Our international Valentine’s gift guide for curious Americans

A Wuthering Heights-esque cushion beloved in the UK and a Moroccan cooking tagine for two: these gifts show love in every language

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Sometimes I think Valentine’s Day is a corny, capitalist holiday exclusive to the US, and then my coal-black heart remembers that love exists everywhere. Beyond the American bubble, plenty of countries have their own romantic rituals and traditions.

Maybe you’re planning a trip somewhere or maybe you just want to give them something cool they won’t easily find at home. Either way, we gathered recommendations from writers around the world for Valentine’s Day gift ideas that Americans might not – but should – know about.

Published: February 4, 2026, 9:57 pm

‘The right has won the family’: my relentless search for lefty mommy bloggers

The most popular mom content tends to be rightwing tradwife propaganda or not political at all – pushing progressive creators out of the algorithm

For someone who doesn’t have a marble island in their kitchen I spend a disproportionate amount of time staring at marble kitchen islands, slack-jawed, brain turned half off. That’s because I consume a lot of videos from mommy bloggers, mom influencers and the like. In kitchen “closing shift” videos, they wipe down their islands and reset by lighting luxury candles, the glow accentuating their respectable cosmetic procedures. Other times I watch them waltz through their morning routines: getting kids out the door, sweating it out in boutique fitness classes, showing off Amazon hauls, or explaining their children’s matching holiday photoshoot outfits.

For better or worse, this is how I have chosen to spend my one wild and precious life: consuming blissfully low-stakes motherhood content on my phone. It is domestically competent ASMR that also satiates my desire to peek into everyone’s bathroom cabinets. I nod in unsolicited approval as a TikTok mom I follow shares her green juice order. Fascinating. I should drink something like that. Another posts timestamps of her baby’s night-time sleep schedule. I, who lives between walls that have never heard the wail of an infant, ingurgitate the entire video.

Published: February 4, 2026, 4:00 pm

What is happening in Fulton county is a warning to America | Jamil Smith

The FBI raid in Georgia is not an aberration. It fits a broader playbook, with troubling historic precedents

What in the hell were FBI agents doing in an election facility in Fulton county, Georgia, last week? They surely weren’t investigating a crime. Nor were they serving the public.

Justifying Donald Trump’s “big lie” about winning the 2020 election may seem like his own lost cause – but like his Confederate forebears, he is weaponizing it, damage be damned. Not even his subsequent election victory has quieted Trump’s appetite for more power, earned or otherwise.

Jamil Smith is a Guardian US columnist

Published: February 4, 2026, 5:30 pm

Goofy! Pouty! Unvampy! With nine films on the go, can Charli xcx act?

She’s the edgy British brat who conquered the world with her hard-partying, electro-banging aesthetic. But can the star now go where Beyoncé and Harry Styles stumbled – and smash the silver screen?

In the back of a cab, Charli xcx drags a makeup wipe across her face. A closeup of that face, with its distinctive halo of dark hair, the lipstick-smeared pout and lush, overgrown eyebrows, is perhaps the most striking scene in her new film The Moment. Charli peels a strip of ugly stick-on gems from her lower lash line, regret and shame flashing across her face. It’s a rare raw few seconds in Aidan Zamiri’s clever and knowing satire of 21st-century pop stardom, which wonders what would have happened if the singer had lost her head after the success of her 2024 album Brat. The film is billed as a mockumentary, but its ambition to be taken seriously is no joke.

The Moment is already being positioned as Charli’s pivot from pop to the silver screen, after a buzzy premiere at the Sundance film festival last month. Charli was there to promote it, alongside two other films she’s starring in. I Want Your Sex, a dark romp of a comedy from new queer cinema pioneer Gregg Araki was mostly warmly received, though early consensus has declared The Gallerist, which stars Natalie Portman, something of a dud.

Published: February 4, 2026, 4:53 pm

Pro-gun groups quickly rallied for Alex Pretti. Why didn’t they do the same for a Black gun owner?

Philando Castile, a lawful gun owner, was shot and killed by a police officer in 2016 – gun rights groups were largely silent

The killing of Alex Pretti by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis has sparked a thorny conversation among gun rights groups and Trump administration officials about the second amendment and the right to carry concealed firearms at protests and demonstrations. Among the questions is which cases the movement rallies behind – and which it doesn’t.

In the hours and days after Pretti’s killing, dozens of local national and local gun rights groups lambasted federal officials including Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, and Gregory Bovino, a senior border patrol official, who baselessly claimed that Pretti’s carrying of a handgun proved that he planned to harm and kill border patrol agents. Prominent gun rights organizations, including Gun Owners of America (GOA) and the National Rifle Association (NRA), called for an independent investigation into the shooting and defended Pretti’s right to carry a gun.

Published: February 4, 2026, 1:00 pm

An ‘amazing feat’: how was 13-year-old Austin Appelbee able to swim for four hours to save his family?

Saltwater, survival backstroke and sheer mind over matter may have helped the teenager save his family, experts say

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An Australian 13-year-old who swam 4km (2.49 miles) to shore and then ran 2km (1.24 miles) to get help for his stranded family has been described as “superhuman”.

Experts say Austin Appelbee’s feat of endurance exceeded the limits of what is normally perceived as possible. So how was the teenager able to save the day, and is there any precedent for it?

Published: February 4, 2026, 2:00 pm

Minnesota girl, 10, released from ICE custody after a month in detention

Elizabeth Zuna Caisaguano and her mother released from Texas facility to head back home to reunite with her father

A 10-year-old Minnesota girl has been released from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody after a month in detention in Dilley, Texas, school officials said, one of hundreds of children detained at the facility.

Elizabeth Zuna Caisaguano, a fourth-grader, and her mother walked free from the immigration detention center in Dilley, Texas, on Tuesday night. Elizabeth is a student in the school district of Columbia Heights, a Minneapolis suburb, which is also home to five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos, who was released from Dilley over the weekend amid widespread outrage about his detention.

Published: February 4, 2026, 9:23 pm

Bill Gates says he ‘regrets’ knowing Epstein as ex-wife alludes to ‘muck’ in marriage

Melinda French Gates insists Microsoft founder has questions to answer over his relationship with Epstein

Bill Gates has said he “regrets” ever knowing Jeffrey Epstein, as his former wife Melinda French Gates alluded to “muck” in their marriage, and insisted the Microsoft founder has questions to answer over his relationship with the deceased child sex offender.

Allegations that Gates hid a sexually transmitted disease from his wife after contact with “Russian girls” surfaced in the latest release of the Epstein files, which have provided remarkable insight into the disgraced financier’s multiple celebrity connections and activities.

Published: February 4, 2026, 4:37 pm

Tulsi Gabbard reportedly oversaw probe of Puerto Rico voting machines last year – US politics live

Reuters reports that Trump’s director of national intelligence led team tasked with investigating claims of Venezuelan hacking scheme

• Trump news at a glance: president hints at ‘softer touch’ on immigration as federal drawdown planned in Minnesota

Tom Homan, the president’s so-called “border czar” is set to speak to reporters in Minneapolis shortly.

A reminder that Homan took over the immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota from senior border official Gregory Bovino, just days after the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti and the mounting backlash in the Twin Cities.

Published: February 5, 2026, 2:28 am

US and Iran talks brought back from the brink after White House relents on move to Oman

Talks that had been scheduled in Turkey salvaged after Arab states convince White House not to walk away from negotiations

Talks between the US and Iran scheduled for Friday have been brought back from the brink of collapse after the US initially rejected Iran’s request to move them from Turkey to Oman without the presence of a group of Arab states.

Iran’s foreign minister said late on Wednesday that the talks would proceed in Oman after reports of a last-minute effort by Arab states to convince the White House not to walk away from negotiations.

Published: February 4, 2026, 9:33 pm

‘It’s an absolute bloodbath’: Washington Post lays off hundreds of workers

Former Post executive editor blasts owner Jeff Bezos’s ‘sickening efforts to curry favor’ with Trump

The Washington Post laid off hundreds of employees on Wednesday, which its former executive editor said “ranks among the darkest days” in the newspaper’s history. Approximately one-third of employees were affected.

Staffers at the Post have been on edge for weeks about the rumored cuts, which the publication would not confirm or deny. “It’s an absolute bloodbath,” said one employee, not authorized to speak publicly.

Published: February 4, 2026, 3:39 pm

Flawed economic models mean climate crisis could crash global economy, experts warn

States and financial bodies using modelling that ignores shocks from extreme weather and climate tipping points

Flawed economic models mean the accelerating impact of the climate crisis could lead to a global financial crash, experts warn.

Recovery would be far harder than after the 2008 financial crash, they said, as “we can’t bail out the Earth like we did the banks”.

Published: February 5, 2026, 12:01 am

California can use a new congressional map in November, supreme court rules

Approved by voters, the new map gives Democrats as many as five seats, neutralizing five GOP seats added by Texas

California can use a new congressional map that was approved by voters in November, the supreme court has ruled, handing Democrats a major victory in their effort to neutralize Donald Trump’s push to protect Republicans’ fragile House majority in this year’s midterm elections.

In December, the court said Texas could use its redrawn congressional map in 2026, designed to carve out as many as five Republican-friendly congressional districts, rejecting a lower-court ruling that found it had been racially gerrymandered.

Published: February 4, 2026, 9:33 pm

Savannah Guthrie releases video appealing for proof her missing mother is alive

Today show host acknowledges reports of alleged ransom letter and calls for safe return of 84-year-old mother online

Today show host Savannah Guthrie, along with her siblings Annie and Cameron, has published a video statement calling for the safe return of their 84-year-old mother Nancy Guthrie, who was reported missing on Sunday.

In a video posted to Instagram on Wednesday, the siblings said that their mother is in poor health and is without her medication. Savannah Guthrie also acknowledged reports about a reported ransom letter from alleged kidnappers.

Published: February 5, 2026, 2:24 am

Fans race to learn Spanish before Bad Bunny's Super Bowl half-time show

The Puerto Rican singer’s highly anticipated Super Bowl half-time show has inspired non-Spanish speakers to study Puerto Rican dialect and slang

Bad Bunny is expected to perform the Super Bowl half-time show on Sunday entirely in Spanish – which has inspired fans to quickly learn the language.

In October, the Puerto Rican singer – born Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio – kicked off the 51st season of Saturday Night Live expressing pride over the achievement in Spanish, after which he said in English, “If you didn’t understand what I just said, you have four months to learn!”

Published: February 4, 2026, 11:42 pm

Trump news at a glance: president hints at ‘softer touch’ on immigration as federal drawdown planned in Minnesota

Trump told NBC News the decision to pull 700 officers from state came from him, but that administration is ‘waiting for [Minnesota] to release prisoners’ – key US politics stories from 4 February 2026 at a glance

Tom Homan, the White House border czar, said about 700 federal agents would leave Minnesota, a large drop in agents on the ground but still leaving about 2,000 agents there, far above typical levels for the state.

Homan said the reduction came as county jails were negotiating over increased coordination with federal officials, though it’s not clear which counties have agreed to coordinate with immigration enforcement officials.

Published: February 5, 2026, 2:00 am

Illinois joins WHO network after Trump pulls US out of global health body

Governor JB Pritzker pledges to put ‘science, preparedness and people’ first by participating in global response network

The Illinois governor, JB Pritzker, has announced that his state will join the World Health Organization’s Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN), following Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw the US from the global body in 2025.

Pritzker, a Democrat, made the announcement on Tuesday, confirming that Illinois will become part of the coordinated international network dedicated to monitoring and responding to global disease outbreaks.

Published: February 4, 2026, 11:11 pm

Man who tried to assassinate Trump in Florida sentenced to life in prison

Ryan Routh, who tried to kill president in 2024, also receives a consecutive seven-year sentence for gun conviction

A man convicted of trying to assassinate Donald Trump on a Florida golf course in 2024 was sentenced on Wednesday to life in prison.

US district judge Aileen Cannon pronounced Ryan Routh’s fate in the same Fort Pierce courtroom that erupted into chaos in September when he tried to stab himself shortly after jurors found him guilty on all counts.

“It’s clear to me that you engaged in a premeditated, calculated plot to take a human life,” Cannon said.

Published: February 4, 2026, 6:15 pm

Democrats say Trump’s immigration crackdown has undermined efforts to combat human trafficking

House Democrats say US anti-trafficking efforts have been hamstrung by diversion of resources to immigration raids

A diversion of law enforcement personnel and resources to assist with Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign and deployments to US cities has undermined the government’s efforts to combat child exploitation and human trafficking, Democratic lawmakers warned.

In the letter, sent on Wednesday and first shared with the Guardian, nearly two dozen House Democrats demand that the homeland security and justice departments “immediately” restore full staffing and resources to their anti-trafficking divisions. It also makes reference to the Jeffrey Epstein investigative files, arguing that the government’s failure to publicly release the full scope of the documents in its possession “damages trust in institutions meant to deliver justice”.

Published: February 4, 2026, 5:02 pm

Melania is a rubbish film. Of course the man who defunded the arts loves it

The documentary premiered at the Kennedy Center. Three days later, the president announced he was shutting it down

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Has anyone seen Melania (the film) yet? I have. I went to watch it on Friday morning. The idea was to interview other people watching the movie: to get a sense of why they wanted to see it, how they felt about Melania, how weird they were, etc.

It didn’t really work that well in the end, because most of the crowd at the AMC in midtown Manhattan were journalists trying to do the exact same thing as me. As far as I could tell, three non-reporters attended our showing. Of the two who agreed to talk to me, one was there because he had a monthly movie theater pass, and the other was a man who, without wanting to be too unkind, had a very low bar for compelling drama. (“I think it’s interesting just to kind of see, you know, how her life really is, at least to some extent,” this person told me.)

Published: February 4, 2026, 8:00 pm

Epstein files: did Mandelson commit a crime? - The Latest

Peter Mandelson faces a criminal investigation over allegations he leaked Downing Street emails and market-sensitive information to the child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in 2009. The Metropolitan police are investigating Mandelson, who was then business secretary, on suspicion of misconduct in public office, an offence that carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. Police are also reviewing fresh allegations about the former prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor. Lucy Hough speaks to the head of national news, Archie Bland.

Published: February 4, 2026, 4:37 pm

The Pup Cup: thousands of dogs compete in the Westminster Dog Show – in pictures

Penny, a doberman pinscher, won best in show at the 150th Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show in New York

Published: February 4, 2026, 5:18 pm

‘We can all relate to a birthday’: the traveling US art exhibit that honors victims of police violence

The exhibit marks what would have been the 40th birthday of Oscar Grant whose death inspired the film Fruitvale Station

The last time that Wanda Johnson saw her son Oscar Grant alive, they were eating gumbo to celebrate her birthday on New Year’s Eve in 2008. They laughed as they ate the thick stew integral to Black American tradition in hopes of calling in a successful new year. A few hours later on 1 January, Grant was shot by the Bay Area Rapid Transit police officer Johannes Mehserle at the Fruitvale station in Oakland as he was on his way back home from celebrating with friends. The 22-year-old father died later that morning.

Every year since his death, which inspired the film Fruitvale Station, Johnson has said a prayer to Grant on his birthday on 27 February. “Oscar, I wish we had that time when we had gumbo and was able to laugh and hug again,” Johnson told the Guardian. “You’re forever in my heart.”

Now the spirit of Johnson’s prayers will be realized in an exhibit honoring what would have been her son’s 40th birthday. At the Black Panther Party Museum in Oakland, California, the Happy Heavenly Birthday, Oscar exhibit commemorates Grant’s legacy with a display of photos from his life. Visitors can write messages for Grant on birthday cards, and a phone booth installation plays birthday voicemails from people around the world. Also on display is a screening of the film Happy Birthday Oscar Grant, Love Mom, about how family and friends have celebrated his birthday since his death. The exhibit serves as a reflection of the ripple effects of gun violence on a local community, and runs from 1 February to 11 April.

Published: February 4, 2026, 5:04 pm

Goodbye, breast implants: why I went back to having a flat chest

At 56, I want to age naturally. Having breast implants ran counter to that, so I got explant surgery, which has surged in demand recently

For 22 years, I ran around with small bags of saline water on my chest – a fact I shared with only a handful of close friends. I felt ashamed of having chosen artificial enhancement.

I’m an outdoorsy mountain runner. At 56, I want to model aging naturally, but having breast implants ran counter to that. Now they are gone, thanks to explant surgery – implant removal without replacement.

Published: February 4, 2026, 1:00 pm

A moment that changed me: I shaved off my hair – and immediately became an invisible woman

Strangers used to open doors, help lift my pram and greet me with approval when I looked ‘like a mum’. After one simple haircut, I was treated very differently

In November 2000, two weeks after giving birth to my first and only child, I found myself collapsed in bed, breastfeeding in front of Top of the Pops, hair matted, sheets dirty, surrounded by sick-soaked muslin rags. I liked it. Or at least, it felt like a perfectly reasonable thing to be doing, until Madonna – who had given birth to Rocco Ritchie only three months earlier – appeared on the screen in a cropped leather jacket, belly bared, sexy-dancing to Don’t Tell Me. Did I feel inspired? Resentful? Brimming with pity for this attention-seeker? For sure, it was all three.

As the weeks wore on, I began to see how it might be possible to shower, put on actual clothes and maybe even pop to the corner shop. Occasional visits to cafes, museums and other warm, baby-friendly spaces soon followed and stopped me from feeling as if I had fallen into a well of loneliness.

Published: February 4, 2026, 6:55 am

Dark showering: is this the very best way to wash?

A shower before bed, with the bathroom lights off, is said to get you to sleep more quickly and rinse off the day’s stress. No wonder it’s suddenly so popular

Name: Dark showering.

Age: The name is new; the idea is not.

Published: February 4, 2026, 5:34 pm

In America, the social fabric is starting to collapse. Australia must also learn that words shape our world | Martin Luther King III

The work of strengthening social cohesion begins with a commitment to responsible language and civility that goes beyond legislation

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As I travel the world, I am reminded again and again that the health of a society is revealed not only in its laws or its institutions but in the way its people speak to, and about, one another. My father taught that nonviolence begins with language and the discipline to choose words that uplift rather than degrade, that clarify rather than distort and that build community rather than fracture it.

Last month in the United States, we marked the holiday that bears his name at a time when our own social cohesion is under immense strain. The rhetoric of public life has grown sharper, more cynical and more divisive. Too often, we speak as if our neighbours are adversaries rather than fellow citizens. But this erosion of respect is not unique to America. It is a global challenge and Australia is not exempt.

Published: February 5, 2026, 1:50 am

I knew Trump would target Minnesota. I didn’t expect this level of violence | Rachel Leingang

I’m reporting on a political retribution campaign, disguised as immigration enforcement, in the community where I live

I knew they would come here.

If you’re a president hell-bent on retreading 2020 and retaliating against your enemies, the midwestern state that started the George Floyd protests, with a generous social safety net and diverse population, governed by a vice-presidential candidate you vehemently hate, is a certain target.

Published: February 4, 2026, 10:00 am

Shamed by the Epstein scandal, riven by infighting: have the UK royals ever been in a bigger mess than this? | Stephen Bates

The sad truth is that we are witnessing a legacy of the over-indulgent late queen: an organisation unable to meet today’s challenges

Curious that the Epstein scandal, which has caused such an overwhelming furore in the US, should so far have done more to damage the British royal family than the US presidency. Even though many Americans have an obsession with the minutiae of the monarchy and all its works – despite proudly revolting against the institution themselves 250 years ago – their concerns have understandably focused more on their own big beasts, Donald Trump and the Clintons, than ours. It’s as if King Charles and his brother, the artist now known as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, are some quaint curlicue, a baroque adornment to the main event. Which, of course, is how they see the British monarchy anyway.

Kings and queens have always been susceptible to men with money and power. In the past they were able to bestow both on their loyal followers. Now it is more transactional. It is evident that what appealed to Epstein was access to class and status: the chance to sit jokily on the throne in Buckingham Palace or have a weekend in Balmoral or Sandringham and thereby tie a susceptible royal into his web of contacts and obligations. What appealed to Andrew and his importunate and permanently hard-up former wife, Sarah, was access to cash and the luxuries that went with it. Hard to believe given the royal family’s wealth, but what probably appealed most was cosying up to the sort of money that has brownstone mansions in Manhattan to stay in and private islands for holidays in the Caribbean.

Stephen Bates is a former royal correspondent of the Guardian

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

Published: February 4, 2026, 4:33 pm

Things reek, stink and pong – but why are there no verbs for describing a delightful odour? | Adrian Chiles

We don’t have a single verb to express smelling something nice. Welsh and Croatian, by contrast, are never caught short when something fragrant gets right up your nose

I remember the first time I remembered a smell. This was remembering to the extent that it stopped me in my tracks, taking me back to a specific moment, a specific place and a specific feeling. The smell was that of a bike shop. Mainly rubber, with notes of oil and plastic and a strong hint of sheer excitement. In that instant I was about 10 years old, in Bache Brothers Cycles at Lye Cross, near Stourbridge, in the West Midlands. My grandad was next to me, with the shop man. I was getting a bike for my birthday.

When I was talking about the power of smell on the radio, Speth, a Welsh speaker from Manchester, got in touch to say that in Welsh you can hear a smell as well as smell it. At first this sounded charming, if far-fetched. But the more I thought about it, the more sense it made. While I can’t – in English, anyway – exactly hear the smell of that Black Country bike shop in 1977, I can smell, hear and see it very clearly. I can feel it too. I can feel the shop man’s grip as he lifts me into the saddle. And I can hear him saying to my grandad: “Blimey, he’s a lump, isn’t he?” Ever sensitive about my weight, that was a sour note. But I’ll let it pass, because all I can feel, then and now, is the general joy.

Published: February 4, 2026, 4:16 pm

Make the orchestra great again: how a painting of Trump as conductor misunderstands the symphony | Tom Service

A new painting by the maestro of Trumpian kitsch offers a fever dream of musical unity – and fundamentally misunderstands orchestras and conductors. And where are the music stands?

Events in the United States of Trumpland continue to reveal staggering new dimensions to the possibilities of orchestral music. Trump’s announcement that his “Trump Kennedy Center” is to be shut for a refit is a brilliantly cynical way to stop the noise when artists try to cancel their appearances during the rest of his presidential tenure: it’s shut already! Bigly losers, all of you!

But that’s not the new dawn for the artform I’m talking about. I mean the inspirational painting unveiled by the maestro of Trumpian kitsch, Jon McNaughton (and stamped with the presidential seal of approval – ie a post on Truth Social).

Published: February 4, 2026, 2:29 pm

Trump 2.0 is proving a challenge for Hollywood – just look at this deeply silly new thriller | Emma Brockes

Anniversary depicts a rightwing takeover of the US inspired by a book of essays. But it’s fuzzy on the bits in between

As we all know from history and the current news cycle, autocracy is bad. But it can also be boring. For every explosive confrontation in Minneapolis, there is a quieter, less tangible threat in the form of Kash Patel’s FBI seizing voting records from Fulton county, Georgia – a state Donald Trump lost by fewer than 12,000 votes in 2020 – or the steady implementation of 900-page manifesto by the influential rightwing thinktank the Heritage Foundation, neither of which lend themselves to blockbuster treatment. And so we have a problem: how to animate the quiet part of what’s happening in the US to reflect a dangerous but tedious reality – namely, that this thing ends not with a bang, but a combination of voter manipulation and federal electoral interference that undermines faith in the democratic process.

I bring this up after a week of watching popular movies that resonate in Trump’s US, most of which go heavy on the firefights and light on the details of how we arrive at them. The latest, Anniversary, which launched this week on Netflix – a streamer increasingly uninterested in the subtleties of any situation, let alone this one – depicts a US in which an evil rightwing genius in the shape of a beautiful young woman talks the country into ditching democracy via the medium of (I love this detail; the sheer optimism of it) a stirring book of essays.

Published: February 4, 2026, 2:30 pm

Want to avoid an invitation? Try the 'soft no' | Polly Hudson

I didn’t know how to refuse the offer of a drink without causing offence – until I learned how to kindly demur

Although honesty is the best policy in general, justice for Pinocchio, because it turns out sometimes lying is the only option. In certain situations, if you didn’t smash the glass and break out an emergency fib, you’d simply be cruel. The secret to pulling it off in a way you can live with, as I’ve just learned, is in the branding.

I was faced with a delicate dilemma: an acquaintance I had unwittingly socialised with in a group messaged me, suggesting a drink one-on-one. There is no way of saying thanks but no thanks to that kind of invitation without causing offence. This person is perfectly nice, it’s not like an evening with them would be an ordeal, but I was pretty confident we had more than covered the totality of our common ground during the group hang. Life’s quite short, isn’t it? I really didn’t want to hurt their feelings, but I also really didn’t want to go. However, backed into a corner, I came to the conclusion I’d have to spend time, money and small talk doing it anyway, because of stupid old politeness.

Published: February 4, 2026, 11:00 am

The Guardian view on Epstein, power and accountability: full transparency is the least survivors deserve | Editorial

As the wheels of justice begin to turn in Britain, a spotlight should also shine on the financier’s wealthy enablers in the US

“The more Epstein documents get released, the more we see how he had so many powerful friends, and that’s ultimately what helped him,” commented the US lawyer Lisa Bloom in an interview with the Guardian this week. As Ms Bloom, who represents 11 of Jeffrey Epstein’s dogged and brave victims, drily notes: “That’s not the way the justice system is supposed to work.”

From the outset, the Epstein affair has offered a textbook example of the ability of the influential and well-connected to avoid scrutiny and intimidate those who would exert it. A ruthless pursuit of transparency, both institutional and personal, is the only way to combat such tactics and hold power to account. In the extraordinary days following the release of further Epstein files last week, the wheels of justice in Britain are belatedly beginning to turn on that basis.

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

Published: February 4, 2026, 6:36 pm

Welcome to new cold war as world descends on Italy amid global political chaos | Sean Ingle

Organisers are hoping for a celebration of winter sport at Milano Cortina 2026 but tensions will not be far from the surface

A short stroll from where the grandees of the International Olympic Committee are staying in Milan sits the Museum of Illusions – a place devoted to magic and misdirection. Mirrors distort. Perspectives shift. And nothing is quite what it seems. It is an apposite metaphor for these Winter Olympics, which officially open in Italy on Friday.

Over the following 16 days, the world will be enraptured by the dazzle and spin of these Games: downhill skiers bombing down mountains at 95mph, snowboarders twirling like gyroscopes, the balletic grace of the world’s best skaters. But in Milano Cortina a fresh cold war is also brewing amid global political chaos.

Published: February 4, 2026, 9:41 pm

Lindsey Vonn forced to wait as first women’s Winter Olympics downhill training cancelled

• US skiing icon must wait to test injured knee

• Coach confident skier will be competitive at Games

Lindsey Vonn has been forced to wait for her chance to test her injured knee after heavy snowfall led to the cancellation of the first women’s downhill training at the Winter Olympics.

The American skiing icon was due to take part in Thursday morning’s training session in Cortina d’Ampezzo as she attempts to compete at the 2026 Games with a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee.

Published: February 4, 2026, 6:06 pm

From Evil Empire to Super Bowl underdogs: is it OK to like the Patriots now?

Under Tom Brady and Bill Belichick New England were ruthless winners. But new head coach Mike Vrabel has transformed the narrative around the team

There used to be a simple rule: Anybody but the New England Patriots.

From 2001 through 2019, the Tom Brady-Bill Belichick dynasty totaled six Super Bowl titles, 13 conference championship appearances and 17 divisional crowns. They were the Evil Empire, constant contenders in a league designed for parity. It didn’t matter who you were; the Patriots were the final boss.

Published: February 4, 2026, 10:00 am

Anthony Davis reportedly heads to Wizards in eight-player megatrade

• Davis played sporadically after arriving in Luka Doncic trade

• Eight-player swap comes ahead of Thursday’s trade deadline

The Dallas Mavericks are sending 10-time All-Star forward Anthony Davis to the Washington Wizards in an eight-player trade, ESPN reported Wednesday.

The Mavericks will receive Khris Middleton, AJ Johnson, Malaki Branham and Marvin Bagley III plus two first-round draft picks and three second-round selections, per the report.

Published: February 4, 2026, 7:35 pm

Mauricio Pochettino’s odd jab at Tim Weah misread the player and the moment | Leander Schaerlaeckens

The USMNT manager said players should stay out of conversations that don’t deal with soccer

Last week, Mauricio Pochettino began a World Cup year with an unforced error.

At the tail-end of a virtual press conference that covered a wide range of ongoing USMNT business, the 53-year-old Argentine – who has made himself commendably available to the American soccer press – was asked about recent comments by Tim Weah.

Leander Schaerlaeckens’ book on the United States men’s national soccer team, The Long Game, is out on 12 May. You can preorder it here. He teaches at Marist University.

Published: February 4, 2026, 2:29 pm

Ten athletes from Team USA to watch at the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics

With the Winter Olympics set to begin in proper on Friday, here’s a look at 10 Americans worth keeping an eye on

Mikaela Shiffrin has surpassed Vonn’s record haul of World Cup wins and staked her claim as the GOAT. But Vonn has a solid claim to be the best ever in the speed events (downhill, super-G), and she has been racing exclusively in those disciplines since returning from retirement, surging to the top of the World Cup downhill standings at age 41. She has a score to settle with the sport’s biggest stage – her lifetime total of three Olympic medals (one gold) would probably be higher if not for a horror crash in practice in 2006 and injuries that either limited or outright excluded her from other Games. After some selection drama in the team combined event in last year’s world championships, it seems inconceivable that Vonn and Shiffrin, both of whom have had some misfortune in the Olympics, would not be paired up to form Alpine skiing’s equivalent of the 1992 basketball Dream Team. Vonn was in a nasty crash last weekend but it seems that she will be fit to take part in Italy.

Published: February 4, 2026, 11:00 am

New York City’s real animal welfare crisis isn’t the Westminster Dog Show | Lauren Caulk

As Westminster week once again put dog breeding under the spotlight, Peta’s messaging remains as incisive as ever. But its moral clarity fades when the conversation shifts to cats

Every February, the Westminster Dog Show arrives in New York City trailing equal parts pageantry, nostalgia and protest. The dogs come to be judged. The owners and handlers come to uphold breed standards. And, almost as reliably as the movie references and the best-in-show ribbon, Peta arrives ready to dominate the conversation.

If there is one certainty about the Super Bowl of canines, it’s that the protest will share the stage with the pageantry. Westminster is an annual collision of tradition, spectacle and dissent, and Peta has become exceptionally good at owning that moment. This year was no different. Two enormous billboards screamed down from across the street of the Javits Center, where breed judging unfolded on Monday and Tuesday ahead of the prime-time sessions at Madison Square Garden. One read: Flat-faced dogs struggle to breathe. NEVER buy them. Another: You can get a nose job. They can’t. DON’T buy breathing-impaired breeds.

Published: February 4, 2026, 3:45 pm

Winter Olympics: full schedule for Milano Cortina 2026

Keep abreast of every event at the Winter Olympics with our day-by-day and sport-by-sport schedules

The Winter Olympics returns to Italy for the first time in two decades. From the fashion capital of Milan to the dramatic peaks of Cortina d’Ampezzo, the Milano Cortina Games – the first to be co-hosted by two cities – will stretch across northern Italy blending world-class winter sport with a strong sense of history and ambition.

Sixteen sports and more than 110 gold medals await, from the raw speed of alpine skiing and bobsleigh to the tactical endurance of biathlon and cross-country. Alpine fans will once again be drawn to Mikaela Shiffrin, still redefining excellence across the technical disciplines.

Published: February 4, 2026, 12:00 pm

Skinning, boot-packing and downhill skiing: welcome to skimo at the Winter Olympics

The Games’ newest sport combines the seemingly impossible task of ascending a mountain on skis with hiking and then a rapid descent

No one could suggest that the Winter Olympics are lacking in challenge. Skiers zipping down the slopes and flying through the air. Skeletons hurtling around at more than 100km/h. Ice skaters, metal-bladed, spinning, leaping and twisting. Slopestyle athletes pulling off the most outrageous tricks while landing the biggest air. But everyone from recreational skiers to the most extreme sports enthusiasts knows there is always room for more.

Enter the new kid on the ice block at Milano Cortina 2026: ski mountaineering. The new challenge? How about going up the mountain, hiking a bit, followed by a rapid descent on the tiniest skis possible. Before you ask, “why”? Cast your mind over the other disciplines on the schedule and remember that the answer is almost always, “why not”?

Published: February 4, 2026, 2:00 pm

Revealed: Israel bulldozed part of Gaza war cemetery containing allied graves

Satellite images and witness testimony show destruction as IDF claims it was forced to take defensive measures

Israeli forces have bulldozed part of a Gaza cemetery containing the war graves of dozens of British, Australian and other allied soldiers killed in the first and second world wars, satellite imagery and witness testimony reveal.

Satellite imagery of the Gaza war cemetery in al-Tuffah, a district of Gaza City, shows extensive earthworks in the southernmost corner of the graveyard. Bomb craters can be seen around the cemetery, but in this area the destruction appears to have been more systematic.

Published: February 4, 2026, 2:17 pm

‘Major failing’ in psychiatric care before Joel Cauchi stabbed six people at Bondi Junction, coroner finds

Cauchi, who lived with schizophrenia, killed six people in 2024 Westfield shopping centre stabbing before being shot dead by police inspector Amy Scott

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It was a “major failing” for Joel Cauchi’s former psychiatrist not to recognise he had relapsed in the lead up to the Bondi Junction stabbings in 2024, a coroner has found.

The state coroner, Teresa O’Sullivan, handed down her findings in an 837-page report on Thursday after she had delayed its release following the Bondi beach terror attack in December.

Published: February 5, 2026, 2:47 am

Ukraine and Russia hold ‘productive’ first day of US-led peace talks in Abu Dhabi

Major obstacles to viable deal remain after Volodymyr Zelenskyy accuses Moscow of violating energy truce

Ukrainian and Russian negotiators have held a “productive” first round of US-led peace talks in Abu Dhabi, as Washington seeks a pathway to end the nearly four-year war in Ukraine.

The two-day trilateral talks that are due to continue on Thursday come after Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Moscow of exploiting a US-backed energy truce last week to stockpile weapons before launching a record number of ballistic missile attacks at Ukraine on Tuesday.

Published: February 4, 2026, 11:38 pm

US agency investigates Nike for alleged discrimination against white workers

EEOC demands firm turn over ‘DEI-related objectives’ amid Trump administration’s crackdown on diversity initiatives

The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has launched an investigation into Nike over allegations that the sports giant discriminated against white employees and job applicants.

The federal agency is demanding that Nike turn over information related to the allegations, including the company’s “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion-related 2025 Targets and other DEI-related objectives”, it announced on Wednesday.

Published: February 4, 2026, 9:44 pm

Mediterranean diet can reduce risk of stroke by up to 25%, long-term study suggests

Two-decade study indicates a diet rich in foods such as olive oil, nuts and vegetables can cut risk of every type of stroke

A Mediterranean diet can reduce the risk of every type of stroke, in some cases by as much as 25%, a large study conducted over two decades suggests.

A diet rich in olive oil, nuts, seafood, whole grains and vegetables has previously been linked to a number of health benefits. However, until now there has been limited evidence of how it might affect the risk of all forms of stroke.

Published: February 4, 2026, 9:00 pm

LaMonte McLemore, Grammy-winning singer with 5th Dimension, dies aged 90

Singer was member of vocal group that scored 1960s hits with Up, Up and Away and Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In

Singer LaMonte McLemore has died. He was a founding member of the 5th Dimension, a vocal group whose smooth pop and soul sounds with a touch of psychedelia brought them big hits in the 1960s and 70s.

McLemore died on Tuesday aged 90 at his home in Las Vegas, surrounded by his family, his representative Jeremy Westby said in a statement. He died of natural causes after having a stroke.

Published: February 4, 2026, 11:14 pm

Autistic girls much less likely to be diagnosed, study says

By age 20 diagnosis rates for men and women almost equal, research finds, challenging assumptions of gender discrepancy

Females may be just as likely to be autistic as males but boys are up to four times more likely to be diagnosed in childhood, according to a large-scale study.

Research led by the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden scrutinised the diagnosis rates of autism for people born in Sweden between 1985 and 2020. Of the 2.7 million people tracked, 2.8% were diagnosed with autism between the ages of two and 37.

Published: February 4, 2026, 11:30 pm

Drax insiders privately raised concerns over its sustainability claims, court papers show

Company publicly denied allegations that primary forests were being cut down to fuel UK’s biggest power plant

Senior executives at Drax raised concerns internally about the validity of the energy company’s sustainability claims while it publicly denied allegations that it was cutting down environmentally important forests for fuel, court documents have revealed.

Britain’s biggest power plant assured ministers and civil servants of the company’s green credentials as it scrambled to defend itself against claims in a BBC Panorama documentary that it had burned wood sourced from “old-growth” forests in Canada.

Published: February 4, 2026, 2:02 pm

Wildlife photographer of the year – people’s choice 2026

A shortlist of 24 images has been selected for the wildlife photographer of the year people’s choice award. You can vote for your favourite image online. The winner will be announced on 25 March and shown from that date as part of the overall wildlife photographer of the year exhibition, which runs until 12 July at the Natural History Museum in London

Published: February 4, 2026, 7:00 am

Texas man sues California doctor for allegedly sending abortion pills to state

Suit is the first under new law allowing residents to sue providers protected in their states under ‘shield laws’

A physician based in California has become the first medical provider sued under a recently enacted Texas statute that empowers private individuals to file civil lawsuits against providers who mail abortion medication into the state.

The case was brought by Jerry Rodriguez, who claims that Remy Coeytaux, a doctor practicing in the San Francisco Bay Area, violated a Texas law that allows abortion providers to face penalties of at least $100,000 if they mail pills into Texas. The filing alleges Coeytaux mailed abortion medication to end Rodriguez’s girlfriend’s pregnancies twice, once in 2024 and again in early 2025.

Published: February 4, 2026, 5:52 pm

Fulton county leader says he was warned he faced arrest before FBI raid

Robb Pitts said call came days before federal agents seized 2020 election documents in Georgia

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The Fulton county commission chair, Robb Pitts, said at a press conference this morning that he received a phone call last Monday – two days before the FBI served a criminal warrant to seize 2020 election documents – to warn that he, Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, former Raffensperger deputy Gabriel Sterling and others in the state were at risk of imminent arrest by federal agents.

“That did not happen on Monday,” Pitts said. “It didn’t happen on Tuesday, but lo and behold on Wednesday, the FBI shows up.”

Published: February 4, 2026, 4:26 pm

Google parent earnings beat projections amid plans to invest deeply in AI

Alphabet reports $34.5bn profit and revenue soars 48% in recent quarter as it plans a sharp increase in AI spending

Google’s parent company, Alphabet, beat Wall Street expectations on Wednesday, and is planning a sharp increase in capital spending in 2026 as it continues to invest deeply in AI infrastructure.

Alphabet on Wednesday reported profit of $34.5bn in the recently ended quarter, as revenue from cloud computing soared 48%.

Published: February 5, 2026, 12:20 am

Tennessee to test Stephen Miller’s plan of enlisting states for immigration enforcement

Bills mandate ICE cooperation, school status checks and criminalize information release, testing constitutional lines

The power to enforce immigration law rests with the federal government. But Trump adviser, Stephen Miller, has a vision for states working in coordination with federal immigration officials, and he’s attempting to test it out in Tennessee.

Earlier this month, the Knoxville News Sentinel reported that Miller had been meeting in Washington DC with Tennessee speaker of the house, Cameron Sexton, to craft model legislation for states around the country.

Published: February 4, 2026, 12:00 pm

Labour MPs say Starmer’s days as PM are numbered amid fury over Mandelson

MPs say release of papers on Mandelson’s appointment as US ambassador could trigger leadership challenge

Labour MPs have warned that Keir Starmer’s days as prime minister are numbered after a day of fury over the appointment of Peter Mandelson as US ambassador despite his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein.

The government was on the brink of a defeat in the Commons until a mid-debate amendment brokered by Meg Hillier and Angela Rayner to force the release of documents about Mandelson’s appointment and the depth of his relationship with the convicted child sex offender.

Published: February 4, 2026, 8:07 pm

Son of Norway’s crown princess ‘does not remember’ taking videos of alleged sexual assault

Marius Borg Høiby, 29, on trial accused of 38 crimes, broke down in tears as he claimed press had harassed him for years

Marius Borg Høiby, the son of Norway’s crown princess, has told a court he does not remember taking pictures and videos found on his phone that police say show him sexually assaulting a woman at a royal residence.

Høiby, Mette-Marit’s son from a relationship before her marriage to Crown Prince Haakon, is on trial accused of 38 crimes, including four rapes and assaults.

Published: February 4, 2026, 6:37 pm

Angel that looked like Giorgia Meloni removed from Rome church fresco

Vatican appears to have ordered removal of restored work, which artist confessed he had made to resemble PM

The face of a winged angel bearing a striking resemblance to the Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni has been erased from a fresco in a historic Rome church, putting an end to a debacle that embarrassed the Vatican.

The image on the wall painting in a chapel of the Basilica of St Lawrence in Lucina in central Rome was removed overnight, leaving the cherub headless.

Published: February 4, 2026, 5:27 pm

King must feel vindicated for cutting off Andrew by latest Epstein files release

Position of Mountbatten-Windsor now appears even more grave, and the shadow cast over his family even darker

When King Charles stripped Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor of his titles and announced he would be booted out of Royal Lodge, Buckingham Palace said the “censures are deemed necessary, notwithstanding the fact that he continues to deny the allegations against him”.

Four months and more than 3m documents later, Charles must surely feel vindicated on his tough approach. For while there is nothing to suggest the king nor any other senior royals knew then what was to come in the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files, what has emerged has been truly shocking.

Published: February 4, 2026, 4:43 pm

‘One moment it was a little blip. The next, our friends are dying’: the gay porn soundtrack composers lost to the Aids crisis

Gay porn in the 80s was home to beautifully moody synth music that is only now getting rediscovered – tragically too late for many of its creators

Michael Ely knew from the first moment he met James Allan Taylor that he had found someone special. The pair had separately hitchhiked to a gay bar, with fake IDs, in Sunset Beach, California. They connected, they danced and stepped outside for a kiss in the thick fog. “I was only 18 but I knew I had just met my soulmate,” says Ely.

The pair remained a couple until 2015 when Taylor, who was nicknamed Spider, died from liver cancer. A new collection of Taylor’s music, Surge Studio Music – electronic pieces he composed for gay porn films – has just been released. “I was like: wait, there’s a fanbase for 80s gay porn music?” laughs Ely. “I had no idea. When Josh contacted me, I found the cassette tapes in a box in the back of the closet. They’d been there for ever.”

Published: February 4, 2026, 3:00 pm

‘A god-tier new classic’: first reactions to Wuthering Heights praise ‘hot, horny’ Emerald Fennell adaptation

The acclaimed latest version of the Emily Brontë bestseller is, however, not without controversies over race and age

Reviews might be embargoed until next Monday, but Los Angeles social media is getting hot under the collar after an early screening of Emerald Fennell’s highly anticipated adaptation of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights.

“Intoxicating, transcendent, tantalising, bewitching, lust worthy, hypnotic,” wrote Courtney Howard, adding that the film “expertly captures the breathtaking ache and essence of desire” and “is a god-tier new classic”.

Published: February 4, 2026, 11:24 am

Relationship Goals review – Kelly Rowland and Method Man flirt through breezy romcom

The Valentine’s Day offerings begin with Amazon’s fast-paced, millennial-coded film that’s a fun enough watch even if its messaging is a little suspect

On its face, Relationship Goals is a classic romcom, calibrated for viewers of a certain generation. The perennially resplendent Kelly Rowland is Leah, a boss babe morning TV producer in line to replace her retiring boss (the omnipresent Matt Walsh) as showrunner. Just as she’s poised to break the glass ceiling, the network higher-ups stick her in a bake-off with Jarrett, a ringer from her romantic past played with devil charm by Method Man. The promise of one of Destiny’s Children playing the will they/won’t they game with the hunk of the Wu-Tang Clan could well prove too strong a lure to stop the scores who grew up on their music from clicking on the Prime Video thumbnail just out of nostalgic curiosity.

It’s a tractor beam made stronger by director Linda Mendoza’s extraordinarily fast pace. I mean, those 90 minutes just breeze by. Relationship Goals’s three-headed writer team – led by Michael Elliott, whose credits include Queen Latifah’s Just Wright and Beyoncé’s Carmen hip-hopera – are bracingly efficient with their paint-by-numbers set-up. Leah’s besties – Treese, the tragically single makeup girl (Flamin’ Hot’s Annie Gonzalez); Brenda, the wistful morning anchor (A Black Lady Sketch Show’s Robin Thede), Roland, the omniscient assistant (Pose’s Ryan Jamaal Swain) – helpfully fast-talk through backstory points and punctuate scenes with snappy one-liners and winks at the audience. (Brenda titles her emergency engagement plan: Project Put a Ring on It.) Only Dennis Haysbert slows things down as Leah’s grieving father, but not enough to be a drag.

Published: February 4, 2026, 3:21 pm

The Investigation of Lucy Letby review – this sensationalist take isn’t what this awful case needs

The broad-brush, emotive telling of the questions around the neonatal nurse’s conviction uses arrest footage that her parents have said ‘would likely kill us’ if they watched. Did her mother’s howl of distress need to be broadcast?

The Investigation of Lucy Letby is at least the fifth documentary that has been produced in the wake of the neonatal nurse’s convictions in 2023 and 2024 on seven counts of murder and seven of attempted murder of babies in her care at the Countess of Chester hospital. Probably the best of them was ITV’s Lucy Letby: Beyond Reasonable Doubt? last summer. It did a fine job of meticulously explaining the evidence against her – and why a growing body of experts believe that at the very least her conviction on the basis of what was gathered is unsafe, and at most that none of the babies were murdered by her, but were victims of a chronically understaffed and mismanaged unit that might have sought to scapegoat an individual for its failings.

The Investigation of Lucy Letby does not compare in its attention to detail, preferring a broader-brush, more emotive telling of the story of either one of the most prolific female serial killers in history or one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in recent times. Its publicity has made much of the fact that it contains hitherto unseen footage of Letby’s arrest at her parents’ home. Her mother and father say they were unaware that it would be shown until Letby’s barrister told them. “We will not watch it – it would likely kill us if we did.” When the footage is shown, you can hear her mother howl in distress as the police take Letby away. It is an almost inhuman sound. It is hard to say what value such an inclusion adds except to warn the viewer to brace themselves for sensationalism along the way as the case is pieced together using accounts from the police, people – from both sides – directly involved with the case, Letby’s best friend Maisie and Letby’s current lawyer (not the one who represented her in court), Mark McDonald, along with media reporting from the time and tapes of her interviews with investigators.

The Investigation of Lucy Letby is on Netflix now

Published: February 4, 2026, 8:01 am

André Is an Idiot review – a riotously funny, painfully honest film about facing death

A cancer diagnosis becomes the catalyst for gallows humour, rage and hard-won emotional openness in a disarmingly frank film about how to say goodbye

There are about a zillion films – fiction, nonfiction, and everything in between – about people coping with cancer, so kudos to the team behind this one for finding a relatively fresh way to tackle the subject. San Francisco-resident André Ricciardi – a constantly wisecracking former advertising executive, a semi-reformed hard-living hedonist, and father of two teenage girls and loving husband to wife Janice – was only in his early 50s when he realised that he’d made a big mistake when he passed up the chance to have a colonoscopy test with his best friend, Lee Einhorn. Because only a year or so on from when he would have had that colonoscopy, he found out that he has stage four colon cancer which had it been spotted earlier might have been more treatable. Damn.

With assistance from director Tony Benna and a film crew, Ricciardi goes on a mission to create, among other goals, an unconventional public service announcement in the form of this film to persuade (American) viewers not to be idiots like him and get colonoscopies whenever possible after the age of 45. (In the UK, the procedure isn’t automatically offered by the NHS, although home faecal immunochemical tests are recommended every couple of years after a certain age.) At one point, Ricciardi even hooks up with his colleagues at his old advertising agency to advise on a witty PSA campaign using fruit and other everyday objects with vaguely anus-shaped orifices to raise awareness.

Published: February 4, 2026, 9:00 am

V/H/S/Halloween review – plenty of grisly invention in latest helping of engaging horror anthology

Portmanteau series’ latest instalment has nice touches with eerily jolly villains and haunted soda, but it could use a bit of an edit

This horror bonanza, the eighth instalment in the V/H/S anthology series, is a mixed bag, with some very high highs and regrettably poor lows. This is essentially a collection of Halloween-themed shorts, and while they’re billed as “found footage” in keeping with the conceit of the original, the idea that you’re watching found footage has been more or less worn away to a nub at this point. The series would in all honesty be better off ditching that element, and simply leaning into the broader idea of a regular horror anthology of unsettling short films.

Among the highlights is a riotous and disgusting chapter called Fun Size, made with grisly flair by Casper Kelly, whose viral masterpiece Too Many Cooks took the internet by storm in 2014 and whose feature film Buddy just premiered at Sundance. Fun Size sees a group of young adults stumble into what might best be described as a wrongness zone where they’re pitted against a villain who comes on like the vicious kid brother of the Ghostbusters Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man.

Published: February 4, 2026, 11:00 am

May-a: ‘I was not in a good place – no one’s in a good place when they get a neck tattoo’

She’s just 24, but Maya Cumming has won the Hottest 100, survived LA, played with Cyndi Lauper – and is only now releasing her first album, which ‘was driven by spite’

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At just 24, the Australian singer-songwriter Maya Cumming – known to fans as May-a – has already experienced the promise and heartache of Los Angeles as a star-making town. In 2021, she signed with Atlantic Records in the US ahead of her debut EP, Don’t Kiss Ur Friends – a moment she described at the time as “a dream”. The following February, she featured on Flume’s precision-made festival anthem Say Nothing, which went on to win the 2022 Triple J Hottest 100.

Amid that whirlwind period, Cumming was flown back and forth to LA for arranged studio sessions with producers and artists she felt little connection to, ultimately relocating there in 2024. What should have felt like a career arrival was instead a dispiriting eye-opener.

Published: February 4, 2026, 2:00 pm

On the Future of Species by Adrian Woolfson review – are we on the verge of creating synthetic life?

A genomic entrepreneur’s guide to the coming revolution in biology raises troubling questions about ethics and safety

The prophet Ezekiel once claimed to have seen four beasts emerge from a burning cloud, “sparkling like the colour of burnished brass”. Each had wings and four faces: that of a man, a lion, an ox and an eagle. Similarly, a creature called Buraq, something between a mule and a donkey with wings and a human face, was said to have carried the prophet Muhammad on his journeys; while the ancient Greeks gave us the centaur, the mythical human-horse hybrid recently rebooted by JK Rowling in the Harry Potter books.

“The impulse to blend the anatomical traits of other species with those of humans appears to be hardwired into our imagination,” notes Adrian Woolfson in his intriguing and disturbing analysis of a biological revolution he believes is about to sweep the planet. Very soon, we will not only dream up imaginary animals – we will turn them into biological reality.

Published: February 4, 2026, 9:00 am

Tantrums, rancid meatloaf and family silver stuffed into underpants: the delicate art of the Holocaust comedy

Making light of one of the darkest horrors of the 20th century is a risky business – but a new generation is taking ownership of family histories by making space for human foibles, says an award-winning graphic novelist

My beloved German-Jewish grandmother Gisela was not an affable person. She enjoyed laughing at her own jokes, revelling in the misfortunes of others, and telling people off. If an event combined opportunities for all three activities, so much the better.

When my father was six, he refused to eat the meatloaf that his mother had given him for lunch. Gisela took the piece of meatloaf, now rapidly turning rancid in the Zimbabwe afternoon heat, and served it to him for dinner, and breakfast, and every subsequent meal until he forced himself to eat it. It was the late 1950s – tyrannical parenting was de rigueur, and uneaten meatloaf was the hill that Gisela was willing to die on.

Published: February 4, 2026, 7:00 am

Crux by Gabriel Tallent review – a passionate portrait of teenage climbers

The follow-up to My Absolute Darling, this tale of best friends who dream of a better life features exquisite sports writing and a lovable heroine – but the plotting is unconvincing

Tamma and Dan are 17-year-old best friends growing up in a California desert town blighted by the strip-mall nihilism of late capitalism. They’re poor. They’re unpopular. Their families are a wasteland. But they have each other and their great shared passion: trad rock climbing. Whenever they can, they head to a climbing route – sometimes a boulder at the edge of a disused parking lot, sometimes a cliff an hour’s hike into a national park – and climb, often with no gear but their bloodied bare hands and tattered shoes.

This is the premise of Crux, the second novel from Gabriel Tallent, the author of the critically acclaimed My Absolute Darling. At its heart, it’s a sports novel, and Tallent’s prose here is precise and often exquisite, inching through a few seconds of movement in a way that reflects the unforgiving nature of climbing. We get a lot of closeups of granite and faint half-moons in rock that suddenly become “the world’s numinous edge”. The language of climbing – a dialect of brainy dirtbags – is a gift to the writer. Tallent’s characters talk about “flashing bouldering problems” and “sending Fingerbang Princess”; a list of routes with “Poodle” in the title includes Poodle Smasher, Astropoodle, Poodle-Oids from the Deep, A Farewell to Poodles, and For Whom the Poodle Tolls. Tallent also has an extraordinary gift for descriptions of landscape; a road is “overhung with stooping desert lilies, tarantulas braving the tarmac in paces, running full out upon their knuckly shadows, the headlights smoking with windblown sand”.

Published: February 4, 2026, 7:00 am

Gaming’s new coming-of-age genre embraces ‘millennial cringe’

Perfect Tides perfectly captures the older millennial college experience, and a time when nobody worried about being embarrassing online

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I’ve noticed an interesting micro-trend emerging in the last few years: millennial nostalgia games. Not just ones that adopt the aesthetic of Y2K gaming – think Crow Country or Fear the Spotlight’s deliberately retro PS1-style fuzzy polygons – but semi-autobiographical games specifically about the millennial experience. I’ve played three in the past year. Despelote is set in 2002 in Ecuador and is played through the eyes of a football-obsessed eight-year-old. The award-winning Consume Me is about being a teen girl battling disordered eating in the 00s. And this week I played a point-and-click adventure game about being a college student in the early 2000s.

Perfect Tides: Station to Station is set in New York in 2003 – a year that is the epitome of nostalgia for the micro-generation that grew up without the internet but came of age online. It was before Facebook, before the smartphone, but firmly during the era of late-night forum browsing and instant-messenger conversations. The internet wasn’t yet a vector for mass communication, but it could still bring you together with other people who loved the things that you loved, people who read the same hipster blogs and liked the same bands. The protagonist, Mara, is a student and young writer who works in her college library.

Published: February 4, 2026, 12:35 pm

‘Our bodies bear traces of all we’ve endured’: exhibition explores bodily photography

A new exhibition at the Phoenix Art Museum looks at how the human body has been captured on film, from athletic portraits to revealing looks at ageing

Photography has a unique capacity to take us right to humanity’s extremes. Whether it’s the outsiders photographed by Diane Arbus, the revelatory motion studies of the human body made by Eadweard Muybridge, views of remote Indigenous communities taken by the Mexican photographer Graciela Iturbide, or in-your-face shots of heated competition from the sports photographer Walter Iooss, photographs can wow us with transformational dispatches from the fringes of the human condition.

All four of those photographers, plus about three dozen more, can be seen at the Phoenix Art Museum’s captivating new show Muscle Memory. It aims to delve into the question of how our human bodies can at once be the focus of so much of our awareness while also being something we frequently ignore.

Published: February 4, 2026, 10:03 am

Jimmy Kimmel on Trump: ‘We are now at the women-should-smile-more stage of his presidency’

Late-night hosts discussed Trump’s testy reaction to a female reporter’s question about the Epstein files

Late-night hosts dug into Donald Trump’s deflections from the Jeffrey Epstein files and the backlash to Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl half-time show.

Published: February 4, 2026, 4:38 pm

Young ladies too tired to stand at a Black debutante ball: Miranda Barnes’s best photograph

‘The girls wait for two or three hours to be introduced. The reason they’re sitting on the ground is because there weren’t any chairs in the waiting room’

My new book Social Season opens with a poem set in the mid-1800s, a time that marked the beginning of a period of increased financial prosperity for some African Americans. Cotillion dances have European origins, but in the poem, Black New Yorkers perform classic dances such as waltzes and quadrilles and are dressed in fine outfits. These Black debutante balls go back a long way, and are one example of African Americans trying to create a better life. Today, they continue to introduce young women into society and retain a strong emphasis on the participants’ education.

Initially, I had been working towards creating a book with a larger overview of Black subcultures in general. I’d photographed cheerleaders, churches, traditional rodeos and other intergenerational community gatherings. I wanted to include a debutante ball in a post-industrial city, and Detroit has a very rich Black history. When I first reached out to the city’s Cotillion Society, I only planned to attend one year’s event. But after that evening in 2022, I realised this was a project in itself and that I was really going to have to work for the images I wanted.

Published: February 4, 2026, 3:02 pm

‘She thought it was too sexy!’: portraits of Kate Moss, Grace Jones and a tea-drinking chimp – in pictures

From a gold-covered Dennis Rodman to Jack Nicholson sitting in the snow, Albert Watson has spent a career shooting the stars – as well as the occasional giant coffee spoon

Published: February 4, 2026, 7:00 am

The place that stayed with me: I was cautious in showing my queerness, until a night spent dancing at a Tokyo gay bar

Despite hearing many words of warning about expressing public affection, travelling in Japan with my boyfriend helped me loosen up

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The first time I saw gay people on TV, it was during an ABC news package about Sydney’s Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. My Egyptian parents were chomping through a bag of dried pumpkin seeds when the assault on our eyeballs took place.

Muscle bears in backless chaps, shirtless lifesavers in tiny budgie smugglers, chunky women with buzzcuts and saucer-plate nipples revving their Harley-Davidsons down the strip. It was too much for my father, who announced: “Atstaghfurallah: they should not show such things.” Mum just sucked her teeth in dismay. But the sight of all the handsome, gleaming men sent a hot flush of excitement up my 12-year-old cheeks.

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Published: February 4, 2026, 2:00 pm

‘I think we feel stuck’: Kate Pickett on how to build a better, fairer, less stressed society

In her new book, the co-author of The Spirit Level gathers jaw-dropping facts about the inequality crisis in the UK – and explores creative ways to address it

There was a moment when reading Kate Pickett’s new book that I realised I was underlining something on nearly every page. Occasionally it was an exclamation mark, or a star. Other times, she herself was doing something similar. “I’m sorry to say that is not a typo,” she writes, at one point. And then, in a later chapter, “I’m going to have to put this in bold …”

It wasn’t stylistic commentary, although The Good Society is well written. Nearly every scribble was next to a fact. Pickett is a social epidemiologist, and deals in facts: “In the decade from 2011 to just before the pandemic, total spending on preventive services for families declined by 25%”, for instance. Or that half of children born in Liverpool in 2009 and 2010 had been referred to children’s services by the time they were five. Or that in 2023-4, England’s local authorities had only 6% of the childcare places they needed for children with disabilities (that was the bit Pickett wished to point out wasn’t a typo).

Published: February 4, 2026, 10:00 am

For Valentine's Day, we asked 18 women for the best gifts they ever got

From a silk sleep mask to a smartphone printer and Dyson hair dryer, take some inspiration from these gifts approved by the women in our lives

• 24 creative and unexpected Valentine’s Day gifts for him

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If you have a lucky lady in your life – be it a partner or a family member – you’ve probably racked your brain trying to find her the perfect gift for a birthday, special occasion or holiday like Valentine’s Day. Maybe you’re minutes from giving up and buying that tried-and-true beauty product she already orders on repeat, or you’re eyeing yet another fleece throw to pile on the couch. Don’t do it. Remove from cart. Let us help you find something a little more out of the (gift) box.

To shop for your favorite woman, think about what she already uses and what she has mentioned wanting in from time to time. Proving you actually listen will score you some points.

Published: February 4, 2026, 9:16 pm

24 creative and unexpected Valentine’s Day gifts for him

From indestructible wallets to Crocs (yes, Crocs), we rounded up the best guy-approved Valentine’s Day gifts they won’t know how they lived without

• 26 sentimental and practical US Valentine’s Day gifts for her in 2026

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Whether you have been together for years or just made it official, one thing remains certain: he is going to claim he doesn’t need anything. But secretly, he will appreciate a really good Valentine’s Day gift. Many men in our lives default to what they have always used and loved, from threadbare T-shirts to melted spatulas. (And if that’s you too, we won’t judge if you peek at this list for yourself.)

When thinking of a present for your go-to guy, prioritize the gift of novelty. Introduce him to a new gadget he hasn’t thought of. Show him that it’s OK to cry with a personalized keepsake commemorating your shared history. Introduce a little color into his life if his year has been a bit bleak.

Published: February 4, 2026, 9:16 pm

Jess Cartner-Morley on fashion: lift your winter look with a pop of white

Like the first cluster of snowdrops, a burst of white is a reminder to focus on the positive – just don’t go full snowman

Everyone knows that the prettiest scraps of winter are the precious snow days. At this time of year, when it feels like we’ve been scurrying around in near-constant darkness like moles for as long as we can remember, we crave the brightness you get with snowfall – and the glamour of it, too. The disco-ball sparkle of frost is a counterpoint to chapped lips and three-week sniffles that won’t budge.

We can’t make it snow, but we can create our own little flurry. A pop of snowy white is the best boost you can give an outfit right now. White is to January what rust and orange are to October: a colour pulled from nature to remind us of the best bits of the season. After all, autumn has grey skies and muddy puddles too, but we ignore them and lean into its gorgeous falling-leaf colours instead.

Published: February 4, 2026, 2:00 pm

‘Demand has increased, without a doubt’: the shocking rise of personal protection dogs

Pets trained to bite, hold and release on command are growing ever more popular in the UK. But why – and at what cost to the animals and their owners?

Even if you’re not afraid of dogs, you might be a little intimidated by Butch Cassidy. His tail may be wagging, but the Belgian shepherd weighs 40kg and moves with awesome agility. Even a casual brush of his body could knock you off your feet if you weren’t expecting it. “I don’t for a minute think he’s going to bite anyone,” said his owner Grahame Green earlier. “Although he would, if I asked him to.” Now Green’s about to demonstrate.

He brings Cassidy to heel, and gets him to sit. Facing them is another man, Florin, already braced and wearing a protective arm sleeve. The dog is visibly quivering with excitement, so keen is his anticipation for what comes next. Green gives a one-word command, in German. Cassidy darts forward, an auburn arrow, and in that split-second clamps on to Florin’s forearm. Florin is engaging every muscle to remain upright, but Cassidy does not let go until Green gives the word.

Published: February 4, 2026, 5:00 am

Breathwork has its uses – but when it comes to ‘unlocking your fullest human potential’, beware the puffery | Antiviral

While some benefits such as stress relief are backed by solid evidence, they can be achieved without expensive hyped-up courses

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In the 2012 film adaptation of the Dr Seuss book The Lorax, a fable about capitalist greed, air is a commodity.

The mayor of Thneedville deprives the city’s residents of trees so a company he heads can sells bottles of air. He has, as one advertising lackey puts it, “gotten rich selling people air that’s ‘fresher’ than the stinky stuff outside”.

Donna Lu is an assistant editor, climate, environment and science at Guardian Australia

Antiviral is a fortnightly column that interrogates the evidence behind the health headlines and factchecks popular wellness claims

Published: February 4, 2026, 2:00 pm

How to make moreish cookies from store-cupboard odds and ends – recipe | Waste not

Almost anything goes with these thrifty and delicious cookies

I often eat a bag of salty crisps at the same time as a chewy chocolate bar, alternating bite for bite between the two, because the extreme contrast of salt from the chips and the sweetness of the chocolate fire off each other and create an endorphin rush. The same goes for these cookies, adapted from a recipe by Christina Tosi at New York’s legendary Milk Bar.

Published: February 4, 2026, 1:00 pm

Fairphone 6 review: cheaper, repairable and longer-lasting Android

Sustainable smartphone takes a step forward with modular accessories, a good screen and mid-range performance

The Dutch ethical smartphone brand Fairphone is back with its six-generation Android, aiming to make its repairable phone more modern, modular, affordable and desirable, with screw-in accessories and a user-replaceable battery.

The Fairphone 6 costs £499 (€599), making it cheaper than previous models and pitting it squarely against budget champs such as the Google Pixel 9a and the Nothing Phone 3a Pro, while being repairable at home with long-term software support and a five-year warranty. On paper it sounds like the ideal phone to see out the decade.

Published: February 4, 2026, 7:00 am

Tell us your all-time favourite moments from the Winter Olympics

We would like to hear about your favourite ever moments from the Winter Olympics

With the Winter Olympic Games underway, we would like to hear about the moments from the games that stayed with you, and why. Was there a particular athlete who entertained you? Or an event that inspired you? Tell us your favourite ever moment from the Winter Olympics and why.

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Published: February 4, 2026, 5:15 pm

Dancing robots and a military parade: photos of the day – Wednesday

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

Published: February 4, 2026, 1:27 pm