Jon Hallford, condemned in court as ‘monster’, stashed decaying bodies and gave grieving families fake ashes
A Colorado funeral home owner who stashed 189 decomposing bodies in a building over four years and gave grieving families fake ashes was sentenced to 40 years in state prison Friday.
During the sentencing hearing, family members told Judge Eric Bentley they have had recurring nightmares about decomposing flesh and maggots since learning what happened to their loved ones.
Ukrainian president says faster work also needed to restore power, while Trump says ‘something could be happening’ after latest round of talks. What we know on day 1,445
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called for faster action in boosting Ukrainian air defences and repairing damage to electricity grids and heating systems after huge Russian air attacks in freezing temperatures. The Ukrainian president said personnel changes would be made in areas where air defences had less than satisfactory results. Kyiv has been hit particularly hard and Zelenskyy said more than 1,110 apartment blocks remained without heat in the aftermath of the latest assault on the Ukrainian capital last Tuesday. Night-time temperatures have eased somewhat but were still due to hit -8C (18F). “The small-scale air defence component, specifically countering attacks drones, must work more efficiently and prevent the problems that exist,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address on Friday. “In some areas, defence lines are built better. In others, much more work is needed.”
Zelenskyy also said even faster work was needed in restoring power and heat to residents weary from the recurring night-time attacks. “Every day matters. All decisions must be implemented as quickly as possible,” he said. “There are not weeks and months available for repairs or supplying equipment. Many, many things are being actively accelerated.” Assistance was being redirected to Kyiv from other regions, he said.
Donald Trump has said “very good talks” are ongoing over Russia’s war in Ukraine and that there could be movement as a result. “Very, very good talks today, having to do with Russia-Ukraine,” the US president told reporters on Friday. “Something could be happening.” The Kremlin said earlier that a third round of peace talks should take place “soon”, although there was no fixed date yet. The latest round of talks this week resulted in the two agreeing to a major prisoner swap but failed to yield a breakthrough on the thorny issue of territory. “For two days there was constructive and very difficult work,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday, a day after the talks ended. Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff earlier cautioned that “significant work remains” while Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the talks were “not easy” but that Ukraine would remain constructive.
A top Russian military official who plays a major role in the country’s intelligence services has been shot in Moscow and hospitalised, Pjotr Sauer reports state media as saying. Lt Gen Vladimir Alekseyev, 64, was shot several times on the stairwell of his apartment on Friday by an unknown gunman in the city’s north-west and was in serious condition, according to reports. Oleg Tsaryov, a pro-Kremlin Ukrainian figure close to Alekseyev, said the general had undergone surgery and remained in a coma. No party has claimed responsibility for shooting Alekseyev but Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov accused Ukraine of being behind it, while Ukrainian foreign minister Andrii Sybiha said Ukraine had nothing to do with the shooting.
The European Commission has proposed a sweeping ban on any services that support Russia’s seaborne crude oil exports, going far beyond previous piecemeal EU sanctions in its effort to stunt Moscow’s key source of income for its war on Ukraine. Russia exports over a third of its oil in western tankers – mostly from Greece, Cyprus and Malta – with the help of western shipping services. The ban would end that practice, which mostly supplies India and China, and render obsolete a price cap on purchases of Russian crude oil that the Group of Seven western powers have tried to enforce with mixed success. EC president Ursula von der Leyen did not specify how the ban would be phased in or whether it would later include refined products – whose price cap is different – and other energy exports such as liquefied natural gas (LNG).
Von der Leyen said on Friday the ban would be “in coordination with like-minded partners” and that Russian LNG tankers and icebreakers would encounter “sweeping bans” on maintenance and other services. She said the package would also include a new import ban on metals, chemicals and critical minerals not yet under sanctions, and restrict even more European exports to Russia.
The US state department has approved the potential sale of spare parts for military equipment and related items to Ukraine for an estimated cost of $185m, the Pentagon said on Friday.
The case in Bangladesh, where Nipah cases are reported almost every year, follows two Nipah virus cases identified in neighbouring India
The World Health Organization said on Friday that a woman had died in northern Bangladesh in January after contracting the deadly Nipah virus infection.
The case in Bangladesh, where Nipah cases are reported almost every year, follows two Nipah virus cases identified in neighbouring India, which has already prompted stepped-up airport screenings across Asia.
After the Sydney Harbour Bridge was swarmed by 40 or so ebikes and e-motorcycles on Wednesday, the Australian government said the country faced a “real emergency”.
“[Illegal ebikes] are a total menace on the road,” the health minister, Mark Butler, said on Friday.
Youthful leader feels he can bring change this election despite the fate of its 2023 predecessor, Move Forward, which was dissolved by authorities
A flood of gifts are passed by adoring fans to 38-year-old Thai politician Natthaphong Ruengpanyawut. Supporters, many of them young students, hand over orange garlands, plastic oranges on string, fresh orange fruit, a bunch of bananas and some corn on the cob.
The trademark orange colour is one of the few things that has remained constant for his youthful, pro-reform party, which has been dissolved twice by Thailand’s constitutional court, and forced to regroup under new names and new leaders.
Nathan Smith, 27, known professionally as DJ Young Slade, was a music producer, artist, engineer and NYU graduate
American rapper Lil Jon said on Friday that his son, Nathan Smith, has died, the record producer confirmed in a joint statement with Smith’s mother after police found a body in a pond north of Atlanta, Georgia.
“I am extremely heartbroken for the tragic loss of our son, Nathan Smith. His mother [Nicole Smith] and I are devastated,” the statement said.
The showpiece to kick off the Games happened across multiple venues but politics and protests were also present
The most striking thing about the opening ceremony isn’t a single prop, celebrity cameo or piece of choreography: it’s the geography. For the first time, an Olympic opening ceremony in effect happened across multiple live venues all at once, with Milan, Cortina, Livigno and Predazzo linked into one narrative structure. It felt less like a show in a stadium and more like watching a country perform itself in real time. The organising concept – “Armonia”, the idea that different elements can move together without losing their identity – isn’t just branding. It shapes how the ceremony actually functioned. Sitting in San Siro, you’re constantly aware that somewhere else, at that exact moment, another piece of the story is unfolding. It created a strange sense of scale: intimate and enormous at once. In an era when global attention is fragmented across screens and platforms, Italy staged the opposite – a ceremony built on simultaneity, connection and shared rhythm.
Competing at the Winter Olympics just two months after rupturing her ACL, Australian freeskier Daisy Thomas has been ruled out of her first event after crashing at training.
Set to make her Olympics debut in the qualifying round of the women’s slopestyle at Livigno’s Snow Park on Saturday (8.30pm AEDT), the 18-year-old will miss the event after she re-injured the same knee
Watergate reporter says colleagues and readers ‘deserve more’ after newspaper lays off hundreds of workers
The veteran Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward has said he is “crushed” by the mass layoffs of hundreds of colleagues at the paper and said the impact would be felt by readers – noting both “deserve more”.
“I am crushed that so many of my beloved colleagues have lost their jobs and our readers have been given less news and sound analysis,” Woodward said in his first public remarks on the cuts, which were shared on X. “They deserve more.”
Rosenior hails positive change in culture at Chelsea
Liam Rosenior says life is too short to worry about people laughing at him. The 41-year-old has quickly become a figure of fun since his appointment as Chelsea’s head coach and was ridiculed after miscontrolling a dropping ball during his side’s defeat at Arsenal on Tuesday.
It was the latest example of Rosenior facing online mockery because of his quotes and mannerisms. He has been referred to as “LinkedIn Liam” because of some of his comments in press conferences and compared to David Brent. One meme had him mocked up as Will McKenzie, the nerdy lead character from The Inbetweeners.
Head coach says champions were ‘outplayed for large parts’ in 3-0 reverse last November, but are now more dangerous
The test for Liverpool against Manchester City on Sunday is not of their title credentials. That ship has sailed. Instead it is of how far Arne Slot’s side have truly progressed since their title defence was holed.
Slot feels Liverpool’s displays have warranted defeat only occasionally this season – late lapses, set-piece failures and wasted chances have been more common explanations than the overall performance – and the 3-0 reverse at the Etihad Stadium in November was certainly one of them. The controversy over Virgil van Dijk’s disallowed header at 1-0 still lingers for the Dutchman but does not prevent him holding his hands up.
Podcaster claimed former prime minister not English because he is ‘brown-skinned Hindu’
Rishi Sunak has described himself as being “British, English and British Asian” in a riposte to increasing racially charged language used by figures on the right.
The UK’s first British Asian prime minister was speaking after his identity was questioned in recent debate sparked by a claim by the podcaster Konstantin Kisin that Sunak was not English because he was a “brown-skinned Hindu”.
Opalite video reunites host and guests including Domhnall Gleeson and Lewis Capaldi from Swift’s October chatshow appearance
Graham Norton’s chatshow has long been an object of fascination for American stars, wowed by its combined star wattage, glasses of wine and Norton’s own quick-witted, lightly saucy repartee – and Taylor Swift has now taken that fandom to another level.
Norton has been cast in the music video for Opalite, the second single from her album The Life of a Showgirl to receive music video treatment after The Fate of Ophelia. Not only Norton, in fact, but the stars from the guest lineup who sat alongside Swift when she appeared in October 2025: actors Domhnall Gleeson, Greta Lee and Jodie Turner-Smith, and fellow chart-topping musician Lewis Capaldi.
The job is not done yet, far from it. But on a rainswept evening in West Yorkshire, the collective response from everyone associated with Leeds United for each of their goals left you in no doubt that this had the whiff of a season-defining night.
With Leeds and Nottingham Forest sitting an advantageous but not decisive six points above the relegation zone before kick-off, and 18th-placed West Ham away at Burnley on Saturday, it felt like both these famous old clubs knew victory could dramatically shape the remaining three months of the campaign.
A stunning curtain-raiser was a fitting celebration of the host country and the Games – with wider messages never far from the surface
This was an opening ceremony for the ages: effortlessly chic, bewitching and divine. Milan simultaneously delivered a three-hour love letter to Italy, and a plea for hope and harmony in a fractious world.
But not everyone in the 60,000 crowd at San Siro was listening. As the United States team, led by the speedskater Erin Jackson, made its way across the stadium it was loudly applauded. But then the TV cameras panned to the US vice-president, JD Vance, and his wife, Usha, and the cheers turned to loud boos.
Christopher Moynihan pleads guilty to misdemeanor charge over threats last October to kill congressman
A rioter who was pardoned by Donald Trump for the felony he was convicted of in the storming of the US Capitol on 6 January 2021 has pleaded guilty to a harassment charge over threats to kill the House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries.
Christopher Moynihan, 35, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor harassment charge in a hearing in Clinton, New York, prosecutors said, and will be sentenced in April. His representative could not immediately be reached.
Project, following disgraced cyclist, reportedly sparked bidding war, with Conclave’s Edward Berger set to direct
The Oscar-nominated actor Austin Butler is scheduled to take on the role of the disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong in a buzzy new biopic.
According to Deadline, the package has caused a “frenzied” bidding war in Hollywood with the Conclave director Edward Berger at the helm and King Richard’s Zach Baylin set to write the script.
Although tech stocks and cryptocurrencies suffered recent falls, investors largely shrugged off geopolitical tensions
The Dow Jones industrial average crossed 50,000 for the first time, as ballooning tech valuations, robust corporate earnings and hopes of lower interest rates drive it to new highs.
Leading stock markets on Wall Street came under pressure earlier this week as technology stocks fell amid scrutiny of extraordinary levels of investment into artificial intelligence.
His first Oscar nomination, for Hamnet, is testament to the German-born British composer’s chameleon-like adaptability
The German-born British composer Max Richter had never been nominated for an Oscar until this year, though he may – unintentionally – have once scuppered someone else’s chance of winning one.
In 2016, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences disqualified Jóhann Jóhannsson’s score for the film Arrival on the grounds that viewers would find it impossible to distinguish the late Icelandic composer’s soundtrack from the bought-in piece of music that book-ended Denis Villeneuve’s alien invasion psychodrama: Richter’s soaring, maximalist-minimalist On the Nature of Daylight.
While much of the attention has been placed on Lindsey Vonn in the run-up to the Winter Olympics, her teammate has an extraordinary story of her own
In December 2024, Breezy Johnson glided into the starting gate on the Stifel Birds of Prey downhill course atop Colorado’s Beaver Creek, a sight for sore eyes and a bundle of nerves. “The anxiety will always be there until I’m in the downhill gate,” the 30-year-old said at Team USA’s pre-Olympics media summit in October. “Like, at no point can [I tell myself], I’ve got this thing.”
Out of World Cup action for 14 months after whereabouts failures, she dropped on to Birds of Prey as bib No 32 in the 45-racer field – all women for the first time in the history of the legendary venue. With a few bends of her reconstructed knees, she snapped through the timing wand, charged through the Abyss (one of Birds of Prey’s steepest pitches) and kept carving her way through the 1.7-mile (2.7km) drop’s icy chop. Altogether, it was a solid run for Johnson, a 13th-place finish on home snow to restart her World Cup scoring streak. And just like that, America’s would-be standard bearer of the slopes was at it again.
Briton beats Oleksandra Oliynykova in three tough sets
British No 4 Katie Boulter also makes final in Ostrava
Emma Raducanu has reached her first final since the 2021 US Open. The British No 1 beat Oleksandra Oliynykova 7-5, 3-6, 6-3 in a tough semi-final to take her place in Saturday’s Transylvania Open final in Cluj.
She now has a shot at winning her first title since her incredible success at Flushing Meadows in 2021 when she announced herself as a real force on the WTA Tour.
Israeli airstrikes in Gaza, ICE protests in Los Angeles, Snoop Dogg at the Winter Olympics and Storm Leonardo – the past seven days as captured by the world’s leading photojournalists
The latest tranche of Epstein files has sent shock waves around the world, but many of the powerful men who minimised and dismissed his crimes are still yet to face any real consequences.
The documents show the likes of Noam Chomsky and Steve Bannon were happy to maintain relationships with Epstein even after he spent time in jail for child sex offences.
What message does that send to the abused women and girls, whose experiences should be the real focus? And will these men ever be held to account?
Lucy Hough speaks to the Guardian columnist Marina Hyde.
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