Following the anniversary of the actor’s death, fans recall his joy at a train platform mishap, enthusing about experimental theatre and an embarrassed double-take

• ‘I fell in love with him on the spot’: friends remember Alan Rickman, 10 years after his death

One of the highlights of my late wife’s life involved Alan Rickman. Returning to university in Manchester in the mid-90s for a new term, she was attempting to put on an enormous rucksack full of books (she did English). As she managed to get the thing on, she experienced an error in balance, fell backwards and laid on the platform, wiggling her arms and legs like an inverted tortoise, unable to move.

As I write my last regular column for the Guardian, my thoughts turn to the lessons and hope we can take from history

From Greenland’s icy mountains, from India’s coral strand, as the old hymn has it, we seem to inhabit a world that is more seriously troubled in more places than many can ever remember. In the UK, national morale feels all but shot. Politics commands little faith. Ditto the media. The idea that, as a country, we still have enough in common to carry us through – the idea embedded in Britain’s once potent Churchillian myth – feels increasingly threadbare.

Welcome, in short, to the Britain of the mid-1980s. That Britain often felt like a broken nation in a broken world, very much as Britain often does in the mid-2020s. The breakages were of course very different. And on one important level, misery is the river of the world. But, for those who can still recall them, the 1980s moods of crisis and uncertainty have things in common with those of today.

Martin Kettle is a Guardian columnist

The Lincoln in the Bardo author is back with another metaphysical tale. He discusses Buddhism, partisan politics and the terrifying flight that changed his life

Like his first novel, Lincoln in the Bardo, which won the Booker prize in 2017, George Saunders’s new novel is a ghost story. In Vigil, an oil tycoon who spent a lifetime covering up the scientific evidence for climate change is visited on his deathbed by a host of spirits, who force him to grapple with his legacy. What draws Saunders to ghost stories? “If I had us talking here in a story and I allowed a ghost in from the 1940s, I might be more interested in it. It might be because they are in fact here,” he says, gesturing to the hotel lobby around us. “Or even if it’s not ghosts, we both have memories of people we love who have passed. They are here, in a neurologically very active way.” A ghost story can feel more “truthful”, he adds: “If you were really trying to tell the truth about this moment, would you so confidently narrow it to just today?”

Ghosts also invite us to confront our mortality and, in so doing, force a new perspective on life: what remains once you strip away the meaningless, day-to-day distractions in which we tend to lose ourselves? “Death, to me, has always been a hot topic,” Saunders says. “It’s so unbelievable that it will happen to us, too. And I suppose as you get older it becomes more …” he puts on a goofy voice: “interesting”. He is 67, grizzled and avuncular, surprisingly softly spoken for a writer who talks so loudly – and with such freewheeling, wisecracking energy – on the page. He says death is close to becoming a “preoccupation” for him and he worries that he is not prepared for it.

As Tehran’s internet blackout means names of those killed in the uprising are only starting to emerge, the diaspora is reacting with shock, sadness and anger

The families of Iranians killed by the regime in its crackdown on anti-government protests over the past week have told the Guardian of their devastation on learning of their relatives’ deaths.

More than 2,500 people have been killed so far, according to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, but the death toll is expected to rise substantially as the regime eases a communications blackout imposed since 8 January.

Key maps show the growing strategic importance of Greenland as Arctic ice melts under global heating

Lying between the US and Russia, Greenland has become a critical frontline as the Arctic opens up because of global heating.

Its importance has been underscored by Donald Trump openly considering the US taking the island from its Nato partner Denmark, either by buying it, or by force.

Former Uefa president – caught between moving on and settling scores – talks candidly about his downfall, Infantino and the snakepit of the game’s governance

“There are millions and millions of romantics in football,” Michel Platini says. He has been asked whether, after a decade frozen out of the game, its lustre has vanished for him. “Millions who share the ideas that I have. But in the end, it’s big business.”

It is an industry whose peaks Platini scaled before, in one of football’s biggest falls from grace, it spat him out. He maintains he would have become Fifa president if he had not been banned from football over an alleged unlawful payment made to him in 2011, when he was running Uefa, by Sepp Blatter. The scandal led to a criminal case but both men were acquitted for a second time, definitively so, by a Swiss appeals court last year. Nothing hangs over Platini any more, bar a conviction that he was cheated.

Nigel Farage introduces former shadow justice secretary at press conference following upheaval in Tory party

• Full report: Badenoch sacks Jenrick

Nigel Farage, speaking at his press conference in Scotland, has said that “of course” he has had conversations with Robert Jenrick, who was sacked by Kemi Badenoch this morning for planning to defect.

UPDATE: Farage said:

I have had conversations with a number of very senior conservatives over the course of the last week, the last month. A lot of them realise that for all the talk on 8 May the Conservative Party will cease to be a national party. They will be obliterated in Scotland, Wales, the red wall councils.

As far as Mr Jenrick is concerned, of course I have talked to Robert Jenrick. Was I on the verge of signing him up? No. But we have had conversations.

This morning I removed the Conservative whip from Robert Jenrick after dismissing him from the shadow cabinet.

I was very sorry to be presented with clear, irrefutable evidence, not just that he was preparing to defect, but he was planning to so in the most damaging way to the Conservative party and shadow cabinet colleagues.

British troops among those to take part in joint exercises as Trump’s desire to own Greenland still ‘intact’ despite talks

The Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, said Greenland’s defence was a “common concern” for the whole of Nato, as troops started arriving from across Europe as a result of Donald Trump’s threats to take the Arctic island by force.

Troops from France, Germany, the UK, Norway and Sweden, among others, were on their way to Greenland, a largely autonomous territory of the kingdom of Denmark, on Thursday. Denmark also announced it would be increasing its military presence.

US Coast Guard boarded foreign-flagged crude carrier Veronica in a pre-dawn operation backing Trump’s sanctions push

The US military has seized another oil tanker at sea in support of Donald Trump’s sanctions against Venezuela, military officials announced on Thursday.

Veronica, a crude oil tanker that marine records suggest is sailing under a Guyanese flag, was boarded in a pre-dawn action by US marines and sailors, the US Southern Command said in a post on social media.

Damien Egan, vice-chair of Labour Friends of Israel, denied entry after opposition from pro-Palestine group and union

Ofsted has launched a snap inspection of Bristol Brunel academy, the secondary school criticised for cancelling a visit by a local MP who is vice-chair of Labour Friends of Israel.

Inspectors arrived at the school on Thursday morning following revelations that its leaders had called off a visit by Damien Egan, the Labour MP for Bristol North East, after opposition from a pro-Palestine group and members of staff belonging to the National Education Union.

Exclusive: David Hinton, who faces calls to resign, will receive payout regardless of performance if he stays until July 2030

• South East Water could lose operating licence after outages
• Business live – latest updates

The boss of the company that has left thousands of households in Kent and East Sussex without water for days is in line for a £400,000 long-term bonus regardless of his performance, if he resists calls for him to resign over the outages.

David Hinton, the chief executive of South East Water, is to receive the payout if he stays on until July 2030.

Officers with riot shields, dogs and teargas called in to quell action at Harmondsworth and Brook House facilities

More than 100 asylum seekers held at two immigration detention centres have staged overnight protests against the UK’s controversial “one in, one out” scheme with France.

Officers with riot shields, dogs and teargas arrived to quell the protests.

Letters sent using campaign group’s template as Keir Starmer indicates Australia-style move being considered

MPs’ inboxes have been flooded with letters calling for an Australia-style social media ban for under-16s, as the prime minister indicated such a move was being considered.

More than 100,000 people have contacted their local MP since the grassroots organisation Smartphone Free Childhood launched an email campaign on Tuesday evening with a template calling for “reasonable, age-appropriate boundaries”.

After a series of cryptic billboards teasing fans, the As It Was singer reveals the title and release date of his first record since 2022

After a brief teaser campaign in which billboards around the world promised “we belong together” and “see you very soon”, Harry Styles has announced his fourth solo album.

Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally will be released on 6 March. It was produced by Kid Harpoon, the British songwriter and producer who has worked on all of Styles’ previous albums. The artwork shows the 31-year-old pop star wearing sunglasses and ducking beneath a disco ball seemingly suspended from the night sky.

Robert Jenrick has defected to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK after being sensationally sacked from the shadow cabinet and suspended from the Conservative party.

Kemi Badenoch said she made the decision to sack her shadow justice secretary after she was presented with ‘irrefutable evidence’ that he was planning to defect.

Jenrick was Badenoch’s leadership rival and had long been said to have been prepared to do a deal with Farage.

Lucy Hough speaks to the Guardian’s head of national news, Archie Bland – watch on YouTube

Their cause drew global attention and they influenced a £2bn defence contract decision but some key demands were not met

• Three Palestine Action protesters end their hunger strike

As the hunger strike by Palestine Action-affiliated prisoners dragged on, it seemed to be moving towards an inexorable and grim conclusion.

With those taking part steadfast in their demands and ministers refusing to even meet their representatives, it began to seem that only a death might end the protest; and even then it was unclear what the others refusing food would do.

UK users will no longer be able to create sexualised images of real people using @Grok X account, with Grok app also expected to be restricted

Elon Musk’s X has announced it will stop the Grok AI tool from allowing users to manipulate images of people to show them in revealing clothing such as bikinis.

The furore over Grok, which is integrated with the X platform, has sparked a public and political backlash as well as a formal investigation by Ofcom, the UK’s communications watchdog.

Monumental levels of camp, explosively powerful showdowns, glorious chaos: this season finally proves that matriarchs are Traitors’ best characters. Has anyone ever been more legendary than Harriet?

Wednesday’s episode of The Traitors was explosive: Matthew’s recruitment deal with Traitors Stephen and Rachel “confirmed”, James stealing a shield, Rachel revealing her “FBI training”. But let it be known, if I ever go missing I want Harriet Tyce on the case. Her behaviour was nothing short of Shakespearean – dropping the secret writer and criminal barrister bomb, calling out Rachel against the dramatic backdrop of a gothic chapel, publicly prosecuting her at breakfast then presenting nothing but vibes-based evidence at the round table. To top it all off, she is the first Faithful in the show’s history to ask to be banished simply to prove a point. I fear Harriet is operating on levels of camp no TV show has ever seen before.

It’s a common trend that emerges every season: a woman over 50 captures the nation’s heart and becomes a viral sensation, elevated to “mother” status by fans. And this mother is always powerful, outspoken and often utterly incomprehensible. In series one, we had Amanda Lovett, the then 54-year-old estate agent turned Traitor, masking her ruthless “Welsh dragon” instincts behind a clueless appearance. Series two brought us Diane Carson, the 63-year-old Faithful and former teacher, who came armed with blunt directness and a ginger bob only to be offed by fizzy rosé as Ross, her secret son, took part in her funeral procession. Turn to 70-year-old Linda Rands in series three, a retired opera singer who clung on as a Traitor until episode seven despite blunders so blatant they made billboards.

To me and my friends from a Battersea council estate, the Dome seemed the very height of Thatcherite hedonism – and seeing ‘successful’ people up close was an eye-opener

In the mid-1980s, as a Black kid from a Battersea council estate, pubs were not part of my life. To my mind, they were where white blokes got lagered-up before rolling out on to the streets to abuse people who looked like me. None of my mates were big drinkers; we were much more interested in music (rare groove and hip-hop) and trying to meet girls. Rooms full of aggressive-looking men held no attraction for any of us.

Peter Frampton’s Frampton Comes Alive!, one of the bestselling live albums of all time, is turning 50. You won’t find that on this list, however: instead there’s metal, soul, and an ‘indecently exciting’ No 1 …

Already stars in Black America, Maze became the ultimate if-you-know-you-know band among British fans of underground soul thanks to Live in New Orleans. It perfectly encapsulated their appeal: smooth but not slick, an awesomely tight band making breezily relaxed music, one fantastic song after another.

Cold weather cracking your hands? From cult classics to anti-ageing formulas, these creams will nourish and protect

• The best body moisturisers, tested

The skin on your hands is exposed to all sorts of stressors, from cold weather to cleaning products. Even hand soap can strip skin of its natural oils, causing dryness and irritation. Whether you’re struggling with skin dryness or want something with anti-ageing benefits, there’s probably a hand cream that can help.

The best hand cream for you will depend on the specific problems you’re facing, so I asked dermatologists to identify the best ingredients for each goal. The recommendations here are a result of weeks of thorough testing, based on the expert advice I received.

Best hand cream overall:
L’Occitane shea butter hand cream

Best budget hand cream:
E45 Repairing hand cream

The Renaissance composer wrote hauntingly sublime music – and committed a grisly double murder before descending even further into psychosis. As a new stage work revisits his life, its director asks if art can be separated from artist

Carlo Gesualdo wrote some of the most darkly sublime music of the late Renaissance. He also savagely murdered his wife and her lover in their bed. Now be honest: which would you like to discuss first?

The art will always be secondary to the atrocity, however magnificent the madrigals and sacred music. Gesualdo, Prince of Venosa, had been cuckolded by the Duke of Andria in a long-running tryst that had become the scuttlebutt at court. The premeditated double murder of 1590 was a truly grisly affair, concluding in the public display of their mutilated bodies on the steps of the palazzo for several days.

With a huge audience and serving as an avatar for millions of centrist Americans, Rogan compares ICE raids to Gestapo

Joe Rogan’s comparison of US immigration raids to Gestapo operations, made during a podcast episode earlier this week, has sparked speculation about whether the wildly popular podcaster, who endorsed Donald Trump in 2024, has fully soured on Trump’s presidency – and what that might say of the millions of mainly young men who listen to Rogan’s show.

Rogan’s views, as expressed in the podcast discussion, were more complicated than the Gestapo remark taken alone might make them seem. Yet even his more measured skepticism about Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids feels somewhat significant, given Rogan’s cultural status and the evidence that Americans in general are turning against Trump’s hardline anti-immigration efforts.

Whether it’s the financial crash, the climate emergency or the breakdown of the international order, historian Adam Tooze has become the go-to guide to the radical new world we’ve entered

In late January 2025, 10 days after Donald Trump was sworn in for a second time as president of the United States, an economic conference in Brussels brought together several officials from the recently deposed Biden administration for a discussion about the global economy. In Washington, Trump and his wrecking crew were already busy razing every last brick of Joe Biden’s legacy, but in Brussels, the Democratic exiles put on a brave face. They summoned the comforting ghosts of white papers past, intoning old spells like “worker-centered trade policy” and “middle-out bottom-up economics”. They touted their late-term achievements. They even quoted poetry: “We did not go gently into that good night,” Katherine Tai, who served as Biden’s US trade representative, said from the stage. Tai proudly told the audience that before leaving office she and her team had worked hard to complete “a set of supply-chain-resiliency papers, a set of model negotiating texts, and a shipbuilding investigation”.

It was not until 70 minutes into the conversation that a discordant note was sounded, when Adam Tooze joined the panel remotely. Born in London, raised in West Germany, and living now in New York, where he teaches at Columbia, Tooze was for many years a successful but largely unknown academic. A decade ago he was recognised, when he was recognised at all, as an economic historian of Europe. Since 2018, however, when he published Crashed, his “contemporary history” of the 2008 financial crisis and its aftermath, Tooze has become, in the words of Jonathan Derbyshire, his editor at the Financial Times, “a sort of platonic ideal of the universal intellectual”.

From amused texts to awkward introductions, the run-up to the release of awards-tipped Shaker biopic The Testament of Ann Lee has been a strange experience

The messages started over a year ago. “The title cracked me up,” my film-loving friend Matt texted me, along with a tweet announcing a new musical called Ann Lee, starring Amanda Seyfried and directed by Mona Fastvold, about an 18th-century leader of the Shaker movement. Why would such innocuous film news delight him so much? Well, because my name is Ann Lee too.

“Yes! Fame at last!” I replied. I’ve answered in a similar vein to all the messages since then from other friends eager to break the news to me that my name was getting top billing in a prestigious Hollywood film. And I was genuinely amused and excited; for most of my life Ann Lee had seemed the beigest of names. Lee, or Li as it’s also spelled, is one of the most common surnames in the world and shared by more than 100 million people in Asia. I was sure there were many many Ann Lees out there. But when you get a film title dedicated to it? Now that’s when you start to feel your name might be special after all.

When I was a boy, glasses were a source of shame that ruined my self-esteem. Now that contact lenses have failed me too, all that’s left is to embrace the blurriness

I hate my glasses. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. Not just these I’m wearing now, but whichever spectacles I’ve been cursed to wear since, to my horror, I was first told to at the age of 14. At that point, my hatred of them was general, unspecific. They were a source of shame as well as inconvenience. The football field was a blur. Girls, who admittedly had never been much attracted to me in the first place, now lost interest completely.

I developed more specific dislikes, for example the way they steamed up (the glasses, not the girls) when I walked into pubs in winter, still further diminishing my chances of getting served underage. They were always getting bent out of shape, and this bugged me tremendously. The left side was higher than the right, or the right higher than the left, and I could never figure out why this was. I pulled and bent and stretched them this way and that, and only ever made matters worse. Were the arms not straight? Or was the problem the ear thingies? Don’t start me on the nose thingies, which have never, for me anyway, successfully discharged their primary task of stopping the bastards from slipping down my nose.

A summit between Greenland, Denmark and Washington has done nothing to calm our fears as the US steps up its efforts to take control of my country

The year has started out in familiar fashion for Kalaallit – the people of Greenland. The US president has once again threatened to take control of the world’s biggest island, just like he did back in 2019 and in 2024/25. Yet it feels different this time.

This time it seems as if there are more concrete plans being shaped within the Trump administration to annex Greenland. Trump wants to “take” it “whether they like it or not”, as he stated at a recent White House press conference. And the only option he seems to be offering currently is to do it “either the nice way or the more difficult way” – whatever that means. These are obviously plans for the forceful theft of Indigenous land and a self-governing territory; they are loud threats against our democracy – threats that are coming directly from the US president, again and again, through the media. That is scary. And the Greenlandic people do not feel safe.

Malu Rosing is a Greenlandic writer and an Arctic adviser

The trend of invading newsrooms, in violation of federal law, has now spread to the highest levels of the federal government

The raid of a journalist’s home, along with the jailing of their alleged source, are shocking acts of authoritarianism. And they are in line with Trump’s willingness to use the national security state as a weapon against the press, which is a serious threat to our democracy. But those weapons were not invented by Trump nor did he pioneer their use against free press.

The raid of Hannah Natanson, is a shocking escalation, not a rupture. The United States has been backsliding to this point – at both the federal and local levels – for quite some time.

Seth Stern is the director of advocacy at Freedom of the Press Foundation and a first amendment lawyer

Chip Gibbons is the policy director of Defending Rights & Dissent. A journalist and researcher focusing on the US national security state, Gibbons is currently working on The Imperial Bureau, forthcoming from Verso Books; based heavily on archival research and documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act

The EU must be more robust in order to stem the tide of international disorder, or it risks falling to authoritarian imperialism

Donald Trump is threatening to take over Greenland, the territory of a Nato ally, possibly by military force, as Vladimir Putin is trying to take over Ukraine. Even if he doesn’t actually do it, this is a new era: a post-western world of illiberal international disorder.

The task now for liberal democracies in general, and Europe in particular, is twofold: to see this world as it is and to work out what the hell we’re going to do about it.

Timothy Garton Ash is a historian, political writer and Guardian columnist

The US I grew up in was built on the rule of law. Now my Indian-born dad is scared ICE will take him from his American care home

As an American of mixed Danish and Indian heritage, who is also a citizen of France and, therefore, of the EU, Donald Trump’s contempt for the rule of law fills me with dread. “I don’t need international law,” he boasted on 7 January in an interview with the New York Times. For Louis XIV, it was “L’état, c’est moi”. For Trump, it’s the “Donroe doctrine”, or “the western hemisphere is mine for whatever profit I and my elite group of loyal courtiers can wring from it”.

At the same time, Trump’s honesty about his intention to use the astonishing military power he wields for unfettered plunder is at least refreshing. No more American pieties to democracy and human rights. The world hasn’t seen this kind of unabashed dedication to amassing wealth since the British East India Company. All hail the new king emperor! Or else.

Mira Kamdar is a Paris-based writer and author of India in the 21st Century. She writes Mixed Borders on Substack

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.

The AI chatbot’s torrent of nonconsensual deepfakes isn’t its first scandal and won’t be its last. Responsible governments should simply ban it

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Billionaire and career Bond-villain cosplayer Elon Musk has been forced by public backlash into a humiliating backdown over use of his AI chatbot, Grok. Watching the world’s richest man eat a shit sandwich on a global stage represents a rare win for sovereign democracy.

Because – unlike his company history of labour and safety abuses … his exploding rockets … his government interventions that deny aid to the starving … disabling Starlink internet systems in war zones … sharing “white solidarity” statements … or growing concern about overvaluations of his company’s share price – the nature of Grok’s latest scandal may finally be inspiring governments towards imposing some Musk-limiting red lines.

It is better to correct policy than persist in error, but Keir Starmer cannot afford to keep signalling his lack of coherent direction

In practical terms there is not a huge difference between proving your identity online with a passport and using a government-issued digital ID. But when possession of the latter is a legal requirement, the distinction has clear political significance. So does the government’s decision this week to abandon proposals to make digital ID mandatory.

People will still have to verify their identities in order to work in Britain. That was declared as the main purpose of the scheme when Sir Keir Starmer announced it last autumn. It would prevent people without the proper entitlement – illegal migrants, in short – having jobs. Now the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, says she is “pretty relaxed” about what kind of ID is used for verification.

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.

Proposals to relaunch Northern Powerhouse Rail are welcome and overdue. But passengers and commuters will believe it when they see it

In areas starved of the kind of investment taken for granted in the south-east, the miserable state of northern England’s railways has long been a source of anger and indignation. One analysis of Treasury figures found that the equivalent of seven Elizabeth lines could have been built in the north, if levels of funding devoted to London’s transport needs had been replicated there. Instead, an estimated £140bn shortfall means that the 35-mile trip from Liverpool to Manchester can take more than twice as long as the 42-mile journey from London to Reading.

Plans to resuscitate the Northern Powerhouse Rail project (NPR), unveiled on Tuesday by the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, are therefore welcome and overdue. The government has committed to developing a three-stage plan to upgrade rail connections from the west coast to the north-east. No doubt mindful of the political threat posed to Labour by Reform in “red wall” seats, Sir Keir Starmer hailed the moment as a turning point, observing that northerners had “been let down by broken promises” in the past.

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.

Dr Vicky Cleak is frustrated with the lengthy registration process to practice, while Mona Sood and another reader are wary of NHS drug-based interventions

As a UK-trained consultant psychiatrist, fully indemnified, appraised and regulated by the General Medical Council, with specialist expertise in adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) assessment and treatment, I read your article on rising ADHD care costs with concern and frustration (NHS ADHD spending over budget by £164m as unregulated clinics boom, 12 January).

For the past eight months I have been navigating the opaque Care Quality Commission (CQC) registration process to provide high-quality, fully regulated ADHD assessments in an independent setting, alongside two similarly qualified colleagues. Until this process is complete, I am legally prohibited from seeing patients.

Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain, Ray Flynn and another reader respond to the news that the practice is classed as possible child abuse in a draft Crown Prosecution Service document

I would welcome criminalising circumcision if it was performed by an unqualified person – just as would be the case if someone unqualified conducted any other surgical operation (Circumcision classed as possible child abuse in draft CPS document, 10 January). But leaping from that to banning the practice altogether is not justified.

Given that it is a longstanding and important tradition among Jews, Muslims and various other cultures, the best way forward is to only permit circumcision if it is practised by someone specifically qualified for it and who belongs to a nationally accredited scheme. This would involve compulsory training, monitoring all cases and producing annual reports.

Richard Hermer’s comments on Trump and Venezuela show that he seems to have forgotten what it says, writes Mark Seddon

One of my former UN bosses, María Fernanda Espinosa, made a point of sending a copy of the UN charter to the permanent representative of each member state on her election as president of the UN general assembly, by way of reminding them of their binding commitments.

As she now intends to stand for election as the first female secretary general of that much-maligned organisation, perhaps it might be the time to consider doing the same again? Certainly Donald Trump, who has told us that his own personal morality and very big brain take precedence over international law, could do with a copy, as could Vladimir Putin and Benjamin Netanyahu, as the latter pair continue to dodge international arrest warrants.

Judith Condon is disappointed by Call the Midwife’s reductive depiction of the Women’s Liberation Movement

What a pity to see Call the Midwife, still one of Britain’s most popular television series, stumbling into tired stereotypes about the Women’s Liberation Movement of the early 1970s.

The first episode of the new series had the female characters attending a WLM meeting, then assembling to burn their bras over a brazier. The scene may have provided an amusing image of the various styles of bra, but was not worthy of a programme that has previously shone much light on the everyday lives of women in postwar Britain.

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There is still time before 2027 World Cup to rescue the drooping silver fern but rebuilding an international team is hard and New Zealand’s aura has faded

As a keen surfer Scott Robertson is well aware how abruptly situations can change. One minute you are riding the perfect wave, the next you’re being dumped from a great height and having your world tipped upside down. Which is essentially how “Razor” will now be feeling after being ousted as All Blacks head coach barely two years into his tenure.

On the surface he was everything New Zealand rugby could have wished for. The serial domestic winner who had guided the Crusaders to seven successive Super rugby titles, the empathetic everyman with the break-dancing skills to match. If anyone could connect with younger generations and encourage everyone to fall in love with the ABs again, surely he was da man?

• Manager stresses squad harmony crucial at tournament

• Two friendlies in March to come before naming squad

Thomas Tuchel stressed talent alone is not enough to make his World Cup squad as the right “social skills” and personality will be needed for England to stand a chance of glory this summer.

It is just five months until the back-to-back Euros runners-up kick-off their quest for success in North America with their Group L opener against Croatia in Dallas. Tuchel only has two March friendlies before naming his squad for the tournament, having qualified impressively during an autumn when he spoke of building a “brotherhood” capable of beating the best.

• Londoners have rejected €35m bid for midfielder

• Buonanotte joins Leeds on loan from Brighton

West Ham will sell Lucas Paquetá this month if the deal includes an agreement for Flamengo to loan the midfielder back for the rest of the season.

Flamengo had an opening bid of €35m (£30.3m) rejected for the Brazilian and are prepared to raise their offer to about €40m. Paquetá has made clear to West Ham that he wants to return to Brazil and there are signs that the transfer will go ahead.

• US athlete said she was deliberately deprived of points

• Investigation says Canada acted within rules

Canada’s skeleton team have been cleared of allegations they rigged a qualifying event for the Winter Olympics and denied rival athletes from qualifying for next month’s Games.

USA’s Katie Uhlaender, a five-time Winter Olympian in skeleton, accused the Canadian team of deliberately pulling four of its six athletes from a race in Lake Placid, New York, last weekend in order to make it harder for athletes from other countries to qualify. The reduced field meant fewer qualifying points were available and Uhlaender, who won the event, did not secure her place at this year’s Games, which will take place in Milan-Cortina, Italy. Uhlaender claims Joe Cecchini, the head coach of Canada’s skeleton team, told her he had come up with the scheme.

Grand slam qualifying used to be an oasis for tennis hipsters but a game of one upmanship between the Australian and US Opens has set the standard for spectacular lead-in weeks

During the early days of the US Open singles main draw last year, the tournament director, Stacey Allaster, was holding court with a small group of journalists in a suite overlooking Arthur Ashe Stadium. Much of the discussion centred on the revamped mixed doubles tournament, which had dominated the tennis discourse for days. With a smile, Allaster explained the amount of work that had gone into the event and cited the final attendance numbers for the week it was held. The US Open, she asserted, is now a three-week event.

For many years, the traditional grand slam fortnight was preceded by a nondescript week of preparation. While lower-ranked players quietly worked through the qualifying draw in front of vacant stands, the top players finished their preparation to minimal fanfare. Access to the tournament grounds at the Australian Open, French Open and US Open were free for qualifying. Still, few people came. To most hardcore fans, grand slam qualifying was an oasis for tennis hipsters, the sport’s best-kept secret.

The eight remaining teams all have elements of brilliance. But they also have weaknesses that could send them crashing out of the postseason

Defending the run has long been a sore spot for the Bills – they finished the season 25th in defensive rush success rate. Inside, they lack mass, and are too easily pushed around by teams committed to a smashmouth approach. Outside, they struggle with discipline and technique. Against Jacksonville last weekend, both fell apart. The Jaguars rushed for 154 yards, with 119 of those yards coming on outside runs. It was the Jags’ highest total on outside runs this season. This weekend, against a Broncos offense that is happy to punch anyone in the mouth, that could put the Bills in a lot of trouble.

First-leg victory at Stamford Bridge displayed the hallmarks of another vintage Gunners team who refused to be bullied

Nobody said it had to be pretty. And for large portions of Arsenal’s 3-2 win at Chelsea in the Carabao Cup semi-final first leg on Wednesday, it certainly was not. But for Mikel Arteta and his players there was a beauty in the physicality, the remorseless levels of aggression.

Arsenal won because of what they did without the ball. Yes, there were nice moments from them in possession, most obviously Martín Zubimendi’s goal for 3-1. His gliding run from right to left inside the penalty area, especially the fake-to-shoot move that removed the Chelsea defender Wesley Fofana from the equation, the composure amid the maelstrom, before the execution, was jaw-dropping.

• Heitinga to have big role with defence, Frank says

• Moersen to serve months of gardening leave

Tottenham have appointed John Heitinga, the former Ajax head coach and assistant to Arne Slot at Liverpool, to Thomas Frank’s coaching staff. Frank said one of the Dutchman’s main responsibilities would be to work with the defence.

Heitinga’s arrival was confirmed after Spurs announced that Carlos Raphael Moersen was joining as their first director of football operations. He is coming in from City Football Group, which oversees a stable of clubs that includes Manchester City.

The arrival at Toluca of another France favourite adds to Liga MX Femenil’s claim of being among the world’s top five

“The league for me is top is five or six leagues in the world,” says Eugénie Le Sommer, speaking about Mexico’s Liga MX Femenil, where she’s just started the second half of her first full season in Latin America.

The OL Lyonnes and France great became the latest big name to join the league last summer, following former teammate Amandine Henry to Toluca, coached by another Frenchman in Patrice Lair, but others have gone before the pair of former internationals to a league that has everything going for it.

Protests continue across state and governor urges peace one week after an ICE agent shot and killed Renee Good

Donald Trump threatened on Thursday to invoke the Insurrection Act in Minnesota in response to protests in Minneapolis against federal immigration enforcement operations, as Minnesota’s governor, Tim Walz, overnight urged demonstrators in Minneapolis to be peaceful amid escalating tensions.

In a post on Truth Social on Thursday morning, Trump said he would institute the Insurrection Act and “quickly put an end to the travesty that is taking place” in Minnesota if the “corrupt politicians of Minnesota don’t obey the law and stop the professional agitators and insurrectionists from attacking the Patriots of ICE”.

Greensill Capital UK accused of breaking agreement with government over loans issued to businesses during pandemic

A company linked to financier Lex Greensill “failed to act in good faith” by lending £250m more than it should have to businesses owned by steel magnate Sanjeev Gupta during the pandemic, the high court has been told.

Greensill Bank AG (GBAG) is suing the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) for about £331m over claims it wrongly terminated guarantees it agreed with Greensill Capital UK (GCUK) on Covid loans given to businesses.

Providers and doctors say lack of access to contraception another reason for the 11% rise in procedures in 2023

The rising cost of living and a lack of access to contraception have driven another rise in abortion rates in England and Wales, providers and doctors said.

Government statistics released on Thursday showed that abortions increased by 11% in 2023 compared with the previous year.

Experts at the Mauritshuis in The Hague believe Paulus Potter toned down The Bull to respect 17th-century sensibilities

The Bull by Paulus Potter is one of the star paintings at the Mauritshuis in The Hague, a bucolic image of animals and a farmer.

But new research suggests the painting has unexpected hidden depths: conservators restoring the artwork say the bull’s testicles were originally much larger, and appeared to have been halved in size by the artist to respect 17th-century sensibilities.

Some brokers say monthly outgoings on drugs such as Wegovy and Mounjaro can knock thousands off the amount you can borrow

Regularly spending large sums on weight loss drugs could reduce the amount people can borrow on a mortgage by thousands of pounds, some brokers are warning.

When homebuyers apply for a mortgage, the lender carries out detailed affordability checks on their income and outgoings, which include regular payments such as subscriptions and memberships as well as amounts spent on things such as gambling.

Environment minister says attacks on social media affect perceptions of meteorology and denigrate researchers’ work

Spain’s environment minister has written to prosecutors to warn of “an alarming increase” in hate speech and social media attacks directed against climate science communicators, meteorologists and researchers.

In a letter sent to hate crimes prosecutors on Wednesday, Sara Aagesen said a number of recent reports examined by the ministry had detected a “significant increase” in the hostile language that climate experts are subjected to on digital platforms.

In countries such as South Sudan, the great herds have all but disappeared. But further south, conservation success mean increasing human-wildlife conflict

It is late on a January afternoon in the middle of South Sudan’s dry season, and the landscape, pricked with stubby acacias, is hazy with smoke from people burning the grasslands to encourage new growth. Even from the perspective of a single-engine ultralight aircraft, we are warned it will be hard to spot the last elephant in Badingilo national park, a protected area covering nearly 9,000 sq km (3,475 sq miles).

Technology helps – the 20-year-old bull elephant wears a GPS collar that pings coordinates every hour. The animal’s behaviour patterns also help; Badingilo’s last elephant is so lonely that it moves with a herd of giraffes.

St Michael’s Mount launches major operation to clear up devastation caused by 112mph winds

The tidal island of St Michael’s Mount in the far south-west of Britain is usually a place of peace and quiet.

But it has become a hive of noisy activity as gardeners equipped with chainsaws and wood chippers get to grips with the devastating damage caused by Storm Goretti.

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.

Presenter wants to ‘unleash my inner entrepreneur’ in creator economy but will still host University Challenge

The presenter Amol Rajan is to leave BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, revealing he will “unleash my inner entrepreneur” by creating a company focusing on the creator economy.

In a surprise announcement, he said he would continue to host the BBC’s University Challenge quizshow and make his Radical podcast with the corporation.

In Mansion House speech, mayor will talk of opportunities technology offers but highlight mass unemployment risk

• Business live – latest updates

Sadiq Khan is to warn in a major speech that artificial intelligence could destroy swathes of jobs in London and “usher in a new era of mass unemployment” unless ministers act now.

In his annual Mansion House speech, the London mayor will say the capital is “at the sharpest edge of change” because of its reliance on white-collar workers in the finance and creative industries, and professional services such as law, accounting, consulting and marketing.

Minister says he is shocked West Midlands chief who misled MPs and public is still in post

• UK politics live – latest updates

Wes Streeting has said he would be “horrified” if the chief constable of West Midlands police remains in his post “by the end of the day”, describing his behaviour as a “stain on his character”.

There are mounting calls for Craig Guildford, who leads West Midlands police, to resign after a damning report by the chief inspectorate criticised the force’s handling of intelligence used to justify the ban on Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from attending a Europa League match in November.

Third of councils affected by overhaul from two-tier to unitary authorities ask for postponement

• UK politics live – latest updates

More than a third of local authorities in England have asked to postpone their elections in May, saying they are unable to deliver them effectively during an overhaul of local government, according to administrators.

The requested postponements have sparked unrest and fierce criticism in some councils, with police being called to a council meeting in Redditch this week after insults were traded and members of the public decried a delay as “arrogant”.

Record 3.5 million visited in 2025 and plans are afoot to ensure gallery does not become overburdened like Louvre

The head of the Prado has said the Madrid art museum does not need “a single visitor more” after it welcomed a record 3.5 million people last year, adding that plans are being drawn up to ensure it does not become a victim of its own success like the Louvre in Paris.

In 2025 the Prado, which is home to such masterpieces as Velázquez’s Las Meninas and Hieronymus Bosch’s The Garden of Earthly Delights, was visited by 3,513,402 people, an increase of more than 56,000 from the previous year. Visitor numbers have risen by more than 816,000 over the past decade.

Influencer, who promotes conspiracy theories and anti-immigration rhetoric, posts notification that her ETA has been cancelled

A Dutch anti-immigration influencer who has promoted conspiracy theories such as the “great replacement” appears to have had her authorisation for visa-free travel to the UK revoked.

Eva Vlaardingerbroek posted an image online of what appeared to be a notification from the British government that her UK electronic travel authorisation (ETA) had been cancelled on Tuesday.

Researcher calls for guidelines for diagnosing prolonged grief disorder to be expanded to cover people who lose pets

Grief over the death of a pet could be as chronic as that for a human family member, research has shown, confirming what many people already know about their bond with their furry friends.

People grieving the loss of a pet can suffer from prolonged grief disorder (PGD), a mental health condition brought about by the death of a loved one, a survey published in the academic journal PLOS One has found.

$1.6m project drew outrage over ethical questions about withholding vaccines proven to prevent disease

The controversial US-funded study on hepatitis B vaccines among newborns in Guinea-Bissau has been halted, according to Yap Boum, a senior official at the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

“The study has been cancelled,” Boum told journalists at a press conference on Thursday morning.

‘Godfather of AI’ Yoshua Bengio says firms building powerful systems without appropriate guardrails

• Musk’s X to block Grok AI from creating sexualised images of real people

The scandal over the flood of intimate images on Elon Musk’s X created non-consensually by its Grok AI tool has underlined how the artificial intelligence industry is “too unconstrained”, according to a pioneer of the technology.

Yoshua Bengio, a computer scientist described as one of the modern “godfathers of AI”, said tech companies were building systems without appropriate technical and societal guardrails.

While better-than-expected data for November offers hope for UK economy, clouds remain on the horizon

• UK economy grew by better-than-expected despite budget uncertainty
• Business live – latest updates
• UK politics live – latest updates

At the end of last year, Rachel Reeves was under fire for the impact of budget speculation on Britain’s economy. All of the noise about fiscal holes, tax increases and spending cuts before her late November budget was having a real-world effect on the spending decisions of households and businesses.

The latest official figures will therefore come as a boost for the chancellor. Britain’s economy grew more strongly than expected in November, up 0.3%, despite the fog of uncertainty in the lead up to her critical tax and spending speech at the end of the month.

Jaguar Land Rover’s recovery from cyber-attack appears to have contributed to GDP growth

• Growth figures give boost to Reeves – but it’s too early to get carried away
• Business live – latest updates

The UK economy grew by a stronger-than-expected 0.3% in November despite uncertainty around Rachel Reeves’s budget, official figures show.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on Thursday showed the improvement, up from a 0.1% fall in October.

Company expects even lower margins in 2026 as it echoes cautious outlook from estate agents Foxtons and Savills

• Business live – latest updates

The UK housebuilder Taylor Wimpey has said demand is “muted” despite improving affordability, particularly among first-time buyers, echoing a cautious outlook from the estate agents Foxtons and Savills.

Jennie Daly, the chief executive of Taylor Wimpey, said the government’s recent planning changes had resulted in “increased momentum in our recent planning permissions”.

The actor answers your questions on her preference for playing goodies or baddies, kissing Denzel Washington and sneaking a nap on set

Why didn’t you insist on a “must kiss Denzel” scene in your two Equalizer films? nivlek47
Well, if you go back to the first Equalizer, he comes to my character seeking permission to do his “equalizing”. I’d been his boss and trained him, so kissing him would be highly inappropriate. However, if somebody is looking to see me kiss Mr Washington, please whisper that into his ear.

I hear you’re a big fan of knitting. What’s been your greatest knitted creation? TopTramp
The knitting has been eclipsed by pottery the past three years. I go to a local pottery studio, do what I can on a wheel, and get my creativity out there. The knitting was a wonderful thing. I’d make simple squares without having to count stitches, then sew them all together. I must have made about a dozen blankets, most of which are still in a trunk upstairs. If I get another job in television – which I hope I do – that has you sitting around quite a bit, so knitting is a good mobile craft.

The previous actors to take the lead in Stieg Larsson’s franchise were excellent. So the successor to Noomi Rapace, Rooney Mara and Claire Foy is bound to be brilliant – whoever they are …

This week Sky announced that it will be remaking Stieg Larsson’s 2005 novel The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo as an eight-part television series. So far, all we know is that it will be set in the present day and will be written by Steve Lightfoot and Angela LaManna.

What we don’t know is who will play Lisbeth Salander, the aforementioned girl with the dragon tattoo. And this will be a big deal, because previous screen adaptations of Larsson’s books have made stars of whoever was cast as Salander. In 2009’s Swedish adaptation, she was played by Noomi Rapace, who was nominated for a Bafta. In David Fincher’s 2011 remake, she was played by Rooney Mara, who was nominated for an Oscar. And in 2018’s The Girl in the Spider’s Web adaptation, she was played by Claire Foy, who wasn’t nominated for a Bafta or an Oscar, but was still very good.

Martin Freeman does his best to lift this three-parter, but it feels like Enid Blyton – made for an international market that thinks Paddington Bear is holding the queen’s hand in heaven

‘Tis the season, just, for your annual Agatha Christie. In recent years, the adaptations have been infused with the grief and instability of the postwar backdrop against which they all exist, and been given rich, dark, adult inflections by Sarah Phelps for the BBC.

The latest, however, is for Netflix by Chris Chibnall and we are back in the world of period costume, clipped vowels and dialogue infused with nothing but plot, designed to get the puzzle pieces recited into the right position for the next bit then the next bit then the solving – this time at the end of three very hour-long episodes.

This hormone-fuelled tale of the training college for space voyagers is like Grange Hill, with phasers – and it has a female lead unlike any captain before

The original Star Trek TV series debuted in 1966, so trying to get your head round all the sequels, prequels and timeline-splitting spin-offs can often feel like homework. It was only a matter of time before the venerable sci-fi franchise used a school as a setting. But Starfleet Academy, the latest streaming series, is not some random cosmic polytechnic for aliens to study humanities or vice versa. This is the oft-referenced San Francisco space campus sited right next to the Golden Gate Bridge. With James T Kirk and Jean-Luc Picard on the alumni list, it is basically Hogwarts for wannabe starship captains.

Or at least it used to be. As this newest Trek opens we are in the 32nd century: as far into the future as the franchise has ever gone, boldly or otherwise. (The original 1966 five-year mission for Kirk and co took place in the 23rd century.) The universe is still recovering from the Burn, an all-encompassing cataclysm from 2020’s season three of Star Trek: Discovery that put the kibosh on faster-than-light warp travel. After an extended period of intergalactic isolationism, Starfleet Academy is about to receive its first new intake for over a century. Mega-fan Stephen Colbert is already on board as the school’s PA announcer. All it needs is a new chancellor.

A social media content moderator becomes obsessed with a violent video in this restrained, unsettling workplace thriller starring Lili Reinhart

Here is a workplace drama, of sorts. Like many people, Daisy (Lili Reinhart) works a desk job using a computer. Unlike most people, fainting at work is a rite of passage; she moderates videos on social media that have been reported for violating the terms of service. That means watching everything from horrible porn to horrible politics to horrible accidents and everything in between, a non-stop diet of videos with titles such as “fetus in blender” or “strangulation but she doesn’t die”.

Her boss takes her to task for deleting a graphic video showing a suicide, which supposedly has news value and should have been left up. But the tipping point for Daisy is a really nasty video titled “nailed it”, which shows violence and cruelty that she believes is real and non-consensual. So begins a low-key quest to track down the perpetrator, though she is far from sure what she will do when she finds them. Nor is she altogether sure why it is this particular video, of all the trash and hatred washing over her, day in, day out, that has inspired her obsession. Her colleagues and boss shrug off her concerns: this video is nothing special.

Daniel Reuss/Noord Nederlands Orkest/Cappella Amsterdam
(Pentatone)
Noord Nederlands Orkest and Cappella Amsterdam breathe colour and light into work from the composer’s most austere period

In his later years, Igor Stravinsky became fascinated by serialism, both as a means of distilling musical thought and as an intellectual and stylistic challenge for a composer entering his 70s and 80s. The results struck some contemporary listeners as austere, but there’s a self-effacing purity and beauty about this complex, intellectually probing music that deserves a wider audience than hitherto. Kudos, then, to conductor Daniel Reuss, whose precise yet vital interpretations teem with colour and light.

There are four main works here. In Memoriam Dylan Thomas from 1954 is an extended, impassioned setting for solo tenor of Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night. Threni, a spiny, multifaceted jewel from 1958, sets words from the Book of Lamentations. The haunting Introitus and bristling Requiem Canticles, from 1965 and 1966 respectively, complete the set, interspersed with briefer pieces including an unpretentious Lord’s Prayer and the severely cerebral two-minute Elegy for JFK.

The author brings introspection and humour to their inspiring account of how a young goshawk helped them cope after the loss of their father

It is coming up to 12 years since the publication of H Is for Hawk, about the historian, writer and naturalist Helen Macdonald’s time spent training a Eurasian goshawk after an intense period of grief. Showered with awards, the book was a runaway hit and sparked a literary trend for shared transformative encounters with animals including cats, dogs, magpies and hares.

This month, H Is for Hawk comes to the big screen in a new adaptation starring Claire Foy. But there is still time to get to know the source material, which tells of the sudden death of the author’s father and how Macdonald, an experienced falconer who had previously trained kestrels and peregrines, took delivery of a temperamental young goshawk named Mabel with the aim of taming her and teaching her to hunt. Macdonald, who is non-binary, is the audiobook’s narrator. Their reading is characterised by introspection, curiosity and flashes of humour as they observe this “spooky, pale-eyed psychopath” who, as well as feeding and flying, likes to play ball with scrunched-up bits of paper.

Available via Penguin Audio, 11hr 5min

Misha Glenny’s debut as host of the long-running Radio 4 series tackled JS Mill’s On Liberty – a bold move given the BBC’s current legal battles

“As we come to the text, we’ll try to tease out the difference between utilitarianism and libertarianism …”

That sort of thought has become normal after cornflakes on BBC Radio 4 Thursday mornings. The shock this time was the voice: not a nasal mature Cumbrian but a smoother, deeper, younger north Oxford tone. This was Misha Glenny’s debut, having replaced Melvyn Bragg as host of the university of the airwaves, In Our Time.

The neo-soul superstar – an in-demand musical collaborator, a seasoned actor and a bestselling poet – will take on your questions

In the age of GLP-1s and the deep-plane facelift making dozens of famous women appear perpetually 32 years old, there’s something extra heartening about Pressha, the lead single from three-time Grammy-winner Jill Scott’s sixth album. “I wasn’t the aesthetic / I guess, I guess, I get it / So much pressure to appear just like them / Pretty and cosmetic,” she sings in a coolly unimpressed kiss-off to a former paramour too cowardly to be seen with her in public.

It’s typical of the 53-year-old neo-soul superstar’s direct way with singing about femininity – a quality that’s made her an in-demand collaborator with artists including Dr Dre, Pusha T, Will Smith, Common and Kehlani. As well as having several US No 1 albums to her name, Scott is an artist’s artist: her new record features Tierra Whack, JID and Too $hort; she was originally discovered by Questlove back in her spoken-word days before releasing her platinum-certified debut Who Is Jill Scott? Words and Sounds Vol 1 in 2000.

A fascinating deep dive into the discovery, use and implications of a revolutionary new treatment

Few aspects of being human have generated more judgment, scorn and condemnation than a person’s size, shape and weight – particularly if you happen to be female. As late as 2022, the Times’s columnist Matthew Parris published a column headlined “Fat shaming is the only way to beat the obesity crisis” in which he attributed Britain’s “losing battle with fat” to society’s failure to goad and stigmatise the overweight into finally, shamefacedly, eating less. The tendency to equate excess weight with poor character (and thinness with grit and self-control) treats obesity as a moral as well as physical failing – less a disease than a lifestyle choice.

One of the great strengths of Reuters journalist Aimee Donnellan’s first book is its insistence on framing the discovery of the new weight-loss drugs within the fraught social and cultural context of beauty norms, body image and health. For those who need them, weekly injections of Ozempic, Wegovy or Mounjaro can be revolutionary. Yet for every person with diabetes or obesity taking the drugs to improve their health, others – neither obese nor diabetic – are obtaining them to get “beach-body” ready, fit into smaller dresses, or attain the slender aesthetic social media demands of them. Small wonder some commentators have likened the injections to “an eating disorder in a pen”.

Family trauma shapes a student’s affair with her teacher in this bleak and funny fiction debut from the American memoirist

When it was published in 2022, Jennette McCurdy’s memoir lit a touchpaper to a nascent cultural conversation. I’m Glad My Mom Died introduced her mother Debra’s narcissistic personality disorder into a world eager to discuss adult child and parent estrangement. McCurdy had also suffered sexual abuse, and claimed her mother had contributed to her developing an eating disorder. The memoir was a bestseller, walking readers through the realities of generational trauma; a step change for the former Disney child star who had been “the funny one” on obnoxious Nickelodeon kids’ shows.

In her debut work of fiction, Half His Age, McCurdy continues to shake open a Pandora’s box, shedding light on blurred parent-child boundaries and loss of identity due to over-enmeshment, with solid one-liners that feel straight out of a sitcom writers’ room.

The death of a friend and the attempted murder of her husband Salman Rushdie loom large in the poet’s moving memoir

The night before her wedding to Salman Rushdie in 2021, the American poet and novelist Rachel Eliza Griffiths was fretting about her best friend. Kamilah Aisha Moon was due to read a poem at the ceremony, but no one had heard from her. Her phone was going straight to voicemail and staff at her hotel said she hadn’t checked in. “We’ll find her. She wouldn’t miss your wedding,” Griffiths’s sister, Melissa, assured her. But the next afternoon, in the middle of her wedding reception, Griffiths learned that Moon had died alone at home in Atlanta of unknown causes. On hearing the news she collapsed, hit her head on a table and blacked out. Paramedics pried open her eyes to shine a torch on them: “A particle of light that is so distant from the world I once knew.”

For Griffiths, 47, the death of her best friend and “chosen sister” was one in a series of upheavals stretching across a decade. It began with the death of her mother, who was her greatest cheerleader and fiercest critic. She had instilled in her daughter the importance of “independence above everything. I was raised not to lose myself in the stories of others, especially men.”

A sociologist talks to the people putting their faith – and their hearts – in the hands of robots

If much of the discussion of AI risk conjures doomsday scenarios of hyper-intelligent bots brandishing nuclear codes, perhaps we should be thinking closer to home. In his urgent, humane book, sociologist James Muldoon urges us to pay more attention to our deepening emotional entanglements with AI, and how profit-hungry tech companies might exploit them. A research associate at the Oxford Internet Institute who has previously written about the exploited workers whose labour makes AI possible, Muldoon now takes us into the uncanny terrain of human-AI relationships, meeting the people for whom chatbots aren’t merely assistants, but friends, romantic partners, therapists, even avatars of the dead.

To some, the idea of falling in love with an AI chatbot, or confiding your deepest secrets to one, might seem mystifying and more than a little creepy. But Muldoon refuses to belittle those seeking intimacy in “synthetic personas”.

Showing the value of great design over visual impact, this faithfully resurrected home computer seamlessly integrates modern tech with some wonderful additional touches

The emotional hit was something I didn’t expect, although perhaps I should have. The Commodore 64 Ultimate, a new version of the legendary 8-bit computer, comes in a box designed to resemble the original packaging – a photo of the machine itself on a background of deep blue fading into a series of white stripes. Then when you open it, you find an uncannily accurate replica of what fans lovingly referred to as the breadbox – the chunky, sloped Commodore 64, in hues of brown and beige, the red LED in one corner above the row of fawn-coloured function keys. It’s like 1982 all over again.

My dad bought us a C64 in late 1983. It was our second computer after the ZX81 and it felt like an enormous leap into the future with its detailed colour graphics, advanced sound chip and proper grown-up keyboard. We unpacked it on our dinner table, plugging it into a small portable TV and loading the one game we had, a very basic Donkey Kong clone named Crazy Kong. My life would never be the same again. This contraption was my obsession for the next four years – my friendships and free-time would revolve around games such as Bruce Lee, Paradroid and Hyper Sports. To this day, I treasure the memories of playing golf sim Leaderboard with my dad. The sound effects, speech samples and graphics conjured by that computer have lived rent free in my head for, god, almost 40 years.

When Hollow Knight: Silksong came out last summer I was in so much pain that I didn’t know if I’d be able to play it. Could a video game teach me anything new about suffering?

Last year I became uncomfortably well acquainted with suffering. In March I started experiencing excruciating pain in my right arm and shoulder – burning, zapping, energy-sapping pain that left me unable to think straight, emanating from a nexus of torment behind my shoulder blade and sometimes stretching all the way up to the base of my skull and all the way down into my fingers. Typing was agony, but everything was painful; even at rest it was horrible. I couldn’t play my guitar; I couldn’t play video games; I couldn’t sleep. I learned how quickly physical suffering lacerates your mental wellbeing.

I’d had episodes of nagging pain from so-called repetitive strain injuries before, the product of long hours hunched over laptops and game controllers over the course of decades, but nothing like this. A few months later, after the initial unrelenting agony had subsided to a permanent hum of more moderate pain, it was diagnosed as brachial neuritis, inflammation of the nerve path that travels from the base of your neck down to your hand. (Nobody knows what causes it, but it sometimes happens after an infection or an injury.) The good news, I was told by a neurologist, was that it usually gets better in about one to three years, and I hadn’t lost any function in my right hand. The bad news was that there was nothing much to be done about the pain in the meantime.

From the greatest cartoon racing game in history to a remastered version of an Alien-inspired sci-fi shooter, here are the Switch’s must-play games

• The 15 best games to play on the Nintendo Switch in 2025

Although the Nintendo Switch 2 has been out for several months, not everyone has made the leap to the new machine and there is still much to enjoy on the original console in 2026 (and beyond). From timeless Mario adventures to cutesy shooters to chasm-deep role-playing quests, here are 15 games no Switch owner should be without.

PlayStation 4/5, Nintendo Switch/Switch 2, Xbox, PC; Square-Enix
This landmark role-playing game remains a revolutionary tour de force

At first glance, Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles, first released in 1997 and now available in newly remastered guise, does little to separate itself from other boilerplate fantasy fiction. There is a hero, Ramza – an idealistic nobleman with luscious blond hair who cavorts about the medieval-inspired realm of Ivalice in search of high adventure. But quickly, and with narrative elegance, the picture complicates: peasant revolutionaries duke it out with gilded monarchists; machiavellian plots plunge the kingdom into chaos. Ramza must navigate this knotty political matrix, all while experiencing his own ideological awakening.

There is a strong case to be made that Final Fantasy Tactics tells a better story than the landmark Final Fantasy VII (which saw Cloud Strife and a ragtag bunch of eco-terrorist pals taking on the shady megacorporation Shinra). And with our real-world political focus shifting from the looming threat of the climate crisis to the more pressing rise of fascism (though the two are inextricably linked), one can make the argument that Tactics is now also the more timely game.

For the first time in the UK, the photographer’s magnum opus is going on display in its entirety – introducing new viewers to New York’s edgy downtown scene and a generation lost to Aids. Here, she looks back at the ‘fearlessness and wildness’ of her life and times

Bridewell theatre, London
Thomas Klingenstein’s account of the formidable Kate Chase’s political plotting during the civil war has dense dialogue and a limited scope

‘Sometimes she understands things better than I,” says Abraham Lincoln’s secretary of the treasury, Salmon P Chase, about his politically savvy, social heavyweight of a daughter, Kate.

Kate Chase has a lot on her plate. She is helping Salmon prepare to challenge Lincoln in the 1864 elections­ – managing alliances and optics, and planning a party to announce his campaign, plus a lucrative marriage to finance it, despite her deep connection with Lincoln’s secretary, John Hay.

The Place, London
Intriguing works by Seirian Griffiths, Qi Song and Isadora D’Héloïsa explore in-between states in this month-long showcase of the future of dance

Each evening at the Place’s Resolution festival of new choreography showcases fresh green shoots and this particular triple bill of bright, idea-driven dance was united by intriguing concepts. Each piece is a consideration of in-between states, most outlandishly the standout, Interchange, a questing solo by Seirian Griffiths. In a particularly bureaucratic purgatory, the recently deceased Michael is informed, via a brisk yet personable voiceover from Sam Booth, that he has some excess baggage to process. The only way forward is to revisit the loves of his life, from his mother to fleeting relationships.

The setup, with its slightly overdone pastiche of muzak-accompanied admin hell, prompts a dance of not quite exorcism but certainly cleansing as Michael spins through his past. The occasionally galloping pace suggests the near-death notion of events flashing before your eyes, as Griffiths makes graceful yet quicksilver transitions between contained bouts of torment that are strikingly well acted and boosted by his own coiled compositions. The hip-hop stylings are featherlight, too, when he pivots with a headstand or practically levitates, his shadow like a chalked outline below.

Barbican Hall, London
The tension barely let up for two hours as Rattle led the London Symphony Orchestra and a commanding cast through this vital account of Janáček’s opera.

It is only two months since Jakub Hrůša’s rightly acclaimed and idiomatic conducting of Leoš Janáček’s penultimate opera at Covent Garden. Now, like the proverbial London buses, here comes the same piece again (though this time calling itself The Makropulos Affair rather than the Royal Opera’s The Makropulos Case), with Simon Rattle leading two concert performances at the Barbican Hall.

Rattle’s first-night account was simply sensational. He plunged at almost manic speed into Makropulos’s compellingly exciting prelude, and barely let up for the best part of two hours, as the opera played without an interval. The fierce tension may occasionally have come at the expense of some of the lighter touches that beguiled in Hrůša’s approach. Yet Janáček’s extraordinarily deft ear for orchestral detail and harmony – like the bassoon solo announcing the central character’s first appearance – was never sacrificed. The LSO played thrillingly.

Sting and his former bandmates go to the high court over a royalties dispute this week – the latest chapter in the song’s remarkably fractious story

This week’s high court hearings between Sting and his former bandmates in the Police, Stewart Copeland and Andy Summers, are the latest chapter in the life of a song whose negative energy seems to have seeped out into real life.

Every Breath You Take is the subject of a lawsuit filed by Copeland and Summers against Sting, alleging that he owes them royalties linked to their contributions to the hugely popular song, particularly from streaming earnings, estimated at $2m (£1.5m) in total. Sting’s legal team have countered that previous agreements between him and his bandmates regarding their royalties from the song do not include streaming revenue – and argued in pre-trial documents that the pair may have been “substantially overpaid”. In the hearing’s opening day, it was revealed that since the lawsuit was filed, Sting has paid them $870,000 (£647,000) to redress what his lawyer called “certain admitted historic underpayments”. But there are still plenty of future potential earnings up for debate.

Critics and curators are reframing great artists, from Gentileschi to Soutine, to fit with modern ethical narratives. But this ignores the glorious ambivalence of their creations

One rainy afternoon last winter, sitting under a blanket with a cup of tea, I found myself Googling paintings by Chaïm Soutine. It’s a pastime I’ve indulged ever since visiting an exhibition of his portraits of hotel staff on the French Riviera during the 1920s – paintings that combine such a mixture of tenderness and debasement that it’s as if his brush is kissing and beating his subjects at the same time.

I flicked through images of hopelessly innocent cooks and bellboys, with complexions the colour of raw sausage and ears that look as if they have been brutally yanked. And as I did, I came across a review of the very show where I had first encountered Soutine’s works. Ah, I thought, looking forward to luxuriating in literature about his particular genius for kindly sadism.

The band pulled out over treatment of Randa Abdel-Fattah but delayed revealing their decision before confirming 27 February gig

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The British indie band Pulp will play at the Adelaide festival in February after initially pulling out of the event in protest at the cancellation of Palestinian writer Randa Abdel-Fattah.

The band issued a statement on social media on Thursday night announcing that they would “honour our invitation to perform in Adelaide on 27 February” after the festival organisers performed a U-turn, apologised to Abdel-Fattah for her treatment, and invited her to speak at next year’s event.

Mathilde Aurier’s 65 Rue d’Aubagne looks at the 2018 house collapse in Marseille and how the city healed itself through ‘love and solidarity’

“It was a turning point for Marseille, and it spotlighted the politics of France’s second city. There’s still a lot of things that have been left unsaid, things that aren’t pretty. But it set things into motion too.”

Playwright and director Mathilde Aurier is talking about what has been referred to as France’s Grenfell moment: the collapse of two dilapidated houses on 5 November 2018 on the Rue d’Aubagne in the Noailles neighbourhood, just a few hundred metres from the magnificent Old Port. Eight people were killed, causing a national outcry about urban inequality and social deprivation.

Margaret says her daughter didn’t pay the airport charge, so it’s on her. Georgie says this cock up is all her mum’s doing. You decide who got them into this fine mess
• Find out how to get a disagreement settled or become a juror

We dropped Georgia off in her own car and she didn’t pay the drop-off fee, so the fine is hers

I didn’t know you had to pay for drop-off. Mum knew and didn’t tell me, so she should help pay

From postcode pricing to falling wholesale costs, the price you pay at the pump depends less on petrol itself than on where – and when – you fill up

Why do petrol prices vary so much between filling stations? On the same road I’ve seen a 5p-a-litre difference on what must be an identical product, while the same chains charge differently from town to town.

Weird, isn’t it? Of all the things we buy, the price of petrol is probably the most transparently disclosed before we enter the retailer’s premises, and yet this only serves to leave us wondering why how much we pay can come down to where we live, or even on which side of the road we are driving.

From vintage suede to discount designer heels, these wardrobe staples are often better preloved

• From beeswax to baby wipes: how to make your leather last a lifetime

What’s not to love about secondhand shopping? You get one-off pieces while making an environmentally conscious fashion choice. From party dresses to jeans, some pieces are even better – and much more affordable – vintage. A well-made, brand-new leather jacket could set you back anywhere between £150 and £700, but you could pick up a secondhand one for £50 or less.

But it can be daunting when you first start. Knowing what you’re looking for and where you can find it is key. Consider where to shop: Vinted is good for a high-street steal, while Vestiaire Collective could get you discount designer (and it’s great for shoes; see below). Don’t overlook your local charity shop, either: some of my most satisfying secondhand buys have come from Oxfam or Crisis.

Most resolutions don’t survive past January, so how do you make a change that lasts? Readers share their top tips, from habit stacking to drinking their second coffee outdoors

• Motivation-boosting buys to help you stick to your resolutions

January often starts with a long list of unrealistic resolutions – and ends with them all being abandoned. But some good habits are worth keeping, whether that’s flossing daily, getting exercise or eating more plants.

So how do you build a habit that sticks – and what helped you to do it? We asked for your tips on changes that worked, from drinking your second cup of coffee outdoors to reminders to move (or putting a trampoline in your kitchen).

Are you easing into 2026 by resting and restoring? Or hitting it at 100mph? Either way, we have tips, tech and ideas for you. Plus, low- and no-alcohol drinks and cold weather essentials

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As you open a new calendar and the pressure mounts to become a shinier, fitter, more optimised version of yourself, it’s worth acknowledging a small but liberating truth: January is a really awkward month to reinvent your life.

It’s cold, it’s dark, everyone’s broke and our collective serotonin is running low. Which is why, this year, we’re proposing two equally valid paths – and suggesting we stop pretending we have to choose just one.

The best exercise bikes for home workouts, spin and getting sweaty, tested

‘A sign to change your technique’: how to make your toothbrush last longer – and keep it out of landfill

I tried 75 low- and no-alcohol drinks: here are my favourite beers, wines and spirits

How to dress in cold weather: 10 stylish and cosy updates for winter

The big freeze: 21 winter essentials to get you through the cold snap

‘A classic citric-forward twang and complex flavour’: the best supermarket marmalade, tasted and rated

Also: advice to reduce screen time, how to maximize your toaster oven, the best gloves and at-home fitness staples

• This piece was originally published in the Filter US newsletter on buying fewer, better things. Sign up here to get early access to it

Each week we cut through the noise to bring you smart, practical recommendations on how to live better – from what is worth buying to the tools, habits and ideas that actually last.

At this time last year, I was a full-time student, throwing on the requisite leggings and an oversized sweatshirt for evening classes and late-night library sessions. This year, I’ve joined countless others in office life, zipping in and out of conference rooms and hopping on video calls for interviews and meetings. I love any excuse to shop, but many office-friendly pieces, including pricey blazers and crisp button-downs, are far outside my price range.

The 27 best fashion gifts in the US – curated by our favorite stylists and creators

Eight winter clothing essentials Scandinavians swear by – from heated socks to ‘allværsjakke’

There are some decent wine substitutes out there that are worth trying – but it’s always worth remembering that they aren’t actually ‘wine’

Are you a lover of oaky rioja, or maybe zingy Kiwi sauvignon blanc, and looking to find a non-alcoholic lookalike? To put it bluntly, I’m afraid you’re out of luck. Alcohol does much more than make you tipsy; it is the magic ingredient that gives so much of wine’s wondrous complexity, character and charm. Not only does it carry volatile compounds that make up wine’s endlessly fascinating combinations of scents and tastes, along with a sensation of warmth, it also creates that viscous body and texture – what’s rather grossly known in the trade as “mouthfeel” – of the liquid in your mouth, and the overall balance of all these factors in the wine.

When the base wine is dealcoholised, however, all that character goes with it. Compared with beer’s relatively low-alcohol content, wine’s usual 11%-15% ABV means that, when the alcohol has gone, you feel its absence more, which is partly why nolo beers are generally more successful than nolo wine. That said, there are some wine substitutes that are worth trying, but, to avoid disappointment, my advice is to see them as drinks that aren’t wine because, well, they’re simply not.

Whether you’re abstaining or just cutting back, a glass of red, white or rosé can elevate everything from risottos and stews to pasta and puddings

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Hands up, who is dry Januarying? While it’s not something I do explicitly, I do like to cut back a bit at the beginning of the year. The marathon that is Christmas socialising can be fun but relentless, and I imagine there are many others in the same boat. When it comes to wine, at least, the problem with cutting back is what to do with the rest of the bottle. Sure, I’ll have a glass or two if I fancy it one evening, but it’s pretty much a wasted bottle if you don’t finish the rest within a few days. Fear not – I have a plethora of recipes that will ensure you never need to waste a drop – enjoy a glass or two, then use the rest in the dish of your choice. Winner, winner, chicken Marbella dinner (one of my all-time effortless favourites – scroll the link for the recipe).

There are lots of excellent suggestions in this wonderful feature on how to incorporate wine into everything from pasta to pudding. In particular, the braised short ribs from James Ramsden immediately caught my attention, as this is precisely the kind of food I want to be making and eating right now. Preferably with a pan of oozy, buttery polenta on the side. Another dish that is ticking all the cold, winter boxes is Tom Hunt’s meat stew, an all-round great braising method. If you are more of a white wine drinker, then Italian classic chicken cacciatore is equally comforting and would also be perfect with creamy polenta or mash. And let’s not forget about rosé – whoever says you can only drink it in the summer has clearly not read Fiona Beckett’s strong case for this delicate pink drink being enjoyed year-round. While the recipe for these prawns with garlic and chilli calls for white wine, I am confident you could happily switch for rosé.

Sustainable fresh scallops are best treated simply, and this herby, garlicky breadcrumb topping ticks all the right boxes

As a kid growing up in West Bay, Dorset, I used to sit on the harbour wall and watch the small trawlers coming in with their catch. My friend Mark’s dad’s boat, along with all the others, would be stacked high with sacks of queenies that they’d dredged up only hours before, and Mark’s mum would pack us off to school with a tub each of queen scallop meat doused in Sarson’s vinegar and white pepper, to eat later as a playground snack. At the time, I thought nothing of it, but, looking back now, I realise quite what a luxurious schoolday treat this was.

These days, however, our local scallop fishermen don’t fish for queenies much any more, because the time it takes to shuck and clean them is more or less the same as that for larger king scallops, so they’re no longer financially viable; also, instead of all those trawlers that Lyme Bay had in the past, it’s now mostly divers who fish more sustainably for king scallops, without demolishing the sea bed in the process. There are two main dive boats that fish out of Lyme Regis nowadays, operated by Jon Shuker and Ali Day, and they’ve pretty much cornered the local market. They recently started experimenting with so-called “disco scallops”, which are caught in pots fitted with flashing lights that lure them in, which is much more efficient, crew-wise, than diving, because a boat with one diver is legally required to have a crew of four, comprising the working diver, a standby diver, a supervisor and a driver. Crazy, eh?

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.

Sex parties allow Conrad and Callum to explore their desires in a safe space – and as couple

• How do you do it? Share the story of your sex life, anonymously

We keep the connection with subtle signals, glances across the room and an unspoken agreement that we won’t disappear

Counselling should help, but it sounds as if you need to slow down and give yourself time to grieve

I am 37 years old, happily married and have two children, who came along quickly after we got married in my late 20s. I instantly fell in love with them. However, I wasn’t really emotionally or practically ready, and developed postnatal anxiety.

I’ve always cared about the climate crisis, and since after having kids, and knowing it will affect their lives more than mine, I became motivated to make changes. We live a very “green” life.

In Vallejo, California, ‘trad sons’ report feeling trapped by family obligations, slim job prospects and the fear of violence – leaving little room for romance

Are boys becoming men later? In recent decades, the markers of adulthood have shifted for young American men: they are almost twice as likely to be single, less likely to go to college and more likely to be unemployed. Most significantly for their parents, they are also less likely to have fled the nest, with the term “trad son” springing into social media lexicon in recent months. In the 1970s, only 8% of Americans aged 25 to 34 were living with their parents, but by 2023, that figure had jumped to 18%, with men more likely to live at home than women, according to a Pew survey.

But not everywhere in the US has the same rates of adults living in their familial home. The living arrangement is least common in the midwest and most common in the north-east. Topping the list was Vallejo, where 33% of young adults live with their parents. How were they making it work?

Bored, lonely and emerging from lockdown, a less-traditional relationship was just what I was looking for

We were just two midlifers in our 50s who met back in 2020 using a popular dating app. Bored, lonely and emerging from lockdown we jumped at the chance for an outing. We had our first date at a trendy, dimly-lit Japanese restaurant and bar in Sydney’s Surry Hills. By our second lychee martini, we became aware of some mutual connections that we knew and discovered that we had actually grown up in the same place.

There was an immediate feeling of familiarity and a shared sense of humour that clicked without effort. We were in no rush for anything too serious. In fact, it would take another five outings, including antique-trawling for some 70s-inspired crockery, before things would develop into more of a romantic connection.

If you rush it because 31 January is on the horizon you are likely to make mistakes, or not have everything you need

The deadline is 31 January, but don’t put it off – try to set aside enough time over the next few days to complete your tax return for the tax year that ran from 6 April 2024 to 5 April 2025.

This was even though I had revoked my citizenship and now have dual British and German nationality

I want to flag a discriminatory experience I’ve had with the Co-op’s will-writing service.

I asked it to update a will it had drawn up for me in 2020, with my partner and our daughter as the beneficiaries. I received no follow-up for two months.

I have paid two monthly £108 instalments but am now phone-less and out of pocket

I ordered a £544 phone from Amazon. A tracking update later informed me that it “may be lost” and I could request a refund. I pressed the refund option and was directed to customer service, which insisted I wait a week to claim.

A week later I was told I needed to file an incident report from the email address associated with my account. When I complied, the report was rejected as coming from an address that “didn’t meet certain security standards”.

Thousands of people thought they paid the Dart Charge, but only realised when they got a penalty charge notice

You have had a long car journey but, thankfully, remember after you get home that you have to pay the Dart Charge, the toll for driving over the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, part of the busy Dartford Crossing over the Thames linking Essex and Kent. You quickly pay on your phone after searching for the website.

A few weeks later, however, a penalty charge notice (PCN) arrives and you realise you have been duped. The site you thought you had paid the £3.50 toll through was a fraud and the money went to criminals, while you are left with a £70 fine.

My friends were already experienced climbers, while I was starting at zero. My first day brought many hard lessons

• Read more summer essentials

At first, I didn’t notice it. When it became too big to not notice, I ignored it. In my ignorance, I even mocked it. It wasn’t until it had completely subsumed my inner circle that I was forced to accept reality: my friends can climb up walls like mountain goats.

Bouldering is the art of ascending short “climbs” using time-tested techniques. As much a problem-solving exercise as it is a physical one, it pleases parts of the brain left dormant for millennia. What began as a way to train rock climbers has blossomed into its own culture replete with specialised gear, terminology, community and Italian brain rot memes.

For fifteen years I have been devoted to the sport, but can still barely tackle or shoot. I decided to get a coach and give him the challenge of a lifetime

If I told you I have played football for 15 years, you’d probably assume that I’m decent. Unfortunately, I am not. I have three left feet and a not-very-convincing shot on goal. Despite how many years I have put into the sport, these things show little to no improvement.

I play football for the joy of it: the rush of the first whistle; the exhilaration of making a successful tackle or a clever pass; and the feeling of all fears and concerns melting away the moment the game starts. So until recently, the fact that I’m so bad at it occurred to me as, at worst, incidental. I grew up at a time when football was largely considered a men’s sport. In the 90s, there were about 80 girls’ football clubs in England (there are more than 12,000 now); there wasn’t a women’s premier league until 1994; and by the time I was in my 20s, boring jokes about women knowing the offside rule were wheeled out with disappointing regularity. As someone who still remembers the feeling of getting kicked off the pitch by the boys as soon as I entered year 3, I’ve always just felt blessed to play.

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.

Research finds minor changes in physical activity could hugely reduce number of premature deaths

Just five extra minutes of exercise and half an hour less sitting time each day could help millions of people live longer, according to research highlighting the potentially huge population benefits of making even tiny lifestyle changes.

Until now, evidence about reducing the number of premature deaths assumed that everyone must meet specific targets, overlooking the positives of even minor increases in physical activity.

The bandhgala jacket will no longer be part of the formal uniform for Indian Railways staff, following claims it symbolises a ‘colonial mindset’

It is one India’s most ubiquitous garments, with origins in the grand Mughal courts and Rajasthani kingdoms of times past, and still widely favoured by sharply dressed grooms at wedding receptions.

But this week, the distinctive high-collared bandhgala jacket – known to many as the “princely jacket” in a nod to its royal origins – found itself at the centre of a lively debate after it was denounced by the Indian railways minister as a symbol of a “colonial mindset”.

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.

Looking for something gentle and kind for a sensitive nose? The new gen Z brands have you covered

For someone who makes no secret of her obsession with fragrance, I’m always surprised by how frequently people ask me to recommend one for someone who hates the stuff.

Sometimes wearing more potent fragrances is impossible for those prone to allergies or migraines, but mostly it’s an instinctive aversion to being held captive all day by scent too pervasive for one’s liking. And in these instances, I invariably suggest the layering of two more subtly scented products with compatible aromas, to add depth and interest without the same strength as a power perfume.

The performative male was over at the 2026 Golden Globes, where even risk-takers like Timothée Chalamet, Jacob Elordi and Jeremy Allen White did little to temper the black tie stuffiness

Timothée Chalamet was the final clue. As he arrived in good time on the Golden Globes red carpet, the star of Marty Supreme put pay to speculation as to whether the chromatic marketing of the film’s ping pong balls would have him wearing orange. Instead, he wore a black T-shirt; vest, jacket and Timberland boots with silver buttons by Chrome Hearts, souped up with a five-figure Cartier necklace. Kylie Jenner, his partner and sartorial foil, was nowhere to be seen.

Styled by Taylor McNeill, who was also responsible for Chalamet’s wildly amusing if chaotic red carpet campaign for the film, the look was bad boy Bond. It also set the tone for an evening of subdued tones. If we thought the penguin suit had gone extinct, we were wrong. The performative male is over – welcome to the return of the staid suit.

Dipping in the freezing waters of Scandinavia, Greenland and Finland was life-changing – and full of warmth thanks to saunas, hot springs and like-minded people

Warm lights shine from the houses that dot the wintry slopes of Mount Fløyen and a cold wind blows as I stand in a swimming costume trying to talk myself into joining my friends in Bergen harbour. Stars are already appearing in the inky mid-afternoon sky.

Life-changing moments are easy to spot in retrospect, but at the time they can feel so ordinary. I didn’t know then that my wintry swim would lead to a year of adventures. I was a hair’s breadth from wimping out, but then I was in. The water was so cold it burned. I gasped for breath. The bones in my feet ached with cold as I trod water, legs frantic under the dark surface. It lasted under a minute and then we were out.

The multi-day trail between the Cumbria and North Yorkshire coasts is one of Britain’s most popular, and now upgrades, path repairs and trail officers aim to preserve it for future generations

A soft breeze tickled the waters of Innominate Tarn, sending ripples dashing across the pool, bogbean and tussock grass dancing at its fringes. From my rocky perch atop Haystacks, I gazed down on Buttermere and Crummock Water glistening to the north, the round-shouldered hulks of Pillar and Great Gable looming to the south. A pair of ravens cronked indignantly, protesting against the intrusion on their eyrie; otherwise, stillness reigned.

Bless you, Alfred Wainwright, I murmured, picturing the hiking legend whose ashes are scattered around this lonely tarn. And then, surprising myself: you too, Rishi Sunak. In very different ways, both had brought me to this most spectacular of Lakeland crags.

Cut out flying and you shred skiing’s carbon footprint. And opting for a high-altitude resort that needs less artificial snow makes it even greener. Les Arcs in the French Alps ticks both boxes

I’ve always wanted to try skiing, but it’s not a cheap holiday and I have always had a lingering suspicion that some resorts are like Las Vegas in the mountains, with artificial snow, damaging infrastructure, annihilated vegetation and air-freighted fine dining – in short, profoundly unsustainable.

However, if there’s a way to have a green family ski holiday, then sign me – and my husband, Joe, two kids and my mum – up. Here’s how to do it.

Three trains, two buses and a ferry take our writer from Essex to Northern Ireland, to enjoy wild swims, whiskey, sandy beaches and the Giant’s Causeway

Oystercatchers fly off as I step through stalks of storm-racked kelp for an icy dip in the winter-grey sea. Actually, the water feels unexpectedly warm, perhaps in contrast to the freezing wind. But it’s cold enough to do its job: every nerve is singing and I feel euphoric. I’m exploring the Antrim coast, which has some of the UK’s finest beaches, and proves excellent for a sustainable break – even in the stormy depths of winter.

Ballygally Castle is a great place to start and offers a Sea Dips and Hot Sips package that includes dry robes, hot-water bottles and flasks. The affordable castle, celebrating its 400th birthday this year, is perhaps Northern Ireland’s only 17th-century hotel.

The world’s largest Wetherspoon’s has seal-spotting views, a green leather banquette and a grand central staircase. I would do anything for that pub, so imagine my surprise when I was given my marching orders

In the most prime imaginable bit of Ramsgate beach real estate, right on the sand, stands a handsome, turn-of-the-last-century building that had claimed for the longest amount of time, some years in neon, to be a casino. I’d never been allowed in as a kid. Then in the 90s it was leaning towards defunct, by the 00s it looked a bit haunted, then there was a fire, and wham, 2017, it turned into a Spoons. It had been trailed for a few months ahead, and I’d sworn off it; the living nightmare that was Brexit was only a few months old and Wetherspoon’s Tim Martin was one of its most gracelessly triumphant fuglemen. He could keep his (incredibly cheap) pints and his (superhumanly fast) nuggets.

Test yourself on topical news trivia, pop culture and general knowledge every Thursday. How will you fare?

It feels as if this really is the start of a new era for the Thursday news quiz. Not only was there last week’s announcement that Willow had retired from her role as the official dog of the Guardian Thursday news quiz, but this week we have a new visual tone, courtesy of a set of lovely, whimsical illustrations by Anaïs Mims. Rest assured, not much else has changed. It is still 15 questions on topical news, pop culture and general knowledge, and it is still packed every week with the same hackneyed old in-jokes. There are no prizes, but tell us how you got on in the comments. Allons-y!

The Thursday news quiz, No 230

In 2026, when it feels as though the world is moments away from any number of disasters, there is nothing hotter than watching someone do their job really, really well

Name: Competency porn.

Age: Relatively new.

Dying is a process and in a person’s final hours and days, Nickie and her Threshold Choir are there to accompany people on their way and bring comfort. Through specially composed songs, akin to lullabies, the choir cultivates an environment of love and safety around those on their deathbed.  For the volunteer choir members, it is also an opportunity to channel their own experiences of grief and together open up conversations about death.

Full interview with Nickie Aven, available here

He had threatened her, locked her up and absconded with one of their daughters. Palmer knew she and her girls needed to escape – but it would involve huge risk and total reinvention

In the summer of 1989, Karen Palmer bought a used car for cash, filled it with belongings – some clothes, toys, one pot, one pan and a shoebox of photos – and “disappeared” with her new husband and two young daughters. She didn’t tell her mother, her friends or her neighbours where she was going. She gave no notice to her employers and landlord, leaving items out on her apartment balcony as a sign she still lived there.

“I have such a clear memory of the day we left Los Angeles,” says Palmer. “It was this weird combination of fear and exhilaration, heart pounding, driving into the unknown.” Palmer was fleeing her ex-husband, Gil, the man she feared, and the father of her two daughters, Erin and Amy, then seven and three.

On the anniversary of his death aged 69, stars from Sigourney Weaver to Sharleen Spiteri, Tom Felton to Harriet Walter, remember the wit, charm and endless generosity of one of Britain’s best-loved actors

Ruby Wax

Ras ‘Ein al ‘Auja is a community of about 135 families – and the only one remaining in this part of the Jordan valley

Five decades in the south Jordan valley were ending in a day, and Mahmoud Eshaq struggled to hold back his tears. The 55-year-old had not cried since he was a boy, but as he dismantled the family home and prepared to flee the village where his whole life had played out, he was overwhelmed by grief.

While Eshaq’s children loaded mattresses, a fridge, sacks of flour and suitcases of clothes into a truck, masked soldiers escorted a teenage Israeli shepherd down the main village road, where he posed for photos on his donkey, flashing a V sign.

We would like to hear about what your pet meant to you and your family

Grief over the death of a pet could be as chronic as that for a human family member, according new research published in the academic journal PLOS One.

According to the study, grieving pet owners can suffer from prolonged grief disorder (PGD) – although currently only those grieving the loss of a person can be diagnosed.

We would like to hear about your much-loved locals. What was the pub that changed you – and how?

As part of a new series, writers are telling the stories of the pub that changed them, kicking off with Zoe Williams who was barred from the Spoons she adored most.

Now we would like to hear about your much-loved locals. Was there a bar of your past that left a lasting impression on you? What was the pub that changed you – and how? Let us know and we’ll publish a selection of your responses.

We’d like to hear from young people, parents and teachers about how Elon Musk’s controversial chatbot is affecting you

Degrading images of real women and children with their clothes digitally removed by Elon Musk’s Grok tool continue to be shared online, despite widespread alarm and a pledge by the platform to suspend users who generate them.

While some safeguards have been introduced, the ease with which the AI tool can be abused has raised urgent questions about consent, online safety and the ability of governments worldwide to regulate fast-moving AI technologies. Meanwhile, the misuse of AI to harass, humiliate and sexually exploit people – particularly women and girls – is rapidly escalating.

We are looking to tell the stories of pairings who developed friendships because a common life experience - either shared at the same time or lived apart - bonded them

Do you have a friend who was the right person at the right time? Did they become a great source of support because you met at a certain moment in your life or a particular shared set of circumstances brought you together?

We are looking to tell the stories of pairings who developed life-affirming friendships because a common life experience - either shared at the same time or lived apart - bonded them. From becoming parents at the same time to losing a relative or dealing with a new diagnosis, we want to hear how you helped each other. Whatever scenario brought you close – whether overcoming adversity or celebrating a new life stage – we’d love to hear about your friendship and how it helped you both.

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