‘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

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

Strike a pose: vogue balls go mainstream in New Zealand

Led by Māori and Pasifika queer communities, the counterculture has gone from performing in lounges and clubs to Wellington’s national museum

In a large gallery at New Zealand’s national museum in Wellington, a 600-strong crowd cheers ecstatically as a group of fabulously dressed performers take to the stage.

In impossibly high heels, the predominantly Māori and Pasifika (Indigenous people of the Pacific Islands) performers twist their arms into geometric forms and spiral to the ground, contorting their bodies into outstretched shapes. Other performers parade their highly stylised costumes, while some embody the struts, poses and attitudes of supermodels.

Published: January 2, 2026, 4:00 am

From bon appetit to Uber Eats: why France’s beloved restaurants are in crisis | Paul Taylor

When I started as a reporter in Paris in the 1970s, long, boozy lunches were the norm. Now only fast food and fine dining are thriving

Spare a thought for the poor French restaurateur. Once the iconic image of a sybaritic nation that loved nothing more than a boozy meal out with friends or colleagues, the French restaurant is in deep crisis. Traditional restaurants are closing faster than you can shout “garçon!”, as eating habits change and the cost of living pinches.

“It’s a catastrophe for our profession,” Franck Chaumès, president of the restaurant branch of the Union of Hospitality Trades and Industries (UMIH) said in a television interview recently. “Some 25 restaurants are going out of business every day.” The UMIH has demanded – so far in vain – that the government ration the opening of new restaurants, in proportion to the local population, and license only professionals who are qualified in cooking and accounting.

Paul Taylor is a senior visiting fellow at the European Policy Centre

Published: January 2, 2026, 5:00 am

‘We are always living in fear’: inside Myanmar’s ‘sham’ election

Myanmar’s military rulers are holding the first elections since the 2021 coup, and life in the country’s biggest city is fraught with anxiety

Yangon feels, on the surface, like a normal, bustling city. In downtown areas, commuters stream past roadside sellers and diners perch beneath parasols. Packed buses and cars chug along the roads. At sunset, young people stop to pose for photos opposite the famous Sule pagoda, as it gleams against a pink-blue sky.

But almost five years on from the military seized power in a coup, ousting and imprisoning then de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi, life for local people feels anything but stable. Myanmar’s military rulers are in the process of holding the first elections since before the coup, a vote that the junta has touted as a return to democracy and stability. The UN and western governments have called the process, which will be held in three phases ending on 25 January, a sham.

Published: January 2, 2026, 12:29 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

Switzerland to hold five days of mourning after 40 killed in resort fire, as investigators rush to identify victims

Blaze that swept through crowded New Year’s Eve bar in Crans-Montana also injured 115 people

• Le Constellation bar fire in Switzerland: what we know so far

Swiss investigators are racing to identify the victims of a fire that tore through a crowded bar, killing about 40 people and injuring 115 who were celebrating at a New Year’s Eve party in the Alpine ski resort of Crans-Montana.

President Guy Parmelin has said the country will hold five days of mourning, describing the blaze as one of the most traumatic events in Switzerland’s history. “It was a drama of an unknown scale,” he said, paying tribute to the many “young lives that were lost and interrupted”.

Published: January 2, 2026, 5:11 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, 12:56 am

Venezuela open to talks on drug trafficking, says Maduro, but refuses to comment on reported US strike on land

President Nicolás Maduro reiterated his belief that the US wants to force a change of government in Venezuela and gain access to its vast oil reserves

Venezuela is open to negotiating an agreement with the US to combat drug trafficking, the country’s president Nicolás Maduro has said, but he declined to comment on a reported CIA-led strike on a Venezuelan docking area that Donald Trump claimed was used by cartels.

Maduro, in the pre-recorded interview with Spanish journalist Ignacio Ramonet, reiterated his belief that the US wants to force a change of government in Venezuela and gain access to its vast oil reserves through its months-long pressure campaign that began with a massive military deployment to the Caribbean Sea in August.

Published: January 2, 2026, 4:33 am

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

Abortion may no longer be a top priority for Democratic voters ahead of 2026 midterms, polls show

Abortion was seen as one of Democrats’ strongest issues in the 2024 election – new polls indicate that may be shifting

Up to seven states will vote on abortion rights this year. But recent polling indicates that Democrats may not be able to count on the issue in their efforts to drive votes in the 2026 midterms, after making abortion rights the centerpiece of their pitch to voters in the elections that followed the fall of Roe v Wade.

In 2024, 55% of Democrats said abortion was important to their vote, according to polling from the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI). But in October of this year, just 36% of Democrats said the same. By contrast, abortion remained about as important to Republicans in both 2024 and 2025, PRRI found. PRRI’s findings mirror a September poll from the 19th and SurveyMonkey, which found that the voters who cared most about abortion are people who want to see it banned.

Published: January 1, 2026, 5:00 pm

Kim Jong-un’s daughter visits state mausoleum, fuelling speculation she will be next North Korean ruler

Kim Ju-ae has been making increasingly prominent appearances in state media over the past three years

The daughter of the North Korean ruler, Kim Jong-un, who is likely being prepared as his successor has accompanied her parents on her first public visit to the Kumsusan mausoleum to pay respects to former leaders, ahead of an event that could see her succession formalised.

Photos from state news agency KCNA showed Kim Jong-un accompanied by his wife, Ri Sol-ju, and senior officials on the visit on 1 January, with Ju-ae between her parents in the main hall of the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun.

Published: January 2, 2026, 3:31 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

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

Two people confirmed dead as Iran protests turn into ‘battlefield’

Nationwide protests against living conditions enter fifth day with security forces reportedly using live ammunition

The largest protests in Iran for three years entered a fifth day on Thursday amid reports of deadly clashes between protesters and security forces, with state-affiliated media confirming at least two people had been killed.

Although state media did not identify those killed, witnesses and videos circulating on social media appear to show protesters lying motionless on the ground after security forces opened fire.

Published: January 1, 2026, 4:22 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

‘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

Trump says he takes more aspirin than recommended but his ‘health is perfect’

President tells Wall Street Journal in interview that his doctors encouraged him to take lower dose but he declined

Donald Trump takes “more aspirin” than his doctors recommend but says his “health is perfect”, according to an interview given to the Wall Street Journal after the outlet recently questioned the 79-year-old president’s health.

Trump told the Journal that the large dose of aspirin he take daily causes him to bruise easily and that doctors have encouraged him to take a lower dose – but he declined the advice because he has been taking it for 25 years.

Published: January 1, 2026, 5:38 pm

Trump rings in 2026 at Mar-a-Lago with $2.75m auction of Jesus painting

President auctioned off portrait painted live onstage and said his new year’s resolution was ‘peace on Earth’

Donald Trump welcomed 2026 with a glitzy bash at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach where he auctioned off a freshly painted portrait of Jesus Christ for $2.75m and said his new year’s resolution was a wish for “peace on Earth”.

The portrait of Jesus had been painted onstage by artist Vanessa Horabuena who, the president said, was “one of the greatest artists anywhere in the world”.

Published: January 1, 2026, 3:47 pm

US federal employees file complaint against ban on gender-affirming care

Complaint argues Trump administration denying coverage of gender-affirming care is sex-based discrimination

The Trump administration is facing a legal complaint from a group of government employees affected by a new policy going into effect Thursday that eliminates coverage for gender-affirming care in federal health insurance programs.

The complaint, filed Thursday on the employees’ behalf by the Human Rights Campaign, is in response to an August announcement from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) that it would no longer cover “chemical and surgical modification of an individual’s sex traits through medical interventions” in health insurance programs for federal employees and US Postal Service workers.

Published: January 1, 2026, 3:23 pm

‘Truly humbling’: inside the centre where UK medics are helping Ukrainian amputees

British military doctors and therapists provide support at base where innovative treatments aid recovery of those who have lost limbs

At a specialist treatment centre in Ukraine, as other amputees play volleyball nearby, Vladislav shows a video on his phone of how he lost his left leg. He found the footage – of a drone closing in rapidly on a buggy, Vladislav standing exposed at its rear – on a Russian military social media channel.

The 31-year-old, an arbitration lawyer before Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022, makes a double whistling noise to describe the drone’s ominous progress. “That’s me,” he says, pointing at the video, filmed from a fibre optic drone, chasing him down with terrifying ease as the vehicle slows for a corner. Then the screen goes blank.

Published: January 2, 2026, 5:00 am

‘I wasn’t allowed to study, but I will make sure no girl in this village hears those same words’

Health worker Naushaba Roonjho was ostracised by her family in Pakistan for wanting to work but now she is campaigning for political office

When Naushaba Roonjho became the first girl anyone in her district knew to have passed Pakistan’s national secondary school exam, the news was not celebrated. At home, in her village of Sheikh Soomar in southern Sindh, her father told her: “This is enough, you don’t need to study more. You should stay at home now.”

It was 2010 and Roonjho was 17; within weeks she was married, to Muhammad Uris, a labourer. Although, like all the girls in Thatta district, she had left school after primary, Roonjho had kept up her studies independently.

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

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 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 111th 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

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

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

I’ve been a New Yorker for 23 years. Today Zohran Mamdani’s swearing-in makes this city a real home | Mona Eltahawy

The new mayor embraces social justice, and rejects hate and nationalism. That’s why we’re so excited to see what he’ll do in office

On a cold Saturday morning, a little over a week before the New York City mayoral election in November, I was at a park in Queens to speak at a fundraiser for Asiyah Women’s Centre, the oldest and largest shelter providing support for American Muslim female victims of domestic violence. Vendors selling everything from chai to embroidered Palestinian handicrafts turned out to support the fundraiser; a DJ blasted music and artists painted children’s faces with the colours of Halloween.

I chose the vendor with the most protein on offer because I lift and squat more than my bodyweight and must meet a daily goal. “Our kebab is one of Zohran’s favourites,” the man at the King of Kebab stand told me, proudly and unprompted, as he piled my plate with meat.

Mona Eltahawy writes the FEMINIST GIANT newsletter. She is the author of The Seven Necessary Sins for Women and Girls and Headscarves and Hymens: Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual Revolution

Published: January 1, 2026, 8:00 am

The world’s gone barking mad. In this era of canine exceptionalism, can humanity stage a comeback? | Farhana Dawood

From pawdicures to designer rainwear, the cult of the dog is expanding with impressive speed. Why must we tolerate it?

I’m becoming concerned that we as a species have gone to the dogs – quite literally. Somewhere between the rise of boutique pet grooming and private members’ clubs for canines, dogs appear to have become our preferred species for social interaction.

Parks, beaches, cafes – even offices and yoga studios, which in the past were areas for human exclusivity, or at least priority – are all frequently shared zones. That means you must joyfully tolerate being sniffed or enthusiastically pranced at. Your belongings, likewise, are subject to dog paws and noses. Object, and you’ll be met with looks of discord, as though you’ve confessed to disliking sunlight or laughter. Or the pet person thinks you must be frightened and insists “He/She won’t hurt you!”

Published: January 1, 2026, 11:07 pm

Islamophobia has surged since the Bondi attack. Australia’s Muslim community should not have to endure this abuse | Aftab Malik

No Muslim leader wants to diminish the suffering of the Jewish community or be seen as engaging in competitive victimhood. We must stand in solidarity with each other

While many Australians remain in a state of anger, grief and reflection due to the devastating Bondi terror attack, Muslim community leaders are in a predicament. What is to be done about the ensuing rise of anti-Muslim sentiment, hatred and racism that their communities face?

Following the 14 December mass shooting, community registers that document Islamophobia have largely been reluctant to speak publicly about the spike in Islamophobia, out of concern of being perceived to trivialise the killing of Jewish Australians, their suffering, or vying for sympathy from the public.

Published: January 2, 2026, 7:09 am

Trump is wrong: ‘woke’ policies aren’t the real threat to Europe | Nouriel Roubini

The continent’s problems are not caused by immigration or cultural politics but by economic and technological decline

Donald Trump’s new national security strategy offers a misguided assessment of Europe, long regarded as the US’s most reliable ally. Unrestrained immigration and other policies derided by administration officials as “woke”, it warns, could lead to “civilisational erasure” within a few decades.

That argument rests on a fundamental misreading of Europe’s current predicament. While the EU does face an existential threat, it has little to do with immigration or cultural politics. In fact, the share of foreign-born residents in the US is slightly higher than in Europe.

Published: January 1, 2026, 7:00 am

The Guardian view on mRNA vaccines: they are the future – with or without Donald Trump | Editorial

Over the holiday period, the Guardian leader column is looking ahead at the themes of 2026. Today we examine how the White House’s war on vaccines has left the future of a key technology uncertain and up for grabs

The late scientist and thinker Donald Braben argued that 20th-century breakthroughs arose from scientists being free to pursue bold ideas without pressure for quick results or rigid peer review. The rapid development of Covid-19 vaccines seemed to validate his claim: emergency conditions sped up trials, relaxed regulatory sequencing and encouraged scientists to share findings before peer review. Out of that sprang one of the great scientific success stories of our age: mRNA vaccines. These use synthetic genetic code to train the immune system to defend itself against viruses. Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman, whose work enabled the mRNA Covid vaccine, went on to win the Nobel prize. Their breakthrough suggests that loosening traditional constraints could accelerate major scientific advances.

The extensive scientific and logistic infrastructure built during that period is now occupied with turning the technology towards other diseases: flu, HIV and even cancer. Until very recently, the US, which put more than $10bn into mRNA development, appeared primed to reap the scientific and commercial rewards. Despite the deregulatory zeal that birthed mRNA, the second Trump administration has rejected it. Instead, it has been remarkably steady in its commitment to the radical anti-science and anti-vaccine agenda of the US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr. He has spent the past year undermining and outright sabotaging the US’s own success. Over the summer, the US Department of Health and Human Services announced a “coordinated wind-down” of federal funding for mRNA research, cancelling an additional $500m in funding for 22 projects.

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 1, 2026, 5:30 pm

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 1, 2026, 8:51 pm

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

Player revolts, owner exits and what breaks next: our bold sports predictions for 2026

On the heels of another sports year that was chock full of surprises, Guardian US contributors make their bold predictions for the months to come

Here are our bold predictions for 2025 in sports. Please note the bold (or should that be bold?) in bold predictions: these are mostly to be taken with a pinch of salt.

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Published: January 1, 2026, 10:00 am

How this strange NFL season broke the Coach of the Year mold | Oliver Connolly

In a season defined by chaos and turnarounds, the award should go not to surprise, but to the coach who solved the hardest problems

The NFL’s Coach of the Year award is simple. It typically serves as a mea culpa. We’re sorry our preseason predictions about your team were wrong.

In theory, it’s a straight line: the coach who oversaw the biggest turnaround is handed the award. In practice, it’s a yearly argument about expectations and whether we’re rewarding actual coaching or just the greatest surprise.

Published: January 1, 2026, 9:00 am

Enzo Maresca forgot Chelsea’s golden rule: the manager does not call the shots | Jacob Steinberg

Coach stopped toeing the line at Stamford Bridge with one eye on the Manchester City job, frustrating his employers

It was late on New Year’s Eve when Chelsea’s patience ran out. They knew that Enzo Maresca was attempting to engineer an exit from the club and now they were ready to call his bluff. Midnight was approaching and the fireworks at Stamford Bridge were about to erupt.

A baffling story soon had a familiar, predictable ending. Maresca, who is not the first manager to run out of friends at Chelsea, had taken the provocations too far. There was surprise when he told staff that he did not want to conduct his post-match press conference after the disappointing 2-2 draw with Bournemouth on Tuesday night. The official explanation was that Maresca was too unwell to talk in public, despite having just spent the evening coaching on the Stamford Bridge touchline, but the friction was palpable and it was never going to sit well with the Chelsea hierarchy when it took less than 24 hours for reports to emerge that the sickness line was a red herring and their head coach had actually decided not to meet the media because he needed time to consider his options. It was further confirmation that this was someone who wanted to be sacked. Maresca dared Chelsea to act and will have been the least surprised person in the world to find himself unemployed less than a day into 2026.

Published: January 1, 2026, 7:35 pm

Young, articulate, ambitious: why Liam Rosenior is in the frame to be Chelsea’s next manager | Michael Butler

He holds Wayne Rooney as a key influence, but are stints at Derby, Hull and Strasbourg enough preparation for the hot seat at Stamford Bridge?

Liam Rosenior started this decade as a columnist for the Guardian and is now the favourite to replace Enzo Maresca as manager of Chelsea. While the prospect of Barney Ronay or Jonathan Liew making the move into management is a tantalising one, Rosenior’s rise – from a youth coach at Brighton to an assistant and interim manager at Derby before full-time management at Hull City and Strasbourg – shows just how far the 41-year-old has come.

After a very respectable playing career at Bristol City, Fulham, Reading, Hull and Brighton, Rosenior earned a coaching job at the latter, managing the Seagulls’ under-23 side and supplemented that with punditry roles.

Published: January 1, 2026, 6:21 pm

Stubborn Sunderland deny Manchester City to give Arsenal four-point cushion at top

Something had to give and it was not Sunderland’s unbeaten home Premier League record. Instead ­Manchester City’s winning streak came to a juddering halt as Pep ­Guardiola’s side spurned a chance to move within two points of Arsenal at the top of the table.

Hats – or should that be chapeaux – off to Régis Le Bris and his clever and courageous Sunderland team for not merely frustrating City but offering Gianluigi Donnarumma scope to remind everyone precisely why he is a world-class goalkeeper.

Published: January 1, 2026, 10:04 pm

Anthony Joshua discharged from hospital in Nigeria after car crash

• British boxer is released on New Year’s Eve in Ikoyi

• Joshua can ‘recuperate at home’ after treatment

The British boxer Anthony Joshua has been discharged from hospital, Nigerian authorities said on Wednesday night. The two-time former heavyweight champion and 2012 Olympic gold medallist was a passenger in a car accident near Lagos on Monday which killed two of his close associates and team members.

The 36-year-old had been under observation while recovering from minor injuries, his promoter had said on Monday.

Published: January 1, 2026, 12:22 am

Israel allowing traders to bring into Gaza ‘dual-use’ items barred from aid organisations

Sources say generators and tent poles restricted from humanitarian bodies but commercial shipments allowed in

Israel is running a parallel system of controls for shipments into Gaza, allowing commercial traders to bring goods into the territory that are barred for humanitarian organisations.

Basic life-saving supplies including generators and tent poles are on a long Israeli blacklist of “dual-use” items. The Israeli government says entry of these items must be severely restricted because they could be exploited by Hamas or other armed groups for military ends.

Published: January 1, 2026, 8:00 am

Cremation pyre in Africa thought to be world’s oldest containing adult remains

9,500-year-old pyre uncovered in Malawi offers rare insight into rituals of ancient African hunter-gatherer groups

A cremation pyre built about 9,500 years ago has been discovered in Africa, offering a fresh glimpse into the complexity of ancient hunter-gatherer communities.

Researchers say the pyre, discovered in a rock shelter at the foot of Mount Hora in northern Malawi, is thought to be the oldest in the world to contain adult remains, the oldest confirmed intentional cremation in Africa, and the first pyre to be associated with African hunter-gatherers.

Published: January 1, 2026, 7:00 pm

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

More women reporting abuse in Norway as member of royal family to go on trial for rape

Country’s largest women’s health organisation says case of Marius Borg Høiby encouraging people to seek help

Staff at Norway’s largest women’s health organisation have seen a rise in the number of women reporting abuse and sexual assault at the hands of their partners ahead of the rape trial of a member of the royal family, saying they hope the case helps to “break taboos”.

Marius Borg Høiby, the 28-year-old son of the Norwegian crown princess, is due to stand trial in February on 32 charges including four counts of rape, the domestic abuse of a former partner and the illegal filming of a number of women without their knowledge or consent.

Published: January 1, 2026, 11:05 am

Search for survivors after US strikes on alleged drug boats

US military announces two separate strikes on boats it claims were transporting drugs in the Pacific

The US Coast Guard was searching for survivors of a US military strike against a convoy of suspected drug vessels in the Pacific Ocean, officials said on Wednesday.

In a statement, the US military’s Southern Command said the military had carried out a strike against three vessels.

Published: January 1, 2026, 2:01 am

Cop30, Trump and the fragile future of climate cooperation

In this week’s newsletter: From geopolitics to populism, multilateralism is under pressure – but climate action cannot succeed in a fractured world

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January might seem a bit too early to propose a word of the year, but I know mine already: multilateralism – the principle that common problems should have common solutions. It rests on the idea that all countries and people have a stake in the future of the planet we share, and that their rights should be respected. That cooperation beats competition, or going it alone.

Multilateralism is what has kept the UN process of climate diplomacy going, but now the principle is under threat as never before, amid a rising tide of populism and conflict. The US, under Donald Trump, explicitly rejects multilateralism, in favour of carve-ups between great powers. But if we are to stave off climate breakdown, only multilateralism will work.

‘Cities need nature to be happy’: David Attenborough seeks out London’s hidden wildlife

EU’s new ‘green tariff’ rules on high-carbon goods come into force

Renewable energy project approvals hit record high in GB in 2025, data shows

Multilateralism faces a toxic brew of debt, climate crisis and war. It’s time for a reboot | Mo Ibrahim

The ‘new world order’ of the past 35 years is being demolished before our eyes. This is how we must proceed | Gordon Brown

Into the void: how Trump killed international law

Published: January 2, 2026, 7:00 am

‘These trees may not survive’: Jordan’s ancient olive harvest wilts under record-breaking heat

Extreme heat and drought has destroyed 70% of Jordan’s olive crop, endangering livelihoods of 80,000 families and a centuries-old tradition

Abu Khaled al-Zoubi, 67, walks slowly through his orchard in Irbid, northern Jordan, his footsteps kicking up dust from the parched earth beneath centuries-old olive trees. He stops at a gnarled trunk, its bark split and peeling from months of unrelenting heat.

He points out that the branches should be sagging under the weight of ripening fruit, but instead they stretch upward, nearly bare, with only a few shrivelled olives clinging to the withered stems.

Published: January 1, 2026, 3:00 pm

Often brutal, always beautiful: the sea hounds of the Frisian Islands – in pictures

For 10 years, the scientist and photographer Jeroen Hoekendijk has been observing pinnipeds such as seals and walruses on the fragile North Sea archipelago stretching along the Dutch, German and Danish coastline. A remainder of the now-drowned Doggerland, left behind after the ice age, the low-lying islands are an advance warning sign of the warming and rising seas of the climate crisis

• Photographs by Jeroen Hoekendijk, text by Philip Hoare

Published: January 1, 2026, 8:00 am

World is in better place than when Eden Project created 25 years ago, founder says

Tim Smit also says extreme political views will fade when people realise good things around the corner

Sir Tim Smit says the world is in a better place than it was when he co-founded the Eden Project 25 years ago and he believes people are more attuned to the natural world.

Speaking as the project in Cornwall reaches its 25th anniversary, Smit describedextreme political views as the “roar” of people fearful that they cannot control the future but he said they would fade when people realised that good things were around the corner.

Published: January 1, 2026, 5:00 am

Executions in Saudi Arabia hit highest number on record in 2025

Analysts attribute increase to kingdom’s ‘war on drugs’ as authorities kill 356 people by death penalty

Saudi authorities executed 356 people in 2025, setting a new record for the number of inmates put to death in the kingdom in a single year.

Analysts have largely attributed the increase in executions to Riyadh’s “war on drugs”, with some of those arrested in previous years only now being executed after legal proceedings and convictions.

Published: January 1, 2026, 1:15 pm

Oil prices record steepest annual fall since Covid pandemic

After biggest loss for producers since 2020 the slide could continue, with global output expected to remain high

Oil markets have recorded their steepest annual fall since the Covid pandemic and could be on track to plummet further as oil producers continue to pump more crude than needed by the global economy.

Oil prices slumped by almost 20% in 2025, marking the biggest annual loss since 2020 and the first time that the oil market has recorded three consecutive years of annual losses.

Published: January 1, 2026, 1:06 pm

EU’s new ‘green tariff’ rules on high-carbon goods come into force

The ‘border adjustment mechanism’ aims to create a level playing field while also encouraging decarbonisation

The biggest shake-up of green trade rules for decades comes into force today, as companies selling steel, cement and other high-carbon goods into the EU will have to prove they comply with low-carbon regulations or face fines.

But a lack of clarity on how the rules will be applied, and the failure of the UK government to strike a deal with Brussels over the issue, could lead to confusion in the early stages, experts warned.

Published: January 1, 2026, 5:00 am

Kim Jong-un hails North Korea’s ‘invincible alliance’ with Russia in New Year’s message

Kim praised his men fighting in an ‘alien land’, congratulating their ‘heroic’ defence of the nation’s honour and instructing them to ‘be brave’

The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, has praised his troops fighting abroad as forging an “invincible alliance” with Russia in a new year’s message, state media said on Thursday.

Pyongyang has sent thousands of troops to support Russia’s nearly four-year invasion of Ukraine, according to South Korean and western intelligence agencies.

Published: January 1, 2026, 7:08 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

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

Run Away review – James Nesbitt and Minnie Driver give us comfort TV at its finest

The twists and turns come thick and fast in this deeply pleasing Harlan Coben thriller, as a father goes in search of his missing daughter. Even a vegan restaurant owner gets in on the act

They come round sooner every time, do they not? I think we’re now the recipients of a new Harlan Coben adaptation every three weeks or so. Who knows what rate will be attained next year? We watch and wait, though possibly in neither case for long.

We are now about a dozen, rating-banking offerings into the bestselling thriller writer’s multi-book deals with Netflix and Amazon. They are generally solid, workmanlike fare that doubtless help fund many passion projects and pay many mortgages along the way. They are comfort TV not just for viewers, but, I suspect, everyone involved.

Published: January 1, 2026, 8:00 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

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

NewJeans member Danielle sued for millions after bitter feud with K-pop record label

Ador terminated the Australian-born singer’s contract on Monday and is now suing her, a family member and the band’s former producer

The K-pop record label Ador is suing a former member of megaband NewJeans for millions in damages, it has announced, a day after removing her from the group following a year-long dispute that saw the band allege mistreatment and attempt to leave their contract.

The compensation suit against Danielle Marsh, a 20-year-old Australian-born singer, comes months after a Seoul district court ruled that NewJeans’ five members must honour their contracts with Ador, whose parent company Hybe is also behind the K-pop sensation BTS. The band’s contract runs until 2029.

Published: January 1, 2026, 6:19 am

My big night out: I was about to get fired – then a colleague invited me to the party that changed my life

I wasn’t sure journalism was for me until I ended up in a bar with a group of lawless, funny co-workers who complained long and hard about the panther suspended above us in a cage

In the mid-90s, I was working as an admin assistant on the listings magazine of the London Evening Standard, and was about to be fired. OK, I wasn’t that good at the job, but I was also done with it. It was on my mind that I needed an actual job, one that you could describe to someone: “I’m an X.” At what point did you get to say: “I’m a journalist”? And was that even a real thing? A lawyer friend had told me: “I see mine as a profession and yours as more of a trade.” I ruminated on that a lot.

Anyway, some time between my latest misdemeanour and my inevitable disciplinary letter, someone from the main paper, let’s call him Pete Clark because that was his name (everyone else will go by initials, but Pete’s dead now, and he would want to be named, I think), asked if I wanted to go to a party. It was no special occasion, just the launch of a bar; this happened every night in the 90s, even Mondays. He was 43, but all old people look the same when you’re 23, so I felt as if the viscount owner of the paper had noticed me from the top of his gold mountain and invited me to a ball.

Published: January 1, 2026, 1:00 pm

The perfect day for parents: how to keep kids healthy and happy – without neglecting yourself

Having a routine but not overplanning, getting them involved with chores and making sure you have time just for you can all help you stop being overwhelmed

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My four-year-old is in the living room playing with a dinosaur, a pig and Jessie the cowgirl from Toy Story. I’m trying to cook dinner. “Mama, mama, pllleeease can you play with me?” I hear a pot lid rattle. The broccoli is starting to smell burned; I dash back to the kitchen. “Help! Quickly come! I’m falling!” I rush through. She’s dangling from the sofa pretending to fall off the side of a volcano. “HEEELP!” The broccoli is definitely burning. And there goes the door. “Muuuuuum, I need a poo!”

This wild ride of five minutes is one most parents will recognise. Getting through the day is to feel like you’re being pulled in a solar system’s worth of directions, and by turns defeated, happier than you’ve ever felt before, like a husk, in control and like you’re careening off a cliff. It throws up a need to get very good at planning, and prioritising what demands to acquiesce to, when to say no; when to sit down and play, when to say: “Sorry, I need to sit down, or go for a run.”

Published: January 1, 2026, 11:00 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

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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

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

Veganuary can be a piece of cake: cooks and dietitians share 12 ways to make delicious plant-based food

Swap chicken for beans and avoid cheeze … From a MasterChef finalist to a maker of ready meals, high-profile vegans give their favourite recipes and tips

This new year, you may be embarking on Veganuary, or have resolved to eat less meat and dairy in 2026. What are some of the simplest switches to make and most nutritious dishes to try with minimum fuss? Vegans share their tips on how to eat a balanced plant-based diet.

Published: January 1, 2026, 11:00 am

The first of my friends is having a baby and it makes me feel pressured. How do I reframe this?

Big life questions tend to squeeze us at this time of year, writes advice columnist Eleanor Gordon-Smith, but a baby is a person not a symbol

• Read more Leading questions

I’m turning 29 soon and the first of my friends is having a baby in the new year. This news has prompted a lot of self reflection. I’m pretty ambivalent about having a child myself but also feel like it’s the next milestone. I feel a great deal of pressure to decide whether or not to have a child – but this is largely self-inflicted. Unlike others I don’t have family asking this question.

I know I have a few years to decide on this (and might not be lucky enough to be able to have a child in the event), so how can I reframe my thinking and be straightforwardly happy for my friend without feeling the pressure to decide what I want to do with the rest of my life?

Published: January 2, 2026, 12:31 am

January isn’t for reinvention – it’s for dishes we know by heart

There’s something quietly radical about indulging in nostalgia – not because the past was better, but as a counterpoint to all that future planning

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Our friend Bridget is serious about Christmas, and she does it spectacularly: come 1 December, her tree will be up, beautifully lit and decorated, her nearest and dearest (us included, thankfully) will get their bespoke Advent calendar (this year it was a cheesy one for me and a puzzle for Sarit – perfect) and a month of fun activities will ensue, culminating in a magnificent day. She is so serious about it, in fact, that her planning for next year starts now: she hits the January sales for everything that’ll keep for the next Christmas holiday – stocking fillers, festive candy, decorations, jumpers and socks – and it’s all stored neatly in a cupboard in anticipation of another gloriously executed December.

We may not be quite as organised and foresightful as Bridget, but we are looking ahead to the coming year with the usual mix of excitement and angst, and starting to mentally put things in the calendar: maybe you have a spring holiday, or an autumn baby? Maybe there’s a visitor from abroad you’re looking forward to, or tickets for a once-in-a-lifetime gig? Even if there is nothing planned yet, summer is something we are always excited about, and the coming year starts to slot into place, as plans become experiences and, before we know it, memories. Time rushes forward, and suddenly it’s gone.

Published: January 1, 2026, 12:30 pm

The US reporter who has witnessed 14 executions: ‘People need to know what it looks like’

South Carolina-based journalist Jeffrey Collins observed back-to-back executions in 2025 after the state revived the death penalty following a 13-year pause

Jeffrey Collins has watched 14 men draw their final breaths.

Over 25 years at the Associated Press, the South Carolina-based journalist has repeatedly served as an observer inside the state’s execution chamber, watching from feet away as prison officials kill men who were sentenced to capital punishment. South Carolina has recently kept him unusually busy, with seven back-to-back executions in 14 months.

Published: January 1, 2026, 4:00 pm

How to talk dating like gen Z: 51 (hyperspecific) terms for love, sex and bad behavior

As young people take on a messy dating landscape, they’ve created their own lexicon to match. Here’s like what phrases ‘bird theory’ and ‘monkey branching’ mean

This year marked a decade since the term “ghosting” hit the mainstream. At the time, the idea that someone could abruptly cease communication with a lover without explanation seemed like the peak of indignity. How naive we were. In the 10 years since, finding a partner has only become more confounding – an oftentimes fruitless exercise in humiliation that is increasingly pigeonholed by social media jargon.

Gen Z, a cohort who came of age during a loneliness epidemic, a masculinity crisis, and a coordinated attack on the rights of women and the LGBTQ+ community, faces a far messier landscape than their millennial predecessors could ever imagine. And so their dating glossary has grown longer and more deranged, with phrases like “Shrekking” and “monkey branching” testing the limits of your sanity.

Red flags – Behavioral quirks indicating a potential partner is bad news. Examples include calling their exes crazy, subpar tipping habits, a love of Woody Allen films, a burgeoning DJ career …

Green flags – These quirks validate your decision to pursue a mate. Examples include checking in to make sure you got home safe after a date, low screen time, owning a bed frame …

Beige flags – These usually describe niche, mostly benign quirks. Examples include being an enthusiastic birdwatcher, still carrying around a pen in their purse, paying rent in cash …

Published: January 1, 2026, 11:00 am

From rent to utility bills: the politicians and advocates making climate policy part of the affordability agenda

As the Trump administration derides climate policy as a ‘scam’, emissions-cutting measures are gaining popularity

A group of progressive politicians and advocates are reframing emissions-cutting measures as a form of economic populism as the Trump administration derides climate policy as a “scam” and fails to deliver on promises to tame energy costs and inflation.

Climate politics were once cast as a test of moral resolve, calling on Americans to accept higher costs to avert environmental catastrophe, but that ignores how rising temperatures themselves drive up costs for working people, said Stevie O’Hanlon, co-founder of the youth-led Sunrise Movement.

Published: January 1, 2026, 12:30 pm

New year celebrations and Zohran Mamdani sworn in: photos of the day – Thursday

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

Published: January 1, 2026, 2:38 pm