2 hours ago Gavin Newsom issues stinging rebuke to Trump in desperate bid to shift attention as fire blame game intensifies: Live updates

Outrage over the handling of the devastating Los Angeles fires is heating up amid reports that city leaders failed to prepare local reservoirs while power grids struggled hours before the blazes.

Politics

16 hours ago You could get a DWP Cold Weather Payment if you live in one of these 116 areas

Payments are triggered when temperatures falls below 0C for seven consecutive days

Society

14 hours ago White House working on hostage release deal between Hamas and Israel, says CIA director

Donald Trump hopes agreement will take place before his inauguration amid renewed optimismThe White House is working to reach a hostage deal between Israel and Hamas before president-elect Trump’s inauguration, William Burns, the director of the CIA, has suggested.“Negotiations going on right now are quite serious and do offer the possibility, at least, of getting this done in the next couple of weeks,” Burns said in an interview with National Public Radio on Friday. “This administration worked very hard at that right up until 20 January. I think the coordination with the new administration on this issue has been good. President-elect Trump has made clear his interest in trying to get a deal, you know, before his inauguration.” Continue reading...

Economics

76 minutes ago California fires: 16 killed and 10,000 structures destroyed as blazes continue

Strong winds and low humidity continue as five fires rage across Los Angeles area, with death toll expected to riseLos Angeles fires: the damage in maps, video and imagesWeather forecasters in Los Angeles were expecting fast, dry winds to return towards the end of the weekend, threatening to fuel wildfires that have already destroyed 10,000 structures and killed 16 people.Urgent “red flag” alerts – meaning critical fire weather conditions – announced by the US National Weather Service (NWS) said moderate to strong wind and low humidity would continue on Friday morning, as five fires raged across the metropolis. Continue reading...

Events

5 hours ago She was shunned for Donald Trump's inauguration 2017...but now fashion giants are begging to dress Melania on her husband's big day

Melania ended up wearing a £5,500 powder blue cashmere dress and bolero by Ralph Lauren to her husband's 2017 inauguration - one of few designers who offered to create an outfit.

Culture

3 hours ago Labour must stop handing millions to Pakistan as country blocks removal of child sex abusers from Britain, former immigration minister claims

Robert Jenrick (left) has called for the financial aid to stop and for a visa ban to be implemented until the country cooperates with the deportation of citizens living in the UK such as Adil Khan (bottom right)

Politics

25 hours ago UK's rarest 50p coin rakes in £107 as Brits urged to check their change

A bidding war on eBay has amassed a huge amount of attention - with more of the rogue 50p coins expected to be in the wallets of the nation

Economics

4 hours ago Alleged Albanian people smuggler claims he shouldn't be deported from the UK due to 'overcrowded Belgian jails'

Adriatik Hysenlika is facing extradition from the UK after being handed a ten-year prison sentence for raking in at least £1million as the head of a trafficking gang.

Events

8 hours ago ‘Like a ton of bricks just fell on me’: What we know about victims of ‘most destructive’ fire in LA history

The County of Los Angeles Department of Medical Examiner confirmed 11 people have died as a result of the raging fires, with the death toll expected to climb

Events

5 hours ago Britain's three more days in the freezer! Country shivers through coldest January night in 15 years

Cold-weather health warnings were extended until Tuesday as much of the country endured below-zero temperatures, with -18.9C (-2F) recorded in Altnaharra, Scotland on Friday night.

Politics

8 hours ago Coronation Street's Sam Aston breaks silence on soap future as cast hit with multiple exits

Coronation Street star Sam Aston - who plays Chesney Brown on the ITV soap - has discussed the recent mass exodus of characters and his own future ahead of Dancing On Ice

Events

5 hours ago UK will not pit AI safety against investment in bid for growth, says minister

Peter Kyle is set to unveil the Government’s AI action plan on Monday.

Politics

9 hours ago The Observer view: With Hollywood ablaze, ditching carbon targets would be an act of recklessness | Observer editorial

Legislation aimed at limiting the US’s role in global warming is likely to be an early target of Donald TrumpThe devastating wave of wildfires that has reduced thousands of Hollywood homes to ashes could not have afflicted the US at a more telling moment. Figures released last week revealed that for the first time the world overshot the 1.5C limit in global temperature rises that had been set as a desired upper figure by the Paris climate accord of 2015.It is clear that the floods that engulfed Valencia last year, along with the typhoons that ripped through the Philippines and the drought that afflicted the Amazon were all made more likely by this unwanted temperature rise, say scientists. From this perspective, Hollywood’s misery is just one of many examples of the destruction heaped upon the planet by our burning of fossil fuels and ever-rising emissions of greenhouse gases. Crucially, such disasters are only going to worsen until humanity abandons the widespread combustion of coa...

Events

7 hours ago Jack Smith resigns from Justice Department after completing Trump reports

The Hague prosecutor was appointed to oversee federal criminal investigations into the president-elect

Politics

10 hours ago Chris Riddell on Donald Trump pouring oil on to the climate crisis as Los Angeles burns – cartoon

The president-elect is obsessed with drilling for fossil fuels, not to mention taking control of Canada and Greenland and renaming the Gulf of MexicoYou can buy a copy of this cartoon Continue reading...

Events

7 hours ago Greenland leaders say they WILL enter negotiations with Trump as Denmark's private messages come to light

Greenland's leader, Múte Egede, expressed his willingness to engage in negotiations with President-elect Trump.

Politics

10 hours ago Police warning letter to farmers over Welsh port blockade dubbed 'scare tactic'

Holyhead port is currently closed following damage from Storm Darragh, in December, but is expected to partially reopen next week

Events

8 hours ago Trump’s counterterror adviser insists UK will not be forced to allow Shamima Begum back

A transatlantic row has broken out over the possible fate of ‘Isis bride’ Shamima Begum with Trump’s incoming counterterrorism adviser claiming he has been misrepresented

Politics

12 hours ago ‘Most of my work is a response to war’: Colombian artist Doris Salcedo on violence, Trump and her crack in Tate Modern’s floor

The artist, famed in the UK for her extraordinary fissure in the turbine hall, has turned her focus to the climate catastrophe and the plight of migrants, but old concerns about her country remainAs the world turns toward another fractured year, Doris Salcedo, the Colombian artist, is at work trying to fathom how to create a house out of human hair. Salcedo, 65, has long made herself a channel of collective trauma, her art expressing profound anger at political crimes and atrocities at home and abroad – as well as creating imaginative spaces for mourning. Her hair project, she says, comes in response to what she has come to think of as “domicide”: the calculated bombing and destruction of places that people call home.“Most of my work is a response of some kind to war,” she says. “And we have all witnessed – of course for decades in Colombia, but also now in Ukraine and Syria and Sudan and in Gaza – this destruction of houses for the sole purpose of escalating human suffering. In Gaz...

Events

8 hours ago Strip club suspended from Musk's X for 'hate speech' after cheeky swipe at Trump

The Penthouse strip club in Vancouver, Canada, was banned from the Elon Musk-owned social media platform formerly known as Twitter after a photo of its latest marquee went viral

Politics

12 hours ago After New Orleans and Vegas attacks by veterans, what will Trump do about extremism in the military?

Veterans aren’t more likely to hold extremist views — but they are more likely to act on them, experts tell Josh Marcus

Events

9 hours ago Union Bears announce mass Rangers walkout as they choose a minute with added meaning to make 'incompetent' board squirm

The Union Bears and the Rangers Supporter's Association are calling on fans to leave their seats early at Ibrox on Sunday

Politics

13 hours ago Black tie attire in a dive bar and grapes in floral arrangements: The weirdest wedding trends of 2025

Wedding bells are ringing for 2025 brides, which may include Zendaya and Selena Gomez. Amber Raiken speaks to experts about the niche trends you can expect to see at weddings this year

Events

9 hours ago Majority of Britons believe Musk having negative impact on UK politics

More voters think tech tycoon’s comments on grooming gangs are unhelpful than those who back himMore than half of voters think Elon Musk is having a negative effect on British politics following his criticism of Keir Starmer and Nigel Farage, according to the latest Opinium poll for the Observer.The South African-born billionaire has spent much of the past week using his social media platform X to attack Starmer and the Labour government for their opposition to another national inquiry into grooming gangs. He accused Jess Phillips, the safeguarding minister, of being a “rape genocide apologist” and falsely claimed Starmer was “deeply complicit in the mass rapes in exchange for votes”. Despite strong suggestions that Musk is preparing to make a large donation to Reform UK, he also recently tore into Nigel Farage, saying he was not up to the job of leading the party. Continue reading...

Politics

13 hours ago Labour to make huge change banning 'heartbreaking' practice by greedy landlords

But more measures are expected to be added to Labour's landmark Renters Rights bill in the Commons - including one preventing guarantors of tenants who have died being chased for excessive amounts of future rent.

Events

10 hours ago Gloom and pessimism take hold of Democrats as they look for new leaders

Questions about the viability of a female presidential candidate rise after a crushing presidential defeatDemocrats are harboring strong feelings of stress and gloom as the new year begins. And many are questioning whether their party’s commitment to diverse candidates – especially women – may lead to further political struggles as Donald Trump is sworn in for a second presidency on 20 January.A recent poll from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that a significant number of Democrats believe that it may be decades before the United States will get its first female president. Continue reading...

Politics

15 hours ago UK snow maps show exact date SECOND '5cm per hour' blizzard will hit Brits this month

With Brits still reeling from an Arctic blast which brought snow and sub-zero temperatures to the UK this week, weather maps now suggest a second blizzard is heading our way later this month

Events

10 hours ago The Observer view: Donald Trump’s imperial bullying must be nipped in the bud | Observer editorial

Countries that cherish democratic values need to take a stand against the president-elect’s throwback to unabashed American expansionismWatching politicians promise one thing, then do another, is a common experience in all democratic countries. Situations in which voters do not expect a politician to keep his word, and in many instances fervently hope and pray he will not, are rarer. Donald Trump, the US president-elect, fits this latter category. When Trump threatens to subjugate Canada, a Nato ally, by force, unilaterally annex Greenland, the autonomous territory of a friendly EU state, and override Panama’s sovereignty for bogus security reasons, most people assume he is not serious and his remarks carry little real significance. This response, while comforting, is a mistake.It’s entirely possible that Trump, pumped with hype, hot air and testosterone in the lead-up to his 20 January inauguration, is being gratuitously disruptive. He likes to shake things up. It amuses his Make A...

Politics

15 hours ago Wall Street looks forward to a bonfire of capital and climate rules under Trump

Profits are poised to dominate in a new era shorn of years of hard-won regulatory restrictionsWhen some of the biggest banks on Wall Street reveal their full-year earnings this week, they will have more to celebrate than just rising profits.Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration on 20 January – scheduled the Monday after US bank results week – will raise the curtain on a period of looser regulation, lower corporation tax, and weak climate commitments. Continue reading...

Events

12 hours ago Monster of Avignon Dominique Pelicot's daughter Caroline Darian makes damning statement in first interview since his conviction in France's biggest

Caroline Darian remained a pillar by her mother's side during the grotesque trial of Dominique Pelicot, for raping and organising the mass rape of his wife, Gisèle.

Politics

16 hours ago UK drivers issued important reminder as temperatures hit below freezing

With snow and ice covering much of the UK this weekend, driving is more hazardous than usual - so you'll need to make sure you don't break these lesser-known laws

Events

12 hours ago As resolutions go, Mark Zuckerberg’s ‘nothing in moderation’ is a stinker | Alison Phillips

Between Elon Musk, a free-for-all Facebook and Donald Trump, truth and decency are likely to have a hard time of it in 2025How did we get to a week in which the world’s richest man could label our safeguarding minister and women’s rights campaigner Jess Phillips a “rape genocide apologist”, and the boss of the world’s biggest social platforms could abandon moderating even the most despicable content in the US?Let’s go back 30 years. It’s 1995, cargo pants were slung low, Oasis were riding high. We were all going to Live Forever. And then the New York supreme court ruled against a long-forgotten company called Prodigy, which hosted online message boards. An unknown user had posted a message that the brokerage firm Stratton Oakmont (which had inspired The Wolf of Wall Street) had committed fraud. Stratton Oakmont sued for defamation and a crucial question was asked: was the site that hosted the comment responsible for it, in the way a traditional publisher would be for a comment on it...

Politics

16 hours ago Marines armed with machine guns storm the streets... and then all hell breaks loose. A minute

Not a shot fired, not a snowball thrown... if President Donald Trump is genuine in his blustering threats to seize Greenland for the United States, military experts believe it could be easily done.

Events

12 hours ago Biden still believes he would have won election if he stood against Trump

President Joe Biden said he still believes he would have won the US election if he stood against Donald Trump.

Politics

17 hours ago Los Angeles is on fire and big oil are the arsonists | Tzeporah Berman

Every barrel of oil, every cubic meter of gas, and every ton of coal burned brings us closer to environmental catastropheApocalyptic flames and smoke are raging through southern California in the worst fire in Los Angeles county’s history. At least seven people have died. Thousands of structures have been destroyed. Hundreds of thousands of people have fled their homes. The private forecaster AccuWeather estimates initial damage and economic loss at more than $50bn and has the potential to be the costliest wildfire disaster in American history. The impacts of the disruption and loss faced by community members is incalculable.While some media outlets are discussing the link between the LA fires and climate crisis, the president-elect Donald Trump and rightwing media are using this devastating event to foster misinformation including denying the role of climate crisis.Tzeporah Berman is a Canadian environmental activist, campaigner and writer Continue reading...

Events

12 hours ago How Trump's plan to make Canada the 51st state could change the U.S... and backfire on Republicans

President-elect Donald Trump doubled down on making Canada the 51st state, but expanding the U.S. to the north could be disastrous for Republicans in Washington, DC.

Politics

17 hours ago LIVE updates as Greater Manchester battles freezing temperatures and ice following coldest night of winter

Temperatures dropped to -7C this week

Events

12 hours ago Freezing dog found abandoned in boot of smashed car during subzero temperatures

The canine was abandoned in icy conditions following the smash on Friday.

Politics

17 hours ago Mark Wright breaks silence on beloved grandad's death with heartfelt tribute

Former The Only Way Is Essex star Mark Wright, who is expecting his first child with wife Michelle Keegan, has spoken out following the death of his grandad with an emotion tribute

Events

12 hours ago When Michelle Keegan will REALLY give birth to her first child and why it is such a special milestone for her and husband Mark Wright

Michelle Keegan and her husband, Mark Wright are expecting a spring baby as MailOnline can reveal the star is due to give birth in May.

Politics

18 hours ago Warning 'deaths likely' as Scotland records coldest January night in 15 years

Cold weather alerts will remain in place until January 14 after temperatures dropped close to -20C

Events

12 hours ago Emma Connolly showcases chic maternity style with Mango's knitted set that's perfect for winter

Emma Connolly is expecting her second child, and the stylish mum-to-be has been giving us some serious inspiration with her winter maternity outfits - including a knitted two-piece from Mango

Politics

18 hours ago Four councils back motion to classify ‘Asian grooming gangs’ as an Islamophobic term

Oxford, Newcastle, Manchester, and Calderdale councils are expected to back a report claiming the phrase perpetuates harmful stereotypes

Events