Speaking to reporters in Florida, US president claims Denmark ‘can’t protect’ Greenland when asked what he planned to say to European leaders who opposed his plans
While violent dingo and human interactions have been increasing, police refuse to speculate whether 19-year-old woman drownedor was killed by the wild canids
Two campsites have been closed and park rangers are increasing patrols after a 19-year-old Canadian woman was found dead on a beach surrounded by a pack of dingoes on a popular Queensland tourist island.
Two men made the grisly discovery while driving down the eastern beaches of K’gari (formerly known as Fraser Island) at about 6:15am on Monday. The discovery came up to 75 minutes after the woman left the backpacker hostel at which she had been working for six weeks, where she told colleagues and friends she was heading to the beach that morning.
Jammy leeks, savoury sweet chawanmushi and toasted sesame seeds make this flaky pastry dish feel decadent and special
This savoury custard tart celebrates some of my favourite flavours (and dishes): jammy miso leeks, savoury-sweet chawanmushi (a Japanese steamed custard flavoured with dashi) and toasty sesame seeds, all enveloped in flaky pastry. It feels decadent, so it’s best served with a simple fennel salad, zingy with apple cider vinegar and mustard. It’s excellent eaten while still warm from the oven (be patient!), but even better as leftovers, because I have a soft spot for cold eggy tarts.
Ferment: Simple Ferments and Pickles, and How to Eat Them, by Kenji Morimoto, is published by Pan Macmillan at £22. To order a copy for £19.80, visit the guardianbookshop.com
The idea that the liberal rules-based order can survive his presidency now seems complacent. This is a historic moment – and a time to act
A European-wide chorus of resistance, led this morning by Keir Starmer, has greeted Donald Trump’s plan to take over Greenland, by force if necessary, and to start a tariff war if any country stands in his way. Have no doubt, this is a moment: if pursued as a non-negotiable demand, Trump’s plan ends any lingering hope that the liberal rules-based order can stumble on through his remaining time in office. The real question now is whether the 2020s will be defined by the complete collapse of the order’s already crumbling pillars and the atrocities accompanying it, or whether an international coalition of the willing can come together to build a new global framework in its place.
For, in quick succession, the US has abandoned its longstanding championing of the rule of law, human rights, democracy and the territorial integrity of nation states. Gone is its erstwhile support for humanitarian aid and environmental stewardship. Gone, too, is the founding principle of the postwar settlement: that countries choose diplomacy and multilateral cooperation over aggression and unilateral action. We cannot doubt any longer that the president meant it when he said he doesn’t “need international law”, and that the only constraint on his exercise of power would be “my own morality, my own mind”.
Gordon Brown is the UN’s special envoy for global education and was UK prime minister from 2007 to 2010
Changing temperatures may be behind change in behaviour, which experts fear threatens three species’ survival
Penguins in Antarctica have radically shifted their breeding season, apparently as a response to climate change, research has found.
Dramatic shifts in behaviour were revealed by a decade-long study led by Penguin Watch at the University of Oxford and Oxford Brookes University, with some penguins’ breeding period moving forward by more than three weeks.
The Glory was a haven for outlandish self-expression and the early stomping ground for many of the UK’s most infamous drag queens. It made me ready for life
In a packed pub, revellers chat, sip lager and look at their phones. Suddenly a side door crashes open, and in walks drag sensation John Sizzle, dressed as a hair-raisingly accurate Diana, Princess of Wales. She saunters demurely to a halo, fashioned from tinsel and coat hangers and stuck to the wall, stands under it, and starts lip-syncing to Beyoncé’s Halo. The crowd erupts.
Years of civil war have turned whole areas of the city into rows of empty husks. But after the fall of Assad, Syrians have returned to their old homes determined to rebuild
The kebab stall stood in the shadow of a building whose three upper floors had been sheared in half, leaving behind concrete slabs that seemed to hang in mid-air. Under a tarpaulin, its edges weighted with cinder blocks, stood a thin man with a thick white beard. Smiling, he stoked the fire in a narrow grill. Walking back and forth to a table set atop a wheelbarrow, he tenderly inspected a dish laid out with tomatoes, greens and a few skewers of meat. A torn mat covered the floor, while a plastic ice box and a few more cinder blocks provided seating for the customers who were yet to appear.
The streets were largely deserted here in Amiriya, a dilapidated suburb of Aleppo that once formed the frontline between the rebel-held enclave and government-controlled areas. But there were a few signs of life: children hopping on and off a rusty motorcycle, a woman selling cigarettes and water from a shack, a young man digging through the rubble with his hands, pulling out pieces of limestone and stacking them in a neat pile to use later in rebuilding his own house. “They are much better than the new ones,” he told me.
Exclusive: Green party leader advocates leaving Nato and says Britain should wean itself off its reliance on the US
The UK should consider expelling the US from British military bases, the leader of the Green party has said, as he advocated leaving Nato and spending less on American weapons as part of a wider dismantling of the two countries’ defence alliance.
Zack Polanski told the Guardian he believed Britain should wean itself off its reliance on American military cooperation, though would not say whether he supported spending more money to replace that capability.
For three weeks, I wore stickers on my skin supposed to address all sorts of conditions. Are they a panacea, problem or performance?
This morning, I woke up feeling a little groggy. My go-to remedy is usually a coffee and cold-water face plunge, followed by a compulsive phone scroll. But today called for something more, so I unpeeled a small, yellow “energy” patch the size of a walnut, popped it on to my upper arm and hoped for the best.
The patch (£12 for 30) contains – so the packaging says – vitamins B5, B3 and a “microdose” of caffeine. It is made by Kind Patches, which is one brand in an increasingly crowded market of wellness stickers that claim to treat everything from lack of sleep to period pains to pimples. They are coin-sized, and often come in TikTok-friendly shades of sunflower yellow and peachy orange: you may have seen a teenager sporting a star-shaped one on their face to treat spots, or influencers patting blue magnesium ones on their wrists before bed.
Concentrated among 1,000 people in the remote Daliwe valley, siPhuthi has gained a dictionary, a Bible translation and official recognition thanks to intrepid linguists and activists
Tsotleho Mohale was addressing a group of people gathered on a mountainside still damp from an intense rainstorm that morning. The peaks on the other side of the steep valley were draped in cloud. Mohale was speaking in siPhuthi, a language spoken by just a few thousand people in parts of southern Lesotho and the north of South Africa’s Eastern Cape province, about the plants he used and the ailments he cured as a traditional healer.
The questions came from Sheena Shah, a British linguist, and were translated into siPhuthi by Mohale’s grandson Atlehang. Shah’s German colleague Matthias Brenzinger was filming the exchange. The two academics have been travelling regularly to Daliwe, a remote valley in Lesotho about 15 miles from the nearest paved road, since 2016, working with local interpreters and activists to document siPhuthi.
A view of homes in Daliwe valley in southern Lesotho
Number of high-spending Chinese tourists visiting Japan halved last month after PM said an invasion of Taiwan could spark Japanese military involvement
Chinese tourism to Japan almost halved in December amid a bitter diplomatic row between Beijing and Tokyo over the security of Taiwan.
The number of tourists from mainland China dropped by about 45% from the same month a year earlier to about 330,000, Japan’s transport ministry said on Tuesday.
Fernando Mendoza bulldozed his way into the end zone and Indiana bullied their way into the history books on Monday night, toppling Miami 27-21 to put the finishing touch on a rags-to-riches story, an undefeated season and the national title.
The Heisman Trophy winner finished with 186 yards passing, but it was his tackle-breaking, sprawled-out 12-yard touchdown run on fourth-and-four with 9:18 left that defined this game – and the Hoosiers’ season.
Misjudged penalty after Senegal’s walk-off chaos leaves forward facing a lifetime of criticism
After Portugal had beaten England in the World Cup quarter-final in 2006, Cristiano Ronaldo was asked how he had looked so calm taking his penalty in the shootout when England’s players appeared crushed by the occasion. For a moment he seemed baffled by the question, then he explained that those moments are what he lives for. Where others feel pressure, he sees opportunity.
What, you wonder, did Brahim Díaz see during the Afcon final on Sunday? When his shoulder was tugged by El Hadji Malick Diouf and he collapsed, did he consider the consequences? When he howled in the face of the Democratic Republic of the Congo referee Jean-Jacques NdalaNgambo as he waited for the verdict of the video assistant referee, did it occur to him he would take the penalty if it were given? He had scored one against Mali in the group stage, but that was with Achraf Hakimi, a very fine penalty taker, off the pitch.
Tom Burgis on Donald Trump’s friend Ronald Lauder, a billionaire with business interests in Greenland
“The thing to remember, always, with Trump is that everything is about the psychodrama,” the Guardian investigations correspondent Tom Burgis tells Helen Pidd. “Everything is who’s in his ear, what bit of his vanity or insecurity has been activated.”
In this episode, Tom explains the backstory to the US president’s interest in Greenland. According to John Bolton, the former national security adviser, the story began in 2018 with a conversation between Trump and the billionaire Ronald Lauder.
Oleksandra Oliynykova made life hard for the American with a vicious concoction of drop shots, slices and moonballs up to the roof
Fans seated in the upper bowls of the vast Rod Laver Arena are long accustomed to watching tennis from a considerable distance away, but on Tuesday afternoon they enjoyed the rare sight of the tennis ball frequently rising as high as their seats.
That is the magic of Oleksandra Oliynykova, who made life hell for Madison Keys in the first match of the American’s Australian Open title defence with a vicious concoction of drop shots, slices and, most notably, moonballs that seemed to graze the stadium roof. Despite facing two set points in the opener, Keys showed her mental fortitude as she advanced to the second round with a 7-6 (6), 6-1 victory.
Chief classical music critic of the Guardian admired for writing without fear or favour
Andrew Clements, who has died aged 75 after a period of ill health, was for more than three decades the Guardian’s chief classical music critic. His style was a model of critical integrity – authoritative and intelligent, sometimes enthusiastic and sometimes slightly grumpy, dry-humoured yet never showy.
Music may say things that words cannot express, but he mastered the rare art of putting music into words, always using language with precision; reading him, you knew what a performance had sounded like. Best known for championing new music with tireless devotion, Andrew had much wider musical interests than many realised.
As we have seen after Adelaide writers’ week, defending the right of people to speak, even when we deeply disagree with them, is very, very difficult
Is there a way forward for Australia’s cultural life after the cancellation of the 2026 Adelaide writers’ week and all the other controversies played out over the past year, in which the custodians of our culture seem to have crumbled under pressure, only to kinda, sorta and belatedly rally?
I hope so, but it will take a more than rhetorical reflection on what we mean by freedom of speech, and what it requires of us.
Australian No 30 seed defeated 6-4, 6-4 in 92 minutes
Joint was first seeded Australian woman since Ash Barty in 2022
Maya Joint, the top-ranked local in the Australian Open women’s singles draw, crashed out in the first round on Tuesday after losing in straight sets to Czech teenager Tereza Valentová.
Valentová made the most of an inconsistent display from the 30th seed, winning 6-4, 6-4 in 92 minutes.
A surfer has been taken to hospital after being bitten by a shark off the coast of New South Wales’ Limeburners Creek national park, the state’s fourth incident in 48 hours.
The local health district said the man, 39, was in hospital in a stable condition with minor injuries. The attack took place near the Point Plomer campground, less than 20km north of Port Macquarie, on Tuesday morning.
President says air force’s new system involves ‘mobile fire groups’ and interceptor drones as he warns of fresh Russian attacks ahead. What we know on day 1,427
Ukraine’s armed forces are introducing a new facet of air defence, made up of small groups deploying interceptor drones, as the country braces for new mass Russian attacks, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Monday. Ukraine is still reeling from a wave of Russian strikes earlier this month that knocked out power and heating to thousands of apartment blocks in freezing temperatures, particularly in the capital, and Zelenskyy has repeatedly called for air defences to be strengthened. “There will be a new approach to the use of air defences by the air force, concerning mobile fire groups, interceptor drones and other ‘short-range’ air defence assets,” the Ukrainian president said in his nightly video address. “The system will be transformed.” Zelenskyy announced the appointment of a new deputy air force commander, Pavlo Yelizarov, to oversee and develop the innovation.
Zelenskyy also warned Ukrainians to be “extremely vigilant” ahead of anticipated new Russian attacks. “Russia has prepared for a strike, a massive strike, and is waiting for the moment to carry it out,” he said, urging every region in the country to “be prepared to respond as quickly as possible and help people”. Zelenskyy and foreign minister Andrii Sybiha both warned at the weekend that Ukrainian intelligence had noted Russia was conducting reconnaissance of specific targets, particularly substations that supply nuclear power plants. Ukrainian energy minister Denys Shmyhal said on Monday he had informed the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) about Russian preparations for more strikes on Ukrainian energy facilities, including those that ensure the operations of nuclear plants.
Russian forces launched a combined drone and missile attack on Kyiv early on Tuesday, triggering cuts in power and water supplies, the mayor of the Ukrainian capital said. A non-residential building had been hit and one person injured in the strike on the east bank of the Dnipro River, Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram. The Kyiv military administration said a storage area had been damaged and several cars set ablaze.
The IAEA said on Monday that a back-up power line had been reconnected to Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant after repair work carried out under an IAEA-brokered ceasefire. The Ferosplavna-1 line is one of two high-voltage lines supplying electricity to the Russian-controlled plant in Ukraine and was disconnected earlier this month.
Russia launched a barrage of drone strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure overnight to Monday, cutting off power in five regions across the country amid sub-zero temperatures and high demand, Ukrainian officials said. Russian forces had launched 145 drones and air defences shot down 126 of them, the Ukrainian air force said. “As of this morning, consumers in Sumy, Odesa, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv and Chernihiv regions are without power,” the energy ministry said. “Emergency repair work is under way if the security situation allows.”
Ukraine will face enormous challenges to organise its first elections since Russia’s 2022 invasion, with its infrastructure shattered and millions of people displaced by war, the country’s election chief said. Bringing Ukraine’s voter registry up to date and making the proper preparations for a vote would take significant time, Oleh Didenko, the head of Ukraine’s Central Election Commission, told Reuters. Amid diplomatic efforts to end the war, US president Donald Trump has demanded Ukraine hold elections, even though they are banned under martial law – in force since the invasion – and a majority of Ukrainians oppose a wartime ballot.
Vladimir Putin’s special envoy Kirill Dmitriev will travel to Davos in Switzerland this week and hold meetings with members of the US delegation on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum (WEF), Reuters has reported, citing two sources. Ukraine’s top negotiator, Rustem Umerov, said on Sunday that talks with US officials on ending the war would continue at the WEF this week.
Major disturbance in the Earth’s magnetic field may make northern lights visible far more south than usual
The aurora could be visible across Canada and much of the northern tier of US states on Monday night, and possibly even further south, following a major disturbance in the Earth’s magnetic field, a forecast shows.
The forecast, from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s space weather prediction center, comes amid intense geomagnetic and solar radiation storms, said Shawn Dahl, service coordinator at the center.
*Valentova 1-1 Joint (30) Joint takes the first point in response, but then overhits to give Valentova the second. A 180kmh ace from the Czech puts her up 30-15. Unforced error and a double fault give Joint the break point, which she seals with a snappy backhand. It’s one game all.
Valentova 1-0 Joint (30)* Joint goes bang and starts off with an ace, but then loses the second to a double fault. Lovely clean hitting in this first game. Valentova loses her first break point. At deuce, Joint double faults again. Valentova can’t convert the second break point either, with Joint amping up the aggression at the net. A nice lob secures Valentova her third break point and she wraps up the first game with a forehand winner.
Holiday marked with parades and services but tempered by anxieties over racial and social equality under Trump
Martin Luther King Jr Day was marked with parades and services across the US on Monday. But the celebration for the achievements of the slain 60s civil rights leader was tempered by contemporary anxieties over racial and social equality and Trump administration’s crackdown in Minneapolis.
At a rally in Harlem, the Rev Al Sharpton referred to Renee Good, the 37-year-old mother of three who was killed by an immigration officer in Minneapolis earlier this month.