Many alerts remain in place with power outages in some regions
A storm barreling across the United States had killed at least 11 people on Monday, prompting warnings to stay off the roads, mass flight cancelations and power outages after a weekend of misery.
The storm dumped snow, sleet and freezing rain across swathes of the country from Texas to New England, with temperatures set to fall dangerously low this week.
Critics believe ‘drip drip’ of releases after Maduro’s dramatic seizure an attempt by regime to ‘keep the US satisfied’
In the days after Nicolás Maduro was accused of stealing Venezuela’s 2024 election, the relatives of hundreds of protesters captured during the ensuing clampdown flocked to the Zone 7 police detention centre in search of incarcerated loved ones.
Now, after the tables were turned dramatically and Maduro found himself locked up in the US, the families have returned to demand the immediate release of every last one of their country’s political prisoners.
Witnessing the free climber’s ascent of the Taipei 101 without ropes on Skyscraper Live was an astonishing experience. But beneath panicked viewers’ sweaty palms, there was a queasy truth about the future of television
Well, have your balls descended back out of your body yet? Netflix’s Skyscraper Live has been and gone, and it may well qualify as the single most stressful viewing experience on record. Alex Honnold’s unassisted ascent of the 508 metre Taipei 101 was an absolutely extraordinary achievement. Whether or not it represents the future of television, though, is a completely different matter.
Honnold’s work is already well-known. As the star of Free Solo – a feature documentary once again so nerve-racking that the only way to comfortably enjoy it was under the influence of industrial sphincter relaxants – he has long been the poster boy of people climbing up stuff without ropes.
Mayor of Salamanca in Guanajuato state says attack is part of ‘crime wave’ as he appeals to president for help
Gunmen opened fire at a football match in central Mexico on Sunday, killing at least 11 people and wounding 12, authorities said.
César Prieto, the mayor of the town of Salamanca in central Guanajuato state, said in a statement posted to social media platforms that the gunmen arrived at the end of a match.
Why do we focus on the bad news stories about cuts and crises in classical music ? Musicians are doing incredible things to engage, support and sustain us; we should tell those stories too
When did you last read a good news story about classical music?
Essam al-Shazly is the latest foreign national to die in a ‘horrifying’ surge in capital punishment under the rule of Mohammed bin Salman
In his four years on death row, Essam al-Shazly’s mother was his only contact with the outside world. During their daily calls she would calm his fears, control her own tears and listen to his hopes of returning home.
Speaking from the family home in Hurghada, a tourist resort on Egypt’s Red Sea coast, she says he would tell her, “Mom, I talk to you because I want to forget what I’m going through. Don’t ask me anything about prison.”
Pardons come as president and Republicans seem intent on investigating fraud in Democratic-run states
Donald Trump’s mass pardoning of those convicted in connection to the January 6 insurrection raised eyebrows last year, but more recently his pardons have appeared to have a particular focus: to grant clemency to those convicted of fraud.
Since taking office, Trump has pardoned dozens of people convicted of white-collar crimes, including several billionaires, with most of the 13 pardons he quietly issued this month granting clemency to people convicted of fraud.
The European Commission has launched an investigation into Elon Musk’s X over the production of sexually explicit images and the spreading of possible child sexual abuse material by the platform’s AI chatbot feature, Grok.
The formal inquiry, launched on Monday, also extends an investigation into X’s recommender systems, algorithms that help users discover new content.
Liverpool have no cover for Robertson and Milos Kerkez
Left-back, whose deal ends in June, has not asked to go
Liverpool have pulled out of talks with Tottenham over their approach for Andy Robertson. Spurs made their move late last week as Thomas Frank sought to add much-needed experience to his squad.
Liverpool listened to the approach in recognition of Robertson’s contribution to the club in the last eight and a half years and the fact he is out of contract in the summer.
On the whims of Fifa’s Peace Prize winner, a life usually so focused on sports has found anything but peace
It’s Saturday morning, and news breaks shortly after the Premier League kickoff window; another member of your community has been brutally killed in the streets by ICE. There are already a few videos on social media, depicting multiple angles of the grotesque scene. This killing, like the one before, has felt inevitable – because of the actions of the federal government, and in spite of the diligence and peaceful pushback by you and your neighbors.
For more than a decade, watching soccer has been a staple of your Saturday routine, as it is for millions of others. Given that, it was hard not to think about a prize awarded by the sport’s most powerful organization just eight weeks prior, to the president overseeing and encouraging all of this. You know, the medal meant to reward “exceptional and extraordinary actions for peace.” Plenty of people have been joking about this “honor” online since the day it was announced. You were among them in December. Today, you find it hard to laugh.
Millennials in South Korea are being mocked for trying too hard to follow fashion. It’s far better to accept the march of time
Apparently, South Korea’s millennials are getting ribbed by gens Z and Alpha as mercilessly as their western counterparts. The BBC explains they are getting labelled and parodied as “Young 40s”. It’s a term that used to have positive connotations – youthful and “with it” (yes, an expression no one youthful or “with it” uses) – but is now more mocking. A “Young 40” is a try-hard, clinging to a dearly held idea of their own relevance.
Some Young 40s the BBC interviewed sounded wounded and confused by their new status. “I’m just buying and wearing things I’ve liked for a long time, now that I can afford them,” one said of his skate gear and Air Jordans. “Why is this something to be attacked for?” Another felt self-conscious in interactions with younger colleagues: “I try to keep conversations focused on work or career concerns.”
I’ve been a games journalist since 2007, but still there isn’t much video games coverage that feels like it’s specifically for people like me. So I’m creating a home for it: Mothership
Whether you’re reading about the impending AI bubble bursting or about the video game industry’s mass layoffs and cancelled projects, 2026 does not feel like a hopeful time for gaming. What’s more, games journalists – as well as all other kinds of journalists – have been losing their jobs at alarming rates, making it difficult to adequately cover these crises. Donald Trump’s White House, meanwhile, is using video game memes as ICE recruitment tools, and game studios are backing away from diversity and inclusion initiatives in response to the wider world’s slide to the right.
The manosphere is back, and we’ve lost mainstream feminist websites such as Teen Vogue; bigots everywhere are celebrating what they see as the death of “woke”. Put it all together and we have a dismal stew of doom for someone like me, a queer woman and a feminist who’s been a games journalist and critic since 2007.
The prospect of a stay in a stately pile with a charming young woman is a draw for these hapless gents, but this horror farce never lives up to its promising premise
Very occasionally a film just does not work, and this low-budget horror is unfortunately one of those. The premise is not the problem: a sexy young woman lures six eligible young men to her family’s country pile for a weekend of romance, only to reveal to the men that they are now trapped in a reality-TV-meets-Saw farce in which they will struggle to survive. On paper, The Bachelorette-meets-femme-Jigsaw sounds potentially fun.
The biggest problem is that the film never achieves the necessary suspension of disbelief; horror films have to feel at least somewhat real or deliberately ludicrous while you’re watching them; but this just feels like student theatre. You can pick out interesting individual moments that could have been something, but you’re never inside the action, willing the characters to escape (or die).
George Campbell, 69, slept in bus station as officials questioned his right to live in the UK after hospital stay
A Windrush generation man who arrived in Britain as a child 60 years ago has spent several months homeless and destitute, after officials questioned whether he had the right to live in the UK.
George Campbell, 69, ended up staying in a bus shelter in east London and visiting food banks after he was discharged from a hospital stay last year. Because he had no paperwork proving that he was in the UK legally, council officials classified him as ineligible for state-funded homelessness support.
The producers who helped define the sound of pop music in the 90s and 00s are in dispute over earnings from their final album as NERD
Chad Hugo is suing Pharrell Williams, his production partner in the Neptunes, over claims that Williams owes Hugo up to $1m from their final album as NERD, 2017’s No One Ever Really Dies.
The Neptunes defined the sound of pop music in the late 90s and early 00s, producing for artists including Kelis, Britney Spears, Beyoncé, Clipse and Justin Timberlake. As NERD, they released five albums.
Ukrainian president’s remarks come as Russia praises trilateral talks but warns against expectations of ‘significant results’
The European Commission got also asked about the regular US criticism that it is “targeting” US big tech companies and that, in doing so, it undermines free speech.
Digital spokesperson Regnier replied:
“Again, we don’t target any company … based of its origin.
Now on your censorship point: I think if anyone dares to compare freedom of expression with child sexual abuse material or freedom of expression with undressing women digitally without their consent, then they are not fully aligned with Europe or absolutely not aligned with Europe. We don’t even live on the same planet.
“No comments to be made on this US internal matter. But, of course, we deplore any loss of innocent lives.”
“I have said innocent lives, but it’s not for us to judge, innocent or not innocent. Any life lost, we deplore it, in general, and it is, of course, for the justice system in the US to establish the facts.”
Her defection comes shortly after Robert Jenrick joined Nigel Farage’s party
Keir Starmer was being interview by Beth Rigby from Sky News this morning when he defended the decision not to let Andy Burnham be a byelection candidate.
After Starmer delivered his first answer (see 10.15am), Rigby asked him to what he would say to Labour MPs who think he is being “cowardly” and just blocking Burnham to avoid the risk of a leadership contest.
Millions of people will be better off if we have the continuation of a Labour government in Wales, and if we’re able to win the government in Scotland and retain and win councils across England.
When I came into politics in 2015, the first thing I did was support Andy Burnham’s leadership campaign. The first team I worked in was for Andy Burnham. And in the job he’s doing now, he and I work closely together ..
So there’s no question of me and Andy not working very well together. He’s doing an excellent job.
The battle of our times is the battle between patriotic, Labour party, Labour government, and the division of Reform. There’s no doubt about that … In that battle, we are all fighting this.
I think everybody in the Labour party, everybody who’s a Labour MP, wants to be in that fight, wants to fight alongside all their colleagues in a fight that matters hugely to the future of our country.
President signals to Wall Street Journal that he would eventually withdraw ICE agents, though did not give a timeframe
A GoFundMe page entitled Alex Pretti is an American Hero has raised $1,078,931 since it was set up on Saturday. The page reads:
On January 24, 2026, Alex Jeffrey Pretti, a Minneapolis resident and American citizen was executed on the streets of Minneapolis by ICE agents.
This fundraiser is intended to support the loved ones he leaves behind with immediate and ongoing needs. Because details are still unfolding, and to ensure the money goes to the right person, funds will not be distributed until we can verify next-of-kin and identify the appropriate family representative to manage anything raised.
Warnings issued across 26 US states, while Portugal braces for heavy rain as Storm Joseph rolls in
The US is enduring another bout of severe winter weather, as a succession of powerful weather systems brings heavy snow, freezing rain and extreme cold temperatures to much of the country.
Twenty-six states, from Texas to Massachusetts, were under storm warnings issued by the National Weather Service over the weekend, with many alerts remaining in place this week.
After the failure of his police career, Jack came to live with us, caring for the whole family indiscriminately. When I was sickest, and felt unlovable, he reminded me I was loved
Jack, the cocker spaniel, was sacked by the police. His career as a detection dog was an utter failure – he was more interested in people than cannabis and made some embarrassing mistakes, including begging for treats from potential offenders rather than alerting officers about drugs.
A colleague told me about a police dog that needed a home and so Jack arrived – via police van – at our house. He was lithe, glossy black and animated. He ricocheted around the house, knocking over children and pot plants. He chased rabbits and pheasants over the fields. He ate off the children’s plates and collected shoes. He loved us all indiscriminately and liked to have us where he could see us. If anyone left the room, he’d sigh deeply and follow, remaining close until the pack was back together.
The latest in our series of writers picking their go-to comfort films is a tribute to Amy Adams and what might be her greatest performance
Much is often made of Amy Adams’ “always the bridesmaid” Oscar record, as she’s yet to claim a win from six nominations. While this is egregious for an actor of her calibre, the bigger snub is that she wasn’t even nominated for her best performance yet. Enchanted’s Giselle introduced Adams to a mainstream audience and was possibly considered too frivolous for Academy tastes, but her pitch-perfect take on a real-life Disney princess is a masterclass in full-bore commitment, and the gravitational force around which this winningly charming Disney film revolves.
I was instantly won over by Enchanted on its 2007 release, but having since revisited it many times (including with my own kids), I’m convinced it’s close to a platonic ideal of family-friendly feelgood viewing, and there’s been nothing in this vein that’s come close to matching it since (including, sadly, 2022 Disney+ sequel Disenchanted). It’s also so much better than the Disney’s many official live-action remakes.
Words of stern moral advice to a besotted young man are delivered with a brisk and even sunny touch
Song
Why, Damon, why, why, why so pressing?
The Heart you beg’s not worth possessing:
Each Look, each Word, each Smile’s affected,
And inward Charms are quite neglected:
Then scorn her, scorn her, foolish Swain,
And sigh no more, no more in vain.
Connexion
