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At Pride Park, Leeds have come from behind to lead Derby. They’re playing with so much confidence now they’re setting up in a 3-5-2.

Bad news for Liverpool:

The Guardian’s picture editors select photographs from around the world

While playing with nine-figure Hollywood budgets, the Kill List and Meg 2 director has become a prolific music producer. Next up is his experimental film, Bulk

Dave Welder may just be the most prolific musician you’ve never heard of. In a little more than a year, he has released a staggering 26 records spanning electronica, dub, ambient, kosmische and drone. One of these albums, Thunderdrone, is more than four hours long. Based in Brighton and Hove and described as “a rotating group of musicians and artists”, in reality “Dave Welder” is largely the work of one man who, until now, has been operating in secret: film director Ben Wheatley.

“I’ve always wanted to make music,” says Wheatley, whose films include the independent movies High-Rise, Kill List and Sightseers, along with big-budget Hollywood flicks such as the shark thriller Meg 2: The Trench. “I wanted to do it for my films but there was a dissonance. Of all the art forms, I couldn’t really understand it. I would dream that I could play, but then it was like, no, I can’t.”

Early Rain pastor said to be among those held in sweep that followed arrests of members of other unregistered churches

Leaders of a prominent underground church have been detained in south-west China, according to a church statement, the latest blow in what appears to be a sweeping crackdown on unregistered Christian groups in the country.

On Tuesday, Li Yingqiang, the leader of the Early Rain Covenant Church, was taken by police from his home in Deyang, a small city in Sichuan province, according to the statement. Li’s wife, Zhang Xinyue, has also been detained, along with two other church members: Dai Zhichao, a pastor; and Ye Fenghua, a lay member. At least a further four members were taken and later released, while some others remain out of contact.

A group of reporters meant to hold the Pentagon to account is full of pro-Trump sycophants … what could go wrong?

After US troops swarmed into Venezuela, seizing the country’s president and his wife, there was little to be heard from the Pentagon.

Typically, it would be a time for defense officials to talk to the Pentagon press corps: a group of journalists made up of some of the most talented reporters in the US. The Pentagon could have been expected to be held to account over what has been criticized as a violation of international law.

Arrabiata means angry, but this simple and delicious pasta dish is pure joy

Pasta all’arrabbiata is the perfect dish for January. Not only is it quick, vegan and made from ingredients you might conceivably have in the cupboard already, but the name, which means angry, could be said to suit my mood now that the last of the Christmas festivities are over. Happily, a big plate of rich, tomatoey pasta can always be relied upon to lift the spirits.

Prep 5 min
Cook 25 min
Serves 2

The Paris declaration by the ‘coalition of the willing’ supports a nonexistent ceasefire that remains at the mercy of Russian intransigence

• Gwendolyn Sasse is director of the Centre for East European and International Studies

An end to Russia’s war against Ukraine is still not in sight. The frequency of high-level meetings of Ukrainian, US and European representatives in recent weeks, as well as the intermittent US-Russia exchanges, have not changed this fundamental reality. There is no ceasefire in place, European and US military support is not confirmed and, most importantly, Russia does not want the war to end.

The latest talks in Paris managed to bring 35 countries of the “coalition of the willing” together. The core objective was to advance the principle, and implementation, of security guarantees for a future ceasefire. The participation of the US alongside European leaders and a wider coalition of partners was noteworthy. However, the actual result remains vague.

Gwendolyn Sasse is the director of the Centre for East European and International Studies and non-resident senior fellow at Carnegie Europe

Organisers clarify award ‘cannot be revoked, shared or transferred’ after Venezuelan opposition leader’s comments

The organisers of the Nobel peace prize have said it “cannot be revoked, shared or transferred” after Venezuela’s opposition leader, María Corina Machado, said she wanted to give her award to Donald Trump.

When Machado was named Nobel laureate in October, it was seen as a snub by the White House, despite Machado rushing to dedicate the prize to the US president and his “decisive support of our cause”.

Exclusive: Before Randall Gamboa Esquivel died, his health had deteriorated badly while he was in ICE custody

• Costa Rican family demands answers after ICE deportation and death: ‘Have you ever smelled a cadaver?’

The family of a Costa Rican man who was deported from the United States in a vegetative state and died shortly after arriving back in his home country is still urgently seeking answers from the authorities about what happened to him while he was in detention.

Randall Gamboa Esquivel had left Costa Rica in good health and crossed the United States-Mexico border in December 2024, according to his family. However, Gamboa was detained by the US authorities for re-entering American soil unlawfully, as he had previously lived there undocumented between 2002 and 2013.

• Bradley to miss rest of season with serious knee injury

• Slot will not repeat past error in FA Cup third-round tie

Arne Slot has promised not to repeat last season’s FA Cup gamble against Plymouth when Liverpool entertain Barnsley in the third round on Monday. One player he will not be able to select, however, is Conor Bradley after it was confirmed the right-back will have to undergo surgery on the knee injury he sustained in Thursday’s goalless draw with Arsenal and is likely to rule him out for the rest of the season.

Slot changed all 10 outfield players for the fourth-round tie at Home Park and was punished as Plymouth, then bottom of the Championship, produced a huge shock to win 1-0. He compounded his selection risk with an inexperienced bench that included only two senior players; Curtis Jones and Darwin Núñez. Slot stands by his decision on the basis Liverpool were challenging for four trophies at the time. But with his team out of the Carabao Cup and a distant fourth in the Premier League this season, that pressure no longer applies.

Zurich-based firm taps into latest robot tech to ‘fibre-spray’ high-end sports shoes worn by the likes of Roger Federer

A robot leg whirs around in a complex ballet as an almost invisible spray of “flying fibre” builds a hi-tech £300 sports shoe at its foot.

This nearly entirely automated process – like a sci-fi future brought to life – is part of the gameplan from On, the Swiss sports brand that is taking on the sector’s mighty champions Nike and Adidas with a mix of technology and chutzpah.

It may be tempting to dismiss the move as hopeless – but it interrupts the Trump administration’s promise of impunity

In the wake of the killing of Renee Nicole Good, Congresswoman Robin Kelly has announced the filing of three articles of impeachment against Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary. Predictably, reactions have been muted at best: with the GOP holding both the Senate and the House, impeachment can be dismissed as purely performative, a helpless response to an in and of itself understandable moral imperative of “just do something!”

But such dismissals are too quick: this administration has been running on a promise of impunity at all levels, and Democrats have to start signaling that actions have consequences. They also need to break out of a fateful dynamic: during Trump 2.0, misdeeds and scandals are following each other in such rapid succession that neither the press nor the public ever seem to get to focus on one. Impeachment can concentrate minds and slow down political time.

Jan-Werner Müller is a Guardian US columnist and a professor of politics at Princeton University

Forget puritanical self-discipline – the way to really make a new habit stick is to lace it with instant gratification

Like many people, I spent New Year’s Eve making a list of the goals I want to achieve in the year ahead – a habit that never fails to arouse the ire of my boyfriend. “Why do you always have to put yourself under pressure?” he’ll ask, rolling his eyes. “It’s so puritanical!”

And he has a point. When most of us turn our minds to self-improvement, we assume that we need to put pleasure on pause until we’ve reached our goal. This is evident in the motivational mantras that get bandied about – “no pain, no gain”, “the harder the battle, the sweeter the victory”. If we fail, we tend to think it’s our own fault for lacking the willpower needed to put in the hours and stick at it, probably because we’ve given in to some kind of short-term temptation at the expense of long-term gain.

As Alzheimer’s tightens its grip, we have started making our way through the hundreds of albums in my childhood home. But some are too painful to revisit

A couple of months ago, my mother moved into a nursing home. Her Alzheimer’s has progressed to a point where it’s no longer safe for her to live alone, and she now needs round-the-clock care. It has been my task to empty out her house, where she lived for more than 50 years.

It’s not a job I would have asked for; it requires that I trawl through memories that aren’t mine, or shared memories that are painful for one reason or another. But my mother is no longer able  to make these decisions herself, about which of her possessions are worth keeping hold of and which should be discarded, either for practical reasons of space or necessity or because a continued attachment to the stories behind them might do more harm than good. By deciding these things for her I’m curating her life story.

The snapshot was taken just months after I lost my mum, and not everyone in it is still with us. But it is an image of survival, capturing the aftermath of grief and the beforemath of future losses

I remember the moment this photo was taken: five years ago, on my partner Claire’s birthday, in a National Trust for Scotland garden six miles east of Edinburgh. We were standing on a wooden deck, an ideal spot for pond-dipping with the kids and a lesser-known viewing platform for trainspotters. This is where my autistic son, then six, loved (and still loves) to jump in tandem with the ScotRail trains toggling back and forth in the middle distance. We had just eaten a small, hasty birthday picnic of pastries and Nosecco. We wandered down through the walled garden to the wild meadow encircling a pond. We ended up where we always end up. On our deck.

Somehow I knew it was a moment worth freezing in time. I gave our dear friend Dawn – whose husband had recently died and who was slowly, informally becoming part of our family – my phone. She took two photos. In the first, two of the five subjects – dog and son – are showing their rear ends to the lens. In the second – this one – almost all of us are looking directly at the lens. Some of us even look happy. Result!

How a hospital is helping NHS staff realise they need not accept violence, abuse and aggression on the job

Hugo (not his real name), an advanced clinical practitioner, was on the night shift in A&E at Great Western hospital, Swindon, when a drunk patient started swearing aggressively at a nurse. “When I asked if I could help, he told me, ‘Fuck off you gay cunt.’ When I asked him not to speak to me like that and to return to his seat in the waiting room, he just walked up the corridor swearing and repeatedly shouting ‘gaydar’.”

Hugo said he was initially more annoyed than scared, even when the patient grabbed a crutch and started swinging it about. “There wasn’t time to be frightened,” he said. “You’re just trying to protect your colleagues and the patients.” He called security and in the end the police had to arrest the patient. He said although he had experienced aggressive and violent behaviour – over the course of his career, he has been kicked, spat at, pushed and intimidated – “it’s still upsetting and psychologically exhausting to deal with.”

They bonded over football and felt the same about taxing billionaires. How did they fare on immigration?

Fraz, 22, Bradford

Occupation Law graduate, training to become a commercial solicitor

Former UK ambassador says he is sorry for system that does not give victims protection they are entitled to expect

Peter Mandelson declined to apologise to Jeffrey Epstein’s victims for remaining friends with the paedophile financier after his conviction but said he was sorry for “a system” that meant Epstein’s victims were ignored.

The Labour peer, who was sacked as US ambassador when details of his support for Epstein emerged in September, gave an interview to the BBC on Sunday, saying he had paid a “calamitous” price for his association with the “evil monster”.

Oil is US president’s motivation but his concept of economic success feels as outdated as his music tastes

The word “loot” entered the English language from Hindi in the late 18th century, as the rapacious East India Company plundered its way across the subcontinent.

It was a trading company, not a state – but it had the imprimatur of the English crown and its own large private army, mingling commerce and military force and opening the way for British imperial dominance of India.

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Meanwhile, London City Lionesses cut ties with Jocelyn Prêcheur despite being sixth in the table. Prêcheur had been in charge of the club since the summer of 2024 and led them to the Championship title last term.

Eder Maestre took over as the club’s new head coach on New Year’s Day. Upon his arrival, he said: “I am delighted to join London City Lionesses. I love English football and representing this club is a real honour. In my opinion this project is now the best project in women’s football. The ambitions are very aligned with my values and I’m very excited.”

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2 min: Leeds’ first foray into the Derby box comes up short as Langas comes across and clears his lines.

Ao Tanaka gets the ball rolling for Leeds, who are in blue.

In first TV interview since he was sacked as UK ambassador to US, Mandelson says association with Epstein was ‘terrible mistake’ but adds: ‘I was not culpable’

Laura Kuenssberg asks Peter Mandelson if he liked Donald Trump when he was the UK ambassador.

Mandelson says he did like Trump, listing of numerous reasons why, but said he did not like all of his “language”.

I like him, yes, I liked his humour, his graciousness…

I liked his directness. You knew exactly what he was thinking and where you stood and what he wanted. And how he was proposing to engage, with you. Did I like in all his language? No, I didn’t, did I? Did he make me gasp?

What’s going to happen is there’s going to be, another discussion, a lot of consultation and a lot of negotiation.

At the end of the day, we are all going to have to wake up to the reality that the Arctic needs securing against China and Russia.

Frances and Ceri Menai-Davis, who lost their son Hugh to cancer, say gap in financial help is ‘devastating’

Parents of critically ill children are being “crushed” by a lack of statutory financial support when they need to take time off work, the parents of a six-year-old boy who died of cancer have said.

Hugh Menai-Davis was diagnosed with a rare form of the disease when he fell ill suddenly in October 2020. The boy, then aged five, had been happy and healthy before he developed severe stomach pains.

Three hundred Kurds detained and further 400 evacuated following clashes in Aleppo

Syrian government forces have detained 300 Kurds and evacuated more than 400 Kurdish fighters after clashes in Aleppo, the interior ministry has said, as US and allied forces carried out separate “large-scale” strikes against Islamic State targets.

An interior ministry official told Agence France-Presse that about 360 Kurdish fighters and 60 wounded had been bussed to the Kurds’ de facto autonomous zone in the north-east from the Sheikh Maqsoud district, the last area of Aleppo to fall to the army.