The Guardian has constructed a timeline for the terrible events of one night of protests in Rasht, based on first-hand accounts, video and photographs
On Thursday 8 January, Iran went dark. In the midst of massive national protests, the government shut down the internet, phone calls, and almost all communication out of the country. That evening a violent crackdown began. In some cities, government forces opened fire on crowds, killing thousands – according to some estimates, possibly tens of thousands – in two days of bloodshed. The internet blackout has meant that a clearer picture of what happened – drawn from witness reports, videos, photographs and testimony from hospitals – has taken time to assemble.
When the violence began, there were demonstrations taking place in more than 200 cities, according to human rights groups. This is the story of what unfolded in one of them.
Delicate, rich and silky chocolate pots to round off a romantic dinner
These chocolate pots are dark, silken and softly bitter, with enough richness to feel a little decadent, but not heavy. Make one to share or two individual ones, depending on your mood. They can be made ahead, anywhere from an hour to a full day in advance, and will keep happily in the fridge. If they’ve been chilled for more than a couple of hours, let them sit at room temperature for about 20 minutes before serving. They should feel cool against the spoon, but not fridge-cold, which dulls their luxurious texture. A slick of good olive oil and a pinch of flaky salt is a lovely contrast to the chocolate’s richness, but you could also top them with a few edible flowers or a scattering of grated chocolate and a raspberry or two.
From ancient Greek bronzes to an unusual take on Donald Trump, readers recommend galleries and collections they’ve discovered on their travels • Tell us about a sunny break in Europe – the best tip wins a £200 holiday voucher
We visited the Female Artists of the Mougins Museum, in Mougins, a small village on a hill near Cannes. Full of exclusively female artists – from Berthe Morisot in the 19th century and Frida Kahlo in the early 20th to contemporary figures such as Tracey Emin – it houses an incredible collection of often overlooked art and artists. We visited on a rainy October day and it was remarkably quiet and calm. I particularly enjoyed the abstract works – well worth a trip up the hill. James
Analysis of nearly 500 tinned and chilled products finds 23% exceed government’s voluntary salt target
Nearly a quarter of all soup bought in supermarkets contains too much salt, with one brand containing more salt than two McDonald’s cheeseburgers, according to research.
Soup has long had a reputation for being a healthy choice for lunch. The analysis of nearly 500 varieties of tinned and chilled soups sold in supermarkets found that 23% contained too much salt.
Research in Wales found that home, not outdoor travel, was largest contributor to children’s daily exposure
Children living in homes with wood burners could be exposed to over three times more pollution than those in non-wood-burning homes. The results come from a study that looked at air pollution experienced by primary schoolchildren in Wales.
Fifty-three children from two primary schools in Anglesey (Ynys Môn) were given backpacks equipped with air pollution sensors. They took the packs home and carried them during their journeys to and from school.
Jeff Bezos gives yet another powerful person an uncritical profile. The point of this one: if we’d listened to the king, there would be no climate crisis – even if some of his ideas are strangely trippy
We find ourselves at an interesting moment in the streaming wars; one where Amazon’s programming policy has apparently shifted to simply giving a massive platform to authority. Last week saw the release of the Melania Trump film (a grating vanity project it paid $75m for) and this week it’s our turn, with the platform releasing the King Charles documentary Finding Harmony: A King’s Vision.
Why Jeff Bezos would want to curry favour with the most powerful people on the planet by paying to air uncritical profiles of them is anyone’s guess. Either way, as a film, Finding Harmony is intensely frustrating to watch. It is ostensibly a relatively important climate crisis documentary, undone by its own innate sense of chippy entitlement. Perhaps a better title would have been King Charles: Needless to Say I Had the Last Laugh.
Leaving this world in an age of lies and cruelty, my last message is simple: don’t give up on truth
Carlos Hernández de Miguel was a Spanish journalist and writer. He died on 3 February 2026
Dear reader, for the first time since I became a journalist, I have to tell you I wish you weren’t reading what I’ve written. Because if you’re reading this, it means I’m no longer in this world – or any other. I’ve died. Shit, it’s hard to write this, but that’s the way it is. I’ve died, and I don’t want to leave without saying goodbye and sharing a few final thoughts.
I’ve been a very fortunate person. I was fortunate to have been born in a European country that, although still under the yoke of Franco’s regime, very soon afterwards began to progress economically, socially and politically. Luck, and it was only luck, made my destiny infinitely easier than that of hundreds of millions of children who are born in regions of the world ravaged by hunger, poverty and war.
The actor Wagner Moura and writer-director Kleber Mendonça Filho explain how the Brazilian thriller mirrors their experiences of political corruption and why they are compelled to speak out
Unusually for a political period drama that is not in the English language, runs nearly three hours and peppers its authentic portrayal of a military dictatorship with sight gags and gory shootouts, The Secret Agent has transpired to be quite the awards magnet. Best picture and best actor, for its star Wagner Moura (who recently won a Golden Globe), are two of the four categories in which it will compete at next month’s Oscars.
The nominations haven’t yet been announced when I meet Moura in a London hotel room, but it is unlikely they will have turned the head of this seasoned 49-year-old. He has years of experience: he headlined the Elite Squad thrillers, played Pablo Escobar in the streaming hit Narcos, and joined Parker Posey as husband-and-wife assassins in the TV version of Mr & Mrs Smith. He exudes relaxed, matinee idol charisma, as well as the same air of decency and humility as Armando, his character in The Secret Agent. A widowed academic hiding out in a refugees’ safe house in Recife at the height of the dictatorship in 1977, Armando is plotting to flee Brazil on a fake passport. To do so, he will need to outrun the hitmen hired to kill him by a vengeful industrialist.
I have been called the LeBron James of spreadsheets, but I try not to take myself too seriously
Growing up in Waterford, south-east Ireland, I was always good at maths. I first used Excel at university in Cork while studying maths and physics. We used a software programme called Mathematica but it was expensive, so at home I used Excel as a workaround to do the same tasks, using it to generate, say, a list of prime or Fibonacci numbers.
After that, I worked at a consultancy company in London and started using it more conventionally. I soon became the go-to person for people who had random questions about the software, such as how to use it to figure out howmany trucks are needed to transport a certain amount of packages.
Parent company says the bullion created a ‘sumptuous atmosphere’ but current market conditions offered a ‘good opportunity’ to sell it
The Grand Emperor hotel in Macau has ripped up and sold the gold bricks lining its lobby floor, earning nearly $13m (£9.6m) amid a rise in the metal’s value due to turbulent geopolitical conditions.
The hotel, which opened in 2006, is known for its opulent decor including a “golden pathway” featuring dozens of gold bars in its entranceway.
In wake of Donald Trump’s call for Republicans to ‘take over’ voting, senator Ruben Gallego urges citizens to take a stand and give the ‘ultimate response’
The Democratic senator Ruben Gallego has proposed that, should Donald Trump try to sabotage the midterm elections, Americans should respond with a general strike that would “grind the country to a halt”.
Earlier this week the US president called for Republicans to “take over” and “nationalise” voting in at least 15 unspecified locations, repeating his false claims that elections are plagued by widespread fraud.
Death toll from Washington’s campaign on alleged drug traffickers now at least 128
The US military on Thursday said it killed two alleged drug traffickers in a strike on a boat in the eastern Pacific, bringing the death toll from Washington’s campaign to at least 128.
“Intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations,” the US Southern Command said in a post on X. It said “no US military forces were harmed” in the operation.
Residents of New Zealand capital advised not to enter the water, collect seafood or walk their dogs on local beaches after wastewater plant failure
A sewage leak in New Zealand’s capital Wellington has been described by local authorities as an “environmental disaster,” with repairs to the city’s wastewater treatment plant expected to take months.
Residents of Wellington have been advised not to enter the water, collect seafood or even walk their dogs on local beaches.
Dozens of people have died, including two Australians, as record-breaking snowfall blankets the north
Dozens of people have died in Japan after record-breaking snowfall blanketed northern regions of the country, while officials warned that warmer temperatures could trigger a new wave of accidents.
Authorities said 35 people had died in snow-related incidents across Japan since 20 January, with almost 400 injured, 126 of them seriously. Most of the deaths were among people who fell while trying to clear snow from their roofs or around their homes.
The Australian aerial photographer Andrew Vukosav takes his striking images while flying solo in his Cessna 182 on long journeys into remote terrain. His plane, named Valerie, has a high-resolution camera fixed to its underbelly to capture landscapes that challenge cliches of the outback. Vukosav has touched down in the US to showcase his series Longitude Latitude Solitude, which features photos taken over 10 years while logging 560 hours in the air
The country’s first female PM is the object of a personality cult revolving around everything from her outfits and snacks to her favourite pink pen
Just eight months ago, Japan’s ruling party appeared to have reached the edge of the electoral abyss. It had lost a parliamentary majority for the second time in 15 months; its MPs were implicated in a long-running slush fund scandal; the then prime minister, Shigeru Ishiba, was the target of factional plotting.
But as voters prepare to brave freezing temperatures in this Sunday’s lower house elections, the Liberal Democratic party (LDP) is expected to pull off a momentous victory. And the party’s recovery from the disappointment of last year is largely down to one woman.
Whitkoff says ‘significant work remains’ as second day of US-led peace talks in Abu Dhabi concludes: What we know on day 1,444
Ukraine and Russia concluded a second round of US-brokered talks in Abu Dhabi on Thursday aimed at ending Europe’s biggest conflict since the second world war, with the two sides conducting a major prisoner swap and agreeing to resume negotiations soon. But Steve Witkoff, Donald Trump’s special envoy involved in the talks, cautioned that “significant work remains” in the weeks ahead, dampening expectations of any swift move towards peace. The meetings marked the most substantive engagement between senior delegations from Kyiv and Moscow in months, pointing to a tentative, if uncertain, revival of diplomatic efforts nearly four years into the war.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Thursday said more US sanctions against Russia depended on talks aimed at ending the nearly four-year-old Ukraine war. Bessent said he would consider new sanctions against Russia’s shadow fleet – a step Trump has not taken since returning to office in January 2025. His comments come after Ukraine and Russia concluded a second day of US-led talks in Abu Dhabi on Thursday without a breakthrough in ending the conflict. “I will take it under consideration. We will see where the peace talks go,” Bessent said at a Senate Banking Committee hearing. He said the Trump administration’s sanctions against Russian oil majors Rosneft and Lukoil had helped bring Russia to the negotiating table in the peace talks.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the trilateral talks with the US and Russia were “not easy,” but insisted that Ukraine would remainconstructive and seek a fair deal to end to the Russian aggression. Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukraine’s presidential office, said the trilateral negotiations had been “genuinely constructive”, thanking the US and the United Arab Emirates for their role in mediating the talks. Russia’s representative, Kirill Dmitriev, similarly struck a positive note, saying there had been progress and “forward movement” in discussions on ending the war.
Separately, Russia has signalled its readiness to engage with more European leaders, saying it could “listen to any proposal” if it considered it a serious attempt to reopen diplomatic channels and not “pathetic” posturing.
Western sanctions are having a “significant impact” on the Russian economy, the EU’s sanctions envoy has said, ahead of the fourth anniversary of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. David O’Sullivan, a veteran Irish official, said sanctions were “not a silver bullet” and would always face circumvention, but insisted that after four years he was confident they were having an effect. “We may be, in the course of 2026, coming to a point where the whole thing becomes unsustainable, because so much of the Russian economy has been distorted so much by the building up of the war economy at the expense of the civil economy,” he told the Guardian in a rare interview. The Russian economy is thought to be under its greatest strain since the early days of the war. Oil revenues are plummeting, inflation is running at about 6% and interest rates at 16%.
Night-time shelling by Ukraine inflicted “serious damage” in the Russian city of Belgorod, near the border, the region’s governor said early on Friday. Vyacheslav Gladkov, in a video posted on Telegram after midnight, said city officials were holding an emergency meeting to devise a plan of action. “The enemy has shelled the civilian city of Belgorod. Everyone knows we have no military targets,” said Gladkov. “There has been serious damage. I have been out to look around.” A post on the unofficial Russian Telegram channel Mash, which has sources in the security services, said missiles had hit the city that lies about 40 km (25 miles) from the Ukrainian border and power had been cut in some districts.
Authorities scrap Arakurayama Sengen park cherry blossom festival near Mount Fuji because of tourists trespassing, littering and ‘defecating in private yards’
A Japanese cherry blossom festival near Mount Fuji has been cancelled after officials cited a rise in disruptive tourist behaviour.
On Tuesday, officials in the central Japanese city of Fujiyoshida announced they would no longer host the Arakurayama Sengen park cherry blossom festival this year. The weeks-long event has been held for the past decade and attracts about 200,000 tourists annually.
Emails appear to show Mountbatten-Windsor attempting to introduce Epstein to UAE crown prince via foreign affairs minister
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor vouched for Jeffrey Epstein during a UK state visit to the United Arab Emirates with Queen Elizabeth II in 2010, according to newly released emails.
The email was sent from “The Duke” to Epstein on 24 November of that year, with the subject listed as “Abdullah” – an apparent reference to the UAE foreign affairs minister, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
Arsenal need energy from home crowd, Florian Wirtz has found his groove and Liam Rosenior deserves respect
Daniel Farke is understood to have wanted a new goalkeeper during the January transfer window but the Leeds board failed to oblige. Might that decision ultimately cost the club their Premier League status? It will be interesting to see whether Farke recalls the recently dropped former Lyon goalkeeper, Lucas Perri, or keeps faith with Karl Darlow against Nottingham Forest at Elland Road on Friday night. Darlow, formerly second choice at Newcastle, struggled with crosses when Arsenal won 4-0 in West Yorkshire last Saturday and may approach a quintessential relegation six-pointer against Forest with dented confidence. What about Illan Meslier? Previously a star under Marcelo Bielsa, a keeper once hyped as France’s future No 1 has been demoted to third choice and has been discussing a potential move to Besiktas before Friday’s transfer deadline in Turkey. Talks only began after Leeds rejected a bid for Perri from Besiktas last week. Time will tell if that was that the right decision. Louise Taylor
While labels list dozens of possible risks only four are supported by evidence, say researchers
Almost all side-effects listed for statins are not caused by the drugs, according to the world’s most comprehensive review of evidence.
Other than the well-known risks around muscle pain and diabetes, only four of 66 other statin side-effects listed on labels – liver test changes, minor liver abnormalities, urine changes and tissue swelling – are supported by evidence. And the risks are very small, according to the systematic review and meta-analysis published in the Lancet.
Eve Muirhead confident Britain ‘can disrupt the norm’
Medal chances in snowboarding, skiing and skeleton
Team GB have never made anything more than the occasional ripple at the Winter Olympics. Which makes the prediction of Eve Muirhead, Britain’s chef de mission at the Milano Cortina Games, rather extraordinary.
“I believe that we are taking one of the most potent teams of athletes that we have taken to a Winter Olympic Games,” she says. “We have the capability to disrupt the norm.”
Connexion
