‘Tastes like compacted dust’: the best (and worst) protein bars in the US

We blind taste-tested bars from David, Built, Barebells and more. Here are four that packed protein while tasting great – and the brands that were simply ‘vile’

• Instant coffee v drip: our blind taste test may unravel your assumptions

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There’s no denying that protein is everywhere. Protein oatmeal. Protein doughnuts. Protein boba!

And then there are the OG protein bars. They’ve exploded in popularity and variety in recent years: the buzzy brand David packs a whopping 28 grams of protein into a 150-calorie bar, thanks to a new modified plant fat. Other protein bars have gone back to basics, with Rx Bars relying on “simple” ingredients such as egg whites and dates to deliver protein-filled sweetness.

Best overall protein bar: Barebells

Best for high protein content: Gatorade

Published: January 28, 2026, 7:15 pm

‘If you want to nuke your life, do crack’: raw Courtney Love documentary hits Sundance

Antiheroine, a new film about the musician’s tumultuous life and career, premiered at the festival with some frank admissions but the star not present

A new documentary about the gen X icon and “queen of grunge” Courtney Love caused a stir at the Sundance film festival – without the legendary Hole frontwoman in attendance.

The musician and actor, now 61, was supposed to attend the premiere of Antiheroine, a new retrospective documentary by Edward Lovelace and James Hall that traces her storied life and career, but did not make it for undisclosed reasons. “We’re really gutted that Courtney couldn’t make it tonight to celebrate this moment with us all,” said Lovelace in his introduction for the film’s premiere in Park City, Utah, calling Love “so unfiltered, so truthful”.

Published: January 28, 2026, 6:42 pm

Can you become ugly if you have ugly thoughts?

Our perception of a person’s physical beauty is colored by our perception of their behavior – but what if we divorced inner and outer beauty?

Hey Ugly,

They say we end up with the face we deserve. When we think “ugly” (hurtful, spiteful, non-constructive) thoughts, our faces tense and harden. Similarly, when I ignore my needs, my face shows me signs of it.

Published: January 28, 2026, 5:00 pm

The womanosphere urges dubious followers to back ICE: ‘Don’t let compassion cloud you’

Conservative figures such as Riley Gaines and Allie Beth Stuckey are urging their followers to ward off empathy for victims of ICE’s crackdown

Riley Gaines, the former collegiate swimmer turned anti-transgender activist, makes motherhood and femininity a core part of her brand. Her husband, Louis Barker, is a naturalized US citizen who moved to this country from the UK. The couple welcomed their first child, a daughter named Margot, in September; Gaines said there was “nothing” she would not do to protect her baby. But do not think that Gaines is at all sympathetic to families targeted by ICE.

This weekend, Gaines spoke on her podcast about Liam Ramos, the five-year-old boy taken by ICE agents from his driveway in Minneapolis. Images of Liam, clad in snowpants and wearing a blue hat with bunny ears, being held by a federal agent prompted widespread disgust in the US. How could a preschooler be considered one of the “dangerous” criminals Trump’s administration rails against?

Published: January 28, 2026, 3:00 pm

Are people really going to see Amazon’s $75m Melania documentary?

This weekend sees the release of a controversially funded film about the first lady, directed by a disgraced film-maker

It’s not often that a presidential administration faces a direct referendum at the box office. Sure, there was more than a hint of rebuke in Michael Moore’s 2004 documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 unexpectedly becoming the biggest-grossing non-music-or-nature documentary of all time (and highest full stop in North America) while taking re-election-year shots at George W Bush (who went on to squeak out another victory anyway). But that movie was also sold on Moore himself, a recent Oscar winner and fixture in both film and television by that point. Bush was excoriated, but he wasn’t exactly getting top billing. The unambiguous star of this weekend’s Trump-approved documentary is right there in the title: Melania. It’s coming to 1,500 theaters this weekend from Amazon/MGM.

Relatively few documentaries receive a wide release (though Melania is going out in about half as many theaters as last weekend’s Amazon release, the Chris Pratt vehicle Mercy), so comparison points are relatively few. Box office predictions generally place the movie well under Moore’s unlikely high-water mark for the form. Some are guessing the opening weekend will pull in about $1m, which would comfortably keep it off the list of the worst wide openings of all time (the record low for a new release in around 1,500 theaters is about $330,000) but would nonetheless qualify it as a bomb. Others estimate that it will go as high as $5m, putting it in line with rightwing docs like Am I Racist?, the highest-grossing documentary of 2024, which ended its run with $12m. As the Hollywood Reporter points out, technically inching ahead of Am I Racist? and the recent faith-based After Death would boast the biggest non-music launch for a documentary of the past decade.

Published: January 28, 2026, 5:06 pm

Two are dead in Minneapolis. Trump is to blame | Kenneth Roth

The US president bears political responsibility for having greenlighted ICE agents’ regularly lawless conduct

As public outrage grows over the killing of two protesters by Donald Trump’s deportation agents in Minneapolis, the White House is going into damage-control mode. It has its work cut out for it. Trump didn’t pull the triggers that killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti, but he bears political responsibility for having greenlighted the agents’ regularly lawless conduct.

Good and Pretti should not have been killed. As far as can be seen in the ample video evidence that has emerged, neither posed a threat to the agents at the scene or anyone else. Their sole “offense” was to take a stand against the deportation raids. Yet trigger-happy agents needlessly shot them – Good as she was turning her car away from the agents, Pretti while he was restrained by agents on the ground. There was no plausible self-defense to justify these killings.

Published: January 28, 2026, 4:47 pm

Two agents who shot Alex Pretti put on leave as Trump tries to quell backlash

Fallout from second fatal shooting amid immigration operation in city dogs White House, though raids continue

• US politics – live updates

The two agents who fatally shot a man in Minneapolis over the weekend have been on administrative leave since Saturday, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said on Wednesday, as Donald Trump tried to quell the backlash even while immigration raids in the city continued.

The move, which the DHS emphasized is standard protocol when agents are involved in fatal shootings, comes as the president suggested he would “de-escalate” his immigration enforcement crackdown in the state, but without offering details or whether tactics would change.

Published: January 28, 2026, 9:52 pm

Threat of US-Iran war escalates as Trump warns time running out for deal

US president says armada heading towards Iran is ‘prepared to fulfil its missions with violence if necessary’

The threat of war between the US and Iran appeared to loom closer after Donald Trump told Tehran time was running out and that a huge US armada was moving quickly towards the country “with great power, enthusiasm and purpose”.

Writing on social media, the US president said on Wednesday that the fleet headed by the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln was larger than the one sent to Venezuela before the removal of Nicolás Maduro earlier this month and was “prepared to rapidly fulfil its missions with speed and violence if necessary”.

Published: January 28, 2026, 7:12 pm

ICE thwarted from entering Ecuador’s consulate in Minneapolis by employee

Action comes amid federal agencies’ campaign in the city, prompting an official complaint to US embassy in Quito

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent attempted to enter Ecuador’s consulate in Minneapolis, but was turned back by an employee, prompting an official complaint to the US embassy in Quito, the country’s foreign ministry said.

The Tuesday incident came as ICE and other federal agencies continue their aggressive campaign of arresting people in Minnesota’s largest city suspected of being in the United States illegally, despite outrage over the deaths of two US citizens in the operation dubbed “Metro Surge”.

Published: January 28, 2026, 9:13 pm

Tesla discontinues Model X and S vehicles as Elon Musk pivots to robotics

High hopes for Optimus robot help company beat forecasts despite yearly revenue decline and flailing car business

In the clearest sign yet that Tesla is pivoting away from its electric car business, CEO Elon Musk announced on Wednesday’s investor call that the company would discontinue production of its Model X SUV and Model S full-size sedan.

“It’s time to basically bring the Model S and X programs to an end,” Musk said. “We expect to wind down S and X production next quarter.”

Published: January 28, 2026, 10:57 pm

Federal Reserve holds interest rates as Trump piles on pressure

Fed voted to pause cuts to interest rate, which currently sits between 3.5% and 3.75%, after slashing it three times in fall

The US Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged after its first rate-setting meeting of the year on Wednesday, resisting enormous pressure from the White House to lower rates.

A majority of members in the Fed’s federal open market committee (FOMC) voted to pause interest rate cuts after slashing rates three times in the fall. Rates currently sit at a range of 3.5% to 3.75%.

Published: January 28, 2026, 8:36 pm

Meta wows Wall Street despite spending billions on AI and facing social media addiction trial

Firm’s fourth-quarter 2025 beat expectations as it lavishes investment on AI infrastructure and CEO faces questioning

As Meta spends billions on artificial intelligence data centers and its CEO prepares to testify in a landmark social media trial, the company is earning a pretty penny.

Meta reported strong financial results on Wednesday, beating Wall Street expectations of $58.59bn with $59.89bn in revenue for the fourth quarter of 2025. It reported earnings per share (EPS) of $8.88 – which also surpassed Wall Street expectations of $8.23 in EPS. Meta’s stocks jumped nearly 10% in after-hours trading after the release.

Published: January 29, 2026, 12:07 am

FBI executes search warrant at election office in Fulton county, Georgia

County spokesperson says warrant seeks number of 2020 election records while FBI declines to give further details

The FBI executed a search warrant at the election office in Fulton county, Georgia, on Wednesday for records related to the 2020 election, according to a spokesperson for the county and the FBI.

The warrant sought all ballots from the 2020 election in Fulton county, tabulator tapes, ballot images and voter rolls, according to a warrant obtained by the Guardian.

Published: January 29, 2026, 1:51 am

Texas man scheduled to be executed for killing ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend

Charles Victor Thompson would be the first person executed in the US this year for the 1998 shooting deaths

A Texas man who at one time escaped from custody and was on the run for three days after being sentenced to death for fatally shooting his ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend nearly 27 years ago was scheduled on Wednesday to be the first person executed in the US this year.

Charles Victor Thompson was condemned for the April 1998 shooting deaths of his ex-girlfriend, Glenda Dennise Hayslip, 39; and her new boyfriend, Darren Keith Cain, 30, at her apartment in the Houston suburb of Tomball.

Published: January 28, 2026, 1:24 pm

Paul Dano reacts to Tarantino criticism: ‘I was incredibly grateful that the world spoke up for me’

Actor says the defence of his peers and fans was ‘really nice’ after Quentin Tarantino’s scathing assessment calling Dano ‘a weak, weak, uninteresting guy’

Paul Dano has responded to Quentin Tarantino’s scathing criticism of his acting abilities, thanking those who came to his defence after Tarantino called him a “weak, uninteresting guy” and “the limpest dick in the world”.

On Wednesday, Dano told Variety that the supportive responses that poured in from his peers and across social media was touching.

Published: January 28, 2026, 11:38 pm

Trump news at a glance: ‘next attack will be far worse’ says president as he ratchets up threats on Iran

US president tells Tehran that time is running out to make a deal on future of nuclear program – key US politics stories from 28 January 2026

President Trump has again raised the spectre of military intervention in Iran, warning the country to “Come to the Table” and quickly negotiate a deal.

Noting that time was running out, Trump threatened that if an agreement could not be reached: “The next attack will be far worse! Don’t make that happen again.”

Published: January 29, 2026, 12:42 am

Rubio declines to rule out further US military action in Venezuela at Senate hearing

Secretary of state says administration does not intend to take such action but Trump ‘does reserve the option’

Marco Rubio has declined to rule out future US military action in Venezuela but insisted the Trump administration did not intend to take such steps, as he faced questions from lawmakers over Washington’s unprecedented intervention.

The US secretary of state appeared before the Senate foreign relations committee on Wednesday to defend the removal of Nicolás Maduro, which has left Venezuela under the control of interim president Delcy Rodríguez while the US seizes and sells its oil.

Published: January 28, 2026, 5:10 pm

Is this the darkest period of Donald Trump’s second term?

The White House’s tone might be softening after outrage about the Minnesota ICE shootings, but there’s no reason to expect a policy shift

• This was originally published in This Week in Trumpland; sign up to receive it in your inbox every Wednesday

Has the US entered the darkest period of Donald Trump’s second term? It certainly feels like it. The Trump administration’s cruel obsession with immigration had already yielded imprisonments, deaths and deportations, but the recent trend of immigration agents gunning down US citizens in the streets surely represents a painful new step.

The government’s immediate reaction to the shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, who were killed less than three weeks apart in Minneapolis, has only intensified the air of menace.

Published: January 28, 2026, 5:15 pm

Pressure grows on Stephen Miller after Alex Pretti killing but Trump unlikely to cut ties

Outrage followed ‘would-be assassin’ lie but experts say architect of ICE drive too dominant a figure to be shunned

Pressure is growing on the key White House senior adviser Stephen Miller over the killing of the intensive care nurse Alex Pretti by border patrol agents in Minneapolis and its politically divisive aftermath.

Miller, the architect of Donald Trump’s hardline immigration policy, finds himself in the rare position of being contradicted and excluded from crucial decisions by the US president.

Published: January 28, 2026, 12:00 pm

‘I was violated and put in extreme danger’: women denied abortions sue over Arkansas ban

Suit filed by Amplify Legal says laws violate constitutional right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness

As Emily Waldorf languished in an Arkansas hospital, she felt like “a ticking time bomb”. It was 2024, and the physical therapist was in the midst of miscarrying a much-wanted pregnancy. But because her fetus still had a heartbeat, hospital officials said Arkansas’s near-total abortion ban blocked them from taking steps to induce labor and end her pregnancy.

Instead, Waldorf had to wait and hope that she didn’t develop a deadly infection.

Published: January 28, 2026, 8:16 pm

Ukraine war briefing: Russia pounds cities across country ahead of fresh round of peace talks

Couple killed near Kyiv and apartment block hit while US says territorial issue of Donetsk ‘very difficult’ to resolve. What we know on day 1,436

Russia has hit cities across Ukraine with drones and a missile, killing a couple near the capital of Kyiv one day after five people died in an attack on a passenger train. The attack came ahead of a fresh round of peace talks due at the weekend. Officials said four people, including two children, sought medical attention after the strikes overnight to Wednesday. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned the attack on the apartment block, as well as another strike with short-range rockets on what he described as a residential area without military targets in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia. “We will respond fairly to Russia for this and other similar attacks,” he wrote on social media. Russian strikes on other locations across the country included the southern port city of Odesa as well as the central city of Kryvyi Rih.

The territorial issue of Donetsk is “very difficult” to resolve, the US secretary of state has said, saying there is active work under way to reconcile the issue at US-mediated talks to end Russia’s war in Ukraine. “It’s still a bridge we have to cross,” Marco Rubio said on Wednesday. “It’s still a gap, but at least we’ve been able to narrow down the issue set to one central one, and it will probably be a very difficult one,” he told a US Senate foreign relations committee hearing, referring to the eastern Ukrainian region where Moscow wants Kyiv to surrender land. Rubio said the US may the join the new Russia-Ukraine talks this week but that said US participation would be more junior than last week when Donald Trump envoys Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner joined negotiations in Abu Dhabi that were Ukrainian and Russian officials’ first face-to-face talks on Trump’s plan to end the war.

Life will be particularly tough for Ukrainians over the next three weeks due to plunging temperatures and intense Russian attacks on the energy system that have already deprived millions of light and heat, a senior lawmaker said on Wednesday. “The bad news is that there will indeed be frosts, and it will be difficult,” Andriy Gerus, the head of the parliament’s energy committee, told the national TV channel, Marathon. “The good news is that we need to hold out for three weeks, and then it will get easier,” he added, citing predicted warmer temperatures and increased solar power from longer days.

Russian strikes against Odesa have escalated sharply in recent months as conflict centred on the Black Sea has heated up again after it had settled into stalemate, Peter Beaumont reports from the southern Ukrainian city. The biggest recent strike – on 13 December, in which 160 drones and missiles targeted energy infrastructure – left large parts of the city without water and electricity for days on end, marking the beginning of a period of almost daily attacks.

Ukraine has urged the European Union not to be afraid of taking “physical” action against Russia’s “shadow fleet”, pointing to the example of Venezuela-linked oil tankers seized by the US. Visiting Berlin, the Ukrainian presidency’s special representative for sanctions, Vladyslav Vlasiuk, also said on Wednesday that work was still needed on western components found in Russian weapons, which he said was proof that Moscow was circumventing sanctions. Calling for “robust actions”, he said that only increased pressure on Russia could help with negotiations to bring the war to an end. The volume of oil transported in 2025 by Russia’s “shadow fleet” – a flotilla of old oil tankers that aim to get around international sanctions – was the same as the previous year, Vlasiuk said.

Published: January 29, 2026, 1:06 am

South Korea’s ‘world-first’ AI laws face pushback amid bid to become leading tech power

The laws have been criticised by tech startups, which say they go too far, and civil society groups, which say they don’t go far enough

South Korea has embarked on a foray into the regulation of AI, launching what has been billed as the most comprehensive set of laws anywhere in the world, that could prove a model for other countries, but the new legislation has already encountered pushback.

The laws, which will force companies to label AI-generated content, have been criticised by local tech startups, which say they go too far, and civil society groups, which say they don’t go far enough.

Add invisible digital watermarks for clearly artificial outputs such as cartoons or artwork. For realistic deepfakes, visible labels are required.

“High-impact AI”, including systems used for medical diagnosis, hiring and loan approvals, will require operators to conduct risk assessments and document how decisions are made. If a human makes the final decision the system may fall outside the category.

Extremely powerful AI models will require safety reports, but the threshold is set so high that government officials acknowledge no models worldwide currently meet it.

Published: January 29, 2026, 12:31 am

‘It’s not too late to fix it’: web inventor Tim Berners-Lee says he is in a ‘battle for the soul’ of the internet

Founder of the world wide web says commercialisation means the net has been ‘optimised for nastiness’, but collaboration and compassion can prevail

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When Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented the world wide web in 1989, his vision was clear: it would used by everyone, filled with everything and, crucially, it would be free.

Today, the British computer scientist’s creation is regularly used by 5.5 billion people – and bears little resemblance to the democratic force for humanity he intended.

Published: January 28, 2026, 2:00 pm

Infinite Icon: A Visual Memoir review – Paris Hilton’s act of self-love shows there’s nothing behind the mask

A look behind the scenes of the star’s second album turns out to reveal exactly what you’d expect, at arduous length

Paris Hilton here presents us with an unbearable act of docu-self-love, avowedly a behind-the-scenes study of her second studio album, Infinite Icon, and where she’s at as a musician, survivor and mom. But maybe there is, in fact, nothing behind the scenes; judging by this, the scenes are all there is: Insta-exhibitionism, empty phrases and show.

Hilton’s second album no doubt has its admirers and detractors, and her fans are perfectly happy with it. But this film, for which she is executive producer, is an indiscriminate non-curation of narcissism and torpid self-importance that seems to go on and on and on for ever; the longest two hours of anyone’s life, finally signing off with a splodge of uninteresting and unedited concert footage.

Published: January 28, 2026, 5:00 pm

My husband was murdered on holiday – and my whole world collapsed

Each year, about 80 British people are victims of a homicide overseas, and grieving loved ones have to navigate the aftermath. Eve Henderson describes losing her husband, and her fight to help others

On a Sunday in October 1997, Eve Henderson looked down at her husband, Roderick, as he lay in a hospital bed, unable to make sense of what she saw. She was, she says, “a block of stone”. They were in the neurological ward of a huge hospital on the outskirts of Paris. It had taken Henderson an hour to find, travelling on the Métro with the name scribbled on a scrap of paper. Roderick looked comfortable when she arrived; he was a good colour, but there was a round red mark in the centre of his forehead and a small tube inside his mouth, attached to something she later learned was breathing for him.

“He looked fairly alive,” says Henderson, “and I just stood there. A doctor came in. She was in tears and I thought: ‘Bloody hell, am I meant to be crying?’ You’ve got no emotion, you’ve got nothing. You don’t know what to say or where you are. That’s what shock does to you.”

Published: January 28, 2026, 10:00 am

Copyrighted art, mobile phones, Greenland: welcome to our age of shameless theft | Jonathan Liew

The human impulse to steal has been accelerated by AI, inequality and our political leaders – with profound consequences

Last week I discovered that an article I wrote about the England cricket team has already been copied and repackaged, verbatim and without permission, by an Indian website. What is the appropriate response here? Decry and sue? Shrug and move on? I ponder the question as I stroll through my local supermarket, where the mackerel fillets are wreathed in metal security chains and the dishwasher tabs have to be requested from the storeroom like an illicit little treat.

On the way home, I screenshot and crop a news article and share it to one of my WhatsApp groups. In another group, a family member has posted an AI-generated video (“forwarded many times”) of Donald Trump getting his head shaved by Xi Jinping while Joe Biden laughs in the background. I watch the mindless slop on my phone as I walk along the main road, instinctively gripping my phone a little tighter as I do so.

Jonathan Liew is a Guardian columnist

Published: January 28, 2026, 10:38 am

Trump wants our attention. Let’s stop falling for his geopolitical clickbait | Catherine De Vries

Whether he’s targeting Greenland, tariffs or Iran, Trump’s agenda is to distract – because a Europe that is always reacting is never planning

When Donald Trump reassured the world that he would not, after all, use force to acquire Greenland – after days of threatening as much – he was doing what he does best: turning geopolitics into a spectacle. Whether Trump ever truly believed the US should acquire a vast Arctic territory belonging to a Nato ally is secondary to the fact that, once again, he ensured that Europe and the rest of the world were focused on his agenda.

Trump is not a politician who responds to events – he seeks to make them. Not because he is deeply invested in policy detail, but because he understands a defining feature of contemporary politics: attention is power. In an era of information overload, there is no scarcity of data or analysis; what is lacking is attention. And whoever controls that controls the debate.

Published: January 28, 2026, 5:00 am

Why would anyone buy Lily Allen’s haunted house? I have an inkling ... | Polly Hudson

The Brooklyn townhouse is filled with spectres of her ill-fated marriage to David Harbour. But perhaps the buyer has some creative ideas

How long a minute is depends which side of the bathroom door you’re on. Now it appears that how much a $1m loss matters depends how eager you are for your business to be concluded.

That’s pretty eager apparently – and unsurprisingly – if you’re Lily Allen and David Harbour. The former couple have just accepted $7m for the Brooklyn townhouse they listed for $8m in October.

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 28, 2026, 11:00 am

Sanctions are not a humane alternative to bombs. They are economic warfare with civilians as collateral damage | Kenneth Mohammed

In the Caribbean and Latin America, the lived reality of these measures – presented in the language of diplomacy – is stark

Across borders, cultures and faiths, most ordinary people want the same things: the ability to earn a living, put a roof over their heads, feed their families and watch their children grow up with a future. These are not radical ideas, but they are today routinely sacrificed on the altar of geopolitics.

When power and profit take precedence, governments abandon the everyday realities of those they claim to protect and serve, especially when domination of another country’s resources, markets or political direction is at stake.

Published: January 28, 2026, 7:00 am

Champions League: Benfica keeper earns playoff place; Liverpool, Spurs and City book top-eight spots – as it happened

Anatoliy Trubin’s 98th-minute goal was the highlight of a dramatic night on which all the English teams bar Newcastle finished in the top eight

Napoli Meret, Di Lorenzo, Juan Jesus, Buongiorno, Spinazzola, Lobotka, McTominay, Olivera, Vergara, Elmas, Hojlund.

Subs: Contini, Spinelli, Gutierrez, Lukaku, Beukema, De Chiara, Garofalo.

Published: January 28, 2026, 10:39 pm

Patrick Reed quits rebel LIV Golf tour in latest blow to Saudi-backed breakaway

• American becomes latest major winner to exit

• 2018 Masters champion will be eligible for PGA Tour

Patrick Reed has delivered the ­latest high-profile blow to LIV Golf by announcing he will leave the circuit before the start of its 2026 season.

The 35-year-old American former Masters champion joins Brooks Koepka by instead focusing on the PGA Tour. Reed will spend his immediate time on the DP World Tour, where he won the Dubai Desert Classic on Sunday. Reed tees up in Bahrain from Thursday.

Published: January 28, 2026, 5:30 pm

‘Insane’: LeBron and Mahomes lead backlash after Belichick’s reported Hall of Fame snub

• Belichick widely seen as one of greatest ever coaches

• Hall of Fame declines to comments on ESPN report

Six-time Super Bowl champion head coach Bill Belichick has been snubbed by the Pro Football Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility, according to a report from ESPN.

Citing four unidentified sources, ESPN reported on Tuesday that Belichick didn’t receive the necessary 40 votes from the 50-person panel of media members and other Hall of Famers. ESPN said the longtime New England Patriots coach received a call from the Hall of Fame last Friday with the news. According to the report, Belichick said “Six Super Bowls isn’t enough?” when he was told the news.

The Hall of Fame declined to comment before its class of 2026 is announced at NFL Honors in San Francisco on 5 February.

Published: January 28, 2026, 2:23 am

‘Fascism is here now’: the US athletes pushing back on Trump’s America

World Series winner Sean Doolittle, Super Bowl champion Doug Baldwin and college star McKenzie Forbes have strong opinions on a troubled era

At 6.38pm CST on Saturday January 24, Indiana Pacer star Tyrese Haliburton posted on X: “Alex Pretti was murdered.”

The NBA star was one of the first athletes to respond to what can only be described as the public execution by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials of 37-year-old nurse Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. Pretti’s death was the culmination of a weeks-long campaign of terror conducted against residents of the city, including Renee Good, who was herself killed by DHS forces just two weeks earlier. Indeed, “Operation Metro Surge” in Minneapolis has accounted for two-thirds of homicides in the city in 2026.

Published: January 28, 2026, 11:00 am

ICE agents expected to be deployed for Super Bowl in California, officials say

Local officials confirmed that ICE will conduct immigration operations during 8 February game in Santa Clara

US Customs and Immigration Enforcement (ICE) agents are expected to conduct immigration enforcement operations during next month’s Super Bowl game in Santa Clara, California.

Local officials confirmed to media that ICE is expected to deploy for the game between the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots. ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations team has long worked the Super Bowl and other major sporting events, largely focused on preventing human trafficking and stopping the sale of counterfeit goods, but immigration operations would be unusual.

Published: January 28, 2026, 7:37 pm

Browns to appoint Todd Monken as head coach after slew of candidate withdrawals

• Ravens OC replaces Kevin Stefanski in Cleveland

• Several candidates passed on chance to take job

The Cleveland Browns are naming Todd Monken as their head coach, according to multiple reports.

Monken had been Baltimore’s offensive coordinator for the past three seasons, and his appointment comes after several high-profile candidates rejected the Browns. He has also interviewed for Tampa Bay’s offensive coordinator opening and was tied to the New York Giants offensive coordinator spot after John Harbaugh was named coach.

Published: January 28, 2026, 6:10 pm

‘Animals in the zoo’: Iga Swiatek backs Coco Gauff over Australian Open privacy concerns

• American was caught on camera smashing racket

• ‘It would be nice to have some privacy,’ says Swiatek

Iga Swiatek backed up Coco Gauff’s complaints about a lack of privacy at the Australian Open by claiming that players are treated like zoo animals.

Gauff sought a spot away from ­public view to let her frustration out by smashing a racket after her quarter-final defeat against Elina ­Svitolina on Tuesday, only to find out she was on camera after all.

Published: January 28, 2026, 7:44 am

Zuffa Boxing says it will save the sport – but the fine print shows that fighters may pay the price

Dana White has promised boxers a new deal. But the deal he’s offering looks worse than the old one. Will Congress give Zuffa the power to dominate boxing?

Even Turki al-Sheikh’s most severe critics acknowledge that, under his guidance, the Saudi interests that have dominated professional boxing in recent years have paid generous purses to fighters. Now the Saudis have turned to TKO Group Holdings and Dana White to oversee Zuffa Boxing – a newly created vehicle designed to expand the footprint of its equity partners in the United States.

Zuffa Boxing is taking a far less generous approach toward fighters than Sheikh did. That’s evidenced by the contract that many of the fighters being recruited by Zuffa are being asked to sign.

Published: January 28, 2026, 8:00 am

Leon Goretzka says Donald Trump ‘makes us feel not only German but European’

• Midfielder speaks out on politics before World Cup

• Goretzka open to summer move to England from Bayern

The Germany international Leon Goretzka has said Donald Trump’s actions have left him feeling “not only German but also European”. The US president has recently threatened to take Greenland by force and called Europe “weak” and “decaying”.

Goretzka, who hopes to make the Germany squad for the World Cup in the US, Canada and Mexico this summer, told Die Zeit: “Of course, I’m aware of the political debates. I still expect it to be a great tournament – it will promote football there, and show many people want an incredibly exciting game. Donald Trump makes us feel not only German but also European.”

Published: January 28, 2026, 3:44 pm

Russian and Ukrainian military casualties in war nearing 2m, study finds

Thinktank says about 1.2m Russians troops killed, wounded or missing to date and 600,000 Ukrainians

The number of Russian and Ukrainian troops killed, wounded or gone missing in nearly four years of war could reach 2 million by this spring, according to a study, as Moscow’s invasion shows no sign of abating.

A report by the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) estimates Russia has had about 1.2 million casualties, including as many as 325,000 deaths, while close to 600,000 Ukrainian troops have been killed, wounded or gone missing.

Published: January 28, 2026, 11:28 am

Live TV report on cougar capture in San Francisco neighborhood interrupted by coyote

‘Your eyes do not deceive you,’ ABC7 told viewers about unexpected turn during report from Pacific Heights

Live television reporting about an incident where a young mountain lion was safely tranquilized and captured in San Francisco’s Pacific Heights neighborhood took an unexpected turn on Tuesday when a coyote wandered into the background during the broadcast.

During live coverage of the feline’s capture, the ABC7 News reporter Frances Wang was on camera when an unexpected urban resident passed behind her. A coyote calmly walked through the shot, unnoticed as she continued reporting. Video of the moment quickly gained attention for the visual irony of one wild predator being removed as another freely roamed the city streets.

Published: January 28, 2026, 5:50 pm

US intelligence agencies disagree with Trump’s opposition to Chagos deal, says Starmer

Downing Street sources say agreement is ‘done deal’ and will not be scuppered by US president’s U-turn

US intelligence agencies disagree with Donald Trump’s newly found opposition to the Chagos deal, Keir Starmer has said, as he underlined how the US administration had supported the deal as it bolstered their defences.

The prime minister made his remarks, which could undermine the US president’s fresh view of the deal as an “act of great stupidity”, on the flight to Beijing for a visit that will cover UK national security among other issues.

Published: January 28, 2026, 5:00 pm

Microsoft shrugs off AI bubble fears again with strong financial results

Company reports second-quarter revenues of $81.27bn but posts slowing growth in key cloud computing business

Investor interest in Microsoft shares may have weakened in recent months, but the company posted strong financial results on Wednesday which yet again demonstrated that the AI boom is roaring on.

Microsoft reported earnings for the second quarter of fiscal year that are likely to keep the party going for Wall Street, despite slowing growth in its key cloud computing business.

Published: January 28, 2026, 9:48 pm

Bruce Springsteen releases anti-ICE song dedicated to Minneapolis

Singer says song is in response to ‘state terror’ visiting city, painting image of unrest due to ‘King Trump’s private army’

Bruce Springsteen has released a new song dedicated to Minnesota’s largest city as a response to “the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis” and the recent killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal immigration agents in the city.

In a message shared on social media, Springsteen explained: “I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good. Stay free.”

Published: January 28, 2026, 6:36 pm

Chinese investigators to visit Brisbane to help in search for man who allegedly burned baby with coffee

Stranger allegedly threw Thermos of coffee on nine-month-old boy in Brisbane park in 2024

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A Chinese team will visit Australia to help search for a man who allegedly randomly attacked a baby with hot coffee before fleeing the country.

China’s ambassador to Australia, Xiao Qian, announced on Wednesday that investigators will travel to Queensland to work with police to investigate the 33-year-old accused attacker.

Published: January 28, 2026, 10:12 pm

Le scoop! France’s last newspaper hawker celebrated with prestigious award

Ali Akbar, 73, honoured by Emmanuel Macron with National Order of Merit for dedication he pours into work

For more than five decades he’s pounded the pavements of Paris, becoming part of the city’s cultural fabric as he strikes up conversations, greets longtime friends and offers parodies of daily news headlines.

On Wednesday, the efforts of the man believed to be France’s last newspaper hawker were recognised, as Ali Akbar, a 73-year-old originally from Pakistan, received one of France’s most prestigious honours.

Published: January 28, 2026, 7:28 pm

Trump signs order to speed up rebuilds of homes affected by 2025 LA wildfires

LA mayor calls order, which seeks to let people rebuild without permitting requirements, a ‘political stunt’

Donald Trump announced that he has signed an executive order to “cut through bureaucratic red tape” and speed up reconstruction of tens of thousands of homes destroyed by the January 2025 Los Angeles-area wildfires.

The US president’s order, which he announced on Tuesday but signed on Friday, seeks to allow homeowners to rebuild without contending with “unnecessary, duplicative or obstructive” permitting requirements, the White House said in a statement.

Published: January 28, 2026, 7:04 pm

‘Shameful’: Trump’s EPA accused of prioritizing big business over public health

A year into Trump’s second term, critics say the EPA is rolling back dozens of protections and giving a leg up to polluters

After a tumultuous year under the Trump administration, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has adopted a new, almost unrecognizable guise – one that tears up environmental rules and cheerleads for coal, gas-guzzling cars and artificial intelligence.

When Donald Trump took power, it was widely anticipated the EPA would loosen pollution rules from sources such as cars, trucks and power plants, as part of a longstanding back and forth between administrations over how strict such standards should be.

Published: January 28, 2026, 12:00 pm

‘I wasn’t going to be diverted,’ says King Charles about campaign on the environment

Monarch says he has remained focused despite early criticisms of his beliefs, in new film Finding Harmony: A King’s Vision

King Charles has revealed he “wasn’t going to be diverted” from his environmental campaigning despite criticism in the past in a new documentary showcasing his philosophy of “Harmony”.

In the Amazon Prime Video film, his first project with a streaming platform, Charles recalls past attacks on his outspokenness on the environment, saying: “I just felt this was the approach that I was going to stick to. A course I set and I wasn’t going to be diverted from.”

Published: January 28, 2026, 5:30 pm

Pregnant, 19 and facing down a mutiny: how did Mary Ann Patten steer her way into seafaring lore?

Finding herself in charge of her sick husband’s clipper, a self-taught working-class teenager overcame storms, icebergs and a disloyal first mate to get her ship to safety

No one knows exactly what Mary Ann Patten said in September 1856 when she convinced a crew on the verge of mutiny to accept her command as captain. What is known is that Patten, who was 19 and pregnant, was a force to be reckoned with.

After taking the helm from her sick husband in the middle of a ferocious storm off the coast of Cape Horn, the notoriously hazardous tip of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago off southern Chile, she successfully put down the mutiny and navigated her way to safety through a sea of icebergs.

Published: January 28, 2026, 11:00 am

Smothering, bullying, stabbing: how it feels to be in one of the hottest places on Earth

Everything felt like it was swelling, and despite my diligent consumption of water and Hydralyte, I couldn’t quite escape the persistent, low-level nausea. Even thinking took longer

My mother grew up in Warracknabeal, a speck of a town four hours from Melbourne, Australia, in the wide, wheat country of the Wimmera – that part of Victoria where the sky starts to stretch, where you can see weather happening 100 kilometres away.

Once or twice a year, our family would pack into the rattling old LandCruiser and drive up to visit my grandmother. It can’t always have been blistering weather but my memories of those trips are shot through with summer heat: the peeling paint of my grandmother’s house, the blasted-dry grass of the reserve over the road and its ancient metal monkey bars, so hot they burned your hands. Once, a dust storm blew up while we were there, engulfing the small weatherboard house in howling dirty orange.

Published: January 28, 2026, 6:52 am

Chicago’s United Center to offer cannabis drinks – could other arenas follow?

Drinks to be sold at concerts under federal legislation but attenders may have to wait to imbibe at sporting events

THC-infused beverages will now be available at special events in the United Center, the home of the Chicago Bulls and the Chicago Blackhawks, which some experts suggest may pave the way for other arenas to do the same.

These drinks can be sold outside of state-legal recreational dispensaries because they are part of the hemp-derived cannabis market that is currently legal on the federal level.

Published: January 28, 2026, 1:07 pm

Maine’s ‘Lobster Lady’ who fished for nearly a century dies aged 105

Virginia ‘Ginny’ Oliver, had entered the business when she was eight and liked ‘being along the water’

Maine’s governor has hailed the life of a woman who spent nearly 100 years fishing for lobsters as “amazing” and expressed hopes that her memory inspires “the next century of hardworking” fishers in the state.

The subject of Governor Janet Mills’ tribute, Virginia “Ginny” Oliver, died on 21 January at age 105, according to an obituary published on Monday by her family.

Published: January 28, 2026, 11:00 am

SpaceX mulls $1.5tn IPO timed to ‘align with Musk’s birthday and the planets’

World’s richest person targeting symbolic date in June for flotation of rocket company

Elon Musk’s SpaceX is considering a flotation valuing the rocket company at $1.5tn (£1.1tn) that will reportedly be timed for early summer to coincide with a planetary alignment and the multibillionaire’s birthday.

The world’s richest person is targeting a symbolic date of mid-June for the initial public offering, according to the Financial Times. This would be around the same time as Jupiter and Venus appear in close proximity to each other and shortly before Musk turns 55 on 28 June.

Published: January 28, 2026, 3:56 pm

Man in hospital after shooting by border agent in Arizona

Authorities say suspect, who escaped from facility in 2024, ran from traffic stop and fired shots at helicopter

A shooting involving a border patrol agent near the US-Mexico border in Arizona has left an accused smuggler in critical condition, local authorities said on Tuesday.

Border patrol agents attempted to stop a car at about 7am, the Pima county sheriff, Chris Nanos, said at a press conference. Several people exited the car and ran off, and the vehicle drove away, Nanos said. About half an hour later, agents relocated the car and attempted to stop it again. The driver fled on foot, and a border agent chased after him.

Published: January 28, 2026, 2:55 am

Google DeepMind launches AI tool to help identify genetic drivers of disease

AlphaGenome can analyse up to 1m letters of DNA code at once and could pave way for new treatments

Researchers at Google DeepMind have unveiled their latest artificial intelligence tool and claimed it will help scientists identify the genetic drivers of disease and ultimately pave the way for new treatments.

AlphaGenome predicts how mutations interfere with the way genes are controlled, changing when they are switched on, in which cells of the body, and whether their biological volume controls are set to high or low.

Published: January 28, 2026, 4:15 pm

Chinese man who filmed evidence of Xinjiang rights abuses is granted asylum in US

Lawyer for Guan Heng, whose exposed evidence of persecution of Uyghurs, says he is ‘textbook example of why asylum should exist’

A US immigration judge has granted asylum to a Chinese national who he said had a “well founded fear” of persecution if sent back to China after exposing alleged human rights abuses against Uyghurs there.

Guan Heng applied for asylum after arriving in the US illegally in 2021. He has been in custody since being swept up in an immigration enforcement operation in August last year as part of a mass deportation campaign by the Trump administration.

Published: January 29, 2026, 1:43 am

Kim Keon Hee, wife of South Korea’s ousted president, jailed for corruption

Ex-first lady sentenced to 20 months for receiving gifts for political favours, as Yoon Suk Yeol awaits rebellion verdict

The wife of South Korea’s ousted president Yoon Suk Yeol has been sentenced to 20 months in prison for corruption, as her husband awaits a verdict on a high-stakes rebellion charge that could result in the death penalty or life imprisonment.

Kim Keon Hee was sentenced for receiving luxury gifts including a Graff diamond necklace and a Chanel bag from the Unification Church in return for promises of political favours.

Published: January 28, 2026, 2:15 pm

Qatari plane hits Milan airport lights during arrival of Winter Olympics staff

Aircraft carrying 104 personnel damaged lighting tower while making ‘wrong manoeuvre’ after landing

A Qatari military cargo plane carrying security staff in Italy to assist with law enforcement for the Winter Olympics struck a lighting tower on Sunday as it manoeuvred upon landing at Milan’s Malpensa airport, it has emerged.

The aircraft was carrying 104 personnel from the Gulf state’s elite security forces, plus huge jeeps and snowmobiles, as part of an agreement made with the Italian government, despite Qatar not competing in the games.

Published: January 28, 2026, 3:22 pm

Till DVD release do us part: how far will Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi take their Wuthering Heights showmance?

We’ve had declarations of obsession, we’ve had notification of their matching rings … can someone please throw some cold water over this press tour love-fest?

Even though it isn’t released for another fortnight, you may already have formed strong opinions about Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights. Perhaps you hold the position that the novel is a text so sacred that any adaptation whatsoever is equivalent to sacrilege. Or maybe you are excited to see what a noted iconoclast such as Fennell will do with something as fusty as a 179-year-old book.

Either way, it is likely that your key takeaway from the Wuthering Heights press tour so far is that it’s getting a bit much. It has now been revealed that Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi have matching rings decorated with two hugging skeletons and the phrase “Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same”.

Published: January 28, 2026, 4:15 pm

‘Do you want to say I’m dated?’ Artist Anne Imhof on her S&M Venice shocker – and the show that earned a mauling

She was the art world’s hottest ticket after her confrontational goths-and-dobermans show at the Venice Biennale. But did she get too cosy with the worlds of fashion and advertising?

‘I don’t know what you want to know,” says Anne Imhof, three-quarters of the way into our interview. Her cautious smile, between curtains of jet black hair, changes into a sceptical pout. I have just quoted a headline at Imhof, one of Germany’s most important contemporary artists, that described her 2025 New York show as “a bad Balenciaga ad”.

Just a few years ago, Imhof was the hottest ticket on the international art circuit: a Golden Lion winner at the 2017 Venice Biennale, whose transformation of the German pavilion into a sinister, S&M-flavoured “catwalk show from hell” had masses scrambling to join the queue. Imhof was a cultural polymath whose shows combined etchings, paintings, dance, live music and film; a muse to fashion designers whose sporty goth aesthetic – Adidas tracksuit bottoms, chunky trainers, black leather – beseiged the clubs of Berlin and beyond.

Published: January 28, 2026, 4:36 pm

See You When I See You review – familar Sundance-y grief comedy drama has its moments

Sundance film festival: Jay Duplass recruits David Duchovny, Hope Davis and Kaitlyn Dever for a patchy, poignant tale

If anyone can speak to the “end of an era” nostalgia coursing through the legacy-minded 2026 Sundance film festival, its final edition in Park City and its first without founder Robert Redford, it would be Jay Duplass. The film-maker first attended the indie festival along with his brother, Mark, in 2003, with a self-proclaimed “$3 film”, then went on to premiere three projects – The Puffy Chair, Baghead and Cyrus – that epitomized the much-debated, very indie mumblecore movement of yore. For the Duplass brothers, the festival was, as it has been for many a small-budget artist trying to break out, the difference between a career and another $3 film. Without Sundance, he recently joked: “I’d probably be a psychologist right now.”

Psychologist sympathies peek through See You When I See You, Duplass’s feature film return to the festival after 16 years largely focused on acting and directing episodic television, notably for Togetherness, Search Party and the criminally underseen Somebody, Somewhere. An earnest adaptation of comedian Adam Cayton-Holland’s memoir, Tragedy Plus Time, the 102-minute film is both a straightforward tribute to psychotherapy and a tightrope walk of tone, attempting to balance profound grief with breezy comedy for a family reeling from a shocking loss.

See You When I See You is screening at the Sundance film festival and is seeking distribution

Published: January 28, 2026, 6:02 pm

Shrinking season three review – Harrison Ford is the best thing about this unapologetically soapy show

This warm, inoffensive but undeniably mawkish comedy about a therapist is cosy but preposterous. Sometimes it’s like the excellent Ford is in a totally different programme

Such is the surfeit of TV offered up to us in the streaming age that there are whole shows featuring A-list actors that only two of your friends have heard of and even fewer are watching. A case in point: Apple’s Shrinking, a dramedy from the creator of Scrubs and Ted Lasso about a grieving therapist who, rather than merely nodding and looking sad, decides to get brutally honest with his patients.

Now in its third season, its brightest star remains Harrison Ford, who plays our protagonist Jimmy’s (Jason Segel) grouchy but good-hearted boss. It’s probably for the best that it isn’t in the big leagues: while Shrinking has its moments of greatness, the series is – by and large – an unapologetically soapy confection best enjoyed, like most sweet things, in moderation.

Shrinking is on Apple TV now.

Published: January 28, 2026, 8:00 am

Wonder Man review – a Marvel TV show with almost no superhero action … and it’s all the better for it

This gem of a series, about an actor with superpowers, is a clever, tender take on male friendship and the film industry. It’s a triumph of storytelling – and a masterclass in acting

We are back in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. If you feel fatigue stealing over you already, banish it! It’s going to be OK. Even though Wonder Man is (by my incredulous reckoning) about the 30th MCU series produced by Marvel Television and companions – from the dizzying heights of WandaVision to … well, She-Hulk – it is a little gem.

And it is quite little, in MCU terms. Not only are the eight episodes only around half an hour long but they also eschew spectacle in favour of storytelling. It’s a radical idea, but you never know, it might catch on.

Published: January 28, 2026, 5:00 am

The Only Living Pickpocket in New York review – John Turturro steals this simple, charming tale

Sundance film festival: the actor plays a pickpocket who steals from the wrong person in a leisurely, straightforward crime thriller with a sting in its tail

Noah Segan’s light-footed crime noir The Only Living Pickpocket in New York is a film obsessed with the gap between the old and new. There are memories shared about how things used to be, and some older characters refusing to keep up with digital progression, while there are eye-rolls from the younger generation, poking fun at those losing touch with how the world now operates. I’d argue that the theme is often a little overplayed, a classic case of writer-director Segan – a frequent Rian Johnson collaborator – telling rather than showing. But his film makes a convincing case for the old, a brisk throwback to a 70s-era character-led thriller, made with borrowed flair from yesteryear.

The title is itself partly borrowed from a Simon and Garfunkel song and speaks to a protagonist of a dying breed, a pickpocket who prides himself on the old ways; though he might swipe smartphones, he doesn’t own one. He’s played by John Turturro, an actor who hasn’t enjoyed many a lead role of late – his last was in the ill-received Big Lebowski “sequel” The Jesus Rolls and that’s only because he wrote and directed it himself. But this is a welcome step up, or step back up, for someone deserving of something more substantial to tear into. Fittingly, he’s someone who would have arguably had a more prominent career as a leading man in a different time.

The Only Living Pickpocket in New York is screening at the Sundance film festival and is seeking distribution

Published: January 28, 2026, 3:53 am

Gonna be golden? Who will – and should – win the big awards at the 2026 Grammys

The top categories are stacked with quality, from Bad Bunny to Kendrick Lamar, Chappell Roan and K-pop hits – but here are the artists who most deserve to triumph

Bad Bunny – DTMF
Sabrina Carpenter – Manchild
Doechii – Anxiety
Billie Eilish – Wildflower
Kendrick Lamar & SZA – Luther
Lady Gaga – Abracadabra
Chappell Roan – The Subway
Rosé & Bruno Mars – APT.

Published: January 28, 2026, 10:00 am

‘Fascists threatened us but we always took them on’: the anarchic Bradford club still fighting after 45 years

A new book and podcast tell the story of a 1 in 12, a venue that used community and artistic passion as bulwarks against poverty and grim politics. Its founders and key acts recall gigs, plays and pranks on the NME

“Things were getting grim,” says Gary Cavanagh, reflecting on Bradford in the early 1980s. “There was a hell of a lot of unemployment, and people were thrown on the scrap heap.”

Cavanagh was working for Bradford’s claimants union in 1981, helping the city’s poor and unemployed get benefits, when a government report stated that one in 12 dole recipients were defrauding the state. So he and some friends reclaimed this statistic – which they thought was ludicrous – as an identity. “We became the 1 in 12 Club,” he says.

Published: January 28, 2026, 4:08 pm

The Puma by Daniel Wiles review – a visceral tale of cyclical violence

A father and son move to the Patagonian woods – but intensity wanes when a search for home becomes an obsessive quest for revenge

When the protagonist of Daniel Wiles’s debut novel Mercia’s Take, set in a mining community during the industrial revolution, left a bag of gold downstairs unprotected and then went to bed, I actually closed the book, in an attempt to stop the unfolding disaster. After finding this seam of gold, miner Michael dreams that his son will be able to go to school, rather than join the other children who work in the mine, like “blind, bald rodents unearthing themselves in search of scraps of candlelight”. In the novel, which won the 2023 Betty Trask prize, everything closes in on Michael: lungs clog, tunnels collapse, horse-drawn narrowboats are attacked by robbers in the sooty dusk. It’s a vivid reminder of the cost, in bodily suffering, of resource extraction.

The Puma, Wiles’s second novel, is also a serious and intense historical novel about a father with limited resources who attempts to break a cycle of violence. In the early 1950s Bernardo, a more morally ambiguous figure than Michael, has brought his young son James across the Atlantic from England to the house in the Patagonian woods where he himself grew up. James chatters blithely about becoming a footballer, but Bernardo is distracted. He thinks he sees “shadows of his family walking in and out”, reminding him of a childhood in which “his eyes were wide and hurt by the twilight and he was barefooted and emptyhearted”.

Published: January 28, 2026, 9:00 am

David Bowie and the Search for Life, Death and God by Peter Ormerod review – the making of a modern saint

An exhilarating account of Bowie’s spirituality and the quasi-religious nature of his work, from Space Oddity to Blackstar

It has become a tired cliche among fans to say that everything went wrong in the world after Bowie died in 2016. It also misses the point: rather than being one of the last avatars of a liberal order that has crumbled around our ears, Bowie prophesied the mayhem that has replaced it.

In his later years, he thought that we had entered a zone of chaos and fragmentation. This is what allowed him to be so prescient about the internet – not its promise, but its menace. There is no plan and no order. There is just disaster and social collapse. Those looking for reassurance should not listen to Bowie (please listen to something, anything, else). His world, from Space Oddity through to the background violence of The Next Day and Blackstar, was always drowned or destroyed or incinerated: “This ain’t rock’n’roll, this is genocide” as he exclaims at the beginning of Diamond Dogs.

Published: January 28, 2026, 7:00 am

A poor surprise reveal for Highguard leaves it fighting an uphill battle for good reviews

​In the fiercely competitive market ​of the online multiplayer game, Highguard​’s rocky start means it now has a lot to prove

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In the fast-paced, almost psychotically unforgiving video game business, you really do have to stick the landing. Launching a new game is an artform in itself – do you go for months of slowly building hype or a sudden shock reveal, simultaneously announcing and releasing a new project in one fell swoop? The latter worked incredibly well for online shooter Apex Legends, which remains one of the genre’s stalwarts six years after its surprise launch on 4 February 2019. What you don’t do with a new release, is something that falls awkwardly between those two approaches. Enter Highguard.

This new online multiplayer title from newcomer Wildlight Entertainment has an excellent pedigree. The studio was formed by ex-Respawn Entertainment staff, most of whom previously worked on Titanfall, Call of Duty and the aforementioned Apex Legends. They know what they’re doing. But the launch has been … troubled.

Published: January 28, 2026, 12:35 pm

Bluey tops US streaming charts in 2025 for second year in a row, with 45bn minutes watched

Australian children’s cartoon series about a family of blue heelers has yet to announce a new season

Australian-made animated series Bluey was the most streamed show in the US for the second year in a row, topping Nielsen’s annual year-end streaming charts for 2025.

US viewers watched 45.2bn minutes of the show on Disney+ according to Nielsen, down from 55.62bn in 2024, but still impressive given the show comprises 154 episodes – most of them less than 10 minutes’ long.

Published: January 29, 2026, 12:01 am

The last man left in a Moldovan village: Laetitia Vançon’s best photograph

‘Dobrușa once had a population of 200. Grisa now lived there alone with his 120 ducks and other animals. The two other remaining residents were murdered by a farmer from a neighbouring village’

This was taken in a village in rural Moldova that no longer exists. Thirty years ago, Dobrușa had a population of 200, and was typical of settlements found across the country after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. When this man Grisa moved there in 2000 to start a sheep farm, the population had declined to 70. When this was taken, in July 2019, he was the sole resident of the village. He was 65.

A few months before I took it, the only other remaining residents – a couple in their 40s – were murdered by a farmer from a neighbouring village. Their half-naked bodies were found on the ground. They’d been beaten to death. It was a very dark story and, after this terrible incident, Grisa told me he no longer felt safe living alone there. He was thinking about moving to a bigger village.

Published: January 28, 2026, 3:09 pm

No 1 for nuns! Níall McLaughlin is architecture’s discreet daredevil – and deserves its top award

Forget brash statement projects – Riba’s prestigious gold medal has gone to a pivotal figure who works above an Aldi and designs billowing bandstands, jewel-like chapels and buildings that change colour

When Níall McLaughlin was shortlisted for the Stirling prize in 2013, for designing an exquisitely jewel-like chapel for a theological college near Oxford, he brought along his client to the prize-giving ceremony. It was the first (and possibly last) time a group of Anglican nuns had ever graced such a spectacle.

Despite clearly having God on his side, he lost out that year, but eventually scooped the Stirling in 2022, for the New Library at Magdalene College, Cambridge. Founded in 1428, Magdalene’s alumni include Samuel Pepys, Norman Hartnell and Bamber Gascoigne. Oxbridge colleges expect their buildings to endure, and McLaughlin delivered a reassuringly robust and handsomely detailed exemplar, mixing crisp planes of brick that recalled the American modernist Louis Kahn, with top notes of English Arts and Crafts, echoing the gabled forms of the college’s historic courts.

Published: January 29, 2026, 12:01 am

Why Max Richter’s Hamnet needle-drop left me cold | Tom Service on music

In a new weekly column about the world of classical music, Tom Service bemoans Hollywood turning pieces into slop through overuse. Plus: Philip Glass withdraws his symphony from the Kennedy Center

Back in 2008, Transport for London came up with a ruse to dispel antisocial behaviour: it piped classical music into supposedly problematic stations in the crime hotspots of south London. I think that was when I realised just how far the association of classical music with relaxing affect instead of real emotion had gone. Once an entire genre has become associated with relaxification, it’s enough for you to hear the sound of an orchestra and think, “This isn’t for me”. Whatever its BPM, classical music will only be a backdrop, the sound of luxury goods, the sound of cultural anaesthetic.

The playlist included the finale of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony – music that is obsessive and wild, the sound of barely controlled hysteria, full of harmonic grind and rhythmic assault. This radical and Dionysian music, that was literally made to push communities of orchestras and listeners to their extremes in the early 19th century, was being reduced to calming and inoffensive aural wallpaper.

Published: January 28, 2026, 1:26 pm

A moment that changed me: I went on holiday – and for the first time I felt I stood out

Leicester, where I grew up, was a ‘super diverse’ city. But when I went on a short trip with a friend, it gave me a glimpse of another world

When I was 24, I visited Ireland for the first time. It was the autumn after I graduated from university, and a friend who had won an award for her dissertation used her prize money to rent a beach hut on Valentia Island, so that we could spend a week working on our novels.

The stone hut stood very close to the water’s edge on the western tip of Ireland, overlooking the expansive metal-blue of the Atlantic. The island possessed a rugged kind of beauty – cliff edges, a lush rainforest, cold frothing water. It astounded us. As did the tranquillity. It was what we had come in search of.

Published: January 28, 2026, 10:54 am

My petty gripe: tempted to start a conversation with the stranger in the elevator? Please don’t

There are unspoken rules about being in an elevator, people! Unspoken being one of the most important

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Most people don’t relish being locked in a confined space, in close proximity to strangers, travelling at speed. And yet, so many people do nothing to elevate the experience for others.

I am floored at the enthusiasm of people who stand at the crack of elevator doors waiting for them to open, as if it were 9am at the Black Friday sales. When the doors open, they recoil in surprise – presumably they were expecting to be the first passengers on the maiden voyage of this metal tube sliding up and down the building’s shaft.

Published: January 28, 2026, 2:00 pm

The potato bed: is this the ultimate sleep solution?

It requires copious pillows and duvets, and has gone viral on social media. Will this elaborate new sleeping set-up give you a cosy night’s rest – or just exacerbate your back pain?

Name: The potato bed.

Age: About two months.

Published: January 28, 2026, 5:51 pm

Jess Cartner-Morley on fashion: Still wearing a cross-body bag and French-tucking your shirt? Sorry to say, your wardrobe is cringe

If you’re wearing tight clothes and flashing your ankles, you may want to make some bold changes

Is your wardrobe cringe? Does it make you look out-of-touch and cause younger and cooler people to look upon you with pity? Do you really want me to answer that? Never mind, I’m going to anyway, so buckle up. Brutal honesty is very January, so I will give it to you straight. But before we get down to dissecting your wardrobe, two quick questions for you. Do you put full stops in text messages? Were you baffled by Labubus? If the answer to those two questions is yes, then I’m afraid the signs are that your wardrobe is almost certainly cringe.

Being cringe is essentially being old-fashioned, but worse. Being old-fashioned is what happens when you grow older with grace and dignity. Cringe is when you lose your touch while convincing yourself you are still down with the kids.

Published: January 28, 2026, 2:00 pm

‘A catalyst for change’: how sustainable Copenhagen became fashion’s ‘fifth city’

In 20 years, Danish capital’s fashion week has pushed for greener standards and catapulted homegrown talent to global success

When it comes to fashion weeks, there used to be four key cities: New York, London, Milan and Paris. While they remain titleholders, a host of other cities from Berlin to Seoul and Lagos have been vying for the same recognition to become “the fifth fashion week”. But so far only one real winner has emerged: Copenhagen fashion week.

On Tuesday, the Danish showcase, which has helped catapult homegrown brands including Ganni into the international spotlight while spearheading sustainability initiatives, kicked off the start of its 20th-anniversary celebrations.

Published: January 28, 2026, 2:04 pm

The place that stayed with me: after a treacherous route through open desert, at Mina Mina I saw holiness

‘One day, Nangala,’ Aunty Agnes would say. ‘We’ll dance together at Mina Mina.’ And one day, for no good reason, I answered her: ‘Let’s do this thing’

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There are places on this Earth that still belong to themselves, places where very few people have stood. And some of those places are holy.

It was the summer of 2018 when we packed my old Hilux and a Troopie and set off from Lajamanu to Mina Mina. It had been Aunty Agnes’s idea. Although she’d painted this place for decades, she’d never set foot on Mina Mina, on her grandfather’s Country, in the jaws of Lake Mackay, Northern Great Sandy Desert.

Published: January 28, 2026, 2:00 pm

How to convert kitchen scraps into an infused oil – recipe

All those odds and ends of chillies, garlic skins and rind can be used to flavour oil for dunking, dipping and marinating

Today’s recipe began life as a way to use up garlic skins and herby leftovers, all of which contain a surprising amount of flavour, but it has evolved over time. Infused oil has countless uses – drizzle it over carpaccio, pasta or salad, use it to marinate meat, fish and vegetables, or simply as a dip for chunks of sourdough – and some of my favourites include lemon rind, garlic skin and rosemary; star anise, cacao and orange rind; and makrut lime leaf, lemongrass husk and coriander stems, which I found especially delicious drizzled over some noodles and pak choi. Freshly infused oils of this sort aren’t suitable for long storage, however, so use them up within a day to two.

Published: January 28, 2026, 1:00 pm

Protecting one of Europe’s last wild rivers: a volunteering trip to the Vjosa in Albania

Now a ‘wild river national park’, the Vjosa needs more trees to be planted to preserve its fragile ecosystem. And visitors are being asked to help …

Our induction into tree-planting comes from Pietro, an Italian hydromorphologist charged with overseeing our group of 20 or so volunteers for the week. We’re standing in a makeshift nursery full of spindly willow and poplar saplings just above the Vjosa River, a graceful, meandering waterway that cuts east to west across southern Albania from its source 169 miles away upstream in Greece.

Expertly extricating an infant willow from the clay-rich soil, Pietro holds up the plant for us all to see. Its earthy tendrils look oddly exposed and vulnerable. “The trick is not to accidentally snick the stem or break the roots,” he says. Message registered, we take up our hoes and head off in pairs to follow his instructions.

The volunteering week is the brainchild of EcoAlbania and the Austria-based Riverwatch. Back in 2023, these two conservation charities succeeded in persuading the Albanian government to designate the River Vjosa as Europe’s first “wild river national park”. It was a timely intervention. According to new research co-funded by Riverwatch, Albania has lost 711 miles (1,144km) of “nearly natural” river stretches since 2018 – more, proportionally, than any country in the Balkans. Now, the question facing both organisations is: what next?

On our first evening, Riverwatch’s chief executive, Ulrich (“Uli”) Eichelmann, gives a presentation setting out his answer. But before he does, we have a dinner of lamb and homegrown vegetables to work through. The traditional spread is a speciality of the Lord Byron guesthouse in Tepelenë, a small town in the heart of the Vjosa valley and home to EcoAlbania’s field office – our base for the week.

Published: January 28, 2026, 7:00 am

Slurp the blues away: Ravinder Bhogal’s recipes for winter noodle soup-stews

Heaven in a bowl: sweet-and-sour peanut with pasta, Burmese noodle soup with coconut, noodles and myriad garnishes, and an easy and flavourful dumpling soup

One of the best things for lifting deflated spirits is a deep bowl of steaming, restorative soup – perfect for warming the places your old woolly jumper can’t reach. I love the romance and cosiness of creamy European soups drunk straight out of a mug around a fire in November, but in the icy tundra that is January I need something with more heat and intensity, something sustaining, spicy, gutsy and textured, so that I need a fork or chopsticks to eat it, rather than just a spoon. These punchy soups are simply rapture in a bowl, and make for extremely satisfying slurping.

Published: January 28, 2026, 6:00 am

How Mormon women fought a Republican-led redistricting initiative in Utah – and won

A 9,000-member group’s legal win could flip a congressional seat to Democrats in the midterms

Emma Petty Addams is used to navigating political divides. She grew up as a conservative Mormon in California’s progressive San Francisco Bay Area. She identified as a Republican while attending the largely liberal Stanford University. At a young age, she learned how to find common ground with those who may not agree with her.

“I was oftentimes one of the most vocal, if not the only vocal, conservative in the room,” she said. “I learned how to speak my mind in a way that was hopefully persuasive.”

Published: January 28, 2026, 4:00 pm

Families in Maine scramble to halt ICE’s transfer of detainees out of state

Officials are quickly moving people they’ve apprehended out of state, making it difficult for loved ones to reach them

Family members have been scrambling to learn the whereabouts of more than 200 people arrested during a federal immigration crackdown that has swept across Maine this week, immigration attorneys said, as federal authorities quickly ferried detainees out of the state.

“We were buried in phone calls,” said Jenny Beverly, an immigration attorney with Haven Immigration Law. She said her team worked long hours to locate detainees and stop their transfer out of Maine.

Published: January 28, 2026, 1:55 pm

Why Democrats are suddenly embracing universal childcare

Candidates are putting universal childcare on platforms, and strategists say it could be a winning issue

When Francesca Hong ran for the Wisconsin state assembly in 2020, childcare was not front and center in her campaign. Now, the Democratic representative, restaurateur and mother is running for governor. And she has said that a universal childcare bill would be among the first measures she would like to sign into law if she becomes her state’s chief executive.

“We’re in a childcare catastrophe. We haven’t invested enough in this infrastructure,” Hong said in an interview with the Guardian. “Universal childcare meets the moment of the crisis we’re in, with the speed and scale to spread across the state.”

Published: January 28, 2026, 5:00 pm

US TikTok users: tell us how you feel about the app after the new US deal

Reports suggest more US users are deleting TikTok after a new agreement secured the app’s future in the US. We’d like to hear why – or why not

TikTok users in the US appear to be deleting the app at higher rates after the announcement of a new deal securing its future in the country, according to reports. The short-form video app, which is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, has faced years of uncertainty in the US amid concerns over data security and a possible ban.

The agreement creates a new US-based entity with majority US ownership and follows a long legal and political battle over the app’s operations. App analytics data suggests deletions have risen sharply in recent days, according to CNBC, as the deal has been accompanied by changes to terms and conditions, reports of technical issues and growing debate among users and creators about privacy, censorship and whether the app feels different to use.

Published: January 28, 2026, 5:37 pm

An artist’s tent in Gaza and Starmer in China: photos of the day – Wednesday

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

Published: January 28, 2026, 1:11 pm