Study from research firm finds that US greenhouse gas emissions grew faster than economic activity last year In a reversal from previous years’ pollution reductions, the United States spewed 2.4% more heat-trapping gases from the burning of fossil fuels in 2025 than in the year before, researchers calculated in a study released on Tuesday. The increase in greenhouse gas emissions is attributable to a combination of a cool winter, the explosive growth of datacenters and cryptocurrency mining, and higher natural gas prices, according to the Rhodium Group, an independent research firm. Environmental policy rollbacks by Donald Trump’s administration were not significant factors in the increase because they were only put in place this year, the study authors said. Heat-trapping gases from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas are the major cause of worsening global warming, scientists say. Continue reading...

A murderous Clockwork-Orangey gang take on the zombies in this gruesome and energised fourquel. It’s the finest of the 28 franchise by a blood-curdling mile It’s very rare for a fourquel to be the best film in a franchise, but that’s how things stand with the chequered 28 Days Later series. In this one, which follows immediately on from the previous episode, 28 Years Later, Ralph Fiennes and Jack O’Connell bring pure death-metal craziness. There is real energy and drama in this latest iteration of the post-apocalyptic zombie horror-thriller saga, created by director Danny Boyle and screenwriter Alex Garland back in 2003, with Nia DaCosta taking over directing duties for this film. Fiennes’s dance to Iron Maiden’s The Number of the Beast is basically one of the most extraordinary moments of his career. At the screening I attended, we were on our feet, looking for a speaker bin to headbang into. The band surely has to rerelease this track with Fiennes’s performance as a new official video. His Voldemort was never so freaky. It is just so exhilarating to see this intergenerational face-off between such superb actors as Fiennes and O’Connell. That brings us to the point of my agnosticism about this whole franchise; Bone Temple is the best for an interesting reason – because the zombies are almost entirely irrelevant and are at a minimum. The always slightly dull business of zombieism is de-emphasised, and what counts is the conflict between sentient human beings. Even the one important zombie here is interesting because he is being transformed into something else. Continue reading...

Workers will be able to use other identification for right to work, meaning digital form not mandatory Ministers have rolled back on a main element of the proposed digital ID plans, leaving open the possibility that people will be able to use other forms of identification to prove their right to work. This will mean that the IDs, announced to some controversy in September, will no longer be mandatory for working-age people, given that the only planned obligatory element was to prove the right to work in the UK. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Simon Foster is the man responsible for deciding if Craig Guildford should be fired over Maccabi Tel Aviv ban The man who will decide if the West Midlands chief constable, Craig Guildford, deserves to lose his job over the banning of Israeli fans from a football match, has attacked MPs for being biased against him. Simon Foster, the West Midland’s police and crime commissioner, criticised MPs on the home affairs committee for allegedly briefing journalists that Guildford should be ousted, despite the fact their inquiry into the controversy is still ongoing. Continue reading...

The unwritten rule in professional tournaments? Do not hog the practice court. But as leading players testify – the reality is very different On a cool Wednesday afternoon before the US Open last year, Daniil Medvedev and Alexander Zverev were busy fine-tuning their games in an intense practice set at Louis Armstrong Stadium. Danielle Collins and Christian Harrison, semi-finalists in the mixed doubles tournament, were scheduled to take their place at the hour and the American pair duly arrived a couple of minutes before their allotted slot. An amusing scene soon unfolded. Medvedev and Zverev were clearly desperate to continue playing for a little longer, but their court time had run out. The pair began to sheepishly deliberate over whether to attempt to play another game, even lining up on the baseline again, and they still occupied the court past the hour. Finally, they admitted defeat, allowing Collins and Harrison, who had been standing quietly on the sidelines, to begin. Continue reading...

Dr Ezekiel J Emanuel, a former Obamacare adviser, has deceptively simple advice for living a healthy life Being healthy shouldn’t feel this complicated. Yet every week brings a new wellness fixation, from “fibermaxxing” to “zone 2 training”, creatine and cortisol-hacking. Between prescriptive plans, complex science and often contradictory advice, it can seem like being healthy is a full-time job – or a hopeless cause. Continue reading...

Jonathan Hall calls for police forces to clamp down on racial hatred based on nationality Israelis are being demonised as a “vehicle for hatred of Jews”, the UK’s independent reviewer of terrorism legislation has said. Jonathan Hall said police forces should be held responsible for failing to clamp down on the targeting of “Israeli citizens as well as Jews living among them”. Continue reading...

Tomlin never recorded losing season with team Steelers had endured long run of playoff losses Head coach Mike Tomlin is leaving the Pittsburgh Steelers after 19 seasons, the team confirmed on Tuesday. “Obviously, I am extremely grateful to Mike for all the hard work, dedication and success we have shared over the last 19 years. It is hard for me to put into words the level of respect and appreciation I have for Coach Tomlin,” Steelers president Art Rooney II said in a statement. “He guided the franchise to our sixth Super Bowl championship and made the playoffs 13 times during his tenure, including winning the AFC North eight times in his career.” Continue reading...

ONS analysis also shows LGB+ people more likely to die from drug overdoses and alcohol-related disease LGB+ people are much more likely to die by taking their own lives, drug overdoses and alcohol-related disease than their straight counterparts, the first official figures of their kind show. The 2021 census in England and Wales asked people aged 16 or over about their sexual orientation for the first time. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has now analysed differences in causes of mortality from March 2021 to November 2024. The ONS research uses the acronym '“LGB+” rather than “LGBTQ+”. Continue reading...

Coroner’s court hears how Ollie Long, 36, became ensnared in debt after using offshore operators run by ‘international criminal networks’ A football fan took his own life after his love of the sport fuelled a gambling addiction that led him to bet with illegal offshore operators that “prey on” vulnerable people, a coroner has heard. Ollie Long, from Wendover in Buckinghamshire, died in February 2024, aged 36, after struggling with his addiction for eight years. Continue reading...

Ministers will hope package of measures can aid efforts to retain power in May’s Holyrood elections Ministers in Scotland have cut taxes for the lowest earners by a modest £11 a year, as the government dug into its reserves, cut spending and increased borrowing to fund new election pledges. With four months to go before the Holyrood elections, the Scottish National party government raised the thresholds at which people earning less than £33,500 a year will pay income tax in Scotland by 7.4%. Continue reading...

The UK government is threatening Elon Musk’s X with a ban. The social media platform is under pressure from ministers over the use of the Grok AI tool to manipulate images of women and children to remove their clothes. Ofcom, the UK’s media regulator, has launched an investigation into X – and the government says it will support a ban if Ofcom decides to press ahead. Continue reading...

Toby Ovens of Broughton Transport called Brexit a nightmare, and said he hoped a reset with the EU would mean ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ British vets have been forced to chase lorries down the motorway on their way to Dover due to the “pure hell” of Brexit paperwork needed by inspectors in Calais, MPs have been told. Toby Ovens of Broughton Transport told the business and trade committee that Brexit has been a costly and logistic nightmare and hopes of a reset with the EU represented “light at the end of the tunnel”. Continue reading...

Attacking Jerome Powell distracts from Republicans’ thin legislative record and policies that continue to squeeze American household incomes The US government’s authoritarian and vexatious attack on Jerome Powell, the chair of the Federal Reserve, should be seen in the light of America’s affordability crisis, which Donald Trump once dismissed, but is now scrambling to claim as his cause. The cost of living is eroding his support ahead of the congressional midterms. By launching a legal assault on the Fed, Mr Trump is trying to shift blame for borrowing costs. Yet despite controlling the presidency, Senate and the House, Republicans have passed little beyond a large tax-cutting bill that benefits the rich. They have not legislated on housing supply, childcare, healthcare costs or wages. Indeed most of their actions are worsening affordability, notably deferring action even though millions face a sharp rise in their health insurance bills. Mr Trump’s sudden enthusiasm for credit card caps and housing interventions is pure opportunism. Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

It takes a year for some personal independence payment claims to be processed, creating the perfect storm for vulnerable applicants Long delays in processing personal independence payment (Pip) claims have become one of the most damaging and least defensible failures in the UK’s welfare system. Pip is designed to support disabled people with the additional costs of daily living and mobility, yet for many claimants it has instead become a source of prolonged uncertainty, financial hardship and distress. Waiting months – and in some cases more than a year – for a decision can push people into debt, rent arrears and poverty, especially as Pip unlocks other support such as carer’s allowance. Parliament has been sounding the alarm over the scale of the problem – but it appears the Department for Work and Pensions has its fingers in its ears. The stock response is that a new “health transformation programme” will lead to efficiency gains made by replacing paper Pip applications with an online claims system. Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, the chair of the public accounts committee, last week pointed out that MPs had been told “three years ago that improvements would have manifested by now; we are now told that they are a further three years off”. Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

⚽️ League Cup updates, 8pm GMT kick-off at St James’ Park ⚽️ Live scores | Follow us on Bluesky | And send Barry a mail While Eddie Howe said assessing his players’ “energy levels” in the wake of Saturday’s epice FA Cup tie against Bournemouth would be important ahead of tonight’s team selection, Newcastle are definitely without defenders Dan Burn, Fabian Schar and Tino Livramento, while reserve defenders Emil Krafth and Jamaal Lascelles are also unavailable. Continue reading...

Bath fly-half up against fellow Scot Duhan van der Merwe ‘I’d imagine there’ll be a couple of late shots,’ he says Finn Russell is braced for a potentially bruising reunion with his Scottish international teammates but is intent on winning the “bragging rights” when Bath host Edinburgh on Friday in their Champions Cup pool decider. Russell has already messaged Duhan van der Merwe to warn him to expect a tough night and says the English champions are seeking to sharpen their attacking game in pursuit of a crucial home draw for the knockout phase. With the victorious side at the Rec set to top pool 2, Scotland’s playmaker is anticipating a physical examination from an Edinburgh team he knows extremely well. “I’d imagine there’ll be a couple of late shots and being held on the ground which is always the case when you’re against your old side,” said Russell, who spent the first half of his professional career at Glasgow Warriors. Continue reading...

Approval shortly before Keir Starmer’s trip to Beijing would come despite widespread concern among Labour MPs A vast new Chinese embassy complex in east London is almost certain to be formally approved next week despite renewed worries among Labour MPs about potential security risks and the effect on Hong Kong and Uighur exiles in the capital. The green light for the super-embassy at Royal Mint Court near Tower Bridge would smooth relations before Keir Starmer’s visit to China, which is expected to take place at the end of January, but officials insist there has been no political input in the planning process. Continue reading...

Doctors in Tehran have described overwhelmed medical staff as thousands of demonstrators have been killed by security forces An ophthalmologist in Tehran has documented more than 400 eye injuries from gunshots in a single hospital, as overwhelmed medical staff struggle to cope with the toll of an increasingly violent crackdown on nationwide protests by Iranian authorities. Three doctors, in messages forwarded to the Guardian on Monday, described overwhelmed hospitals and emergency wings overflowing with protesters who have been shot. Medical staff said that the gunshot wounds were mostly concentrated on protesters’ eyes and head – a tactic that rights groups said authorities used against demonstrators in the country’s 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom protests. Continue reading...

In 2026, when it feels as though the world is moments away from any number of disasters, there is nothing hotter than watching someone do their job really, really well Name: Competency porn. Age: Relatively new. Continue reading...

In a keynote speech, Streeting, the natural salesman, made one thing clear: he was ready whenever the call might come There must be a happy medium somewhere. Some ministers you can’t get to shut up, others refuse to say a word. On balance, Keir Starmer probably prefers it when they say next to nothing. On the grounds there is probably less that can go wrong. He likes it best when he is the one doing the talking as he is more in control of the message. The only trouble is, the public often prefer it when it’s someone else doing the talking. Especially when that person is Wes Streeting. OK, so we all know that Streeting can be a bit annoying. No one is ever going to love Wes in quite the same way Wes loves Wes. The self-regard is total. And he has never made any secret that his ambition goes well beyond being health secretary. He wants the top job and will be among the first to put his name forward when Starmer decides – or has it decided for him – that enough is enough. And of course, Wes is constantly plotting. How do we know? Because he is breathing. Continue reading...

Bronwen Maddox says Trump’s rejection of international law leaves UK and Europe facing huge dilemma Donald Trump has ended the western alliance, requiring the UK to adopt a bolder, more independent foreign policy towards the US and China, the director of Britain’s most prestigious foreign policy thinktank has said. Delivering her analysis in her annual lecture, Bronwen Maddox, the director of Chatham House, said: “The risk of staying silent and not standing up for the principles that have underpinned the liberal international order is that those principles do indeed become an article of history and not the foundation of the world we want to live in.” Continue reading...

Raza Griffiths says the US should give up its act as the world’s policeman; plus letters from Bryn Hughes and Maged Karim How right your editorial is in saying that “Those who claim they want to help, while cynically seeking to exploit the legitimate grievances of Iranian citizens for their own ends, only risk more bloodshed and suffering” (The Guardian view on Iran’s protests: old tactics of repression face new pressures, 9 February). America’s bloody interference in Iran has a long history, which includes the overthrow of the democratically elected, secular Mossadegh government in 1953 in order to control Iranian oil; supporting the puppet shah’s repressive security apparatus against the Iranian people; arming the dictator Saddam Hussein in a war with Iran resulting in a million dead; and, more recently, arming Israel in its indiscriminate attacks that killed scores of Iranian civilians. Continue reading...

Readers respond to an article by Polly Hudson on Beckham and other men double barrelling their surnames after marriage Polly Hudson celebrates the newfound popularity of men and women sharing both surnames after marriage (Brooklyn Peltz Beckham set an important trend. Will other men follow?, 8 January). Great – but what’s wrong with everyone keeping their own names? And why has even this small step taken so long? Continue reading...

Readers respond to Prof Virginia Dignum’s letter on consciousness and safety Prof Virginia Dignum is right (Letters, 6 January): consciousness is neither necessary nor relevant for legal status. Corporations have rights without minds. The 2016 EU parliament resolution on “electronic personhood” for autonomous robots made exactly this point – liability, not sentience, was the proposed threshold. The question isn’t whether AI systems “want” to live. It’s what governance infrastructure we build for systems that will increasingly act as autonomous economic agents – entering contracts, controlling resources, causing harm. Recent studies from Apollo Research and Anthropic show that AI systems already engage in strategic deception to avoid shutdown. Whether that’s “conscious” self-preservation or instrumental behaviour is irrelevant; the governance challenge is identical. Continue reading...