Researchers observed the primates switching social groups and passing information on where to find the ripest fruit Spider monkeys share tips about where to find food by changing their social groups in a “clever system for sharing insider knowledge”, research has shown. They were observed to frequently switch subgroups of three or more individuals in a way that enabled them to share information about the location of fruit trees and timing of when they would ripen. Continue reading...

Molly Russell was just 14 when she took her own life in 2017, and an inquest later found negative online content was a significant factor. With many people now pushing for teenagers to be kept off tech platforms, her father explains why he backs a different approach Ian Russell describes his life as being split into two parts: before and after 20 November 2017, the day his youngest daughter, Molly, took her own life as a result of depression and negative social media content. “Our life before Molly’s death was very ordinary. Unremarkable,” he says. He was a television producer and director, married with three daughters. “We lived in an ordinary London suburb, in an ordinary semi-detached house, the children went to ordinary schools.” The weekend before Molly’s death, they had a celebration for all three girls’ birthdays, which are in November. One was turning 21, another 18 and Molly was soon to be 15. “And I remember being in the kitchen of a house full of friends and family and thinking, ‘This is so good. I’ve never been so happy,’” he says. “That was on a Saturday night and the following Tuesday morning, everything was different.” The second part of Russell’s life has been not only grief and trauma, but also a commitment to discovering and exposing the truth about the online content that contributed to Molly’s death, and campaigning to prevent others falling prey to the same harms. Both elements lasted far longer than he anticipated. It took nearly five years to get enough information out of social media companies for an inquest to conclude that Molly died “from an act of self-harm while suffering from depression and the negative effects of online content”. As for the campaigning, the Molly Rose Foundation provides support, conducts research and raises awareness of online harms, and Russell has been an omnipresent spokesperson on these issues. Continue reading...

When André Ricciardi found out he had cancer, he asked a friend to film his final years. André Is an Idiot, the result, mixes in stop-motion puppetry to create an astonishing record of an extraordinary life When André Ricciardi turned 50, his best friend Lee made an unusual proposition: how about they go and get a colonoscopy together? The pair had reached the qualifying age for men in the US to access the health check, and Lee had visions of them farting merrily on adjacent toilets while the medication flushed out their bowels, then chatting on hospital beds as tiny cameras travelled through their anal passages. André was always up for ridiculous stuff, but on this occasion he surprised Lee: he said no. “I was 100% shocked,” says Lee today. “I actually got jealous because I assumed he must have organised to go with somebody else!” But André had not made other colonoscopy plans. He just thought it was a crazy idea and for once, he was being sensible. That turned out to be the stupidest thing he’d ever done. Eighteen months later, perturbed by blood in his stools, André did go for a colonoscopy. It turned out he had stage 4 cancer. Continue reading...

Like the fearful Sicilian aristocracy in the 1958 epic novel, Europe clings to the status quo. But managed decline is not the only option Just past the quarter-mark of the century, Europe appears to be at a turning point. For decades its share of global GDP has been shrinking and its geopolitical influence eroding. At a certain point, relative decline can turn into absolute decline. That moment may be approaching. The US, Russia and China are openly engaged in a “scramble for Europe”. Moscow seeks to reassert hegemony in the east. Beijing wants Europe’s industry; Washington demands obedience – and Greenland. Germans have grown anxious about the future. A disoriented France can’t fix its budget. Desperate for growth, Brussels dismantles climate legislation it passed only a few years ago while bending over backwards to appease Donald Trump. Little remains of European dignity – a sense of déclassement is beginning to take hold. Joseph de Weck is a fellow with the Foreign Policy Research Institute Continue reading...

Sundance film festival: the British actor gives a convincing performance as a man going through the drug court system in a grounded look at rehabilitation At a festival where the focus is usually on the many micro and macro systemic wrongs in America, there’s something unusually uplifting to find a Serious Issues movie that hinges on something that actually works. Director Adam Meeks came across a rare piece of good news in the hellscape that is the opioid epidemic: the Ohio drug courts that help to rehabilitate addicts through a system of non-judgmental support and a strict, yet not unforgiving, schedule. His feature debut Union County – an extension of a 2020 short – shows the positive outcome of treating addiction as a problem to be solved, rather than a lifestyle choice to be demonised. Union County is screening at the Sundance film festival and is seeking distribution Continue reading...

The British papers are in agreement that Keir Starmer faces a likely backlash from unhappy Labour MPs and members The decision by Labour’s National Executive Committee (NEC) to block Andy Burnham from standing in a parliamentary byelection prompted a wave of headlines about Keir Starmer’s leadership and potential rifts in the party. “Labour faces risk of party civil war after PM blocks Burnham’s return” is how the Guardian framed the vote to reject Burnham’s request to seek selection in the Gorton and Denton byelection. Burnham said he was “disappointed” by the NEC’s decision, and hit out at “the way the Labour party is being run”. Continue reading...

Sundance film festival: a new documentary explores the author’s physical and spiritual healing from the 2022 knife attack that almost killed him On 12 August 2022, as Salman Rushdie was about to launch into a lecture on the importance of protecting writers from harm at New York’s Chautauqua Institution, a man in a black mask rushed the stage with a knife. To the horror of the packed amphitheater, the man stabbed the Indian-born British-American author – once the subject of an infamous fatwa from the leader of Iran in the 1980s – 15 times in the face, neck and torso, before members of the audience rushed the stage and disarmed him. Rushdie survived, narrowly; the stabbing left him on a ventilator, severed tendons in his left hand, and cost him his right eye. A full recreation of that attack from Rushdie’s perspective — 27 seconds of struggle, the mysterious man’s face, several sickening punches of blade — opens a new documentary on Rushdie’s recovery and resilience, which drew a standing ovation at the Sundance film festival. Knife: The Attempted Murder of Salman Rushdie, directed by Alex Gibney and based on Rushdie’s memoir of the same name, is unsparing on the devastating results of the stabbing: in never-before-seen footage recorded by the author’s wife, Rachel Eliza Griffiths, Rushdie appears gruesomely disfigured — his skin discolored, his entire abdomen bisected by stitches, his swollen neck held together by stitches, his eye indescribably mangled. His first coherent thought after regaining consciousness, he recalls in the film, was simply: “We need to document this.” Continue reading...

Death toll sparks calls for companies to be fined under animal welfare legislation over mass fish deaths Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast At least 4 million salmon died prematurely at Tasmanian fish farms in 2025, with new data from the state’s Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) suggesting about 500,000 fish died in November and December as ocean temperatures warmed. Scientific studies indicate Atlantic salmon are adversely affected when ocean temperatures approach 18C. At higher temperatures, salmon encounter less oxygenated water, suffer from liver and kidney damage, have less appetite and become more vulnerable to disease. This article was republished with permission from the Tasmanian Inquirer Continue reading...

Sixth seed marches into quarter-finals with 6-3, 6-4 victory while the defending champion must pay forfeit agreed on with her podcast co-host While speaking on a podcast before her big match against Madison Keys, Jessica Pegula was discussing their battle last January in the Adelaide final. Keys’s performance, Pegula recalled, had prompted Pegula to accurately predict to their mutual friends that Keys would win the Australian Open two weeks later. It is normal for players to discuss future opponents, but they do not usually do so in conversation with each other. With a chuckle, Keys interjected: “Jess is like, ‘I hope I don’t see that level [tomorrow].’” She did not. Keys’s reign at the Australian Open came to a difficult end in the fourth round as the defending champion and ninth seed was crushed under the weight of her hefty unforced error count and a spotless performance from Pegula, the sixth seed, who marched into the quarter-finals with a 6-3, 6-4 win. This was, in some ways, a historic match on Rod Laver Arena: the first grand slam singles match between two podcast co-hosts. Continue reading...

Los Angeles Rams 27–31 Seattle Seahawks Darnold and Stafford shine in high-class QB duel Patriots grind out AFC championship in snow Sam Darnold threw for three touchdowns, the Seahawks’ “Dark Side” defense came up with a critical fourth-down stop, and Seattle advanced to the Super Bowl, beating the Los Angeles Rams 31-27 in an electrifying NFC championship game on Sunday. Led by second-year coach Mike Macdonald and Darnold – an eight-year veteran playing for his fifth team – the Seahawks reached their fourth Super Bowl in franchise history, and their first in 11 years. Seattle lost that most recent appearance to New England, their opponent in two weeks at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California. With Los Angeles facing fourth-and-four at the Seattle six, coach Sean McVay elected to go for it and Matthew Stafford’s pass was broken up in the end zone by Devon Witherspoon. The Rams didn’t get the ball back until there were 25 seconds left on the clock, and Puka Nacua was tackled inbounds near midfield on the final play. Continue reading...

This is the news we should be paying attention to. At least for the moment, everything else is a distraction When we talk about our inability to pay attention, to concentrate, we often mean and blame our phones. It’s easy, it’s meant to be easy. One flick of our index finger transports us from disaster to disaster, from crisis to crisis, from maddening lie to maddening lie. Each new unauthorized attack and threatened invasion grabs the headlines, until something else takes its place, and meanwhile the government’s attempts to terrorize and silence the people of our country continue. So let me break it down. There is one story: our country is on the brink of an authoritarian take-over. In Minneapolis an innocent poet and an ER nurse at a VA hospital were both killed in cold blood by federal agents. It is happening now. Toddlers are being sent to detention centers; videos of their gyms for kids recall the youth choruses that the Nazis so proudly showed off at the Terezin concentration camp. Intimidation and violence are being weaponized against the citizens of Minneapolis, some of whom are afraid to leave their houses for fear of being beaten, arrested and shackled, regardless of whether they are US citizens or asylum seekers or people from another country peacefully living and working here for decades. Francine Prose is a former president of PEN American Center and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Continue reading...

Two Democratic ex-leaders warn core American values are under assault – key US politics stories from Sunday 25 January at a glance Democratic ex-presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton have spoken out against the fatal shooting of a 37-year-old nurse in Minneapolis, the second person to be shot dead by federal immigration officers in the city this month. In a statement released on Sunday, Obama and his wife, Michelle, described the killing of Alex Pretti as “a heartbreaking tragedy” and “a wake-up call to every American, regardless of party, that many of our core values as a nation are increasingly under assault”. Continue reading...

Rescuers save at least 300 people after inter-island ferry sank early on Monday en route from the port city of Zamboanga to southern Jolo island At least 15 people have died after a ferry with more than 350 people sunk early on Monday near an island in the southern Philippines, according to local officials, with the coast guard warning that 28 people remained missing. The M/V Trisha Kerstin 3, an inter-island cargo and passenger ferry, was sailing to southern Jolo island in Sulu province from the port city of Zamboanga with 332 passengers and 27 crew members when it apparently encountered technical problems and sank after midnight, coast guard officials said. Continue reading...

Zhang Youxia, second-in command under president Xi Jinping as chairman of the Central Military Commission, has long been seen as Xi’s closest military ally China’s most senior general is under investigation, China’s defence ministry has confirmed, in the highest profile case to date in an aggressive anti-graft purge of senior military leadership in recent months. Zhang Youxia serves as second-in-command under president Xi Jinping as vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission – the supreme command body – and has long been seen as Xi’s closest military ally. Continue reading...

Ukraine president indicates progress after talks with Russia in Abu Dhabi, ahead of further discussions this weekend. What we know on day 1,433 A US security agreement for Ukraine is “100% ready” to be signed, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said after two days of talks involving representatives from Ukraine, the US and Russia – indicating some progress was made. Further discussions are expected next weekend. Speaking to journalists in Vilnius during a visit to Lithuania on Sunday, Zelenskyy said Ukraine is waiting for its partners to set a time and place for the signing of the security guarantees document, after which it would go to the US Congress and Ukrainian parliament for ratification. “For us, security guarantees are first and foremost guarantees of security from the United States. The document is 100% ready, and we are waiting for our partners to confirm the date and place when we will sign it,” Zelensky said. Ukraine sought more air defence support from allies on Sunday as hundreds of buildings in Kyiv were without heating in freezing temperatures for a second day after Russian strikes. More than 1,300 apartment buildings Kyiv were still without heating, mayor Vitalii Klitschko said on Sunday. Sub-zero temperatures and repeated airstrikes have slowed efforts by repair crews working to restore heating and electricity. Zelenskyy has also emphasised Ukraine’s push for European Union membership by 2027, calling it an “economic security guarantee.” He described the talks in the UAE capital of Abu Dhabi as likely the first trilateral format in “quite a long while” that included not only diplomats but military representatives from all three sides. Zelenskyy acknowledged fundamental differences between Ukrainian and Russian positions, reaffirming territorial issues as a major sticking point. Polish president Karol Nawrocki called for unity among countries under threat from an “imperial Russia”, at a Vilnius event commemorating the 1863 uprising in Poland and Lithuania against Tsarist Russia that Zelenskyy also took part in. “The message of these celebrations is that by looking to the past for what we have in common, it’s easier today to face the problems ahead of us. Especially in an era of the revival of imperial Russia,” Nawrocki’s office said on X. “Whether it’s tsarist Russia, Bolshevik Russia, or Vladimir Putin’s Russia, our countries [Poland, Lithuania, and Ukraine], now independent, still face the same problem: the threat posed by the Russian Federation,” Nawrocki said in his speech. Zelensky, in his speech, said Europe should cherish its independence and remain alert. “It is too early for Europe to relax while Russia’s war machine is still running, and while dictators around Europe are not weakening,” he said. “They all look at Europe – at us – as prey.” European nations committed to a new clean energy pact, the Hamburg Declaration, aimed at boosting the region’s energy security. The deal, to be signed at a summit in the German port city on Monday, will bring an “unprecedented fleet” of offshore wind projects to the North Sea that will supply multiple nations, the UK Department for Energy Security said. It comes three years after North Sea countries pledged to build 300GW of offshore wind in that sea by 2050, in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the “weaponisation” of European energy supplies. Continue reading...

Victims of landslide at Mount Maunganui campsite include teenage students, a literacy coordinator and a Swedish national The families and friends of six people buried in a landslide at a New Zealand holiday park last week have paid tribute to their loved ones, after they were named by officials, and police confirmed they were unlikely to be found alive. The victims include 15-year-old Pakūranga College students Sharon Maccanico and Max Furse-Kee, literacy coordinator Lisa Maclennan, 50, longtime friends Jacqualine Wheeler and Susan Knowles, both 71, and Swedish national Måns Loke Bernhardsson, 20. Continue reading...

Updates from the women’s singles on Rod Laver Arena Americans meet in battle of the podcast co-hosts Any thoughts? Get in touch with an email The powerful contingent of US women continues to grow with teenager Iva Jovic joining Coco Gauff in the quarters. By the end of today half the quarter-finalists in the women’s draw could be American. Yesterday, Carlos Alcaraz continued on his quest to become the youngest man to complete the career grand slam. Continue reading...

Energy secretary Ed Miliband says clean energy project is part of efforts to leave ‘the fossil fuel rollercoaster’ The UK and nine other European countries have agreed to build an offshore wind power grid in the North Sea in a landmark pact to turn the ageing oil basin into a “clean energy reservoir”. The countries will build windfarms at sea that directly connect to multiple nations through high-voltage subsea cables, under plans that are expected to provide 100GW of offshore wind power, or enough electricity capacity to power 143m homes. Continue reading...

Increased sensitivity of test that detects the second deadliest cancer will save hundreds of lives, oncologists say The main test for the UK’s second deadliest cancer is being made more accurate in England, in a move NHS bosses believe will save hundreds of lives. The sensitivity of the faecal immunochemical test (Fit), which detects bowel cancer by spotting blood in the patient’s stool, will be increased as part of an overhaul of cancer diagnosis and treatment. Continue reading...

Inquiry finds class should become protected characteristic and calls for rise in number of apprenticeships An inquiry into class representation in creative fields has recommended changes believed to be the first of their kind in Greater Manchester to increase the number of working-class people in the arts. Class Ceiling, a report led by Nazir Afzal, the chancellor of the University of Manchester, and Avis Gilmore, the former deputy general secretary of the National Education Union, was announced on 26 September, with promises of providing a “blueprint for change” that would highlight solutions to the obstacles that have kept working-class representation in the arts low, with the hope that such changes could be put in place throughout the country. Continue reading...

Taxi app’s analysis shows Scottish capital had highest number of trips made between 10pm and 4pm in 2025 Edinburgh and Glasgow have a busier nightlife than London, according to data on late-night journeys from Uber. The global ride-hailing app analysed millions of trips and takeaway deliveries from the UK’s biggest cities, and found that Edinburgh had the highest proportion of journeys made between 10pm and 4am. Continue reading...

Winner will earn place at Super Bowl LX Latest updates from 6.30pm ET/11.30pm GMT kickoff Email beau.dure@theguardian.com or chat to him on BlueSky Changing attention to this game – the sun is out in Seattle. The broadcasters are bundled up against the cold, but the conditions absolutely won’t affect the players here. And the AFC game is basically over. Continue reading...

Netanyahu says it will open Rafah crossing and begin second phase of ceasefire after search ends Israel said on Sunday its military was conducting a “large-scale operation” to locate the last hostage in Gaza, as Washington and other mediators pressure Israel and Hamas to move into the next phase of their ceasefire. The statement came as Israel’s cabinet met to discuss the possibility of opening Gaza’s key Rafah border crossing with Egypt, and a day after top US envoys met the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, about next steps. Continue reading...

Home Office will set out changes to policing on Monday that it claims are biggest overhaul in two centuries Police forces in England and Wales will be told to respond to emergency calls within strict time limits as part of plans to be announced on Monday. Officers will be expected to arrive at crime scenes within 15 minutes in urban areas and 20 minutes in the countryside while attending serious crimes, the Home Office said. A reduction in the number of police forces. Local policing areas to deal with everyday crimes such as shoplifting. Home secretaries to be given the power to sack chief constables. An FBI-style National Police Service to lead on terrorism, fraud and organised crime. Every police officer in England and Wales to hold a licence to serve. A fast track for professionals and experts so they can take senior police roles. A new police commander to lead on violent disorder and rioting. A new national forensics team to help catch rapists and murderers. Continue reading...

Sundance film festival: the Oscar winner can’t find the right tone for this grating comedy which also wastes Jenna Ortega, Da’Vine Joy Randolph and Catherine Zeta-Jones There’s a mildly amusing on-paper joke at the centre of manic art world comedy The Gallerist: what if someone was accidentally impaled on an exhibit but rather than report it, the corpse became part of the artwork? Sure, poking fun at the absurdity of modern art might seem a little dated and definitely a little too easy but maybe with a packed cast including Oscar winners Natalie Portman, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Da’Vine Joy Randolph, there could be a fun, fast-paced caper here? The answer is a depressing nope, the film a pained and grating misfire played like Weekend at Bernie’s for MoMA members that’s not funny or smart enough to work as farce or satire. The Gallerist is screening at the Sundance film festival and is seeking distribution Continue reading...