The crisis whisperer: how Adam Tooze makes sense of our bewildering age

Whether it’s the financial crash, the climate emergency or the breakdown of the international order, historian Adam Tooze has become the go-to guide to the radical new world we’ve entered

In late January 2025, 10 days after Donald Trump was sworn in for a second time as president of the United States, an economic conference in Brussels brought together several officials from the recently deposed Biden administration for a discussion about the global economy. In Washington, Trump and his wrecking crew were already busy razing every last brick of Joe Biden’s legacy, but in Brussels, the Democratic exiles put on a brave face. They summoned the comforting ghosts of white papers past, intoning old spells like “worker-centered trade policy” and “middle-out bottom-up economics”. They touted their late-term achievements. They even quoted poetry: “We did not go gently into that good night,” Katherine Tai, who served as Biden’s US trade representative, said from the stage. Tai proudly told the audience that before leaving office she and her team had worked hard to complete “a set of supply-chain-resiliency papers, a set of model negotiating texts, and a shipbuilding investigation”.

It was not until 70 minutes into the conversation that a discordant note was sounded, when Adam Tooze joined the panel remotely. Born in London, raised in West Germany, and living now in New York, where he teaches at Columbia, Tooze was for many years a successful but largely unknown academic. A decade ago he was recognised, when he was recognised at all, as an economic historian of Europe. Since 2018, however, when he published Crashed, his “contemporary history” of the 2008 financial crisis and its aftermath, Tooze has become, in the words of Jonathan Derbyshire, his editor at the Financial Times, “a sort of platonic ideal of the universal intellectual”.

Published: January 15, 2026, 5:00 am

The world of today looks bad, but take hope: we’ve been here before and got through it – and we will again | Martin Kettle

As I write my last regular column for the Guardian, my thoughts turn to the lessons and hope we can take from history

From Greenland’s icy mountains, from India’s coral strand, as the old hymn has it, we seem to inhabit a world that is more seriously troubled in more places than many can ever remember. In the UK, national morale feels all but shot. Politics commands little faith. Ditto the media. The idea that, as a country, we still have enough in common to carry us through – the idea embedded in Britain’s once potent Churchillian myth – feels increasingly threadbare.

Welcome, in short, to the Britain of the mid-1980s. That Britain often felt like a broken nation in a broken world, very much as Britain often does in the mid-2020s. The breakages were of course very different. And on one important level, misery is the river of the world. But, for those who can still recall them, the 1980s moods of crisis and uncertainty have things in common with those of today.

Martin Kettle is a Guardian columnist

Published: January 15, 2026, 6:00 am

Each NFL playoff team’s fatal flaw: the Bills’ run defense to the Sam Darnold problem

The eight remaining teams all have elements of brilliance. But they also have weaknesses that could send them crashing out of the postseason

Defending the run has long been a sore spot for the Bills – they finished the season 25th in defensive rush success rate. Inside, they lack mass, and are too easily pushed around by teams committed to a smashmouth approach. Outside, they struggle with discipline and technique. Against Jacksonville last weekend, both fell apart. The Jaguars rushed for 154 yards, with 119 of those yards coming on outside runs. It was the Jags’ highest total on outside runs this season. This weekend, against a Broncos offense that is happy to punch anyone in the mouth, that could put the Bills in a lot of trouble.

Published: January 15, 2026, 10:00 am

‘A nasty little song, really rather evil’: how Every Breath You Take tore Sting and the Police apart

Sting and his former bandmates go to the high court over a royalties dispute this week – the latest chapter in the song’s remarkably fractious story

This week’s high court hearings between Sting and his former bandmates in the Police, Stewart Copeland and Andy Summers, are the latest chapter in the life of a song whose negative energy seems to have seeped out into real life.

Every Breath You Take is the subject of a lawsuit filed by Copeland and Summers against Sting, alleging that he owes them royalties linked to their contributions to the hugely popular song, particularly from streaming earnings, estimated at $2m (£1.5m) in total. Sting’s legal team have countered that previous agreements between him and his bandmates regarding their royalties from the song do not include streaming revenue – and argued in pre-trial documents that the pair may have been “substantially overpaid”. In the hearing’s opening day, it was revealed that since the lawsuit was filed, Sting has paid them $870,000 (£647,000) to redress what his lawyer called “certain admitted historic underpayments”. But there are still plenty of future potential earnings up for debate.

Published: January 15, 2026, 6:00 am

My Danish-Indian family has experienced empire first-hand. For all of us, Trump’s imperialism is terrifying | Mira Kamdar

The US I grew up in was built on the rule of law. Now my Indian-born dad is scared ICE will take him from his American care home

As an American of mixed Danish and Indian heritage, who is also a citizen of France and, therefore, of the EU, Donald Trump’s contempt for the rule of law fills me with dread. “I don’t need international law,” he boasted on 7 January in an interview with the New York Times. For Louis XIV, it was “L’état, c’est moi”. For Trump, it’s the “Donroe doctrine”, or “the western hemisphere is mine for whatever profit I and my elite group of loyal courtiers can wring from it”.

At the same time, Trump’s honesty about his intention to use the astonishing military power he wields for unfettered plunder is at least refreshing. No more American pieties to democracy and human rights. The world hasn’t seen this kind of unabashed dedication to amassing wealth since the British East India Company. All hail the new king emperor! Or else.

Mira Kamdar is a Paris-based writer and author of India in the 21st Century. She writes Mixed Borders on Substack

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Published: January 15, 2026, 5:00 am

Africa’s great elephant divide: countries struggle with too many elephants – or too few

In countries such as South Sudan, the great herds have all but disappeared. But further south, conservation success mean increasing human-wildlife conflict

It is late on a January afternoon in the middle of South Sudan’s dry season, and the landscape, pricked with stubby acacias, is hazy with smoke from people burning the grasslands to encourage new growth. Even from the perspective of a single-engine ultralight aircraft, we are warned it will be hard to spot the last elephant in Badingilo national park, a protected area covering nearly 9,000 sq km (3,475 sq miles).

Technology helps – the 20-year-old bull elephant wears a GPS collar that pings coordinates every hour. The animal’s behaviour patterns also help; Badingilo’s last elephant is so lonely that it moves with a herd of giraffes.

Published: January 15, 2026, 5:00 am

Federal agent shoots man in Minneapolis as tensions in city run high

Mayor urged calm as protesters gathered on the scene, as city continues to reel in aftermath of Renee Nicole Good’s killing

A federal officer has shot a man in the leg during an enforcement operation in north Minneapolis, sparking protests in a city still on edge after the killing of Renee Nicole Good by a federal agent last week.

The shooting occurred about 7pm local time, according to witnesses. Several hundred protesters gathered at the scene on Wednesday night facing off with agents who blocked off the area and used smoke and other crowd control weapons.

Published: January 15, 2026, 5:25 am

Trump says Iran has told him ‘killing has stopped’ as he pulls back from strike threats

US president says he has been assured by Tehran ‘there’s no plan for executions’ of protesters

• Iran protests – live updates

• Iran crisis explained: what we know so far

• Analysis: why western diplomats are wary of predicting regime’s end days

Donald Trump has at least temporarily pulled back from threats to strike Iran, saying he has been assured the killing of protesters has been halted and no executions are being planned.

Speaking to reporters in the White House on Wednesday night, the US president said: “We’ve been told that the killing in Iran is stopping – it’s stopped – it’s stopping. And there’s no plan for executions, or an execution, or execution – so I’ve been told that on good authority.” He offered no details and said the US had yet to verify the claims.

Published: January 15, 2026, 8:20 am

Trump to meet Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel peace laureate Maria Corina Machado later – US politics live

Trump and his top advisers have previously hinted at their willingness to work with acting president Delcy Rodríguez

Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog. My name is Tom Ambrose and I’ll be bringing you the latest news lines over the next few hours.

We start with news that president Donald Trump is set to meet with Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado at the White House later today.

The US Senate has voted against a war powers resolution that would have prevented Donald Trump from taking further military action against Venezuela without giving Congress advance notice. Senators Josh Hawley of Missouri and Todd Young of Indiana, who had joined three other Republicans to advance the resolution alongside Democrats last week, flipped after they said they received assurances from the Trump administration.

The Trump administration received approval from the justice department to use the military to seize Nicolás Maduro even as it declined to address whether the operation would violate international law, according to a legal memo. The dark-of-night raid to capture Venezuela’s president has raised a host of legal issues concerning the president’s power to start an armed conflict without congressional approval and possible breaches of international law.

The Trump administration has indefinitely suspended immigrant visa processing for people from 75 countries, marking one of its most expansive efforts yet to restrict legal pathways to the United States. The freeze, which takes effect on 21 January, targets applicants officials deem likely to become a “public charge” – who they describe as people who may rely on government benefits for basic needs.

Donald Trump has said it would be “unacceptable” for Greenland to be “in the hands” of any country other than the US, reiterating his demand to take over the arctic island, a semi-autonomous territory of Denmark. “The US needs Greenland for the purpose of national security. Nato should be leading the way for us to get it,” the US president said on social media. The alliance “becomes far more formidable and effective” with the territory under US control, he said.

The Iranian government has signalled that detained protesters are to face speedy trials and executions, defying a threat by Trump to intervene if authorities continue their crackdown.

The Democratic representative Robin Kelly on Wednesday formally introduced articles of impeachment against Trump’s homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, following the fatal shooting of a US citizen by an immigration agent in Minneapolis last week.

The Trump administration on Tuesday evening unexpectedly canceled up to $1.9bn in funding for substance use and mental health care, which providers say will immediately affect thousands of patients. “The scope of care that’s disrupted by these grants is catastrophic,” said Ryan Hampton, founder of Mobilize Recovery, a national advocacy organization for people in and seeking recovery. “Tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of people will die.”

Published: January 15, 2026, 10:55 am

Trump administration halts immigrant visa processing from 75 countries

The state department cites welfare use as it pauses visa processing for Brazil, Iran, Russia, Somalia and others

The Donald Trump administration has indefinitely suspended immigrant visa processing for people from 75 countries, marking one of its most expansive efforts yet to restrict legal pathways to the United States.

The freeze, which takes effect on 21 January, targets applicants officials deem likely to become a “public charge” – who they describe as people who may rely on government benefits for basic needs.

Published: January 14, 2026, 8:11 pm

Musk’s X to block Grok AI tool from creating sexualised images of real people

UK government claims vindication after Keir Starmer criticised earlier decision to keep functionality as ‘horrific’

The UK government has claimed “vindication” after Elon Musk’s X announced it had stopped its AI-powered Grok feature from editing pictures of real people to show them in revealing clothes such as bikinis, including for premium subscribers.

After a fortnight of public outcry at the tool embedded into X being used to create sexualised images of women and children, the company said it would “geoblock” the ability of users “to generate images of real people in bikinis, underwear, and similar attire via the Grok account and in Grok in X”, in countries where it was illegal.

Published: January 15, 2026, 9:19 am

Trump is making China – not America – great again, global survey suggests

Exclusive: US is less feared by its traditional adversaries, while its allies feel ever more distant, results show

A year after Donald Trump’s return to the White House, a global survey suggests much of the world believes his nation-first, “Make America Great Again” approach is instead helping to make China great again.

The 21-country survey for the influential European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) thinktank also found that under Trump, the US is less feared by its traditional adversaries, while its allies – particularly in Europe – feel ever more distant.

Published: January 15, 2026, 12:01 am

France latest to confirm Nato troop deployment after Trump says Greenland ‘very important’ for US national security – Europe live

Múte B. Egede, Greenland’s deputy prime minister, said more soldiers were expected in the coming days

Poland’s prime minister Donald Tusk said there were strong reasons to believe a group connected to Russian secret services was behind a significant cyber-attack on Poland’s energy in infrastructure towards the end of December, Reuters reported.

Chairing an emergency meeting on the attack, Tusk said the attack focused on systems managing renewable energy, but insisted that Poland’s defence systems worked well and critical infrastructure continued to work unaffected.

Published: January 15, 2026, 10:59 am

Portland man shot by Border Patrol pleads not guilty to assaulting agent

Luis David Nino-Moncada, shot the day after Renee Good was killed, denies using vehicle as weapon against officer

A man shot and wounded by a Border Patrol agent during an immigration stop in Portland last week has plead not guilty to charges of aggravated assault against a federal officer and damaging federal property.

Luis David Nino-Moncada, who was taken into custody after sustaining an injury in the arm from the shooting, was indicted on Tuesday and entered his plea on Wednesday. The Department of Homeland Security alleges that Nino-Moncada, who is of Venezuelan descent, entered the US illegally and used his vehicle as a weapon when agents attempted to apprehend him.

Published: January 15, 2026, 1:31 am

ISS astronauts return to Earth in Nasa’s first ever medical evacuation

Four astronauts emerge from capsule after Pacific landing, including crew member in ‘stable’ condition

Four astronauts have​ returned to Earth from the the International Space Station (ISS) in Nasa’s first medical evacuation after a​n undisclosed medical issue prompted their mission to be suddenly cut short.

The US space agency has declined to disclose which crew member had the health problem or give details about the issue, but has said the astronaut was “stable”.

Published: January 15, 2026, 10:08 am

Trump news at a glance: US halts visas from dozens of nations in latest immigration crackdown

List includes war-torn nations, allies and countries with long-standing immigration ties to US – key US politics stories from 14 January 2026

The Trump administration has indefinitely suspended immigrant visa processing for people from 75 countries, marking one of its most expansive efforts yet to restrict legal pathways to the United States.

The freeze, which takes effect on 21 January, targets applicants officials deem likely to become a “public charge” – whom they describe as people who may rely on government benefits for basic needs.

Published: January 15, 2026, 2:04 am

FBI raids home of Washington Post reporter in ‘highly unusual and aggressive’ move

Agents searched Hannah Natanson’s Virginia home and seized devices in inquiry tied to a classified materials case

The FBI raided the home of a Washington Post reporter early on Wednesday in what the newspaper called a “highly unusual and aggressive” move by law enforcement, and press freedom groups condemned as a “tremendous intrusion” by the Trump administration.

Agents descended on the Virginia home of Hannah Natanson as part of an investigation into a government contractor accused of illegally retaining classified government materials.

Published: January 14, 2026, 6:20 pm

‘Are they going to bring their violence here?’: Fear – but little preparation – as threat of invasion looms over Greenland

Ahead of high-stakes talks, people tell of alarm, thoughts of fleeing and lack of information on what to do if US invades

• Europe live – latest updates

When she was living in Denmark, the seemingly unshakeable safety of Greenland was a comforting source of reassurance for Najannguaq Hegelund. Whenever there was any instability in the world, she would joke with her family: “Well we will just go to Greenland, nothing ever happens in Greenland.”

But in the past two weeks – during which Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened military action on the largely autonomous Arctic territory the US president claims he “needs” for national security purposes, despite it being part of the Danish kingdom – Hegelund, 37, has realised this is suddenly no longer true.

Published: January 14, 2026, 1:26 pm

Trump signs bill returning whole milk to US school lunches

Move allowing whole and 2% milk to be served in cafeterias overturns Obama-era limits to higher-fat milk options

Whole milk is heading back to school cafeterias across the country after Donald Trump signed a bill on Wednesday overturning Obama-era limits on higher-fat milk options.

Non-dairy drinks such as fortified soy milk may also be on the menu in the coming months after adoption of the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act, which cleared Congress in the fall.

Published: January 14, 2026, 9:38 pm

Kids with brain cancer were already in a life and death struggle. Then came Trump

The US president vowed to ‘end childhood cancer’. But his administration is dismantling the search for a cure and sending families scrambling for treatment

For seven years, Jenn Janosko cared for children with cancer on the ninth floor of New York’s Memorial Sloan Kettering hospital.

It’s the happiest sad place she knows.

Published: January 15, 2026, 11:00 am

Why big oil giants may not rush to buy into Donald Trump’s Venezuelan vision

It may well be safer, easier and cheaper for US companies to procure whatever oil the US economy needs at home

There are a few reasons that Donald Trump – now self-anointed acting President of Venezuela, as well as the United States – might be so excited about appropriating Venezuela’s oil.

Trump may be counting on some boost from cheap oil to the US economy: he is obsessed with the price of gas. As the midterm elections approach, he has become concerned about unemployment. Deeply imprinted memories of scarcity during the oil crises of the 1970s may prime his belief that cheap oil cures it all.

Published: January 15, 2026, 11:00 am

‘The consumers are still out there’: why a bankruptcy for Saks Global may not spell the end

Just more than a year after the new luxury behemoth was formed, it announced it had filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy

Every year, the stores down Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue dress up their windows at Christmastime. Tourists from all over the world come to gawk at all the glitter, lace, ruffles and bows.

Saks’s Fifth Avenue location, so iconic that it’s embedded in the brand’s name, is usually dressed top to bottom during the holidays. In 2023, the store partnered with Christian Dior to display a giant zodiac calendar. As part of the light show, fireworks were released from the top of the store to the oohs and aahs of spectators.

Published: January 15, 2026, 10:00 am

Stirring the Melting Pot: capturing the New York immigrant experience – in pictures

A new exhibition at the New York Historical museum looks at the immigrant experience in New York City through a range of revealing and diverse viewpoints, with more than 100 photographs and objects showing how the city has been shaped by people from across the globe. The exhibition runs to 29 March

Published: January 15, 2026, 10:00 am

​’How do you really tell the truth about this moment?’: George Saunders on ghosts, mortality and Trump’s America

The Lincoln in the Bardo author is back with another metaphysical tale. He discusses Buddhism, partisan politics and the terrifying flight that changed his life

Like his first novel, Lincoln in the Bardo, which won the Booker prize in 2017, George Saunders’s new novel is a ghost story. In Vigil, an oil tycoon who spent a lifetime covering up the scientific evidence for climate change is visited on his deathbed by a host of spirits, who force him to grapple with his legacy. What draws Saunders to ghost stories? “If I had us talking here in a story and I allowed a ghost in from the 1940s, I might be more interested in it. It might be because they are in fact here,” he says, gesturing to the hotel lobby around us. “Or even if it’s not ghosts, we both have memories of people we love who have passed. They are here, in a neurologically very active way.” A ghost story can feel more “truthful”, he adds: “If you were really trying to tell the truth about this moment, would you so confidently narrow it to just today?”

Ghosts also invite us to confront our mortality and, in so doing, force a new perspective on life: what remains once you strip away the meaningless, day-to-day distractions in which we tend to lose ourselves? “Death, to me, has always been a hot topic,” Saunders says. “It’s so unbelievable that it will happen to us, too. And I suppose as you get older it becomes more …” he puts on a goofy voice: “interesting”. He is 67, grizzled and avuncular, surprisingly softly spoken for a writer who talks so loudly – and with such freewheeling, wisecracking energy – on the page. He says death is close to becoming a “preoccupation” for him and he worries that he is not prepared for it.

Published: January 15, 2026, 11:00 am

Commodore 64 Ultimate review – it’s like 1982 all over again!

Showing the value of great design over visual impact, this faithfully resurrected home computer seamlessly integrates modern tech with some wonderful additional touches

The emotional hit was something I didn’t expect, although perhaps I should have. The Commodore 64 Ultimate, a new version of the legendary 8-bit computer, comes in a box designed to resemble the original packaging – a photo of the machine itself on a background of deep blue fading into a series of white stripes. Then when you open it, you find an uncannily accurate replica of what fans lovingly referred to as the breadbox – the chunky, sloped Commodore 64, in hues of brown and beige, the red LED in one corner above the row of fawn-coloured function keys. It’s like 1982 all over again.

My dad bought us a C64 in late 1983. It was our second computer after the ZX81 and it felt like an enormous leap into the future with its detailed colour graphics, advanced sound chip and proper grown-up keyboard. We unpacked it on our dinner table, plugging it into a small portable TV and loading the one game we had, a very basic Donkey Kong clone named Crazy Kong. My life would never be the same again. This contraption was my obsession for the next four years – my friendships and free-time would revolve around games such as Bruce Lee, Paradroid and Hyper Sports. To this day, I treasure the memories of playing golf sim Leaderboard with my dad. The sound effects, speech samples and graphics conjured by that computer have lived rent free in my head for, god, almost 40 years.

Published: January 15, 2026, 10:14 am

Andy Warhol would have hated safe spaces. So why keep dragging dead artists into today’s culture wars?

Critics and curators are reframing great artists, from Gentileschi to Soutine, to fit with modern ethical narratives. But this ignores the glorious ambivalence of their creations

One rainy afternoon last winter, sitting under a blanket with a cup of tea, I found myself Googling paintings by Chaïm Soutine. It’s a pastime I’ve indulged ever since visiting an exhibition of his portraits of hotel staff on the French Riviera during the 1920s – paintings that combine such a mixture of tenderness and debasement that it’s as if his brush is kissing and beating his subjects at the same time.

I flicked through images of hopelessly innocent cooks and bellboys, with complexions the colour of raw sausage and ears that look as if they have been brutally yanked. And as I did, I came across a review of the very show where I had first encountered Soutine’s works. Ah, I thought, looking forward to luxuriating in literature about his particular genius for kindly sadism.

Published: January 15, 2026, 8:00 am

You be the judge: should my daughter pay the fine we incurred dropping her at the airport?

Margaret says her daughter didn’t pay the airport charge, so it’s on her. Georgie says this cock up is all her mum’s doing. You decide who got them into this fine mess
• Find out how to get a disagreement settled or become a juror

We dropped Georgia off in her own car and she didn’t pay the drop-off fee, so the fine is hers

I didn’t know you had to pay for drop-off. Mum knew and didn’t tell me, so she should help pay

Published: January 15, 2026, 8:00 am

‘Love can be an addiction’: Nan Goldin’s Ballad of Sexual Dependency – in pictures

For the first time in the UK, the photographer’s magnum opus is going on display in its entirety – introducing new viewers to New York’s edgy downtown scene and a generation lost to Aids. Here, she looks back at the ‘fearlessness and wildness’ of her life and times

Published: January 15, 2026, 7:00 am

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy review – Holly Hunter is a transgressive thrill in this horny high-school spinoff

This hormone-fuelled tale of the training college for space voyagers is like Grange Hill, with phasers – and it has a female lead unlike any captain before

The original Star Trek TV series debuted in 1966, so trying to get your head round all the sequels, prequels and timeline-splitting spin-offs can often feel like homework. It was only a matter of time before the venerable sci-fi franchise used a school as a setting. But Starfleet Academy, the latest streaming series, is not some random cosmic polytechnic for aliens to study humanities or vice versa. This is the oft-referenced San Francisco space campus sited right next to the Golden Gate Bridge. With James T Kirk and Jean-Luc Picard on the alumni list, it is basically Hogwarts for wannabe starship captains.

Or at least it used to be. As this newest Trek opens we are in the 32nd century: as far into the future as the franchise has ever gone, boldly or otherwise. (The original 1966 five-year mission for Kirk and co took place in the 23rd century.) The universe is still recovering from the Burn, an all-encompassing cataclysm from 2020’s season three of Star Trek: Discovery that put the kibosh on faster-than-light warp travel. After an extended period of intergalactic isolationism, Starfleet Academy is about to receive its first new intake for over a century. Mega-fan Stephen Colbert is already on board as the school’s PA announcer. All it needs is a new chancellor.

Published: January 15, 2026, 5:00 am

US sports say parity is essential for success. The Premier League proves that’s untrue | Leander Schaerlaeckens

There are no salary caps and no luxury taxes, yet the world’s most-watched soccer league is only getting more balanced

David Stern used to tell a joke. In his early years as NBA commissioner, he liked to say, his job was essentially to travel back and forth between Boston and Los Angeles to hand out the championship trophy. In the first five NBA Finals after he took the helm in early 1984, the Celtics and Lakers won all five titles, each missing the decisive series just once.

Current commissioner Adam Silver recalled the anecdote last June, ahead of the 2025 NBA Finals, by which time the league was guaranteed a seventh different champion in seven years. “We set out to create a system that allowed for more competition around the league,” Silver said then in his annual news conference. “The goal being to have 30 teams all in the position, if well managed, to compete for championships. And that’s what we’re seeing here.”

Published: January 15, 2026, 11:00 am

After all these years, I still hate wearing specs | Adrian Chiles

When I was a boy, glasses were a source of shame that ruined my self-esteem. Now that contact lenses have failed me too, all that’s left is to embrace the blurriness

I hate my glasses. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. Not just these I’m wearing now, but whichever spectacles I’ve been cursed to wear since, to my horror, I was first told to at the age of 14. At that point, my hatred of them was general, unspecific. They were a source of shame as well as inconvenience. The football field was a blur. Girls, who admittedly had never been much attracted to me in the first place, now lost interest completely.

I developed more specific dislikes, for example the way they steamed up (the glasses, not the girls) when I walked into pubs in winter, still further diminishing my chances of getting served underage. They were always getting bent out of shape, and this bugged me tremendously. The left side was higher than the right, or the right higher than the left, and I could never figure out why this was. I pulled and bent and stretched them this way and that, and only ever made matters worse. Were the arms not straight? Or was the problem the ear thingies?Don’t start me on the nose thingies, which have never, for me anyway, successfully discharged their primary task of stopping the bastards from slipping down my nose.

Published: January 15, 2026, 11:00 am

Whether or not Trump invades Greenland, this much is clear: the western order we once knew is history | Timothy Garton Ash

The EU must be more robust in order to stem the tide of international disorder, or it risks falling to authoritarian imperialism

Donald Trump is threatening to take over Greenland, the territory of a Nato ally, possibly by military force, as Vladimir Putin is trying to take over Ukraine. Even if he doesn’t actually do it, this is a new era: a post-western world of illiberal international disorder.

The task now for liberal democracies in general, and Europe in particular, is twofold: to see this world as it is and to work out what the hell we’re going to do about it.

Timothy Garton Ash is a historian, political writer and Guardian columnist

Published: January 15, 2026, 8:00 am

I’m Ann Lee, and this is my testament about the mind-scramble of sharing your name with a movie character

From amused texts to awkward introductions, the run-up to the release of awards-tipped Shaker biopic The Testament of Ann Lee has been a strange experience

The messages started over a year ago. “The title cracked me up,” my film-loving friend Matt texted me, along with a tweet announcing a new musical called Ann Lee, starring Amanda Seyfried and directed by Mona Fastvold, about an 18th-century leader of the Shaker movement. Why would such innocuous film news delight him so much? Well, because my name is Ann Lee too.

“Yes! Fame at last!” I replied. I’ve answered in a similar vein to all the messages since then from other friends eager to break the news to me that my name was getting top billing in a prestigious Hollywood film. And I was genuinely amused and excited; for most of my life Ann Lee had seemed the beigest of names. Lee, or Li as it’s also spelled, is one of the most common surnames in the world and shared by more than 100 million people in Asia. I was sure there were many many Ann Lees out there. But when you get a film title dedicated to it? Now that’s when you start to feel your name might be special after all.

Published: January 15, 2026, 7:00 am

New York Giants reportedly closing in on John Harbaugh as next head coach

• Giants negotiating with Harbaugh on head coach deal

• ESPN reports talks active, agreement expected soon

• Veteran coach brings Super Bowl pedigree to New York

The New York Giants are closing in on a deal to hire John Harbaugh as their next head coach, with negotiations ongoing but momentum building toward an agreement, according to an ESPN report Wednesday night.

While contract details are still being finalized and no paperwork has been signed, sources told ESPN that both sides expect the process to reach the finish line barring an unexpected snag. One source characterized the talks as active and substantive, with issues still to be worked through.

Published: January 15, 2026, 5:26 am

Katie Ledecky clocks second-fastest 1500m free ever in Pro Swim win

• Ledecky posts second-fastest 1500m time ever

• American wins by more than a minute in Austin

• Finke, McIntosh and Marchand also shine

Nine-time Olympic gold medalist Katie Ledecky clocked the second-fastest women’s 1500m freestyle time in history on Wednesday to launch the US Pro Swim Series event in Austin, Texas, with a dominant victory.

Ledecky was untouchable as she cruised to victory in 15min 23.21sec, more than a minute in front of 16-year-old runner-up Brinkleigh Hansen, who touched in 16:31.31.

Published: January 15, 2026, 7:19 am

Sánchez errors hand Arsenal first-leg lead despite Garnacho’s Chelsea double

It was the latest display of Arsenal’s power and aggression, their remorselessness. And when it was over, this Carabao Cup semi-final felt firmly within their grip. But for a late goal from the Chelsea substitute Alejandro Garnacho, his second of an eventful cameo, it would surely have been over.

Even so, it was difficult on this evidence to predict anything other than Arsenal progressing into the final; moving closer to a rare piece of silverware under Mikel Arteta – one to pave the way for others this season?

Published: January 14, 2026, 10:10 pm

Why is Stephen A Smith blaming Renee Good for her own death? | Etan Thomas

The ESPN broadcaster’s comments about the ICE shooting in Minnesota moves him closer to the stance of another media figure he has long attacked

This past weekend there were hundreds of demonstrations across the United States after Renee Good, an American citizen and mother of three, was shot dead by Jonathan Ross, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer, in Minnesota.

The anger has permeated throughout the NBA as well. Steve Kerr and Doc Rivers, the head coaches of the Golden State Warriors and Milwaukee Bucks respectively, described Good’s death as “murder”. Kerr also attacked the Trump administration’s attempts to portray Good as a terrorist.

Published: January 14, 2026, 11:00 am

‘Smiling assassin’ Jordan Smith basks in spotlight after hitting $1m tennis jackpot

• Amateur player celebrates winning One Point Slam at Australian Open

• Sydney coach to use million-dollar payday to travel and buy property

Pending tax advice, tennis coach Jordan Smith is Australia’s newest millionaire, thrust into the global spotlight after beating top professionals in the One Point Slam on Wednesday night.

Smith’s improbable run to the $1m prize made him a magnet on Thursday morning at Melbourne Park, amid more than a dozen local and international interviews, selfies, promotions and autographs.

Published: January 15, 2026, 1:59 am

Sheriff investigates burglary at late Nascar driver Greg Biffle’s home

• Cash, guns and memorabilia reported stolen

• Home last secure day before burglary report

• Memorial service set for Friday in Charlotte

Sheriff’s deputies are investigating an alleged break-in and theft last week at the North Carolina home of retired Nascar driver Greg Biffle, one of seven people who died in a plane crash last month.

The alleged burglary and forcible entry into the Biffle home in Mooresville was reported on 8 January, according to an incident report from the Iredell County Sheriff’s Office.

Published: January 14, 2026, 9:42 pm

Sam Coffey’s Man City move is another blow for a hamstrung NWSL

USWNT stars have a world of options as their domestic league struggles to match European teams’ ambition

Sam Coffey’s transfer from the Portland Thorns to Manchester City marks a tipping point: more than half of the USWNT’s starting lineup that secured the 2024 Olympic gold medal now play their professional soccer in Europe. If free agent Trinity Rodman signs abroad, too, that’ll leave only four players from that lineup on NWSL rosters to start the domestic season.

The distribution of where USWNT players compete has dramatically shifted under Emma Hayes. So many star players have headed to European Goliaths, including Hayes’s former club Chelsea, that last year she had to assure the NWSL board of governors she isn’t pushing her athletes to leave the league, per a report from ESPN. Hayes insists she simply supports her players’ aspirations, whatever they may be. Today, out of the seven players with the most USWNT minutes in 2025, only two of them – Emily Sonnett and Claire Hutton – are playing stateside.

Published: January 14, 2026, 3:43 pm

Morocco book place in home Afcon final as Bounou denies Nigeria in shootout

Morocco advanced to the Africa Cup of Nations final on penalties, beating Nigeria 4-2 in the final shootout after their semi-final ended goalless after extra time.

Yassine Bounou saved two spot kicks for the tournament hosts, keeping out Samuel Chukwueze and Bruno Onyemaechi’s efforts. Nigeria keeper Stanley Nwabali denied Hamza Igamane with the first save of the shootout, but it proved to be in vain.

Published: January 14, 2026, 11:10 pm

Pitch Points: Alonso’s future and Wrexham’s Premier League dreams

The world of soccer throws up no shortage of questions. In today’s column, we endeavor to answer three of them

As damaging as Sunday’s Spanish Super Cup defeat to Barcelona was for Xabi Alonso’s credibility as Real Madrid manager, the scenes after the game ultimately finished him off. The sight of Kylian Mbappé overriding Alonso, insisting his teammates leave the pitch as the manager requested in vain that they give Barça a guard of honour, summed up an untenable situation.

Published: January 14, 2026, 2:00 pm

US announces start of second phase of Gaza ceasefire

No details given of committee members who will run territory but they are expected be technocrats, not politicians

The US has announced the start of the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire, including the creation of a committee of Palestinian technocrats who are supposed to take over the day-to-day running of the territory for a transition period.

The announcement was made on social media by Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, but it lacked any detail or names of potential members of the proposed “national committee for the administration of Gaza”. The committee is not expected to begin work until mandated by a “peace board” chaired by Trump, which has yet to be created.

Published: January 14, 2026, 7:28 pm

British diplomat expelled from Russia after being accused of being a spy

Moscow alleges unnamed diplomat is affiliated ‘with the British secret service’ as it gives them two weeks to leave

A British diplomat has been expelled from Russia after being accused of being a spy.

The diplomat, who was not named, had two weeks to leave the country, the Russian foreign ministry said after it received information “regarding the affiliation of a diplomatic employee at the embassy with the British secret service”.

Published: January 15, 2026, 8:47 am

Wolf’s dinner preserved in Siberia for 14,400 years sheds light on woolly rhino

Decoded genome of meat in pup’s stomach helps scientists build picture of what caused extinction of species

Researchers have shed light on the final centuries of the woolly rhinoceros after studying a hairy lump of meat from the stomach of an ancient wolf cub that became mummified in the Siberian permafrost.

The beautifully preserved remains of a two-month-old female wolf cub were discovered in 2011 near the village of Tumat in northeastern Siberia. The animal is thought to have died 14,400 years ago when a landslide collapsed its den, trapping the cub and others inside.

Published: January 14, 2026, 5:01 pm

Ukraine war briefing: Zelenskyy declares energy emergency as cities shiver

Night-time temperatures dip close to -20C; minister outlines major problems with desertion and conscription evasion. What we know on day 1,422

Volodymyr Zelenskyy is to declare a state of emergency in Ukraine’s energy sector to tackle disrupted power supplies after heavy Russian attacks. Energy imports would also be increased, the Ukrainian president said. Emergency crews in Ukraine have proceeded with round-the-clock efforts to restore power and heating supplies at a time when night-time temperatures are dipping close to -20C (-4F). Zelenskyy said the state of emergency would allow authorities “more options and flexibility”. He called for the establishment of more centres where residents can stay warm and charge electronic devices, and said nightly curfews could be lifted in areas where the security situation permitted it.

The president said Kyiv – whose mayor he regularly clashes with – had done considerably less than other major centres, notably Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, to prepare for the hardships inflicted by the attacks. “Even in recent days, I do not see sufficient intensity,” he said. “This must be urgently corrected. Decisions must be made.” The Kyiv mayor, Vitali Klitschko, countered that heating had been restored to all but about 400 of 6,000 affected apartment buildings and support centres were operating 24 hours a day. “Such statements, first of all, undermine the dedicated work of thousands of people, professionals,” Klitschko wrote. “They may not have weapons in their hands, but through their tireless efforts they are also fighting for their country.” Zelenskyy said a permanent coordination headquarters would be set up in Kyiv with Denys Shmyhal, the newly appointed first deputy prime minister and energy minister, overseeing the work.

Donald Trump has again claimed Ukraine – not Russia – is holding up a potential peace deal, rhetoric that stands in marked contrast to that of European allies, who have consistently argued Moscow has little interest in ending its war in Ukraine. “I think he’s ready to make a deal,” Trump said of Vladimir Putin, in an interview with Reuters on Wednesday. “I think Ukraine is less ready to make a deal.” Moscow and Kyiv remain at odds over the key issue of territory. There are few signs that Putin is prepared to soften his maximalist demands to end the full-scale invasion.

Zelenskyy urged the military to hold their positions along the 1,200km (775-mile) frontline and diplomats to keep working on securing peace. “From our side, maximum productivity is required,” he said. “We expect the same level of energetic work from the American side. I personally very much expect this.”

Ukraine will be able to buy military equipment from non-European suppliers when it is given access to a €90bn (£78bn) EU loan later this year under a proposal outlined by the EU executive, Jennifer Rankin writes from Brussels. “European preference first, but if not possible then purchase abroad,” said the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, who added that Europe should have a return in jobs and research benefits from the “billions and billions that are being invested”. Her proposal represents a softening of the approach pursued by France that favoured a more restrictive “buy European” clause. The commission said an alternative plan based on using Russia’s frozen assets remained on the table.

Desertion by 200,000 troops and another two million people evading conscription are among many challenges facing the military, Ukraine’s new defence minister said on Wednesday. Mykhailo Fedorov told parliament that other problems included excessive bureaucracy, a Soviet-style approach to management, and disruptions in the supply of equipment to troops. “We cannot fight a war with new technologies but an old organisational structure,” Fedorov said.

The defence ministry was facing a shortfall of 300bn hryvnia ($6.9bn) in funding, Fedorov said. On the upside he said some sectors had emerged from scratch, including private missile producers, which now number about 20, and more than 100 companies manufacturing ground-based robotic systems.

The US treasury department has extended until 28 February a licence for companies to talk with Russian energy company Lukoil about buying its foreign assets. The US imposed sanctions on Lukoil and Rosneft, Russia’s two biggest energy companies, on 22 October as part of an effort to pressure Moscow over its war in Ukraine. Lukoil put its $22bn in global assets up for sale shortly after. It has been hard-hit by the US sanctions, with overseas operations disrupted from Iraq to Finland.

Published: January 15, 2026, 2:30 am

Suspended Michigan autoworker who heckled Trump gets outpouring of donations

Tens of thousands of dollars raised for TJ Sabula after he reportedly calls Trump ‘pedophile protector’ during Ford plant tour

Tens of thousands of dollars have been raised for an autoworker at a Ford plant in Michigan who was suspended without pay after heckling Donald Trump.

TJ Sabula is said to have called the president a “pedophile protector” as Trump toured the automotive giant’s River Rouge complex on Tuesday.

Published: January 14, 2026, 3:23 pm

Pro-Israel group Betar to end New York operations after inquiry finds ‘violent conduct’

State attorney general found far-right group harassed ‘Muslim, Arab, Palestinian, and Jewish New Yorkers’

New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, announced a settlement on Tuesday with Betar US, a far-right pro-Israel group, after an investigation from her office that found the organization engaged in what her office described as “bias-motivated assaults, threats, and harassment targeting Muslim, Arab, Palestinian, and Jewish New Yorkers”.

The settlement requires Betar to “immediately cease instigating or encouraging violence against individuals, threatening protesters, and harassing individuals exercising their civil rights”, and subjects the organization to a suspended $50,000 penalty that will be enforced if the group violates the terms.

Published: January 14, 2026, 4:16 pm

Prop 50: appeals court rejects Republican bid to block California maps

Judges uphold redrawing to offset Texas gerrymandering as Newsom attacks lawsuit as ‘weak attempt to silence voters’

A federal appeals panel on Wednesday upheld the California ballot initiative that allows temporary changes to congressional district maps designed to benefit Democrats in upcoming elections.

The measure, known as Proposition 50, emerged in response to actions taken in Texas, where Republican leaders sought to adjust congressional districts to increase GOP representation in the US House. As the midterm elections approach, a period when shifts in party control are common, Trump urged Texas officials to redraw their maps to boost Republican seats.

Published: January 14, 2026, 10:30 pm

House oversight chair says panel will move to hold Hillary Clinton in contempt

James Comer says action follows refusal by the former first lady and Bill Clinton to testify about Jeffrey Epstein

• US politics live – latest updates

The House oversight committee will move to hold Hillary Clinton in contempt of Congress, its Republican chair James Comer said on Wednesday, after the former first lady joined her husband Bill Clinton in refusing to comply with a subpoena for testimony regarding the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.

The announcement came a day after the Clintons said they would not honor subpoenas from the investigative panel to discuss Epstein, a former friend of the ex-president, who died in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges.

Published: January 14, 2026, 5:36 pm

Two-star Michelin restaurant in Wales handed one-star hygiene rating

Ynyshir’s Gareth Ward ‘not embarrassed’ by score and says it was due to concerns about the use of raw ingredients

The chef behind a Welsh restaurant with two Michelin stars says it has “the highest standards in the world”, despite being given a one-star hygiene rating in a recent inspection.

Ynyshir, a restaurant with rooms near Machynlleth on the southern edge of the Eryri national park, has been praised as one of the best in the world.

Published: January 14, 2026, 10:49 pm

Bears under California homes go from one-off to trend

It’s unclear whether bear removed from Altadena house is same one seen under other homes

Last week, it appeared the the saga of a black bear that had captivated the Los Angeles community of Altadena for months had come to an end: the Bear League, a Lake Tahoe-based non-profit, was able to successfully remove a 550lb black bear that had been living in a crawlspace under Ken Johnson’s home in Altadena since late November.

This week, however, reports emerged of bears appearing under other homes.

Published: January 14, 2026, 9:02 pm

Horses can smell fear in humans, researchers say

Tests showed horses that smelled body odour from people watching scary films startled more easily

Horses can smell fear, or at least whether you have scared yourself witless watching a horror movie, according to researchers who say the effect has consequences for riders, trainers and others who work with the animals.

In a series of tests, horses that smelled body odour from people watching scary films startled more easily, had higher heart rates and approached their handlers less often than when the odour came from people watching more joyful scenes.

Published: January 14, 2026, 7:00 pm

EPA to stop calculating money and lives saved by curbs on air pollution

Agency to focus rules for fine particulate matter and ozone only on cost to industry, aligning with Trump approach

The Environmental Protection Agency says it will stop calculating how much money is saved in healthcare costs avoided and deaths prevented from air pollution rules that curb two deadly pollutants.

The change means the EPA will focus rules for fine particulate matter and ozone only on the cost to industry, part of a broader realignment under Donald Trump toward a business-friendly approach that has included the rollback of multiple policies meant to safeguard human health and the environment and slow climate change.

Published: January 14, 2026, 5:46 pm

California’s Highway 1 reopens after years-long closure due to landslides

Scenic coastal throughfare from Los Angeles to San Francisco had been cut in tourism-reliant Big Sur area

A portion of California’s scenic Highway 1, which winds through rugged cliffs along the coast and has long been a highlight for travelers admiring the ocean views, reopened on Wednesday after a years-long closure.

A large section of the road in Big Sur has been cut off due to landslides since 2023, creating challenges for visitors and businesses that rely on tourism.

Published: January 14, 2026, 8:24 pm

Michigan senator says she is being investigated for imploring US troops to refuse illegal orders

Elissa Slotkin says US is investigating her for video in which Democrats say service members ‘must refuse illegal orders’

• US politics live – latest updates

Michigan senator Elissa Slotkin said on Tuesday that she was under federal investigation for her participation in a video last year in which she and fellow Democrats implored troops to refuse illegal orders.

Slotkin, a former CIA officer and military veteran who served three tours in Iraq, organized the video with five other Democrats with military and intelligence backgrounds. Donald Trump called it “seditious behavior by traitors” that was “punishable by death”, an assertion that caused outrage and was quickly walked back by the White House, which clarified that the president did not want to execute members of Congress but wanted to see them “held accountable”.

Published: January 14, 2026, 5:24 pm

Union leaders accuse Trump labor department of echoing Nazi rhetoric

Labor department rhetoric, such as ‘One Homeland. One People. One Heritage’, prompt comparisons to Nazi slogan

Union leaders have accused the Trump administration of a “rhetorical shift towards white supremacy” after social media posts by the US Department of Labor drew comparison with a Nazi slogan.

Recent posts from the agency include a video captioned “remember who you are, American”, with the phrase: “One Homeland. One People. One Heritage.”

Published: January 14, 2026, 11:00 am

Puppies treated for suspected fentanyl overdose to go up for adoption in Washington

Six puppies were revived and treated by first responders and are now being monitored at a local animal shelter

Six puppies in rural Washington state will soon be up for adoption after being revived following a suspected drug overdose – and some of them might go home with the fire-station staff who saved them.

Two people dropped off three of the sickened puppies at the Sky Valley fire station, about an hour’s drive north-east of Seattle, on Sunday. Officials believe the animals either breathed or ate fentanyl.

Published: January 14, 2026, 3:47 pm

Julio Iglesias faces claims female staff were told to have sexual health tests, say reports

Spanish singer, 82, had already been accused of sexually assaulting two female former employees

The Spanish singer Julio Iglesias, who has been accused of sexually assaulting two female former employees, is also alleged to have ordered some women who worked for him to undergo tests for sexually transmitted diseases, local media have reported.

The sexual assault allegations against the 82-year-old singer, whose career spans six decades, were published on Tuesday after a three-year joint investigation by the Spanish news site elDiario.es and the Spanish-language TV network Univision Noticias.

Published: January 14, 2026, 12:34 pm

Quebec premier François Legault resigns from post in surprise move

Legault’s abrupt resignation follows months of chaos that has rocked the governing Coalition Avenir Québec party

Quebec’s premier, François Legault, has announced his resignation as leader of the province, in an abrupt departure for the polarizing figure whose embattled government faces the prospects of an electoral wipeout in the coming months.

Speaking at a hastily arranged press conference in Quebec City on Wednesday, Legault said he was proud to have founded the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) party and won consecutive majority governments beginning in 2018.

Published: January 14, 2026, 5:22 pm

France records more deaths than births for first time since end of second world war

Country joins EU neighbours in demographic crunch of ageing population and falling birthrate

For the first time since the end of the second world war, France has recorded more deaths than births, suggesting that the country’s long-held demographic advantage over other EU countries is slipping away.

Across the country in 2025, there were 651,000 deaths and 645,000 births, according to newly released figures from the national statistics institute Insee.

Published: January 14, 2026, 1:30 pm

Italian influencer Chiara Ferragni cleared of fraud over charity Christmas cake scandal

Social media star says ‘justice has been done’ in cases involving cakes and Easter eggs being promoted as charitable initiatives

The Italian fashion influencer Chiara Ferragni has said “the nightmare is over” after being acquitted on fraud charges in a trial linked to Christmas cake and Easter egg charity initiatives.

The social media star, 38, had been on trial in Milan accused of duping consumers in two separate fundraisers – one a Christmas campaign in 2022 promoting pandoro cake, an alternative to the more famous panettone, and the other selling chocolate eggs during Easter campaigns in 2021 and 2022.

Published: January 14, 2026, 5:22 pm

Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials review – think Downton Abbey is real? This terrible adaptation is for you

Martin Freeman does his best to lift this three-parter, but it feels like Enid Blyton – made for an international market that thinks Paddington Bear is holding the queen’s hand in heaven

‘Tis the season, just, for your annual Agatha Christie. In recent years, the adaptations have been infused with the grief and instability of the postwar backdrop against which they all exist, and been given rich, dark, adult inflections by Sarah Phelps for the BBC.

The latest, however, is for Netflix by Chris Chibnall and we are back in the world of period costume, clipped vowels and dialogue infused with nothing but plot, designed to get the puzzle pieces recited into the right position for the next bit then the next bit then the solve – this time at the end of three very hour-long episodes.

Published: January 15, 2026, 8:01 am

Off the Scales by Aimee Donnellan review – inside the Ozempic revolution

A fascinating deep dive into the discovery, use and implications of a revolutionary new treatment

Few aspects of being human have generated more judgment, scorn and condemnation than a person’s size, shape and weight – particularly if you happen to be female. As late as 2022, the Times’s columnist Matthew Parris published a column headlined “Fat shaming is the only way to beat the obesity crisis” in which he attributed Britain’s “losing battle with fat” to society’s failure to goad and stigmatise the overweight into finally, shamefacedly, eating less. The tendency to equate excess weight with poor character (and thinness with grit and self-control) treats obesity as a moral as well as physical failing – less a disease than a lifestyle choice.

One of the great strengths of Reuters journalist Aimee Donnellan’s first book is its insistence on framing the discovery of the new weight-loss drugs within the fraught social and cultural context of beauty norms, body image and health. For those who need them, weekly injections of Ozempic, Wegovy or Mounjaro can be revolutionary. Yet for every person with diabetes or obesity taking the drugs to improve their health, others – neither obese nor diabetic – are obtaining them to get “beach-body” ready, fit into smaller dresses, or attain the slender aesthetic social media demands of them. Small wonder some commentators have likened the injections to “an eating disorder in a pen”.

Published: January 15, 2026, 7:00 am

Clickbait review – gripping drama about the human cost of moderating the internet

A social media content moderator becomes obsessed with a violent video in this restrained, unsettling workplace thriller starring Lili Reinhart

Here is a workplace drama, of sorts. Like many people, Daisy (Lili Reinhart) works a desk job using a computer. Unlike most people, fainting at work is a rite of passage; she moderates videos on social media that have been reported for violating the terms of service. That means watching everything from horrible porn to horrible politics to horrible accidents and everything in between, a non-stop diet of videos with titles such as “fetus in blender” or “strangulation but she doesn’t die”.

Her boss takes her to task for deleting a graphic video showing a suicide, which supposedly has news value and should have been left up. But the tipping point for Daisy is a really nasty video titled “nailed it”, which shows violence and cruelty that she believes is real and non-consensual. So begins a low-key quest to track down the perpetrator, though she is far from sure what she will do when she finds them. Nor is she altogether sure why it is this particular video, of all the trash and hatred washing over her, day in, day out, that has inspired her obsession. Her colleagues and boss shrug off her concerns: this video is nothing special.

Published: January 15, 2026, 7:00 am

‘A cowardly, deluded drunken waster’: readers on their favourite unlikable movie characters

After Guardian writers shared their choices, readers responded with picks from films including Withnail and I, Emily the Criminal and Chopper

The fact that he manages to save a kid’s life while remaining a sweary alcoholic without an ounce of dignity and self-respect … is positively heartwarming. GusCairns

Published: January 14, 2026, 12:01 pm

Jimmy Kimmel on ICE shooting of Renee Good: ‘They’re investigating the victims instead of the perpetrator’

Late-night hosts discussed the Trump administration’s deployment of yet more ICE agents to Minneapolis

Late-night hosts responded to the Trump administration’s escalation of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) action in Minneapolis and its criminal investigation into the Fed chair, Jerome Powell.

Published: January 14, 2026, 3:58 pm

Pole to Pole With Will Smith review – every single moment is gorgeous or thrilling

It may feel like a redemption tour, but the star’s epic jolly across seven continents is consistently funny, moving and quite frankly breathtaking

Hollywood stars – they’re just like us! Except that when we want to go on a massive jolly/rehabilitative journey for ourselves and/or our careers, we have to pay for it. And we generally cannot go on a 100-day adventure across seven continents, with experts on hand to introduce us to their indigenous inhabitants, talk us through world-changing research being done in the most isolated regions on Earth, show us new and fascinating species that can be found there that may hold the cure to all known diseases, and guide us through the breathtaking landscapes that make you want to throw yourself to the ground and weep at the beauty laid out before humanity’s largely uncaring eyes.

Not so for Willard Carroll Smith II, the Academy award, Bafta and Grammy-winning actor and rapper who enjoyed an uninterruptedly stellar career from the late 80s until 2022, when he put a crimp in things by lamping the Oscars’ host Chris Rock for insulting Smith’s wife. This was followed by a tour violinist suing him for alleged predatory behaviour, unlawful termination and retaliation, which is working its way through the California legal system now. Smith has categorically denied all allegations. He is getting away from it all in the meantime by doing all the adventuring noted above – a septet of episodes of Pole to Pole With Will Smith (the name by which of course he is known to us) in honour of his late mentor Dr Allen Counter. Counter was a professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School, the inaugural director of the university’s Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations and – in his spare time, I guess? – a noted explorer. I cannot help but feel a biopic must be in the works, and I hope it comes soon.

Published: January 14, 2026, 8:00 am

Half His Age by Jennette McCurdy – the follow-up to I’m Glad My Mom Died

Family trauma shapes a student’s affair with her teacher in this bleak and funny fiction debut from the American memoirist

When it was published in 2022, Jennette McCurdy’s memoir lit a touchpaper to a nascent cultural conversation. I’m Glad My Mom Died introduced her mother Debra’s narcissistic personality disorder into a world eager to discuss adult child and parent estrangement. McCurdy had also suffered sexual abuse, and claimed her mother had contributed to her developing an eating disorder. The memoir was a bestseller, walking readers through the realities of generational trauma; a step change for the former Disney child star who had been “the funny one” on obnoxious Nickelodeon kids’ shows.

In her debut work of fiction, Half His Age, McCurdy continues to shake open a Pandora’s box, shedding light on blurred parent-child boundaries and loss of identity due to over-enmeshment, with solid one-liners that feel straight out of a sitcom writers’ room.

Published: January 14, 2026, 7:00 am

The Flower Bearers by Rachel Eliza Griffiths review – a powerful portrait of loss and violence

The death of a friend and the attempted murder of her husband Salman Rushdie loom large in the poet’s moving memoir

The night before her wedding to Salman Rushdie in 2021, the American poet and novelist Rachel Eliza Griffiths was fretting about her best friend. Kamilah Aisha Moon was due to read a poem at the ceremony, but no one had heard from her. Her phone was going straight to voicemail and staff at her hotel said she hadn’t checked in. “We’ll find her. She wouldn’t miss your wedding,” Griffiths’s sister, Melissa, assured her. But the next afternoon, in the middle of her wedding reception, Griffiths learned that Moon had died alone at home in Atlanta of unknown causes. On hearing the news she collapsed, hit her head on a table and blacked out. Paramedics pried open her eyes to shine a torch on them: “A particle of light that is so distant from the world I once knew.”

For Griffiths, 47, the death of her best friend and “chosen sister” was one in a series of upheavals stretching across a decade. It began with the death of her mother, who was her greatest cheerleader and fiercest critic. She had instilled in her daughter the importance of “independence above everything. I was raised not to lose myself in the stories of others, especially men.”

Published: January 14, 2026, 9:00 am

What’s behind the phenomenon of ‘gamer brain’

If you’ve ever refused to knock down a game’s difficulty level, or chased a purposefully pointless achievement, you might have this pernicious but pleasurable affliction

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Studies on gaming’s effect on the brain usually focus on aggression or the cognitive benefits of playing games. The former topic has fallen out of fashion now, after more than a decade’s worth of scientific research failed to prove any causative link between video games and real-world violence. But studies on the positive effects of games have shown that performing complex tasks with your brain and hands is actually quite good for you, and that games can be beneficial for your emotional wellbeing and stress management.

That’s all well and good, but I’m obsessed with the concept of “gamer brain” – that part of us that is drawn to objectively pointless achievements. Mastering a game or finishing a story are normal sources of motivation, but gamer brain is inexplicable. When you retry the same pointless mini-game over and over because you want to get a better high score? When you walk around the invisible boundaries of a level, clicking the mouse just in case something happens? When you stay with a game longer than you should because you feel compelled to unlock that trophy or achievement? When you refuse to knock the difficulty down a level on a particularly evil boss, because that would be letting the game win? That’s gamer brain.

Published: January 14, 2026, 3:00 pm

Erotic gay smash Heated Rivalry is a well-timed defense of intimacy coordinators | Adrian Horton

The small screen phenomenon, and its publicized use of intimacy coordinators, has arrived as established Hollywood names have started to criticize the role

If you could pinpoint a moment where things change for Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams) and Ilya Rozanov (Connor Storrie), the two professional hockey players secretly hooking up in the show Heated Rivalry – a moment when the relationship breaks through into fraught emotional territory, when the hazy, undefined thing has become a thing – it would be midway through episode four.

Ilya’s couch, mid-morning, post-breakfast. (The exponentially growing fandom of this six-episode show from Canadian streamer Crave, which premiered in North America in late November with virtually no promotion and has rapidly become one of the most organic TV phenomena in recent memory, knows exactly what I’m talking about.) Hollander overhears Rozanov’s distressing phone call from home and asks how his father is (he doesn’t know Russian, but agitation needs no language); Rozanov responds by wrapping a sculpted arm around his neck. The two then get intimate, in one of the show’s many near-wordless sex scenes, culminating in them each using the other’s first name for the first time.

Published: January 14, 2026, 5:02 pm

Bronx dog-walkers in the rubble of a dangerous New York: Camilo José Vergara’s best photograph

‘Huge parts of the city were being destroyed. This was part of my attempt to preserve the whole damn thing. The area became a juvenile prison’

I landed in America in 1965 from Chile. I literally arrived on a banana boat. I went to the University of Notre Dame in the midwest and then to Columbia in New York. I had a teacher – also a photographer – who taught foreign students to write and speak better English. I would try to write poetry, which he thought was terrible. I’d never taken a picture before but he encouraged me to try photography and offered to lend me the money for a Pentax Spotmatic he’d seen for sale downtown. After that, I would just walk around New York with it and take photos. It quickly became clear to me how divided the city was. Half was white and the other half was Black and Latino. There was tremendous segregation.

Columbia was very prosperous. The students were well off and many were the sons of extremely rich people. I felt out of place. Also, there’s just a huge sense of loss when you leave your country and you don’t know anybody and are on your own. It made me want to look at what else was going on: to see the other side and the underside of the city. I found it easily because, in the late 60s and early 70s, deindustrialisation was going on. Big companies and car plants were shutting down and there were huge job losses and store closures. That contrast resonated with me. My family had lost a lot of money. The first part of my life was about seeing things disappear and having to make do with less and less. I was interested to see that in the US.

Published: January 14, 2026, 2:59 pm

He lived in a cage, jumped from a window and spent a year roped to a friend: is Tehching Hsieh the most extreme performance artist ever?

He has broken his ankles, endured 365 days in a cell and faced down the 20th century’s worst winter. Yet he says he is not a masochist. We meet the man Marina Abramovich calls ‘the master’

For one year, beginning on 30 September 1978, Tehching Hsieh lived in an 11ft 6in x 9ft wooden cage. He was not permitted to speak, read or consume any media, but every day a friend visited with food and to remove his waste.

The vital context here is that this incarceration was voluntary: Hsieh is a Taiwanese-American artist whose chosen practice is performance art, undertaking durational “actions” for long periods. Marina Abramović has called him the “master” of the form. In 1980, seven months after the end of Cage Piece, Hsieh began another year-long work, Time Clock Piece, which required him to punch a factory-style clock-in machine in his studio, every hour of each day for 365 days.

Published: January 14, 2026, 4:37 pm

John Forté, Grammy-nominated musician who worked with Fugees, dies at 50

Musician, whose 14-year prison sentence was commuted by George W Bush, was found dead in his Massachusetts home

John Forté, the Grammy-nominated musician known for his work with the Fugees and the Refugee Camp All-Stars among others, has died at age 50.

He was found dead Monday afternoon in his home in Chilmark, Massachusetts, according to police.

Published: January 14, 2026, 2:35 pm

The pub that changed me: ‘We would flirt and mingle with the wild children of the wealthy’

To me and my friends from a Battersea council estate, the Dome seemed the very height of Thatcherite hedonism – and seeing ‘successful’ people up close was an eye-opener

In the mid-1980s, as a Black kid from a Battersea council estate, pubs were not part of my life. To my mind, they were where white blokes got lagered-up before rolling out on to the streets to abuse people who looked like me. None of my mates were big drinkers; we were much more interested in music (rare groove and hip-hop) and trying to meet girls. Rooms full of aggressive-looking men held no attraction for any of us.

Published: January 15, 2026, 11:00 am

‘I’ve never felt such a skin-zinging feeling of being alive’: my year of swimming in Nordic seas

Dipping in the freezing waters of Scandinavia, Greenland and Finland was life-changing – and full of warmth thanks to saunas, hot springs and like-minded people

Warm lights shine from the houses that dot the wintry slopes of Mount Fløyen and a cold wind blows as I stand in a swimming costume trying to talk myself into joining my friends in Bergen harbour. Stars are already appearing in the inky mid-afternoon sky.

Life-changing moments are easy to spot in retrospect, but at the time they can feel so ordinary. I didn’t know then that my wintry swim would lead to a year of adventures. I was a hair’s breadth from wimping out, but then I was in. The water was so cold it burned. I gasped for breath. The bones in my feet ached with cold as I trod water, legs frantic under the dark surface. It lasted under a minute and then we were out.

Published: January 15, 2026, 7:00 am

I read 50 books last year. Here's everything that helped me stay on track

From the right e-reader to a book subscription, here are my favorite ways (some free, some vibe-setting) to read a lot

• The best e-readers in the US, for every kind of book lover

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

Like many children who grew up in suburbia’s monotony, I found my local library a welcome escape. I relished checking out comically large stacks of well-worn hardcovers from authors such as Beverly Cleary and Alvin Schwartz. As I grew older, though, I tragically spent more time on social media and less flipping the pages of a novel.

In 2021, Covid-19 made it difficult to have much of a social life. So, as a lonely college student in search of new ways to fill my time, I purchased a Kindle. Ever since, I’ve consistently finished roughly one book a week.

Published: January 14, 2026, 9:15 pm

You own an electric toothbrush, why not an ultrasonic knife? We had a pro chef test the world’s first

The C-200 vibrates 30,000 times per second, and as our pro chef tester found, it’s not as gimmicky as it sounds

• This versatile Japanese chef’s knife has lasted longer than some of my relationships

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

Knife technology evolves at glacial speed. If an 18th-century chef time-traveled to my present-day kitchen, they’d be terrified of the immersion blender, thrilled by the nonstick pans and perplexed by the can opener. But they could pick up any of the knives in my drawer and get to work on a ratatouille.

As long as they didn’t pick up my ultrasonic knife. The C-200 Ultrasonic Chef’s Knife by Seattle Ultrasonics, first launched this fall, marks a pivotal upgrade to the science of slicing: almost imperceptible vibrations move the blade 30,000 times per second, making it behave “sharper than it physically is”, according to the company.

World’s first ultrasonic knife:
C-200 Ultrasonic 8in Chef’s Knife

Chef-approved knife sharpener:
Tormek T-2 Pro

Published: January 14, 2026, 8:15 pm

Don’t ‘over-engage your core muscles’ and other tips for looking after your pelvic floor

From not treating your rectum as a storage facility to lifting weights, experts offer advice on how to maintain a healthy pelvic floor for longer

Pelvic floor health has long been relegated to whispered conversations about pregnancy or aging, often reduced to vague instructions to “do your kegels”.

But according to experts, daily maintenance of the pelvic floor is important.

Published: January 14, 2026, 2:00 pm

Is it the end of the line for one of India’s most distinctive garments?

The bandhgala jacket will no longer be part of the formal uniform for Indian Railways staff, following claims it symbolises a ‘colonial mindset’

It is one India’s most ubiquitous garments, with origins in the grand Mughal courts and Rajasthani kingdoms of times past, and still widely favoured by sharply dressed grooms at wedding receptions.

But this week, the distinctive high-collared bandhgala jacket – known to many as the “princely jacket” in a nod to its royal origins – found itself at the centre of a lively debate after it was denounced by the Indian railways minister as a symbol of a “colonial mindset”.

Published: January 15, 2026, 5:00 am

Mix and mismatch: if it doesn’t go with anything, it goes with everything

Bring your ostracised wardrobe items in from the cold by forgetting about whether they go with each other. Instead, let them shine in all their glory

Fashion is a dance between rules and rebellion. Great style requires a bit of both. The rules are essential, because one of the key emotional benefits that a great wardrobe can deliver is a sense of control in a chaotic world. The rules are there to simplify and clarify, lighting our route to a well put-together outfit. That well put-together outfit has the power to help you feel calmer, simply because you look in the mirror and see a competent person and therefore feel like a competent person. Style rules also come in useful for making sense of the world around us. Dress codes, style tribes, the signals we send – whether as blatant as the slogan on a T-shirt, or as subtle as the brand of your rucksack – hold an important social function, making other people legible to us.

But style also needs friction. Fashion dies if it stops moving, because moving with the times is what makes it fashion rather than just pretty clothes. The restless forward energy that moves hemlines and invents new silhouettes is what drives the plot and keeps us interested.

Published: January 14, 2026, 2:00 pm

Sali Hughes on beauty: if you don’t like strong scents, layering could be the answer

Looking for something gentle and kind for a sensitive nose? The new gen Z brands have you covered

For someone who makes no secret of her obsession with fragrance, I’m always surprised by how frequently people ask me to recommend one for someone who hates the stuff.

Sometimes wearing more potent fragrances is impossible for those prone to allergies or migraines, but mostly it’s an instinctive aversion to being held captive all day by scent too pervasive for one’s liking. And in these instances, I invariably suggest the layering of two more subtly scented products with compatible aromas, to add depth and interest without the same strength as a power perfume.

Published: January 14, 2026, 10:00 am

The pub that changed me: ‘The barman banned me – no process, no second chances, no appeal’

The world’s largest Wetherspoon’s has seal-spotting views, a green leather banquette and a grand central staircase. I would do anything for that pub, so imagine my surprise when I was given my marching orders

In the most prime imaginable bit of Ramsgate beach real estate, right on the sand, stands a handsome, turn-of-the-last-century building that had claimed for the longest amount of time, some years in neon, to be a casino. I’d never been allowed in as a kid. Then in the 90s it was leaning towards defunct, by the 00s it looked a bit haunted, then there was a fire, and wham, 2017, it turned into a Spoons. It had been trailed for a few months ahead, and I’d sworn off it; the living nightmare that was Brexit was only a few months old and Wetherspoon’s Tim Martin was one of its most gracelessly triumphant fuglemen. He could keep his (incredibly cheap) pints and his (superhumanly fast) nuggets.

Published: January 15, 2026, 5:00 am

The woman who made her family disappear: how Karen Palmer escaped her abusive husband

He had threatened her, locked her up and absconded with one of their daughters. Palmer knew she and her girls needed to escape – but it would involve huge risk and total reinvention

In the summer of 1989, Karen Palmer bought a used car for cash, filled it with belongings – some clothes, toys, one pot, one pan and a shoebox of photos – and “disappeared” with her new husband and two young daughters. She didn’t tell her mother, her friends or her neighbours where she was going. She gave no notice to her employers and landlord, leaving items out on her apartment balcony as a sign she still lived there.

“I have such a clear memory of the day we left Los Angeles,” says Palmer. “It was this weird combination of fear and exhilaration, heart pounding, driving into the unknown.” Palmer was fleeing her ex-husband, Gil, the man she feared, and the father of her two daughters, Erin and Amy, then seven and three.

Published: January 14, 2026, 5:00 am

I am terrible at football – but love playing. Can I change my game completely in my mid-30s?

For fifteen years I have been devoted to the sport, but can still barely tackle or shoot. I decided to get a coach and give him the challenge of a lifetime

If I told you I have played football for 15 years, you’d probably assume that I’m decent. Unfortunately, I am not. I have three left feet and a not-very-convincing shot on goal. Despite how many years I have put into the sport, these things show little to no improvement.

I play football for the joy of it: the rush of the first whistle; the exhilaration of making a successful tackle or a clever pass; and the feeling of all fears and concerns melting away the moment the game starts. So until recently, the fact that I’m so bad at it occurred to me as, at worst, incidental. I grew up at a time when football was largely considered a men’s sport. In the 90s, there were about 80 girls’ football clubs in England (there are more than 12,000 now); there wasn’t a women’s premier league until 1994; and by the time I was in my 20s, boring jokes about women knowing the offside rule were wheeled out with disappointing regularity. As someone who still remembers the feeling of getting kicked off the pitch by the boys as soon as I entered year 3, I’ve always just felt blessed to play.

Published: January 14, 2026, 10:00 am

‘Aisle lice’: bad behaviour on planes – and how public shaming could stop it

Jumping up as soon as the seatbelt sign goes off can provoke fury among fellow passengers. And what goes on at the luggage carousel is possibly even worse …

Name: “Aisle lice”.

Age: Any age, as long as they’re ambulatory.

Published: January 14, 2026, 5:21 pm

‘The settlers brought the violence’: the ethnic cleansing of a West Bank village

Ras ‘Ein al ‘Auja is a community of about 135 families – and the only one remaining in this part of the Jordan valley

Five decades in the south Jordan valley were ending in a day, and Mahmoud Eshaq struggled to hold back his tears. The 55-year-old had not cried since he was a boy, but as he dismantled the family home and prepared to flee the village where his whole life had played out, he was overwhelmed by grief.

While Eshaq’s children loaded mattresses, a fridge, sacks of flour and suitcases of clothes into a truck, masked soldiers escorted a teenage Israeli shepherd down the main village road, where he posed for photos on his donkey, flashing a V sign.

Published: January 14, 2026, 6:00 am

‘I fell in love with him on the spot’: Alan Rickman remembered, 10 years after his death

On the anniversary of his death aged 69, stars from Sigourney Weaver to Sharleen Spiteri, Tom Felton to Harriet Walter, remember the wit, charm and endless generosity of one of Britain’s best-loved actors

Ruby Wax

Published: January 14, 2026, 5:00 am

Young people, parents and teachers: share your views about Grok AI

We’d like to hear from young people, parents and teachers about how Elon Musk’s controversial chatbot is affecting you

Degrading images of real women and children with their clothes digitally removed by Elon Musk’s Grok tool continue to be shared online, despite widespread alarm and a pledge by the platform to suspend users who generate them.

While some safeguards have been introduced, the ease with which the AI tool can be abused has raised urgent questions about consent, online safety and the ability of governments worldwide to regulate fast-moving AI technologies. Meanwhile, the misuse of AI to harass, humiliate and sexually exploit people – particularly women and girls – is rapidly escalating.

Published: January 14, 2026, 11:53 am

Yodellers, bathing monkeys and a ballroom clean: photos of the day – Wednesday

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

Published: January 14, 2026, 2:15 pm