General news

• Damon And Affleck’s ‘The Rip’: Do Rotten Tomatoes Critics Give A Rip? - Forbes

  16-01-2026 23:33 via news.google.com
  Damon And Affleck’s ‘The Rip’: Do Rotten Tomatoes Critics Give A Rip?  ForbesThe Rip review – Ben Affleck and Matt Damon tear through flashy Netflix bro thriller  The Guardian‘The Rip’ director Joe Carnahan on working with Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, and Teyana Taylor: ‘Endlessly entertaining’  Gold Derby‘The Rip’ Review: Matt Damon and Ben Affleck Star in Cop Thriller  The New York TimesThe True Sto
  
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• US boy, 11, allegedly shoots father to death after Nintendo Switch taken away

  16-01-2026 23:00 via theguardian.com
  Pennsylvania boy facing criminal homicide charges after 13 January shooting at family’s homeAn 11-year-old Pennsylvania boy allegedly shot his father to death after previously having his Nintendo Switch handheld gaming system taken away.The boy is facing criminal homicide charges after a 13 January shooting at his family’s home in Duncannon Borough. Continue reading...
  
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• The Pitt continues to shine a light on the horrors of the US healthcare system | Adrian Horton

  16-01-2026 21:43 via theguardian.com
  In its second season, the award-winning medical drama is a scarily reflective show for the many Americans who watch itIf you were stuck in the waiting room at the fictional Pittsburgh trauma medical center (PTMC) – and, as is the case with most real emergency rooms, to be at “the Pitt” almost certainly means waiting for hours (unless you’re imminently dying, but even then …) – you would at least have a lot to read. Paperwork and entry forms, for one. Signs wa
  
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• Exclusive poll: Labour would face wipeout in cancelled elections - The Telegraph

  16-01-2026 21:33 via news.google.com
  Exclusive poll: Labour would face wipeout in cancelled elections  The TelegraphAlmost half of eligible councils request elections delay  BBCReform UK seeks court order to prevent delays to local elections  Financial TimesPolice called as Redditch Borough Council votes to shelve local elections  BBCThese are all the UK councils that have requested delays to local elections for 2026  The Independent
  
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• Two stars from Michelin, one for hygiene: star chef’s poor score ignites UK dining debate

  16-01-2026 20:39 via theguardian.com
  Food critic comes under fire after suggesting health and safety rules ‘don’t really apply’ to elite restaurantsAccording to a critic who has eaten at every three-star Michelin restaurant in the world, Gareth Ward, the star chef and owner of Ynyshir, on the southern edge of Eryri national park, is a groundbreaking visionary.“He knows which rules to break and when,” Andy Hayler wrote. “He’s like Picasso; if you look at his early still lifes, they’re
  
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• The Guardian view on ICE and Renee Good’s killing: Trumpism’s brutal tactics don’t end with migrants | Editorial

  16-01-2026 19:21 via theguardian.com
  The US president wants Americans to believe they are facing an emergency. The real danger is from his administrationIn Minnesota, armed and masked agents are ripping families apart. They are seizing parents while they wait with their child at a bus stop, going door to door seeking undocumented migrants and breaking car windows to drag people out. Last Wednesday an officer shot dead Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old American citizen. Her killing is a tragedy for all who loved her, and most of all
  
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• The Guardian view on Craig Guildford’s departure: right decision, dangerous implications | Editorial

  16-01-2026 19:20 via theguardian.com
  The West Midlands police chief finally bowed to government pressure and quit. But we should not sleepwalk into a centralised systemAfter refusing to walk, in a manner reminiscent of Stuart Broad batting against the Australians in the 2013 Ashes, the West Midlands chief constable Craig Guildford has finally accepted the inevitable and retired with ill-concealed reluctance from his post. He had little alternative.On Wednesday the Home Office had released a critical report by the chi
  
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• Woman ‘overwhelmed’ by loneliness killed herself and disabled daughter, coroner says

  16-01-2026 19:10 via theguardian.com
  Full-time carer Martina Karos and Eleni Edwards, eight, were found dead at home in SalfordA translator who became a full-time carer for her severely disabled eight-year-old daughter killed herself and her child after becoming “overwhelmed” by loneliness, a coroner concluded.Martina Karos, 40, and Eleni Edwards were found dead at their home in Salford, Greater Manchester, after police were called when the girl did not turn up at school on 23 September 2024.In the UK and Ireland, Samar
  
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• Ex-councillor jailed for stalking former Conservative MP Penny Mordaunt

  16-01-2026 18:52 via theguardian.com
  Edward Brandt sentenced to 20 weeks in prison after behaviour left former minister ‘in fear of sexual violence’A former councillor has been jailed for 20 weeks after stalking Penny Mordaunt, which the former cabinet minister said left her fearing “sexual violence”.Edward Brandt, a professional sailor, had been found guilty of the offence but was acquitted of a more serious charge of stalking involving serious alarm or distress. Continue reading...
  
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• Testing times for English cricket | Letters

  16-01-2026 18:45 via theguardian.com
  Readers respond to Emma John’s article on the difference in attitudes to the game in England and AustraliaEmma John’s perceptive analysis of cricket in Australia is spot-on (England ruthlessly privatised cricket – Australia embraces it with constant public displays of affection, 9 January). I have been visiting Australia for many years – our son and his family live in Sydney. The locals, on hearing my accent, mostly respond by saying “Sorry about the cricket, mate.&
  
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• Art is good for mental health? Not when you’re a novelist in poverty | Letter

  16-01-2026 18:45 via theguardian.com
  Publishing pays abysmally, says an anonymous writer, who feels closer to their neighbours on benefits than to their former peers in teaching and academiaAccess to the arts might be good for mental health (The Guardian view on living more creatively: a daily dose of art, 9 January), but the conditions in which most artists have to produce their work does nothing to improve their own.I’m a novelist, and I was paid £1,000 and £500 respectively for my last two books. The latter was
  
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• A long-running battle between family-run cafes and the chains | Letters

  16-01-2026 18:45 via theguardian.com
  Guardian readers responds to an article by Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett in which she laments the takeover of four family-owned cafesI can’t help being disappointed by the current controversy over the Hampstead Heath cafes, as highlighted by Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett (I’m sick of avocado toast – I just want to keep my local, untrendy cafe, 12 January), as it’s all happened before.In 2016, as chair of the Hampstead Heath management committee, I voted against the proposal to take the
  
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• A linguistic own goal from Starmer’s critics | Letters

  16-01-2026 18:45 via theguardian.com
  Readers respond to Jonathan Liew’s article on rude chants on the football terraces about the prime ministerJonathan Liew links rude football chants to the unmerited personal abuse which Keir Starmer is currently receiving (When crowds direct offensive chants at Keir Starmer, who’s to blame? I’m afraid he is, 13 January).Football managers are frequently the target for similar treatment. Like them, Starmer has to set his team’s strategy and tactics and produce results that
  
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• Amazon workers at Coventry warehouse tested for tuberculosis after outbreak

  16-01-2026 18:41 via theguardian.com
  Company says TB testing carried out as ‘precaution’ after small number of workers contracted lung diseaseAmazon is testing workers at its Coventry warehouse for tuberculosis after an outbreak of the lung disease.A handful of workers from the site were found to have contagious tuberculosis (TB) last year, prompting the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) to begin running a screening programme in September. Continue reading...
  
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• Your Guardian sport weekend: Australian Open, NFL playoffs and the Afcon final

  16-01-2026 18:02 via theguardian.com
  Here’s how to follow along with our coverage – the finest writing and up-to-the-minute reports Continue reading...
  
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• This month’s best paperbacks: Anne Tyler, Jason Allen-Paisant and more

  16-01-2026 17:00 via theguardian.com
  Looking for a new reading recommendation? Here are some great new paperbacks, from a Renaissance romp to an ode to optimism Continue reading...
  
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• ‘The dollar is losing credibility’: why central banks are scrambling for gold

  16-01-2026 17:00 via theguardian.com
  Experts say central banks are increasingly stuffing their vaults as an insurance policy in a volatile worldFifteen minutes after takeoff, the call came for Serbia’s central bank governor: millions of dollars’ worth of gold bars, destined for a high-security Belgrade vault, had been left on the runway of a Swiss airport.In air freight – despite the extraordinary value of bullion – fresh flowers, food and other perishables still take priority. “We learned this the har
  
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• Can the tiniest of changes to sleep, diet and exercise help me live longer?

  16-01-2026 16:13 via theguardian.com
  A study found small changes to key behaviours can have significant benefits, and I’m all for barely perceptible adjustmentsA week into the first lockdown of the pandemic, I vowed I would never set foot in a gym again. This pledge seemed in keeping with the confused fatalism of the moment, but it turned out to be one of the few promises to myself I have ever kept.Since then I’ve become a fan of evidence suggesting that minimal changes to one’s lifestyle make a big difference to
  
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• Gerry & Sewell review – tragicomic search for a Newcastle United season ticket

  16-01-2026 16:11 via theguardian.com
  Aldwych theatre, London
  Jamie Eastlake’s play about two football fans mixes together song, dance, comedy and dark family drama, with incohesive resultsThis tale of two hard-up reprobates in Gateshead, who dream of getting a Newcastle United season ticket by hook or by crook, encapsulates hope in the face of adversity. Adapted from an award-winning book (which also became the film Purely Belter), the play has its own rags-to-riches story, of sorts. Written and directed by Jamie Eastlake, it
  
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• Next Week on Xbox: New Games for January 19 to 23 - Xbox Wire

  16-01-2026 16:04 via news.google.com
  Next Week on Xbox: New Games for January 19 to 23  Xbox WireThese 20+ Games Are Coming To Xbox Next Week (January 19-23)  Pure XboxUpcoming Xbox & Game Pass Releases: What’s Worth Playing This Week?  vocal.mediaXbox gets 25 new games next week  TrueAchievementsNext Week on Xbox: New Games for January 12 to 16  Xbox Wire
  
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• We tested 20 hot-water bottles – these are the best in the UK for comfort and cosiness

  16-01-2026 16:00 via theguardian.com
  From traditional to microwavable, wearable to extra-fleecy, here are our favourite hot-water bottles for winter• Winter essentials to get you through the cold snapCall me old before my time, but I find hot-water bottles particularly comforting. I can’t be alone, either: once the relic of grandparents’ bedrooms, hot-water bottles are having a revival. Maybe it’s the effects of high energy prices, or an increasing desire to achieve cosiness.But how different can hot-water bo
  
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• Has your relationship become a sexual desert? These tips should help spice things up again

  16-01-2026 16:00 via theguardian.com
  A dry spell doesn’t necessarily mean it’s over, say the experts. They share their advice on how to restore intimacy, from changing venue to writing a ‘menu’ and finding your kinkFirst up, don’t panic! “Every couple goes through dry spells. It doesn’t mean either of you is broken, and is not an indicator that something is ‘wrong’,” says Dr Tammy Nelson, sex and couples therapist, author of Open Monogamy, and host of The Trouble With
  
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• Cardiff University team helps find mysterious iron bar in space - BBC

  16-01-2026 15:26 via news.google.com
  Cardiff University team helps find mysterious iron bar in space  BBCEarth could be vaporised by the Sun as boffins make grim end of world prediction  Daily StarAstronomers Spot Mysterious Bar-Shaped Cloud of Iron Inside an Iconic Nebula  Scientific AmericanIron ‘bar’ found in deep space hints at what might happen to Earth  The TimesWilliam Herschel Telescope spots unknown strip of ionized iron atoms at heart of Ring Nebula  Herald.Wal
  
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• ‘Garden of Eden’: the Spanish farm growing citrus you’ve never heard of

  16-01-2026 15:14 via theguardian.com
  Todolí foundation produces varieties from Buddha’s hands to sudachi and hopes to help citrus survive climate changeIt was on a trip with a friend to the east coast of Spain that the chef Matthew Slotover came across the “Garden of Eden”, an organic farm growing citrus varieties he had never heard of. The Todolí Citrus Foundation is a nonprofit venture and the largest private collection of citrus in the world with more than 500 varieties, and its owners think the r
  
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• ‘Naked homophobia’: play revisits BBC’s first programme on gay men in 1950s

  16-01-2026 15:01 via theguardian.com
  Original script from 1954 referring to ‘troubles of this kind’ to be brought to life on stage for LGBT+ History Month“All the homosexuals I’ve known have been extremely eager, like alcoholics, to spread the disease from which they suffer,” the barrister Lord Hailsham told the BBC in 1954.Other contributors to the BBC’s first ever programme on male homosexuality largely agreed. A Church of England moralist warned any “invert” who may have been liste
  
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• I see time as a grid in my mind. I remember the birthdays of friends I haven’t seen for 65 years

  16-01-2026 15:01 via theguardian.com
  Judy Stokes, a retired GP, shares her experience as a spatial-sequence synaestheteRead more stories of synaesthesia in the way I feel seriesDid someone with spatial-sequence synaesthesia design the calendar app on mobile phones? Because that’s how time and dates look in my brain. If you say a date to me, that day appears in a grid diagram in my head, and it shows if that box is already imprinted with a holiday, event or someone’s birthday. Public holidays and special events like Chri
  
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• ‘He’s taught me more about living than life itself’: on the road with Niki and Jimmy

  16-01-2026 15:01 via theguardian.com
  At 17 Niki vowed to give her newborn son, born blind and profoundly disabled, the best life she could. Thirty years on she and Jimmy are travelling Australia in a Toyota Troopy, balancing hard-won freedom with constant careOutside a supermarket in Exmouth, a small town 1,250km north of Perth, a man notices Niki carrying Jimmy on her back. She is 152cm tall and he weighs 45kg. “He should be carrying you!” the man says.Strangers often misjudge Niki’s son, who is 30 but looks, she
  
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• Fatberg the size of four buses likely birthed poo balls that closed Sydney beaches – and it can’t be cleared

  16-01-2026 15:01 via theguardian.com
  Exclusive: Secret report suggests fats, oils and grease accumulate in ‘inaccessible dead zone’ at Malabar plant, then dislodge when pumping pressure ‘rapidly increases’Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastA giant fatberg, potentially the size of four Sydney buses, within Sydney Water’s Malabar deepwater ocean sewer has been identified as the likely source of the debris balls that washed up on Sydney beaches a year ago.Sydney Water isn’t s
  
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• ‘It’s very embarrassing’: Sophie Turner on rage, romance and the horror of watching Game of Thrones

  16-01-2026 14:00 via theguardian.com
  She was a star at 14, learned how to act with the whole world watching, then stepped away to discover herself. Now she’s back in the new Tomb Raider – and a Die Hard-style thrillerSophie Turner has a screwball comedy vibe in real life – elegant trouser suit, arch but friendly expression, perfect hair, she looks ready for some whipsmart repartee and a sundowner. She seems very comfortable in her own skin, which is unusual anyway when you’re not quite 30, but especially inc
  
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• Cocktail of the week: Bun House Disco’s pandan negroni – recipe

  16-01-2026 14:00 via theguardian.com
  Pandan leaf brings fragrant southern Asian sweetness to a mix of rice gin, white vermouth and green chartreuse At Bun House Disco, we’re all about bringing the vibrancy of late-night 1980s Hong Kong to Shoreditch, east London, and paying homage to a time when the island came alive after dark. In that same spirit, our cocktail list nods to the classics, but also features all sorts of Chinese and Asian ingredients and spices.Serves 1Linus Leung, Bun House Disco, London E2 Continue reading...
  
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• Mystic Nigel has seen the future: a country run by his cabinet of taxidermied Tories | Marina Hyde

  16-01-2026 13:33 via theguardian.com
  By welcoming ‘Honest Bob’ Jenrick into the fold, the Reform seer is embracing the uniparty chaos he claimed to be seeing offLike a 1970s rust-belt serial killer, Nigel Farage is painstakingly assembling around him the political corpses of Boris Johnson’s final, terrible cabinet. Think about it. You never see Reform’s defectors after the initial unveiling press conference, and I’m beginning to wonder what happens to them. I think Nigel amateurishly embalms them or st
  
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• ‘An attempt to break people’: Bucha holds out amid Russia’s weaponisation of winter

  16-01-2026 13:30 via theguardian.com
  Russian attacks on Ukraine’s power plants as severe frost set in have been described as ‘crimes against humanity’Outside the main pumping station for Bucha, three engineers, bundled up in parkas, are working on the emergency generator keeping the Ukrainian city supplied with water.One holds a heat gun to the generator’s filter in an effort to unfreeze it, his face reddened by blowing snow and a daytime temperature of -12C (10.4F). Watching attentively is the city’s
  
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• Add to playlist: the dark fog of Los Angeles saxophonist Aaron Shaw and the week’s best new tracks

  16-01-2026 13:00 via theguardian.com
  The woodwind player who taught André 3000 music theory releases his searching debut album next monthFrom Los Angeles
  Recommend if you like Miguel Atwood Ferguson, Shabaka Hutchings’s flute music, the Coltranes
  Up next Debut album And So It Is released 13 FebruaryFor woodwind players, breath is everything: the lifeforce of artistry, the thing that furnishes sound with personality. But a few years ago, the Los Angeles saxophonist Aaron Shaw realised he was becoming increasingly breath
  
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• CBSO/Yamada review – Moore’s trombone adventures into Fujikura’s sonic oceans

  16-01-2026 12:15 via theguardian.com
  Symphony Hall, Birmingham
  Dai Fujikura’s elusive trombone concerto was given its UK premiere by Peter Moore, who made its colours and textures sing; a persuasive but perhaps too sunny reading of Mahler’s first symphony followed in the concert’s second halfTrombone concertos don’t come around every day. The last time this Cinderella of the brass section had a major moment in the spotlight was in 2022, when the Proms hosted their first solo trombonist in almost 20 years. Be
  
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• Already Perfect review – Broadway star faces the past to make peace with himself

  16-01-2026 11:52 via theguardian.com
  King’s Head theatre, London
  Levi Kreis embarks on a journey of rediscovery in song, from self-hating adolescence to self-destructive adulthoodThe title of this semi-autobiographical musical is also a massive spoiler. Broadway star Levi Kreis plays a version of himself, battling his demons and facing his past, only to conclude that, however flawed he often feels, he is in fact – ah, you’ve guessed.This Levi stumbles off stage, inked and emotional, having been dumped by text duri
  
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• A$AP Rocky: Don’t Be Dumb review – a charismatic, playful return, but it’s no slam dunk

  16-01-2026 11:07 via theguardian.com
  (A$AP Rocky Recordings)
  Now a father of three and burgeoning actor, Rocky finally comes back to music with his strongest album since his 2013 debut – though there’s plenty of flabIt has been eight years since A$AP Rocky, once and future king of New York rap, released an album. In the world of hip-hop, where even A-list stars such as Rocky’s friend and collaborator Tyler, the Creator are prone to releasing multiple albums a year, this is a lifetime. In the time since Rocky relea
  
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• ‘It’s a loving mockery, because it’s also who I am’: the making of gaming’s most pathetic character

  16-01-2026 11:00 via theguardian.com
  The team behind Baby Steps discuss why they made a whiny, unprepared manbaby the protagonist – and how players have grown to love Nate as he struggles up a mountain“I don’t know why he is in a onesie and has a big ass,” shrugs game developer Gabe Cuzzillo. “Bennett just came in with that at some point.”“I thought it would be cute,” replies Bennett Foddy, who was formerly Cuzzillo’s professor at New York University’s Game Center and is n
  
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• Julianna Barwick and Mary Lattimore: Tragic Magic review | Safi Bugel's experimental album of the month

  16-01-2026 10:00 via theguardian.com
  (InFiné)
  The composers’ first collaborative album ebbs from epic, cinematic heights to delicate and dreamy lullabiesAfter years of touring together, Los Angeles-based composers Julianna Barwick and Mary Lattimore have developed what the former refers to as a “musical telepathy”. Tragic Magic, the pair’s first collaborative album, evidences this bond: born out of a short series of improv sessions in Paris, it’s a wonderfully immersive set of new age and ambien
  
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• ‘Golden sands meld into the clear turquoise sea’: readers’ favourite beaches in Europe

  16-01-2026 08:00 via theguardian.com
  Our readers bask in the memory of great beach discoveries, from Latvia to Sicily
  • Send us a tip on Scandinavia or Finland – the best wins a £200 holiday voucherForty miles east of Palermo, the magnificent Sicilian resort town of Cefalù juts out beneath dramatic cliffs. The town has a perfect half-moon beach of golden sands melding into the gorgeous clear turquoise sea. Medieval lanes of stones in a diamond pattern lead up to a lively square offering great Italian food. I
  
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• Chosen Family by Madeleine Gray review – friends, lovers or something in between?

  16-01-2026 08:00 via theguardian.com
  From classmates to co-parents, the changing dynamics of a female friendship are astutely observed in a novel that explores the boundaries between love, lust and companionshipAustralian author Madeleine Gray’s award-winning debut novel Green Dot was a smart, funny tale of a doomed office affair. Her new novel, Chosen Family, is a smart, funny tale of a complicated, life-changing relationship between two women.Nell and Eve meet aged 12 at a girls’ school in Sydney. Gray’s narrati
  
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• ‘Chore jackets for your feet’: why a pair of gardening clogs is taking over city streets

  16-01-2026 08:00 via theguardian.com
  The Gardanas, a pair of mucus-coloured hemp shoes, are a somewhat paradoxical current must-have. But their appeal goes deeper than the topsoil• Don’t get Fashion Statement delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereThere is every chance that 2026 will be the year you see your first pair of Gardana gardening clogs in the wild. In fact, if you spend much time on TikTok, or live in Brooklyn, you’ve probably already been seeing them for months, if not years. I saw my first pair a few week
  
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• Brahms: Late Piano Works album review

  16-01-2026 08:00 via theguardian.com
  Piotr Anderszewski
  (Warner Classics)
  Darkness hangs over a fluid and distinctively emotional take on a dozen introspective worksBrahms’s late piano music is a pinnacle of 19th-century Romanticism, though its atmosphere of introspection and veiled emotion is a million miles from the more turbulent works of his youth. Piotr Anderszewski sees in it a testament of sorts, but one that keeps as many secrets as it reveals. By selecting a dozen of these intimate miniatures to make up an absorbing
  
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• “Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials” Will Send Your Snooze Button Into Overdrive - Roger Ebert

  16-01-2026 03:18 via news.google.com
  “Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials” Will Send Your Snooze Button Into Overdrive  Roger EbertAgatha Christie’s Seven Dials review – think Downton Abbey is real? This terrible adaptation is for you  The GuardianNetflix Agatha Christie show filmed in Bristol, Bath and Somerset  BBCWhere ‘Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials’ filmed? The real-life filming locations behind the Netflix murder-mystery  Time Out WorldwideWho&rs
  
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• Robbie Williams: Britpop review | Alexis Petridis's album of the week

  16-01-2026 01:01 via theguardian.com
  (Columbia)
  Framed as the music Williams wanted to make post-Take That, Britpop surpasses pastiche and swerves unpredictably. Homoerotic paean to Morrissey, anyone?The arrival of Robbie Williams’s 13th album has been a complicated business. It was announced in May 2025 and was supposed to come out in October, when its title would have chimed with the 90s nostalgia sparked by the Oasis reunion. Williams spent the summer engaging in promotion, unveiling fake Britpop-themed blue plaques around
  
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