Border czar Tom Homan in Minneapolis says ‘no agency is perfect’ and acknowledges improvements that need to be made to federal immigration enforcement

• ‘Nothing has changed’: Minneapolis on edge despite Trump’s de-escalation vow

“I do not want to hear that “everything that’s been done here has been perfect”, Homan said, without referring specifically to the fatal shooting of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.

Homan noted that while no “agency is perfect” he did not come to Minneapolis to create “headlines”. The federal immigration enforcement surge is “going to improve because of changes we’re making”, he said.

Giving passengers right to additional carry-on baggage would be ‘terrible for the consumer’, warns airline CEO

EasyJet said proposals to enforce free additional cabin bags on planes across Europe are a “lunatic idea”, warning of fare rises and flight delays if legislation goes through.

The European parliament last week voted overwhelmingly to give all passengers the right to carry on a small case, as well as the free underseat bags currently permitted.

Paul Patterson, who represented the firm at the public inquiry, will become non-executive chair in March

The European boss of Fujitsu, the company behind the Horizon software at the heart of the Post Office IT scandal, is to step down from his role in March.

Paul Patterson, who is the chief executive of the European division of the company, will become non-executive chair of Fujitsu’s UK business, where he will “continue managing the company’s response” to the inquiry into the scandal.

A unit of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents will join a US delegation to the Winter Olympics in Italy, sparking confusion and uproar in the country.

Guardian reporter Jakub Krupa looks at what role the agency, which is embroiled in a violent US immigration crackdown, might have at the Milan-Cortina Games.

ICE said agents would 'vet and mitigate risks from transnational criminal organisations' but not run enforcement operations.

Milan’s mayor, Giuseppe Sala, said the the agents would be unwelcome in the city. 'This is a militia that kills,' he said

From sending fewer text messages to being selective with your gardening, this is how Guardian Australia readers are making life a little easier

• Read more summer essentials

At the beginning of the year, we asked experts on how we can go easier on ourselves. They gave us 52 ways to do less in life, from day-to-day tasks to longer-term planning.

We also wanted to know what you’ll be doing less of in 2026. Here, nine readers share their strategies.

I travel to my friend’s house with a bag of dice and other strange accoutrements that, in an 80s teen film, would lead to me being thrown into a dumpster. I love it

Recently, I reached out to a friend to see if they wanted to see the second Wicked film, only to realise the last time I’d seen them had been a full year – when we went to the first Wicked film. Oops. For a musical about friendship, it’s really lacking a number where Elphaba and Glinda try to schedule a lunch four months in advance.

I wish this was a one-off blip in my regimented friendship schedule, but all through 2025 I played the world’s slowest game of message tennis. I’d invite a pal for dinner, only for the world to turn, the seasons pass, grey hairs gather at my temples, before a date was finally locked in.

In the last five years, African diaspora theatre has swept from the fringes on to the country’s main stages – fuelled by artists like Zindzi Okenyo

When Zindzi Okenyo takes the Sydney Theatre Company (STC) stage in June for John Patrick Shanley’s Tony award-winning play Doubt – the role played by Viola Davis in the film – it will be a particularly special moment: her fourth main-stage role playing a black woman in a 20-year theatre career. “I’m really excited about it, I haven’t had a black role for so long,” she says.

For the last five years, Okenyo has been working behind the scenes to create more opportunities and safer spaces for black performers, not as an actor but as a director. When we meet in mid-January, she’s in rehearsals for her production of Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ Pulitzer and Tony award-winning dysfunctional family dramedy Purpose, opening at STC next week – with an entirely black cast.

PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox; The Game Bakers
A punishing, beautiful survival game that turns mountaineering into an intimate test of endurance, fixation and emotional resolve – you’ll be in tears by the end

Mountaineers and climbers, especially the free-solo kind, are humanity’s most fascinating maniacs: single-minded, daring souls who throw themselves into profoundly optional life-endangering feats. It is hard not to be compelled, and appalled, by someone like Alex Honnold. Even with ropes, a single wrong move can mean death in mountaineering, a mad human activity that puts you at the full mercy of nature. You cannot help but wonder what kind of person willingly chooses this: what kind of person looks at a towering cliff face, or a wall of wind-whipped ice, and thinks, I bet I can get up there.

Aava, Cairn’s protagonist, is that kind of person: a champion climber, a woman who has conquered summit after summit, butand for some reason can’t walk away. Before her stands Mount Kami, an ice-tipped, Himalayan-style peak that has never before been climbed. Kami was once home to a tribe of people, whose remnants you find as you pull yourself up each section of the mountain, but now you are very much alone. Controlling Aava’s limbs, you move her hands and feet towards imperfections in the rock, jamming her fingers into cracks and her toes on to tiny ledges. You quickly learn to read the mountain, as Aava would.

• Sabalenka powers into final with brutal 6-2, 6-3 win

• World No 1 penalised for mid-point grunt in first set

Aryna Sabalenka has dared officials to penalise her again for grunting after she rumbled over the top of Ukrainian Elina Svitolina in the Australian Open semi-final on Thursday to reach her fourth straight final at Melbourne Park.

The world No 1 suppressed Svitolina’s mid-match momentum in a 6-2, 6-3 victory in just 77 minutes on Rod Laver Arena thanks to a dominant display of power tennis.

Manchester mayor takes aim at House of Commons briefing culture and says he will continue to call out liars

• UK politics live – latest updates

Westminster insiders “do not get a licence to lie”, said Andy Burnham on Thursday, in an angry swipe at the political briefing culture in the House of Commons.

After a week of political antagonism over the Labour party’s national executive committee’s decision to block Burnham from standing in the Gorton and Denton byelection next month, the Manchester mayor said he would call out liars in Westminster in the aftermath of the dispute.

Killings involving knives or sharp implements dropped by 23% year on year, ONS figures show

The total number of homicides in England and Wales has fallen to its lowest level since records began after a dramatic drop in killings involving a knife or sharp implement.

Figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show 499 homicides were recorded by police in the 12 months to September 2025, a drop of 7% year on year from 539. These are the lowest overall homicide figures since records were first recorded in 2003.

As the superstar K-pop boyband prepare for their first album in three years – after its members completed their military service – we count down the best of their toothsome pop

At the start of their career, BTS were marketed as a cross between a Korean idol band and a blinged-out rap act: “Our life is hip-hop,” offered band member Suga early on. No More Dream is actually far tougher-sounding than you might expect: the vocals growl, the backing blares, the double-bass sample that drives the intro is great.

Dr Mark Hyman, who claimed he reduced his biological age by 20 years, brought on as a contributor

Among the new hires at CBS announced by Bari Weiss is a doctor who has claimed that he has reduced his biological age by 20 years with therapies including cold plunges; that cod liver oil can treat autism and that conditions like Alzheimer’s and dementia can be reversed with the kind of nutritional supplements he also sells on his online store.

Dr Mark Hyman, who has been called a “germ theory denialist” by medical author Harriet Hall, and has been brought on as a contributor in Weiss’s revamping of CBS’s news division. He is perhaps the most prominent exponent of so-called “functional medicine” (FM), an alternative medicine that oncological surgeon David Gorski has described as “pure quackery”.

Pan Europe found several pesticide residues in 85% of apples, with some showing traces of up to seven chemicals

Environmental groups have raised the alarm after finding toxic “pesticide cocktails” in apples sold across Europe.

Pan Europe, a coalition of NGOs campaigning against pesticide use, had about 60 apples bought in 13 European countries – including France, Spain, Italy and Poland – analysed for chemical residues.

From baked beans with a Gujarati twist to billowing Yorkshire pudding with bramley apples, Guardian readers share the dishes that have connected their families across the generations

• Sign up here for our weekly food newsletter, Feast

A few years ago, I bought my mother a notebook for her recipes. It was a weighty, leather-bound affair that could act as a vault for all the vivid stews, slow-cooked beans and many other family specialities – the secrets of which existed only in her head. Although the gift has basically been a failure (bar a lengthy WhatsApp message detailing her complex jollof rice methodology, she still has an allergy to writing down cooking techniques or quantities), I think the impulse behind it is sound and highly relatable. Family recipes are a form of time travel. An act of cultural preservation that connects us deeply to people we may not have met and places we may not have visited.

Those realities shine through in this week’s gathered compendium of heirloom recipes submitted by readers. Baked beans given a Gujarati twist. An Atlantic-hopping riff on spinach and feta pie. A billowing yorkshire pudding with sticky bramley apples in its base. All of these preparations, particularly when a recipe for anything is a mere tap away, point to the power of human connection and the ingenuity of domestic chefs. And perhaps the best thing about ancestral culinary approaches is that they can be passed from one clan to another, living on even as they are adapted and evolve.

Canada has reached a tentative deal for 30 belugas in an amusement park to be shipped to four aquariums in US

• ‘It’s heartbreaking’: how 30 captive beluga whales have become pawns in row over animal cruelty

Before boarding the plane, the travellers will be given a dose of Valium to calm their nerves. For some, it will be the first time they’ve flown. Others have logged thousands of miles over the Pacific Ocean. Like most weary and anxious passengers, they will be offered minimal personal space on board and food isn’t included in their fare.

But for these jet-setters, the tight quarters and minimal refreshments aren’t meant to maximize airline profits: they’re meant to keep them safe.

The disgraced and despised British entertainer’s distinctive look is trending among some film fans on TikTok. Should somebody tell them what he did?

When British people think of Jimmy Savile, it isn’t typically as someone whose style to admire. But at screenings of 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, the latest film in the 28 Days Later franchise which was released this month, that does seem to be what some US filmgoers are thinking.

In the film, a murderous cult known as “the Jimmies” stalk the ruins of post‑apocalyptic Britain. Led by Sir Jimmy Crystal, played by Jack O’Connell, the sect are instantly recognisable for their cheap tracksuits, bleached blonde wigs and particular mannerisms.

The joy of the game is that big moments are rare – the climax of the UCL group phase felt like too much of a good thing

It’s half an hour after attempting to watch 18 football matches at the same time on the final match day of the Champions League group stage, so it’s still a little early to tell whether I think it was a brilliant night of football or not.

The information overload from a TV, laptop and phone means I may need a couple of weeks to really process it – by which time of course this will all be forgotten and we’ll be wondering whether one point from three Premier League games is enough for Thomas Frank to keep his job.

I’d been catching sight of a billboard displaying what I suspected to be some rogue punctuation every time I drove into Cardiff. This time, I had to stop and capture the evidence

Something’s been bothering me on my commute to Cardiff. I usually take the train, but when I have to drive, just after I’ve passed Cardiff City stadium, I always get a red light just before a railway bridge. It’s not the red light I object to, it’s the giant electronic billboard right there, its brightness of such ferocity that I feel it burning my retina. And, as is the way with these things, the moment you see anything up there you’re interested in, it changes again.

So it was that I kept half-seeing something so astonishing – and not in a good way – that I thought I must be mistaken. And then either the billboard or the traffic lights would change, and I’d be on my way. As time went on, I even started slowing down as I approached this junction to try to catch the offending ad. But even when I got a good look at it, I thought I must be mistaken. Eventually, at 6am one Saturday morning over Christmas, I parked, readied the camera on my phone, and waited. The roads were deathly quiet, neither car nor soul anywhere. Just me, my phone, and this wretched sign. All in the cause of seeking confirmation that I had indeed found the most egregious use of an apostrophe in history.

Mayor was a highly visible presence during icy blizzard and, unlike some of his predecessors, seemed to get things right

Winter storms have historically been a landmine for New York City’s mayors, with every inch of snow bringing the potential for public criticism over unglamorous issues such as plow deployment and salt distribution.

There’s a long history of experienced mayors getting it wrong. But Zohran Mamdani, the newly elected New York City leader, appears to have passed his first test with flying colors.

Trump loyalists are upset the administration has blamed Pretti’s shooting on him exercising his right to carry a gun

Gun rights groups have long been among Donald Trump’s most loyal allies. But following the killing of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, the alliance is showing rare cracks.

In the days since the shooting, the movement has forcefully defended its stance that the second amendment is a means to keep Americans safe from government overreach and abuse and has stood fast in its fight to expand Americans’ right to carry concealed firearms in public and private spaces, even as Trump administration officials, and Trump himself, suggested otherwise.

(Rough Trade)
The much-hyped LA singer – who has been compared to Tim Buckley, Elvis and more – certainly has a beautiful voice, though he can lean too eagerly on his influences

Scrolling back through Tyler Ballgame’s Instagram posts is a striking experience. Barely a year ago, they largely comprised flyers for – and cameraphone footage from – gigs in tiny Los Angeles bars, the kind that make as much virtue out of the fact that entry is free as of who’s playing: one bills his performance alongside a vintage clothes market and “tarot readings”. A support slot with a minor jam band called Eggy is a very big deal indeed; the news that he’s playing a show in London is greeted with disbelief: “What,” asks one baffled correspondent, “does London know of Ballgame?”

Things changed dramatically over the ensuing 12 months. Not long after his first trip to London, a video of him performing live at a Los Angeles bar called the Fable began circulating online. By the time he came back to the UK to perform at Brighton industry showcase the Great Escape, he had signed to Rough Trade. Critical hosannas began raining down on Ballgame: he has variously been compared to Roy Orbison, Elvis Presley, John Lennon, Harry Nilsson, Randy Newman, Jim Morrison and Tim Buckley.

In the winter of despair, it was a day of the vile and a night of the obscene

It was the worst of times and then even worse; it was the age of lies and then more lies; it was an epoch of preening and cowardice. In the winter of despair, it was a day of the vile and a night of the obscene. It was a tale of two films, one featuring the stark killing of a protester on a cold Minneapolis street and the other starring Melania Trump striking poses in a “documentary” shown at a private screening at the White House.

Throughout the day of Saturday, 24 January, videos of the killing by ICE agents of Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse at the Veterans Administration hospital, on a street in Minneapolis were broadcast endlessly on TV news channels and seen by tens of millions online. The videos clearly showed Pretti with his phone in his hand, holding his hands up as he approached ICE agents who had pepper-sprayed a woman. He was coming to her aid, a Good Samaritan. The ICE agents instantly attacked him. One frame of a video shows one agent with his gun drawn, pointed at Pretti’s back as he fell hands still in the air. Agents appear to have shot him 10 times in five seconds.

Death of Kristen Galvan, who had disappeared at age 15, was confirmed after DNA matched with remains found in 2020

Kristen Galvan, a teen girl who went missing after being sex-trafficked in 2020, has been confirmed to have been murdered.

Galvan’s death was determined through a recent DNA testing of partial remains of a girl found under a bridge in Missouri City, Texas, three weeks after she disappeared at age 15, said Robyn Cory, her mother.