How to start … anything: expert tips for trying something new

From therapy to running and conversing with strangers, we asked experts what the basics are of starting anything new

The hardest part of any new habit or activity is starting it. Do you need special equipment? How do you know if you’re doing it right? What are the basics, and how do you take your practice to the next level?

In the series How to start, we ask experts to break down how to start, well, anything – including running, dating, cooking and lucid dreaming.

Figure out what you enjoy by checking out a variety of books from the library, but don’t force it. If you’re not enjoying a volume, put it down and move on to the next.

Start with short books and whichever medium – physical books, ebooks or audiobooks – works best for you.

Make reading fun and sociable by sharing books with friends, or joining a book club.

Think about your dreams more – way more. Start by keeping a dream journal and recording your dreams every day.

Cultivate the intention to lucid dream. While you’re awake, think: “The next time I have a dream, I’m going to figure out it’s a dream,” says Dr Ken Paller, professor of psychology at Northwestern University.

The Wake-Back-to-Bed (WBTB) and Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreams (Mild) techniques can be effective ways to try to lucid dream – but don’t try it more than two to three times a week as they can be tiring.

You don’t need to teach a dog as many commands – some trainers call them cues – as they might think. Two cues – “sit” and “come” – are essential for minimizing behavioral issues and recall.

Besides basic safety commands, think about training functionally.

There’s no need to spend hours on training. Sessa says she usually suggests her clients work with their dogs for no more than 10 to 15 minutes a day.

Begin in a plank position, with your hands and toes on the ground and feet set wide or narrow. Lower yourself until your body is almost touching the ground, keeping your elbows at a 45-degree angle. Then push yourself back up.

Make sure to maintain correct form, with a line from head to heels, and don’t rush through reps.

Make sure you have the basic tools for cooking: a chef’s knife, a cutting board, a a nonstick pan, baking sheets and spatulas.

Quality spices and pantry staples can improve your cooking. Stock up on good kosher salt, fresh black pepper, olive oil, a neutral oil (like canola oil or avocado oil) for high temperature cooking, a couple of vinegars, bags of rice and some beans.

Watch a knife skills class (many are free online) to master essential techniques.

Try recipes that will teach you core cooking skills, like a lentil soup, to learn how to time sauteing and simmering; or a three-egg omelet, to learn heat control.

Cleansers: Start and end your day with a gentle cleanser.

Moisturizers: For all skin types, moisturizers heal and protect the skin.

Sunscreen: No matter the weather, always apply a broad-spectrum sunscreen – at least SPF 30 or higher.

Alternate running and walking. Run for short periods, then walk to recover – this makes the workout more manageable. Over time, you can increase the period of time running, and aim to take fewer walking breaks.

Avoid running too fast or too much. Keep a conversational pace, where you can talk and run at the same time and be sure to take time off as your body adjusts to the new routine.

Get good running shoes. Buying in-person is best, especially if you can visit a running store where you can get properly fitted and try a wide variety of shoes.

Don’t push yourself to run as long and far as you can. It can be draining and lead to injury.

Published: January 2, 2026, 5:15 pm

From Donald Trump to Benjamin Netanyahu, let 2026 be a year of reckoning | Jonathan Freedland

These malign figures will do anything to avoid paying for the harm they have done, but accountability must eventually come to both

It’s not quite a new year resolution, and it’s certainly not a prediction. Think of it instead as a hope or even a plea for the next 12 months. May the coming year see those leaders who have done so much damage to their own countries, and far beyond, at last be called to account. Let 2026 be a year of reckoning.

Start with the man whose reach is longest, by dint of the mighty power he wields. Such is the nature of the US electoral system that Donald Trump, who returned to power less than a year ago, will face the judgment of voters in 10 months’ time. His name will not be on the ballot but, make no mistake, the midterm elections of 3 November will deliver a verdict on the second Trump presidency.

Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist

Guardian newsroom: Year One of Trumpism: Is Britain Emulating the US?
On Wednesday 21 January 2026, join Jonathan Freedland, Tania Branigan and Nick Lowles as they reflect on the first year of Donald Trump’s second presidency – and to ask if Britain could be set on the same path.
Book tickets here or at guardian.live

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 2, 2026, 5:11 pm

What Zohran Mamdani’s suit tells us about the man and the way society is changing

In politics, clothes matter – as the mid-market formal wear favoured by the new, young New York mayor testifies

Growing up in London in the 00s, I was surrounded by suits. On City boys darting around the Square Mile. In Hyde Park, where Arab dads in baggy suits kicked footballs with their children in honeyed light. At school, where cheap grey suits were our uniform. The suit has always been a costume of seriousness that signals powerfulness and performance; all the things I was apparently supposed to want if I ever intended to become a “man”. But until recently, my generation seemed to wear them less and less, and they had all but disappeared from my consciousness.

Then came the newly elected New York City mayor, Zohran Mamdani, who was sworn in at a private ceremony dressed in a sober black overcoat, crisp white shirt and an Eri silk tie from New Delhi-based designer Kartik Kumra of Kartik Research – styled by US fashion editor, Gabriella Karefa-Johnson. Buoyed up by an ingenious campaign, he caught the imagination of the world like no other New York mayoral candidate of recent times. But whether he was throwing his hands in the air at a hip-hop club or at a premiere party for the film Marty Supreme, one thing on his campaign trail rarely changed: he was almost always in a suit. Loosely tailored, modern with soft shoulders, yet conventional and ordinary, his is a typically middle-class millennial suit – well, as typical as it can be for a generation that rarely bothers to wear one.

Published: January 2, 2026, 12:00 pm

Four realistic resolutions and how to keep them

We’re ringing in 2026 with simple ideas for improving your life

• This piece was originally published in the Filter US newsletter on buying fewer, better things. Sign up here to get early access to it

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

Every time the new year rolls around, I start to rethink my entire existence. Instead of setting a few realistic resolutions, I head straight to Pinterest in search of grandiose ways to overhaul my life. Maybe this will be the year I learn how to ski, despite the fact that I live in Manhattan and am terrified of ski lifts.

I tried 17 rice cookers to find the best model in the US: here are my favorites

Less waste and fewer dishes: these glass food containers changed how I store leftovers

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

The best blenders in the US: five favorites for smoothies, soups and frozen drinks

‘Everything a spatula does, just better’: five reasons you need a fish spatula, even if you hate fish

Published: January 2, 2026, 4:33 pm

New year, old warnings: what can films set in 2026 teach us?

From Doom and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes to Metropolis, Hollywood hasn’t predicted the most stable of years ahead

2025 sounds more futuristic. Maybe it’s the “f” sound on “five.” But 2026 is one step beyond, and it’s where we are now, with every science-fiction-style development – principally the widespread adoption of AI – looking dystopian, or maybe worse. (Doesn’t it feel like in a proper dystopia, the brain-numbing corporate-backed anti-human technology would actually work a bit better?) Didn’t anyone warn us about this?

The answer, at least with regards to our sci-fi movies years ago (or occasionally months ago) positioned in 2026, is yes and no. Some of those warnings are broadly applicable (global catastrophe) but specifically far-fetched (when mankind is inevitably decimated, we will almost certainly take the ape population with us). Some of them are visionary; others just look like bad green screen. But it’s worth examining where various film-makers, from geniuses to grunts, thought we would be situated by this time in our planet’s evolution. So let’s take a look at some of the movies that have been set in 2026 over the years and see if they have anything to teach us.

Published: January 2, 2026, 10:03 am

‘No one can know’: Heated Rivalry’s gay love story exposes ice hockey’s culture of silence

The surprise hit series has reopened a familiar debate: why, in the National Hockey League, visibility is still treated as a problem rather than a possibility

At around the midpoint of the first episode of Heated Rivalry, just after Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov – one Canadian, the other Russian, both hockey’s top prospects – have had their first tryst, Hollander sits at the side of his hotel bed and says: “So. You’re not going to tell anyone about this, are you?” Rozanov, lying naked beside him, replies sarcastically: “Me? Yes, Hollander, I’m going to tell everyone.” Hollander reinforces the point: “Because no one can know,” he says. Rozanov utters something under his breath in Russian, then: “Hollander. Look, I’m not going to tell anyone, OK?” Hollander replies: “OK.”

No one can know. If hockey were to have an unofficial slogan, this might be it. Heated Rivalry, the surprise 2025 hit series from Crave and HBO, is layered drama, prompting timely questions about the barriers to acceptance that persist within sport even as they are lowered elsewhere across society. But it may be that hockey’s existential battle with its culture of silence is the show’s deepest target.

Published: January 2, 2026, 9:00 am

Sparklers held near ceiling started Swiss ski resort fire, investigators believe

Footage and witness statements show blaze that killed about 40 was ‘very rapid’, prosecutor says

Investigators believe fountain sparklers mounted on champagne bottles and held too close to the ceiling sparked the deadly fire that tore through a crowded bar in the ski resort of Crans-Montana, killing about 40 people and injuring more than 100.

“Everything suggests the fire started from the burning candles or ‘Bengal lights’ that had been attached to champagne bottles,” the prosecutor Béatrice Pilloud said on Friday. “These went too close to the ceiling.”

Published: January 2, 2026, 5:15 pm

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

Exclusive: Inaccurate information presented in summaries, Guardian investigation finds

People are being put at risk of harm by false and misleading health information in Google’s artificial intelligence summaries, a Guardian investigation has found.

The company has said its AI Overviews, which use generative AI to provide snapshots of essential information about a topic or question, are “helpful” and “reliable”.

Published: January 2, 2026, 5:00 pm

US homeland security condemned for using Japanese artist’s work without consent

Hiroshi Nagai, in a post on X, has objected to his artwork being used by the agency to promote its deportation agenda

The US Department of Homeland Security is facing backlash once again, this time from a Japanese artist who has condemned the agency for using, without permission, his work to promote deportations.

In a post on X on New Year’s Eve, the department posted a photo featuring a pristine and empty beach with palm trees and a vintage car. Written across the photo was “America after 100 million deportations,” along with a separate caption that said: “The peace of a nation no longer besieged by the third world.”

Published: January 2, 2026, 7:10 pm

Israel accuses Mamdani of antisemitism on first day as New York mayor

Foreign ministry says mayor has poured ‘antisemitic gasoline on an open fire’ by scrapping IHRA definition

Israel’s foreign ministry has accused the New York mayor, Zohran Mamdani, of pouring “antisemitic gasoline on an open fire” after he reversed a recent order by the outgoing mayor, Eric Adams.

“On his very first day as @NYCMayor, Mamdani shows his true face: he scraps the IHRA definition of antisemitism and lifts restrictions on boycotting Israel. This isn’t leadership. It’s antisemitic gasoline on an open fire,” the foreign ministry said in a post on X.

Published: January 2, 2026, 3:14 pm

FBI says it thwarted planned New Year’s Eve terrorist attack in North Carolina

FBI says teen was planning Islamic State-inspired hammer and knife attack on Jews, Christians and LGBTQ+ people

The FBI has said it thwarted an alleged plot to carry out a New Year’s Eve terrorist attack on a grocery store and restaurant in North Carolina in support of the Islamic State (IS).

Christian Sturdivant, 18, of Mint Hill – a town outside Charlotte – was arrested on 31 December as he was being released from a special medical facility. He was charged with attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, the US attorney for the western district of North Carolina, Russ Ferguson, said at a press conference on Friday morning.

Published: January 2, 2026, 5:52 pm

Iran officials warn Trump of red line after his threat to ‘rescue’ protesters

Foreign minister says Iranian military is on standby after US president said he would act if demonstrators were killed

Donald Trump has threatened to intervene in Iran if its government kills demonstrators, prompting warnings from senior Iranian officials that any American interference would cross a “red line”.

In a social media post on Friday, Trump said that if Iran were to shoot and kill protesters, the US would “come to their rescue”. He added: “We are locked and loaded, and ready to go,” without explaining what that might mean in practice.

Published: January 2, 2026, 1:10 pm

DC pipe bomb suspect must remain in jail before trial, judge rules

Brian Cole, accused of planting bombs before Capitol attack, presents ‘intolerable risk of danger’, court finds

A federal magistrate judge has ruled that the man accused of planting pipe bombs outside the Democratic and Republican headquarters the night before the 6 January Capitol attack must remain in custody while awaiting trial.

In a memorandum opinion, the court determined that Brian Cole Jr, 30, of Woodbridge, Virginia, “poses an intolerable risk of danger to the community if released”, granting the government’s motion for pretrial detention.

Published: January 2, 2026, 7:12 pm

Elon Musk’s Grok AI generates images of ‘minors in minimal clothing’

Lapses in safeguards led to wave of sexualized images this week as xAI says it is working to improve systems

Elon Musk’s chatbot Grok posted on Friday that lapses in safeguards had led it to generate “images depicting minors in minimal clothing” on social media platform X. The chatbot, a product of Musk’s company xAI, has been generating a wave of sexualized images throughout the week in response to user prompts.

Screenshots shared by users on X showed Grok’s public media tab filled with such images. xAI said it was working to improve its systems to prevent future incidents.

Published: January 2, 2026, 6:01 pm

Fresh bone analysis makes case for earliest ‘ancestor of humankind’, but doubts remain

Scientists argue ape-like Sahelanthropus tchadensis that lived in Africa 7m years ago is best contender but more fossils are needed

In the murky first chapters of the human story is an unknown ancestor that made the profound transition from walking on all fours to standing up tall, an act that came to define us.

The odds of stumbling on the fossilised evidence of such an evolutionary prize are slim, but in new research, scientists argue that an ape-like animal that lived in Africa 7m years ago is the best contender yet.

Published: January 2, 2026, 7:00 pm

Growing number of California sheriffs no longer respond to mental health calls

A shift away from police-led responses spreads, but gaps in crisis teams leave some communities exposed

In the past year, a handful of sheriff’s departments in California have started refusing to respond to 911 calls that involve a mental health crisis, but where no crime has been reported.

In February, the Sacramento sheriff, Jim Cooper, announced that his deputies would only respond to mental health crises if a crime had been committed or was in process, or if someone other than the person in crisis was in imminent danger. Down in San Diego county, the police chief for the city of El Cajon, Jeremiah Larson, made a similar policy decision in May.

Published: January 2, 2026, 5:33 pm

Impact over income: a striking number of gen Zers are becoming teachers

Despite longstanding concerns over pay and conditions, more young graduates are entering the classroom

Joseph Curatolo was studying architecture four years ago when he took a summer job, teaching music to middle school students. When he told them he might leave the program to focus on his studies, he said, they burst into tears.

“The fact that I had such an impact on these kids led me to reconsider my career,” said Curatolo, 22. He is now a seventh- and eighth-grade social studies teacher, based in New York City.

Published: January 2, 2026, 11:00 am

Donald Trump wants the US back on the moon before his term ends. Can it happen?

After losing a year to havoc and job-slashing at Nasa, the pressure is on billionaire administrator Jared Isaacman

With astronauts set to fly around the moon for the first time in more than half a century when Artemis 2 makes its long-awaited ascent some time this spring, 2026 was already destined to become a standout year in space.

It is also likely to be one of the most pivotal, with new leadership at Nasa in billionaire private astronaut Jared Isaacman, and the tycoon-led private space industry assuming more than a mere supporting role to help win for the US its race with China back to the lunar surface.

Published: January 2, 2026, 12:00 pm

‘Suspension of entry into the US’, paparazzi – and wine: three other reasons George Clooney moved to France

A UK government warning that Amal Clooney risks US sanctions over her role in the issuing of an arrest warrant for the Israeli prime minister is key among reasons the couple have sought French citizenship

The exodus from Hollywood to shores not presided over by Donald Trump has been busy and loud. Ellen DeGeneres, Robin Wright and Courtney Love moved to England; Rosie O’Donnell opted for Ireland; Eva Longoria, Spain. Other Trump critics, including Richard Gere, Lena Dunham and Ryan Gosling, have upped sticks without citing the re-election as a motivating factor.

In the case of Clooney, however, there has appeared little doubt that his decision to gain French citizenship was primarily because of Trump, whose re-election he energetically campaigned against. Yet amid the heat and headlines generated by the pair’s war of words, some of the actor’s reasons for relocating may have flown under the radar.

Published: January 2, 2026, 6:21 pm

I’m a personal trainer. Here’s the exact equipment I use at home

You don’t need a gym membership to get a respectable workout. The right compact and budget-friendly equipment can help you create a routine

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

As a certified personal trainer, I’ll be the first to tell you: you don’t need a gym membership to get a respectable workout. Besides cutting out snowy commutes and long wait times for equipment, a home gym gives you a sense of agency over your fitness routine: you can work out on your time, at your pace.

And you don’t need to fill an entire garage with iron, either. In fact, one of the most rewarding aspects of creating custom fitness programs is getting creative with home gym equipment my clients already own, no matter how minimal or modest. The right compact and budget-friendly gym equipment can help you create a fitness routine you’ll adhere to, and consistency beats having the “best” equipment every time.

Published: January 2, 2026, 8:15 pm

The week around the world in 20 pictures

Russian drone strikes hit Kyiv, flooding in California, the African Cup of Nations and New Year celebrations: the past seven days as captured by the world’s leading photojournalists

Published: January 2, 2026, 6:35 pm

The secret to a perfect nap: when, where and for how long?

Many athletes and professional musicians swear by getting some shut-eye during the day, but what’s the best way to ensure you don’t end up feeling groggy?

• Sign up here to get the whole series straight to your inbox

Listen to enough productivity podcasters, and it’s easy to convince yourself that napping is a superpower: not just a sticking plaster after a bad night’s sleep, but a shortcut to a better memory, improved mood and possibly a faster 5k run time. Premier League footballers are all at it – and so are professional piano players, UFC champions and Arianna Huffington. But if you haven’t got a dedicated nap-room or a job that encourages regular snoozing, are there really enough benefits to a burst of shut-eye for it to be worth the kerfuffle? Is there a reliable way to get to sleep quickly enough? And can you really guarantee you’ll wake up feeling better, not worse?

“There are three main reasons for napping among most adults,” says Clare Anderson, the University of Birmingham’s professor of sleep and circadian science. “The first is what we call compensatory napping, which is what you do when you’ve had insufficient sleep the night before. The second is prophylactic napping, where you are pre-empting insufficient sleep coming up, for instance if you’re working on night shifts. The third is called “appetitive drive”, which basically comes down to desire: you have an opportunity to sleep during the day, and it feels nice to do it.”

Published: January 2, 2026, 4:00 pm

Here’s a pick-me-up for the January blues: this could well be Nigel Farage’s last year on top | Simon Jenkins

There’s no doubting the charisma of its leader, but Reform UK lacks the depth and experience needed to govern – and voters are quickly realising that

I fear for Nigel Farage. This should be his big year, the make-or-break 2026. Last year his Reform party finally began to top the polls and he was feted by Washington as the UK’s Trump and next prime minister. So how now would he turn a sheaf of poll results into a disciplined election-winning machine? Or has he for the past year merely been doing what most third parties do at this stage of a parliament, which is feast on the misfortune of their opponents?

The polls sent Reform surging into a steady lead last spring. It held that position through the summer, with a high of 29% according to YouGov, and 33% according to More in Common. But pollsters now suggest that Farage’s party may have peaked – with YouGov’s December polling showing a drop in its vote share to 26%, its lowest since April. Some of this has been credited to increasing support for the Tory leader Kemi Badenoch and to the joint Lib Dem/Green vote surging to nearly 30%. It seems likely that this confusion will survive through this May’s local elections. Betting in this field is for madmen.

Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist

Published: January 2, 2026, 12:37 pm

They tried to smear him as an antisemite – but Mayor Zohran Mamdani walks in a rich Jewish tradition | Molly Crabapple

When I look at Mamdani, I don’t see some radical departure. I see him as an heir to the Yiddish socialism that helped build New York

Billionaires raised fortunes against him. The president threatened to strip his citizenship. Mainstream synagogues slandered him as the spawn of Osama bin Laden and Chairman Mao. But today, Zohran Mamdani became the first socialist mayor of New York City.

For all the hysteria, when I look at Mamdani, I didn’t see some radical departure from the past. I see him as the heir to an old and venerable Jewish tradition – that of Yiddish socialism – which helped build New York.

Published: January 1, 2026, 1:00 pm

How will future generations view our use of AI? | Fiona Katauskas

They might find it a bit too sloppy

• See more of Fiona Katauskas’s cartoons here

Published: January 2, 2026, 2:00 pm

Bondi is where I have felt safe all my life. How could anyone want to destroy this monument to humanity and joy? | Alice Fraser

I can’t bear to view this postcard of Australia, layered with a thousand memories, with untrusting eyes, to feel the air changed and warped by horror

I keep taking the bus through Bondi with my children. Approaching the stop on Campbell Parade, I want to get off the bus, walk across the road past the pavilion, soak up the air, feel sand under my feet, feel my sadness – but my hand stays put in my daughter’s, my arm around my son on my lap. The bus rolls on.

I can’t explain how beautiful Bondi beach is on a Sunday summer afternoon. You have to be there to believe it. There are no words for how golden it is as the heat seeps out from the sun and sinks into the sea.

Published: January 2, 2026, 2:00 pm

The hill I will die on: PDAs on the morning commute are never acceptable | Michael Akadiri

Spare me the hugging, kissing, sitting on each other’s laps. What’s the excuse so close to breakfast?

First and foremost, let me say: I love love. I’m in love – I’m happily married with two boys. I’m surrounded by love, because most of my friends and family are in long-term relationships and have kids of their own. Heck, I even love it when strangers find love. Since its inception, I have watched every episode of Pop the Balloon or Find Love – a US reality dating show hosted by Arlette Amuli. While it’s entertaining observing how treacherous the dating market is, I’m more thrilled when two people match and commence their own love journey.

However, for all my appreciation of love, public displays of affection (PDAs) on the morning commute should be punishable by prison. I’m talking hugging, kissing, even sitting on each other’s laps – all of the above are abominable to watch. In my dictatorship, those who committed such crimes would be locked up without due process. The British tonguing police (BTP) would ensure that perpetrators were swiftly caught. They would not pass go, they would not collect £200. They would go directly to jail.

Michael Akadiri is a standup comedian and resident doctor. He embarks on his Don’t Call Me Uncle tour across the UK and Ireland in 2026

Published: January 2, 2026, 8:00 am

The Guardian view on Gaza’s winter: the world must take heed as Palestinian suffering deepens again | Editorial

Families are struggling to survive amid the devastation. Israel’s ban on international NGOs will worsen this disaster

As Gaza enters the bleakest period of winter, children are dying of hypothermia, drowning in flooded camps and burning to death as their families try to cook in flimsy tents. Israel destroyed nine out of 10 homes over more than two years of war. Camped amid the ruins, Palestinians struggle against strong winds, heavy rain and freezing temperatures. Aid deliveries resumed following the ceasefire, staving off the famine that had taken hold in parts of the territory, but remain wholly insufficient: 1.6 million people face acute food insecurity. The sanitation infrastructure has collapsed.

The UK, Canada, Japan, France and six other nations have jointly warned that the situation is catastrophic. Yet Israel is now deepening one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. On Tuesday, it announced that it is deregistering 37 NGOs active in Gaza. They must cease all operations there by 1 March unless they meet its new “security and transparency standards” – including by disclosing the personal details of staff. Many of the listed groups are among the best-regarded in their field, including Oxfam, Médecins Sans Frontières and the Norwegian Refugee Council.

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 2, 2026, 6:07 pm

NFL playoff race: Seahawks and 49ers meet with NFC’s No 1 seed at stake

The final week of the regular season delivers a winner-take-all clash in the NFC West, while Houston surge, the Rams slide and the race for the No 1 draft pick tips toward farce

Seattle Seahawks (13-3) v San Francisco 49ers (12-4)

Published: January 2, 2026, 8:00 am

Best-on-best hockey returns as US and Canada unveil Olympic squads

• NHL players return to men’s Olympic ice hockey

• US, Canada unveil rosters packed with star talent

• Knight leads US women as PWHL era reaches Games

The return of ice hockey’s biggest stars to the Winter Games could spark a renaissance for the sport on the global stage, as gold-medal favorites United States and Canada handpicked top NHL talent for the Milano-Cortina Olympics.

The National Hockey League has not permitted its athletes to participate in the Games since 2014, putting a damper on the men’s Olympic ice hockey tournament as the world’s best players were forced to stay home in 2018 and 2022.

Published: January 2, 2026, 8:48 pm

Liam Rosenior opens door to Chelsea job but must wait on BlueCo dealings

• Englishman will be in Strasbourg dugout against Nice

• ‘In terms of other clubs, I’ve had a lot of interest’

Liam Rosenior has opened the door to becoming Chelsea’s head coach by admitting there are no guarantees he will remain at Strasbourg for the rest of the season.

The 41-year-old is the leading contender to replace Enzo Maresca, who left on New Year’s Day, and progress is expected soon. The main obstacle to be overcome is that BlueCo, the investment vehicle that owns Chelsea and Strasbourg, is keen to be sensitive to the needs of both clubs. A quality replacement for Rosenior at Strasbourg must be lined up before the Englishman can leave the Ligue 1 side.

Published: January 2, 2026, 5:41 pm

Anthony Joshua’s driver charged with dangerous driving after fatal crash in Nigeria

British boxer was injured in collision that killed his personal trainer Latif Ayodele and strength coach Sina Ghami

Nigerian police have charged Anthony Joshua’s driver with causing death by dangerous driving after a fatal crash that killed two people.

Adeniyi Mobolaji Kayode, 46, was also charged with driving without a valid driving licence and “driving without due care and attention, causing bodily harm and damage to property”. He is due to appear in court on 20 January.

Published: January 2, 2026, 5:54 pm

USMNT’s World Cup, Arsenal’s title challenge and Real’s power struggle: soccer questions for 2026

The world of soccer throws up no shortage of questions every year. In today’s Pitch Points column, we address three of the big ones for 2026

You may have heard there’s a World Cup this year. After all the debate about ticket prices and peace prizes and cooling breaks, an actual soccer tournament will kick off. That’s when the US, both as a national team and a host nation, will truly be judged; when the 2026 World Cup will be deemed a soaring success or a grotesque failure. There will be no in between. No nuance. That vanished from public discourse a long time ago.

Published: January 2, 2026, 9:21 am

Indiana hand Alabama worst ever bowl loss to join Oregon and Ole Miss in college football’s last four

• Indiana crush Alabama 38-3 in historic Rose Bowl win

• Oregon’s defense shuts out Texas Tech in Orange Bowl

• Last-minute field goal lifts Mississippi past Georgia

Fernando Mendoza threw for 192 yards and three touchdowns to lead top-seeded Indiana to a 38-3 blowout of ninth-seeded Alabama in a College Football Playoff quarter-final at the Rose Bowl on Thursday in Pasadena, California.

The Hoosiers advance to the semi-finals and will take on fifth-seeded Oregon on 9 January in the Peach Bowl.

Published: January 2, 2026, 9:34 am

Venus Williams, 45, gets wild card to play first Australian Open in five years

• Williams to return to Melbourne Park at age 45

• Seven-time major champion earns wild-card entry

• Set to become oldest woman in Open main draw

Seven-time Grand Slam singles champion Venus Williams has received a wild-card entry for the Australian Open beginning 18 January in Melbourne.

The tournament said Friday that the 45-year-old Williams would make a return to Melbourne Park 28 years after her first appearance. In 1998, she defeated her younger sister Serena in the second round before losing in the quarter-finals to fellow American Lindsay Davenport.

Published: January 2, 2026, 2:30 am

Chess: Magnus Carlsen wins two more world speed crowns despite mishaps

The Norwegian, 35, overcame elite fields despite time forfeits after knocking over pieces in critical games

The world No 1, Magnus Carlsen, recovered from a series of mishaps to win both the World Rapid and Blitz crowns at Doha, Qatar, last weekend. The global victories were the 19th and 20th of the Norwegian’s illustrious career and may give him the edge in the longstanding debate on whether he, Garry Kasparov, or Bobby Fischer is chess’s all-time greatest master.

Peerless endgame technique was central to the 35-year-old Norwegian’s blitz success. He won a knight ending with Black against Nodirbek Abdusattorov from a position which elite grandmasters would normally have instantly agreed to halve, and also scored in other endings of extraordinary subtlety.

Published: January 2, 2026, 8:00 am

Victoria Jones, daughter of Tommy Lee Jones, found dead in San Francisco

Reports say actor, 34, found unresponsive in corridor of Fairmont hotel in early hours of New Year’s Day

Victoria Jones, the daughter of the actor Tommy Lee Jones, has been found dead in a San Francisco hotel.

Jones, 34, was discovered in the early hours of New Year’s Day, according to TMZ, which cited law enforcement sources.

Published: January 2, 2026, 9:12 am

College freshman identified as one of three hikers found dead on California’s Mount Baldy

Marcus Alexander Muench Casanova, 19, died on the Devil’s Backbone trail after reportedly falling 500ft

A 19-year-old college freshman has been identified as one of the hikers whose remains were found on California’s Mount Baldy on Monday.

The San Bernardino county sheriff announced this week that Marcus Alexander Muench Casanova, a resident of Seal Beach, California, was discovered along a mountain trail known as the Devil’s Backbone.

Published: January 2, 2026, 7:38 pm

US’s first registry of domestic abusers takes effect in Tennessee

‘Savanna’s law’ named after woman killed by ex-boyfriend, who had extensive record of domestic violence allegations

A state law creating the first registry of people convicted of domestic abuse in the US took effect Thursday in Tennessee.

Named after Savanna Puckett, a woman who was shot to death by her ex-boyfriend in January 2022, “Savanna’s law” requires the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to maintain a database of people who have been convicted of or pleaded guilty to at least two domestic violence offenses.

Published: January 2, 2026, 8:09 pm

‘It’s our turn’: gun-safety advocates are riding a ‘seismic’ wave to US legislatures

A once-toxic topic is helping survivors and relatives of victims get elected to enact the laws they helped draft

A new generation of young political leaders is gaining power in the US by using their personal experience with gun violence to push for reforms they say the US is ready for.

Their ascent is part of a nearly decade-long shift, from gun violence prevention being a third-rail issue in politics that was rarely spoken about on campaign trails, to one that candidates, most of them Democrats, are now running – and winning – on.

Published: January 2, 2026, 1:00 pm

Maduro urges Trump to abandon ‘illegal warmongering’ and start ‘serious talks’

Venezuelan president warns of a ‘forever war’ similar to Iraq after US counterpart claims first land strike on dock

The Venezuelan leader, Nicolás Maduro, has urged Donald Trump to abandon his “illegal warmongering” and begin “serious talks” with his administration as mystery continued to surround a purported pre-Christmas CIA airstrike on the South American country.

Speaking during an hour-long TV interview, Maduro declined to confirm reports of the apparent US attack, which would be the first on Venezuelan soil since Trump began his five-month campaign of military pressure in August.

Published: January 2, 2026, 2:30 pm

Will Smith accused of ‘predatory behaviour’ and ‘grooming’ by tour violinist

Brian King Joseph claims the rapper and actor was ‘priming’ him for ‘sexual exploitation’. Smith’s lawyer has called the allegations ‘false, baseless and reckless’

Will Smith is being sued by a violinist from his 2025 tour, who claims the rapper and actor exhibited “predatory behaviour” and was “deliberately grooming and priming” him for “further sexual exploitation”. Brian King Joseph is also pursuing the performer and his company Treyball Studios Management for wrongful termination and retaliation in a suit filed in the superior court of California.

Joseph alleges that he was hired for the tour in support of Smith’s new album, Based on a True Story, after first appearing on stage with Smith in December 2024. The suit claims that Smith once told Joseph, “You and I have such a special connection that I don’t have with anyone else.”

Published: January 2, 2026, 11:03 am

‘The answer is dig a hole’: why Scotland’s islanders want tunnels instead of ferries

From Shetland to the Western Isles, campaigners argue ageing ferries are driving depopulation – and undersea tunnels are the only 21st-century solution

For Alec Priest, an instrument technician at Sullom Voe oil terminal on Shetland, the case for digging tunnels under the narrow stretches of ocean that separate his home from work is clear-cut.

As things stand, two ageing ferries crossing tidal sounds notorious for their powerful currents break up his commute. For a casual tourist, that adds to the mystique. For time-pressed islanders, care workers and businesses, it adds delays, stress and costs.

Published: January 2, 2026, 1:00 pm

‘A place of darkness and light’: the uninhabited Japanese island that became a rabbit paradise

Once host to a poisonous gas research facility, Okunoshima is now an Instagram-friendly tourist destination

The bunny-ear designs on the window aside, there is little to indicate that the ferry has arrived on an island teeming with rabbits. Then, moments after the passengers disembark, there is activity in the undergrowth. A single rabbit scampers out, wholly untroubled by its two-legged visitors. And then another.

A short walk along the coast takes visitors deep into rabbit territory on Okunoshima, one of 3,000 islands in Japan’s Seto Inland Sea. Half a dozen of the animals chase away another as it attempts to join them in a communal meal of Chinese cabbage. The scene unfolds in front of smiling, camera-toting tourists barely able to believe their proximity to Okunoshima’s fabled – but troubled – furry residents.

The rabbits are dependent on visitors and volunteers for food.

Published: January 2, 2026, 12:00 pm

Week in wildlife: a hide-and-seek squirrel and an otter in a Christmas tree

This week’s best wildlife photographs from around the world

Published: January 2, 2026, 8:00 am

2025 was a big year for climate in the US courts - these were the wins and losses

Americans are increasingly turning to courts to hold big oil accountable. Here are major trends that emerged last year

As the Trump administration boosts fossil fuels, Americans are increasingly turning to courts to hold big oil accountable for alleged climate deception. That wave of litigation swelled in 2025, with groundbreaking cases filed and wins notched.

But the year also brought setbacks, as Trump attacked the cases and big oil worked to have them thrown out. The industry also worked to secure a shield from current and future climate lawsuits.

Published: January 2, 2026, 12:30 pm

What makes an elephant abandon her calf – and is it a growing problem?

A helpless baby elephant has won the Thai public’s sympathy but her case has shed light on the pressures facing herds across Asia

Khao Tom, a two-month-old elephant, plays with a wildlife officer, nudging his face and curling her trunk around his wrist. When she lifts her trunk in the air, signalling that she is hungry, the team at the rescue centre seems relieved – she has not been eating well. A vet prepares a pint-sized bottle of formula, which she gulps down impatiently.

Khao Tom has been in the care of Thailand’s national parks and wildlife department since September, when rangers rescued her from a farming area inside Lam Khlong Ngu national park. Born with a congenital disorder affecting her knees, she struggled to keep up with the herd. Within days of her birth, her mother had moved on without her.

Published: January 2, 2026, 11:00 am

Colorado authorities suspect mountain lion attack after woman found dead near trail

Other hikers had reported seeing the animal near the body and scared it away ‘by throwing rocks’ at it

Authorities are investigating a suspected fatal mountain lion attack after a woman was found dead on a hiking trail in Colorado on Thursday.

In a news release on Thursday, Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) said that hikers reported seeing a mountain lion near a person lying on the ground on the Crosier Mountain trail in unincorporated Larimer county at around 12.15pm local time on Thursday.

Published: January 2, 2026, 2:03 pm

Italian pasta makers win reprieve from Trump tariffs

US cuts proposed levies to between 2% and 14% despite accusing Italian producers of selling at unfairly low prices

The US government has slashed proposed tariffs on Italian pasta that would have almost doubled the cost of many brands for shoppers.

Donald Trump had threatened to impose tariffs as high as 92% on Italian pasta companies, after accusing 13 producers including Barilla, La Molisana and Pastificio Lucio Garofalo of selling their products at unfairly low prices.

Published: January 2, 2026, 10:51 am

Mamdani pledges ‘new era’ for New York and vows to govern ‘audaciously’

New mayor gives speech at inauguration and rescinds all orders signed by Eric Adams after corruption indictment

Zohran Mamdani vowed to “reinvent” New York City in a speech on his first day as mayor, promising “a new era” for America’s largest city and an ambitious start to his term of office.

The 34-year-old political star and democratic socialist, who a year ago was a virtually unknown state assemblyman, is the city’s first Muslim mayor, the first of south Asian descent and the first to be born in Africa. He is also the first to be sworn in using the Qur’an.

Published: January 2, 2026, 12:40 pm

South Park writer buys ‘Trump Kennedy Center’ domain name

Toby Morton now owns trumpkennedycenter.org, which advertises new year performance by the ‘Epstein dancers’

Donald Trump may be remaking the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts into a pool of his self-reflection, but a writer for South Park, the TV series that better reflects the obsessions and tendencies of the administration than any political pundit, has purchased the rights to trumpkennedycenter.org.

Toby Morton, a TV writer and producer who has worked on the long-running and joyfully offensive sitcom, said he purchased the domain in August after predicting the president would change the name from the Kennedy Center to the Trump Kennedy Center after he installed himself as chair and stocked the board with loyalists.

Published: January 1, 2026, 10:09 pm

Sewage in drinking water blamed for at least 10 deaths in India’s ‘cleanest city’

Hundreds hospitalised in Indore after public toilet built above water pipeline appears to have let sewage into supply

Sewage-contaminated drinking water is being blamed for killing at least 10 people, including a baby boy, and sending more than 270 others to hospital in Indore, ranked India’s “cleanest city” for the last eight years.

Residents of a congested, lower-income neighbourhood in Indore, Madhya Pradesh’s commercial capital, had been warning authorities for months about foul-smelling tap water. Their complaints went unheeded, despite the city’s much-lauded ranking for waste segregation and other cleanliness measures.

Published: January 2, 2026, 12:14 pm

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

Sales at Elon Musk’s company slump after Donald Trump’s withdrawal of EV subsidies

China’s BYD overtook Tesla as the world’s largest electric carmaker in 2025, after the US company run by Elon Musk reported a slump in deliveries at the end of the year.

BYD sold 2.26m battery electric cars during the year, easily outstripping the 1.63m deliveries reported on Friday by Tesla for the same period.

Published: January 2, 2026, 4:07 pm

Yemeni separatists plan to hold independence vote within two years

Seven killed in strikes on south as Saudi-backed government moves to recapture key region from STC

Yemen’s southern separatists have announced plans to hold a referendum on independence from the north in two years, after their seizure of swathes of the country last month triggered a major feud between Gulf powers.

The Southern Transitional Council leader, Aidarous al-Zubaidi, called on the international community to sponsor talks between concerned parties in the south and north on a path and mechanisms that “guarantee rights of the people of the south”.

Published: January 2, 2026, 5:26 pm

Coroner calls for circumcision safety measures after baby’s death in London

Six-month-old Mohamed Abdisamad’s death from infection prompts concern at lack of training for circumcisers

A coroner has warned that more babies could die from infected circumcisions in the UK after the death of a six-month-old boy exposed a lack of infection control training and accreditation for circumcisers.

Mohamed Abdisamad died in February 2023 of a streptococcus infection. He had a cardiorespiratory arrest on his way to hospital a week after undergoing a non-therapeutic circumcision, an inquest at west London coroner’s court found in October.

Published: January 2, 2026, 1:51 pm

‘I’ve seen a lot of great pissheads’: Stephen Graham on booze, Baftas and the return of his bone-crunching boxing thriller

Stephen Graham and Steven Knight had an astonishing 2025. As A Thousand Blows explodes back, they talk about taking decades to become overnight sensations, the Peaky Blinders movie – and why it could be time for a scouse Bond villain

Stephen Graham had a stellar 2025. He didn’t just play Bruce Springsteen’s father in biopic Deliver Me from Nowhere but, of course, co-created and starred in Netflix mega-hit Adolescence – the game-changing drama that sparked global debate about online misogyny, incel culture and the “manosphere”.

His friend and regular collaborator Steven Knight watched admiringly from afar as the devastating four-parter became event TV. “My God, it was a cultural phenomenon,” he says, puffing out his cheeks with pride. “Adolescence got people talking who don’t normally talk, about things they don’t normally talk about. Is there any finer achievement than having a direct, immediate and positive effect worldwide on human relationships? It’s like putting something on screen which is medicine. It’s actually good for you.”

Published: January 2, 2026, 1:00 pm

‘I don’t want to resent the thing I love’: Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor on romance, rationing and retirement

Both stars have bigger films on release but are hugely proud of The History of Sound, which has been four years in the making. They talk about the vulnerability of singing, the cost of inhabiting a role – and rationing future parts

All things considered, telling Paul Mescal I once placed a bet on him is not quite the icebreaker I had hoped. Or rather, it breaks the ice in an unusual way.

“The key question,” he says, his voice betraying a hint of trepidation, “is what was the bet? Most Likely to Join the 27 Club?”

Published: January 2, 2026, 5:00 am

The Night Manager review – no naughty bum-flashing? It’s still a class above all other spy thrillers

The racy espionage blockbuster caused a global frenzy a decade ago – and set an unbelievably high bar. As Tom Hiddleston’s M16 agent Jonathan Pine returns to take down a new supervillain, he just about pulls it off

Finesse was the selling point of The Night Manager when it debuted in 2016. It was a class above other spy thrillers, setting itself among moneyed elites – rotten ones, but elites nonetheless – and furnishing itself with luxury locations. In Tom Hiddleston it had a lead with a reputation that signalled that the often tacky espionage genre was looking to improve itself. Based on a book by John le Carré and airing on the BBC in the dying days of the era when that carried heavyweight global cachet, its pedigree was impeccable.

A large part of the rarefied atmosphere the series created, though, was in being one and done: it swept in, won a ton of awards, then swooshed away, leaving behind a delicate waft of something impossibly exclusive. Lesser shows would have hastily cashed in with an inferior second season, but The Night Manager could not be so vulgar.

Published: January 1, 2026, 10:05 pm

Wuthering Heights, Michael Jackson and the ‘Trump effect’ – will 2026 see the end of the ‘woke’ blockbuster?

The president is scrutinising studio deals, and was rewarded with the promise of a Rush Hour reboot. With Supergirl, Hoppers and a live-action Moana on the way, can Hollywood stand up to Trump?

It’s fair to say that Hollywood is in crisis, or at least in transition. Studios getting taken over, culture wars all over the place, and gen AI rearing its head. The last thing they need is an interventionist president determined to wage war on the entertainment industry, as well as no doubt extracting what value he can. Donald Trump, as we know, is very interested in the movie business: in his pre-politics days, he made dozens of appearances in films, as well as on TV. It seems very likely that he’s eyeing a place at Hollywood’s top table after he leaves office (presuming he does).

Perhaps that’s what is behind his most spectacular recent intervention: demanding, and getting, a fourth Rush Hour movie from the new owners of Paramount Pictures, the studio that was recently taken over by David Ellison, son of Larry, one of Trump’s key allies. Coincidentally, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner is one of the funders of Paramount’s subsequent bid to derail Netflix’s takeover of Warner Bros, with Trump himself suggesting he might influence US corporate regulators to prevent the Netflix deal from going ahead. And of course, in the background, is Trump’s threat of non-specific “tariffs” on the film industry, ostensibly aimed at keeping movie production inside the US. But, arguably, this could also be a way of keeping Hollywood’s top executives nervous and pliable.

Published: January 1, 2026, 2:00 pm

Doomed lovers, high heels and The Odyssey: films to get excited about in 2026

Margot Robbie busts her corset in Wuthering Heights, the Devil Wears Prada sequel goes fashionably to war, and Christopher Nolan brings us a Greek epic. Plus much more in our pick of the best films coming to UK cinemas this year

• More from the 2026 culture preview

Jessie Buckley may need to hire a carpenter for the silverware-cabinet she is expected to need for her hugely admired performance in the film based on the Maggie O’Farrell novel. She plays Anne (or Agnes) Hathaway, wife of William Shakespeare, grieving the terrible loss of their 11-year-old son, Hamnet, in 1596, which the story imagines to be a spur to the creation of Shakespeare’s play Hamlet. Paul Mescal plays Shakespeare and Emily Watson his mother, Mary.
• 9 January.

Published: January 1, 2026, 6:00 am

Songs about new beginnings – ranked!

From CMAT and the Carpenters’ fresh starts to the Beatles’ Here Comes the Sun and Nina Simone’s Feeling Good, starting again is a rich theme in pop. Here are some of the best examples

It’s hard to imagine anyone’s heart not being lifted a little by Right Back Where We Started From: the euphoric rush of new love rendered into three minutes of cod-northern soul (performed, unexpectedly, by various ex members of ELO, the Animals and 60s soft-poppers Honeybus). Avoid the 80s cover by Sinitta at all costs.

Published: January 1, 2026, 1:00 pm

Iain Ballamy: Riversphere Vol 1 review | John Fordham's jazz album of the month

(Babel Label)
The 80s sax star leads an A-list quartet, plus a shared trumpet role for Laura Jurd and Ballamy’s son Charlie

Opening 2026’s jazz reviews with a story from the mid-1980s might be risking audience restiveness, but that was the decade in which a far-sighted young saxophonist on the UK jazz scene called Iain Ballamy first appeared on this writer’s radar. The cross-generational lineup and captivating ideas of Riversphere, his first solo release in years, testify to exactly why he has stayed there for 40 years.

In their 20s, Ballamy and pianist/composer Django Bates frequently joined forces as two mavericks, skilfully respectful of the classic jazz tradition while adventurously and often mischievously transforming it. They were key figures in a gifted UK generation that created some of the sparkiest European jazz of the 1980s and 90s, most influentially in the revolutionary orchestra Loose Tubes, which brought together genres from old-school swing to vaudeville, improv and avant-rock, and on occasion really did get people dancing in the streets.

Published: January 2, 2026, 9:00 am

Our 2026 listening resolutions: from Radiohead to Kendrick Lamar, critics try to get into music they’ve never liked

Streaming’s algorithms make it easy to avoid whole discographies – so in the interest of deeper listening, our writers dedicate time to the ones who might have got away

The first time I heard Joni Mitchell, in 1997, she was looped across the chorus of Janet Jackson’s single Got ’Til It’s Gone. The song’s credits would educate me on the sample’s origins; I had previously assumed Big Yellow Taxi was an Amy Grant original. The second time I heard a Mitchell song was when Travis covered the beautiful River as a B-side.

Published: January 1, 2026, 10:00 am

Dry Cleaning: Secret Love review | Alexis Petridis's album of the week

(4AD)
The standout act in the sprechgesang wave, the four-piece’s newly expansive sound carries singer Florence Shaw’s distinctive tales of mundane lives spiralling out of control

Dry Cleaning’s third album features a lot of strikingly odd lyrics. Take your pick from “alien offshoot mushroom, going the gym to get slim”; “my dream house is a negative space of rock”; or, indeed, “when I was a child I wanted to be a horse, eating onions, carrots, celery”. But it’s an ostensibly more straightforward line, from Cruise Ship Designer, that seems destined to attract the most attention. “I make sure there are hidden messages in my work,” says vocalist Florence Shaw as the track draws to a conclusion, the muscular guitar riff that’s driven it along devolving into a janky, trebly scrabble.

Initially, the lyric appears to characterise what Dry Cleaning do, and Shaw in particular. From the moment they first appeared with the 2018 EP Sweet Princess, the south London quartet have attracted adjectives such as “surreal”, “enigmatic” and “inscrutable”. Most of the British bands who emerged around the same time bearing a roughly equivalent blend of post-punk guitars and spoken-word vocals sounded angry or sarcastic or straightforwardly comedic. Dry Cleaning, on the other hand, seemed mysterious. Shaw’s lyrics were collages of overheard remarks, recycled YouTube comments, lines from adverts and non sequiturs, delivered in a voice that was too icy to sound whimsical. It’s variously been characterised as “anhedonic” and “achromatic”, but might more straightforwardly be described as sounding politely bored. She occasionally shifts from speaking into singing in an untutored voice that brings to mind Stuart Moxham of Young Marble Giants’ line about their understated vocalist Alison Statton sounding “as if she was at the bus stop or something”. It was all intriguingly confusing: here were songs that could indeed contain hidden messages, that seemed like puzzles to be unpicked.

Published: January 1, 2026, 12:00 pm

Blank Canvas by Grace Murray review – a superb debut from a 22-year-old author

In this energisingly original novel, an emotionally detached English student at college in New York tells a big lie

Lies offend our sense of justice: generally, we want to see the liar unmasked and punished. But when the deception brings no material gain, we might also be curious about what purpose the lie serves – what particular need of their own the liar is attempting to meet. This is precisely what Grace Murray’s witty, assured debut explores: not just the consequences of a lie but the ways in which it can, paradoxically, reveal certain truths.

At a small liberal arts college in upstate New York, Charlotte begins her final year by claiming that her father has just died of a heart attack. In fact, he is alive and well back in Lichfield, England. This lie is the jumping-off point for an unpacking of Charlotte’s psychology, as well as the catalyst for her relationship with fellow student Katarina, a quasi-love story that forms the book’s main narrative.

Published: January 2, 2026, 7:00 am

The best recent poetry – review roundup

The Bonfire Party by Sean O’Brien; Plastic by Matthew Rice; Retablo for a Door by Michelle Penn; Jonah and Me by John F Deane; Intimate Architecture by Tess Jolly

The Bonfire Party by Sean O’Brien (Picador, £12.99)
This sombre collection showcases O’Brien’s varied use of forms and subject matter, exploring themes of history, remembrance of war and political conflict, death, time, the passing of friends and loved ones as well as human desire and culpability. A central sequence entitled Impasse is inspired by Georges Simenon’s Maigret novels. These poems plunge us into the landscape of the detective hero’s world, a process O’Brien describes as “analogous to dream-life, where certain motifs (cities, railway stations, libraries in my case) recur without ever abolishing the mystery that animates them”. The penultimate poem of the final sequence ushers in an elegiac, pensive tone as the speaker reminds us not to forget “birdsong / the descant of the rising lark / that never ends, composed of silence”. The book reinforces O’Brien’s authority as a chronicler of our times, “love and death consorting as they must”.

Plastic by Matthew Rice (Fitzcarraldo, £12.99)
This book-length poem explores the experiences of a night worker turned poet. Structured as a continuous narrative, it illustrates the frustrations, inequities and relentless cycle of 21st-century manual labour: “The night is proletarian, a morgue of ghosts / given the present is a borderline”. Rice documents the tragic incidents and surreal imaginings that occur within the nightmarish confines of a plastic moulding factory. “Once, in this building, a kid clocked off night shift / for good at the end of a rope / another’s heart gave out at 3am / performing a task as menial as mine.” This sardonic, bleakly moving book interrogates ideas of working-class masculinity and intergenerational trauma, with “hell as an idea of what work could be”; there are glimpses of hope in poetry itself, “the treasure buried in my father’s field”.

Published: January 2, 2026, 12:00 pm

Andrew Miller: ‘DH Lawrence forced me to my feet – I was madly excited’

The novelist on how The Rainbow made him want to write, the strange genius of Penelope Fitzgerald and finding comfort in Tintin

My earliest reading memory
Sitting on the sofa with my mum reading Mabel the Whale by Patricia King, with beautiful colour illustrations by Katherine Evans. I think it was pre-school. My mother was not always a patient teacher, and I was often a slow learner, but the scene, the tableaux, in memory, has the serenity of an icon.

My favourite book growing up
Rosemary Sutcliff’s The Eagle of the Ninth. It’s a story set in Roman Britain; the Eagle is the lost standard of the ninth legion. I was a boy already obsessed by all things Ancient Roman (the alternative to the kind of boy obsessed with dinosaurs). One of the places I remember reading it is in bed with my dad. On Sunday mornings my brother and I would climb into the big bed. My parents had long since split up. There was a picture on the wall, a modest reproduction of Velázquez’s Rokeby Venus. To me, this voluptuous woman gazing at herself in a mirror was my mother. It’s interesting to me how the setting in which you read is such an integral part of the reading experience.

Published: January 2, 2026, 10:00 am

Googoosh: A Sinful Voice by Googoosh with Tara Dehlavi review – the extraordinary story of an Iranian icon

Her voice soundtracked the 60s and 70s, but the revolution silenced her. The legendary singer finally has her say, in this uneven memoir

If you ask any Iranian to name the most important female pop star in our country’s history, they’ll say Googoosh. Nobody else comes close. Over six decades of revolution, suppression and exile, Googoosh has gone from singer to cultural icon, a symbol of a country’s grief for its murdered, imprisoned, and muzzled artists, and a living link between pre-revolutionary Iran and the diaspora.

Googoosh was just three years old when she started singing in small halls and cabaret venues where her father worked. By her teens she was a film actor and a fashion icon. In the 60s and 70s, when my mother was a teenager, Googoosh was everywhere: on television, in films, magazines, on the radio. She kept recreating herself – her style, her moves, her hair. (My mother and many of her university classmates copied Googosh’s famous wispy haircut.) For a while, this bold, creative young woman shaped how westerners saw Iran, and how a generation of Iranian women understood modernity, femininity and public life.

Published: January 1, 2026, 7:00 am

‘I felt like my Bafta statue was judging me!’ Gbemisola Ikumelo on backlashes, Black Ops and why 2026 will be her year

Whether she’s a chicken-obsessed schoolboy or a hapless cop fighting a plot to bring down Notting Hill carnival, the comic actor’s dizzying range means she may soon need a bigger awards shelf

In 2020, as long-overdue conversations about race rippled out across the world, Gbemisola Ikumelo, now 39, made a decision. “I had this soul-destroying experience on a job,” she says, hersunny demeanour at odds with the grim tale. She decided to post online about the microaggressions she had endured while appearing in a play some years before, making peace with the fact that it could affect her chances at future roles, and shaking as she typed out the thread. A day passed, “and I just heard my phone going ding, ding, ding. I was convinced it was going to be backlash – but it was people sending their congratulations.” Ikumelo had been nominated for a Bafta for her short, Brain in Gear. “I felt like God was going: ‘Don’t worry.’ It was a beautiful moment.” She won that Bafta and has since scooped another. “When I won the first one, I was living in a small flat, and I felt like the [statuette] was judging me,” she laughs. “I was like, I might have to refurb or move. Now I have an office, so they’re in a very reasonable place.”

You get the feeling she should keep a few shelves free. After flirting with TV roles in the US, in 2025 Ikumelo joined the writing and acting cast of NBC’s Office spinoff The Paper. Closer to home, she also shot another series of the show that scooped her the second of those aforementioned awards, for best female comedy performance – the riotous buddy cop comedy Black Ops (she is still hopeful her brilliantly anxiety-inducing Brain in Gear will make it to a series).

Published: January 2, 2026, 12:00 pm

More than 60 Henri Matisse artworks donated to Musée d’Art Moderne in Paris

Artist’s daughter Marguerite features in most of the pieces, kept in the family until ‘complete surprise’ donation

The Musée d’Art Moderne in Paris has received an “extraordinarily generous” donation of 61 works by Henri Matisse that have been kept in the artist’s family.

Most of the donated art – which includes paintings, drawings, etchings, lithographs and a sculpture – features the painter’s daughter Marguerite.

Published: January 2, 2026, 6:00 am

George Clooney fires back at Trump after US president mocks his French citizenship

Trump called the actor and his wife, Amal, ‘two of the worst political prognosticators of all time’ after they were awarded French passports

• ‘Suspension of entry into the US’, paparazzi – and wine: three other reasons George Clooney moved to France

George Clooney has lashed out at US president Donald Trump for criticising France’s decision to grant the Hollywood actor and his family French citizenship.

The 64-year-old Oscar winner, his wife, Amal Alamuddin Clooney, and their two children became French citizens earlier this month after living on a property in southern France for years.

Published: January 2, 2026, 12:51 am

Last letters from Denmark: Danes write to Devon artist as postal service ends

Closure of country’s 400-year-old service made headlines and prompted Gillian Taylor to appeal for final missives

Some describe the joy of receiving dispatches from far afield, others speak of the discipline of sitting down to carefully order their thoughts in a letter.

One writer tells of finding a poignant cache of letters after a parent’s death, while another has shared a map of where the postboxes used to be in her town.

Published: January 1, 2026, 1:51 pm

Experience: My friend turned out to be my long-lost sister

We were colleagues, had both been put up for adoption and were from the same place – but the paperwork said we weren’t related. Then a DNA test changed everything

I grew up in a small town in Connecticut. I always knew I was adopted: my mum told me that, as well as her, I had my “tummy mummy”. I was adopted from the Dominican Republic. My mum there was called Julianna, and she and my dad gave me up for adoption because they were poor.

Fast-forward to 2013, and I was 24 and working in a restaurant in New Haven. One day, one of my co‑ workers, Julia, noticed my Dominican Republic flag tattoo. She told me she was from there, too. I said I was adopted from there, and she said she was as well.

Published: January 2, 2026, 5:00 am

From climbing Kilimanjaro to cycling the Tour de France route … readers’ favourite organised challenges

Whether it’s for the satisfaction of completing a tough physical challenge or to raise money for charity, our readers select their most memorable adventures

• Tell us about your favourite beach in Europe – the best tip wins a £200 holiday voucher

When tackling a big cycling challenge, choose an event with strong support – it makes all the difference. Riding the full Tour de France route with Ride Le Loop was tough, but the incredible staff turned it into an unforgettable experience (riders can tackle individual stages too). Their infectious enthusiasm and constant encouragement kept spirits high, even on the hardest climbs. They not only looked after logistics but created a warm, positive atmosphere that bonded riders together and amplified the joy of the journey. My advice: pick an organised challenge where the team cares as much about your success as you do. The next one is 27 June to 20 July 2026.
Neil Phillips

Published: January 2, 2026, 7:00 am

The perfect way to beat the slump: how to tackle mid-afternoon energy dips

In the dead of winter, it can be hard to keep your alertness up when it gets darker. Here are a few good habits that will help you stay productive

• Sign up here to get the whole series straight to your inbox

It is an all-too-familiar scenario: you reheat a bowl of last night’s noodles for lunch, devour it, then return to your desk and gradually droop over the course of the afternoon, to the point at which you are battling to keep your eyes open. Or perhaps you struggle with energy on waking up; or, after a busy start and strong coffee first thing, you begin to fade mid-morning. Or, like me, after dinner in the winter months, you are completely lethargic.

How common are such peaks and troughs in our energy levels? “If you’re having an active day, then you will naturally get tired because we are human, we’re not machines,” says Dr Linia Patel, a dietitian and nutritionist. “Getting tired at the end of the day, before you go to bed, is perfect. But getting tired at your desk is not great.” Chronic tiredness is something to see a doctor about, says Patel, as it could be a symptom of illness.

Published: January 1, 2026, 4:00 pm

'The Brooklinen of suits': How Zohran Mamdani makes his $500 suits work

Looking for an affordable men’s suit under $500? Here’s what you can learn from the everyman wardrobe of New York City’s new mayor

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

You’re probably not going to see a Suitsupply suit on the Met Gala red carpet. You will, however, probably see it on a fresh college graduate, the guy shopping for his very first suit and, perhaps most prominently, New York City’s new mayor, Zohran Mamdani.

The city’s newly sworn-in mayor wore the brand’s everyman suits throughout his campaign, drawing commentary from the style desks of Bloomberg (calling him “style icon”), the New York Times (calling his style “millennial”) and GQ (calling it “Uniqlo uncle”). What they all agreed on: somehow, Mamdani pulled off wearing $500 suits on a national stage.

Published: January 1, 2026, 3:15 pm

You be the judge: should my boyfriend change the way he showers?

Audrey thinks Noah doesn’t take bathing seriously enough. He says he’s a ‘quick-shower kind of guy’ but keeps himself clean. You decide whose argument scrubs up best
• Get a disagreement settled or become a YBTJ juror

Noah doesn’t wash himself thoroughly enough – he just rubs a bit of gel around his body

I smell nice and I’m not unclean, so why does showering have to be like a full military operation?

Published: January 1, 2026, 8:00 am

Rise and shine! How not to look tired (even when you’re totally knackered)

From facial massage to wearing the right colours, there are plenty of ways to appear well rested, even when you’re anything but

According to new research, the UK’s sleep crisis is at a peak; the average person in Britain loses the equivalent of 18 days of sleep every year, while one in four of us survive on just one hour’s rest a night. But I’m here to help. As a beauty editor of more than 15 years – with a penchant for a late night – I’ve tried every trick in the book for faking eight hours of sleep. With these smart tweaks, science-backed tips and insider hacks, you can look half-alive – even if you feel as if you’ve been exhumed.

Published: January 2, 2026, 3:00 pm

I taste words. ‘Bob’ is like a milk chocolate Easter egg on my tongue

Monique Todorovski, a clinical administrator, shares her experience of lexical-gustatory synaesthesia

• Read more in the way I feel series

When I met my husband and found out his name was Philip, I felt conflicted. I liked him as a person but his name tasted like crunchy green pears and I don’t like green pears at all. My compromise was to call him Phil, which tastes more like stewed pear – sweeter and not as crunchy. It’s just a nicer-tasting name in my mind.

Fortunately I was 30 by the time I met Phil, so I had an explanation for my word-taste associations, after years of strange looks from family and friends. I had lexical-gustatory synaesthesia, one of the rarest forms of the phenomenon, in which words or sounds trigger taste sensations. Researchers estimate it affects just 0.2% of the population.

Published: January 2, 2026, 2:00 pm

My mother repeated one Cantonese idiom throughout my life: 'you want beauty, you don’t want life' | Michelle Law

Sometimes Michelle Law looks at people who make risky decisions and feels a deep sense of envy. But when that envy materialises, so too does the voice of her mother

• Read more in the Home Truths series

In news that will delight my enemies, I believe there’s a chance I’ll die young and by accidental means. To clarify, I’m currently in excellent health (sorry to my enemies), but I’m sensing a spectacular midlife crisis on the horizon that could spell the end.

Maybe it’ll be an overdose in a seedy nightclub. Maybe I’ll drink myself into oblivion. Maybe I’ll get kicked in the head during an orgy. Whatever it is, it’ll be the result of a botched attempt at compensating for a lifetime of being the world’s most risk averse, law-abiding scaredy cat who is terrified of physical danger.

Published: January 2, 2026, 2:00 pm

Forget new year gardening resolutions. In 2026 I’m lowering my standards

No over-buying or rigid planning. Here is my list of things I won’t be doing in the garden this year

Every January, I gripe about the tyranny of setting any kind of resolution while we’re in the depth of winter. Short gloomy days and long drawn-out nights are a truly uninspiring backdrop for resolving to make meaningful changes in your life. I’d love to meet whoever came up with the idea of new year resolutions and give them a piece of my mind.

So I want to try something else this January. I want to make a list of things I’m giving up. Not the punishing kind of giving up. I’m not planning to give up any of the delicious things that I’ve happily overeaten these last few weeks. Instead, I’m going to give up doing the things that make me – and more specifically, my veg patch – feel less than good enough.

Published: January 2, 2026, 11:30 am

Behind the scenes of Brisbane’s 2032 Olympics, a 19th-century story of politics and gay love

The new stadium sits in the suburb of Herston, a name alluding to the state’s first premier and the man believed to be his lover

Today the story would be unremarkable: two gay men, migrants from England, give their Queensland home a portmanteau of their last names.

But in 1859, these two men, Robert Herbert and John Bramston, were the new state’s first premier (then called colonial secretary) and one of his attorneys general.

Sign up for a weekly email featuring our best reads

Published: January 2, 2026, 2:00 pm

‘I don’t think we should have billionaires’: mayor Zohran Mamdani in his own words

Democratic socialist mayor led historic push to lead New York, speaking on immigration, Trump and subway burritos

• Zohran Mamdani is now mayor of New York City. Here’s what he campaigned on

Zohran Mamdani, the democratic socialist who is now mayor of New York City, ran a campaign known for its soaring political rhetoric, its viral memes and its candidate’s witty quips.

Here are some of the quotes that came to define his historic push to lead one of the world’s most important cities:

New York will remain a city of immigrants: a city built by immigrants, powered by immigrants, and, as of tonight, led by an immigrant. So hear me, President Trump, when I say this: to get to any of us, you will have to get through all of us.

What I don’t have in experience, I make up for in integrity. And what you don’t have in integrity, you could never make up for with experience.

No more will New York be a city where you can traffic in Islamophobia and win an election.

It’s pronounced ‘cyclist’.

I am young, despite my best efforts to grow older. I am Muslim. I am a democratic socialist. And most damning of all, I refuse to apologize for any of this.

I don’t think that we should have billionaires because, frankly, it is so much money in a moment of such inequality, and ultimately, what we need more of is equality across our city and across our state and across our country.

I hear you. I see you. And if you’re a burrito on the Q train, I eat you.

If anyone can show a nation betrayed by Donald Trump how to defeat him, it is the city that gave rise to him. So, if there is any way to terrify a despot, it is by dismantling the very conditions that allowed him to accumulate power. This is not only how we stop Trump, it’s how we stop the next one. So, Donald Trump, since I know you’re watching, I have four words for you: turn the volume up!

Published: January 1, 2026, 12:00 pm

‘Their first instinct was to loot’: how Trump’s acolytes are plundering the Kennedy Center

Sheldon Whitehouse, an ex officio member of the Kennedy Center board, remains undeterred and determined to press on with his investigation

“That’s the tactic they use,” said Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island senator, pondering whether Donald Trump might attach his name to the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. “You float stuff and you float stuff and you float stuff until people get inured to what a stupid or outrageous thing it is that has been floated, and then you pull the trigger.”

Whitehouse was sitting in his Senate office and speaking to the Guardian at 11am on Thursday 18 December. Two hours later, his words proved prophetic. Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, announced on X that the Kennedy Center board had “voted unanimously” to rename it the Trump Kennedy Center.

Published: January 1, 2026, 4:00 pm

Snow in Wales, flooding in Gaza and a wolf supermoon: photos of the day – Friday

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

Published: January 2, 2026, 2:42 pm