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guardianworldnews_feedAfter Guardian writers shared their choices, readers responded with picks from films including Withnail and I, Emily the Criminal and Chopper
The fact that he manages to save a kid’s life while remaining a sweary alcoholic without an ounce of dignity and self-respect … is positively heartwarming. GusCairns
Continue reading...guardianworldnews_feedTrump claims ‘Nato should be leading the way for us to get it’ and ‘if we don’t, Russia or China will, and that is not going to happen’
US president Donald Trump has doubled down on his rhetoric on getting control of Greenland, insisting that the US “needs Greenland for the purpose of national security.”
In a social media post, Trump claimed that “Nato should be leading the way for us to get it,” and “if we don’t, Russia or China will, and that is not going to happen!”
“Militarily, without the vast power of the United States, much of which I built during my first term, and am now bringing to a new and even higher level, Nato would not be an effective force or deterrent - not even close! They know that, and so do I.”
Continue reading...guardianworldnews_feedJudiciary chief threatens swift punishment after Trump says US will intervene if Iran begins executing demonstrators
Hundreds of gunshot eye injuries found in one Iranian hospital
Iran protests: what we know so far about the anti-government demonstrations
The Iranian government has signalled that detained protesters are to face speedy trials and executions, defying a threat by the US president, Donald Trump, to intervene if authorities continue their crackdown.
The comments from Iran’s chief justice on Wednesday came as human rights groups warned that executions of protesters could take place soon. A 26-year-old protester, Erfan Soltani, was slated to face execution on Wednesday, the first anti-government demonstrator to be given a death sentence. It was unclear whether the execution had proceeded or not, as authorities typically carry out death penalties at dawn.
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smallfandomfest fic to bring it to a total of ~6,600 words! I even got the fic posted! \o/ I finished this Jack Reacher book and watched a couple eps of Secrets of the Zoo.sabotabbyguardianworldnews_feedUS president says ‘help is on its way’, as reported death toll rises into the thousands
For the first time in days, Iranians were able to make calls abroad from their mobiles on Tuesday, according to reporting by Associated Press. Texting services have not been restored, however, and nor has the internet.
Although Iranians were able to call abroad, they could not receive calls from outside the country, several people in the capital told Associated Press. The internet remained blocked, they said, though it is possible to access some government-approved websites.
Cloudfare - an internet infrastructure provider, and one of several companies and monitors tracking the status of internet traffic in Iran – said traffic volumes have remained “at a fraction of a percent of previous levels”. Its latest update as of 01:00 UTC (which is about three hours and 30 minutes ago), shows a continued widespread blackout. Iran has been under an internet shutdown since Thursday night.
Brief windows of connectivity were observed on Friday, but these did not last, according to Cloudfare.
Netblocks, an independent global internet monitor, also notes that while some phone calls from Iran are connecting, there is “no secure way to communicate” and the general public remain cut off from the outside world.
guardianworldnews_feedMinisters have rolled back central element of digital ID plans, possibly allowing people to use other forms of identification to prove their right to work
Here are extracts from three interesting comment articles about the digital ID U-turn.
Ailbhe Rea in the New Statesman in the New Statesmans says there were high hopes for the policy when it was first announced.
I remember a leisurely lunch over the summer when a supporter of digital IDs told me how they thought Keir Starmer would reset his premiership. Alongside a reorganisation of his team in Number 10, and maybe a junior ministerial reshuffle, they predicted he would announce in his speech at party conference that his government would be embracing digital IDs. “It will allow him to show he’s willing to do whatever it takes to tackle illegal immigration,” was their rationale.
Sure enough, Starmer announced “phase two” of his government, reshuffled his top team and, on the Friday before Labour party conference, he duly announced his government would make digital IDs mandatory for workers. “We need to know who is in our country,” he said, arguing that the IDs would prevent migrants who “come here, slip into the shadow economy and remain here illegally”.
In policy terms, I don’t think you particularly gain anything by making the government’s planned new digital ID compulsory.
One example of that: Kemi Badenoch has both criticised the government’s plans to introduce compulsory ID, while at the same time committing to creating a “British ICE” that would go around deporting large numbers of people living in the UK. In a country with that kind of target and approach, people would be forced to carry their IDs around with them in any case! The Online Safety Act, passed into law by the last Conservative government with cross-party support and implemented by Labour, presupposes some form of ID to work properly.
Here is the political challenge for Downing Street: the climbdowns, dilutions, U- turns, about turns, call them what you will, are mounting up.
In just the last couple of weeks, there has been the issue of business rates on pubs in England and inheritance tax on farmers.
We welcome Starmer’s reported U-turn on making intrusive, expensive and unnecessary digital IDs mandatory. This is a huge success for Big Brother Watch and the millions of Brits who signed petitions to make this happen.
The case for the government now dropping digital IDs entirely is overwhelming. Taxpayers should not be footing a £1.8bn bill for a digital ID scheme that is frankly pointless.
Continue reading...guardianworldnews_feedWe’d like to hear from young people, parents and teachers about how Elon Musk’s controversial chatbot is affecting you
Degrading images of real women and children with their clothes digitally removed by Elon Musk’s Grok tool continue to be shared online, despite widespread alarm and a pledge by the platform to suspend users who generate them.
While some safeguards have been introduced, the ease with which the AI tool can be abused has raised urgent questions about consent, online safety and the ability of governments worldwide to regulate fast-moving AI technologies. Meanwhile, the misuse of AI to harass, humiliate and sexually exploit people – particularly women and girls – is rapidly escalating.
Continue reading...guardianworldnews_feedA supreme court ruling is expected later today, though it is unclear what it will be
What the tariff legal case is about
A Supreme Court ruling is due at 10:00 ET (15:00 GMT) but it might not be on the tariffs case – because the court does not reveal ahead of time which case rulings it is issuing.
Continue reading...guardianworldnews_feedTrump claims ‘Nato should be leading the way for us to get it’ and ‘if we don’t, Russia or China will, and that is not going to happen’
US president Donald Trump has doubled down on his rhetoric on getting control of Greenland, insisting that the US “needs Greenland for the purpose of national security.”
In a social media post, Trump claimed that “Nato should be leading the way for us to get it,” and “if we don’t, Russia or China will, and that is not going to happen!”
“Militarily, without the vast power of the United States, much of which I built during my first term, and am now bringing to a new and even higher level, Nato would not be an effective force or deterrent - not even close! They know that, and so do I.”
Continue reading...guardianworldnews_feedUS owner scraps auction after bids from private equity firms fail to meet its £2bn sale expectations, report says
Coca-Cola has reportedly abandoned plans to sell its Costa Coffee chain after bids from private equity firms failed to meet its expectations.
The US soft drinks company halted discussions with remaining bidders in December, according to the Financial Times, ending a months-long auction process.
Continue reading...guardianworldnews_feedExclusive: Discovery comes amid growing concern over lax regulation and children being put at risk by rogue operators
Circumcision kits have been found on sale on Amazon UK, highlighting lax regulation as concerns grow about deaths and serious harm to baby boys.
In December, a UK coroner issued warnings about insufficient circumcision regulation after the death in 2023 of a six-month-old boy, Mohamed Abdisamad, from a streptococcus infection.
Continue reading...guardianworldnews_feedMinisters have rolled back central element of digital ID plans, possibly allowing people to use other forms of identification to prove their right to work
Here are extracts from three interesting comment articles about the digital ID U-turn.
Ailbhe Rea in the New Statesman in the New Statesmans says there were high hopes for the policy when it was first announced.
I remember a leisurely lunch over the summer when a supporter of digital IDs told me how they thought Keir Starmer would reset his premiership. Alongside a reorganisation of his team in Number 10, and maybe a junior ministerial reshuffle, they predicted he would announce in his speech at party conference that his government would be embracing digital IDs. “It will allow him to show he’s willing to do whatever it takes to tackle illegal immigration,” was their rationale.
Sure enough, Starmer announced “phase two” of his government, reshuffled his top team and, on the Friday before Labour party conference, he duly announced his government would make digital IDs mandatory for workers. “We need to know who is in our country,” he said, arguing that the IDs would prevent migrants who “come here, slip into the shadow economy and remain here illegally”.
In policy terms, I don’t think you particularly gain anything by making the government’s planned new digital ID compulsory.
One example of that: Kemi Badenoch has both criticised the government’s plans to introduce compulsory ID, while at the same time committing to creating a “British ICE” that would go around deporting large numbers of people living in the UK. In a country with that kind of target and approach, people would be forced to carry their IDs around with them in any case! The Online Safety Act, passed into law by the last Conservative government with cross-party support and implemented by Labour, presupposes some form of ID to work properly.
Here is the political challenge for Downing Street: the climbdowns, dilutions, U- turns, about turns, call them what you will, are mounting up.
In just the last couple of weeks, there has been the issue of business rates on pubs in England and inheritance tax on farmers.
We welcome Starmer’s reported U-turn on making intrusive, expensive and unnecessary digital IDs mandatory. This is a huge success for Big Brother Watch and the millions of Brits who signed petitions to make this happen.
The case for the government now dropping digital IDs entirely is overwhelming. Taxpayers should not be footing a £1.8bn bill for a digital ID scheme that is frankly pointless.
Continue reading...guardianworldnews_feedUS president says ‘help is on its way’, as reported death toll rises into the thousands
For the first time in days, Iranians were able to make calls abroad from their mobiles on Tuesday, according to reporting by Associated Press. Texting services have not been restored, however, and nor has the internet.
Although Iranians were able to call abroad, they could not receive calls from outside the country, several people in the capital told Associated Press. The internet remained blocked, they said, though it is possible to access some government-approved websites.
Cloudfare - an internet infrastructure provider, and one of several companies and monitors tracking the status of internet traffic in Iran – said traffic volumes have remained “at a fraction of a percent of previous levels”. Its latest update as of 01:00 UTC (which is about three hours and 30 minutes ago), shows a continued widespread blackout. Iran has been under an internet shutdown since Thursday night.
Brief windows of connectivity were observed on Friday, but these did not last, according to Cloudfare.
Netblocks, an independent global internet monitor, also notes that while some phone calls from Iran are connecting, there is “no secure way to communicate” and the general public remain cut off from the outside world.
guardianworldnews_feedThe eccentric, sharp-eyed sitcom was so loved that it was once the fastest-selling DVD ever. A quarter of a century on from its Channel 4 debut, why has it fallen so far off the radar?
There are few British comedy shows that were as popular, yet now completely extinct, as Phoenix Nights. The sitcom – which ran for just two series between 2001-2002 – is set in a fictional working men’s club in Bolton, and was a huge hit of the physical media era. Its second series was once the fastest ever selling UK TV show on DVD, shifting 160,000 copies in its first week of release. However, it is now 25 years since it was first broadcast on Channel 4, and it does not feature, nor has it ever, on any streaming service. Instead, it’s confined to dodgy fan uploads on YouTube and the secondhand DVD market. It is also almost entirely absent from all of the major publications’ best TV of the 21st century listicles.
Nevertheless, it remains a programme like few others. Distinctly northern and working class, it crucially uses neither as the butt of its jokes. In the same way that The Royle Family turned the everyday routine of watching TV, bickering, having a brew and asking each other what they had for tea into a relatably funny yet poignant shared living-room experience, Phoenix Nights invites people through its sparkling tinsel curtains into the familiar yet fading glory of clubland.
Continue reading...guardianworldnews_feedBarrister turned novelist Harriet Tyce is playing a blinder in the fourth series of the show. As a thriller writer myself, I recognise the traits that make her such a formidable Faithful
This time last year a rumour swept through the close-knit British crime-writing community, not whispered in a quiet moment in the billiard room but shared on group chats and message boards. The producers of The Traitors were recruiting contestants for 2026, and wanted one of us to take part. Of course they did! The Traitors is a controlled, lower-stakes, stylised version of the golden age country house whodunnit, which is itself a controlled, lower-stakes, stylised version of real-life murder. It is crime writers’ job to examine the dark side of human behaviour. Betrayal of trust and manipulation are all in a day’s work. We often write from multiple perspectives, identifying with victim, perp and detective, giving us a unique kind of empathy. We spent the rest of the year wondering who it would be. (I didn’t get the call.)
Last November, in that howling no man’s land between the finale of Celebrity Traitors and the transmission of series four, I went along with 13 fellow crime novelists to the Traitors Live Experience in Covent Garden. Despite being professional pattern-finders with highly tuned powers of observation, none of us at the replica round table guessed that the Chosen One was among us, and had already completed her stint on the real thing.
Continue reading...guardianworldnews_feedPolicing inspectorate to say force made series of errors in how it gathered and handled intelligence
West Midlands police will be criticised in a report about their handling of intelligence used to justify banning Israeli fans from a football game in Birmingham, the Guardian understands.
The inquiry was ordered by the home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, and carried out by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary, the policing inspectorate.
Continue reading...guardianworldnews_feedUS president says of Jens-Frederik Nielsen: ‘I don’t know anything about him, but this is going to be a big problem for him’
Meanwhile, a new poll shows that just 17% of Americans approve of president Donald Trump’s efforts to acquire Greenland, and substantial majorities of Democrats and Republicans oppose using military force to annex the island.
47% of respondents to the Reuters/Ipsos poll disapproved of US efforts to acquire Greenland, while 35% said they were unsure.
Continue reading...guardianworldnews_feedIn a might-makes-right world, US allies, not to mention the emerging powers of the global south, would begin to hedge their bets in dangerous ways
What is wrong with resurrecting the prerogative of major powers to claim a sphere of influence in which they dictate and others must follow? That idea informs the “Donroe Doctrine” behind the US invasion of Venezuela to seize Nicolás Maduro. Donald Trump seems to believe that, as the world’s strongest military power, the United States should be allowed to invade other countries at will. Trump’s homeland security adviser, Stephen Miller, says “the real world” is “governed by strength”, by “power”, so we should get used to it.
There is a beguiling simplicity to this abandonment of the norms long designed to govern the behavior of states big and small. China has touted it as the reality that its Asian neighbors must live with. Russia, a third-tier power by comparison but still a nuclear-armed regional heavyweight, has periodically treated the boundaries of post-Soviet states as mere suggestions. But do we really want to return to the law of the jungle in which the guy with the biggest stick calls the shots?
Continue reading...guardianworldnews_feedThis week, Trump’s granddaughter announced she definitely doesn’t want to go into politics. Expect a run for office very soon
Last week Kai Trump, Donald Trump Jr’s daughter and the president’s eldest grandchild, publicly declared she had no plans to run for office. The 18-year-old appeared on Logan Paul’s Impaulsive podcast, where she stated that “politics is such a dangerous thing … I think if both sides met in the middle, everyone would be so much more happier.” (Maybe tell that to your grandpa, kid.) “To be honest with you,” she said, “I stay out of politics completely … I don’t want anything to do with politics.”
Look, I know you’re still very young, Kai, so here’s a little advice from an old lady: maybe work just a teeny bit harder at keeping a safe distance from politics. It has not gone unobserved that the influencer and golfer has made a lot of content about life behind the scenes at the White House. She’s also launched an apparel collection, which she’s modelled on the White House lawn. And, notably, she spoke at the 2024 Republican national convention (RNC), where she insisted Trump was “just a normal grandpa”. I don’t know about that; my grandad didn’t invade Venezuela.
Kai, by the way, stressed to Logan Paul that she was the one who decided to speak at the RNC; it was “literally all my idea”. But the nasty media, she noted, spun it otherwise. “[They said] ‘Oh well, that’s like a political plan that was put in place, to like get more voters or anything like that’.” Well, yes, because it was a political convention. They tend to be, you know, political.
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