California's fire crisis stems from outdated water systems and poor forestry management, critics argue, with progressive politics thwarting realistic solutions.

A Mexican illegal immigrant deported from the United States five times has been arrested after allegedly attempting to kidnap a teenage Alabama girl on New Year's Eve.

Details are emerging Friday surrounding the victims of the Los Angeles wildfires as multiple blazes have scorched more than 30,000 acres in southern California.

The Buckeyes’ top-ranked defense will enjoy this matchup against the Longhorns.

...plus Goosebumps: The Vanishing on Disney+, American Primeval on Netflix, and so much more.

With just a little more time, Medley knew she could've "wreaked some havoc" in Alan Cumming's castle.

Post columnist Jana Hocking was shocked when she heard that her randy, married galpal confessed to a dry spell with her husband. It turns out, most couples suffer through a sexless January — but Jana knows just the trick to heat things up again.

Notre Dame quarterback Riley Leonard's girlfriend, Molly Walding was on cloud nine after the Fighting Irish beat Penn State 27-24 in the Orange Bowl Thursday.

On this date, the North Node of the Moon transitions from Aries to Pisces, while the South Node transitions from Libra into Virgo. We will be under the heady influence of the axis of practical magic until July, making this a serious season of karmic lessons and profound transformation.

Two hundred firefighters and emergency medical workers responded to the fire early Friday. Seven people have been injured and many residents displaced.

The president-elect had said the Russian leader wanted to meet him to discuss the war in Ukraine. The Kremlin stopped short of that, saying it could only happen after he takes office.

© Doug Mills/The New York Times

Daniel Murphy wanted a career in the majors and "David looked like he knew how.”

The Chiefs aren’t just chasing the first-ever Super Bowl three-peat. If Kansas City lifts another Lombardi Trophy next month, it would mark the first major American professional team to win three straight championships since the Shaq-Kobe Lakers (2000-02). It would be the greatest achievement in NFL history, a feat once-unthinkable in an era of parity....

A woman who manages a legal brothel in Europe revealed one of the club’s secret rules.

Jessica Simpson has joined the growing list of celebrities who were forced to flee their luxe California pads.

Hamza Ziyadne, 23, was abducted in the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel alongside his siblings and father, whose body was also recovered this week.

© Ammar Awad/Reuters

Powerball winner Edwin Castro's multi-million dollar Malibu get-away was destroyed by the fiery inferno of the Palisades Fire reducing the once-luxurious digs to a pile of ash.

Daniel St. Hubert was convicted in 2018 of murdering Prince Joshua Avitto, 6, and trying to kill his best friend, 7-year-old Mikalaya Capers, who miraculously survived the attack.

Alarming video showing the building engulfed with flames billowing from the roof.

Trump and Obama laughing together may have shocked viewers and funeralgoers amid their tense relationship for over a decade.

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Hollywood star Mel Gibson has revealed his home was "completely toasted" in the ferocious Los Angeles wildfires as he was off recording Joe Rogan’s podcast.

• Eight-year agreement deepens Qatar’s role in the sport
• Inaugural Nations Championship is in London next year

Qatar Airways has agreed a deal worth up to £80m to become title sponsors of the new Nations Championship in a move that underlines rugby union’s determination to follow other sports in securing investment from the Middle East.

The Guardian revealed in October that Qatar had been chosen to stage the second finals series of the Nations Championship, in 2028, and the national airline has now come on board as headline sponsors. The eight-year deal will cover the qualifying matches and finals series for the first four editions of the new competition running from 2026 until 2034.

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© Photograph: Noushad Thekkayil/EPA

© Photograph: Noushad Thekkayil/EPA

(Domino)
The Scottish art rockers’ sixth album benefits from an infusion of fresh blood, but can’t maintain the standards of the first few songs

A sparkling 2015 collaboration with Sparks aside, Franz Ferdinand’s career has felt like an exercise in diminishing returns, each successive album slightly less interesting than its predecessor. Seven years on from the paradoxically titled Always Ascending, their sixth set finally bucks that trend. Part of that could be down to an infusion of fresh blood, with frontman Alex Kapranos and bassist Bob Hardy the only surviving members of the original lineup.

From the opener Audacious on, it’s clear that revitalisation rather than reinvention is key, with Kapranos’s distinctive, arch delivery very much retaining centre stage, and the penchant for a big chorus undimmed. Indeed, there’s a long-absent freshness to the first few songs, which simply fizz with ideas: The Doctor possesses a manic energy; the standout Hooked deserves to fill dancefloors. But that early charge isn’t sustained and there’s a distinct sag to the middle of The Human Fear, the likes of Tell Me I Should Stay (its bassline’s unlikely nod to Oxygène-era Jean-Michel Jarre aside) and Cats (seemingly an act of watered-down auto-pastiche) distinctly less engaging. A comeback that’s only fitfully pleasing.

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© Photograph: Oliver Matich

© Photograph: Oliver Matich

If time management is all life is, asks the author and narrator, why do we treat it as such a depressingly narrow-minded affair?

The title refers to the time most humans spend on Earth, assuming they live until their 80s. When the author Oliver Burkeman first made the calculation, he felt unexpectedly queasy at our “insultingly” short lifespans. He also began thinking about how we manage our time.

“Arguably, time management is all life is,” he notes. “Yet the modern discipline known as time management is a depressingly narrow-minded affair, focused on how to crank through as many work tasks as possible, or on devising the perfect morning routine, or on cooking all your dinners for the week in one big batch.” But what is the point of all that “doing” when life is so short?

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© Photograph: Sean Hemmerle/The Guardian

© Photograph: Sean Hemmerle/The Guardian

It’s been a good long while since St. John’s has embraced this fully the elements of being the city’s basketball team.

It's time to say goodbye to Hoda Kotb!

When Eddie de Ferrari and his brother-in-law, Ray Moore, saw a senior center in need of evacuation on Tuesday night, they didn't think twice.

Relying on meme mania has its limits, and maybe Cohen is starting to agree.

The 78-year-old president-elect will appear via a video feed at the 9:30 a.m. hearing in Manhattan Supreme Court, where Justice Juan Merchan says he'll give him the most lenient possible sentence.

Never trust a hippy selling pine-flavoured butter. Plus, a watch that finally explains it all

The AFSCA (Belgium’s federal agency for ensuring food supply chain safety – but of course you knew that) has been forced to issue a warning to the good people of Poirot’s homeland not to eat their Christmas trees. This is after the city of Ghent – an environmentalism hotspot in northern Flanders – posted tips on how to recycle their obsolete festive conifers into food, including using them to make pine-flavoured butter.

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© Photograph: Canadian Press/REX/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Canadian Press/REX/Shutterstock

Norwegian capital’s sites were 98% free of fossil fuels last year, and it aims to increase use of electric machinery

Tafseer Ali felt no need to raise his voice as the pair of diggers lumbered past him, their treads weighing heavy on the rock and asphalt.

Quiet electric machines like these make it easy to work in the city centre, the construction manager said – and keep the neighbours happy. “If they have less noise, we get fewer complaints.”

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© Photograph: Ajit Niranjan/The Guardian

© Photograph: Ajit Niranjan/The Guardian

• Neil Robertson replaces 2024 winner at Alexandra Palace
• O’Sullivan had withdrawn from Championship League

Reigning champion Ronnie O’Sullivan has withdrawn from the upcoming Masters snooker event on medical grounds.

The world No 3, who has won the competition eight times, was due to face John Higgins in the opening match on Sunday afternoon. Neil Robertson has replaced O’Sullivan in the draw for the tournament, which runs until 19 January at Alexandra Palace in London.

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© Photograph: Xinhua/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Xinhua/Shutterstock

• Raducanu snubs spray after Swiatek and Sinner sagas
• ‘I’m going to tough it out because I don’t want to risk it’

Emma Raducanu says the chance of ingesting a contaminated substance is a notable concern on the minds of tennis players at a time when Jannik Sinner and Iga Swiatek continue to navigate the fallout of two of the most high profile anti-doping cases in the history of the sport.

Speaking at her pre-tournament press conference at the Australian Open before her first round match against the 26th seed Ekaterina Alexandrova on Monday, Raducanu said players must “manage the controllables” as well as they can. She had suffered a significant insect bite the previous day but declined the antiseptic spray she was provided because she did not want to risk taking a banned substance.

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© Photograph: Andy Cheung/Getty Images

© Photograph: Andy Cheung/Getty Images

We explain how free speech and national security can often conflict.

© Callaghan O'Hare for The New York Times

Three people arrested after group escapes Johannesburg house by breaking a window and burglar bar

South African police have rescued 26 Ethiopians from a suspected human trafficking ring in Johannesburg after the group broke a window and burglar bar to escape from a house where they were being held naked.

Three people were arrested on suspicion of people trafficking and possessing an illegal firearm on Thursday night after neighbours in the Sandringham suburb heard the commotion and tipped off the police, the Hawks serious crime unit said in a statement. Police urged the public to report any other escaped naked people in the area.

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© Photograph: Ute Grabowsky/Photothek/Getty Images

© Photograph: Ute Grabowsky/Photothek/Getty Images

The judgment has been welcomed as an important shift in perceptions by human rights and mental health groups

A Kenyan judge has declared as unconstitutional sections of the country’s laws that criminalise attempted suicide. In a landmark ruling on Thursday, Judge Lawrence Mugambi of the country’s high court stated that section 226 of the penal code contradicts the constitution by punishing those with mental health issues over which they may have little or no control.

While the constitution says in article 43 that a person has the right to the “highest attainable standard of health”, criminal law states that “any person who attempts to kill himself is guilty of a misdemeanour and is subject to imprisonment of up to two years, a fine, or both”, with the minimum age of prosecution for the offence set at eight years old.

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© Photograph: Tony Karumba/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Tony Karumba/AFP/Getty Images

Sadly, the Amazon-Melania deal has much the same flavor as the rest of Trump appeasement moves – not just by Bezos but by others of his ilk

The language in a New York Times article was extremely restrained as it described Jeff Bezos’s evolving stance regarding Donald Trump.

The Amazon founder and the president-elect had had a rocky relationship in the past, “but in recent months, Amazon and Mr. Bezos have taken steps to repair it”.

Margaret Sullivan is a Guardian US columnist

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© Photograph: Michael M Santiago/Getty Images

© Photograph: Michael M Santiago/Getty Images

Premier of most populous province says rhetoric clouds trade relationship worth hundreds of billions of dollars

The United States will “feel pain” if Donald Trump doesn’t back down from his threat to impose steep tariffs on its northern neighbour, the leader of Canada’s most populous province has warned.

After a tumultuous week that left Canadian leaders flailing for a coherent national response to Trump’s provocations – including the suggestion that the US would annex its closest ally – Ontario premier Doug Ford told the Guardian: “We will never be for sale.”

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© Photograph: Cole Burston/Reuters

© Photograph: Cole Burston/Reuters

The company’s plan to end its factchecking program is about appeasing Trump. That signals the making of a mafia state

This week Meta announced the elimination of its factchecking program in the US and rollbacks to content moderation policies on “hateful conduct”. These measures undoubtedly open the floodgates to more hateful, harassing, and inciting content on Facebook and Instagram. Immigrants and LGBTQ+ communities are two of the groups most likely to be affected.

Last month, after Donald Trump won the election, Zuckerberg visited Trump in Mar-A-Lago and then Meta sent $1m to his inauguration fund. When asked for comment about Meta’s policy changes, Trump admitted that Zuckerberg was “probably” influenced by his threats to imprison the tech CEO.

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© Photograph: David Zalubowski/AP

© Photograph: David Zalubowski/AP

With a new year comes new plans, but don’t forget to relax in and enjoy your garden at this time of year, too

I don’t love gardening to-do lists – they make it feel too much like work – but I do think there’s value in thinking about what you’d like to do with your garden this year. Perhaps you haven’t been out in it for weeks, or maybe just for a few minutes here and there, to add the sprout leaves to the compost bin. But while January might be the sleepiest time in the garden – perhaps a snowdrop swelling somewhere, but otherwise fallen leaves and perennials tucked well beneath the earth – it’s still the start of a new year.

I have never been a huge one for new year resolutions, but I make gentle exceptions for my garden. Gardening is a practice that exists in the temporal space of hope. At this time of year, we imagine warmer days and flick through seed catalogues (if you want something more substantial, I recommend Katharine S White’s Onward and Upward in the Garden, a collection of the New Yorker fiction editor’s columns reviewing 1950s seed catalogues). The whole horticultural year unfurls before us: what will we do with it?

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© Photograph: Deborah Vernon/Alamy

© Photograph: Deborah Vernon/Alamy