Trump says he wants 'very honorable and honest investigation' of Alex Pretti killing

Trump and the White House has sought to lower tensions over the shooting deaths of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minneapolis.

Trump visiting Iowa to kick off midterm election campaigning

Sources say Iowa is seen as a key part of the Trump team's strategy to keep the House in GOP hands.

Judge blocks ICE from deporting or transferring 5-year-old and his father

A federal judge on Tuesday temporarily barred federal immigration officials from deporting 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father.

Power out for hundreds of thousands, death toll rises from winter storm

Deaths and power outages were reported across numerous states due to a monster storm across much of the country.

GM tops earnings expectations, announces dividend increase and stock buyback program

GM recorded $7.2 billion in special charges for the fourth quarter of 2025, largely related to its pullback in electric vehicles and restructuring in China.

American Airlines projects revenue growth for 2026, misses earnings estimates for fourth quarter

American expects to earn 7% to 10% more revenue in the first three months of 2026.

House Democrats to Trump: Fire DHS chief Noem or they'll start impeachment proceedings against her

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is facing criticism for her caustic comments on Alex Pretti, who was killed by a federal agent in Minnesota.

Read the memo: Amazon's grocery boss details restructuring, says more 'deliberate' strategy needed

Amazon's top grocery executive Jason Buechel told staff that the company needs to make more "deliberate choices" to win over customers.

Judge in Minnesota orders ICE chief to appear in court

The judge ordered the acting head of ICE to appear in his courtroom on Friday and explain why he should not be held in contempt of court.

Border Patrol involved in shooting in Arizona; person in critical condition

A sheriff's department said it was responding to the shooting in Arivaca, Arizona.

Donald Trump backs Kristi Noem as calls mount to fire homeland security chief – live

US president says Noem is ‘doing a very good job’ amid growing criticism of administration’s immigration crackdown after two US citizens were killed

• Border patrol commander to leave Minneapolis after shooting of Alex Pretti

Melania Trump has called for “unity” in the wake of the fatal federal law enforcement shootings of US citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis and widespread peaceful protests this month.

Asked about the tensions in Minneapolis on Fox News this morning, the first lady said:

We need to unify. I’m calling for unity. I know my husband, the president, had a great call yesterday with the governor and the mayor, and they’re working together to make it peaceful and without riots.

Heads of immigration agencies set to testify to Congress in February

Leaders of three immigration enforcement agencies are set to testify before House and Senate committees next month.

Meta, YouTube face trial over social media addiction, as TikTok settles

In a potentially bellwether case, a plaintiff alleges that social media companies deliberately design their platforms to target children.

Homebuyers are backing out of deals at the fastest pace in nearly a decade

More than 16% of signed contracts on homes in December were canceled, as consumers face continued uncertainty in the economy and rising inventory.

South Carolina measles outbreak now larger than Texas' in 2025, new data shows

South Carolina's measles outbreak has grown to include 789 cases. A West Texas outbreak last year sickened 762 people.

Root reveals Brook’s ‘Stone Cold’ celebration after England clinch Sri Lanka series win

• Root hails captain’s calmness in third ODI victory

• Brook imitates move of wrestler after making century

The wrestler “Stone Cold” Steve Austin was the surprising inspiration for Harry Brook’s century celebration as the England white-ball captain led his side to a one-day international series victory against Sri Lanka with a thrilling, unbeaten 136.

Brook, who was involved in a clash with a nightclub bouncer on the tour of New Zealand earlier this winter, took his gloves off upon reaching his hundred and imitated Austin’s move of bashing beer cans together in the ring before drinking them.

Bari Weiss tries to win CBS staffers’ trust amid ‘noise’ over 60 Minutes segment

In her first town hall, Weiss expressed some regret over her decision to pull 60 Minutes segment at the last minute

During her first address to CBS News employees as editor in chief, Bari Weiss acknowledged that there had been “a lot of noise” about her tumultuous tenure and said that some staffers might decide they don’t support her or want to continue working at the company.

“I just want to start by saying: I get it. And I get why, in the face of all this tumult and noise, you might feel uncertain or skeptical about me and about what I’m aiming to do here,” Weiss said on Tuesday morning, according to an audio recording of her comments obtained by the Guardian.

Pornhub to stop new UK users accessing site from next week

Company cites impact of mandatory age checks introduced in summer 2025 under the Online Safety Act

Pornhub is to stop new users accessing its site in the UK from next week, citing the impact of mandatory age checks that were introduced last summer under the Online Safety Act.

The pornography website, which is one of the most visited in the world, announced that from 2 February only users who have already verified their age will retain access through their existing accounts. The change also affects YouPorn and RedTube, explicit websites operated by the same Cyprus-based company, Aylo.

US announces multi-day aerial military drills in the Middle East amid Iran tensions

Exercises described by President Trump as an ‘armada’ to be led by the USS Abraham Lincoln amid standoff

The US has announced plans to hold multi-day military exercises in the Middle East as it deploys what Donald Trump has called an “armada” led by the USS Abraham Lincoln to the region as part of a tense standoff with Iran.

The display of US air power was announced as the White House has suggested it could launch new strikes on Iran after the government’s crackdown on pro-democracy protesters that has left thousands dead and many more in detention with their fates uncertain.

Biden condemns ‘our own government targeting’ US citizens in Minneapolis

Ex-president avoids naming Trump but says ‘Minnesotans have suffered enough at the hands of this administration’

Joe Biden has joined other former Democratic presidents in condemning the fatal shooting of the 37-year-old ICU nurse Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minneapolis, saying that it “betrays our most basic values as Americans”.

In a statement that alluded to the constitutional right to due process, Biden said: “We are not a nation that guns down our citizens in the street. We are not a nation that allows our citizens to be brutalized for exercising their constitutional rights. We are not a nation that tramples the fourth amendment and tolerates our neighbors being terrorized.”

Premier League has the power but still faces reckoning with European giants | Jonathan Wilson

English clubs stroll through Champions League group phase but fatigue tends to take its toll by the spring

Has there been a great game in the Champions League group stage this season? Probably not. Even if there had been, it almost certainly didn’t mean all that much. But that’s the way of the modern game: an extremely protracted clearing of the throat before the real business begins.

Uefa will proudly tell the world that only six teams have nothing to play for in the final round of games on Wednesday, but whether it was worth 126 games to get to the mild peril of Napoli or Club Brugge possibly going out, or the questionable thrill of finding out whether Tottenham or Atalanta will have to endure the playoff round, is debatable.

Some states expand ACA subsidies as federal tax credits lapse

A handful of U.S. states are moving to ease the cost of Affordable Care Act insurance as millions of Americans see their premiums spike.

ICE and CBP would keep operating during shutdown, despite DHS funding fight

A partial government shutdown would likely have little impact on immigration enforcement operations, since ICE and CBP got billions in last year's One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

Boeing's quarterly sales jump 57% as CEO says there's 'a lot to be optimistic about'

Boeing's aircraft deliveries have surged over the past year as the manufacturer expects to continue to increase production.

Teen's sister looks to TikTok to help solve 25-year-old murder mystery

With her posts and pleas on TikTok, Molly Bish's sister hopes she will generate new tips that will finally solve her sister's Massachusetts murder case and put an end to a painful decades-old mystery.

Motorcycle gang members accused of targeting judge for assassination

Members of a motorcycle club and a street gang clearly targeted an Indiana judge for assassination to derail a domestic abuse case, police said.

The Fed releases its latest interest rate decision Wednesday. Here's what to expect

This week's meeting offers little suspense and probably not much action, even as massive changes loom over the Fed's longer-term direction.

Jeffries says Democrats will move to impeach Noem if Trump doesn't fire her

More than half of House Democrats support impeaching Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem over the Trump administration's immigration crackdown.

A "Survivor" finalist's mission to prove his late sister was murdered

"Survivor" 48 contestant Joe Hunter believes his sister Joanna, whose death was ruled a suicide, was murdered. He and their mother are working to be Joanna's voice and advocate for others who have experienced domestic violence.

Will a woman's final moments, caught on tape, help prove she was murdered?

Bruno Rocuba claims a freak accident while handling his gun caused the death of his wife, Melissa Rocuba. He was not arrested or charged with any crime. Years later, investigators uncover disturbing new evidence that challenges what really happened that night in their Pennsylvania bedroom.

A young mom was near death from lead poisoning. Who was trying to kill her?

Hannah Pettey, 22, a married mother of two from Alabama, suffered debilitating pain and lost more than 45 pounds as her health rapidly declined. Doctors suspected either her mother or her husband were trying to poison her.

A crackdown on immigration is leading to a sharp drop in U.S. population growth

A sharp drop in net immigration has led to a slowdown in U.S. population growth. The Census Bureau says the population grew only about half as fast in the year ending last June as it did the previous year.

Texas sues Delaware nurse practitioner accused of mailing abortion pills across state lines

Suit against Debra Lynch is latest from Texas’s Republican attorney general amid ongoing attacks on abortion pills

As part of its ongoing crusade against abortion pills, Texas sued a nurse practitioner on Tuesday, accusing her of shipping pills into Texas in defiance of the state’s abortion ban.

The nurse practitioner, Debra Lynch, operates a Delaware-based group called Her Safe Harbor, which mails abortion pills to women living in states with abortion bans. Now, Texas wants a court to block Lynch from “performing, inducing or attempting abortions” in Texas, on the grounds that Texas law only permits physicians to facilitate abortions in cases of medical emergencies.

Firefighter accused of staging a house fire to cover up a murder

It was Thanksgiving Eve 2020, and Melissa Lamesch was excited about the upcoming birth of her first child. Investigators would learn there was someone who was not as enthused — the expectant father, firefighter Matthew Plote.

‘I was simply luckier’: Holocaust survivors warn against forgetting Nazi atrocities

People urged to stand up against populism and antisemitism as the world marks International Holocaust Memorial Day

Survivors of Auschwitz, the Nazi concentration camp, laid flowers and candles at the memorial site on Tuesday, as commemorations marking its liberation 81 years ago took place around Europe and beyond.

Marking International Holocaust Memorial Day, Jewish leaders across the continent warned against forgetting the extermination of millions, while some of the few remaining survivors urged ordinary people to stand up against populism and extremism.

Did an Illinois firefighter have a secret he was willing to kill for?

When Melissa Lamesch is found dead at home in Mt. Morris, Illinois, on the day before Thanksgiving, authorities zero in on Matthew Plote, a man trained to save lives, not take them.

Pinterest cites AI in laying off 15% of workforce

Pinterest is cutting costs to create more cash flow for AI-focused roles and AI‑powered products, the company said in a filing Tuesday.

Mexico’s president says cancellation of oil shipment to Cuba is ‘sovereign’ decision

Claudia Sheinbaum denied move was response to pressure from the US, after Trump said ‘zero’ oil would go to Cuba

Mexico has cancelled a shipment of oil to Cuba, the country’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, appeared to confirm on Tuesday, but she insisted the decision was “sovereign” and not a response to pressure from the US.

Fuel shortages are causing increasingly severe blackouts in Cuba, and Mexico has been the island’s biggest oil supplier since the US blocked shipments from Venezuela last month.

UPS to slash workforce by up to 30,000 jobs this year

UPS executive said the delivery company is moving to cut costs and plans to offer a voluntary separation program for full-time drivers.

The government is barreling toward a partial shutdown over DHS funding. Here's what to expect

The U.S. government may partially shutdown on Saturday months after a record 43-day closure in 2025.

Brothers were predators masquerading as party boys, New York court hears

Defense in sexual abuse trial of property magnates Tal, Oren and Alon Alexander urges jurors to reject ‘monstrous story’

Three brothers, two of them real estate agents who catered to the jet-set crowd, used a playbook over a 12-year stretch that sometimes involved drugging women and girls before raping them, a prosecutor told a New York jury on Tuesday in an opening statement.

Assistant US attorney Madison Smyser said the brothers used “whatever means necessary” including luxury accommodations, flights, drugs, alcohol and sometimes brute force to lure women into situations where they could be raped.

Melania: will documentary bankrolled by Bezos flop? | The Latest

Jeff Bezos’s Amazon MGM Studios is to release its feature-length documentary about Melania Trump, directed by Brett Ratner, a formerly exiled film-maker accused of sexual misconduct by multiple women. The film was screened at a promotional event at the White House attended by what the Hollywood reporter described as '70 assorted VIPs', including Apple’s Tim Cook and Mike Tyson. Bezos bought the rights to the film for $40m (£30m) and spent a further $35m on a global marketing push – but so far, ticket sales are reportedly ‘soft’. It is expected to be screened in more than 100 UK cinemas

GM expects to top Ford in U.S. vehicle production as it faces up to $4 billion in tariff costs

The 2026 tariff costs would be in line with the automaker's $3.1 billion in tariff costs last year, despite the levies not being in effect for all of 2025.

Government row breaks out over plan to cut spending for PE in England’s schools

Proposed cuts by DHSC and DfE came despite concerns about inactivity among children contributing to obesity

A row between government departments has broken out after the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) proposed cutting all its funding for physical education in schools, the Guardian understands.

The DHSC is now intending to restore the funding despite insisting privately for weeks that it would end its contribution, until the Guardian contacted the department. Ministers are understood to have overruled the cuts.

'Fireworks' wins Caldecott, Newbery is awarded to 'All the Blues in the Sky'

The best books for children and young adults were awarded the country's top honors by the American Library Association on Monday.

Philip Glass withdraws world premiere of his Lincoln symphony from Kennedy Center

Composer says values of Trump-dominated Kennedy Center ‘are in direct conflict’ with symphony’s message

Philip Glass, the celebrated US composer, has withdrawn the world premiere of his latest symphony at Washington DC’s John F Kennedy Center in protest of Donald Trump’s presidency.

In a statement on Tuesday, the 88-year-old composer said: “After thoughtful consideration, I have decided to withdraw my Symphony No 15 ‘Lincoln’ from the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Symphony No 15 is a portrait of Abraham Lincoln, and the values of the Kennedy Center today are in direct conflict with the message of the symphony.

How did Tucker Carlson become one of the far right's most influential voices?

Writer Jason Zengerle says Carlson had the foresight to see Trump's potential in 2015. Now he's someone the president "definitely listens to." Zengerle's new book is Hated by All the Right People.

"Doomsday Clock" moves to closest point yet to catastrophe

The "Doomsday Clock" is a metaphor for how close humanity is to self-annihilation.

Scientists shed new light on the brain's role in heart attack

Researchers discovered a feedback loop between nerve cells, the immune system and the heart. They think it shows promise as a target for future therapies.

Hobbycraft issues full recall of asbestos-tainted children’s play sand

Craft retailer says there is ‘risk to health’ after some vials in Giant Box of Craft set contained fibrous tremolite asbestos

Hobbycraft has issued a full recall of children’s coloured play sand after confirming some bottles contained asbestos, presenting “a risk to health”.

The Guardian revealed at the weekend that the craft retailer had stopped selling the kit after being alerted to the risk but had stopped short of alerting customers who had already bought the item.

‘Lifelong friendships were tarnished by my horrible statements’: Kanye West elaborates on apology for antisemitism

Rapper and fashion mogul, legally known as Ye, gives details of mental health treatment and speaks of making amends with those in his personal life

Kanye West has elaborated on his mindset during manic episodes in which he made strongly antisemitic comments.

On separate occasions, the rapper and fashion designer, legally known as Ye, had said “There’s a lot of things that I love about Hitler” and “I’m a Nazi … I love Hitler”, had accused Jewish people of trying “to black ball anyone whoever opposes your agenda”, and designed clothing featuring swastikas.

Everton in line to host Fiji ‘home’ match for England’s Nations Championship clash

• Fijians want neutral venue to maximise crowd receipts

• RFU privately delighted to take national team on the road

Everton have been offered the chance to host England’s Nations Championship game against Fiji in July at the Hill Dickinson Stadium in what would be their first match in England held away from Twickenham since 2019.

The 11 July Test against Fiji is an away fixture for England in their second game of the inaugural Nations Championship after they face South Africa in Johannesburg the previous week. However, the host union wants to move it to a neutral venue to maximise the revenue they receive from gate receipts.

‘Are we reaching peak hot honey?’ Why the ‘swicy’ taste is everywhere – from pizzas to crisps

What began as an exciting gen Z food trend has become ubiquitous. Is the bubble about to burst under the weight of ‘fake’ honey and cheap, mass-produced knock-offs?

When hot honey started popping up on restaurant menus about five years ago – drizzled over pizza perhaps, or used as a glaze for meat or halloumi – it seemed novel; something unusual and exciting to try. Word soon got out, particularly among gen Z, about its “swicy” (sweet and spicy) appeal, and the product has “gone a bit crazy over the last couple of years”, according to Laurence Edwards, owner of Black Mountain Honey, which has seen its hot honey sales shoot up.

Like salted caramel, its forebear in the world of food trends, hot honey – generally made by adding or infusing chilli to honey – now seems to be everywhere. Not only can you buy supermarket own-brand versions, but products such as hot honey Jaffa Cakes, hot honey Kellogg’s Crunchy Nut cereal and, most recently, hot honey flavoured Walkers crisps, have now come into existence.

Spain approves decree to regularise half a million undocumented migrants

Move affecting those who have been in Spain five months or more runs counter to anti-migration policies across Europe

Spain’s socialist-led coalition government has approved a decree it said would regularise 500,000 undocumented migrants and asylum seekers, rejecting the anti-migration policies and rhetoric prevalent across much of Europe.

The decree, expected to come into effect in April, will apply to hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers and people in Spain with irregular status. To qualify for regularisation, applicants will have to prove they do not have a criminal record and had lived in Spain for at least five months – or had sought international protection – before 31 December 2025.

Vingegaard crashes on training ride in Spain after being tailed by amateur cyclist

• Amateur rider claims Dane ‘got angry’ when followed

• Team ask for riders to be given space after Málaga crash

Visma-Lease a Bike have reminded amateur cyclists of the dangers of interacting with professional riders on the road following the revelation that Jonas Vingegaard crashed on Monday after being tailed by a fan during a descent near Málaga, Spain.

“Jonas Vingegaard crashed during training on Monday. Fortunately, he is OK and did not sustain any serious injuries,” read a team statement. “In general, as a team we would like to urge fans on bikes to always put safety first. For both your own and others’ wellbeing, please allow riders to train and give them as much space and peace as possible.”

The UK government didn't want you to see this report on ecosystem collapse. I'm not surprised | George Monbiot

It took an FOI request to bring this national security assessment to light. For ‘doomsayers’ like us, it is the ultimate vindication

I know it’s almost impossible to turn your eyes away from the Trump show, but that’s the point. His antics, ever-grosser and more preposterous, are designed to keep him in our minds, to crowd out other issues. His insatiable craving for attention is a global-threat multiplier. You can’t help wondering whether there’s anything he wouldn’t do to dominate the headlines.

But we must tear ourselves away from the spectacle, for there are other threats just as critical that also require our attention. Just because you’re not hearing about them doesn’t mean they’ve gone away.

George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist

UnitedHealth posts modest earnings beat, soft revenue guidance as insurer plots turnaround

UnitedHealth expects 2026 revenue to come in greater than $439 billion, which is a 2% year-over-year decline that reflects "right-sizing across the enterprise."

Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass review – silly, scattershot Hollywood comedy

Sundance film festival: Zoey Deutch is a small-town girl hunting down Jon Hamm for sex in David Wain’s disposable yet often funny lark

There’s been the expected amount of heavy-weighted seriousness at this year’s Sundance – stories about sexual assault, climate change, opioid addiction and dementia – but also a remarkable amount of silliness. Perhaps realising we might be in desperate need of an uplift, the festival has given us a cartoonish dom-sub romance, a killer Barney horror, a pop star mockumentary, a Weekend at Bernie’s art world caper and a film where Olivia Colman shags a man made of wicker. But those films are all pretty stern-minded in comparison to David Wain’s disposable, dopey comedy Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass, a film without a single serious moment, driven by the sole purpose of making us laugh.

It succeeds in fits and starts – I laughed more than I have at many a comedy in the past year – but its wild, scattershot humour is so hit and miss, too many jokes going nowhere, that it’s not quite the rousing win I wanted it to be. Wain has previously toyed with more conventional studio comedies like Wanderlust and Role Models (which for me was one of the best examples of the form in the 2000s) and spoofs, targeting 80s sex comedies with Wet Hot American Summer and romcoms with They Came Together. Gail Daughtry belongs in the latter group but it doesn’t have quite as direct of an aim, a Wizard of Oz-inspired, Hollywood-set action comedy about marriage, fame, espionage and the burning desire to have sex with Jon Hamm.

Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Tape is screening at the Sundance film festival and is seeking distribution

‘I have Yes tattooed on my foot!’ Zoey Deutch on playing Jean Seberg in a joyous celebration of Godard classic Breathless

The Hollywood actor is about to go stratospheric thanks to Nouvelle Vague, a film about the making of Jean-Luc Godard’s masterpiece. How did she feel about playing the blond gamine in some of cinema’s best loved scenes?

Richard Linklater’s latest film Nouvelle Vague is not so much a re-enactment of cinema history, but a celebratory tribute act – joyously reliving the spirit of the early French New Wave, as it re-imagines 1959 Paris and the chaotically innovative shooting of Jean-Luc Godard’s epoch-making Breathless (A Bout de Souffle). Most of the cast are newcomers, but there’s one familiar face: American actor Zoey Deutch. She plays Jean Seberg, already a Hollywood star when Godard cast her as expat student and newspaper vendor Patricia. Seberg’s stroll with Jean-Paul Belmondo on the Champs-Elysées, in T-shirt, slacks and ballet flats, is one of the legendary duets of French cinema.

Deutch has Seberg’s style down impeccably: her awkward American-accented French, her balletic bounce in that scene, her exuberant shout of “New York Herald Tribune!” On a Zoom call from Los Angeles, Deutch – Seberg’s blond gamine cut now grown out into symmetrical black bangs – admits that when Linklater first suggested she might play the role, she knew nothing about Seberg, or about Breathless. That was way back in 2014, when they were shooting Linklater’s college baseball comedy Everybody Wants Some!! “I was 19,” says Deutch, “and I know there are plenty of 19-year-olds who are cinephiles and know a ton about that world, but I didn’t.”

Rejection spreadsheets: would 1,000 knockbacks make you a better person?

Online, people are documenting their attempts to clock up as many ‘nos’ as they can this year. Is this actually the best possible route to more ‘yeses’ than you’re used to?

Name: Rejection spreadsheets.

Age: There’s nothing new in rejection. JK Rowling was rejected by 12 publishers, Elvis was told he couldn’t sing. Going back a little further, Cain had an offering of produce rejected by God himself, would you Adam and Eve it?

ICE chief ordered to appear in Minnesota federal court, judge threatens contempt ruling

Minnesota state officials have pressed for ICE and other immigration authorities to cease aggressive actions in Minneapolis and elsewhere in the state.

Pierre Huyghe: Liminals review – terrifying quantum visions in a notorious Berlin club take seeing beyond believing

Halle am Berghain, Berlin
This towering display projected inside a former East German power plant-turned-techno stronghold is a gut-wobbling mythological journey that will leave you unhinged

Go up the concrete stairs, cross the concrete floor and mind the concrete pillars. People are groping about in the darkness, waiting for their eyes to adjust, though most give up and start navigating by the light of their smartphones, trying to find Pierre Huyghe’s new work without quite realising they are already in it. Huyghe’s Liminals is more than just a film projected on a towering screen in a gutted power station. It is a quantum experiment, a mythological journey and a terrifying vision, set to a shifting thrum of gut-wobbling vibrations, a sizzling aural rain of dancing particles and sudden ear-splitting crackles which ricochet everywhere. You can’t always tell what’s happening on the screen and what’s happening in the cavernous space around you.

I could feel the vibrations even on the street outside, looking up at the brooding hulk of the defunct 1950s power and heating plant that once serviced the socialist paradise of postwar East Berlin. Now the home of the world’s most famous techno venue, Berghain, it also hosts a queer sex club, dark spaces and bars, while the plant’s former boiler room, the Halle am Berghain, with its columns and suspended coal chutes, has currently been taken over by the LAS Art Foundation to stage a number of exhibitions, including Huyghe’s Liminals.

Amazon is closing its Amazon Fresh grocery and Go convenience stores

Amazon acknowledged it hasn't yet "created a truly distinctive customer experience" in announcing move to scale back its brick-and-mortar grocery business.

Luminous lanterns and a sunbathing parakeet – readers’ best photographs

Click here to submit a picture for publication in these online galleries and/or on the Guardian letters page

Alcaraz flicks on genius switch to put himself two matches from career grand slam | Tumaini Carayol

One moment by the world No 1 against Alex de Minaur showed he is on a different plane to almost everyone else

One of the biggest matches of Alex de Minaur’s career was already falling from his grasp when his opponent, Carlos Alcaraz, compounded his misery with a selfish stroke of genius. Midway through the third set, the result all but a formality, De Minaur pounded an aggressive forehand down the line and flitted forward to the net.

Against nearly any other player in the world, the Australian would have won the point. Against Alcaraz, the world No 1, De Minaur watched on helplessly as the Spaniard chased down the ball and slid to his right, whipping a forehand down-the-line pass that did not come back. De Minaur could not hide his rueful smile.

Tesla lost $15 billion in brand value in 2025 as Musk stepped deeper into politics, research shows

Tesla's brand value declined while BYD's surged last year, according to research by Brand Finance

Pikachu and pals go wild: Pokémon theme park opens in Tokyo

From rhino-sized Rhyhorns to worm-like Diglett, visitors to PokéPark Kanto will roam a forest populated by lifelike Pokémon statues when the attraction opens next week

In Japan, February is normally a period of quiet reflection, a month defined by winter festivals in Sapporo’s snowy mountains and staving off the cold in steaming hot springs. Traditionally, international tourists start to arrive with the blossoms in spring – but thanks to the opening of Pokémon’s first ever amusement park on 5 February, this year, they are likely to come earlier.

Unlike the rollercoaster-filled thrills of Tokyo Disney Sea or Universal Studios Japan in Osaka, PokéPark Kanto is essentially a forest populated by models of the creatures from the perennially popular games. Nestled in the quiet Tokyo suburb of Inagi, half an hour from the city centre, the park is a walkable forest with more than 600 Pokémonin it. Where the Mario-themed Super Nintendo World slots neatly into the massive Universal Studios Japan, PokéPark Kanto is hidden in the back of the less glitzy, funfair-esque Japanese theme park Yomiuri Land.

Families of killed men file first U.S. federal lawsuit over drug boat strikes

The case filed in Massachusetts is the first lawsuit over the strikes to land in a U.S. federal court since the Trump administration launched a campaign to target vessels off the coast of Venezuela.

‘Delays, lowballs, outright denials’: how the LA wildfires have exposed the US’s broken insurance industry

Insurance practices in an age of climate volatility raise troubling questions about home ownership and housing affordability – the bedrock of the American middle class

For a few frenetic days last January, after losing their midcentury ranch home to the wildfires that ravaged Los Angeles, Jessica and Matt Conkle thought they could see a glimmer of hope.

Their insurance company, State Farm, had sent emergency response teams to Altadena, where they lived, and they filed a claim right away. It wasn’t long before they received a check that covered four months of living expenses.

Football Daily | Harry Kane and the trolls that take aim at his staggering success

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The most prolific striker on the planet for one of the biggest and most successful clubs in the world, a captain of his country who could possibly lift the World Cup this summer (ending what is now 60 years of hurt), a husband with four kids who is almost universally respected by fans, opponents and his peers, and a brand ambassador for global brands thanks to deals brokered by towering Mr 15% Charlie Kane, Harry Kane has a lot going for him. So why has the England superstar been such a target for Social Media Disgrace trolling in January?

The world is indeed a screwed up place when Sepp Blatter’s utterings start making sense. Oh Gianni, what have you done?” – Krishna Moorthy.

Big Website’s Michael Butler misses the point about his stay in the Radisson Hotel, Blackpool. The hotel’s strategy is to provide its customers with a pleasant experience undisturbed by the goings on outside the bedroom window. They don’t want bad reviews from customers forced to watch the match” – Deryck Hall (who may be a Preston fan).

We are now very accustomed to seeing many, many minutes of additional time being added on to the old-fashioned ‘90’ that we all grew up with … but last weekend the free-climber Alex Honnold needed only one minute of ‘Fergie time’ to complete his ‘look no hands!’ climb of Taipei 101 without the aid of a safety net, parachute or indeed anything more sophisticated than a bag of chalk dust. Footballers, take note” – Allastair McGillivray.

US tech workers call on CEOs to demand Trump remove ICE from cities

More than 800 employees sign petition calling for withdrawal of ICE agents and cancellation of contracts

More than 800 US tech workers have signed a petition calling for tech CEOs to demand the Trump administration remove US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from US cities and cancel contracts with the agency.

“We know our industry leaders have leverage: in October, they persuaded Trump to call off a planned ICE surge in San Francisco,” the petition reads. “Now they need to go further, and join us in demanding ICE out of all of our cities.”

Five-year-old deported to Honduras despite being US citizen is latest child victim of Trump crackdown

Mother whose visa application was pending says she will send girl back to US soon accompanied by another relative

Five-year-old Génesis Ester Gutiérrez Castellanos misses her cousins, classmates and kindergarten teachers in Austin, Texas. Despite being a US citizen, she was deported on 11 January alongside her mother, Karen Guadalupe Gutiérrez Castellanos, to Honduras, a country Génesis had never known.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents were acting on an administrative deportation order against Gutiérrez, 26, issued in 2019, before Génesis was born.

‘I lost part of my heart’: last of Japan’s pandas leave for China as ties fray

Hundreds at zoo in Tokyo say farewell to Lei Lei and Xiao Xiao, as China ends ‘panda diplomacy’ with Japan

Hundreds of people have gathered to say farewell to two popular pandas departing Tokyo for China, leaving Japan without any of the beloved bears for the first time in 50 years, as ties between the Asian neighbours fray.

Panda twins Lei Lei and Xiao Xiao were transported by truck out of Ueno zoological gardens, their birthplace, disappointing many Japanese fans who have grown attached to the furry four-year-olds.

'A day of celebration': What the blockbuster EU-India trade deal means for auto giants

A landmark trade deal between the European Union and India has been lauded as a major breakthrough for Europe's biggest carmakers.

Are you an oversharer? Maybe it’s time to rein it in | Polly Hudson

A lack of communication in a relationship can be a problem. But so too can getting a blow-by-blow account of your partner’s day – as I know all too well

A psychologist has – at long last – shared the three signs you’re “overcommunicating” in your relationship. Overcommunicating. This is a somewhat revolutionary concept, as we’re consistently told communication is the key to a successful long-term union. But, whaddaya know? Turns out you can have too much of a good thing.

The revelation, courtesy of Mark Travers PhD, provides much food for thought generally but, more importantly, gives me a chance to utter those three little words you can never say often enough to your partner: told you so.

New AI tool from Fundrise brings high-level CRE analysis to the public

Fundrise's co-founder and CEO, Ben Miller, says the new tool goes far beyond what more generalized AI, like ChatGPT, can offer.

Has sports betting become part of your daily routine? Tell us about it

It's never been easier to bet on sports. And polls show the majority of American men are involved in sports betting. To learn more, we want to hear from you about your betting experiences.

Burnham accuses No 10 sources of lying about byelection decision

Manchester mayor suggests claims he was told Labour would not give him permission to stand were untrue

The Labour party’s civil war over the Gorton and Denton byelection has intensified after Andy Burnham accused Downing Street sources of lying about his decision to apply to stand in the Manchester seat.

The Manchester mayor was reacting to suggestions by unnamed Keir Starmer allies that he had been told “in no uncertain terms” that any request to the NEC committee to put his name forward for the byelection would be refused.

A kids' guide to phone-free fun, from the author of 'The Anxious Generation'

Jonathan Haidt's 2024 book made the case that screen time had "rewired" kids' brains. The Amazing Generation is a collab with science journalist Catherine Price and graphic novelist Cynthia Yuan Cheng.

Europe’s supermarket shelves packed with ‘misleading’ claims about recycled plastic packaging

Manufacturers use method that labels plastic as ‘circular’ and climate-friendly, despite being mostly fossil-based

Europe’s supermarket shelves are packed with brands billing their plastic packaging as sustainable, but often only a fraction of the materials are truly recovered from waste, with the rest made from petroleum.

Brands using plastic packaging – from Kraft’s Heinz Beanz to Mondelēz’s Philadelphia – use materials made by the plastic manufacturing arm of the oil company Saudi Aramco.

This article is part of a cross-border investigation, supported by IJ4EU and coordinated by the independent journalist Ludovica Jona, with the media outlets the Guardian, Voxeurop, Mediapart (France), Altreconomia (Italy), Público (Spain), Investigative Reporting Denmark, Deutsche Welle (Germany) and with reporters Lorenzo Sangermano and Lucy Taylor

Masked thugs, sneering elites and terrified citizens: a picture of the US today. We used to have a name for this | Marina Hyde

Truly, I am the country’s biggest fan. But in the spirit of free speech its leaders apparently love, here’s a few things the rest of the world needs them to know

We in the rest of the world have had to hear a lot – such a lot – about what this US government and its hardcore fanbase thinks about us. So you know they’ll be super-relaxed and free-speechy about hearing some thoughts about how they look from the outside. Let’s use last Saturday as a single snapshot. In Minneapolis, they had the shooting by ICE agents of a protesting nurse who posed no threat – an event promptly, provably and blatantly lied about at the highest level by Donald Trump’s politburo. Then that evening in Washington, a lot of those same politburocrats turned out for the White House premiere of a ridiculous propaganda film about the president’s wife, also attended fawningly by bloodless Apple oligarch Tim Cook. And he’s not even the oligarch who paid an insane amount for the film. Top line, guys: all this makes you look like what your president likes to call a “shithole country”. Sorry! I assume it’s fine to use officially licensed vocabulary?

Obviously, it’s not a proper shithole country until the soft-skinned puppetmasters in the presidential palace cut some grizzled local warlord off at the knees for following orders, so it’s good to learn overnight that border patrol “commander at large” Gregory Bovino has been pulled out of Minneapolis, possibly locked out of his social media accounts, and may soon “retire”, presumably a fall guy for the likes of stage 4 homeland security tumour Stephen Miller. Bovino’s the guy who’s literally got the same haircut and outfit as the Sean Penn character in One Battle After Another. But hey, at least he wears a uniform. Again, what are international outsiders to make of the spectacle of ICE’s federal officers coming masked and frequently dressed in civilian clothes, while images from protests across the States show resisting civilians increasingly drawn to military-style clothing? Can Trump’s storm detachment not at least be issued with matching shirts? They don’t have to be brown, but Maga chic desperately needs to make even a first step to getting itself together. In the entire history of the movement, only one follower – the QAnon shaman – has ever had true style.

Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist

Bafta has caught the zeitgeist with One Battle After Another, but let’s hear it for The Ballad of Wallis Island

Paul Thomas Anderson’s antifa parable is queasily relevant to the times, but here’s hoping Tim Key and co can get some reward for their brilliant British film

• Combat intensifies as One Battle After Another takes 14 Bafta nominations
• Bafta film awards 2026: full list of nominations

The Bafta nominations list underscores the enormous award-season love being felt for Ryan Coogler’s Sinners, his subversive vampire riff on America’s black experience – though it isn’t making history in quite the same way as it is at the Oscars, having 13 Bafta nominations, one behind Paul Thomas Anderson’s league-leader One Battle After Another with 14.

The awards-season prominence of Anderson’s epic antifa parable, inspired by the Thomas Pynchon novel Vineland, with Leonardo DiCaprio as a dishevelled, clueless ex-revolutionary facing off against Sean Penn’s brutal honcho Colonel Lockjaw, is happening at a queasily appropriate zeitgeist moment. The grotesquely trigger-happy immigration officers of ICE are shooting people dead on US streets and this ugly fiasco is giving us a horribly familiar-looking new figure.

Matthieu Blazy’s Chanel fairytale continues with haute couture debut

Designer’s third collection confirms his dream start at the label, as warmth for the women who wear it shines through

It is the biggest job in fashion and Matthieu Blazy is knocking it out of the park. Chanel, the most famous fashion house in the world, with annual sales of almost $20bn (£14.6bn) and a designer lineage that includes Coco Chanel and Karl Lagerfeld, is an intimidating prospect for a 41-year-old Belgian designer who, until his appointment last year, was little known outside the industry. But this haute couture debut, his third collection for the house, confirmed that Blazy is off to a dream start.

The show concluded with a standing ovation from the audience, which included Anna Wintour, Nicole Kidman and Dua Lipa. Backstage, veteran Chanel personnel were high-fiving each other – a remarkable display of giddiness in an industry where cool is all. In the Grand Palais venue, transformed into a willow wood of sugar-pink trees and fairytale giant mushrooms, clients tossed sable coats to the ground and clustered for grinning selfies. By every metric, approval ratings for the new-look Chanel are off the charts.

Holocaust remembrance and a tsunami museum: photos of the day – Tuesday

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

India and the EU clinch the 'mother of all deals' in a historic trade agreement

India and the European Union have reached a free trade agreement, at a time when Washington targets them both with steep import tariffs, pushing major economies to seek alternate partnerships.

Sydney Sweeney was ‘not authorised’ to hang her bras on Hollywood sign, say site owners

Hollywood Chamber of Commerce says it did not approve a promotional stunt linked to the actor, after lingerie was draped over the landmark’s letters

The Housemaid star Sydney Sweeney has been reprimanded by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce for a promotional stunt that involved draping bras over the celebrated Hollywood sign in Los Angeles.

Sweeney posted footage on social media of her and a group of people climbing up to the sign which is situated on Mount Lee, in the Hollywood Hills area of the city, and hanging dozens of strung-together bras over the sign’s 50ft-tall letters.

‘Looksmaxxing’ young men are carving up their faces. Being ugly is a lot easier | Dave Schilling

The internet has enabled a golden age of techno-vanity. But hating your looks is a time-honored tradition

Take a second before you read this to look in the mirror. Go on, it’ll be worth it. I’ll be here when you get back.

OK, how’d that go? Did you like what you saw? Probably not. Feeling a bit puffy? See a zit in a conspicuous area? Did you want to punch yourself for the sin of experiencing the natural course of ageing? These feelings are normal. Being disappointed in how you look is a time-honored tradition; it’s just that now, we have the means to fix all that. GLP-1s mean you can lose weight quickly, without doing much more than shoving a needle in your bum a few times a month. Plastic surgery, Botox, fillers, Turkish hair plugs. We live in the golden age of techno-vanity, where “self-improvement” can be had for a few bucks (and days and days of living in bandages like a hipster mummy). The odious trend of “looksmaxxing” is the natural nadir of our collective obsession with not being ugly.

Dave Schilling is a Los Angeles-based writer and humorist

Witchboard review – New Orleans couple channel dead French witch in fun occult thriller

As the budding restaurateurs suffer 17th-century flashbacks, Jamie Campbell Bower – AKA Vecna in Stranger Things – saves director Chuck Russell’s remake from cheesy oblivion

Jamie Campbell Bower gave the standout performance as the big bad in the otherwise ho-hum fourth season of Stranger Things, and in this tawdry but fun occult-themed thriller, like Satan himself, he’s back to his same old scene-stealing tricks. Once again, he’s not the protagonist but a sinister figure first met literally in the shadows, making ominous pronouncements in that posh-boy accent. When finally revealed, he is dipping his chin and looking up with those uncannily blue eyes like a vogue dancer catching the spotlight. If he keeps at it with roles like this, he could be the Peter Cushing of modern horror, but with catwalk-queen hair, or the goth equivalent of the young Ralph Fiennes in his rent-a-villain era. What’s not to love?

When Campbell Bower’s creepy antiquities expert Alexander Babtiste isn’t around, though, Witchboard reverts to its cheap and doleful resting form, in which B- and C-list actors play doltish young people bewitched by a proto-Ouija board that summons the spirit of a 17th-century French witch (Antonia Desplat). Somehow, the board has found its way to today’s New Orleans, where main girl Emily (Madison Iseman) finds it in the forest while foraging for mushrooms with her hipster-chef boyfriend Christian (Aaron Dominguez). At the urging of Christian’s slinky ex-girlfriend, Brooke (Mel Jarnson), who crashes their party, Emily tries out the board, and is soon having flashbacks to a life she never lived.

Blockbuster social media trial kicks off, with more to come this year

A landmark case against social media giants Meta, Alphabet's YouTube and TikTok is set to begin Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court. 

‘Wake up to the risks of AI, they are almost here,’ Anthropic boss warns

Dario Amodei questions if human systems are ready to handle the ‘almost unimaginable power’ that is ‘potentially imminent’

• Quarter of Britons fear losing jobs to AI in next five years

Humanity is entering a phase of artificial intelligence development that will “test who we are as a species”, the boss of the AI startup Anthropic has said, arguing that the world needs to “wake up” to the risks.

Dario Amodei, a co-founder and the chief executive of the company behind the hit chatbot Claude, voiced his fears in a 19,000-word essay titled “The adolescence of technology”.

After rocky start, Bari Weiss plans cuts, adds commentators at CBS News

CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss came in with a mandate to reshape coverage. She laid out her strategy in a staff meeting Tuesday.

10 of the greatest songs by Sly Dunbar – from reggae classics to Grace Jones and Bob Dylan

After his death aged 73, we look back at a selection of the hundreds of tracks the Sly and Robbie drummer had a hand in making

It isn’t Sly Dunbar’s most spectacular performance as a drummer – although his playing is right in the pocket: listen to the lightness of his touch on the cymbals and the tightness of his occasional fills – but as recording debuts go, appearing on an early 70s reggae classic in your teens, a single that furthermore went to No 1 in the UK and sold 300,000 copies despite British radio’s disinclination to play it, is quite the impressive way to open your account.

Trump sends border czar to Minnesota. And, trial over social media addiction begins

Border czar Tom Homan heads to Minnesota to replace Greg Bovino amid the immigration crackdown backlash. And a trial starts today to decide whether social media firms knowingly harm young users.

‘Abdication’: Trump takes US out of Paris climate agreement for a second time

Experts are watching for how other countries will react as the ‘real economy’ shifts to cheaper, cleaner energy

The United States has officially exited the Paris climate agreement for the second time, cementing Donald Trump’s renewed break with the primary global venue to address global heating.

The move leaves the US as the only country to have withdrawn from the pact, placing it alongside Iran, Libya and Yemen as the only countries not party to the agreement. While it will not halt global climate efforts, experts say it could significantly complicate them.

Bafta film awards 2026: full list of nominations

All the nominees for the 2026 Bafta film awards have been announced, ahead of the winners’ ceremony on 22 February at London’s Royal Festival Hall
• Combat intensifies as One Battle After Another takes 14 Bafta nominations
• Bafta has caught the zeitgeist with nominations

Hamnet
Marty Supreme
One Battle After Another
Sentimental Value
Sinners

‘Situation is dire’ for Sicily town teetering on cliff edge after landslide

1,500 people evacuated from Niscemi after battering by Cyclone Harry triggers 4km-long chasm in hillside

The mayor of a hilltop town on Sicily said “the situation is dire” after a powerful storm brought down a long section of hillside, leaving houses perched perilously on a cliff edge.

About 1,500 people have so far been evacuated from their homes because of the landslide, which began to show signs of movement on Sunday before developing a 4km-long front. The chasm continues to widen, raising fears it could swallow the town’s historic centre.

‘The land will be left as ashes’: why Patagonia’s wildfires are almost impossible to stop

Funding cuts, conspiracy theories and ‘powder keg’ pine plantations have seen January’s forest fires tear through Chubut in southern Argentina

Lucas Chiappe had known for a long time that the fire was coming. For decades, the environmentalist had warned that replacing native trees in the Andes mountain range with highly flammable foreign pine was a recipe for disaster.

In early January, flames raced down the Pirque hill and edged closer to his home in the Patagonian town of Epuyén, Argentina, where he had lived since the 1970s. Thirty people with six motor pumps fought for hours, hoses stretched for kilometres, but “there was no way”.

Know the score? I don’t read music, but that’s no hindrance to reimagining great classical works

Folk duo Pound & Stevens have transformed, and added to, Holst’s The Planets Suite and tour the new work this week with Britten Sinfonia. Will Pound explains why playing by ear is his greatest strength

I’m a harmonica and accordion player and one half of folk-classical duo Stevens & Pound. As a multi-instrumentalist I am rooted in a folk tradition that is oral, aural and communal. Music and song are passed down by ear, either through recordings or – more fun – traditional music sessions. Here, players and singers get together to share, swap and play tunes, drawing from a repertoire that is always evolving. While collections of tunes are certainly notated, their scores act as a skeleton – providing the basic architecture of pitch and rhythm but rarely offering explicit guidance on how the music should be played.

Delia Stevens and I are about to head out on tour, performing with the Britten Sinfonia and Robert Macfarlane in a new work called The Silent Planet, a recomposition of Holst’s Planets suite. It’s the culmination of 18 months of rehearsals and revisions, and the score for this 60-minute work, orchestrated by Ian Gardiner, totals 165 pages and includes Earth, an entirely new composition.

The first Women’s Champions Cup: what is it and should we pay attention?

This newsletter looks at Fifa’s new competition, which takes place in London this week and has a $2.3m prize fund

This week London will take centre stage as the inaugural Women’s Champions Cup, the brand-new club competition in women’s football, comes to its conclusion. Four continental champions – Arsenal, Gotham FC, Corinthians and AS Far – will meet in Brentford on Wednesday for a place in the final, which will be held at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday.

With $2.3m (£1.68m) in prize money and a shiny new trophy on the line, it is far from insignificant for the teams involved. For the wider public, however, there remains a lack of understanding about what it really is and how it came to be introduced into an already crowded football space.

‘I didn’t have anything to prove’: what Traitors finalist Jade Scott learned about survival from video games

Accused, isolated and constantly under scrutiny, The Traitors contestant drew on years of social deduction gaming to stay calm under pressure

The latest series of The Traitors, which ended last week on a nail-biting finale, featured some of the usual characters – from guileless extroverts to wannabe Columbos endlessly observing fellow contestants for the slightest flicker of treachery. But one faithful stood out for her quiet determination, despite a ceaseless onslaught of suspicion and accusation. That person was Jade Scott, and I wasn’t at all surprised when, quite early on in the series, she revealed she was a keen gamer.

“Minecraft was my way in, when I was 15,” she says. “I made loads of friends at school playing that.” From this innocent introduction, however, she moved on to darker titles: the first-person shooter Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and the multiplayer battle-arena game Dota. “That’s where my interest in strategy gaming really kicked in,” she says.