President’s assertion that Nato troops were not on the front line in Afghanistan has sparked widespread anger
Keir Starmer’s allies have launched a “Stop Andy Burnham” campaign to prevent the Labour mayor from returning to parliament after the resignation of a Manchester MP triggered a byelection, Pippa Crerar, Jessica Elgot and Josh Halliday report in their overnight story.
In a good analysis, Jess explains why, if Burnham does decide that he wants to return to the Commons as MP for Gorton and Denton in Manchester, he faces a colossal challenge.
US president asks ‘whatever happened to global warming?’ Well, it could be making our winter storms worse
Donald Trump has erroneously cited an enormous winter storm that is set to deliver freezing temperatures and heavy snow to half of the US as supposed proof that the world is not heating up due to the burning of fossil fuels.
Trump, who has repeatedly questioned and mocked established climate science in the past, posted of the storm on Truth Social: “Rarely seen anything like it before. Could the Environmental Insurrectionists please explain – WHATEVER HAPPENED TO GLOBAL WARMING???”
From derailing meetings by telling fictional stories about serial killers to Davos, the president has left people confused and concerned
Donald Trump vowed to “plant the stars and stripes on the planet Mars” during his inauguration speech last year, a bold promise that spoke to otherworldly achievements.
But during the first year of his second term, it is on the planet Earth where Trump has sought to plant the US flag. He has deployed troops to US cities, as waves of ICE agents terrorize communities. Trump has ordered the invasion of Venezuela and the capture of its leader, is engaged in ongoing saber-rattling over Greenland, and has threatened historic US allies should they oppose his efforts to seize the autonomous territory of the Danish kingdom. He has amplified online claims that Nato is a bigger threat to the US than historical adversaries China and Russia.
Kanaan, a symbol of dining across religious and political divides, will shut its doors ‘probably in March’, say owners
An Israeli-Palestinian restaurant in Berlin conceived as an “island of peace” will close in the spring, but its Jewish and Arab owners say their dream will live on in a television series based on their unlikely partnership.
Kanaan, a decade-old casual eatery in the Prenzlauer Berg district of the German capital, gained an international profile for its message of “unity over hate” after the 7 October attacks on Israel by Hamas and the outbreak of the Gaza war.
Williams not ready and will miss next week’s first test
Lewis Hamilton has emphasised the scale of the challenge facing drivers and teams as Formula One enters a new season with a regulation reset which the British driver described as the biggest of his career, as his Ferrari team look to a new start after a disappointing 2025.
The Scuderia launched their new car, the SF-26, with Hamilton driving it at the team’s test track at Fiorano for the first time on Friday. He was optimistic, having been involved in the development of a Ferrari for the first time but acknowledged that a huge task lay ahead.
Bernard MacMahon’s film about the 70s giants took advantage of audience enthusiasm to make a major impact in cinemas – and it’s just the latest in a string of films about the era of classic rock
Bare-chested swagger, out of control hair, thunderous guitar riffs … the heroes of 1970s hard rock are back, and burning up the cinema box office. Becoming Led Zeppelin, a film about the British band that dominated the music industry in the 1970s, was the most successful feature documentary at the US box office in 2025, taking over $10m. (Taylor Swift’s The Official Release Party of a Showgirl grossed considerably more, with $34m, but as an album-promoting clipshow it is evidently in a different category.)
Despite breaking up in 1980 after the death of drummer John Bonham, Led Zeppelin remain one of the world’s bestselling music acts, with estimated sales of over 200m records and 14.9bn streams. The band were famously press-shy in their prime, but agreed to take part in Becoming Led Zeppelin, which focuses on their early years up to the release of groundbreaking second album, Led Zeppelin II, in 1969. And contemporary audiences have responded – especially to the film’s presentation on the giant Imax screens, where it recorded Imax’s best ever opening weekend for a music documentary and became the format’s highest-grossing documentary of 2025.
The US president took his bullying doctrine to Davos and hit a wall of opposition. If this creates a new western alliance against him, all to the good
The temptation is strong to hope that the storm has passed. To believe that a week that began with a US threat to seize a European territory, whether by force or extortion, has ended with the promise of negotiation and therefore a return to normality. But that is a dangerous delusion. There can be no return to normality. The world we thought we knew has gone. The only question now is what takes its place – a question that will affect us all, that is full of danger and that, perhaps unexpectedly, also carries a whisper of hope.
Forget that Donald Trump eventually backed down from his threats to conquer Greenland, re-holstering the economic gun he had put to the head of all those countries who stood in his way, the UK among them. The fact that he made the threat at all confirmed what should have been obvious since he returned to office a year ago: that, under him, the US has become an unreliable ally, if not an actual foe of its one-time friends.
Worker illegally provided classified information ‘related to national defense’ to journalist, justice department says
A federal grand jury in Maryland has indicted a Pentagon contractor whose alleged leaking of classified documents sparked an “outrageous” FBI raid on a Washington Post reporter’s home.
According to the justice department, Aurelio Luis Perez-Lugones illegally provided sensitive and secret information “related to national defense” to a reporter who it says then wrote and published at least five articles using it.
The US president has galvanised the Danish population against him, while Danes’ relations with Greenlanders are ‘under reparation’
For the past three weeks, 24 hours a day, Denmark has been consumed by discussions about whether or not Greenland, a largely self-governing part of the Danish kingdom, will be invaded by the US, the Danes’ closest ally.
“We got a wake-up call,” said Linea Obbekjær, 64, as she left a supermarket with her bike in Copenhagen’s sprawling Østerbro neighbourhood. “So we are thinking about what is important to us.” Many had been spurred by recent events to take action. “People want to do something,” said Obbekjær. “Not sit and look at the television, but go out and do something.”
It’s been another busy week for Gianni Infantino. The Fifa head honcho spent Sunday in Rabat looking slightly sheepish as he stood alongside Morocco’s Prince Moulay Rachid. After trying his best not to hand the Afcon trophy to Senegal’s players, Big G moved front and centre again to console Brahim Díaz and present him with the award for the worst penalty ever taken tournament’s top scorer. Having reassured Díaz that, as president of Fifa, he makes colossal errors of judgment all the time and nobody seems to mind, Infantino then jetted back to his Alpine lair to check on the chances of Morocco and Senegal meeting at the Geopolitics World Cup.
Thomas Frank ascribes Tottenham’s knack issues to being ‘cursed or something like that’, heedless of the traditional remedy of a judicious sacrifice” – Nick Coupland.
In search of the kacktor to end all kacktors, in 2016, Sammy Ndjock of Minnesota United gave Bournemouth a 2-0 lead with this gem that became an early entry for a gif when you type in ‘own goal’” – Dave Shelles.
I enjoyed learning about ‘Kacktor des Monats’ (yesterday’s letters). Perhaps Herr Arntz could advise us if the Germans have a term for ‘crappy football email of the day’?” – Michael Bland.
Just to say how chuffed I am that you chose my entry as your ‘letter o’ the day’ yesterday. Apparently Arnd Zeigler and his team were equally chuffed when I pointed out to them he had made it into Football Daily” – Holger H Arntz.
Not normally being one who fully reads, let alone bothers to write in response to owt written in your daily diatribe, yesterday’s edition has sparked my wrath and I’ve finally decided that I must concoct – with my left thumb – a ‘letter’. You quoted that well-known actor Timotheéeeeee Chalamet paying homage to the ‘English north-east accent’. Excited by the statement, hailing from Sunderland, I started to read … only to learn he was referring to the Hull accent. Since when has Hull been in the north east? Have you ever been further north than Leeds, or Manchester? Please learn some geography and realise that the north east starts (probably) north of the River Tees, passes the Rivers Wear and Tyne, and actually reaches the Scottish Borders. Within that magnificent region there are probably 10 distinct accents and not one ‘actor’ could master one of them, let alone all – take Vera as an example” – Kev Richardson.
Single malt prices soar, but scotch should be fun and affordable
We have Robert Burns to thank for perhaps the greatest poem about any dish ever – a poem so good that it inspires an entire nation to dedicate an evening of each year to eating haggis, even though most people find it kind of gross.
No? If the “Great Chieftan o’ the Puddin-race” were that delicious, we’d all be eating it all the time, surely? And yet Burns’ Address to a Haggis is enticing enough to dispel any such doubts just once a year. I especially like the bit about slitting it open so the bright entrails spill out: “And then, O what a glorious sight / Warm-reekin, rich!”
Wedding, 44, has been sought by the FBI and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) for his role in overseeing what the US attorney general, Pam Bondi, called the “one of the most prolific and violent drug-trafficking organizations” in the world.
Philip Young, who served on Swindon borough council, pleads guilty to offences against ex-spouse Joanne Young
A former Conservative councillor has admitted nearly 50 offences of drugging, raping and sexually assaulting his former wife over a period of 14 years.
Philip Young, 49, pleaded guilty at Winchester crown court to 11 counts of rape and 11 counts of administering a substance with intent to stupefy his former spouse Joanne Young, 48, who can be named as she has waived her right to anonymity
Avatar director, who moved to New Zealand after the Covid pandemic says he will soon be a citizen of a country where people ‘are, for the most part, sane’
James Cameron has said that New Zealand’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic is the reason behind his decision to relocate there from the US.
Speaking to Stuff, Cameron – who shot much of the most recent Avatar feature in the southern hemisphere – described being the US under Donald Trump as “like watching a car crash over and over” and said his New Zealand citizenship was “imminent”.
Court told US president’s son contacted woman shortly before alleged assault in London
A man accused of raping a woman in London denied he was angry when she received a call from Donald Trump’s son, a court has heard.
Barron Trump, the youngest son of the US president, was on a video call in January last year with the woman, who cannot be named, when he allegedly witnessed her being assaulted by a man in London and alerted police.
American tops leaderboard but sanctions loom large
Rory McIlroy toils seven shots off the lead
Patrick Reed finds himself in a curious situation. The former Masters champion could prevail this weekend in the Dubai Desert Classic and see a decent chunk of the $1.5m (£1.1m) first prize duly handed back to the DP World Tour in fines. Reed has joked that it will not be particularly easy for him to make a profit on this tour during 2026. Indeed, he basically starts his season in the red.
Reed’s membership of the DP World and LIV circuits leads to sanctions from the former every time he tees up on the latter. He lost an appeal over that situation in 2023 yet, unlike some others, opted to keep playing on what was once the European Tour. Reed’s position is further affected by the general understanding that LIV would no longer pay fines on behalf of its members from the end of 2025.
Heathrow has released travellers from the tyranny of tiny toiletries after the UK’s biggest airport finally scrapped the 100ml limit on liquids in cabin bags.
The long-awaited rollout of a £1bn tech upgrade, with new scanners, means travellers no longer need to remove liquids or electronics from their hand luggage, or juggle plastic bags at security, and each container can hold up to two litres.
Done your knee in running or in a match? Pulled something while playing with the kids? These tips should get you on the road to recovery
There’s nothing quite like a persistent ache or pain to ruin your mood. Whether it’s a recurring twinge in your lower back or an acute injury from an accident, most issues stem from imbalance – when one area of the body compensates for weakness elsewhere.
“Our bodies are inherently asymmetrical – no one’s left and right sides are exactly the same,” says personal trainer Luke Worthington. “Problems arise when we inadvertently force symmetry, trying to make both sides move identically. It disrupts our natural equilibrium and leads to overuse, strain or injury.”
More than $1m has been raised by Elon Musk and others to commission ‘sterile’ street art of Iryna Zarutska – whose death has become a rightwing flashpoint
Like most blocks in Bushwick, New York, Evergreen Street is blanketed in street art and graffiti. But this month, an incongruous new mural appeared, towering over the street corner. Painted on the side of Formosa, a popular Taiwanese dumpling joint, the image of a blond woman stretches across two stories and an entire apartment block, her right eyebrow fractured by bedroom windows.
The mural is one of a number that have been painted across the US depicting Iryna Zarutska, a 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee who was killed last year while riding the light rail in Charlotte, North Carolina. Zarutska was traveling home from her job at a local pizzeria when she was stabbed from behind three times.
Does a society truly become safer when part of its population learns to live in constant fear?
On 15 June 2025, the Trump administration issued an official statement directing US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to begin what it described as “the largest mass deportation operation in American history”. Major cities such as Los Angeles, Chicago and New York were identified as primary targets. The stated goal was to keep communities “safe and free from illegal alien crime, conflict, and chaos”. Federal agents rapidly became a part of many residents’ everyday lives.
No stable state can protect its borders, public order and the legitimate interests of its citizens without immigration law and effective enforcement mechanisms.
Abdul Wahid Gulrani is a political sociologist from Afghanistan, whose work focuses on migration, gender and national security. He is currently engaged in teaching and research at Georgetown University and the George Washington University
Fashion designer’s death has brought the red dress – and his distinctive shade of the colour – back into the spotlight
“The red dress,” said Valentino Garavani in 1992, “is always magnificent”.
This week, after the announcement of his death at the age of 93, the red dress – and the distinctive shade of red long associated with the designer known simply as Valentino – is back in the spotlight.
Any attempt to add a down-to-Earth note to this wildly psychedelic 80s cartoon risks missing the point of its gloriously overblown origins
There is a rule in the science fiction and fantasy milieu – or at least there ought to be – that these types of properties should never, ever set any of the action in our own solar system. With the notable exception of Alien: Earth, which cleverly reframes the franchise’s xenomorphs as little more than fluffy house cats compared with humanity’s own talent for self-destruction, it is almost always a terrible idea. Who remembers Galactica 1980, the early-80s offshoot of Battlestar Galactica that lasted all of one season? Or the later seasons of Lexx, which took one of television’s most glorious space operas and promptly shrank it by parking large chunks of the action in this solar system.
And then there was the 1987 big-screen adaptation of Masters of the Universe, which somehow decided to send Nordic lunk Dolph Lundgren to LA before audiences had even finished adjusting to the idea of him being He-Man at all – as if the true stuff of epic fantasy was not skull-faced castles, cosmic sorcery and men built like exploded anatomy textbooks, but shopping malls, car parks and the vague promise of a California food court.
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