US president also calls for return of final Israeli captive’s remains from group, which has refused to give up weapons
Donald Trump has issued a fresh ultimatum to Hamas, adding to calls for the group’s disarmament as the second phase of the US-brokered ceasefire with Israel begins, even as key elements of the first phase remain unfulfilled.
In a late-night post on social media on Thursday, Trump vowed to push for what he described as the “comprehensive” demilitarisation of Hamas, warning of severe consequences should the group refuse to comply. He also demanded the return of the remains of the final Israeli captive still believed to be held by the group, sharpening tensions at a fragile moment in the truce process.
Trend of mini-me dressing – wearing same clothes as one’s children – has extended to four-legged friends
Beyoncé and Kim Kardashian are some of the many who have long indulged in mini-me dressing – wearing the same clothes as their children – but now the trend is being extended to people’s four-legged companions too. The dog clothing market is soaring and this winter it is coats that are topping the most in-demand list.
Bestsellers at Pawelier, a London-based luxury pet accessories shop include a £135 four-leg puffer coat complete with a fuzzy hood and toggle detailing, and a £110 reversible down-filled jumpsuit in cornflower blue and cappuccino brown that wouldn’t look out of place on a designer catwalk. The Italian greyhounds and whippets pictured bundled up in them appear to be prepped for an Alpine adventure rather than a lap around the park.
Todolí foundation produces varieties from Buddha’s hands to sudachi and hopes to help citrus survive climate change
It was on a trip with a friend to the east coast of Spain that the chef Matthew Slotover came across the “Garden of Eden”, an organic farm growing citrus varieties he had never heard of. The Todolí Citrus Foundation is a nonprofit venture and the largest private collection of citrus in the world with more than 500 varieties, and its owners think the rare fruit could hold the genetic secrets to growing citrus groves that can deal with climate change.
The farm yields far more interesting fruit than oranges and lemons for Slotover’s menu, including kumquat, finger lime, sudachi and bergamot.
Judy Stokes, a retired GP, shares her experience as a spatial-sequence synaesthete
Read more stories of synaesthesia in the way I feel series
Did someone with spatial-sequence synaesthesia design the calendar app on mobile phones? Because that’s how time and dates look in my brain. If you say a date to me, that day appears in a grid diagram in my head, and it shows if that box is already imprinted with a holiday, event or someone’s birthday. Public holidays and special events like Christmas and Easter are already imprinted for the year, and the diagram goes backwards to about 100,000BC and then forwards all the way to about the year 2500 before tapering off.
It was only in my 60s that I discovered there was a name for this phenomenon – not just the way time appears in this 3D sort of calendar pattern, but the colours seen when I think of certain words. Two decades previously, I’d mentioned to a friend that Tuesdays were yellow and she’d looked at me in the same strange, befuddled way that family members always had when told about the calendar in my head. Out of embarrassment, it was never discussed further. I was clearly very odd.
The protests were hijacked by Reza Pahlavi and notions of Persian supremacy, then brutally repressed by a violent regime
In late December, Iran experienced the beginnings of an uprising driven primarily by economic pressures, initially emerging among merchant bazaaris and subsequently spreading across broader segments of society. As events unfolded rapidly, calls for regime change became the focus of international attention. Consistent with its response to previous protest movements, the Iranian government once again opted for repression rather than engagement, violently suppressing demonstrations instead of allowing popular grievances to be articulated and addressed.
As visual evidence circulated depicting the accumulation of bodies at Kahrizak, it became increasingly evident that the primary instigator of the violence leading to these fatalities was the Islamic Republic itself, which has refused to tolerate civil unrest and has consistently responded to popular mobilisation with force.
Behrouz Boochani is a Kurdish writer. Mehdi Jalali Tehrani is an Iranian political commentator
Exclusive: Secret report suggests fats, oils and grease accumulate in ‘inaccessible dead zone’ at Malabar plant, then dislodge when pumping pressure ‘rapidly increases’
A giant fatberg, potentially the size of four Sydney buses, within Sydney Water’s Malabar deepwater ocean sewer has been identified as the likely source of the debris balls that washed up on Sydney beaches a year ago.
Sydney Water isn’t sure exactly how big the fatberg is because it can’t easily access where it has accumulated.
World No 6 aims to progress past quarter-finals at a grand slam, while Maya Joint is Australia’s first seeded woman at Melbourne Park since 2022
Amid the annual upheaval at the Australian Open, of party courts, one-point fairytales, and ever-expanding festivals, some things don’t change. Alex de Minaur has had the same locker every year of the 10 he has played at Melbourne Park, and he once again carries the hopes of home fans into the year’s first grand slam.
On the Groundhog Day repetition of the international circuit, it’s the kind of familiarity that might breed superstition. But not for the 26-year-old. “Throughout my career I’ve tried to stay clear from superstitions, because I think it can consume you,” said the man entering the tournament – at No 6 – as the highest local men’s seed in two decades.
Films by Joachim Trier, Óliver Laxe, Mascha Schilinski and Jafar Panahi will jostle for recognition at tomorrow’s event – which has repositioned itself as a major tastemaker during awards season
The European Film Awards (EFAs) have long styled themselves as “Europe’s answer to the Oscars”, even if, in terms of boosting commercial successes at the box office, their impact has been negligible. But as American studios increasingly prioritise franchise sequels over serious drama, and European films vie for major trophies outside the “best international feature” silo, the EFAs are feeling emboldened about becoming a major tastemaker for grownup cinema.
This year, the European Film Academy has for the first time moved its annual jamboree from December to the middle of the US awards season, right between the Golden Globes and the Academy Awards.
Sebastian Stan is being eyed as district attorney Harvey Dent and his supervillain alter ego – can Gotham residents expect an improvement in the city’s patchy justice system?
The arrival in Gotham City of Harvey Dent, AKA Two-Face, is rarely without consequence in Batman sagas. Tommy Lee Jones’ shrieking, neon-splashed Batman Forever iteration turned the character into a dissociative identity slot machine, endlessly pulling its own lever, while Billy Dee Williams’ take in 1989’s Batman was a promise of future ruin. In Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight, the downfall of Aaron Eckhart’s crusading district attorney signalled the dangers of placing too much faith in the moral resilience of a single individual, especially in a city where the very idea of justice is already under existential strain.
With the news this week cautiously announced in the Hollywood Reporter that Sebastian Stan will be playing Dent in Matt Reeves’ highly anticipated forthcoming sequel to The Batman, it’s quite possible the new episode will be less interested in the masked theatrics of the 20th-century big screen caped crusader, and more in the idea that the very concept of justice is about to slowly disintegrate. In Stan, Reeves has an actor who excels at playing men whose morality erodes like damp plaster, which feeds beautifully into his vision of Gotham. In Reeves’ worldview, it is a city that is rotting politely from the inside, not one ruled by a carnival of freaks desperate for the spotlight. So it is hard to imagine this languid, gloriously doom-drenched Gotham giving birth to a Dent who goes down the rampant route of extreme, scenery-chewing theatricality.
There is even the potential here to move on from the Nolan era, with its focus on symbolism and high-stakes ethical thought experiments. Eckhart’s turn is one of the greatest performances in any comic book movie, but by utilising the madness of grief to transform him into Two-Face, rather than relying on the incremental, constantly self-justifying slide into monstrosity seen in the best comics or the excellent 1990s Batman: The Animated Series TV show, something was lost. When he’s at his best, Dent doesn’t “snap”, so much as reason his way into villainy, seemingly convincing himself step by step that the law no longer works and that only he is strong enough to replace it. This Two-Face isn’t chaos dressed up as madness (like the Joker) but justice stripped of empathy, clinging to the illusion of fairness – the semi-ruined coin he still pretends represents due process. His descent into villainy feels almost inevitable in a town as violently decayed as Gotham, and his arrival on the scene simply confirms how impossible Batman’s job is.
US president criticised for accepting medal awarded to Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado
Political leaders in Norway have condemned the Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado’s“absurd” decision to present her Nobel peace prize medal to Donald Trump, accusing the US president of being a “classic showoff” who takes credit for other people’s work.
The Nobel laureate gave her medal to Trump at the White House on Thursday “in recognition [of] his unique commitment [to’] our freedom”. Several hours later, Trump wrote on Truth Social that Machado “presented me with her Nobel peace prize for the work I have done. Such a wonderful gesture of mutual respect.”
Former president convicted for coup plot to take advantage of law that knocks four days off jail term for each book read
Jair Bolsonaro’s lawyers appear to have been reading up on the country’s penal code and have found a way to help their client reduce the 27-year prison sentence he received last year for plotting a coup: by reading books.
There is only one problem: the former far-right Brazilian president has never been known as a bibliophile. “Sorry, I don’t have time to read,” Bolsonaro once declared. “It’s been three years since I read a book.”
There are many excuses for failing to tax the ultra-wealthy. The truth is that governments don’t tackle the problem because they don’t want to
There is one political problem from which all others follow. It is the major cause of Donald Trump, of Nigel Farage, of the shocking weakness of their opponents, of the polarisation tearing societies apart, of the devastation of the living world. It is simply stated: the extreme wealth of a small number of people.
It can also be quantified. The World Inequality Report (WIR) 2026 shows that about 56,000 people – 0.001% of the global population – corral three times more wealth than the poorest half of humanity. They afflict almost every country. In the UK, for example, 50 families hold more wealth than 50% of the population combined.
No one wants to visit us any more – but they might pay $50,000 for a bag you could get here for $3
There aren’t many escapes from the grim onslaught of terrible news these days. You can stare at a blank wall, obsessively count the hairs on your arm, or, in a true moment of desperation, ponder the state of global fashion. I prefer the last one. I love being on the cutting edge of style, peacocking out in the decaying slopfest that is our planet. A crisp, well-made suit is a cure for all manner of emotionally trying times. I relish being hyper-aware of the goings-on of fashion, so I was one of the first sorry souls to learn of the current global obsession with flimsy canvas Trader Joe’s shopping bags.
For those unaware, Trader Joe’s is an American grocery store chain known primarily for its affordable prices, whimsical tropical branding, and heart-attack-inducing parking lots – apparently designed to be small because the stores themselves are so tiny that they can’t justify more spaces. I don’t naturally see the use in swanning about with a tote bag promoting a demolition derby disguised as a market, but I’m not most people.
Dave Schilling is a Los Angeles-based writer and humorist
The Chilean film-maker’s psychedelic work earned him the title ‘king of the midnight movie’, and a fan in John Lennon. Now the 96-year-old is ready for the end – but first there is more living to do
There is an apocryphal story of an ageing Orson Welles introducing himself to the guests at a half-empty town hall. “I am an actor, a writer, a producer and a director,” he said. “I am a magician and I appear on stage and on the radio. Why are there so many of me and so few of you?”
If a fantasy author were to dream up Welles’s psychedelic cousin, he’d likely have the air of Alejandro Jodorowsky: serene and white-bearded with a crocodile smile, presiding over a niche band of disciples. He has been – variously, often concurrently – a director, an actor, a poet, a puppeteer, a psychotherapist, a tarot-card reader, an author of fantasy books. At the age of 96, Jodorowsky estimates that he’s lived 100 different lives and embodied 100 different Jodorowskys. “Because we are different people all the time,” he says. “I died a lot of times but then I’m reborn. Look at me now and you see I’m alive. I am happy about this. It is fantastic to live.”
She was a star at 14, learned how to act with the whole world watching, then stepped away to discover herself. Now she’s back in the new Tomb Raider – and a Die Hard-style thriller
Sophie Turner has a screwball comedy vibe in real life – elegant trouser suit, arch but friendly expression, perfect hair, she looks ready for some whipsmart repartee and a sundowner. She seems very comfortable in her own skin, which is unusual anyway when you’re not quite 30, but especially incongruous given her various screen personas: first, in Game of Thrones. Thirteen when she was cast as Sansa Stark, 14 when she started filming, she embodied anxious, aristocratic self-possession at an age when a regular human can’t even keep track of their own socks. Six seasons in, arguably at peak GoT impact, she became Jean Grey in X-Men: Apocalypse, a role she reprised in 2019 for Dark Phoenix, action-studded and ram-jammed with superpowers.
Now she’s the lead in Steal, a Prime Video drama about a corporate heist, though that makes it sound quite desk and keyboard-based when, in fact, it is white-knuckle tense and alarmingly paced. The villains move in a malevolent swarm like hornets; hapless middle managers are slain almost immediately; it’s impossible to tell for the longest time whether we’re looking at gangster thugs or hacking geniuses, motivated by avarice or anarchy. It’s a first-time screenplay by novelist Sotiris Nikias (who writes crime under a pseudonym, Ray Celestin), and it feels original, not so much in the action and hyperviolence as in the trade-offs it refuses to make: whatever explosions are going on, however much chasing around a dystopian pension-fund investment office, you still wouldn’t call it an action drama. It has a novelistic feel, like characters from a David Nicholls book woke up in Die Hard, and there’s a constant swirl, as you try to figure out who’s the assailed and who’s the assailant.
The Uru Chipaya, one of South America’s most ancient civilisations, are battling drought, salinity and an exodus of their people as the climate crisis wreaks havoc on their land
In the small town of Chipaya, everything is dry. Only a few people walk along the sandy streets, and many houses look abandoned – some secured with a padlock. The wind is so strong that it forces you to close your eyes.
Chipaya lies on Bolivia’s Altiplano, 35 miles from the Chilean border. The vast plateau, nearly 4,000 metres above sea level, feels almost empty of people and animals, its solitude framed by snow-capped volcanoes. It raises the question: can anybody possibly live here?
Pandan leaf brings fragrant southern Asian sweetness to a mix of rice gin, white vermouth and green chartreuse
At Bun House Disco, we’re all about bringing the vibrancy of late-night 1980s Hong Kong to Shoreditch, east London, and paying homage to a time when the island came alive after dark. In that same spirit, our cocktail list nods to the classics, but also features all sorts of Chinese and Asian ingredients and spices.
Liverpool are in talks with Mohamed Salah over the forward making an immediate return to Arne Slot’s squad for their Champions League trip to Marseille next week.
Salah is due back at Liverpool after Egypt’s involvement in the Africa Cup of Nations ends on Saturday. Egypt face Nigeria in a third-place play-off in Casablanca after suffering another loss to a Sadio Mané-inspired Senegal in the semi-finals. The 33-year-old Salah travelled to Morocco with uncertainty surrounding his future having accused the club of throwing him “under the bus” after a poor run of results and claiming he no longer had a relationship with Slot. Liverpool are unbeaten in the 11 matches since Slot first dropped Salah at West Ham.
Russian attacks on Ukraine’s power plants as severe frost set in have been described as ‘crimes against humanity’
Outside the main pumping station for Bucha, three engineers, bundled up in parkas, are working on the emergency generator keeping the Ukrainian city supplied with water.
One holds a heat gun to the generator’s filter in an effort to unfreeze it, his face reddened by blowing snow and a daytime temperature of -12C (10.4F). Watching attentively is the city’s mayor, Anatolii Fedoruk. The generator in his office is also frozen when the Guardian visits and he apologises for the lack of coffee.
Judge finds Durham trust violated nurses’ dignity and created intimidating environment by allowing use of single-sex space
A group of nurses who complained about a trans colleague using single-sex changing rooms at work suffered harassment, an employment tribunal judge has ruled.
The judge found the nurses’ dignity was violated and they encountered “a hostile, intimidating, humiliating and degrading environment” at work.
Kemi Badenoch said Robert Jenrick is now “Nigel Farage’s problem” and that he creates “instability” wherever he goes.
The Conservative party leader told the Press Association that Tories who supported Jenrick feel “betrayed” he has joined Reform UK.
Absolutely, he’s Nigel Farage’s problem. Now he and his acolytes are people who create instability wherever they go, and they can go do that in Reform.
They are a party that is just about people who want drama and intrigue - the public, quite frankly, are sick of this.
Reform leader calls the child sexual abuse offender ‘a good man, a really good guy’ in 27-second Cameo video clip
Nigel Farage has fallen victim to another prank on the paid video service Cameo, this time paying tribute to the child sexual abuse offender Ian Watkins.
Cameo allows fans to pay celebrities to make personalised video messages, with the Reform party leader offering his services from £78.45.
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