Ferrari unveil 2026 car amid regulation reset Williams not ready and will miss next week’s first test Lewis Hamilton has emphasised the scale of the challenge facing drivers and teams as Formula One enters a new season with a regulation reset which the British driver described as the biggest of his career, as his Ferrari team look to a new start after a disappointing 2025. The Scuderia launched their new car, the SF-26, with Hamilton driving it at the team’s test track at Fiorano for the first time on Friday. He was optimistic, having been involved in the development of a Ferrari for the first time but acknowledged that a huge task lay ahead. Continue reading...

This weekend’s fixtures are the reverse of a first round that saw Arsenal win at Old Trafford and Sunderland start with a bang Start-of-season shape: Continue reading...

Guardian readers respond to Lara Feigel’s powerful account of divorce and the family court Lara Feigel highlights the impact of “win/lose” adjudication in the adversarial court system, a system tailor-made to produce the worst possible outcomes for separating families (I was warned my children would be ripped in half when we divorced. But I had no idea just how brutal custody cases can be, 18 January). In heightening conflict between parents, this system destroys the potential of a negotiated co-parental agreement determined by parents themselves. The best laws are those which limit judicial discretion, including in family law, where children are caught squarely in the middle of the conflict. There is a viable alternative to the dominant litigation model for couples in conflict: a legal presumption of equal parenting, rebuttable in family violence cases, a model that reduces the harms of adversarial resolution. Shared parenting maintains children’s relationships with each parent and their extended family, reduces inter-parental conflict, and prevents first-time violence. What is missing, however, is the political will to enact legislative reform based on reliable scientific evidence on the benefits of shared parenting and a child-focused and collaborative approach. Despite family courts’ invocation of the “best interests of the child”, meaningful law reform remains elusive in the UK and beyond. Continue reading...

Salik Rosing on the Greenland prime minister’s striking attire worn at a press conference. Plus a letter from Colin Parish Your article (‘Designed for uncertainty’: windbreakers are a hit in turbulent times, 17 January) refers to Greenland’s prime minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, “wearing a glacial-blue windbreaker” that “took on a new, loaded and striking messaging”. The anorak is not a fashion statement or sending a message. It is formal wear, which we Greenlanders use for special occasions from weddings to a child’s first day of school and the state opening of parliament. When Nielsen wears his blue anorak, it is the equivalent of a European leader wearing a suit. Existing as a non-European person is not a statement. Salik Rosing Elsinore, Denmark • Re the piece on windbreakers, I don’t want to be an anorak, but I think they used to be called “windcheaters”. I’ll get my coat… Colin Parish London Continue reading...

Kevin Whately recalls his work with the late actor in Dusty Hughes’ play, Bad Language, in the early 1980s I was lucky enough to play Alan Rickman’s gay lover in a Dusty Hughes play, Bad Language, at Hampstead theatre in the early 1980s, and, while I wasn’t as physically attracted to him as some of your female correspondents (Letters, 15 January), I did find him one of the kindest and most perceptive and intelligent actors I have ever worked with. Summoned soon after by the ladies in the casting department of Anglia TV, I was disappointed to find that they weren’t looking to cast me, as they spent half an hour raving about Alan, but lamenting that they just never knew how to cast him. It took another “late, great”, Anthony Minghella, to cast him as the romantic lead in Truly, Madly, Deeply for Alan’s screen career to take wing. Kevin Whately Aspley Heath, Buckinghamshire Continue reading...

Barry Glendenning’s half marathon | The Premier Inn Milton Keynes | Bodø | The Beckham family feud | ‘The North’ Barry Glendenning’s column was heartfelt and very entertaining (How hard can it be to run 13 miles? With help from the pub, park and peas I am finding out, 17 January). As a fellow bar-stool athlete, I could almost smell the tobacco smoke from years past when studying form in the Coach and Horses. Indeed, it was as though Jeffrey Bernard had briefly risen for “just the one”. Max Tannahill Wivenhoe, Essex • “Nobody has enjoyed a night at the Premier Inn Milton Keynes more than we have,” says Beth, 75 (This is how we do it, 18 January). I have tried to reserve a double room for me and my wife, at the Premier Inn in Milton Keynes, only to find that it’s fully booked for the foreseeable... Bren Pointer London Continue reading...

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Bernard MacMahon’s film about the 70s giants took advantage of audience enthusiasm to make a major impact in cinemas – and it’s just the latest in a string of films about the era of classic rock Bare-chested swagger, out of control hair, thunderous guitar riffs … the heroes of 1970s hard rock are back, and burning up the cinema box office. Becoming Led Zeppelin, a film about the British band that dominated the music industry in the 1970s, was the most successful feature documentary at the US box office in 2025, taking over $10m. (Taylor Swift’s The Official Release Party of a Showgirl grossed considerably more, with $34m, but as an album-promoting clipshow it is evidently in a different category.) Despite breaking up in 1980 after the death of drummer John Bonham, Led Zeppelin remain one of the world’s bestselling music acts, with estimated sales of over 200m records and 14.9bn streams. The band were famously press-shy in their prime, but agreed to take part in Becoming Led Zeppelin, which focuses on their early years up to the release of groundbreaking second album, Led Zeppelin II, in 1969. And contemporary audiences have responded – especially to the film’s presentation on the giant Imax screens, where it recorded Imax’s best ever opening weekend for a music documentary and became the format’s highest-grossing documentary of 2025. Continue reading...

Brighton & Hove Albion football club owner confirms placing bets through accounts of Reform UK adviser George Cottrell, according to legal documents The billionaire owner of Brighton & Hove Albion football club has confirmed his syndicate placed millions of pounds worth of bets through the gambling accounts of the Reform UK adviser George Cottrell. The admission comes in a document filed to the high court by Tony Bloom, who also admits that he, Cottrell and a former employee, Ryan Dudfield, had an agreement under which winnings were due to be split between them. Continue reading...

The US president took his bullying doctrine to Davos and hit a wall of opposition. If this creates a new western alliance against him, all to the good The temptation is strong to hope that the storm has passed. To believe that a week that began with a US threat to seize a European territory, whether by force or extortion, has ended with the promise of negotiation and therefore a return to normality. But that is a dangerous delusion. There can be no return to normality. The world we thought we knew has gone. The only question now is what takes its place – a question that will affect us all, that is full of danger and that, perhaps unexpectedly, also carries a whisper of hope. Forget that Donald Trump eventually backed down from his threats to conquer Greenland, re-holstering the economic gun he had put to the head of all those countries who stood in his way, the UK among them. The fact that he made the threat at all confirmed what should have been obvious since he returned to office a year ago: that, under him, the US has become an unreliable ally, if not an actual foe of its one-time friends. Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

The US president has galvanised the Danish population against him, while Danes’ relations with Greenlanders are ‘under reparation’ For the last three weeks, 24 hours a day, Denmark has been consumed by discussions about whether or not Greenland, a largely self-governing part of the Danish kingdom, will be invaded by the US, the Danes’ closest ally. “We got a wake-up call,” said Linea Obbekjær, 64, as she left a supermarket with her bike in Copenhagen’s sprawling Østerbro neighbourhood. “So we are thinking about what is important to us.” Many had been spurred by recent events to take action. “People want to do something,” said Obbekjær. “Not sit and look at the television, but go out and do something.” Continue reading...

Dissenting voices were few and far between as the US president brought his smash-and-grab politics to the WEF “If we’re not at the table, we’re on the menu.” The Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney, was the darling of Davos this week as he rallied resistance to Donald Trump’s smash and grab politics and his voracious appetite for other countries’ wealth and land. “Call it what it is,” he told delegates. “A system of intensifying great power rivalry, where the most powerful pursue their interests using economic integration as coercion”. He urged “middle powers” to band together or be crushed, and was rewarded with a standing ovation. Continue reading...

Sign up now! Sign up now! Sign up now? Sign up now! It’s been another busy week for Gianni Infantino. The Fifa head honcho spent Sunday in Rabat looking slightly sheepish as he stood alongside Morocco’s Prince Moulay Rachid. After trying his best not to hand the Afcon trophy to Senegal’s players, Big G moved front and centre again to console Brahim Díaz and present him with the award for the worst penalty ever taken tournament’s top scorer. Having reassured Díaz that, as president of Fifa, he makes colossal errors of judgment all the time and nobody seems to mind, Infantino then jetted back to his Alpine lair to check on the chances of Morocco and Senegal meeting at the Geopolitics World Cup. Thomas Frank ascribes Tottenham’s knack issues to being ‘cursed or something like that’, heedless of the traditional remedy of a judicious sacrifice” – Nick Coupland. Best uberkacktor (yesterday’s Football Daily letters)? Surely to be the best own goal the scorer must forget which way they are playing. I give you the finest of the genre” – Haydn Pyatt. In search of the kacktor to end all kacktors, in 2016, Sammy Ndjock of Minnesota United gave Bournemouth a 2-0 lead with this gem that became an early entry for a gif when you type in ‘own goal’” – Dave Shelles. I enjoyed learning about ‘Kacktor des Monats’ (yesterday’s letters). Perhaps Herr Arntz could advise us if the Germans have a term for ‘crappy football email of the day’?” – Michael Bland. Just to say how chuffed I am that you chose my entry as your ‘letter o’ the day’ yesterday. Apparently Arnd Zeigler and his team were equally chuffed when I pointed out to them he had made it into Football Daily” – Holger H Arntz. Not normally being one who fully reads, let alone bothers to write in response to owt written in your daily diatribe, yesterday’s edition has sparked my wrath and I’ve finally decided that I must concoct – with my left thumb – a ‘letter’. You quoted that well-known actor Timotheéeeeee Chalamet paying homage to the ‘English north-east accent’. Excited by the statement, hailing from Sunderland, I started to read … only to learn he was referring to the Hull accent. Since when has Hull been in the north east? Have you ever been further north than Leeds, or Manchester? Please learn some geography and realise that the north east starts (probably) north of the River Tees, passes the Rivers Wear and Tyne, and actually reaches the Scottish Borders. Within that magnificent region there are probably 10 distinct accents and not one ‘actor’ could master one of them, let alone all – take Vera as an example” – Kev Richardson. This is an extract from our daily football email … Football Daily. To get the full version, just visit this page and follow the instructions. Continue reading...

Claim by 80 workers that they were subjected to ‘indirect race discrimination’ by wait for NHS pay terms upheld Black cleaners at Great Ormond Street hospital were subjected to “indirect race discrimination” by the wait for NHS pay terms and conditions after their services were brought in-house, a tribunal has found. A case against the London children’s hospital brought by 80 cleaners – the majority of whom are from Black and minority ethnic backgrounds – was dismissed by an employment tribunal in 2024. Continue reading...

Megan Greene says apparent end to the decline in wage growth could hinder fight against inflation The Bank of England may not be able to lower interest rates as much as expected this year, due strong UK pay growth and expected rate cuts in the US, one of its top policymakers has said. Megan Greene, a member of the Bank’s monetary policy committee (MPC), which sets interest rates in the UK, said she was concerned that wages appear to be growing strongly again this year and this may stop inflation from easing. Continue reading...

Single malt prices soar, but scotch should be fun and affordable We have Robert Burns to thank for perhaps the greatest poem about any dish ever – a poem so good that it inspires an entire nation to dedicate an evening of each year to eating haggis, even though most people find it kind of gross. No? If the “Great Chieftan o’ the Puddin-race” were that delicious, we’d all be eating it all the time, surely? And yet Burns’ Address to a Haggis is enticing enough to dispel any such doubts just once a year. I especially like the bit about slitting it open so the bright entrails spill out: “And then, O what a glorious sight / Warm-reekin, rich!” Continue reading...

Scottish Labour leader calls for transparency after ‘worst scandal in the history of the Scottish parliament’ The Scottish government must publish up-to-date patient safety reviews for every ward at the super-hospital at the heart of the “worst scandal in the history of the Scottish parliament”, Anas Sarwar has said. The Scottish Labour leader was speaking alongside families of children and adults who died after contracting infections while undergoing cancer treatment at the Queen Elizabeth university hospital (QEUH) campus in Glasgow. Continue reading...

Ask the likable comedy actor about Spaced, the Cornetto trilogy, West Ham, his new horror film Whistle or his forthcoming role as Hagrid in Harry Potter There’s something inherently likable about Nick Frost. It often feels as though he’s not acting at all – just being himself. That may be because he wasn’t an actor at all until Simon Pegg cast him as his best mate Mike Watt in the much-loved sitcom Spaced, when Frost was working as a waiter in a Mexican restaurant in London. After bonding over a shared love of comedy, horror, Star Wars and video games, the pair became slacker flatmates as well as friends. Their bromance soon continued on screen, with Frost playing slovenly best mate Ed to Pegg’s Shaun in Shaun of the Dead, followed by the guileless West Country police officer Danny Butterman opposite Pegg’s Nicholas Angel in Hot Fuzz. They reunited once more for the final instalment of their Cornetto trilogy, with Frost as teetotal lawyer Andy – childhood friend to Pegg’s Gary – in The World’s End. The pair also co-wrote and starred as British geeks on a US road trip with an alien in Paul, and later teamed up again for the criminally underrated Amazon series Truth Seekers. Continue reading...

Goodbye, clean girl; hello, blazing icon! Hairstylist Jessie’s mismatched red-and-yellow look has been a joyful shot of warmth on our screens, and makeup artists say they’re here for it ‘It’s Stephen! It’s Stephen. And here they all come to chat a load of bollocks.” So said Jessie Roux all the way back in episode four, spewing truth bombs while wearing sweetcorn-yellow eyeshadow. Yet here we are – as I write this, on the day of the final – with Stephen Libby still masquerading as a Faithful, looking th’innocent flower but being the serpent under’t, as per Lady Macbeth’s advice. But it hasn’t been for want of Jessie trying – the 28-year-old has been a fan favourite on the latest season of The Traitors for smarts like these, but also for her bright and mismatched makeup. Often yellow and red, like Rupert the Bear’s outfit or the Lego logo, the shades are what Little Greene paint company calls exclamatory things such as Trumpet and Heat. Continue reading...

Philip Young, who served on Swindon borough council, pleads guilty to offences against ex-spouse Joanne Young A former Conservative councillor has admitted nearly 50 offences of drugging, raping and sexually assaulting his former wife over a period of 14 years. Philip Young, 49, pleaded guilty at Winchester crown court to 11 counts of rape and 11 counts of administering a substance with intent to stupefy his former spouse Joanne Young, 48, who can be named as she has waived her right to anonymity Continue reading...

Avatar director, who moved to New Zealand after the Covid pandemic says he will soon be a citizen of a country where people ‘are, for the most part, sane’ James Cameron has said that New Zealand’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic is the reason behind his decision to relocate there from the US. Speaking to Stuff, Cameron – who shot much of the most recent Avatar feature in the southern hemisphere – described being the US under Donald Trump as “like watching a car crash over and over” and said his New Zealand citizenship was “imminent”. Continue reading...

Royal Court theatre, London Rosie Sheehy and Robert Aramayo excel as a couple reeling from an ultrasound scan in Luke Norris’s extraordinary play The trigger warnings are handed to us on a card as we file into the auditorium. For good reason: Luke Norris’s play is a harrowing portrait of pregnancy and grief, plumbing the depths of sorrow within a marriage. But it is not only that. It is funny and profound, intense without ever becoming overwrought. The play follows a thirtysomething couple who remain unnamed, just like their baby, as they navigate loss. Their relationship seems to feed off a sparky kind of contrariness. She (Rosie Sheehy) is clever, ferocious, always up for a fight. He (Robert Aramayo) is gentler, using humour – and poetry, even in the face of her jeering – to soften her edges. Their dialogue sounds like a contact sport – ricocheting, fast and furious – while they wait for the results of their 20-week ultrasound scan in the first scene. At Royal Court theatre, London, until 21 February Continue reading...

American tops leaderboard but sanctions loom large Rory McIlroy toils seven shots off the lead Patrick Reed finds himself in a curious situation. The former Masters champion could prevail this weekend in the Dubai Desert Classic and see a decent chunk of the $1.5m (£1.1m) first prize duly handed back to the DP World Tour in fines. Reed has joked that it will not be particularly easy for him to make a profit on this tour during 2026. Indeed, he basically starts his season in the red. Reed’s membership of both the DP World and LIV circuits gets him sanctioned by the former every time he tees up on the latter. He lost an appeal over that situation in 2023 yet, unlike some others, opted to keep playing on what was once the European Tour. Reed’s position is further affected by the general understanding that LIV will no longer pay fines on behalf of its members from the end of 2025. Continue reading...

Ryan Wedding allegedly ran a drug-trafficking organisation that moved 60 tons of cocaine a year into Los Angeles Ryan Wedding, the Canadian Olympic snowboarder turned alleged drug kingpin, has been arrested, US law enforcement officials announced on Friday. Wedding, 44, has been sought by the FBI and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) for his role in overseeing what the US attorney general, Pam Bondi, called the “one of the most prolific and violent drug-trafficking organizations” in the world. Continue reading...

Campaigners believe evaluations have been suppressed as they cast further doubt on safety and economic benefits UK politics live – latest updates Road campaigners and motoring organisations have urged ministers to immediately release a series of “withheld” safety assessments on Britain’s smart motorways – some dating as far back as 2022. Designed to increase capacity, smart motorways have the hard shoulder converted into a live lane of traffic, relying on occasional laybys and electronic overhead signs to close lanes in emergencies. Continue reading...