Ship has long been part of shadow fleet used to dodge western sanctions. It had no oil onboard – but was it carrying Russian weapons?
A massive, rusty crude oil tanker floating north through the Atlantic has become the centre of global interest after it was followed for days and eventually seized by US forces while Russia’s military rushed towards it.
Despite not carrying any oil, the 300-metre-long ship is clearly of value. Theories for why range from speculation that high-value Russian weapons are hidden in the hull, to the ship’s potential to become a symbolic trophy in a transatlantic power struggle between Washington and Moscow.
Solskjær, whose previous tenure at United seems to place him ahead of another favoured candidate in Michael Carrick, has to be a success. If not Sir Jim Ratcliffe will surely file his hiring alongside the Ruben Amorim, Dan Ashworth and Erik ten Hag fiascos, for which Wilcox-Berrada are fully or partly responsible.
On the fifth anniversary of the January 6 riots, late-night hosts discuss the Trump administration’s efforts to rewrite history as ‘peaceful protests’
Late-night hosts observed the fifth anniversary of the January 6 insurrection and recapped Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro’s first day in a US court.
When Silke Peters bought a crank radio and a camping stove just after the start of Russia’s full invasion of Ukraine, her husband thought she was “a little crazy”. “He put me down, only half-jokingly, as a prepper,” she says, referring to the kind of person who stockpiles in case of catastrophe.
For almost four years, the items gathered dust in the cellar of the Peters’ two-room flat in Zehlendorf, a well-to-do district of Berlin. But in recent days the wind-up radio – with its inbuilt torch and charge point – has come into its own during Germany’s longest power cut since the second world war.
The Voice of Hind Rajab has stunned audiences with its use of the real-life audio of a girl’s call for help after her family’s car was attacked by an Israeli tank in Gaza. Its director explains why she had to tell Hind’s tragic story
When Kaouther Ben Hania heard Hind Rajab’s voice for the first time, she was in Los Angeles airport scrolling through social media. The five-year-old’s cry for help cut through the clamour around her. This was in February 2024 and Hind had already been dead for at least a week, left to bleed out among the corpses of six of her relatives after their car was targeted by an Israeli tank, leaving it with 335 bullet holes, according to the Forensic Architecture research group.
More than 20,000 Palestinian children were killed in two years of Israeli bombardment of Gaza, according to UN estimates. Another 82 have been killed since 10 October when a ceasefire was declared and then routinely breached. The pictures of the dead have often been published online, including those of Hind, showing her dressed in pink with a floral tiara, or smiling in an oversized academic cap and gown, but her voice also remains to haunt the world after her death.
“There are moments I just want to shout at him and there are moments I want to kiss him.” Such is Pep Guardiola’s relationship with Rayan Cherki: part exasperation, part adoration. Guardiola is football’s master of fine-tuning. He has polished footballers until their natural instincts have become dictated by a system of control, structure and repetition above individual sparks of brilliance. Cherki, however, feels different – a sharp, unpredictable edge that Guardiola has left intact.
The 22-year-old, who arrived from Lyon in the summer for £34m, is already testing Guardiola’s philosophy of shaping players rather than accommodating them. His approach to Cherki feels very different to previous big signings. When Jack Grealish arrived from Aston Villa for £100m in 2022, he was one of English football’s most audacious, improvisational talents – a player unafraid of expression.
The influential Commons women and equalities committee has decided to stop using X after the social media site’s AI tool began generating thousands of digitally altered images of women and children with their clothes removed.
The move by the cross-party committee to mothball its official X account places renewed pressure on ministers to take decisive action after the site was flooded with images including sexualised and unclothed pictures of children, generated by its AI tool, Grok.
Innovation means every player being digitally scanned
Infantino: Move will ensure more accurate decisions
Every player at this summer’s World Cup will have their own physically accurate “AI avatar” that will be used in taking VAR decisions.
The innovation, which will involve every player being digitally scanned and leaves the possibility of size mattering in future offside calls, was part of a package of technological measures announced by Fifa’s president, Gianni Infantino, as he made a keynote appearance at the Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas.
‘I have outtakes of them all standing up – there’s no safety equipment and they’re not hanging on to anything. They just said to me, “Hurry up, Beez!”’
At the age of 12 I was working for the Clash, handing out flyers. I looked older than I was and got to see all the punk bands before getting into reggae sound systems. Multicultural Bristol was a great place to grow up, and by the time I was 14 or 15 I’d be going out late most nights and coming home mid-morning.
Having failed the entrance exam to be a gas fitter, I enrolled on an audio-visual course – one of Thatcher’s new National Training Initiatives. I specialised in photography and started documenting all those nights out – my friends and the scenes I was already part of – offering an insider’s perspective. Photography also gave me an opportunity to explore new environments. If there’s something you’re not sure about, a camera is a good way to have a look at it, be part of it, and then learn from it.
Washington signals interior minister must back acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, or face Nicolás Maduro’s fate
The Trump administration has reportedly put Venezuela’s hardline interior minister, Diosdado Cabello, on notice that he could be next to fall if he does not support the acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, who has been in power since the Nicolás Maduro was seized on Saturday.
Reuters reported that US officials are “especially concerned” that Cabello – long seen by many as the regime’s real No 2 – could sabotage Washington’s plan to keep key figures from Maduro’s inner circle in place in the name of stability while pursuing a transition, and provide unrestricted access to Venezuela’s oil.
Miles Cross sentenced to 14 years in prison for selling the substance to four people via an online suicide forum
A man who sold a deadly chemical online to help people kill themselves has been jailed in what is believed to be the first case of its kind in the UK.
Miles Cross, 33, pleaded guilty to four counts of intentionally doing an act capable of encouraging or assisting suicide and was sentenced at Mold crown court on Wednesday to 14 years in prison.
By the expansionist logic of the president and his advisers, the US is entitled to annex just about anywhere
‘We do need Greenland, absolutely,” Donald Trump told the Atlantic on 5 January, with the hand-wavy follow-up, “We need it for defence.” His adviser Stephen Miller was more aggressive still in an interview with CNN, saying: “The real question is, by what right does Denmark assert control over Greenland? What is the basis of their territorial claim? … The US is the power of Nato … obviously Greenland should be part of the United States.” His wife, Katie Miller, posted an image on X of a map of the country papered over with the US flag, with the caption “soon”. It’s hard to orientate sensibly towards things that happen on X these days: if she had posted a Grok-generated image of Greenland in a bikini, would that be more or less concerning?
Still, we’re right to be concerned. There is no comfort to be had from old-era ideas such as: “Maybe they’re just sabre-rattling about Greenland to distract from the matter of Venezuela”, or “surely the foundational principles of Nato, a defensive alliance, will prevent the US from any act of aggression towards its own allies?”
In this week’s newsletter: Stranger Things’ climactic showdown is the latest pop culture spectacle to feel like its been ported straight from a console. The industries’ reciprocally influential relationship can be to everyone’s gain
It had begun to feel like an endurance test by the end, but nonetheless, like the sucker I am, I watched the Stranger Things finale last week. And spoiler warning: I’m going to talk about it in general terms in this newsletter. Because approximately 80% of the final season comprised twentysomething “teenagers” explaining things to each other while using random 1980s objects to illustrate convoluted plans and plot points, my expectations were not high. After an interminable hour, finally, something fun happens, as the not-kids arm themselves with machine guns and molotovs and face off against a monstrously gigantic demon-crab. Aha, I thought – the final boss battle!
The fight was like something out of Monster Hunter, all scale and spectacle with a touch of desperation. For a very long time, video games sought to imitate cinema. Now cinema (and TV) often feels like a video game. The structure of Stranger Things’ final season reminded me a lot of Resident Evil: long periods of walking slowly through corridors, with characters exchanging plot information aloud on their way to the action, and occasional explosions of gunfire, screeching monsters or car chases. Those long periods of relative inaction are much more tolerable when you’ve got a controller in your hands. I am all for TV and film embracing the excitement, spectacle and dynamism of video games, but do they have to embrace the unnecessary side-quests and open-world bloat, too?
British cyclist calls time aged 33 after a 13-year career
‘Now feels the right moment,’ says Giro d’Italia winner
Simon Yates, one of Britain’s most storied riders and the winner of last year’s Giro d’Italia, has stunned cycling by announcing his retirement at 33.
The Visma-Lease a Bike rider said on Wednesday that he is quitting with “deep pride and a sense of peace” after a 13-year career that delivered wins in two Grand Tours, 10 elite stages and 36 professional races.
Video game spinoff was the highest-grossing film of the year at £56.88m as the sector continued its recovery after Covid
The UK and Irish box office has recorded its best annual performance since the Covid pandemic, with A Minecraft Movie ending 2025 as the highest-grossing film of the year.
Figures released by box-office analysts Comscore show that box office revenue in the UK and Ireland totalled £1.07bn, an increase of 1% on 2024’s total of £1.06bn. At the same time there was a slight decrease in the amount of films released: 1,092 in 2025, compared with 1,124 in 2024.
Actor thinks derisive response to her description of divorcing Chris Martin led to her being dropped from film
The actor Gwyneth Paltrow has said she was fired from a film due to media interest in her divorce from Chris Martin in 2014.
Speaking on Amy Poehler’s podcast, Good Hang, Paltrow blamed negative headlines surrounding the separation – which the couple called “conscious uncoupling” in their announcement – for her losing a role she had been scheduled to play soon afterwards.
MPs will have a debate and vote before any UK troops are deployed on peacekeeping duties in Ukraine, Keir Starmer has announced at prime minister’s questions.
Speaking after Britain and France said they would be willing to send troops if there was a peace deal, following discussions at a wider summit in Paris, Starmer was pressed by Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, as to why he was not making a full Commons statement.
The son of acclaimed director Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner faces two counts of first-degree murder
Nick Reiner, the son of Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner, will appear in court on Wednesday for arraignment on two counts of first-degree murder in the killing of his parents.
The 32-year-old has been in custody since last month, hours after the acclaimed director and actor, 78, and his wife Michele, 70, a photographer, were found dead in their Los Angeles-area home. Authorities allege that Nick Reiner fatally stabbed the couple.
Women gather outside factories hoping for work as the economy struggles under US export taxes
Every morning at 7am, women gather outside clothing factories in Maseru, the capital of the southern African mountain kingdom of Lesotho, hoping to be offered work. However, since Donald Trump imposed swingeing global tariffs in April 2025, those opportunities have been fewer and farther between.
Moleboheng Matsepe lost her full-time job sewing sports leggings for the California brand Fabletics in 2023. She was initially able to pick up three-month contracts, but has not had any work since September.
High-profile names have been housed in Brooklyn’s Metropolitan detention center, which is said to be unsafe and inhumane
After US military forces seizedNicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, in Caracas during a controversial pre-dawn raid, they were ultimately spirited to one of this country’s most infamous jails: the Metropolitan detention center (MDC) in Brooklyn, New York.
The deposed Venezuelan president and Flores will almost certainly reside in the MDC until their federal trial on drugs and weapons charge – inducting them into a notorious group that counts Sean “Diddy” Combs, Ghislaine Maxwell, Sam Bankman-Fried and Mexican drug kingpin “El Chapo” as either current or former members.
Elvis fever has taken over Australia’s largest railway station, as die-hard fans and curious first-timers join the annual train pilgrimage to Parkes to pay homage to the King
While day-drinking ouzo in a spiderwebbed taverna on the Greek island of Paros, I decided to write a coming-out letter to my parents. I sealed it in a surface mail envelope, moistened a ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΗ ΔΗΜΟΚΡΑΤΙΑ (Hellenic Republic) stamp with my aniseed tongue and posted it.
It was the 1990s and I had only just relocated from Australia to London with Nick, my boyfriend at the time, and Julie, a good mate. We had gone across to Greece for a holiday, island-hopping, catching ferries on a whim, knowing nothing about the places we were visiting except that backpacking there was cheap.
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