who burned their letters and a record label manager who disapproved. But Kerry Cox was madly in love

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In my early 20s I quit my job in New Zealand and moved to Sydney to study martial arts. In 1982, after competing in the World Pugilist championships in Hong Kong, I hitchhiked around Japan for a month or so, then headed for Korea via ferry in January 1983. I’d heard air fares were cheap from Korea. No internet back then!

While boarding, I was approached by a very attractive Japanese woman, with limited English, who told me that if I bought one box of bananas and a bottle of Johnnie Walker Black label, I could pay for most of my trip in Korea. These items were very much in demand back then.

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Published: February 14, 2026, 7:00 pm

‘Regrets? Number one: smoking. Number two: taking it up the wrong hole’: Tracey Emin on reputation, radical honesty – and Reform

She scandalised the art world in the 1990s with her unmade bed, partied hard in the 2000s – then a brush with death turned the artist’s life upside down. Now she’s as frank as ever

There is a long buildup before I get to see Tracey Emin – her two cats, Teacup and Pancake, preceding her like a pair of slinky sentries as she walks into the white-painted basement kitchen of her huge Georgian house in Margate. The lengthy overture is because – though I’ve been invited for noon – Emin is a magnificently late riser. Her average working day, her studio manager Harry tells me, runs from about 6pm to 3am. And so, while the artist is gradually sorting herself out, Harry takes me on a tour through her home town in the January drizzle, the sea a sulky grey blur beyond the sands.

At last, Harry is ringing the doorbell, and Emin’s lovely housekeeper, Sam, is sitting me down in the kitchen, then finally here she is, dressed in loose dark trousers and top, with those faithful cats. Emin is recognisably the same as she’s ever been – the artist who scandalised and entranced the nation in the 1990s with her tent embroidered with the names of everyone she’d ever slept with; with her unmade bed and its rumpled sheets and detritus. She still has that sardonic lip, those arched brows, those flashing eyes. But these days she is surprisingly calm, slow moving, her greying hair swept back into a loose bun. This is the Emin who has worked hard, survived a great deal and, somewhat unpredictably, ended up a national treasure.

Published: February 14, 2026, 6:00 am

Venezuelan deportee can return to US but fears repeat of ordeal: ‘I’m not over that nightmare yet’

Luis Muñoz Pinto, 27, who was sent to notoriously brutal prison in El Salvador, would like to clear his name after US judge’s ruling

A US federal judge’s order that some of the Venezuelan men sent by the Trump administration to a notorious prison in El Salvador must be allowed to return to the United States to fight their cases has been greeted with hope and a sense of vindication – but also fear – by one of the deportees.

US district judge James Boasberg ruled on Thursday in Washington DC that the Trump administration should facilitate the return of deportees who are currently in countries outside Venezuela, saying they must be given the opportunity to seek the due process they were denied after being illegally expelled from the US last March.

Boasberg added that the US government should cover the travel costs of those who wish to come to the US to argue their immigration cases.

Published: February 14, 2026, 5:34 pm

Trump news at a glance: Danish PM believes US president still wants to own Greenland

Mette Frederiksen and her Greenlandic counterpart, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, said the pressure on the island’s people was “unacceptable”. Key US politics stories from 14 February at a glance

Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen has said she believes Donald Trump still wants to own Greenland, despite dialling back his recent threats to seize it by force.

Asked at the Munich Security Conference if the US president still wanted to own the Arctic island, Frederiksen said: “Unfortunately, I think the desire is the same.”

Published: February 15, 2026, 1:32 am

Russia killed Alexei Navalny with frog toxin, UK and four European allies say

Intelligence agencies say deadly toxin in skin of Ecuador dart frogs found in Navalny’s body and highly likely resulted in his death

• What is dart frog toxin, which is said to have been used to kill Alexei Navalny?

Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition leader, was killed by dart frog poison administered by the Russian state two years ago, a multi-intelligence agency inquiry has found, according to a statement released by five countries, the UK, France, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands.

The US was not one of the intelligence agencies making the claim.

Published: February 14, 2026, 2:03 pm

Ukraine wants 20-year US security guarantee to sign peace deal

Speaking in Munich, Volodymyr Zelenskyy also called for a clear date for his country to be allowed to join the EU

Ukraine wants security guarantees for a minimum of 20 years from the US before it can sign a peace deal with dignity, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said ahead of talks with Russia and the US scheduled for next week.

Speaking in Munich on Saturday, he also called for a clear date for Ukraine to be allowed to join the EU. Some EU officials have put the date as early as 2027.

Published: February 14, 2026, 6:44 pm

‘We are Europeans’: Fans fly Greenland flag during Olympic US-Denmark ice hockey game

• Greenland flag raised in crowd after Danes’ opening goal

• Fans say gesture is sign of support amid Trump rhetoric

• Americans pull away after slow start for 6-3 win

Two fans who raised a flag of Greenland as the United States played Denmark in men’s ice hockey at the Winter Olympics on Saturday say they did so as a gesture of European support for the island and for Denmark.

Vita Kalniņa and her husband, Alexander Kalniņš, fans of the Latvian hockey team who live in Germany, held up a large Greenland flag during warmups and again when the Danish team scored the opening goal of the preliminary round game against the US at the Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena.

Published: February 14, 2026, 11:49 pm

Limited government shutdown likely to linger for at least 10 days as Congress takes break

13% of federal civilian workforce is affected, although DHS – which spurred budget standoff – remains funded

A limited US government shutdown came into effect on Saturday – the third of Donald Trump’s second term – after negotiations between the White House and Democrats in Congress failed to agree on new restrictions for federal immigration agents.

The shutdown affects about 13% of the federal civilian workforce and is confined to agencies under the umbrella of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), including the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), which screens airline passengers.

Published: February 14, 2026, 2:57 pm

Casey Wasserman to sell talent agency after links to Ghislaine Maxwell exposed in Epstein files

Clients including Chappell Roan and Abby Wambach cut ties to firm after communications came to light

Casey Wasserman, a leading Hollywood talent agent whose clients include Chappell Roan, Coldplay, Ed Sheeran and Kendrick Lamar, is selling his business after communications with Ghislaine Maxwell were exposed as part of the US justice department’s recent dump of investigative documents relating to Jeffrey Epstein.

Wasserman, grandson of the late famed Hollywood dealmaker Lew Wasserman, said late on Friday he was putting his eponymous talent and marketing agency on the block, citing the impact on the company from “past personal mistakes” and telling staff he felt that he had “become a distraction” to its work.

Published: February 14, 2026, 3:52 pm

Four new astronauts arrive via SpaceX rocket at International Space Station

ISS now fully crewed after a medical issue forced the evacuation of four astronauts in January

The International Space Station (ISS) returned to full strength with Saturday’s arrival of four new astronauts to replace colleagues who bailed early because of health concerns.

SpaceX delivered the US, French and Russian astronauts a day after launching them from Cape Canaveral.

Published: February 14, 2026, 8:43 pm

Nobel laureate transferred to prison in northern Iran without warning

Concern grows over Narges Mohammadi’s health, family says, after reports of ‘life-threatening mistreatment’

Iranian authorities have without prior warning transferred Nobel peace prize laureate Narges Mohammadi to a prison in the north of the country as concern grows over her health, her family said on Saturday.

Mohammadi, who won the peace prize in 2023 in recognition for more than two decades of campaigning, was arrested on 12 December in the eastern city of Mashhad after speaking out against Iran’s clerical authorities at a funeral ceremony.

Published: February 14, 2026, 8:02 pm

Trump’s repeal of landmark Obama-era climate rule: four key takeaways

Environmental groups say ‘cynical and devastating’ reversal of endangerment finding has grave implications

The Trump administration has dismantled the basis for all US climate regulations, in its most confrontational anti-environment move yet.

The 2009 endangerment finding determined that greenhouse gases threaten public health and welfare and should therefore be controlled by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). By revoking it on Thursday, officials eliminated the legal foundation enabling the government to control planet-heating pollution.

Published: February 14, 2026, 11:00 am

Rubio tells Europe US wants renewed alliance – but on Trump’s terms

Secretary of state calls the US ‘a child of Europe’ and urges continent to back a new world order

• Munich security conference live: Europe must be ready to fight Russia as ‘warning signs are there’, says Starmer

The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, has described America as “a child of Europe” and made an emotional but highly conditional offer of a new partnership, insisting the two continents belong together.

In a much-anticipated speech at the annual Munich Security Conference, he said the US was intent on building a new world order, adding “while we are prepared, if necessary, to do this alone, it is our preference and it is our hope to do this together with you, our friends here in Europe”. The US and Europe, he said “belong together”.

Published: February 14, 2026, 10:21 am

Trump news at a glance: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez blasts president’s ‘age of authoritarianism’ at European conference

Democratic representative also condemns US capture of Nicolás Maduro, Trump’s threats to annex Greenland and US support for Israel’s war on Gaza – key US politics stories from Friday, 13 February at a glance

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has accused Donald Trump of tearing apart the transatlantic alliance with Europe and of seeking to introduce an “age of authoritarianism”, as she condemned his administration’s foreign policy in front of its allies’ top policymakers at the Munich security conference.

Speaking at a panel on populism on Friday, the New York representative outlined what she called an “alternative vision” for a leftwing US foreign policy, challenging the Trump administration’s shift to the right in front an audience of US allies who have grown increasingly wary of the US’s increasingly nationalist – and militaristic – global posture.

Published: February 14, 2026, 2:00 am

What is it about Minnesota that made it a target for Trump’s ICE crackdown?

The Democratic-leaning midwestern state where federal agents killed two citizens is in many ways anathema to the administration

Since the federal immigration surge began late last year, Minnesotans have offered varying theories for why their state was targeted by the Trump administration.

It’s a midwestern state that hasn’t voted for a Republican presidential candidate since 1972, including the three times it voted against Donald Trump.

Published: February 14, 2026, 12:00 pm

The problem with doorbell cams: Nancy Guthrie case and Ring Super Bowl ad reawaken surveillance fears

Many people bought the devices thinking they would do little more than protect their delivery packages

What happens to the data that smart home cameras collect? Can law enforcement access this information – even when users aren’t aware officers may be viewing their footage? Two recent events have put these concerns in the spotlight.

A Super Bowl ad by the doorbell-camera company Ring and the FBI’s pursuit of the kidnapper of Nancy Guthrie, the mother of Today show host Savannah Guthrie, have resurfaced longstanding concerns about surveillance against a backdrop of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. The fear is that home cameras’ video feeds could become yet another part of the government’s mass surveillance apparatus.

Published: February 14, 2026, 6:00 pm

The Minneapolis brass band bringing joy amid grief: ‘When people see us playing, it gives them hope’

Brass Solidarity was formed after George Floyd’s murder, and now also marks the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti at its weekly meetup

A week after a federal officer shot Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis, a troupe of brass players, percussionists and singers gathered at the site of the killing, to play a blaring, defiant rendition of the O’Jays’ Love Train.

Trumpeters, trombonists and sousaphonists had lined up along the ice-slicked sidewalk or were balancing on the snowbanks, blowing up clouds of condensation.

Published: February 14, 2026, 3:00 pm

US fixation on the hard-hat economy and making manufacturing great again makes little sense

The dream of greasy overalls is driven by nostalgia and doesn’t justify policies that harm US consumers

The exhortations to protect America’s industrial muscle have resonated in the US at least since maverick presidential candidate Ross Perot brought up the supposed “giant sucking sound” of jobs pulled to Mexico by the Nafta trade agreement back in 1993.

They flourished under Donald Trump’s first presidency and his promise to restore jobs lost to trade agreements. Joe Biden, too, put “rebuilding the backbone of America: manufacturing, unions and the middle class” at the center of his agenda. And in 2024, Trump reheated his old promise that “jobs and factories will come roaring back into our country”.

Published: February 14, 2026, 12:00 pm

Plantation weddings and pre-civil war fashion: the film that critiques the historical fantasy of Natchez

A documentary about Mississippi examines competing forces: the nostalgic celebration of the old south and the refusal to sanitize the brutal history of enslavement

“Natchez swallowed a master narrative about the old south.”

In Suzannah Herbert’s documentary Natchez, the opening remark from National Park Service ranger Barney Schoby functions as both diagnosis and thesis. The film that follows does not evade the Mississippi town’s contradictions. Instead, it actively adjudicates them, staging white people’s curated nostalgia against Black people’s historical knowledge, lived experience and institutional fact.

Published: February 14, 2026, 12:00 pm

Steam up the house with this shortcut to restaurant-level hotpot at home

Start with this rich, tongue-tingling soup base - plus more low-effort tips for hotpot night at home

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Lunar New Year is 17 February this year. It’s cold. You simply would not like to go outside, thank you very much. Here comes hot pot to the rescue: few meals feel more soothing in winter than one that gathers everyone around a big ‘ol bubbling pot, cooking together while talking about nothing and everything.

If you haven’t tried hotpot at home though, it can feel intimidating. Do I need some sort of custom vessel? Do I need to make a pilgrimage to Chinatown for eight different spices? What do I even put in there? Fortunately, thanks to a ton of easy shortcuts, anyone can enjoy this belly-warming ritual without an ordeal.

For a hotpot soup base:
Fly By Jing Fire Hotpot Base

For a pot:
Lolykitch Stainless Steel Stock Pot with Lid

Published: February 14, 2026, 5:15 pm

‘You think: Do I really need anyone?’ – the hidden burden of being a hyper-independent person

Self-reliance is often encouraged over asking others for help in the modern world. But doing everything yourself can be a sign that you are scared of intimacy

When a relative was seriously ill and in intensive care for more than a month, Cianne Jones stepped in. “I took it upon myself to be that person in the hospital every single day – chasing doctors, taking notes, making sure I understood why they were doing things.” It was so stressful, she says, that at one point her hair started falling out, but she ploughed on.

It was Jones’s therapist who gently questioned whether she was going to ask for help. Jones laughs. “The hair falling out didn’t suggest to me that I needed help, it was somebody else looking in and saying that.” She has a large, close family who would have helped immediately – and did, once Jones asked – it’s just that it didn’t occur to her to ask. “I had taken that role on: ‘I’m just going to get everything done.’ I just took off, and that was it.”

Published: February 15, 2026, 5:00 am

‘I cut out one little house at a time’: the trucker who spent decades building a tiny replica of NYC

Queens-born Joe Macken’s hyperrealistic model, made with wood, cardboard and glue, is now on view at the Museum of the City of New York

In 2003, Joe Macken built a miniature model of a bridge out of popsicle sticks. He wanted it to look like a “hybrid” of the Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Williamsburg bridges. Soon after, Macken, who grew up in Middle Village, Queens, moved his family to a small town upstate, more than 160 miles from the city. Macken loaded his bridge on the moving truck. It did not make the trip.

“It got destroyed, and I was kind of bummed,” said Macken, who is now 63. “So I figured, let me build something better.”

Published: February 14, 2026, 1:00 pm

‘Love, honor, cherish, accommodate’: 16 hard-earned relationship tips

While there is no one recipe for a successful relationship, we can learn from each other to build one that lasts

What is the key to a good relationship?

For some couples, it’s important to share hobbies. Others say having individual interests is imperative. I’ve read that couples who sleep in separate beds are the happiest and I’ve also read that sleeping in separate beds is the death knell of romance. When I got engaged, I asked my parents – who have been married for 40 years – what advice they had for me, and my mother offered: “Contribute as much as you can to your retirement accounts.” OK!

Published: February 14, 2026, 12:00 pm

He ran, but he can’t keep hiding: Pressure mounts for Andrew to talk to police

As calls for the former prince to cooperate with investigation become deafening, this may be the reckoning Andrew cannot escape

Gordon Brown is a man who gets into the detail.

In office, and since then, he has applied his forensic mind to the matters that concern him. Lately, he has been focused on the Epstein files.

Published: February 14, 2026, 6:00 am

‘The time of monsters’: everyone is quoting Gramsci – but what did he actually say?

Line handily sums up people’s bewilderment at state of world, but it isn’t quite what the Marxist thinker wrote

At a time when geopolitical certainties of old are crumbling away, it has become the go-to quote to make sense of the current moment in all its seeming senselessness. “The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of monsters” is a line attributed to the former Italian Communist party leader Antonio Gramsci.

Over the last two months alone, it has been quoted – and often mangled – by a rightwing Belgian prime minister, a leftwing British political leader, an Irish central banker and in the title of the most recent BBC Reith lecture, given by the author Rutger Bregman.

Published: February 14, 2026, 8:00 am

What is colorectal cancer and is it preventable?

Cases among younger people are rising – such as with actor James Van Der Beek, who died on 11 February at age 48

Actor James Van Der Beek died on 11 February, aged 48; he had been diagnosed in 2023 with colorectal cancer.

According to the World Health Organization, colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer and the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. While rates are declining overall, cases among younger people are rising.

Published: February 14, 2026, 3:00 pm

Six great reads: a writer’s last words, inside Epstein’s world and on the Zack Polanski trail

Need something brilliant to read this weekend? Here are six of our favourite pieces from the last seven days

Published: February 14, 2026, 6:00 am

Hungarians have had enough of Viktor Orbán. But Trump’s tailwind could save his skin

Opposition challenger Péter Magyar is ahead in the polls on a promise of hope. Orbán is betting on fear of war to stay in power

After 16 years of uninterrupted power, Viktor Orbán is facing his biggest electoral challenge. For years Hungary’s prime minister has spun weak policy performance as success. The rise of a rival, Péter Magyar, and the opposition Tisza party has exposed the limits of that strategy.

The economy is stagnating, despite repeated promises of a long-awaited takeoff. Over the past decade and a half, Hungary has slipped from being one of central and eastern Europe’s strongest performers to one of its weakest. Public services, from healthcare to transport, are widely seen as neglected, and Policy Solutions surveys show that voters have noticed. Hungary is not alone in facing a cost of living crisis, but comparisons offer little consolation to voters who were assured that Orbán’s model would deliver exceptional results.

András Bíró-Nagy is a senior research fellow at the ELTE Centre for Social Sciences in Budapest and director of Policy Solutions. He is the author of The Path of Hungary’s EU Membership

Published: February 15, 2026, 5:00 am

Given the toxicity of social media, a moral question now faces all of us: is it still ethical to use it? | Frances Ryan

With so many platforms rife with racism, misogyny and far-right rhetoric, there must be a point where decent people walk away

In a week during which Keir Starmer has been under pressure to resign, cabinet ministers took to X to show their support. “We’ve all been made to tweet,” one Labour figure told a political journalist. The irony is hard to escape: as the prime minister is embroiled in the scandal of Peter Mandelson’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, and now his former aide’s links to a sex offender, MPs are defending him on a platform that has in the past month allowed users to create sexualised images of women and girls.

This says something about the unprecedented way in which X has been tied to modern politics since it was still known as Twitter, as well as how widespread the culture of indifference is to the violation of female bodies, both online and off. But it also points to a growing dilemma facing not just politicians, but all of us: is it possible to post ethically on social media any more? And when is it time to log off?

Frances Ryan is a Guardian columnist

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

Published: February 14, 2026, 6:00 am

Learn this from Bezos and the Washington Post: with hypercapitalists in charge, your news is not safe | Jane Martinson

His shameful stewardship of a once great title highlights how much we lose when private interest eclipses the public good

Not long after being made Time magazine’s Person of the Year in 1999, Jeff Bezos told me: “They were not choosing me as much as they were choosing the internet, and me as a symbol.” A quarter of an increasingly dark century later, the Amazon founder is now a symbol of something else: how the ultra-rich can kill the news.

Job cuts in an industry that has struggled financially since the internet came into existence and killed its business model is hardly new, but last week’s brutal cull of hundreds of journalists at the Bezos-owned Washington Post marks a new low. The redundancies that were announced to staff on a video call, the axing of half its foreign bureau (including the war reporter in Ukraine) – not since P&O Ferries have layoffs been handled so badly. Former Post stalwart Paul Farhi described a decision that affected nearly half of the 790-strong workforce as “the biggest one-day wipeout of journalists in a generation”.

Published: February 14, 2026, 10:00 am

Madeline Horwath on Valentine’s day for city dwellers – cartoon

Continue reading...

Published: February 14, 2026, 11:00 am

Valentine's lamps, Easter rugs: 'seasonal decor' has become a year-long tat-fest | Amelia Tait

This year-round churn profits shops and content creators, but not the rest of us. Nobody needs ‘autumn oven gloves’

It’s Valentine’s Day, which means you should have spent the last few weeks swapping all of the lamps in your house. If not, you still have a few hours: box up your beige lampshades (or better yet, throw them in the bin) and replace them with ones of red and pink hues. Then – if you want to feel mentally well – you must also change your lightbulbs, because “warm white lighting” is the best way to ensure your crimson decor doesn’t look “too harsh”.

This is according to online lighting company Pooky, which is selling 43 “lust-worthy lamps” (and shades) for Valentine’s Day. A press release sent on behalf of the brand in late January proudly declared that Google searches for “seasonal decor” have increased 70% year-on-year globally, while queries about “Valentine’s decor” have soared 2,584% since the start of 2026. “The beauty of seasonal lighting,” said Pooky’s chief creative officer, “is that it’s easy to rotate. Store one or two Valentine lampshades, a set of rose-tinted bulbs and a handful of candles in a labelled box, and you can transform your home every February in minutes.”

Published: February 14, 2026, 8:00 am

Reality TV pushed USA’s Erin Jackson out of comfort zone and into Olympic title defense

The US flag bearer and first Black woman to win Winter Olympic individual gold carries the lessons of Special Forces into Sunday’s 500m speed skating final

On the ice, Erin Jackson is the picture of control – metronomic in her balance, rhythmic in her stride, a woman whose margins for error are blade thin. But all that control melted away when the speed skater glided on to Fox’s Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test reality TV series in fall 2023 for a taste of the grueling training that elite US troops endure.

She was part of a motley cast that included former Dallas Cowboys star Dez Bryant, NBA clutch shooter Robert Horry and skier Bode Miller, a fellow Winter Olympic champion. But Jackson was less concerned with outshining her athletic peers than with confronting her own fears. To test her anxiety around swimming, Jackson was strapped into a mock helicopter, submerged in icy water and told to hold her breath for at least 15 seconds before freeing herself, grabbing a lifejacket, and paddling to safety.

Published: February 14, 2026, 10:00 am

Canada’s curling war of words with Sweden escalates after warning over ‘F-bomb’

• Kennedy insists he is innocent of any wrongdoing

• World Curling says officials will clamp down on violations

The Canadian curler at the centre of a cheating row at the Winter Olympics has denied any wrongdoing, accusing the Swedish team of deliberately trying to “catch us in the act”.

On Saturday, World Curling confirmed that Canada had escaped punishment despite being accused of breaking the rules in the 8-6 victory over Sweden on Friday night. However, the sport’s governing body did warn Canada about their abusive langugage and introduced emergency spot checks on Saturday afternoon to make sure teams were not cheating when releasing the stone.

Published: February 14, 2026, 5:54 pm

Volodymyr Zelenskyy honours disqualified skeleton racer with order of freedom

• Vladyslav Heraskevych says ‘Cas has failed us’

• President Zelenskyy hails skeleton racer’s courage

The Ukrainian skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych has been awarded the order of freedom by president Volodymyr Zelenskyy following the controversial decision to bar him from the Winter Olympics.

Heraskevych flew to Munich after losing his appeal against his exclusion at the Milano Cortina Games for wanting to wear a “helmet of memory’ in competition. “Remembrance is not a violation,” Zelenskyy told him. “Ukraine will always have champions and Olympians.

Published: February 14, 2026, 11:46 am

Brazil’s Pinheiro Braathen wins gold – and South America’s first Winter Olympics medal

• Norwegian-born skier storms to historic slalom gold

• ‘Your difference is your superpower,’ says 25-year-old

As the snow fell in Bormio, and the fog settled in, Lucas Pinheiro Braathen made history by becoming the first South American to win a Winter Olympic medal. Then, as the realisation that he had won gold for Brazil in the men’s giant slalom, he collapsed to the floor and allowed the tears to flow.

“I just hope that Brazilians look at this and truly understand that your difference is your superpower,” he said, still sobbing away. “It may show up in your skin or in the way you dress. But I hope this inspires every kid out there who feels a bit different to trust who you are.”

Published: February 14, 2026, 3:25 pm

Milano Cortina Winter Olympics 2026 day eight – in pictures

Take a look at the best images from day eight of the Games, from cross-country skiing to ice hockey

Published: February 14, 2026, 5:30 pm

Two races, two golds: Jordan Stolz smashes another Olympic record in 500m

• US speed skating star’s four-gold pursuit continues

• 500m considered toughest of Stolz’s individual events

• Entire podium finishes below previous Olympic record

The men’s 500m is speed skating distilled to its most unforgiving form: one and a quarter laps of the oval, no pacing, no recovery window, no margin for technical compromise. On Saturday afternoon in Milan’s western suburbs, Jordan Stolz mastered the sport’s fastest and most unpredictable race and pushed his Olympic campaign toward historic territory.

The 21-year-old American won the 500m in an Olympic-record 33.77 seconds, securing his second gold medal of the Milano Cortina Olympics and adding pace behind what is rapidly becoming one of the defining individual campaigns of these Winter Games.

Published: February 14, 2026, 5:35 pm

Mohamed Salah recaptures scintillating form as Liverpool see off Brighton

There was rancour and recrimination when Mohamed Salah last faced Brighton, at Anfield in December, along with doubt over whether he would be seen in a Liverpool shirt again. Fast forward two months and the Egyptian great is starting, scoring and shaping games for Arne Slot again. Appeasement between the pair is for the greater good.

Salah produced a sublime assist, his fourth since returning from the Africa Cup of Nations, and scored from the penalty spot as Liverpool moved into round five with a commanding victory over Fabian Hürzeler’s struggling team. There was no evidence of Brighton not performing for their under-pressure manager but their lack of cutting edge was glaring, as was the case when visiting here in the Premier League.

Published: February 14, 2026, 11:35 pm

Six ejected after fight forces 20-minute delay in St John’s-Providence basketball game

• Police enter court amid fracas sparked by hard foul

• Coach Rick Pitino holds back players as tempers flare

Six players were ejected from Saturday’s college basketball game between No. 17 St John’s and Providence after a fracas resulting from a hard foul by Friars forward Duncan Powell on Bryce Hopkins sent the Red Storm star crashing to the ground.

St John’s coach Rick Pitino, who led Providence to the 1987 Final Four, was in the middle of it, trying to hold back his players. But several entered the fray as it drifted toward the Red Storm’s visitors’ bench.

The game was delayed by nearly 20 minutes while the referees sorted out the punishments: four St John’s players were booted and two from Providence, and by the time the Friars got the ball back they had watched a one-point lead turn into a four-point deficit.

“You’re not supposed to come off the bench, but you can’t let your players get beat up,” Pitino said after the 79-69 victory gave the Red Storm its 11th straight win. “You can’t fight. Back when I was the Kentucky coach we fought almost every SEC game, and it was not a big deal. But you can’t fight any more, so toughness has to come between the lines.”

Published: February 14, 2026, 9:34 pm

‘Anti-racing’: Verstappen hits out at F1 rule changes as opinion divides drivers

• Dutchman joins Lewis Hamilton in criticism of new cars

• Champion Lando Norris says changes are a ‘lot of fun’

Driver disquiet over the new Formula One regulations marked the second pre-season test which concluded in Bahrain this week, with the former world champions Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen delivering damning verdicts on driving the new cars, while in competitive terms leading contenders Mercedes and Red Bull were entertainingly vehement in each declaring the other as favourite.

Times in testing must be taken with a liberal amount of salt, more so this year as so much time is being put into understanding the new cars and how best to drive them, without yet really pushing toward real performance limits. Nonetheless, across the three days in Bahrain it was Mercedes who finished on top with Kimi Antonelli and George Russell setting the quickest times, from the two Ferraris of Hamilton and Charles Leclerc, Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris in fifth and sixth for McLaren and Verstappen in seventh for Red Bull.

Published: February 14, 2026, 8:00 am

European football: Harry Kane double restores Bayern Munich’s six-point Bundesliga lead

• Inter’s late win over Juventus extends Serie A lead

• Real Madrid 4-1 Real Sociedad; Lens top of Ligue 1

Harry Kane scored twice in the first half as Bayern Munich cruised to a 3-0 win at Werder Bremen, restoring their six-point lead in the Bundesliga. Borussia Dortmund’s 4-0 win over Mainz on Friday put them within three points of the league leaders but Bayern responded.

Bayern were in control from start to finish in Bremen, with Leon Goretzka joining the England captain on the scoresheet in the 70th minute. Kane now has 26 goals in 22 Bundesliga games this season and 41 in all competitions, 13 of those from the penalty spot.

Published: February 14, 2026, 11:09 pm

US launches airstrikes on dozens of Islamic State targets in Syria

Militant group’s infrastructure and weapons storage facilities were hit, as Washington praised Damascus for fresh coalition role

The US military conducted 10 strikes on more than 30 Islamic State targets in Syria between 3 and 12 February as part of a campaign against the extremist group in Iraq and Syria.

US Central Command (Centcom) said in a statement on Saturday that the US had struck IS infrastructure and weapons storage targets.

Published: February 14, 2026, 3:50 pm

Police seal off road near Arizona home of Today show host Savannah Guthrie’s missing mother

Sheriff’s, FBI and forensics vehicles passed through roadblocks 2 miles from missing 84-year-old woman’s home

Law enforcement investigating the disappearance of Today show host Savannah Guthrie’s mother, Nancy, sealed off a road near her home in Arizona late Friday night.

A parade of sheriff’s and FBI vehicles, including forensics vehicles, passed through the roadblock that was set up about 2 miles (3.2km) from the house.

Published: February 14, 2026, 1:57 pm

Democratic senators launch inquiry into EPA’s repeal of key air pollution enforcement measure

Senators said repeal was ‘particularly troubling’ and was counter to EPA’s mandate to protect human health

More than three dozen Democratic senators have begun an independent inquiry into the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) following a huge change in how the agency measures the health benefits of reducing air pollution that is widely seen as a major setback to US efforts to combat the climate crisis.

In a regulatory impact analysis, the EPA said it would stop assigning a monetary value to the health benefits associated with regulations on fine particulate matter and ozone. The agency argued that the estimates contain too much uncertainty.

Published: February 14, 2026, 4:32 pm

Assailants kill at least 32 in north-west Nigerian villages, residents say

Residents who escaped violence tell of bandits riding in on motorbikes and shooting indiscriminately

Armed assailants on motorbikes killed at least 32 people and burned houses and shops during raids on three villages in north-west Nigeria’s Niger state early on Saturday, local officials and residents who escaped the violence said.

The dawn raids targeted the communities of Tunga-Makeri, Konkoso, and Pissa.

Published: February 15, 2026, 3:14 am

Gisèle Pelicot plans to meet ex-husband in prison for answers on other allegations

Pelicot says she wants to look Dominique Pelicot ‘straight in the eye’ over potential abuse of daughter and case of estate agent who was raped and murdered in 1991

Gisèle Pelicot has said she needs to visit prison to look her abusive ex-husband “straight in the eye” after his conviction for drugging her and inviting dozens of men to rape her in a case that shocked France and the rest of the world.

Pelicot, 73, said she needed “answers” from Dominique Pelicot over the potential abuse of their daughter and the case of an estate agent who was raped and murdered in 1991, which he is under investigation for.

Published: February 14, 2026, 11:12 am

Nose for trouble: Italian town seeks ‘odour evaluators’ to sniff out bad smells

Mayor of Brendola in Vicenza says he has received complaints from residents who live near industrial zones

An Italian town is seeking a crew of sniffers to identify bad smells in its quest to improve air quality.

Bruno Beltrame, the mayor of Brendola, a small town in the northern province of Vicenza, said he began the recruitment campaign for six “odour evaluators” after complaints about “unpleasant smells” from people living in neighbourhoods close to industrial zones.

Published: February 14, 2026, 10:00 am

US man who fled jail and pleaded to Trump and Kim Kardashian gets 60-year term

Antoine Massey was convicted on charges of rape and kidnapping before New Orleans jailbreak

A man who joined nine others in fleeing a New Orleans jail – then publicly pleaded for help from Donald Trump, a rapper whom the president pardoned and reality TV star Kim Kardashian while on the run – recently got a 60-year prison sentence for kidnapping and raping his ex-girlfriend.

Antoine Massey, 32, received his punishment on Thursday at a suburban New Orleans state courthouse, months after his jailbreak-related capture and subsequent conviction at trial of prior charges.

Guardian reporting partner WWL Louisiana contributed

Published: February 14, 2026, 11:00 am

Danish state could face legal action over deal that gives US powers on its soil

Claims that agreement is unconstitutional could pose problems in talks with Washington over Greenland

Denmark could face legal action over an agreement that gives the US sweeping powers on Danish soil, over claims it is “unconstitutional” and could pose problems in talks with Washington over Greenland.

The agreement, which was signed under the Biden administration in 2023 and was passed by the Danish parliament last year, gives the US “unhindered access” to its airbases and powers over its civilians.

Published: February 14, 2026, 12:00 pm

‘It still rankles’: the French town living in the shadow of being an ayatollah’s refuge

Annual remembrance in Neauphle-le-Château revives memories of short exile that reshaped Iran, but which locals would rather forget

Every February, members of the Iranian diaspora descend on an abandoned plot of land in an unremarkable street in the French town of Neauphle-le-Château, a 90-minute drive west of Paris.

On the nominated Sunday, a marquee is hastily thrown up and framed photographs of the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini hung on the canvas. Green baize is laid on the muddy garden path between posts painted with equal bands of green, white and red, the colours of the Islamic republic’s flag.

Published: February 14, 2026, 1:03 pm

US strikes second alleged drug boat in a week, bringing death toll to 133

Strike appears to be first in Caribbean since November, with vast majority of recent strikes happening in the Pacific

The US military’s Southern Command, which oversees operations in Latin America and the Caribbean, said it had carried out its second deadly boat strike this week. The command said the latest strike killed three suspected drug smugglers in the Caribbean on Friday.

“Intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Caribbean and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations,” the Southern Command said in a statement. The command included a video of the strike with its announcement, which shows a boat traveling through the water as it explodes into flames after being hit with what looks like a missile.

Published: February 14, 2026, 2:40 am

Ocasio-Cortez says US military aid to Israel ‘enabled a genocide in Gaza’

New York congresswoman criticizes ‘unconditional’ US aid and calls for enforcement of Leahy laws

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said during a Munich security conference panel on Friday on the future of foreign policy that the Democratic party’s next presidential nominee should reconsider the country’s military aid to Israel.

Hagar Shezaf of the Israeli newspaper Haaretz asked the US congresswoman if she thought “the Democratic presidential candidate in the 2028 elections should re-evaluate military aid to Israel”.

Published: February 14, 2026, 12:00 am

More than 60 children infected in north London measles outbreak

Cases reported in seven schools and a nursery in Enfield amid concern over low levels of MMR vaccination in capital

More than 60 children have been infected by a measles outbreak in north London, it has been reported.

Seven schools and a nursery in Enfield reported the cases, with some children treated in hospital, according to the Sunday Times.

Published: February 14, 2026, 10:33 pm

Chief mouser Palmerston dies after swapping Foreign Office for Bermuda

Social media account for Palmerston, who retired in 2020, announces death of ‘Diplocat extraordinaire’

Palmerston, a rescue cat who became the chief mouser of the Foreign Office, has died in Bermuda.

The cat, adopted from Battersea Dogs & Cats Home, retired in 2020 after four years of service in Whitehall.

Published: February 14, 2026, 4:08 pm

‘It’s been life-changing’: young Britons on why they left the UK to work abroad

Skilled workers facing a tough jobs market and high rents at home reveal how they have built new lives elsewhere, from Vancouver to Dubai

• UK migration could be negative this year – how will that hit the economy?

As young people bear the brunt of a downturn in the jobs market, figures show a significant number are leaving the UK.

Although statisticians caution against comparing annual figures after a recent change in methodology and stress younger people are traditionally more drawn to emigration, a net 111,000 people aged 16 to 34 emigrated from the UK in the year to March 2025, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Published: February 14, 2026, 11:00 am

‘A whole lost culture’: the Irishman reviving the forgotten sport of stone lifting

For centuries in Ireland lifting huge boulders was a way to test strength and bond communities, says Instagram sensation Indiana Stones

David Keohan surveyed the County Waterford beach and spotted a familiar mound half-buried in sand: an oval-shaped limestone boulder. It weighed about 115kg.

He wedged it loose with a crowbar, wiped it dry with a cloth, dusted his hands with chalk and paused to gaze at the Irish Sea, as if summoning strength from the waves pounding ashore.

Published: February 14, 2026, 6:00 am

‘There’s only one bed’, ‘fake dating’ and ‘opposites attract’: how tropes took over romance

They’re all over blurbs and social media, but do these bite-size labels lead to formulaic fiction? Plus the classics reimagined for a modern reader

Opposites attract. He falls first. Coffee shop. Forced proximity. Sports romance. University sports romance. Ivy League university sports romance! Best friend’s brother. Brother’s best friend. Slow burn. Age gap. Amnesia. Wounded hero. Single father. Single mother. Language barrier. The bodyguard. Fake dating. Marriage of convenience.

If this list means nothing to you, you’re not a romance reader. Tropes, as these bullet-point ideas have come to be known, have taken over romance. Those who write, market and read romantic fiction use them to pinpoint exactly what to expect before the first page is turned. On Instagram, Amazon and bookshop posters you’ll find covers annotated with arrows and faux-handwritten labels reading “slow-burn” or “home-town boy/new girl in town”. Turn over any romance title and they’ll be there listed in the blurb.

Published: February 14, 2026, 9:00 am

Animol review – gritty young offenders drama challenges conventional machismo

Institutional menace and an idealistic take on redemption sit side-by-side in Top Boy actor Ashley Walters’ empathic and occasionally over-earnest film

The lawless brutality of a young offender institution is the setting for this British movie written by Marching Powder’s Nick Love and directed by Ashley Walters. It’s a place where terrified newbies realise they can survive only by abandoning their innocence and decency, and submitting to the gang authority of a psycho top G, naturally involving a horrible loyalty test.

This is a place where drugs arrive by drone, where facially tattooed men meet each other’s gaze with a cool opaque challenge in the canteen, and where the cues and balls on the recreation area’s pool table have only one purpose: to give someone a three-month stay in the hospital wing while underpaid guards in lanyards and ill-fitting v-neck jumpers look the other way.

Published: February 14, 2026, 6:45 pm

I took up paddleboarding in my 60s. Now I feel calm in the water and strong on land

It was a wobbly start. But every time I haul my paddleboard out I feel my balance and confidence improving

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At 66, I don’t feel old but, according to my grandsons, I’m ancient. While I’m reasonably active and walk most days, articles about ageing well hit home. Walking isn’t sufficient. I should be doing something about my strength, balance and core. Five-minutes-a-day routines may work for some but I know that I’ll start with good intentions and soon give up. I’m not one for going to the gym and yoga has never been my thing.

The answer is in my boat shed. It’s a paddleboard I bought for fun a few years ago. I was a total beginner; a friend gave me a few lessons. Then several floods turned the Hawkesbury River, where I live, a foul brown and my board has been sitting in the boat shed, unused. Then winter got in the way.

Published: February 14, 2026, 7:00 pm

‘What do we want gardens to sound like?’ It began with a frog pond – then suburban rewilding became an obsession

Wild gardening is about shedding obsessions with tidiness, embracing a looser aesthetic and providing a home for ‘the most important creatures on the planet’

On a wintry January day in Manchester, I crossed University Green, navigating a paved path behind our hotel through lush patches of lawn. It was the start of the inaugural “Wilding Gardens” conference. For two days, scientists and practitioners were gathering to discuss new ways to think about gardens and nature, about what nature needs to thrive, and the untapped potential of gardens – if we step back and allow ecological processes to unfold – to help counter climate change and biodiversity loss.

Clumps of snowdrop flowers poked through the unmown grass and a grey squirrel streaked across it, from one bare-branched tree to another. Probably common alders, going by the University of Manchester Tree Trail. The world’s first industrial city seemed an apt venue for a talkfest on the urgency of rewilding suburban gardens to help save the planet from precisely what drew Marx and Engels there to study, 180 years ago: the impacts of industrialisation.

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Published: February 14, 2026, 7:00 pm

My cultural awakening: ‘Thirteen influenced my hedonistic youth, until a psychotic episode ended it’

My teenage self was shy and miserable, before a coming-of-age film unleashed an adolescence of drink, sex and drugs. It was a years-long party that eventually came crashing down

At 13, what felt like almost overnight, I turned from a happy, musical-theatre-loving child into a sad, lonely teenager. Things I had cared about only yesterday were suddenly irrelevant, as I realised that nothing and no one mattered, least of all me. It’s an angst that adults often find difficult to remember or understand; as the famous line from The Virgin Suicides goes: “Obviously, Doctor, you’ve never been a 13-year-old girl.”

Going to an all-girls Catholic school, I didn’t even really know that sex, drugs and alcohol existed, or that they had currency, until I watched Thirteen for the first time at 14, after seeing a still on Pinterest. The reckless rebellion the two best friends portrayed was seductive to me, and within weeks of watching the film, I’d met some girls from the co-ed school opposite who were having sex, going to parties and taking drugs. Soon, I was doing it all too.

Published: February 14, 2026, 7:00 am

‘Nothing says love like chemicals’: Valentine’s roses often covered in pesticides, testing finds

Bouquets imported to Europe found to be heavily contaminated, often with chemicals banned in EU and UK

Stay away from roses this Valentine’s Day, environmental campaigners have warned after testing revealed them to be heavily contaminated with pesticides.

Laboratory testing on bouquets in the Netherlands, Europe’s flower import hub, found roses had the highest residues of neurological and reproductive toxins compared with other flowers.

Published: February 14, 2026, 3:00 pm

Blind date: ‘My friends would adore her. She is a cupcake in a world of muffins’

Sabah, 38, a publicity director, meets David, 36, a PhD candidate

What were you hoping for?
In an ideal world, my last first date. Failing that, an entertaining voice note for my pals.

Published: February 14, 2026, 6:00 am

‘My husband burned down our house – then the bank threatened repossession’

A family struggled to rebuild their lives after an abusive marriage ended in tragedy and financial ruin

Family life ended for Francesca Onody on a late summer evening in 2022 when her abusive husband doused their cottage with petrol as police arrived to arrest him. She and her children escaped seconds before the building exploded. Her husband Malcolm Baker died in the blaze.

That night, Onody lost her husband, her home, her pets and her possessions.

Published: February 14, 2026, 7:00 am

Tim Dowling: I could look out the window all day – so why bother having curtains?

As a dedicated observer of things happening right outside my house, I can testify that that big puddle has been there for three months

I’ve never needed to be convinced of the cognitive benefits of looking out the window. I would do it all day if I thought people couldn’t see me.

I’m currently staring out of our front window, arms folded, at the large puddle running along the road’s edge outside our house.

Published: February 14, 2026, 6:00 am

Will pancake day be a success? It’s a bit of toss up: the Becky Barnicoat cartoon

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Published: February 14, 2026, 6:00 am

‘The bear feels comfortable and uncomfortable. It’s a bittersweet moment’: Iñigo Jerez Quintana’s best phone picture

Capturing things that mix the strange with the beautiful helped the Spanish graphic designer recover from a blue period

Iñigo Jerez Quintana uses the French term objet trouvé to describe this abandoned bear. Quintana, a Spanish graphic designer, was walking from his studio to a work meeting in Poblenou, a district of Barcelona, when he spotted it.

“I take photos based on visual impulses; anything that catches my eye,” he says. “The colour match of the bear’s fur and wall paint anchors a childish stereotype in a place where it doesn’t really belong.”

Published: February 14, 2026, 11:00 am