Russian attacks on Ukraine’s power plants as severe frost set in have been described as ‘crimes against humanity’
Outside the main pumping station for Bucha, three engineers, bundled up in parkas, are working on the emergency generator keeping the Ukrainian city supplied with water.
One holds a heat gun to the generator’s filter in an effort to unfreeze it, his face reddened by blowing snow and a daytime temperature of -12C (10.4F). Watching attentively is the city’s mayor, Anatolii Fedoruk. The generator in his office is also frozen when the Guardian visits and he apologises for the lack of coffee.
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© Photograph: Peter Beaumont/The Guardian
© Photograph: Peter Beaumont/The Guardian
© Photograph: Peter Beaumont/The Guardian
Judge finds Durham trust violated nurses’ dignity and created intimidating environment by allowing use of single-sex space
A group of nurses who complained about a trans colleague using single-sex changing rooms at work suffered harassment, an employment tribunal judge has ruled.
The judge found the nurses’ dignity was violated and they encountered “a hostile, intimidating, humiliating and degrading environment” at work.
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© Photograph: Panther Media GmbH/Alamy
© Photograph: Panther Media GmbH/Alamy
© Photograph: Panther Media GmbH/Alamy
Badenoch said ‘Nigel Farage is doing my spring cleaning for me’ by ‘taking away my problems’
Kemi Badenoch said Robert Jenrick is now “Nigel Farage’s problem” and that he creates “instability” wherever he goes.
The Conservative party leader told the Press Association that Tories who supported Jenrick feel “betrayed” he has joined Reform UK.
Absolutely, he’s Nigel Farage’s problem. Now he and his acolytes are people who create instability wherever they go, and they can go do that in Reform.
They are a party that is just about people who want drama and intrigue - the public, quite frankly, are sick of this.
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© Photograph: Jane Barlow/PA
© Photograph: Jane Barlow/PA
© Photograph: Jane Barlow/PA
Reform leader calls the child sexual abuse offender ‘a good man, a really good guy’ in 27-second Cameo video clip
Nigel Farage has fallen victim to another prank on the paid video service Cameo, this time paying tribute to the child sexual abuse offender Ian Watkins.
Cameo allows fans to pay celebrities to make personalised video messages, with the Reform party leader offering his services from £78.45.
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© Photograph: Andrew MacColl/Shutterstock
© Photograph: Andrew MacColl/Shutterstock
© Photograph: Andrew MacColl/Shutterstock
Andrew Bailey says he and heads of other institutions have duty to ‘challenge back’ populist narratives
The governor of the Bank of England has urge the world’s leading global institutions to fight back against the rise of populism, warning that it represents one of the biggest threats to improvements in living standards.
In a thinly veiled response to Donald Trump’s attempts to interfere with the independence of the US Federal Reserve, Andrew Bailey said that he and the heads of other institutions had a duty to “challenge back” populist narratives.
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© Photograph: Maja Smiejkowska/PA
© Photograph: Maja Smiejkowska/PA
© Photograph: Maja Smiejkowska/PA
After Renee Good’s killing in Minneapolis, calls grow for accountability in the shooting of Keith Porter Jr on New Year’s Eve
Family and friends of a Los Angeles man who was killed by an off-duty US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer over the holidays are urging local officials to arrest and prosecute the federal agent.
Keith Porter Jr, a 43-year-old father of two, was fatally shot by an ICE officer on New Year’s Eve outside his apartment complex, according to LA and federal officials. An LA police department (LAPD) spokesperson said after the incident that Porter had fired gunshots into the air. A US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson said the off-duty immigration officer was “forced to defensively use his weapon” while responding to an “active shooter”.
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© Photograph: Courtesy of Adrian Metoyer
© Photograph: Courtesy of Adrian Metoyer
© Photograph: Courtesy of Adrian Metoyer
The woodwind player who taught André 3000 music theory releases his searching debut album next month
From Los Angeles
Recommend if you like Miguel Atwood Ferguson, Shabaka Hutchings’s flute music, the Coltranes
Up next Debut album And So It Is released 13 February
For woodwind players, breath is everything: the lifeforce of artistry, the thing that furnishes sound with personality. But a few years ago, the Los Angeles saxophonist Aaron Shaw realised he was becoming increasingly breathless. In 2023, aged 27, he was diagnosed with bone marrow failure, meaning he wasn’t producing enough oxygen-carrying red blood cells. A change of approach was required.
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© Photograph: Visual Thought
© Photograph: Visual Thought
© Photograph: Visual Thought
The Cut Up by Louise Welsh; The Persian by David McCloskey; The 10:12 by Anna Maloney; Very Slowly All at Once by Lauren Schott; Vivian Dies Again by CE Hulse
The Cut Up by Louise Welsh (Canongate, £20)
This welcome third outing for gay Glaswegian auctioneer Rilke opens with his discovery of a body. Obnoxious jewellery dealer Rodney Manderson has been killed outside the Bowery auction rooms, stabbed through the eye with the Victorian hatpin that his boss, Rose Bowery, has brandished in front of the nation on Bargain Hunt. As she discussed the pin’s virtues as a deadly weapon as well as its millinerial uses, the fiercely loyal Rilke decides – while feeling grateful to have skipped lunch and trying not to think of jelly – to remove it before calling the police. They soon decide they’ve got their man, but Rilke’s not so sure; the roots of the crime may lie in the past – in particular, a notorious reform school. With a central character who feels like an old friend, The Cut Up is as sharply observed, humane and beautifully written as its two superb predecessors.
The Persian by David McCloskey (Swift, £20)
Former CIA analyst McCloskey’s fourth novel centres on Jewish Iranian dentist Kam Esfahani. Dissatisfied with life in Sweden, where his family relocated when driven out of Iran, and wanting the wherewithal to move to California, he accepts an offer from the chief of Mossad’s Caesarea Division. Returning to Tehran, he runs a fake dental practice as cover for assisting in “sowing chaos and mayhem in Iran”. Things go awry when he enlists double agent Roya Shabani, widow of an Iranian scientist killed by the Israelis. The book takes the form of a series of confessions that Kam, now caught and imprisoned, is forced to write by his torturer, and these documents – which may or may not reveal the whole truth – are interspersed with flashbacks. Kam’s cynical tone and mordant humour serve to underline not only the horror, but also the inherent hypocrisy of the endless cycle of violence and retribution: this masterly novel is tragically topical and utterly gripping.
© Photograph: Phil Sharp
© Photograph: Phil Sharp
© Photograph: Phil Sharp
Wangerheim joins from Hammarby on contract to 2029
WSL2 Birmingham land fellow Swede Leidhammar
Manchester United have signed the Sweden forward Ellen Wangerheim from Hammarby on a contract until June 2029. The 21-year-old becomes the Women’s Super League side’s third signing of the January transfer window, after Hanna Lundkvist and Lea Schüller.
Matt Johnson, United’s director of women’s football, told the club’s media channels that Wangerheim was “one of Europe’s best young talents”, saying: “As a dynamic, invasive and versatile forward Ellen brings variation and a natural scoring instinct to the team. Everyone at the club is excited to have her at Manchester United and the opportunity to help maximise her potential.”
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© Photograph: Poppy Townson/MUFC/Manchester United/Getty Images
© Photograph: Poppy Townson/MUFC/Manchester United/Getty Images
© Photograph: Poppy Townson/MUFC/Manchester United/Getty Images
Force paid to fly TikTok influencer back to UK after he avoided police custody for almost 12 months
Using a £16,000 private flight to extradite a TikTok influencer wanted on dangerous driving charges back to the UK was “not necessary or proportionate”, a judge has told Surrey police.
Harrison Sullivan, 24, known as HSTikkyTokky, had to be repatriated to the UK last summer after he avoided police custody for almost 12 months after a car crash in Virginia Water, Surrey, in March 2024.
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© Photograph: George Wood/Getty Images
© Photograph: George Wood/Getty Images
© Photograph: George Wood/Getty Images
Is there any circumstance on Earth that would make these people, in all their finery, sit this thing out?
The truest thing ever said about the Golden Globes was by Tina Fey when she hosted the awards in 2019 and described the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, a group of junket hacks, as operating out of the “back booth of a French McDonalds”. The HFPA was disbanded in 2023 after allegations of racism, but 95 former members retained voting rights and on Monday, the show went on.
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© Photograph: CBS Photo Archive/CBS/Getty Images
© Photograph: CBS Photo Archive/CBS/Getty Images
© Photograph: CBS Photo Archive/CBS/Getty Images
The campaign by ‘Candidate Vieira’ mirrors the country’s growing anti-establishment sentiment
In Lisbon’s Campo de Ourique market earlier this week, conversation had turned – a little inevitably – to Sunday’s presidential election, which will decide who will take over from the outgoing Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.
But amid the usual claims and counter-claims, promises and pledges, one candidate has been offering voters something a bit more enticing than his competitors.
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© Photograph: Henrique Casinhas/SOPA Images/Shutterstock
© Photograph: Henrique Casinhas/SOPA Images/Shutterstock
© Photograph: Henrique Casinhas/SOPA Images/Shutterstock
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