We tested 37 US lip balms – these are the best to soothe and hydrate

From trusty Vaseline to trendy Supergoop, our top balms will help keep even the driest of lips moisturized this winter

• In the UK? The best moisturising lip balms to hydrate and protect your lips

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Chapped lips can happen any time of year, but winter is especially tough. The skin on your lips is thinner and more sensitive than elsewhere on your body. Lacking oil glands, your lips don’t stand a chance exposed to the elements. Hence: lip balms tucked away in coat pockets, makeup bags, purses, totes, briefcases, diaper bags, and desk drawers.

Many of us have dozens of sticks and tubes and tubs: some add a hint of color, SPF, anti-aging ingredients, a dab or flavor, a drop of medicine, viral internet cachet. But which one do you turn to the most? What is the one that really does the job of keeping you moisturized and preventing (or treating) chapping and cracking lips?

Published: January 10, 2026, 6:15 pm

Inside Tony Dokoupil’s chaotic first week as the CBS Evening News anchor

The revamped US broadcast has endured a rough start with changed plans, big interviews, social media criticism and an abrupt firing

As traditional TV audiences continue to decline, and more Americans switch to streaming platforms and social media, it’s often a challenge for networks to get the public’s attention when relaunching a show. That hasn’t been an issue for the CBS Evening News with Tony Dokoupil.

The nightly broadcast has received close scrutiny – and a heap of criticism – since its official launch on Monday, and unofficial launch two nights earlier, when the anchor hosted a special edition after the US attack on Venezuela.

Published: January 10, 2026, 11:00 am

Do the tiny, boring exercises: how to really look after your hips

From the best exercise moves to how many steps you really need to aim for a day, experts weigh in on how to maintain hip health throughout your life

When Elvis the pelvis gyrated and thrust his way across national television screens, audiences were delighted and censors were scandalised. But physiotherapists were probably standing up in their seats cheering at the display of such healthy and limber hip movements.

Hips are a key weight-bearing joint, yet we rarely give them the amount of love and attention they deserve.

Published: January 10, 2026, 7:00 pm

‘Bring me a gigantic Gladiator who can cradle me like a baby!’: behind the scenes of the most joyous show on TV

When it first returned to our screens, people said Gladiators was a tired format. They had clearly forgotten the joy of watching half-clad hulks with silly names go to battle, says superfan Helen Pidd as she heads backstage

When Gladiators is filming at the Sheffield Arena, it feels as if everyone is in on the joke. The woman in the ticket office looks at me gravely. “Before I give you these,” she says, “I need to ask a question. These are very good tickets. You’re in the camera block, near the red contestant’s friends and family. So there’s something I need to know. If the camera is on you, are you going to duck and hide and get all embarrassed? Or are you going to go absolutely flipping mental?”

I’ve been up until the early hours painting portraits of my favourite Gladiators with the precise hope of making it on to the telly. Of course I’m going to go absolutely flipping mental! I’ve been waiting for this day since 1992.

Published: January 10, 2026, 12:00 pm

Six great reads: Katherine Ryan, a missing backpacker returns, and Fast Food Nation redux

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

Published: January 10, 2026, 6:00 am

Blind date: ‘The register office was next door … but we opted for the pub and more drinks’

Dara, 24, a trainee accountant, meets Alexia, 24, a healthcare worker

What were you hoping for?
Something a little different for a Tuesday night, and a fancy meal with some good company.

Published: January 10, 2026, 6:00 am

Leaders alarmed about fairness of FBI inquiry into Minneapolis ICE shooting

State and local officials say they do not believe investigation into shooting death of Renee Nicole Good will be objective

State and local leaders say they do not believe that the FBI investigation of the shooting death of Renee Nicole Good will be fair and impartial, and are sounding alarms about the impact of federal officials holding onto evidence in a potential prosecution of the ICE agent who killed her.

Minnesota’s lead investigative agency, the bureau of criminal apprehension, initially began investigating the shooting in conjunction with the FBI. But the BCA issued a statement Thursday morning saying that “the US attorney’s office had reversed course: the investigation would now be led solely by the FBI, and the BCA would no longer have access to the case materials, scene evidence or investigative interviews necessary to complete a thorough and independent investigation”.

Published: January 10, 2026, 12:00 pm

Iran protesters tell of brutal police response as regime lashes out

Videos emerging despite internet and mobile phone blackout show demonstrations continuing despite reports of escalating crackdown

Demonstrators have continued to take to the streets of Iran, defying an escalating crackdown by authorities against the growing protest movement.

An internet shutdown imposed by the authorities on Thursday has largely cut the protesters off from the rest of the world, but videos that trickled out of the country showed thousands of people demonstrating in Tehran overnight into Saturday morning. They chanted: “Death to Khamenei,” in reference to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and: “Long live the shah.”

Published: January 10, 2026, 1:59 pm

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

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

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

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

Published: January 9, 2026, 10:07 pm

Trump administration suspends $129m in benefit payments to Minnesota

USDA notified state’s governor of decision, citing inquiries into alleged fraud by local non-profits and businesses

The Trump administration announced it is suspending $129m in federal benefit payments to Minnesota amid allegations of widespread fraud in the state.

The secretary of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), Brooke Rollins, shared a letter on Friday on social media that was addressed to Minnesota’s governor, Tim Walz, and the mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Frey, notifying them of the administration’s decision and citing investigations into alleged fraud conducted by local non-profits and businesses.

Published: January 10, 2026, 5:04 pm

Pardoned January 6 defendant runs for Florida political office

Adam Johnson served 75 days in prison before being pardoned by Donald Trump in January 2025

A Florida man who was convicted then pardoned by Donald Trump after he grabbed then House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s lectern and posed for photographs with it during the US Capitol riot is running for county office.

Adam Johnson filed to run as a Republican for an at-large seat on the Manatee county commission on Tuesday. That was the fifth anniversary of the January 6 riot, when he was photographed smiling and waving as he carried Pelosi’s lectern after the pro-Trump mob’s attack in 2021.

Published: January 10, 2026, 7:47 pm

Trump announces one-year 10% cap on credit card interest rates

Critics express doubt president can implement such a move without approval from Congress

Donald Trump announced a one-year cap that would limit credit card interest rates to 10% this week, in a move that has prompted mixed reaction from lawmakers and beyond.

The president’s social media post on Friday night said the restriction would take effect on 20 January, but he did not provide specifics on how the government would implement it or ensure that companies comply.

Published: January 10, 2026, 4:02 pm

Nasa announces timeline of astronauts’ early departure from ISS due to ‘serious’ medical issue

Space agency said crew of four will leave ISS next week with goal of touching down in California on 15 January

Nasa has announced when it will commence its first medical evacuation from the International Space Station after an astronaut fell ill with a “serious” but undisclosed issue.

The US space agency announced on social media on Friday night that it will aim to have the crew leave the station no earlier than 5pm EST on Wednesday, 14 January, with the goal of them landing near California early on Thursday morning, 15 January, “depending on weather and recovery conditions”.

Published: January 10, 2026, 2:56 pm

Behind the Somali daycare panic is a mother-and-son duo angling to be top Maga influencers

Nick and Brooke Shirley have for years published conspiracy-minded takes on hot-button rightwing issues

YouTube influencer Nick Shirley, whose viral video alleging fraud by daycare centers servicing Minneapolis’s Somali American community came days ahead of the Trump administration’s declaration of a national funding freeze, has for years published conspiracy-minded takes on hot-button rightwing issues.

He also has close ties to the White House, Republicans, and to representatives of an earlier generation of rightwing partisan “ambush journalists” such as James O’Keefe. He worked with Minnesota Republicans to produce the viral video on Somali-run daycares.

Published: January 10, 2026, 1:00 pm

St Louis residents report monkeys roaming on city streets

St Louis zoo identified the stray simians as vervet monkeys, but it’s not known where they came from

Some residents in St Louis, Missouri, spotted monkeys roaming their streets this week in a situation that feels like the movie Jumanji come to life.

A handful of monkeys were spotted in north St Louis by residents on Friday.

Published: January 10, 2026, 5:42 pm

Self-interest over ideology as disparate inner circle shapes Trump foreign policy

Administration officials, his family and even Mar-a-Lago guests wield outsized influence on a mercurial president

It is a world turned upside down. In his first year in office, Donald Trump has bullied Ukraine, bombed Iran and toppled the leader of Venezuela. In the eyes of critics, he has turned the US into a rogue superpower that poses a greater threat to Nato allies than its foes.

The blitzkrieg has left diplomats in foreign capitals scrambling to understand Trump’s motivations and what – or who – is shaping his thinking. Like past presidents, he has an inner circle of advisers who are playing a crucial role in determining his worldview.

Published: January 10, 2026, 4:00 pm

Trump news at a glance: president pitches oil companies on major extractions in Venezuela

‘We’re going to be extracting numbers in terms of oil like few people have seen,’ Trump said – key US politics stories from 9 January 2025

Donald Trump had a message for fossil-fuel companies on Friday: Venezuela is now “open for business” as the US president vowed the country’s resources would be extracted for the benefit of the US, oil companies – and “some” money for Venezuelans.

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

Published: January 10, 2026, 2:30 am

Why the white America Trump dreams of is just a fantasy

Blocking immigration will not make Trump’s America great again – for the US to shine, he must let it get browner

Here’s one reason Donald Trump seems perennially in a bad mood: he has probably figured out that the America he fantasizes about is out of his reach.

However many immigrants he manages to deport or prevent from entering the country, the white paradise he is promising his Maga base, free of Somalis, Mexican “rapists” and generally people from “shithole countries” – closer in hue to the America where he was born – is not his to offer.

Published: January 10, 2026, 11:00 am

Minneapolis mayor accuses federal authorities of ‘hiding facts’ in ICE killing

Jacob Frey criticizes Trump administration’s response to shooting death of Renee Nicole Good

Officials in Minneapolis on Friday accused federal authorities of “hiding the facts” over the killing of a US citizen by an officer with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency, and demanded the inclusion of state investigators in the FBI inquiry.

Jacob Frey, the Minnesota city’s Democratic mayor, criticized the Trump administration’s response to the shooting, speaking at a press conference two days after the death of Renee Nicole Good in her car in a confrontation with federal officers amid protests and community scrutiny during an immigration crackdown.

Published: January 9, 2026, 8:36 pm

Trump’s territorial ambition: new imperialism or a case of the emperor’s new clothes?

Trump’s attack on Venezuela suggests expansionism is under way but some argue it is simply standard US foreign policy stripped of hypocrisy

The attack on Venezuela and the seizure of its president was a shocking enough start to 2026, but it was only the next day, when the smoke had dispersed and Donald Trump was flying from Florida to Washington DC in triumph, that it became clear the world had entered a new era.

The US president was leaning on a bulkhead on Air Force One, in a charcoal suit and gold tie, regaling reporters with inside details of the abduction of Nicolás Maduro. He claimed his government was “in charge” of Venezuela and that US companies were poised to extract the country’s oil wealth.

Published: January 10, 2026, 6:00 am

Renee Nicole Good shooting casts scrutiny on ICE’s use of deadly force

ICE already receives less oversight for use-of-force incidents than local police departments, and hotly guards its policies

The fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis has cast a spotlight on ICE’s use-of-force policies, and whether the federal agent who shot her will face an impartial investigation or consequences for his actions.

The agency already receives less oversight for use-of-force incidents than local police departments, and has long resisted efforts to disclose its use-of-force policies.

Published: January 10, 2026, 1:00 pm

‘History will tell’: as US pressure grows, Cuba edges closer to collapse amid mass exodus

Disillusioned with the revolution after 68 years of US sanctions and a shattered economy, one in four Cubans have left in four years. Can the regime, and country, survive the engulfing ‘polycrisis’?

Hatri Echazabal Orta lives in Madrid, Spain. Maykel Fernández is in Charlotte, in the US, while Cristian Cuadra remains in Havana, Cuba – for now. All Cubans, all raised on revolutionary ideals and educated in good state-run schools, they have become disillusioned with the cherished national narrative that Cuba is a country of revolution and resistance. Facing a lack of political openness and poor economic prospects, each of them made the same decision: to leave.

They are not alone. After 68 years of partial sanctions and nearly 64 years of total economic embargo by the US, independent demographic studies suggest that Cuba is going through the world’s fastest population decline and is probably already below 8 million – a 25% drop in just four years, suggesting its population has shrunk by an average of about 820,000 people a year.

Published: January 10, 2026, 4:00 pm

Mamdani’s first 10 days: getting things done despite right’s dystopian fantasies

The New York mayor’s popular moves on rent and free childcare defied rightwing predictions of a far-left hellscape

Rightwing politicians and media issued grave warnings about Zohran Mamdani.

The election of the democratic socialist would, according to some, cause a spike in crime, and a reduction in freedom, prompting rich people to flee the city and leading to, in the words of one conservative thinktank, “collapse, dependency, and political repression” in the manner of “Venezuela” and “Cuba”.

Published: January 10, 2026, 3:00 pm

The shocking case of LA’s ‘zombie’ fire – and the young man at the center of it

Prosecutors claim Jonathan Rinderknecht, 29, started a smaller wildfire that went on to become the devastating Palisades blaze. Is he ultimately to blame?

More than a year after a devastating wildfire tore through Pacific Palisades, all but obliterating one of the west coast’s most iconic neighborhoods, prosecutors are honing their case against the man they say is responsible.

Jonathan Rinderknecht, a 29-year-old occasional Uber driver who used to live in Pacific Palisades, was charged with three felonies by federal prosecutors in October, who claim he was in the neighborhood in the early hours of New Year’s Day. According to a federal complaint, Rinderknecht allegedly used an open flame – likely a lighter – to start a small blaze that grew to about 8 acres (3.2 hectares) before firefighters rushed to the area and extinguished it.

Published: January 10, 2026, 2:00 pm

Freedom from China? The mine at the centre of Europe’s push for rare earth metals

Swedish producer is trying to to accelerate the process of extracting the elements vital for hi-tech products

It is deep winter with temperatures dropping to -20C. The sun never rises above the horizon, instead bathing Sweden’s most northerly town of Kiruna in a blue crepuscular light, or “civil twilight” as it is known, for two or three hours a day stretching visibility a few metres, notwithstanding heavy snow.

But 900 metres below the arctic conditions, a team of 20 gather every day, forgoing the brief glimpse of natural light and spearheading the EU’s race to mine its own rare earths. Despite identification of several deposits around the continent, and some rare earth refineries including Solvay in France, there are no operational rare earth mines in Europe.

Published: January 10, 2026, 12:00 pm

The moment I knew: huddled under a spooky bridge by the Canal de l’Ourcq, we were like two little penguins

At first, Alyssa Moore and Jacob Randell kept their romance a secret from their circus troupe; but as the world shut down, they took a leap together

• Find more stories from the moment I knew series

The first time Jake and I crossed paths was at a circus festival in Bathurst. It was 2010 and I was in my last year of high school. Aspiring circus troupes from across the country had gathered to showcase their acts. It felt like all eyes were on Jake’s group from Adelaide, they were incredibly talented. I definitely remember him – I even took one of his workshops – but didn’t think much more of it.

I left my home town, Ulladulla, not long after, trained at the National Institute of Circus Arts and launched a freelance acrobatic career in Melbourne. Meanwhile Jake’s troupe had become a company. Gravity & Other Myths was on the ascent, touring internationally, so when a position came up for a flyer I didn’t hesitate to apply.

Published: January 10, 2026, 7:00 pm

Mass surveillance, the metaverse, making America ‘great again’: the novelists who predicted our present

From Jorge Luis Borges to George Orwell and Margaret Atwood, novelists have foreseen some of the major developments of our age. What can we learn from their prophecies?

This year marks 100 years since the first demonstration of television in London. Elizabeth II sent the first royal email in 1976. The first meeting of the Lancashire Association of Change Ringers took place in 1876. All notable anniversaries. But I’m going with 2026 as the 85th anniversary of a great short story: Jorge Luis Borges’s The Garden of Forking Paths (1941). It’s about chance, labyrinths and an impossible novel. Ts’ui Pên, an ancestor of the narrator, sets himself the task of writing a novel with a cast of thousands: “an enormous guessing game, or parable, in which the subject is time”. In most novels, when a character reaches a fork in the path, they must choose: this way, or that way. Yet in Ts’ui Pên’s novel, all possible paths are chosen. This creates “a growing, dizzying web of divergent, convergent, and parallel times”. The garden of forking paths is infinite.

It’s often said that Borges’s story foreshadows the multiverse hypothesis in quantum physics – first proposed by Hugh Everett in 1957, then popularised by Bryce DeWitt in the 1970s as the “many worlds interpretation” of quantum mechanics. In a 2005 essay, The Garden of the Forking Worlds, the physicist Alberto Rojo investigated this claim. Did the physicists read Borges? Or did Borges read the universe? It turned out that Bryce DeWitt hadn’t known about Borges’s garden. When Rojo questioned Borges, he also denied everything: “This is really curious,” he said, “because the only thing I know about physics comes from my father, who once showed me how a barometer works.” He added: “Physicists are so imaginative!”

Published: January 10, 2026, 9:00 am

What does your car say about you? A global portrait of people and their rides, from Shanghai to Santa Monica

You can tell a lot about someone from the vehicle they drive, as Martin Roemers’ collection of photographs show. Introduction by author William Boyd

In my novels I find that I very rarely write “a car” or “a van” or “a lorry” – I always tend to specify the marque and the model, often with some pedantic precision. Why should this be so? After all, I am a non-driver, someone who claims to be able to drive (I did learn), but who never passed his driving test. And yet, paradoxically, I’m something of a car enthusiast – a sort-of petrol-head, I confess – perhaps a consequence of spending many hours, or maybe that should be years,  in the back of minicabs that conveyed me here and there around London. In my long experience of minicab use I’ve found that most conversations with minicab drivers often end up being about cars. I’ve learned a lot.

There is another reason why I like to specify. I have a conviction that the type of car, or vehicle, that you drive is as much an expression of your personality as the clothes you wear or the decor of the home you call your own. Even the blandest of mid-price cars – the Toyota Prius, the Kia Picanto, the Volkswagen Jetta, for example – are making a covert statement about you, the owner. You chose that car – and your choice is surprisingly eloquent.

Published: January 10, 2026, 6:00 am

AI bubble: five things you need to know to shield your finances from a crash

Some experts have voiced fears a tech meltdown could hit our savings and pensions – here’s how to protect yourself

The new year has started as 2025 ended – with share prices booming amid warnings from some that the growth is being driven by overvalued technology stocks. Fears of an “AI bubble” have been voiced by people from the governor of the Bank of England to the head of Google’s parent company, Alphabet.

Even if you have not actively invested in technology shares, the chances are you have some exposure to companies operating in the sphere. Even if you do not, a collapse could take down other companies’ values.

Published: January 10, 2026, 7:00 am

Why Russia’s economy is unlikely to collapse even if oil prices fall

Hopes that tougher sanctions and lower oil prices could derail Putin’s war effort underestimate how far the Kremlin has rewired its economy

Pacing inside the Kremlin last weekend, as news feeds churned out minute-by-minute reports of Donald’s Trump’s Venezuelan coup, Vladimir Putin may have been wondering what it would mean for the price of oil.

Crude oil has lubricated the Russian economy for decades – far more than gas exports to Europe – and so the threat of falling oil prices, prompted by US plans for control of Venezuela’s rigs, will have been a source of concern.

Published: January 10, 2026, 4:00 pm

Kathy Hochul and Zohran Mamdani are showing what ‘pro-family’ means | Arwa Mahdawi

The governor and mayor unveiled a plan for free childcare in New York City. Is the ‘family values’ party listening?

I think we all need a little cheering up, don’t you? So allow me to interrupt the steady stream of violent authoritarianism and state-sponsored murder in your feed with some good news. New York City, which already provides free preschool for three- and four-year-olds, is a step closer to providing free universal childcare for two-year-olds. On Thursday, Governor Kathy Hochul and Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced a plan for the free childcare program, which they said will start by focusing on “high-need areas” and then gradually expand to cover the city. The mayor said he expected about 2,000 children to be covered by the program this fall.

Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist

Published: January 10, 2026, 2:00 pm

Trump may be the beginning of the end for ‘enshittification’ – this is our chance to make tech good again | Cory Doctorow

The US president is weaponising tech, but his tariffs and Brexit provide a surprising opportunity to gain back digital control of our lives

It’s been 25 years since I started working for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an American nonprofit dedicated to preserving and promoting human rights on the internet. I’ve found myself in dozens of countries working with activists, politicians and civil servants to untangle the complex technical questions raised by the internet, and every one of our discussions ended in the same place. “OK,” they’d say, “you’ve definitely laid out the best way to regulate tech, but we can’t do it.”

Why not? Because – inevitably – the US trade rep had beaten me to every one of those countries and made it eye-wateringly clear that if they regulated tech in a way that favoured their own people, industries and national interests, the US would bury them in tariffs.

Cory Doctorow is a science fiction author, activist and journalist. He is the author of dozens of books, most recently Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What To Do About It

Published: January 10, 2026, 8:00 am

Trinidad and Tobago went all in with the US – it will prove a costly misjudgment | Kenneth Mohammed

Aligning itself with Washington and dismissing regional diplomacy has left the dual island nation isolated amid the Venezuela crisis

There is a saying in Trinidad and Tobago: “Cockroach should stay out of fowl business.” It captures a hard truth. Small states that stray into great-power conflicts rarely emerge unscathed. They are not players; they are expendables.

It’s a statement that frames the reality of where Trinidad and Tobago sits uneasily today.

Published: January 10, 2026, 11:00 am

As I move around the world, postcards are a tangible way to tell people that I’m thinking of them | Minoli Wijetunga

Unlike a story on Instagram or message on WhatsApp, a postcard is not going to get lost among the never-ending notifications of life – it’s real

Returning home after an exhausting day, I open my letterbox to find a colourful creature on a thick white postcard. There is a short message with jumbled letters on barely erased pencilled lines: “happy birthday Minoli nenda”. (Nenda is aunt in Sinhala.) I put down my bags and breathe.

As I move around the world, postcards have become a way to tell people I love that I’m thinking of them. It’s not a picture that I post on Instagram Stories that disappears in 24 hours or a WhatsApp message that gets lost among the many notifications. A postcard is tangible. It is real.

Published: January 10, 2026, 7:00 pm

My daughter showed me the joy in jigsaw puzzles – now it’s the only way I know how to relax | Nova Weetman

The simplicity of doing something that existed only to complete was like a meditation. I felt calmer than I had for months

When my daughter first started kindergarten many years ago, she’d walk into the room and head straight for the puzzle table. While other kids would scoop up a ball from the basket and rush through the double doors to the back yard, she was strictly a jigsaw person.

I don’t remember teaching her how to attack a jigsaw, she just knew. She’d start with hunting out the four corner pieces, move on to the edges, and then concentrate on building the picture, filling out blocks of colour or pattern. She worked methodically through the stack of puzzles one by one, and when she’d finish doing them, then she’d go outside and play.

Published: January 10, 2026, 7:00 pm

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

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

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

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

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

Published: January 9, 2026, 5:52 pm

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

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

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

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

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

Published: January 9, 2026, 5:51 pm

Charlton v Chelsea: FA Cup third round – live

⚽ Updates from the 8pm GMT kick-off at The Valley
⚽ Latest scores | Read Football Daily | Mail Rob

5 min Badiashile gets an early yellow card for pulling down Leaburn, who was in the Chelsea academy until the age of 16.

4 min Campbell’s low cross from the left is put behind for a corner by Andrey Santos. Bree takes, Jorgensen punches a little unconvincingly but gets away with it.

Published: January 10, 2026, 8:42 pm

Warriors’ Steve Kerr rips US government’s response to ICE ‘murder’ in Minneapolis

• Kerr says video contradicts federal account of shooting

• Timberwolves held moment of silence before home game

• Killing sparks protests and scrutiny of ICE tactics

Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr delivered a blistering condemnation of the US federal government on Friday, criticizing official accounts of the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis and praising the Minnesota Timberwolves for publicly acknowledging the woman’s death.

Speaking to reporters before the Warriors’ game against the Sacramento Kings at Chase Center, Kerr said the response from federal authorities following Good’s killing by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent was “shameful”, accusing officials of misrepresenting events despite the existence of video footage and eyewitness accounts.

Published: January 10, 2026, 7:30 pm

Perfect Indiana on brink of college football immortality after Peach Bowl rout of Oregon

• Indiana’s defense forces three first-half turnovers

• Heisman winner Mendoza throws five TDs in rout

• Hoosiers face Miami for national title on 19 January

Undefeated Indiana’s already impressive march through the College Football Playoff gained momentum as its dominant defense created three first-half touchdowns with turnovers, Fernando Mendoza threw five scoring passes and the Hoosiers overwhelmed No 5 Oregon 56-22 in the Peach Bowl semi-final on Friday night.

No 1 Indiana (15-0, No. 1 CFP) will face No 10 Miami on 19 January in the national championship game at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens. Miami beat Mississippi 31-27 in the Fiesta Bowl semi-final on Thursday night.

Published: January 10, 2026, 4:26 am

Lindsey Vonn seals Olympic favourite status with fourth podium in four downhills

• 41-year-old American wins in Zauchensee, Austria

• Veteran skier leads downhill World Cup standings

Lindsey Vonn continued her age-defying comeback with a downhill victory on Saturday to take her career World Cup tally to 84 wins. The 41-year-old American’s second success and fourth podium from four downhills this season increased the veteran skier’s lead in the standings and cemented her favourite status for next month’s Winter Olympics.

Already the oldest World Cup winner of all time, Vonn was fastest by 0.37sec from Norway’s Kajsa Vickhoff Lie with a run of 1min 06.24sec on a cold and cloudy morning with snow falling in Zauchensee, Austria. Another American, Jacqueline Wiles, completed the podium, 0.48 slower than Vonn, on a piste considerably shortened after Friday’s training was cancelled due to heavy snowfall.

Published: January 10, 2026, 1:23 pm

Macclesfield pull off FA Cup’s greatest shock by knocking out holders Crystal Palace

By almost every metric it will go down as the biggest and most seismic FA Cup giantkilling in the competition’s history, with 117 places in the English football pyramid separating Crystal Palace and Macclesfield. Somehow, the star-studded Premier League team who compete in Europe were overwhelmed and deservedly beaten by their sixth-tier hosts, becoming the first cup holders to lose to non-league opposition since 1909.

The fact Palace included three of their cup winning side, in Adam Wharton, Chris Richards and captain Marc Guéhi – who all struggled – just emphasised the scale of the upset. Even Oliver Glasner admitted it was a “David against Goliath story”.

Published: January 10, 2026, 2:22 pm

NFL wildcard weekend predictions: Allen can carry Bills – if he can handle the pressure

The NFL playoffs kick off with ground-game battles, QB duels and a high-stakes edition of the Packers v Bears rivalry

What the Rams need to do to win Hold on to the ball. Across five regular-season defeats, Matthew Stafford gave the ball away seven times with six interceptions and a fumble. In the Rams’ worst loss of the season, to the Panthers in November, Stafford held his team back from taking a commanding lead with two picks in the first quarter. Keep it tight.

Published: January 10, 2026, 9:30 am

Amber Glenn hits triple axel to edge Alysa Liu for third straight US figure skating crown

• Glenn wins third straight US title with sensational free

• Liu takes secone as Levito likely seals lqw5 Olympic spot

• Pairs champs Efimova, Mitrofanov face citizenship race

Amber Glenn won her third consecutive US figure skating title Friday night with a brilliant free skate on the heels of an equally impressive performance from world champ Alysa Liu, who remained rinkside to cheer on her soon-to-be teammate on the American team headed for the Milano Cortina Olympics.

Glenn finished with 233.55 points inside the packed Enterprise Center, while Liu was second with 228.91. Isabeau Levito earned the bronze medal with 224.45 points and, more than likely, the final women’s spot on the squad for the Winter Games.

Published: January 10, 2026, 4:44 am

‘The whole world can think whatever they want’ – Naseem Hamed on boxing, racism and his greatest regret

Former champion on his relationship with trainer Brendan Ingle, now portrayed on film, quitting at the right time and the importance of his faith

Naseem Hamed carries himself with a stately grandeur these days. Having settled his considerable bulk into a comfortable chair he pauses meaningfully. We look at each other intently and it’s hard to believe the incorrigible little “Naz fella”, the swaggering Prince Naseem who became a world champion 30 years ago and changed British boxing forever with his dazzling aptitude for fighting and showmanship, is 51 now.

“This is the one thing you need to understand,” Hamed says as he remembers Brendan Ingle’s famous old gym in Sheffield. “The minute I walked through the doors of that boxing club, that was it. I saw the ring, the bags, the lines on the floor, and I was immediately obsessed. This was going to be my life. I saw boxing as a game of tag. I’m going to hit you and you can’t hit me. It took speed and accuracy and I was really good at it.”

Published: January 10, 2026, 6:00 am

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

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

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

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

Published: January 9, 2026, 8:05 pm

Greenlanders ‘don’t want to be Americans’, say political leaders amid Trump threats

Five parties issue joint statement after US president warns he would acquire the island ‘the nice way or the more difficult way’

Greenlanders “don’t want to be Americans” and must decide the future of the Arctic island themselves, politicians in the self-governing Danish territory have said, after Donald Trump warned the US would “do something whether they like it or not”.

The leaders of five political parties in the Greenlandic parliament issued a united statement on Friday night, soon after the US president reiterated his threats to acquire the mineral-rich island.

Published: January 10, 2026, 10:48 am

Elon Musk says UK wants to suppress free speech as X faces possible ban

Ministers warn platform could be blocked after Grok AI used to create sexual images without consent

Elon Musk has accused the UK government of wanting to suppress free speech after ministers threatened fines and a possible ban for his social media site X after its AI tool, Grok, was used to make sexual images of women and children without their consent.

The billionaire claimed Grok was the most downloaded app on the UK App Store on Friday night after ministers threatened to take action unless the function to create sexually harassing images was removed.

Published: January 10, 2026, 1:11 pm

Quebec’s Lake Rouge vanished – but was it a freak natural event or caused by human actions?

Experts and community trying to untangle mystery of outburst that saw water travel almost 10km overland into a bigger lake

Manoel Dixon had just finished dinner one night last May when a phone dinged nearby with a Facebook message.

Dixon, 26, was at his family’s hunting camp near their northern Quebec home town of Waswanipi. They knew the fellow hunter who was messaging Dixon’s father, but what he wrote didn’t make sense.

Published: January 10, 2026, 6:00 am

Six protesters arrested in Portland after two people shot by border patrol agents

Local leaders’ appeal for non-violence largely holds despite growing outrage over US immigration enforcement in city

Six protesters were arrested by police in Portland, Oregon, late on Thursday, as an appeal for calm from local leaders largely held despite growing outrage over federal immigration enforcement in the city after two people were shot by US border patrol agents.

On Friday afternoon, dozens of protesters gathered again outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Portland, holding signs that denounced ICE agents as “thugs” and “Nazis”.

Published: January 10, 2026, 2:43 am

Federal immigration officers pull out of Louisiana to head to Minneapolis

Move marks abrupt pivot from operation that drew protests in New Orleans and arrested 370 people of a planned 5,000

Federal immigration officers are pulling out of a Louisiana crackdown and heading to Minneapolis in an abrupt pivot from an operation that drew protests around New Orleans and aimed to make thousands of arrests, according to documents obtained by the Associated Press.

The shift appeared to signal a wind-down of the Louisiana deployment that was dubbed “Catahoula Crunch” and began in December with the arrival of more than 200 officers. The operation had been expected to last into February and swiftly raised fears in immigrant communities.

Published: January 10, 2026, 1:39 am

Thousands of Irish farmers protest against EU-Mercosur trade deal

Demonstration follows similar actions in Poland, France and Belgium as EU states approve accord

Thousands of Irish farmers are protesting against the EU’s trade deal with the South American bloc Mercosur, a day after EU states approved the treaty despite opposition from Ireland and France.

Tractors streamed into the roads of Athlone, in central Ireland, for the demonstration, displaying signs bearing the slogan “Stop EU-Mercosur” and the EU flag emblazoned with the words “sell out”.

Published: January 10, 2026, 2:25 pm

World’s richest 1% have already used fair share of emissions for 2026, says Oxfam

Richest 1% took 10 days while wealthiest 0.1% needed just three days to exhaust annual carbon budget, study shows

The world’s richest 1% have used up their fair share of carbon emissions just 10 days into 2026, analysis has found.

Meanwhile, the richest 0.1% took just three days to exhaust their annual carbon budget, according to the research by Oxfam.

Published: January 10, 2026, 5:00 am

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

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

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

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

Published: January 9, 2026, 11:23 pm

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

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

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

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

Published: January 9, 2026, 11:50 pm

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

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

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

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

Published: January 9, 2026, 5:00 am

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

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

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

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

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

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

Published: January 9, 2026, 11:00 am

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

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

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

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

Published: January 9, 2026, 8:00 am

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

This week’s best wildlife photographs from around the world

Published: January 9, 2026, 8:00 am

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

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

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

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

Published: January 9, 2026, 10:03 am

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

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

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

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

Published: January 9, 2026, 6:30 pm

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

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

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

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

Published: January 9, 2026, 9:31 pm

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

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

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

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

Published: January 9, 2026, 5:49 pm

David Lammy: JD Vance agrees that sexualised AI images on X are ‘unacceptable’

Exclusive: US vice-president ‘sympathetic’ to concerns over Grok-generated pornography, says deputy PM

JD Vance, the US vice-president, has agreed that it is “entirely unacceptable” for platforms such as X to allow the proliferation of AI-generated sexualised images of women and children, David Lammy has told the Guardian.

The deputy prime minister said Vance, usually known as an AI enthusiast, expressed concern about how the technology was being used to fuel “hyper-pornographied slop” online when they met in Washington on Thursday.

Published: January 10, 2026, 5:00 pm

Russia fires hypersonic Oreshnik missile at Ukraine in massive attack

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

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

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

Published: January 9, 2026, 1:38 pm

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

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

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

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

Published: January 9, 2026, 10:49 pm

‘The Beethoven of our day’: Fans on what David Bowie meant to them 10 years after his death

At the annual gathering at the Starman memorial in south London devotees talk about the immense impact the artist’s life and death had on them

For Debbie Hilton, David Bowie meant “everything”. “My house is a shrine to him. He’s still alive in my house. My Christmas tree was David Bowie, even my bedding is Bowie,” she said.

She travelled from Liverpool to join her fellow Bowie devotees at the Starman memorial in Brixton, south London, where the singer was born, to pay their respects on the anniversary of his death.

Published: January 10, 2026, 4:45 pm

Golden Globes 2026: who will win and who should win the film awards?

This weekend promises a Hollywood showdown with films including Sinners, Marty Supreme and One Battle After Another up for major awards

After a year that was notoriously close to call (did anyone initially see Anora emerging as the ultimate victor?), this awards season feels a little easier to scope out. Paul Thomas Anderson’s idiosyncratic activism caper One Battle After Another has so far dominated, becoming only the fourth film ever to win best film at both the New York and Los Angeles film circles then the National Board of Review and the National Society of Film Critics. But how far can it go?

It leads this weekend’s Golden Globes with nine nominations but the comedy categories also feature Marty Supreme, now riding high at the box office, and its inescapable leading man Timothée Chalamet. Then on the drama side we have Sinners and Hamnet, two very different films solidifying two very different awards narratives. Here’s how I think it might all play out on Sunday:

Published: January 10, 2026, 10:02 am

Heated Rivalry: this queer Canadian hockey romp is so hot it threatens to scorch the ice it skates on

Ravishing actors, charged glances, buttocks like pneumatic hams … this is one steamy love story. But it’s far more than just a porny sport-based bodice-ripper

I was surprised to learn that ice hockey romance is a genre, a popular one. Surprising, but it makes sense. Love in a cold setting has a fairytale quality. It’s why the great Russian romances endure, though they aren’t relatable. Most of us don’t sit by windows, waiting for a horse to bring word that our cousin has survived the winter in Smolensk. Perhaps it’s time for a modern Doctor Zhivago? Enter Heated Rivalry (Saturday 10 January, 9pm, Sky Atlantic), a Canadian queer romp so hot it threatens to scorch the ice it skates upon.

Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov are star players from Montreal and Moscow respectively, mysteriously drawn to each other on the rink, in the full glare of the media. Well, not that mysteriously. The co-leads get down to business almost immediately, with a not-quite meet cute in a shower room. Every episode thereafter features charged glances, sweaty necks and muscular pumping. Even the camera feels as if it’s in lust, gliding over 8%-fat sports star bodies and the glass walls of luxury flats. It’s an audacious feat, making ice hockey sexy. Those padded uniforms usually make wearers resemble the Thing from The Fantastic Four.

Published: January 10, 2026, 7:00 am

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

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

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

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

Published: January 9, 2026, 8:00 am

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

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

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

Published: January 9, 2026, 1:00 pm

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

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

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

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

Published: January 9, 2026, 12:00 am

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

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

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

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

Published: January 9, 2026, 5:00 am

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

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

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

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

Published: January 9, 2026, 9:00 am

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

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

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

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

Published: January 9, 2026, 8:38 am

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

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

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

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

Published: January 9, 2026, 12:00 pm

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

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

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

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

Published: January 9, 2026, 10:00 am

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

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

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

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

Published: January 9, 2026, 7:00 am

The 15 best games to play on the Nintendo Switch in 2026

From the greatest cartoon racing game in history to a remastered version of an Alien-inspired sci-fi shooter, here are the Switch’s must-play games

• The 15 best games to play on the Nintendo Switch in 2025

Although the Nintendo Switch 2 has been out for several months, not everyone has made the leap to the new machine and there is still much to enjoy on the original console in 2026 (and beyond). From timeless Mario adventures to cutesy shooters to chasm-deep role-playing quests, here are 15 games no Switch owner should be without.

Published: January 10, 2026, 10:00 am

The 15 best Nintendo Switch 2 games to play in 2026

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

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

Published: January 9, 2026, 10:00 am

My cultural awakening: Losing My Religion by REM helped me escape a doomsday cult

I had been a member of the Children of God for two decades, but was growing disillusioned with its controlling behaviour and worrying sexual practices. Then I heard Michael Stipe’s lyrics and was set on a path to freedom

In 1991, I was living in a commune with 200 other people in Japan, as a member of a cult called the Children of God, which preached that the world was going to end in 1993. Everything I did – from where I slept each night, to who I was allowed to sleep with – was decided by the head of my commune. I was encouraged to keep a diary, and then turn it over to the leaders every night, so they could comb through it for signs of dissent. I was only allowed to listen to cult-sanctioned music, and I was only allowed to watch movies with happy endings, because those were the types of films of which the cult’s supreme leader – David Berg – approved. The Sound of Music was one of Berg’s favourite films, so we watched it on repeat.

By the time I was living in Japan, I was in my mid-30s, and I’d been part of the cult for 20 years. I was indoctrinated by a young hippy couple when I was 16, and persuaded to run away from my family and join a sect of the cult near my home town in Canada. I was a lonely teenager and desperately searching for some kind of meaning. Everybody I knew worked in the lumber mill in my small town, and the thought that I was doomed to live that life scared the hell out of me. The first time I visited the commune, everyone hugged me when I walked in, just to say “hello”. It was intoxicating.

But by 1991, after two decades in the cult, my faith was weakening. It was becoming clearer to me that Berg was wrong about the world ending in 1993. A whole series of events that were meant to directly precede the Second Coming hadn’t happened, and Berg – who lived in secrecy and communicated with his followers by written “prophecies” – kept issuing increasingly unconvincing excuses.

I was also becoming more resistant to the way the cult leaders sought to control the most intimate parts of my life. When I joined the cult, it was very sexually conservative. If you wanted to date another member of the community, you had to ask for permission from the leadership. But as the years went by, Berg started preaching a doctrine of sexual freedom, and ordering his members to couple-swap. I had got married to another cult member in the 1980s, and was living with her in a Children of God commune in Japan. Because I resisted couple-swapping I was forcibly separated from my wife as a punishment – and ordered to live in a different commune on my own.

There was also an even darker side to the Children of God that I was trying to shut my eyes to. Berg had released a written decree which permitted adult cult members to have sex with children. I never witnessed any sexual contact with children, and while I did read that decree when it was released in the 1980s, I refused to accept it. Still, it horrified me.

Forcibly separated from my wife, and with Berg’s teachings becoming more twisted, I was in a state of spiritual turmoil. But it was only when I heard REM’s song Losing My Religion that I was pushed to action. Cult members were allowed to own Walkmans, because the Children of God released their own music on cassette, but we were forbidden from listening to “worldly” music. As my will to blindly obey crumbled, I began to secretly tune in to the American armed forces radio station that broadcast in Japan. (Technically, I’d always had the power to covertly listen to music this way, but it’s a sign of how indoctrinated I was that I had never allowed myself to do so before.) One day, Losing My Religion came on, and I remember hearing it for the first time and freezing. I physically stopped walking.

Published: January 10, 2026, 7:00 am

Béla Tarr obituary

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

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

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

Published: January 9, 2026, 4:33 pm

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

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

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

Published: January 9, 2026, 4:24 pm

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

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

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

To the archives!

Published: January 9, 2026, 5:00 pm

From boho chic to dressy: the alpha female celebrities reviving flares

Claudia Winkleman is among high-profile women again popularising the trouser style once favoured by hippies

In fashion currently, trouser shape firmly sit in two camps – skin-tight, as with the revival of skinny jeans, or ultra oversized and baggy. But, perhaps, there is a third way. Enter – once again – the flare.

The trouser shape, first popularised in the 70s and flirted with briefly five years ago, is back again in 2026. Resale app Depop says there has been a 30% increase in the searches for the style this month alone.

Published: January 10, 2026, 9:00 am

50 inspiring travel ideas for 2026, chosen by readers: beaches, city breaks, family holidays and more

Our popular readers’ tips column has been running for 20 years. We’ve selected some highlights from the past 12 months to help you plan your 2026 adventures
• Enter this week’s competition, on life-changing holidays

Published: January 10, 2026, 7:00 am

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

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

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

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

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

Published: January 9, 2026, 8:15 pm

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

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

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

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

Published: January 9, 2026, 3:00 pm

I tried to make my dog go viral on social media – it taught me more than I expected

Making a star of Murphy the labrador seemed like a harmless and plausible quest. But I hadn’t reckoned with all kinds of costs

• Read more summer essentials

Eddie sits at a cafe dressed in a turtleneck and blue beret. “On a scale of 10-10, rate how good I look,” the caption to his post reads.

The socialite’s page is full of candid content: enjoying a doughnut at a popular Melbourne brunch spot, relaxing in a chic robe and celebrating a paid “staycation” at the Hyatt House in Melbourne, adorned in a leopard print outfit.

Published: January 10, 2026, 7:00 pm

Tim Dowling: I have a new mystery ailment but sympathy is in short supply

I can’t tell the GP ghosts are pulling my hair. That’s even more embarrassing than my previous ailments – ‘hot hand’ and ‘phantom phone’

I wake up with a headache. Not a headache, really – more of a head pain, and not exactly that either. I am sitting in the kitchen opposite the middle one, who is staring at his computer. My wife is wandering in and out, not really listening to the symptoms I’m trying to describe.

“It’s like I walked through a low doorway and cracked my skull on the frame,” I say.

Published: January 10, 2026, 6:00 am

Meera Sodha’s vegan recipe for roast swede and purple sprouting broccoli curry | The new vegan

Earthy, sweet swede soaks up a curry sauce like a champion, and this ginger, tomato and coconut number is no exception

As a day-in-day-out home cook, there is no more welcome tool in my dinner toolbox than a bung-it-in-the-oven dish. A second necessary tool in the month of January is the ability to dispose of or transform a swede into an evening meal. For the uninitiated, when roasted, the swede, that pretty, purple-creamed, dense little ball, is part-creamy, part carrot-like in nature, and earthy and sweet in flavour. It also takes to big-flavoured sauces such as this tomato, ginger and coconut curry like a chip to vinegar and couples up well with its seasonal pal, fresh, crunchy purple sprouting broccoli.

Published: January 10, 2026, 6:00 am

Experience: I’m Britain’s best gravedigger

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

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

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

Published: January 9, 2026, 5:00 am

‘The boy’s contented face, his red hair matching the pig’s – you couldn’t plan for it’: Kelli Radwanski’s best phone picture

Remote photography didn’t dilute the intimacy of this blissful moment in the Nevada sunshine

Sara Weir’s five children had just woken up and were roaming their home in Nevada when this shot was taken. It was 7am and photographer Kelli Radwanski was after the morning light; Weir had another child on the way and had hired Radwanski to capture their family life. All the kids were feeling playful, ready to show off their talents, silly faces and prize possessions. As the eldest son wandered into the frame, holding his pot-bellied pig, Radwanski captured the moment – while sitting in her office chair in Oregon.

“Remote photography was developed during the pandemic and a handful of us still use it as one of our primary art forms,” Radwanski says. “I used a special app that took over Sara’s phone camera, an iPhone 13, and the day before the shoot she showed me around her home from the phone, so I could seek out light and vignettes that would be compelling in telling their story. We used a tall standing tripod to hold the phone and I had Sara place it where I wanted it to go. It worked beautifully for moving all five of them in and out of scenes. I’ve photographed more than 500 people in 14 countries this way.”

Published: January 10, 2026, 11:00 am