Carl Freedman Gallery, Margate
Munch, Bourgeois, Gormley and Baselitz go shoulder to shoulder with up-and-coming artists in an exhibition that revels in its stygian gloom

Tracey Emin catches me looking from her self-portrait to her as I try to assess the closeness of the resemblance. Not that close. This inky screenprint is bigger than she is, its face wider and taller. But it’s not a picture of the outer person but an inner vision. As we stand in front of it I seem to fall into radiating pools of blackness – to cross into darkness.

Emin has curated an exhibition for the depths of winter. It’s a generous, unexpected show with an eclectic yet profound openness to kinds of creativity many might think incompatible: paintings, installations, performance art all face the night here. She sets artists she nurtures at the Emin Studios alongside her heroes Edvard Munch, Louise Bourgeois and other luminaries of modern art – if luminary is the right word in this stygian setting. For, by a stroke of lighting genius, the Carl Freedman Gallery has been plunged into nocturnal shadow that still lets you see the art.

Embark Studios’ multiplayer extraction shooter game has already sold 12m copies in just three months. Will it capture you too?

Released last October Arc Raiders has swiftly become one of the most successful online shooters in the world, shifting 12m copies in barely three months and attracting as many players as established mega hits such as Counter-Strike 2 and Apex Legends. So what is it about this sci-fi blaster that’s captured so many people – and how can you get involved?

So what is Arc Raiders?

Reuters obtains letter from union last year raising worries over potholes and power lines amid investigations into cause of devastating crash

King Felipe of Spain has expressed his “concern about the terrible accident” in which at least 39 people have been killed.

Speaking from Greece, the monarch was quoted as having told the media:

We have been in contact with Sánchez and Juanma Moreno to learn the details. As soon as we finish, we will return as soon as possible. I understand the anguish of the families of the victims and the injured.

We know that many residents of Adamuz assisted the victims immediately, and we express our gratitude to them for that.

• England defender’s contract was due to expire in summer

• City are without injured Dias, Gvardiol and Stones

Marc Guéhi has completed his £20m move to Manchester City from Crystal Palace. The England international has signed a contract to 2031 after choosing the club over other offers.

An agreement was reached on Friday and the England defender was withdrawn from Palace’s weekend game at Sunderland to finalise the transfer. Guéhi was close to joining Liverpool last summer before Palace pulled the plug but the Premier League champions decided not to revive their interest because they saw no value in a January deal for a player out of contract in the summer.

PM’s effort to take heat out of Greenland situation is yet another humiliation in his relationship with The Donald

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Toady, or not toady? That is the question. When even Piers Morgan has taken his head out of Donald Trump’s bum far enough to see a glimmer of daylight, then it’s fair to say the US president has probably overstepped the mark.

Not content with threatening tariffs against the UK and seven EU countries for sending troops to Greenland – having previously demanded Nato allies get stuck in to protect the country from Russia and China – The Donald has now sent a letter to the Norwegian prime minister to complain about not winning the Nobel peace prize and to say he was so pissed off he was thinking of starting a war instead.

Countries due to play on Valentine’s Day in Italy amid Trump threats to seize Danish territory of Greenland

Their rendezvous may be on Valentine’s Day, but its nature looks likely to be anything but romantic: Denmark and the US, their relations frostier than they have been for decades, are due to face each other in ice hockey next month.

A week into the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics in Italy, the Danish Lions are scheduled to play Team USA in a preliminary round game at Milan’s Santagiulia ice hockey arena on 14 February, according to the official programme.

The TV hit has cracked open a rich seam of misogyny: romance is written off as a weird thing that women like, and the audience is dismissed as ‘wine moms’

I’ve never heard anything more sexist in my life than the (mounting) reasons why women supposedly love the hit TV drama Heated Rivalry. Quick recap: if you’re a woman, or even if you’re not and don’t yet love it: Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams) and Ilya Rozanov (Connor Storrie) are two professional ice hockey players on rival teams. It matters that they’re hockey players, beyond the athletic perfection of their “insanely oiled, slick bodies” (as my friend, Eve, who’s 21, put it). And it matters that Rozanov is Russian, because the obstacles are real: he cannot be gay – think about the sponsorship, think about the fans, think about the oppressive patriarchal regime. Think about it for two seconds and this can not happen; and it achingly doesn’t, and almost does, and does, then doesn’t happen, over years.

Heated Rivalry dropped in Canada and the US at the end of November, and the fandom around it is so intense that Williams and Storrie have a compound nickname (HudCon). The actors are all over the late-night US TV shows; the clip of them presenting at the Golden Globes has been viewed more than a million times, and their most throwaway remark on social media blows up.

Data shows 133% increase from 2017 to 2025 as anti-ICE and No Kings protests push mobilization against White House

In the year since Donald Trump retook office, the number of protests in the US outpaced those at the same point in his first administration, according to data from the Crowd Counting Consortium, an open-source project collaboration between Harvard University’s Kennedy School and the University of Connecticut.

There were more than 10,700 protests in 2025, a 133% increase from the 4,588 recorded in 2017, the first year of Trump’s first term. According to the data, an overwhelming majority of US counties – including 42% that voted for Trump – have had at least one protest since he was re-inaugurated last year.

‘I wanted Kid ’n Play but the studio said, “Who are these guys?” I replied, “They’ve got platinum records.” I had no idea if they did’

Black music videos weren’t played on MTV in the late 80s. So while I was still at Harvard, I’d make music videos in my head. One day, while listening to Bad Boy/Having a Party by Luther Vandross, I thought: “This could be a great music video or movie.” And I sat down that night and wrote a script for a short film that ended up not only being made but shown at festivals and becoming a big hit in the world of student films. Spike Lee’s She’s Gotta Have It had piqued interest in up-and-coming black film-makers. New Line Cinema saw my short and brought me in for a meeting. I pitched an expanded version of my idea and they said: “Let’s do it.”

Syrian Democratic Forces warns of serious security repercussions that could open door to ‘chaos and terrorism’

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) has said it is fighting Syrian government forces near a prison holding Islamic State detainees on the outskirts of Raqqa, in what it described as an “extremely dangerous development”.

The announcement came less than 24 hours after Syria’s president, Ahmad al-Sharaa, said it had agreed a ceasefire with the SDF and would move to dismantle the group’s decade-long control of the country’s north-east.

The champion will be decided on 19 July in New Jersey. Here’s a rundown of the issues that will shape the tournament as it comes to North America

We’re only six months from the biggest single sporting occasion in the world. On 19 July in East Rutherford, New Jersey, the men’s World Cup final will kick off and a champion will be crowned (although it will be hard to top the last one).

The final will be more than a coronation (or confirmation, if Argentina repeat as champions). It will also be a culmination of six weeks of near non-stop soccer played across three countries, four time zones, and 16 cities. It’s likely that conclusions will already be drawn at that point on how the whole tournament fared. But for now, at this semi-convenient milestone, it’s worth taking stock of where we are six months out.

Duke of Sussex and six other high-profile figures say media company used unlawful information gathering

Lawyers representing Prince Harry and six other prominent figures have accused the publisher of the Daily Mail of “clear, systematic and sustained use of unlawful information gathering” to secure stories about them.

In a witness statement submitted to the court, the Duke of Sussex accused the newspaper group of subjecting him to “intrusion [that] was terrifying” for loved ones, creating a “massive strain” on his personal relationships. He said it had the effect of “driv[ing] me paranoid beyond belief, isolating me”.

Experts say Sydney Water should better treat wastewater before sending it offshore at Malabar, Bondi and North Head. The corporation disagrees

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In the first half of the 1900s, the mantra “the solution to pollution is dilution” ruled. The idea was that harmful chemicals and pollutants could be dealt with by spreading them out in the environment.

Now, that approach is derided as outdated and, often, dangerous.

Modern western diets are full of ultra-processed foods, but experts say we need to reduce our intake. Here they offer achievable alternatives

• My week avoiding ultra-processed foods

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“It’s not poor willpower,” says Mark Lawrence. The ecological nutrition professor from Deakin University is a global expert in ultra-processed foods, a beacon of knowledge in the proliferation of UPFs.. Including, he says, “It’s really difficult to avoid them.”

Australia, alongside the US and UK, has one of the world’s highest consumption rates of ultra-processed foods which have been linked to “multiple diet-related chronic diseases”, according to a global report of which Lawrence was a co-author.

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Aside from the actual swimming, every scuba skill I practised in the ocean filled me with dread. Aren’t hobbies supposed to be fun?

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Would you rather go to space or the bottom of the ocean? I have always chosen the ocean, where beauty is bountiful. Under the sea are hundreds of mini-worlds unbothered by life on the surface.

Which is one reason why my friend suggested I get my scuba diving licence. The other was that diving was on the itinerary for an upcoming holiday. I’d never thought about being a certified diver before, but I was excited to have the ability to explore the big blue.

Mom insisted I needed a ‘free-form education’ outside public school. After four years of loneliness, I gave up hope that someone would get me out

“Every mother in the world wishes her kid wouldn’t grow up so fast.”

Mom laughs as she holds me close.

Trust had $254m invested in companies such as Chevron, BP and Shell in 2024, a nine-year record, analysis shows

The Gates Foundation Trust holds hundreds of millions of dollars in fossil fuel extractors despite Bill Gates’ claims of divestment made in 2019.

End-of-year filings reveal that in 2024 the trust invested $254m in companies that extract fossil fuels such as Chevron, BP and Shell. This was a nine-year record and up 21% from 2016, Guardian analysis found. Adjusting for inflation, it was the highest amount since 2019.

Social media is filling up with influencers telling us how to become much more intellectual. A great, enriching idea – or just another cue to show off?

Name: Disgustingly educated.

Age: About 18 months.

• Lamadrid plays in homeland and won first cap last year

• Wilson, scorer of winner at Spurs, was in talks to leave

West Ham are close to signing the Venezuela winger Keiber Lamadrid and plan to keep Callum Wilson, who has been in talks to leave five months after joining.

Wilson scored West Ham’s winner at Tottenham on Saturday after coming on as a late substitute. The 33-year-old was understood to have grown dissatisfied with life under Nuno Espírito Santo and had been seeking a new challenge but the club, five points adrift of safety, intend to hold on to him.

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

Economic inequality is at the heart of all humanity’s major problems, but the wealthiest refuse to confront a system that benefits them

This week, hundreds of government leaders, heads of state, and business executives are gathering at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos. They will be discussing solutions to the world’s biggest risks and problems.

But everything suggests that, once more, what will not be addressed at their meeting is the biggest threat to humanity and the planet: neoliberal capitalism.

Ingrid Robeyns is an economist and philosopher, and holds the chair in ethics of institutions at Utrecht University. Her most recent book is Limitarianism: The Case Against Extreme Wealth

Over 2 million documents are under DoJ review despite ‘legal obligation’ from Epstein Files Transparency Act

The law was clear: Donald Trump’s Department of Justice was required to disclose all investigative files on Jeffrey Epstein by 19 December 2025, with rare exceptions.

One month after this deadline mandated by Congress’s Epstein Files Transparency Act, however, Trump’s justice department has not complied with this law, prompting questions about when – and whether – authorities will ever release investigative documents about the late sex offender.

Critics draw ‘direct line’ between content by Nick Sortor and similar figures and violent actions of federal agents

A rightwing influencer, who appeared to admit that he recently drove his truck at protesters in Minneapolis, has for years cooperated with the Trump administration even while he has been repeatedly accused of escalating conflict for video content he pumps out to 1.2 million followers on X.

Nick Sortor has received full-throated support of the Trump administration after an October arrest in Portland, and attended an October 2025 White House influencer roundtable on “antifa”.

A store-cupboard saviour for weeknights and ends of the month that you can adapt at will

This is my favourite store-cupboard dinner when faced with the pre-shop complaints that “there’s nothing in the fridge”. The cherry tomatoes provide a welcome fresh note, but otherwise it’s a happy cupboard raid. An old Nigel Slater recipe first put me on to the idea of using yoghurt to finish a pasta dish, and it works brilliantly here to balance the harissa. Excellent for a work-from-home lunch, too.