Putin shows no signs of ending Ukraine war and claim adds weight to accusation Trump favours Russian president
The Kremlin has announced that Vladimir Putin has been invited to join Donald Trump’s “board of peace”, set up last week with the intention that it would oversee a ceasefire in Gaza.
The Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, told journalists on Monday that Russia was seeking to “clarify all the nuances” of the offer with Washington, before giving its response.
As punishing wellness challenges proliferate online, I’ve decided the only sensible response is to invent a kinder – and more lucrative – alternative
I have a masochistic interest in catchily named social media self-improvement challenges, so I already knew about “75 hard” – 75 days of drinking eight pints of water, doing two 45-minute workouts, eating clean and, endearingly, reading 10 pages of nonfiction – before it made its recent comeback. Paddy McGuinness has reignited interest, crediting the regime started in 2019 by podcaster Andy Frisella for his transformation from a normal soft-bodied human into an uncanny mass of bronzed abs and pecs.
It’s inspired me to make my own changes, but not by doing 75 hard or its ilk. I’ve realised what I actually want to do is devise my own devilish self-improvement challenge. After all, I enjoy telling people what to do, and goodness knows, I could use another revenue stream. But what should mine involve? I debated an intellectual 75 hard, to transform your brain into as finely honed a machine as McGuinness’s body. Participants would pack the library like a gym in January, every table crowded with locked-in bros hyping each other up, as they struggle through Gravity’s Rainbow or Martin Heidegger’s Being and Time. “I can’t, it makes no sense! I’ve read this paragraph 12 times!” “That’s quitter’s talk. I know you’ve got another page in you, bruh – MAN UP!” Additional requirements would include sonnet composition, calculus, learning a new language and listening to In Our Time episodes on very occasional “cheat” days.
Stimson Snead’s preposterous time-leaping indie starring multiple Samuel Dunnings is just about rescued by cameos from Keith David and Danny Trejo
For the sheer quantity of its gibbering, jabbering nonsense, this movie deserves some points. That, and the amusing cameo at the end from Keith David as the Simulator, AKA God, who explains to the awestruck mortals that God is an entirely free creator, rather like a self-published novelist, then grows irritated when the mortals think that being self-published is lame: “It’s not my fault if you don’t understand the industry!”
This is an exhausting indie romp on the subject of time travel, and sometimes plays like a funnier version of Shane Carruth’s time-travel classic Primer – well, slightly funnier. Samuel Dunning plays Tim Travers, a goateed scientist who has stolen nuclear materials from a terrorist group to power the time machine he has invented. He sends himself back one minute into the past with a gun to kill his younger self to investigate the time-traveller’s paradox: if he eliminates his one-minute younger self, then won’t he also disappear at that moment, popping like a soap bubble, because it means he can’t exist in the future? But given that he has to exist in the future to have set all this in motion, doesn’t it mean that this time-travelled self has to survive?
Ye Olde Swiss Cottage in London was gaudy, draughty and built on a traffic island. But it was just the escape I needed
Early in my career, I was going through a difficult chapter in work and life. Having moved down to London from Glasgow, I felt socially untethered, unsure of where I belonged. I yearned to feel part of a gang like I’d done back home, but I had no clue about how to find one.
I was in a work-commute-collapse cycle and didn’t know what to do. Then I began sampling activities I’d previously dismissed – book clubs, line dancing, chess – and it became oddly addictive
For most of my life, I treated taste as fixed. There were things I liked and things I didn’t, and that was that. Hobbies, foods and even social situations were quietly written off with the certainty of personal preference. But sticking to that sentiment had left me in a bit of a rut.
When I moved to London, I threw myself into work: long hours, commuting and networking. In the process, I stopped making time for hobbies or trying anything new.
Willy Esquivel was delivering nearby when neighbors asked him to help Ann Edwards, who lives alone in Santa Ana
A United Parcel Service driver at work recently charged into a burning home outside Los Angeles and carried a centenarian woman out to safety in what officials called a “remarkable” example of “people looking out for one another in a moment of need”.
As his heroics drew attention in online circles dedicated to finding uplifting stories in the media, Willy Esquivel told the Los Angeles news outlet KTLA that he was “just a UPS driver who was in the right place at the right time”.
In a brief scene, the undergraduate known as ML stands with his then girlfriend, a white woman named Betty Moitz
Several years ago, near Chester, Pennsylvania, Jason Ipock’s aunt was looking to downsize now that she had retired. In her possession was a collection of old family home videos that took up too much room.
Some of the films were in worn-out film canisters, and Ipock worried they’d soon be unplayable. “I decided that I should have the family films digitized, so that we’ll always have a copy in the event of a catastrophe,” he said.
Clare Binns says three-hour runtimes deter audiences as she is named Bafta recipient for outstanding British contribution to cinema
Directors should make shorter films if they want their work screened in cinemas, the head of one of the UK’s leading cinema and distribution companies has said.
Clare Binns, the creative director of Picturehouse Cinemas, made the comments after being named the recipient of this year’s Bafta award for outstanding British contribution to cinema, amid concern over steadily lengthening film runtimes.
Keir Starmer has ruled out imposing retaliatory tariffs on the United States, saying they would be the “wrong thing to do”, after Donald Trump threatened them against Nato allies to try to secure Greenland.
The prime minister said US tariffs would damage the British economy and were “in no one’s interests”. The UK would instead prefer to address the issue through “calm discussion” between allies, he added.
Vicars, the devout – and some who are desperate – do a lot of praying to get their wishes fulfilled. But it's complicated by lots of dos and don'ts
‘I don’t believe in an interventionist God,” sings Nick Cave in the opening line of his 1997 song, Into My Arms. But Jim Sharma, a football fan who is a devotee of Wolverhampton Wanderers FC, very much does – and who can blame him?
For the detached, the uninformed and nonsports fans, the issue here is that Wolves had a terrible start to the season and, until the other day, looked set to beat Derby County’s unenviable record as the worst-performing team in Premier League history. Then they played my team, West Ham, and had their first taste of victory since April. Wolves 3 West Ham 0.
Ravi Holy is the vicar of Wye in Kent and a standup comedian
Study links rapid growth of ocean macroalgae to global heating and nutrient pollution
Scientists have warned of a potential “regime shift” in the oceans, as the rapid growth of huge mats of seaweed appears to be driven by global heating and excessive enrichment of waters from farming runoff and other pollutants.
Over the past two decades, seaweed blooms have expanded by a staggering 13.4% a year in the tropical Atlantic and western Pacific, with the most dramatic increases occurring after 2008, according to researchers at the University of South Florida.
He had youth, energy, a tiny purr and could jump 7ft in the air. I always knew when he was about to do it, because he would stare at me intensely before launching himself towards the ceiling
My animals play a big, crazy role in my life. I grew up with cats when I was a little kid but my love of black cats began when I moved from New York to LA in 1996 and found four feral black cats in my back yard. Almost immediately, two female cats got knocked up and had two litters at the same time. Suddenly, we had 13 black cats, the most I’d ever cared for at once.
I’ve been an artist all my life and during the early 2000s my career really started to take off. I began creating a lot of merchandise toys and had my own TV series called Teacher’s Pet, which won five Emmys and a Bafta. My cat Blackie was the inspiration behind all my artwork at the time; he was a scholarly cat with a giant purr – I often drew him as my alter ego. When Blackie died from illness in 2020, I felt as though I’d lost a part of myself – he had been my companion for 15 years. It took me a year to grieve before I could finally consider another cat. That’s when Bosko came into my life.
The latest entry in our series of writers picking their most rewatched comfort films is a nostalgic trip back to 1995
I meet up at least once a year with a group of university friends. We pick a city, descend on it and then leave 48 hours later, often a little worse for wear. I would say about 60% of all communication on these trips is quotes from Michael Mann’s 1995 heist thriller, Heat. Screaming like Al Pacino’s coked-up Los Angeles police detective Vincent Hanna or calmly saying “I have a woman” like Robert De Niro’s robotic master thief Neil McCauley if any of my friends ask me about my wife.
The comedian and film-maker Stanley Sievers did a skit about a guy whose life is destroyed because his whole personality is the film Heat. I laughed along with that awkwardly, while considering just how many times I said “the action is the juice” the last time I met up with my friends.
US president says he no longer feels the need to think ‘purely of peace’ in letter to Norwegian prime minister
Donald Trump has linked his repeated threats to seize control of Greenland to the fact that he has not been awarded the Nobel peace prize in an extraordinary letter sent to the Norwegian prime minister, Jonas Gahr Støre.
The US president said in the letter – the authenticity of which was confirmed by Støre to the Norwegian newspaper VG on Monday – that after failing to win the prize, he no longer felt the need to think “purely of peace”.
Félix Auger-Aliassime surrendered meekly with cramp while Britain’s Fran Jones was among a list of injured players forced to bow out at Melbourne Park
“I’ve honestly got no bloody clue what happened after that point in the match,” said Francesca Jones as she fought back tears. Jones had been battling hard on court 15 at Melbourne Park, chasing her first grand slam main-draw win at the sixth attempt, when she slipped and fell. She instantly felt a tear in her glute muscle. Jones soon had no choice but to retire from her Australian Open first-round match while trailing 2-6, 2-3 to Linda Klimovicova, a 21-year-old Polish qualifier.
“Obviously I’m at a career high,” Jones said. “I’m probably in the main draws of the Masters, and then you are thinking: ‘Should I continue, do I fight because it’s a slam?’ There’s money, there’s points on the line. Equally with my history, it’s probably not the smartest thing to keep pushing. I’m just having that internal debate.”
Sanae Takaichi tells senior figures in ruling Liberal Democratic party she plans to dissolve lower house on 23 January
Japan’s prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, has called a snap election as she attempts to capitalise on high approval ratings since becoming the country’s first female prime minister three months ago.
Takaichi, a conservative who is embroiled in a deepening dispute with China over the security of Taiwan, said on Monday she would dissolve the lower house of the Diet – Japan’s parliament – on 23 January, with an election to follow on 8 February.
Rachel Reeves has pulled out of a planned appearance at the London Stock Exchange to celebrate a “new golden age” for the City, after Donald Trump’s threat to implement tariffs until the US is allowed to buy Greenland.
The chancellor’s withdrawal from the event, which was designed to be a celebration of business in the UK after the FTSE 100 rose above the 10,000 mark for the first time, came as markets opened down on Monday morning after the US president’s threat.
Fourth year of decline deepens concerns over ageing, shrinking workforce and long-term economic impact
China’s population fell for a fourth consecutive year in 2025 as the birthrate plunged to another record low, according to official data, prompting warnings from experts of further decline.
The population dropped by 3.39 million to 1.405 billion, a faster fall than 2024. Births dropped to 7.92 million in 2025, down 17% from 9.54 million in 2024, while deaths rose to 11.31 million from 10.93 million in 2024, figures from China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed. The country’s birthrate fell to 5.63 for every 1,000 people.
US president accuses Norwegian leader of Nobel snub and says he will focus on what ‘is good and proper for America’ as he ramps up Greenland rhetoric
Meanwhile, Greenland’s dogsled federation said that the new US special envoy to the Arctic island had been disinvited to its annual race, as Washington repeatedly threatens to take over the autonomous Danish territory, AFP reported.
Jeff Landry had been invited to attend the race by a private Greenlandic tour operator, an invite the KNQK federation has previously called “totally inappropriate”.
Experts call for tighter regulation as GPS tracking reveals how people’s behaviour affects the lives of some of the world’s largest birds
Many people look up to admire the silhouette of raptors, some of the planet’s largest birds, soaring through seemingly empty skies. But increasingly, research shows us that this fascination runs both ways. From high above, these birds are watching us too.
Thanks to the development of tiny GPS tracking devices attached to their bodies, researchers are getting millions of data points on the day-to-day lives of these apex predators of the skies, giving us greater insight into where they hunt and rest, and how they die.
This contrived addition to a sub-genre popularised by H is for Hawk and Raising Hare falls to earth with a thud
In July 2020, Candida Meyrick, better known as the novelist Candida Clark, became the owner of Sophia Houdini White Wing, better known as Bird. Bird is a Harris hawk, a feathered killing machine who hunts the rich Dorset fields on the edge of the New Forest. She can take down a rabbit but much prefers cock pheasants. Recently she has been eyeing up the peacocks that the Meyricks keep on their estate.
Meyrick’s starting point in this puzzling book is that Bird has a rich interior life that we flightless clod-hoppers would do well to emulate. What follows are 20 brief “life lessons” inspired by the hawk’s assumed musings. So, for instance, the fact that Bird prefers to hunt her own dinner rather than accept substitute snacks from Meyrick is used to urge the reader to “stay true to your higher self”. Likewise, her ability to keep cool under threat from a pair of thuggish buzzards becomes an exhortation to “hold your ground, you’re stronger than you think”. Other maxims include “Stay humble. Keep working at it” and the truly head-scratching “Just show up; and when you can’t, don’t”.
The Adams-Poser clan, a family of four who make low-budget horror films, return with a menacing tale of Solveig, a woman attempting to cheat death by strange means
If you had a vision board for parenting goals, it would no doubt be dominated by images of the ultra-cool Adams-Poser family, a clan comprising upstate New York hep cat parents (Toby Poser and John Adams) and their hep kitten kids (Zelda and Lulu Adams) who make low-budget thriller-horror features together. The family members multitask above and beyond, serving not just as co-directors, co-writers, producers and stars, but also operating the camera and making the costumes. The results are genuinely striking, professional and effective (especially in terms of scare-generation). And if the scripts are often a smidge pretentious, they are never less than interesting and always original.
Their previous offerings include Hellbender, Halfway to Zen and Rumblestrips, tales that often revolve around families or familial units, although John Adams doesn’t always play the dad character and Poser isn’t always the mother. In their latest, Poser has cracked open the indigo pot and spun up some wool to make a witchy, cerulean outfit to play weird woman Solveig, a figure with strong maternal feelings, not least towards the many bluebottles that follow her everywhere; she isn’t, however, technically a mother to the protagonist, college student Mickey (Zelda Adams). The economical dialogue eventually reveals that Mickey survived cancer some years ago which resulted in a hysterectomy, but a new inoperable tumour the size of an apple (very biblical) has recently grown in her abdomen and she has maybe six months to live.
Liam Rosenior is eager to sign a defender and Chelsea have their eye on Jérémy Jacquet of Rennes. The Ligue 1 club want around £44m for the 20-year-old centre-back, a fee Chelsea may be willing to pay with Levi Colwill and Tosin Adarabioyo injured. The Blues could also consider selling skipper EnzoFernández, who is a target for Real Madrid.
There may be a shortage of centre-backs at Internazionale soon. With Marc Guéhi on his way to Manchester City, Liverpool need to reconfigure their recruitment plan, and the 26-year-old Nerazzurri defender Alessandro Bastoni is on their list of targets.
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