Certain canines can learn using cues from people’s gaze, gestures, attention and voices, researchers find
Whether it is a piece of food or a four-letter expletive, words can be learned by young children overhearing adults – but now researchers have found certain dogs can do something similar.
Scientists have discovered canines with the unusual ability to learn the names of myriad objects can pick up such labels by eavesdropping on conversations.
The London house where Bowie, then David Jones, lived from 1955 to 1968 will be opened at the end of 2027
On the evening of 6 July 1972, thousands of kids across the UK had their lives changed when the sight of David Bowie performing Starman on Top of the Pops was beamed into their living rooms. Come the end of 2027, Bowie fans will be able to walk the very floorboards where the young David Jones grew up, when his childhood home in Bromley, south London, is opened to the public for the first time.
Ahead of the 10th anniversary of Bowie’s death this weekend (he would have turned 79 on Thursday), the Heritage of London Trust has announced that it has acquired the two-up, two-down house at 4 Plaistow Grove where Bowie lived from 1955 to 1968.
Donald Trump’s Venezuela policy confirms he has no time for rules or process. America’s allies must find new ways to guarantee their own interests
Occasionally, history generates smooth changes from one era to another. More commonly, such shifts occur only gradually and untidily. And sometimes, as the former Downing Street foreign policy adviser John Bew puts it in the New Statesman, history unfolds “in a series of flashes and bangs”. In Caracas last weekend, Donald Trump’s forces did this in spectacular style. In the process, the US brushed aside more of what remains of the so-called rules-based order with which it tried to shape the west after 1945.
The capture of Venezuela’s former president Nicolás Maduro has precedents in US policy. But discerning a wider new pattern from the kidnapping is not easy, especially at this early stage. As our columnist Aditya Chakrabortty has argued this week, the abduction can be seen as a assertion of American power, but also as little more than a chaotic asset grab.
Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.
A wave of humiliating sexualised imagery must prompt regulators and politicians to step up
An online trend involving asking Grok, the Elon Musk-owned chatbot, to undress photographs of women and girls and show them wearing bikinis has rightly sparked outrage in the UK and internationally. Earlier this week Liz Kendall, the science and technology secretary, described the proliferation of the digitally altered pictures, some of which are overtly sexualised or violent, as “unacceptable in decent society”. What happens next will depend on whether she and her colleagues are prepared to follow through on such remarks. The government’s generally enthusiastic approach to AI, and the growing role they see for it in public services, do not inspire confidence in their ability to confront such threats.
In addition to the deluge of bikini images, the Internet Watch Foundation, a charity, has evidence that Grok Imagine (an AI tool that generates images and videos from prompts) has been used to create illegal child sexual abuse images. Yet while X says that it removes such material, there is no sign of safeguards being tightened in response to bikini images that are cruel and violating even where they do not break the law.
Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.
The FBI has taken full control of the investigation into the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Macklin Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) officer in Minneapolis, it emerged on Thursday.
In a statement, the Minneosta Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) said it was initially called upon to help investigate the shooting before federal officials “reversed course” and said the case would be “solely led by the FBI”. With its access to the case materials, witnesses and evidencerevoked, the BCA said it had to “reluctantly” withdraw from the investigation.
Good evening. Arsenal’s title wins of the modern era have usually involved a landmark game against Liverpool, and we’re just not talking about Michael Thomas. There was the Thierry Henry-inspired comeback at Highbury in 2003-04, the symbolic birth of the Invincibles at Anfield in 2001-02 plus Paul Merson’s winner on the same ground in 1990-91. Even the 4-0 defeat at Anfield in 1997-98 was a triumph of sorts: the reason Arsenal weren’t at the races was that they had won the title against Everton three days earlier, with all the ABV that entails.
Tonight’s game at the Emirates could be equally memorable for Arsenal. A victory over the reigning champions always has symbolic value for the teams hoping to dethrone them, and if Arsenal win tonight they will move eight points clear of Manchester City and Aston Villa at the top. It’s hard to imagine a team as good as Arsenal losing that lead, even with 17 games to go.
The Nigerian novelist has said that she is ‘devastated’ after the death of Nkanu Nnamdi, who was one of twin boys
One of the Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s one-year-old twin sons has died after a brief illness.
“We’re deeply saddened to confirm the passing of one of Ms Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Dr Ivara Esege’s twin boys, Nkanu Nnamdi, who passed on Wednesday,” read a statement made by Adichie’s communications team.
Protests have been taking place across the US following the fatal shooting of a woman by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer taking part in the Trump administration’s latest immigration crackdown. Video of the moment Minnesota woman Renee Nicole Good was shot has been shared widely online, sparking demonstrations and vigils. The Minneapolis mayor, Jacob Frey, demanded ICE agents leave the city and disputed federal officials' account of the shooting.
Manchester City are in advanced talks to sign the United States midfielder Sam Coffey from Portland Thorns, the Guardian understands.
The 27-year-old has been granted permission to fly to Manchester to try to finalise the move, which multiple sources have said is close to completion, and could give City a big boost in their quest to win a first Women’s Super League title since 2016.
Lawsuit accuses AI chatbots of harming minors and includes case of Sewell Setzer III, who killed himself in 2024
Google and Character.AI, a startup, have settled lawsuits filed by families accusing artificial intelligence chatbots of harming minors, including contributing to a Florida teenager’s suicide, according to court filings on Wednesday.
The settlements cover lawsuits filed in Florida, Colorado, New York and Texas, according to the legal filings, though they still require finalization and court approval.
From vitamins C and D to calcium and magnesium, it’s critical to know if you’re taking the correct dosage to avoid health problems
There are more than 100,000 supplements on the US market – capsules, powders, tablets and gummies sold to improve or maintain health. Supplements can contain vitamins, minerals, botanicals and amino acids on their own or in various combinations.
The consumption of these products is surging. But it’s a common misunderstanding that these products are entirely safe, says Dr Pieter Cohen, an internist and associate professor at Harvard Medical School. Excessive amounts of nutrients can cause health problems, so it’s critical to know if you’re using the correct dosage of high-quality products.
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva rejects bill passed by congress as he marks anniversary of 2023 Brasília riots
Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has vetoed a bill that would dramatically reduce the prison sentence of the country’s far-right former leader Jair Bolsonaro, who was convicted last year of plotting a coup.
Lula vetoed the bill, which was passed by congress in December, on the third anniversary of riots by Bolsonaro supporters in the capital, Brasília, over his defeat by Lula in the 2022 general election.
There have to be consequences for Rob Key and Brendon McCullum but English cricket’s problems lie much deeper and will be much harder to fix
It seemed fitting, as the final moments ticked down at the Sydney Cricket Ground, as the day, the match, the tour seemed to ooze and melt a little at the edges under a hard white January sun, that Ben Stokes should finish this Ashes series still standing, but only just.
It was at least a suitably slapstick final session in front of a scattered, holiday-ish crowd. Australia custard-pied their way to a victory total of 160, narrowly avoiding falling pianos, dangling off giant clocktowers along the way.
NASUWT members at Ravensfield and Lily Lane schools say nine-day stoppage follows ‘almost daily’ attacks by pupils
Teachers at two primary schools in Greater Manchester say they have been driven to strike because of “almost daily” attacks by pupils, leaving parents bewildered by the industrial action.
Members of the NASUWT teaching union at Ravensfield and Lily Lane primary schools are taking nine days of strike action, from this week until 22 January, because of what the union called “a culture of violence” involving an increasing number of assaults by pupils against staff and other children.
Players will stay at club’s Seixal training ground
Benfica lost 3-1 to Braga in League Cup semi-finals
José Mourinho has turned on his Benfica players after the team’s 3-1 defeat by Braga in the Portuguese League Cup semi-finals, suggesting that the squad would be staying at the club’s Seixal training base until further notice.
“The players will sleep in Seixal, and on Thursday there is training, and the day after there will be training,” Mourinho said at his post-match press conference. “When we arrive in Seixal, everyone will go to their rooms.”
Ewes and lambs coaxed out of store in Burgsinn after about 20 minutes, leaving trail of destruction in drinks section
About 50 wayward sheep broke off from their flock and stormed a discount supermarket in a German town, startling and delighting customers as the animals rushed to explore the aisles before being escorted from the premises.
The woolly incursion occurred on Monday during a routine seasonal migration of the sheep in the Bavarian municipality of Burgsinn. A few dozen of the sheep had other ideas about the route and made their way into a store of the Penny retail chain.
Democratic-led resolution requires US president to seek Congress’s approval to use military against Venezuela
The US Senate on Thursday advanced a bipartisan war powers resolution to prevent Donald Trump from taking further military actions against Venezuela, after he ordered a weekend raid to capture that country’s president, Nicolás Maduro, without giving Congress advance notice.
The measure passed with 52 senators in favor and 47 opposed. All Democrats voted for the resolution , as did Republicans Rand Paul, Todd Young, Lisa Murkowski, Josh Hawley and Susan Collins.
CIA officer who betrayed western intelligence assets and espionage operations to the Soviet Union and Russia
Aldrich Ames, who has died in prison aged 84, was the most senior CIA officer ever to be exposed as a Russian spy. Ames betrayed more than 30 allied agents, at least 10 of whom were executed by the classic KGB punishment of a bullet in the back of the head, and more than 100 clandestine US and British espionage operations.
The US and British agents betrayed by Ames included Maj Gen Dmitri Polyakov, a senior member of the GRU, Soviet military intelligence, who supplied top level information to the CIA, the US foreign intelligence agency, for more than a quarter of a century, and Oleg Gordievsky, an MI6 agent inside the KGB, who, when he was outed by Ames, was the KGB rezident or head of station, in London.
Lloyd’s List analysis suggests 40 suspicious vessels joined Russian registry last year, with 17 reflagged last month
Forty ships accused of belonging to a large “shadow fleet” moving sanctioned oil for Venezuela and others were reflagged to Russia last year in an apparent attempt to gain Kremlin protection from American seizure.
Analysis by the shipping intelligence publication Lloyd’s List suggests that of those, at least 17 suspicious vessels joined the Russian registry over the past month, compared with 15 ships in the previous five months of 2025.
Police close murder case of Alys Eberhardt after confession from Richard Cottingham, known as the ‘Torso Killer’
Richard Cottingham, a US serial killer widely known as the “Torso Killer”, has confessed to the 1965 killing of an 18-year-old woman in New Jersey.
On Tuesday, New Jersey police announced the closure of the murder case of Alys Eberhardt after Cottingham, 79, admitted to killing her nearly six decades ago. Eberhardt, then a nursing student, was found brutally beaten and dead in her family home in Fair Lawn.
There’s been much talk in recent years about moving Premier League games to various parts of the world that do not boast Premier League teams – Sheffield, Miami and so on – with the stated aim of spreading the gospel, had the gospel been stolen from Jesus and the Four Evangelists, to be bastardised and defiled, to be converted into folding green and then into geopolitical power and influence. By way of total non-sequitur, this year’s Geopolitics World Cup will be held in Donald Trump’s America. There was, of course, much anger at this ludicrous plan for many righteous reasons, then we all got back to enjoying the football as the ignoramiti knew we would, the game too chaotically, joyously puerile and affirming for its own and our own good. How can we possibly excise it from our souls when it bestows upon us the unbridled wildness of Wednesday’s behaviour, as it also did during the last round of midweek fixtures? The campaign for a fully night-time Premier League begins here.
Riyadh says Aidarous al-Zubaidi, leader of the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council, was helped to flee Yemen
Saudi Arabia has accused the United Arab Emirates of smuggling a UAE-backed separatist leader out of Yemen after he failed to turn up for crisis talks in Riyadh on Wednesday.
The Saudi-led coalition in Yemen said Aidarous al-Zubaidi had fled the port city of Aden for Abu Dhabi under Emirati supervision, deepening a diplomatic row between Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
The Son of Saul director recalls how getting his first job as assistant to the austere master was a hard but inspiring lesson in the most ambitious kind of movie-making
The last time I saw Béla Tarr was a few years ago at the Nexus conference in Amsterdam. We were invited to speak about the state of the world and of the arts. We both thought light and darkness existed in the world, even if our perception about them differed. Béla was already weakened in his body, but the spirit was still ferocious, rebellious, furious. We sat down to talk. It seemed fairly obvious this would be our ultimate, and most heartfelt, conversation. As the former apprentice, I was able to see the master one last time, with all his rage, sorrow, love and hate.
I first met Béla in 2004 when he was preparing The Man from London. I wanted to learn film-making and applied to become an assistant on the film. He gave me my first real job: as an assistant, I had to find a boy for one of the main parts. I spent months in the casting process, for a part that eventually was cut from the shooting script. But for Béla, every effort put into a given movie was never lost – it was integrated into the energy field of the enterprise. The final outcome had to be the product of difficult processes. The harder the task, the better quality one could expect. He wanted to film life, and its constant dance. The choreography was a revelation for me: 10-minute, uninterrupted takes, unifying space, characters and time. All in black and white.
Connexion
