Netanyahu agrees to join Trump’s Gaza Board of Peace after initial pushback




© Ioulex for The New York Times






















European leaders who know their continent’s history must now see that the US president is siding with the forces of tyranny
In January 2018, when Donald Trump was in the second year of his first term as US president, Angela Merkel, in her 13th year as German chancellor, gave a gloomy speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos. She opened her remarks with a warning from Europe’s past. Politicians had “sleep-walked” into the first world war. As the number of surviving eyewitnesses to the second world war dwindled, she added, subsequent generations would have to prove they understood the fragility of peace. “We need to ask ourselves if we have really learned from history or not.”
Fast forward eight years. Vladimir Putin’s territorial aggression harries Europe’s eastern flank. To the west, Trump, now in his second term and guest of honour at Davos, threatens to annex Greenland. This is not a world that has internalised the lessons of the 20th century.
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© Illustration: Nate Kitch/The Guardian

© Illustration: Nate Kitch/The Guardian

© Illustration: Nate Kitch/The Guardian
Regime appears to have turned to digital currency issued by Tether in the face of sanctions
Iran’s central bank appears to have been using vast quantities of a cryptocurrency championed by Nigel Farage, according to a new report.
Elliptic, a crypto analytics company, said it had traced at least $507m (£377m) of cryptocurrency issued by Tether – a company touted by the Reform UK leader – passing through accounts that appear to be controlled by Iran’s central bank.
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© Photograph: Justin Tallis/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Justin Tallis/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Justin Tallis/AFP/Getty Images
Critics accuse leading firms of sabotaging climate action but say data increasingly being used to hold them to account
Just 32 fossil fuel companies were responsible for half the global carbon dioxide emissions driving the climate crisis in 2024, down from 36 a year earlier, a report has revealed.
Saudi Aramco was the biggest state-controlled polluter and ExxonMobil was the largest investor-owned polluter. Critics accused the leading fossil fuel companies of “sabotaging climate action” and “being on the wrong side of history” but said the emissions data was increasingly being used to hold the companies accountable.
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© Photograph: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg/Getty Images

© Photograph: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg/Getty Images

© Photograph: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg/Getty Images
Coconut bars with matcha, a nutty rubble for soups, sandwiches or toast, and super-simple almond butter flapjacks
I love a Bounty, although I call them paradise bars. I also love matcha (and not only for its health-supporting benefits). Though my partner doesn’t enjoy drinking matcha tea, when I mix it into the sweetness of the coconut filling, even he’s on board. Then, a very munchable and grabbable savoury granola, and flapjacks that you can throw together in minutes for a week’s worth of on-the-go snacks.
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© Photograph: Louise Hagger/The Guardian. Food styling: Emily Kydd. Prop styling: Jennifer Kay. Food styling assistant: Eden Owen-Jones.

© Photograph: Louise Hagger/The Guardian. Food styling: Emily Kydd. Prop styling: Jennifer Kay. Food styling assistant: Eden Owen-Jones.

© Photograph: Louise Hagger/The Guardian. Food styling: Emily Kydd. Prop styling: Jennifer Kay. Food styling assistant: Eden Owen-Jones.






In a speech at Davos, written by Carney himself, the Canadian prime minister laid out his doctrine for a world of fractured international norms
For much of Mark Carney’s career as an economist and central banker, he existed at the nexus of global thinkers and multilateral institutions. The “rockstar banker” was a fixture at summits, where he spoke beside business leaders and the political elite, espousing the values of international cooperation and the need for open economies and shared rules.
But after less than a year as prime minister of Canada, Carney offered a blunter assessment of the world on Tuesday: “the strong do what they can, and the weak suffer what they must.”
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© Photograph: Canadian Press/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Canadian Press/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Canadian Press/Shutterstock
Briton falls to disappointing 7-6 (3), 6-2 loss to Austrian world No 55
28th seed’s struggles with same issues as opening matches of season
Emma Raducanu crashed out of the Australian Open in the second round with a poor 7-6 (3), 6-2 loss to Anastasia Potapova after a tepid, error-strewn performance in Melbourne.
Having only lost to grand slam champions inside the top 10 at the grand slams last year – Elena Rybakina, Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek twice – defeat to world No 55 Potapova is Raducanu’s worst first-week result by ranking since the 2024 Australian Open, which was her comeback major from an eight-month layoff.
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© Photograph: James D Morgan/Getty Images

© Photograph: James D Morgan/Getty Images

© Photograph: James D Morgan/Getty Images


Abe was killed in 2022 while campaigning in the western city of Nara
A Japanese court has sentenced a man who admitted assassinating the former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe to life imprisonment on Wednesday, according to NHK public television.
Tetsuya Yamagami, 45, earlier pleaded guilty to killing Abe in July 2022 during his election campaign speech in the western city of Nara.
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© Photograph: KYODO/Reuters

© Photograph: KYODO/Reuters

© Photograph: KYODO/Reuters



Sami al-Saei has defied social stigma to speak out about what a report calls a ‘grave pattern’ of sexual violence
Warning: contains graphic descriptions of torture
Sami al-Saei said he heard the Israeli prison guards who raped him laughing through the assault, before they left him lying blindfolded, handcuffed and in agony on the floor to take a cigarette break.
At least one of the group knew a crime was being committed and intervened, not to stop the torture but to prevent its documentation. Al-Saei said he heard the man warning others “don’t take a photo, don’t take a photo” as they attacked.
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© Photograph: Quique Kierszenbaum/The Guardian

© Photograph: Quique Kierszenbaum/The Guardian

© Photograph: Quique Kierszenbaum/The Guardian