Democratic Rep. Jason Crow contacted by Justice Dept. after video to troops

Rep. Jason Crow of Colorado and five other lawmakers appeared in a video that urged U.S. service members to refuse legal orders.

U.S. to suspend immigrant visas from 75 countries over public assistance concerns

The State Department says it will suspend the processing of immigrant visas for citizens of 75 countries whose nationals are deemed likely to require public assistance while living in the United States.

Vance breaks Senate tie, votes to block Venezuela war powers resolution

Vice President JD Vance's tie-breaking vote on Wednesday blocked a resolution intended to halt President Donald Trump from using the military in Venezuela.

Churchill’s desk and rare artwork among items donated to UK cultural institutions

Items worth £59.7m allocated to museums, galleries, libraries and archives as part of Arts Council England scheme

Winston Churchill and Benjamin Disraeli’s desk, a painting by Vanessa Bell and a rare artwork by Edgar Degas are among the items of cultural importance saved for the nation this year.

The items, worth a total of £59.7m, will be allocated to museums, galleries, libraries and archives around the UK as part of Art Council England’s cultural gifts and acceptance in lieu schemes.

Traces of cancer-linked pesticide found in tests at UK playgrounds

Pressure mounting for use of glyphosate, listed by WHO since 2015 as probable carcinogen, to be heavily restricted

Children are potentially being exposed to the controversial weedkiller glyphosate at playgrounds across the UK, campaigners have said after testing playgrounds in London and the home counties.

The World Health Organization has listed glyphosate as a probable human carcinogen since 2015. However, campaigners say local authorities in the UK are still using thousands of litres of glyphosate-based herbicides in public green spaces.

Iran closes airspace to all flights as foreign minister denies it plans to execute protesters – live

Abbas Araghchi says hangings over anti-government demonstrations are ‘out of the question’ while flight tracking data shows airlines avoiding Iranian airspace

• US and UK military to withdraw some personnel from Middle East amid Iranian threats

• Analysis: why western diplomats are wary of predicting end days for Iran’s regime

• Massacres and executions: what are we hearing from inside Iran? – podcast

For the first time in days, Iranians were able to make calls abroad from their mobiles on Tuesday, according to reporting by Associated Press. Texting services have not been restored, however, and nor has the internet.

Although Iranians were able to call abroad, they could not receive calls from outside the country, several people in the capital told Associated Press. The internet remained blocked, they said, though it is possible to access some government-approved websites.

Cloudfare - an internet infrastructure provider, and one of several companies and monitors tracking the status of internet traffic in Iran – said traffic volumes have remained “at a fraction of a percent of previous levels”. Its latest update as of 01:00 UTC (which is about three hours and 30 minutes ago), shows a continued widespread blackout. Iran has been under an internet shutdown since Thursday night.

Brief windows of connectivity were observed on Friday, but these did not last, according to Cloudfare.

Netblocks, an independent global internet monitor, also notes that while some phone calls from Iran are connecting, there is “no secure way to communicate” and the general public remain cut off from the outside world.

Police chief behind Maccabi Tel Aviv ban clings to job despite home secretary wanting him to quit

Shabana Mahmood has lost confidence in Craig Guildford over his force’s ‘exaggerated and untrue’ intelligence assessments

• Explainer: What did West Midlands police chief get wrong in decision to ban Maccabi fans?

The police chief who used “exaggerated and untrue” intelligence to justify a ban on Israeli football fans was clinging on to his job on Wednesday, despite the home secretary demanding he resign.

Craig Guildford, who leads West Midlands police, is determined to stay in his post for now, the Guardian has learned, despite a war of words that culminated in Shabana Mahmood declaring she had lost confidence in him.

Astronauts head home early after medical issue

Crew 11 is expected to splash down off the coast of Southern California at 3:41 a.m. EST, closing out a 167-day stay in space.

White House post nods to racist, far-right subculture, extremism expert says

Image with question ‘Which way, Greenland man?’ is a ‘key concept in neo-Nazi and white supremacist subculture’

The Trump administration has been called out, yet again, for using explicitly white supremacist verbiage in its increasingly aggressive social media strategy.

The White House posted a cartoon to X on Wednesday of two Greenlandic mush teams with three huskies each, pointing towards the choice of the white pillars and the South Lawn or a tempestuous scene by the Great Wall of China and Red Square in Russia.

Arbeloa starts Real Madrid tenure with disastrous Copa del Rey defeat at Albacete

• Albacete 3-2 Real Madrid

• Hosts, 17th in the second tier, pull off huge upset

For 20 minutes of Álvaro Arbeloa’s debut as manager of Real Madrid, the fog came down and no one could see any football. For the other 70, they couldn’t either. Not from his team, at least. From Albacete Balompié, 17th in the second division, they witnessed something magical. An outrageous goal scored with single second to go was the perfect end to the greatest story they ever told, history made. When the final whistle went, Madrid headed straight down the tunnel, defeated again, while the party began in the Carlos Belmonte.

Arbeloa had said he wanted to see Vinícius Júnior dance; instead, it was Albacete’s fans who would, long into the night of their lives. This could not have been any better; at Madrid, things can always get worse, the crisis deepening. Careful what you wish for and all that. “At this club every defeat is a tragedy, so imagine one like this,” Arbeloa said. “Failure is the road to success,” Madrid’s new manager added, insisting he was not afraid, that he had suffered eliminations even worse, but this had hurt.

In a win for Democrats, court allows California's redistricting plan to proceed

In November, California voters approved a new congressional map that could help Democrats win five more House seats and counter the Republican redistricting that President Trump has prompted in other states.

Elon Musk's xAI probed by California DOJ over Grok's deepfake explicit images

Musk's Grok AI chatbot faces investigations from India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Ireland, Australia, the UK and France as well.

Morocco book place in home Afcon final as Bounou denies Nigeria in shootout

Morocco advanced to the Africa Cup of Nations final on penalties, beating Nigeria 4-2 in the final shootout after their semi-final ended goalless after extra time.

Yassine Bounou saved two spot kicks for the tournament hosts, keeping out Samuel Chukwueze and Bruno Onyemaechi’s efforts. Nigeria keeper Stanley Nwabali denied Hamza Igamane with the first save of the shootout, but it proved to be in vain.

This report will be updated

PureGym's entry and exit pods flagged by NYC fire department for safety concerns

The system has users download the PureGym app and scan a QR code in order to pass through cylindrical plexiglass doors of a pod and enter the gym.

Bilt offers credit cards with 10% APR after Trump proposes interest cap

FIntech company Bilt pounced on the opportunity to roll out low-APR credi cards, as big banks push back on proposed rate cap.

Two-star Michelin restaurant in Wales handed one-star hygiene rating

Ynyshir’s Gareth Ward ‘not embarrassed’ by score and says it was due to concerns about the use of raw ingredients

The chef behind a Welsh restaurant with two Michelin stars says it has “the highest standards in the world”, despite being given a one-star hygiene rating in a recent inspection.

Ynyshir, a restaurant with rooms near Machynlleth on the southern edge of the Eryri national park, has been praised as one of the best in the world.

Trump, Denmark have 'fundamental disagreement' over Greenland but will keep talking, officials say

Officials from Denmark and Greenland held a news conference after meeting with Trump administration officials.

Cerebras scores OpenAI deal worth over $10 billion ahead of AI chipmaker's IPO

The deal will help diversify Cerebras away from the United Arab Emirates G42, which accounted for 87% of revenue in the first half of 2024.

European football: Inter edge Lecce to stretch lead, Bayern earn comeback win

• Esposito scores 78th-minute winner at San Siro

• Napoli 0-0 Lecce, Cologne 1-3 Bayern Munich

Francesco Pio Esposito was the hero for Inter, the substitute’s 78th-minute goal earning a 1-0 home win over lowly Lecce to boost their title hopes.

The Serie A leaders laboured against stubborn opposition before Esposito scored from a rebound with 12 minutes remaining. Inter move six points clear of Milan and Napoli with victory in what could be a major turning point in this season’s title race.

Timothy Busfield makes court appearance in child sex abuse case

Another allegation against Busfield was reported to law enforcement the same day he turned himself in, according to a court filing.

House passes 2-bill funding package ahead of shutdown deadline

The Senate now has two funding packages on its plate ahead of its weeklong recess.

Trump insists Greenland is crucial for national security after Denmark talks

Talks fail to solve ‘fundamental disagreement’ over Arctic island controlled by Copenhagen

Donald Trump reiterated on Wednesday that the US needs Greenland and that Denmark cannot be relied upon to protect the island, even as he said that “something will work out” with respect to the future governance of the Danish overseas territory.

The remarks, which came after a high-stakes meeting between US, Danish and Greenlandic officials, indicate that fundamental differences remain between how Washington, Copenhagen and Nuuk see the political future of the island.

ICE agent who shot Renee Good suffered internal bleeding, officials say

Jonathan Ross, who shot Renee Good in Minneapolis last week, suffered internal bleeding after the incident, two officials said, though it's not clear how extensive the bleeding was.

U.S. completes first sale of Venezuelan oil, valued at $500 million

The Trump administration has not yet disclosed many details about the deal.

Sánchez errors hand Arsenal first-leg lead despite Garnacho’s Chelsea double

It was the latest display of Arsenal’s power and aggression, their remorselessness. And when it was over, this Carabao Cup semi-final felt firmly within their grip. But for a late goal from the Chelsea substitute Alejandro Garnacho, his second of an eventful cameo, it would surely have been over.

Even so, it was difficult on this evidence to predict anything other than Arsenal progressing into the final; moving closer to a rare piece of silverware under Mikel Arteta – one to pave the way for others this season?

Changing Defense Department's name could cost up to $125 million, CBO estimates

The Trump administration's push to change the Defense Department's name to the Department of War could cost nine figures, according to a new estimate by Congress' budget watchdog.

Down in the polls, Trump yanks Republicans toward economic populism. It may not save them

President Donald Trump phoned Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren earlier this week.

Court upholds Prop 50, allowing California to use its redrawn congressional maps

A panel for the U.S. Central District Court of California ruled Democrats can proceed in using their redrawn congressional maps for the 2026 midterm elections.

Trump administration clears way for Nvidia H200 chip sales to China with a 25% surcharge

The H200's performance has been exceeded by two generations of Nvidia chips currently in production, the Blackwell and Rubin.

FBI searches home of Washington Post journalist for classified documents

The FBI's search is part of a probe into a federal employee suspected of mishandling classified information, Attorney General Pam Bondi said.

Sheriff investigates burglary at late Nascar driver Greg Biffle’s home

• Cash, guns and memorabilia reported stolen

• Home last secure day before burglary report

• Memorial service set for Friday in Charlotte

Sheriff’s deputies are investigating an alleged break-in and theft last week at the North Carolina home of retired Nascar driver Greg Biffle, one of seven people who died in a plane crash last month.

The alleged burglary and forcible entry into the Biffle home in Mooresville was reported on 8 January, according to an incident report from the Iredell County Sheriff’s Office.

Stellantis CEO: 2026 is the ‘year of execution’ as Wall Street awaits turnaround strategy

Stellantis CEO Antonio Filosa views 2026 as an execution year for the embattled automaker following years of sales declines in the U.S.

Trump says "killing in Iran is stopping," with "no plan for executions"

Potentially thousands have died from the crackdown to quash unrest amid protests.

Trump administration halts immigrant visa processing from 75 countries

The state department cites welfare use as it pauses visa processing for Brazil, Iran, Russia, Somalia and others

The Donald Trump administration has indefinitely suspended immigrant visa processing for people from 75 countries, marking one of its most expansive efforts yet to restrict legal pathways to the United States.

The freeze, which takes effect on 21 January, targets applicants officials deem likely to become a “public charge” – who they describe as people who may rely on government benefits for basic needs.

California attorney general investigates Musk’s Grok AI over lewd fake images

AI tool made by Elon Musk’s xAI makes it easy to harass women with deepfake images, says state’s top attorney

California authorities have announced an investigation into the output of Elon Musk’s Grok.

The state’s top attorney said Grok, an AI tool and image generator made by Musk’s company xAI, appears to be making it easy to harass women and girls with deepfake images on X and elsewhere online.

Verizon customers report phone service outages across U.S.

A Verizon spokesperson confirmed to CBS News that the company is aware of "an issue impacting wireless voice and data services for some customers."

Apple, Google face pressure to remove X and Grok from their app stores

Grok faces mounting scrutiny from government officials and advocacy groups after people used the AI chatbot to create sexualized images of minors and women.

Denmark says there's a 'fundamental disagreement' with Trump over Greenland

The two sides agreed to create a working group to discuss ways to work through differences as President Trump continues to call for a U.S. takeover of Denmark's Arctic territory of Greenland.

Sadio Mané strikes to deny Salah’s Egypt and send Senegal to Afcon final

Some day, perhaps, Mohamed Salah will get the better of Sadio Mané in a major game, but not on Wednesday, not in the Africa Cup of Nations semi-final.

When Senegal beat Egypt in a shootout in the 2021 Afcon final, Mané scored the winning penalty before Salah had the chance to take his. In the shootout in the qualifying playoff for the 2022 World Cup, Salah missed his effort and Mané scored the winning penalty.

Elon Musk’s stubborn spin on Grok’s sexualized images controversy

Musk attempts to recast AI tool’s misuse. Plus, tech billionaires plot against a proposed California tax on their fortunes

Hello, and welcome to TechScape. I’m your host, Blake Montgomery, US tech editor for the Guardian. Today, we discuss Elon Musk’s rosy depiction of Grok’s image generation controversy; the seven-figure panic among Silicon Valley billionaires over a proposed wealth tax in California, though with one notable exception; and how AI and robotics have revitalized the Consumer Electronics Showcase.

Under a tax proposal that could be put to voters this November, any California resident worth more than $1bn would have to pay a one-off, 5% tax on their assets to help cover education, food assistance and healthcare programs in the state.

Several Silicon Valley figures have already threatened to leave California and take their business elsewhere. But Jensen Huang, the CEO of Nvidia, whose net worth is nearly $159bn, told Bloomberg Television this week that he is “perfectly fine with it”.

Kitchen countertop workers are dying. Some lawmakers want to ban their lawsuits

Some safety experts want California to stop the cutting of quartz countertops saying it can't be done safely. Lawmakers, meanwhile, contemplate a ban on workers' lawsuits against quartz manufacturers.

Candidates have legal standing to challenge election laws, the Supreme Court rules

In a case related to Illinois state law about the return of mail ballots, the U.S. Supreme Court says political candidates have the legal standing to challenge election policies.

US announces start of second phase of Gaza ceasefire

No details given of committee members who will run territory but they are expected be technocrats, not politicians

The US has announced the start of the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire, including the creation of a committee of Palestinian technocrats who are supposed to take over the day-to-day running of the territory for a transition period.

The announcement was made on social media by Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, but it lacked any detail or names of potential members of the proposed “national committee for the administration of Gaza”. The committee is not expected to begin work until mandated by a “peace board” chaired by Trump, which has yet to be created.

Venezuela regime claims release of political prisoners is sign of new era

NGOs estimate that there are still close to 1,000 political prisoners in Venezuela despite claims by new leaders

Venezuela’s acting president has claimed that the regime’s release of political prisoners sent a “very clear message” that the country was “opening up to a new political moment”, days after the seizure and rendition of the dictator Nicolás Maduro.

Delcy Rodríguez also vowed to continue the releases and accused NGOs that have described the process as slow and opaque of “lying to the world and trying to sell falsehoods about Venezuela”.

Saks Global, century-old high-end department store chain, files for bankruptcy

The venerable retailer is seeking protection from its creditors after its $2.65 billion purchase of Nieman Marcus failed to spark growth.

Salesforce releases updated Slackbot powered by Anthropic's AI model

Slack is upgrading Slackbot, its personal assistant, with generative AI.

Horses can smell fear in humans, researchers say

Tests showed horses that smelled body odour from people watching scary films startled more easily

Horses can smell fear, or at least whether you have scared yourself witless watching a horror movie, according to researchers who say the effect has consequences for riders, trainers and others who work with the animals.

In a series of tests, horses that smelled body odour from people watching scary films startled more easily, had higher heart rates and approached their handlers less often than when the odour came from people watching more joyful scenes.

‘People will die’: Trump administration cancels up to $1.9bn for substance use and mental health

Funding to end immediately for up to 2,800 grantees of US agency that serves thousands seeking help and in recovery

The Trump administration on Tuesday evening unexpectedly canceled up to $1.9bn in funding for substance use and mental health care, which providers say will immediately affect thousands of patients.

“It feels like Armageddon for everyone who’s on the frontlines of the addiction and mental health space,” said Ryan Hampton, founder of Mobilize Recovery, a national advocacy organization for people in and seeking recovery.

X ‘acting to comply with UK law’ after outcry over sexualised images

New polling suggests 58% of Britons think X should be banned in the UK if the social network fails to crack down on nonconsensual images

Elon Musk’s X is understood to have told the government it is acting to comply with UK law, after nearly a fortnight of public outcry at the use of its AI tool Grok to manipulate images of women and children by removing their clothes.

Keir Starmer told the House of Commons on Wednesday that photographs generated by Grok were “disgusting” and “shameful”, but said he had been informed that X was “acting to ensure full compliance with UK law”.

Scientists call another near-record hot year a 'warning shot' from a shifting climate

Scientists calculate that last year was one of the three hottest on record, along with 2024 and 2023. The trend indicates that warming could be speeding up, climate monitoring teams reported.

MLK Day concert held annually at the Kennedy Center for 23 years is relocating

Georgetown University is moving Let Freedom Ring, its annual event celebrating the life of Martin Luther King Jr., to the historical Howard Theatre in order to save money, the university said.

Ian McKellen to star as LS Lowry in documentary revealing trove of unheard tapes

Exclusive: Artist reminisces about his life in film using interviews recorded in last four years of his life

Fifteen years ago, Sir Ian McKellen was among the leading arts figures who criticised the Tate for not showing its collection of paintings by LS Lowry in its London galleries and questioned whether the “matchstick men painter” had been sidelined as too northern and provincial.

Now, 50 years after Lowry’s death, McKellen is to star in a BBC documentary that will reveal a trove of previously unheard audio tapes recorded with Lowry in the 1970s during his final four years of life.

Ariana Grande to make London stage debut alongside Jonathan Bailey in Sunday in the Park With George

The singer will reunite with her Wicked co-star in a revival of the musical inspired by artist Georges Seurat in summer 2027

Wicked co-stars Ariana Grande and Jonathan Bailey are to reunite on stage in Stephen Sondheim’s Pulitzer prize-winning musical Sunday in the Park With George. The production, hotly rumoured and finally announced on Wednesday, will run at the Barbican Centre, London, in summer 2027.

Sunday in the Park With George, which has a book by Sondheim’s long-term collaborator James Lapine, is a tale of two artists. One is inspired by the pointillist Georges Seurat and the other is the character’s great-grandson. On Wednesday, Bailey and Grande shared a photo on Instagram of them sitting in front of the Seurat painting that inspired the production, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, which is on display in the Art Institute of Chicago.

FBI raids home of Washington Post reporter in ‘highly unusual and aggressive’ move

Agents searched Hannah Natanson’s Virginia home and seized devices in inquiry tied to a classified materials case

The FBI raided the home of a Washington Post reporter early on Wednesday in what the newspaper called a “highly unusual and aggressive” move by law enforcement, and press freedom groups condemned as a “tremendous intrusion” by the Trump administration.

Agents descended on the Virginia home of Hannah Natanson as part of an investigation into a government contractor accused of illegally retaining classified government materials.

Massacres and executions: what are we hearing from inside Iran? – The Latest

Protesters face execution as the Iranian regime continues its violent crackdown, defying the US president, Donald Trump, who has threatened ‘very strong action’ if demonstrators are killed. Erfan Soltani, 26, is the first protester to be sentenced to death, but it is unclear whether or not his execution has taken place. Lucy Hough speaks to journalist Deepa Parent about what she is hearing from those inside Iran – watch on YouTube

A major development in Trump's Fed feud is set to happen next week in the Supreme Court

Supreme Court arguments on Jan. 21 will likely be the next big development for the central bank's quest to maintain independence.

Woman detained after following ICE recalls "desperate crying" at facility

Patty O'Keefe said she and a friend were following ICE agents in Minnesota earlier this week when they were stopped, their car pepper-sprayed and their windows smashed.

Democrat Elissa Slotkin says she is under investigation for video on illegal orders

Michigan Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin says she is under federal investigation for posting a video urging members of the military not to obey illegal orders.

I’ve been thinking a lot about dog poo | Adrian Chiles

There was a time when nobody picked up after their dogs – and it would have been considered disgusting to do so. What caused the change in attitude?

A PE teacher from Cardiff called Tony is frozen solid after being caught in an avalanche in 1979. There he remains until global heating sees to his thawing and he pops up in the present day, exactly as he was back then. Comedy ensues. This is make-believe, by the way; it’s the premise of Mike Bubbins’ BBC series Mammoth. In the masterful opening scenes, to the sound of Gerry Rafferty’s Get It Right Next Time, we see Tony being scornful, angry, frightened and disgusted by four things that didn’t happen before his big freeze.

He scoffs at a bloke carrying a baby in a sling, gives a charity chugger very short shrift, and jumps out of his skin when a youth on a hoverboard zips past him. But it was Tony’s disgust at a woman picking up her German shepherd’s poo that got me thinking. When did picking up dog poo become the thing to do? Or, put another way, when did just leaving it there become the thing not to do? When did we start becoming disgusted at those who didn’t pick it up rather than those who did? This is a pretty seismic cultural shift, I’m sure you’ll agree.

Conor Gallagher vows to bring Tottenham ‘special moments’ after £34.6m transfer

• Midfielder signs long-term deal after move from Atlético

• Thomas Frank: ‘Conor will bring leadership and maturity’

Conor Gallagher has pledged to bring “special moments” to Tottenham after completing a £34.6m transfer from Atlético Madrid. Spurs moved quickly for a midfielder they have long admired after losing Rodrigo Bentancur to a hamstring injury at Bournemouth last Wednesday, beating off competition from Aston Villa. Bentancur has since undergone surgery.

Tottenham looked at Gallagher at the end of the 2023-24 season only for him to go from Chelsea to Atlético for £34m. Before the Premier League game between Chelsea and Spurs in May 2024 at Stamford Bridge, the home fans unfurled a banner of Gallagher. “Chelsea since birth,” read the caption about their academy product. The subtext was clear: do not sell him to Tottenham.

After the shooting of Renee Good, we see dissent can be fatal in Trump’s America – all bets are off | Emma Brockes

A line has been crossed, and it’s vital to understand that. A system that sends paramilitaries on to the streets will observe no limits

A few years ago, towards the end of the second Obama administration, a friend and her wife flew back to New York from a holiday in Mexico, landing for a connecting flight in South Carolina. At immigration, the officer looked from one to the other, asked their relation to one another and on receiving the reply, made a noise of disgust – “ugh”. On the pretext that American citizens can’t go through the same lane as a spouse on a green card (not true), he sent them to the back of the line, causing them to miss their connection. But that’s not the point of the story.

My friend is a white Australian who is generally conflict-averse; her wife is a Japanese-American who can stop traffic with a single, hard stare, and who teaches in the South Bronx, where many of her students have been harassed by law enforcement since the day they were born. As trouble got under way, my friend kicked off like a good’un, swearing and muttering sarcastically in the Australian style, while her wife shot her desperate, angry looks. Shut up. Shut Up. SHUT UP.

Emma Brockes is a Guardian columnist

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.

How Marco Rubio shifted from Trump critic to Trump champion

Rubio once called Trump a "con artist." He's now among his most loyal defenders. New Yorker writer Dexter Filkins describes Secretary of State Rubio's character, political transformation and ambition.

House oversight chair says panel will move to hold Hillary Clinton in contempt

James Comer says action follows refusal by the former first lady and Bill Clinton to testify about Jeffrey Epstein

• US politics live – latest updates

The House oversight committee will move to hold Hillary Clinton in contempt of Congress, its Republican chair James Comer said on Wednesday, after the former first lady joined her husband Bill Clinton in refusing to comply with a subpoena for testimony regarding the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.

The announcement came a day after the Clintons said they would not honor subpoenas from the investigative panel to discuss Epstein, a former friend of the ex-president, who died in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges.

ChatGPT served as "suicide coach" in man's death, lawsuit alleges

Mother of Colorado man who committed suicide in 2025 alleges that OpenAI's AI chatbot told him death was a "beautiful place."

Italian influencer Chiara Ferragni cleared of fraud over charity Christmas cake scandal

Social media star says ‘justice has been done’ in cases involving cakes and Easter eggs being promoted as charitable initiatives

The Italian fashion influencer Chiara Ferragni has said “the nightmare is over” after being acquitted on fraud charges in a trial linked to Christmas cake and Easter egg charity initiatives.

The social media star, 38, had been on trial in Milan accused of duping consumers in two separate fundraisers – one a Christmas campaign in 2022 promoting pandoro cake, an alternative to the more famous panettone, and the other selling chocolate eggs during Easter campaigns in 2021 and 2022.

Quebec premier François Legault resigns from post in surprise move

Legault’s abrupt resignation follows months of chaos that has rocked the governing Coalition Avenir Québec party

Quebec’s premier, François Legault, has announced his resignation as leader of the province, in an abrupt departure for the polarizing figure whose embattled government faces the prospects of an electoral wipeout in the coming months.

Speaking at a hastily arranged press conference in Quebec City on Wednesday, Legault said he was proud to have founded the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) party and won consecutive majority governments beginning in 2018.

‘Aisle lice’: bad behaviour on planes – and how public shaming could stop it

Jumping up as soon as the seatbelt sign goes off can provoke fury among fellow passengers. And what goes on at the luggage carousel is possibly even worse …

Name: “Aisle lice”.

Age: Any age, as long as they’re ambulatory.

House GOP's stock trading ban bill clears key hurdle despite Dems' objections

It's unclear if the stock trading ban bill will be able to pass the full House, where Republicans hold a razor-thin and at times fractious majority.

Erotic gay smash Heated Rivalry is a well-timed defense of intimacy coordinators | Adrian Horton

The small screen phenomenon, and its publicized use of intimacy coordinators, has arrived as established Hollywood names have started to criticize the role

If you could pinpoint a moment where things change for Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams) and Ilya Rozanov (Connor Storrie), the two professional hockey players secretly hooking up in the show Heated Rivalry – a moment when the relationship breaks through into fraught emotional territory, when the hazy, undefined thing has become a thing – it would be midway through episode four.

Ilya’s couch, mid-morning, post-breakfast. (The exponentially growing fandom of this six-episode show from Canadian streamer Crave, which premiered in North America in late November with virtually no promotion and has rapidly become one of the most organic TV phenomena in recent memory, knows exactly what I’m talking about.) Hollander overhears Rozanov’s distressing phone call from home and asks how his father is (he doesn’t know Russian, but agitation needs no language); Rozanov responds by wrapping a sculpted arm around his neck. The two then get intimate, in one of the show’s many near-wordless sex scenes, culminating in them each using the other’s first name for the first time.

Wolf’s dinner preserved in Siberia for 14,400 years sheds light on woolly rhino

Decoded genome of meat in pup’s stomach helps scientists build picture of what caused extinction of species

Researchers have shed light on the final centuries of the woolly rhinoceros after studying a hairy lump of meat from the stomach of an ancient wolf cub that became mummified in the Siberian permafrost.

The beautifully preserved remains of a two-month-old female wolf cub were discovered in 2011 near the village of Tumat in northeastern Siberia. The animal is thought to have died 14,400 years ago when a landslide collapsed its den, trapping the cub and others inside.

Liz Kendall’s response to X ‘nudification’ is good – but not enough to solve the problem | Nana Nwachukwu

Big tech companies cannot be trusted. It is not enough that they remove harm when they find it – the law must make their systems prevent harm

On X, a woman posts a photo in a sari, and within minutes, various users are underneath the post tagging Grok to strip her down to a bikini. It is a shocking violation of privacy, but now a familiar and commonplace practice. Between June 2025 and January 2026, I documented 565 instances of users requesting Grok to create nonconsensual intimate imagery. Of these, 389 were requested in just one day.

Last Friday, after a backlash against the platform’s ability to create such nonconsensual sexual images, X announced that Grok’s AI image generation feature would only be available to subscribers. Reports suggest that the bot now no longer responds to prompts to generate images of women in bikinis (although apparently will still do so for requests about men).

Nana Nwachukwu is an AI governance expert and a PhD researcher at Trinity College Dublin

Trump says anything less than U.S. control of Greenland is ‘unacceptable’ ahead of crunch talks

The high-stakes meeting comes shortly after Greenland and Denmark's leaders portrayed a united front against Trump's takeover threats.

Sen. Warren says Trump called her to work on credit card interest rate caps

Republicans on Capitol Hill have lightly thrown cold water on capping credit card interest at 10%.

Sex, drugs and sugar babies: first trailer for Euphoria season three drops

Sam Levinson’s hit HBO drama series returns in April with Zendaya, Sydney Sweeney and Jacob Elordi returning

The first trailer for the third season of Euphoria promises more sex, drugs and violence, teasing a troubled life after high school for the show’s characters.

Zendaya, Sydney Sweeney, Hunter Schafer and Jacob Elordi are among those returning for episodes four years in the making. The new season will take place five years after the characters were last seen.

He lived in a cage, jumped from a window and spent a year roped to a friend: is Tehching Hsieh the most extreme performance artist ever?

He has broken his ankles, endured 365 days in a cell and faced down the 20th century’s worst winter. Yet he says he is not a masochist. We meet the man Marina Abramovich calls ‘the master’

For one year, beginning on 30 September 1978, Tehching Hsieh lived in an 11ft 6in x 9ft wooden cage. He was not permitted to speak, read or consume any media, but every day a friend visited with food and to remove his waste.

The vital context here is that this incarceration was voluntary: Hsieh is a Taiwanese-American artist whose chosen practice is performance art, undertaking durational “actions” for long periods. Marina Abramović has called him the “master” of the form. In 1980, seven months after the end of Cage Piece, Hsieh began another year-long work, Time Clock Piece, which required him to punch a factory-style clock-in machine in his studio, every hour of each day for 365 days.

What's behind this country's dramatic drop in the number of new orphans?

A new study offers good news from Uganda — although the cuts in U.S. aid cast a shadow over the reduction in deaths of parents from HIV/AIDS.

Wholesale inflation was softer than expected, retail sales moved higher in November

Wholesale prices moved up less than expected while consumers kept up a heavy buying pace, according to economic data Wednesday.

Supreme Court revives congressman's suit challenging law for late-arriving ballots

The Supreme Court ruled 7-2 in favor of Illinois Rep. Michael Bost, a Republican.

Chew on this: U.S. food prices are still up 19% since 2022

Food prices in December saw their biggest jump in more than three years, data shows, while the cost of eating out has also risen.

Clintons won't testify in Epstein probe as House Oversight GOP threatens contempt

Republican Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, the committee's chairman, said the panel will move next week on holding them in contempt.

Woman pulled out of UK ultramarathon after death threats over Afghanistan fundraising

Sarah Porter was running 108-mile Montane Winter Spine Challenger South race when security team had to disable tracking device

A woman was pulled out of Britain’s most gruelling ultramarathon after receiving death threats over her fundraising for Afghan women and girls.

Sarah Porter was nearly a third of the way through the 108-mile Montane Winter Spine Challenger South endurance race when organisers made the “difficult decision” to withdraw her due to threats to her life in relation to the foundation she runs helping women and girls in war zones.

Suspended Michigan autoworker who heckled Trump gets outpouring of donations

Tens of thousands of dollars raised for TJ Sabula after he reportedly calls Trump ‘pedophile protector’ during Ford plant tour

Tens of thousands of dollars have been raised for an autoworker at a Ford plant in Michigan who was suspended without pay after heckling Donald Trump.

TJ Sabula is said to have called the president a “pedophile protector” as Trump toured the automotive giant’s River Rouge complex on Tuesday.

‘One of the world’s best’: Manchester City swoop for USWNT midfielder Sam Coffey

• USA mainstay in move from Portland Thorns

• ‘I couldn’t be more ready and happy about everything’

Manchester City have signed the USA midfielder Sam Coffey on a three-and-a-half-year deal.

The 27-year-old won gold at the Paris 2024 Olympics and has accrued 42 caps and scored five goals for the USA, becoming a key part of Emma Hayes’ national team. After graduating she joined Portland Thorns and lifted the 2022 NWSL Championship in her debut season.

Existing home sales end 2025 with a strong beat, as prices ease further

Home sales ended 2025 much stronger than expected, likely thanks to lower mortgage rates and easing home prices.

What’s behind the phenomenon of ‘gamer brain’

If you’ve ever refused to knock down a game’s difficulty level, or chased a purposefully pointless achievement, you might have this pernicious but pleasurable affliction

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Studies on gaming’s effect on the brain usually focus on aggression or the cognitive benefits of playing games. The former topic has fallen out of fashion now, after more than a decade’s worth of scientific research failed to prove any causative link between video games and real-world violence. But studies on the positive effects of games have shown that performing complex tasks with your brain and hands is actually quite good for you, and that games can be beneficial for your emotional wellbeing and stress management.

That’s all well and good, but I’m obsessed with the concept of “gamer brain” – that part of us that is drawn to objectively pointless achievements. Mastering a game or finishing a story are normal sources of motivation, but gamer brain is inexplicable. When you retry the same pointless mini-game over and over because you want to get a better high score? When you walk around the invisible boundaries of a level, clicking the mouse just in case something happens? When you stay with a game longer than you should because you feel compelled to unlock that trophy or achievement? When you refuse to knock the difficulty down a level on a particularly evil boss, because that would be letting the game win? That’s gamer brain.

Bronx dog-walkers in the rubble of a dangerous New York: Camilo José Vergara’s best photograph

‘Huge parts of the city were being destroyed. This was part of my attempt to preserve the whole damn thing. The area became a juvenile prison’

I landed in America in 1965 from Chile. I literally arrived on a banana boat. I went to the University of Notre Dame in the midwest and then to Columbia in New York. I had a teacher – also a photographer – who taught foreign students to write and speak better English. I would try to write poetry, which he thought was terrible. I’d never taken a picture before but he encouraged me to try photography and offered to lend me the money for a Pentax Spotmatic he’d seen for sale downtown. After that, I would just walk around New York with it and take photos. It quickly became clear to me how divided the city was. Half was white and the other half was Black and Latino. There was tremendous segregation.

Columbia was very prosperous. The students were well off and many were the sons of extremely rich people. I felt out of place. Also, there’s just a huge sense of loss when you leave your country and you don’t know anybody and are on your own. It made me want to look at what else was going on: to see the other side and the underside of the city. I found it easily because, in the late 60s and early 70s, deindustrialisation was going on. Big companies and car plants were shutting down and there were huge job losses and store closures. That contrast resonated with me. My family had lost a lot of money. The first part of my life was about seeing things disappear and having to make do with less and less. I was interested to see that in the US.

Remains found on beach ID'd as former mayor who vanished in 2006

Forensic testing finally confirmed the identity of a former Oregon mayor whose remains were found on a beach near Seattle in 2006.

Yodellers, bathing monkeys and a ballroom clean: photos of the day – Wednesday

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

Don’t ‘over-engage your core muscles’ and other tips for looking after your pelvic floor

From not treating your rectum as a storage facility to lifting weights, experts offer advice on how to maintain a healthy pelvic floor for longer

Pelvic floor health has long been relegated to whispered conversations about pregnancy or aging, often reduced to vague instructions to “do your kegels”.

But according to experts, daily maintenance of the pelvic floor is important.

Mix and mismatch: if it doesn’t go with anything, it goes with everything

Bring your ostracised wardrobe items in from the cold by forgetting about whether they go with each other. Instead, let them shine in all their glory

Fashion is a dance between rules and rebellion. Great style requires a bit of both. The rules are essential, because one of the key emotional benefits that a great wardrobe can deliver is a sense of control in a chaotic world. The rules are there to simplify and clarify, lighting our route to a well put-together outfit. That well put-together outfit has the power to help you feel calmer, simply because you look in the mirror and see a competent person and therefore feel like a competent person. Style rules also come in useful for making sense of the world around us. Dress codes, style tribes, the signals we send – whether as blatant as the slogan on a T-shirt, or as subtle as the brand of your rucksack – hold an important social function, making other people legible to us.

But style also needs friction. Fashion dies if it stops moving, because moving with the times is what makes it fashion rather than just pretty clothes. The restless forward energy that moves hemlines and invents new silhouettes is what drives the plot and keeps us interested.

A Day with David Bowie: how a visit to a psychiatric clinic changed him – and his music

In 1994 the singer and Brian Eno spent a day with ‘outsider’ artists. Intimate photographs, showing in Australia for the first time, reveal the effect it had

From the Thin White Duke to Ziggy Stardust, the Berlin recluse to the late-career elegist, David Bowie’s oeuvre is defined by reinvention. As an artist he was relentlessly attuned to the conditions that might provoke the next creative rupture. One defining moment, however, has largely slipped from the popular imagination: a day spent inside a psychiatric hospital on the outskirts of Vienna – one that would prove unexpectedly formative.

In September 1994, Bowie and Brian Eno – who had reunited to develop new music – accepted an invitation from the Austrian artist André Heller to visit the Maria Gugging psychiatric clinic. The site’s Haus der Künstler, established in 1981 as a communal home and studio, is known internationally as a centre for Art Brut – or “Outsider Art” – produced by residents, many living with schizophrenia and other psychiatric disorders.

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My petty gripe: a large flat white is an oxymoron – a bastardisation of the drink Australia gave the world

The integrity of the flat white is being diluted by size inflation. It’s a sign that most people have no idea what they really want at all

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A flat white, as any self-respecting coffee drinker will tell you, should be a short, strong, balanced drink – espresso, a small amount of milk, minimal microfoam, absolutely no fluff. But a disturbing trend is sweeping Australia. Even in Melbourne – where people treat coffee with near-religious reverence – I’m now routinely asked: small or large flat white? I find myself regularly wincing into my keep cup.

A large flat white is an oxymoron – a bastardisation of the drink Australia claims to have given the world. The moment it takes a larger form, it stops being a flat white and becomes something else entirely: a milky latte, ordered by those too afraid to admit that’s what they really want.

Demand for high-achiever visas fuels pay-to-play market for credentials

Demand has risen for the EB-1A visa, creating a cottage industry of services for vanity awards, ghostwritten research papers and "profile building" services. USCIS is investigating potential fraud.

‘It opened my eyes’: Félix Auger-Aliassime on tennis, Togo and his father’s journey

The world No 7 on his teenage trip to west Africa, his fundraising efforts and finding his form ahead of the Australian Open

ith a smile, Félix Auger-Aliassime says: “Well, imagine you’re 13. I had been to Europe. I had been to America. I live in Canada. And then you go to Togo; it’s a little different, you know?”

Auger-Aliassime, the seventh best tennis player in the world, was describing the homecoming he enjoyed 12 years ago as he first caught a glimpse of Togo, the country his father, Sam, was born in and emigrated from to Canada before his son’s birth. It was a significant moment in his life.

‘Are they going to bring their violence here?’: Fear – but little preparation – as threat of invasion looms over Greenland

Ahead of high-stakes talks, people tell of alarm, thoughts of fleeing and lack of information on what to do if US invades

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When she was living in Denmark, the seemingly unshakeable safety of Greenland was a comforting source of reassurance for Najannguaq Hegelund. Whenever there was any instability in the world, she would joke with her family: “Well we will just go to Greenland, nothing ever happens in Greenland.”

But in the past two weeks – during which Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened military action on the largely autonomous Arctic territory the US president claims he “needs” for national security purposes, despite it being part of the Danish kingdom – Hegelund, 37, has realised this is suddenly no longer true.

Ukraine able to buy weapons from non-European suppliers with €90bn EU loan

Loan will be repaid only if Moscow pays reparations and plan to use Russia’s frozen assets still on table

Ukraine will be able to buy military equipment from non-European suppliers when it is given access to a €90bn (£78bn) EU loan later this year under a proposal outlined by the EU executive.

The European Commission on Wednesday published detailed proposals to lend Kyiv €90bn, but said an alternative plan based on using Russia’s frozen assets remained on the table.

‘The locals don’t really benefit’: the dark side of Detty December party season

What began as a welcoming home for many in the global Black diaspora is threatening to cause frictions that no amount of fun can resolve

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Hello and welcome to The Long Wave. It is now unmistakably post-holiday season, and in some parts of Africa, the last of the “Detty December” revellers are packing their bags. The few weeks of heavy partying that attract Black diaspora travellers from all over the world have been a fixture on the calendars of cities such as Lagos and Accra for almost a decade. But this year, it feels as if the darker sides of the festivities are encroaching on the year-end celebrations. Have we reached peak “Detty December”?

A party scene has taken off on the African coastlines. In less than a decade, an annual gathering, increasingly attracting members of the Black diaspora, grew large enough to gain its own name. “Detty December” is a tongue-in-cheek reference to the untrammelled fun, indulgence and even debauchery of the holiday party season. Festivals, concerts and club events, from Ghana and Nigeria to Kenya, receive an influx of local and global guests who now make a regular pilgrimage to beaches, bars, restaurants and nightclubs across Africa that are firmly south of, or on the equator, to enjoy boiling temperatures and blue skies, leaving behind the need to shelter and shiver through the northern winter.

Mortgage refinance demand surges 40% higher after Trump post briefly tanks interest rates

Mortgage rates dropped markedly at the end of last week, causing a huge jump in demand to refinance and a smaller surge in demand from homebuyers.

We are living in a time of polycrisis. If you feel trapped – you’re not alone

I hadn’t fully grasped how the idea of a better future sustained me – now I, like many others, find it difficult to be productive

A new year is upon us. Traditionally, we use this time to look forward, imagine and plan.

But instead, I have noticed that most of my friends have been struggling to think beyond the next few days or weeks. I, too, have been having difficulty conjuring up visions of a better future – either for myself or in general.

How to turn any root vegetables into latkes – recipe | Waste not

It’s not just potatoes that you can turn into these moreish fried cakes – just about any root veg will do the trick

Crisp, savoury and satiating latkes are my idea of the perfect brunch and, rather than sticking to potatoes, I often make them with a mixture of root vegetables, using up whatever I have to hand – just 25-50g of any vegetable will make a latke – and adding some ground linseeds or flax, which gives breakfast some nutrition-boosting omega-3s. I usually have them with a poached egg for protein or apple compote and soya yoghurt.