US president says he no longer feels the need to think ‘purely of peace’ in letter to Norwegian prime minister Donald Trump has linked his repeated threats to seize control of Greenland to his failure to win the Nobel peace prize, as transatlantic tensions over the Arctic island escalated further and threatened to rekindle a trade war with the EU. In an extraordinary text message sent on Sunday to the Norwegian prime minister, Jonas Gahr Støre, the US president wrote that after being snubbed for the prize, he no longer felt the need to think “purely of peace”. Continue reading...

PM’s effort to take heat out of Greenland situation is yet another humiliation in his relationship with The Donald

Floods in Mozambique displace more than 300,000 people in one province, governor says

Blair, Putin, Erdoğan, Orbán: the names of those invited to serve say it all. And it’s about so much more than Gaza, says Guardian columnist Owen Jones

Trump blasted for not recognizing Martin Luther King Jr Day

Jonas Gahr Støre seems more than a little exasperated by the president.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde makes last-minute U-turn in submission to hospitals inquiry Scotland’s largest health board has finally admitted that contaminated water at a Glasgow super-hospital caused serious infections in child cancer patients that were linked to four deaths. NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC) made the dramatic U-turn in closing submissions to a long-running inquiry that was launched in the wake of deaths linked to infections, including that of 10-year-old Milly Main, who died in August 2017 after contracting an infection as she recovered from leukaemia treatment. Continue reading...

Trump’s obsession with Greenland is a victory for no one but Putin

Pro-Greenland protesters mock Trump's MAGA slogan with 'Make America Go Away' caps

South East Water treatment works fault, power outage and burst mains leave homes with no water or low pressure Thousands of residents across Kent are still dealing with water supply issues after yet more outages from under-fire operator South East Water. The water supply of more than 5,500 households was affected on Sunday evening due to a treatment works fault, a power outage and two burst mains. Continue reading...

In 2020, Trump DoJ investigated police killing of Floyd in Minneapolis, leading to four officers’ convictions Six years after the US justice department launched an immediate criminal investigation of the video-recorded killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, deputy attorney general Todd Blanche confirmed on Sunday that the department is “not investigating” the fatal 7 January shooting of Renee Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent in the same city. The killing of Good, less than a mile from where Floyd was murdered in May 2020, was recorded on at least five phones, including one held by the ICE agent who shot her, Jonathan Ross. Continue reading...

Vice-president has emerged as key defender of Maga flame – and is backed by big tech billions. Is this the heir apparent?

Multiple survivors claim Epstein dangled admission to top universities to ensnare them in his sexual abuse network A New York City artist who said Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell shopped her around to men is among the survivors claiming that Epstein used the lure of a university education to ensnare her in their sexual abuse network. Rina Oh was a 21-year-old art student when she was introduced to Epstein in 2000 by Lisa Phillips, a model and Epstein survivor who has since emerged as a powerful voice in the survivors’ network pressuring for full accountability in the long-running money, sex and power scandal. Continue reading...

* Mid-level and senior officials uncomfortable with award * Fifa says it still ‘strongly’ supports the peace prize There is a growing sense of embarrassment among mid-level and senior officials within Fifa over the awarding of its peace prize to Donald Trump. The US president was handed the award at the World Cup draw in Washington DC in December with the Fifa president, Gianni Infantino, telling Trump: “We want to see hope, we want to see unity, we want to see a future. This is what we want to see from a leader and you definitely deserve the first Fifa Peace Prize.” Since then, the US has launched airstrikes across Venezuela and captured the country’s president, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores, and flown them to the US, where he was put in jail. Maduro appeared in court on 5 January, pleading not guilty to drugs, weapons and “narco-terrorism” charges. Trump has also threatened to invade Greenland because he said the US needs the territory “very badly”. Continue reading...

Washington Post reports local medical examiner found ‘asphyxia’ to be cause of Geraldo Lunas Campos’s death The death of a man who was being held at a federal detention camp in Texas in early January may be investigated as a homicide after the local medical examiner reportedly found the preliminary cause was “asphyxia due to neck and chest compression”. Geraldo Lunas Campos, a 55-year-old Cuban migrant who was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in July last year, was pronounced dead on 3 January. He had been in ICE custody at Camp East Montana, a sprawling tent camp at the Fort Bliss military base in El Paso. Continue reading...

The light L-159 fighter is likely the plane promised by president of Czech Republic, Petr Pavl, to Volodymyr Zelenskyy. What we know on day 1,424 The Czech Republic is set to provide Ukraine shortly with “medium combat planes which are highly effective in fighting drones”, President Petr Pavel told his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in Kyiv on Friday. Pavel has previously said Czech-made subsonic L-159 fighter jets could be transferred to Ukraine. “I believe we will manage to quickly and successfully conclude this issue,” Pavel told a news conference with Zelenskyy. The Czech army has 24 one- and two-seater L-159 jets, used for training and support for ground forces. They can be armed with missiles and machine-gun pods. Iraq used the jets in the war against Islamic State, and fleets are owned by private companies that loan them to the US and UK air forces for combat training. The Czechs’ main fighter jet is the Swedish Saab JAS-39 Gripen. Pavel said Prague might also supply early-warning systems such as radars. Zelenskyy meanwhile conceded problems with Ukrainian air defences at a critical moment in the war. Some systems supplied to Ukraine by western allies had run out of ammunition amid a wave of Russian attacks that have devastated his country’s energy infrastructure. “Until this morning we had several systems without missiles. Today I can say this openly because today I have those missiles … We received a substantial package in the morning.” He urged both European allies and the US to increase deliveries. Ukraine and the US will hold talks in Miami on Saturday to discuss security guarantees and Ukraine’s economic recovery, Kyiv’s ambassador to the US, Olga Stefanishyna, said on Friday. Zelenskyy said he hoped Ukraine would sign security guarantees with the US next week, possibly at the World Economic Forum in Davos. In Miami, Ukraine’s negotiators would be Kyrylo Budanov, head of the presidential office, and Rustem Umerov, Ukraine’s defence council secretary, the ambassador said, without naming the US participants. They would discuss security guarantees and postwar reconstruction. “The goal of the visit is to finalise these agreements with our American partners,” said Stefanishyna. A majority of Ukrainians would strongly oppose withdrawing troops from the remainder of the Donetsk region still controlled by Kyiv in exchange for European and US security guarantees, a poll released on Friday indicated. The Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) said 54% of Ukrainians categorically rejected the idea; 39% would reluctantly accept. “Those who are ready to agree expect quite significant security guarantees,” said KIIS executive director Anton Hrushetskyi. The survey was conducted in early January among 601 respondents on Ukrainian-controlled territory. Almost 70% did not believe current negotiations would lead to a lasting peace, with 57% believing Russia would attack again if there was a ceasefire at the current frontlines and security guarantees from allies. Even if security guarantees were given, 40% believed the US would not provide support in the event of renewed Russian invasion, against 39% who thought it would. Russia has publicly shown little interest in scaling down its demands and made few comments regarding the 20-point peace framework that Ukraine and the US have been trying to finalise. Russia and Ukraine on Friday agreed to a localised ceasefire to allow repairs on the last remaining backup powerline at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, according to the UN’s nuclear watchdog, the IAEA. Zaporizhzhia is the biggest nuclear power plant in Europe and has been illegally occupied by Russian forces since March 2022. Its six reactors have been shut down since the occupation but it still needs electricity to keep its nuclear fuel safely cooled. Continue reading...

Despite restrictions announced this week, Guardian reporters find standalone app continues to allow posting of nonconsensual content X has continued to allow users to post highly sexualised videos of women in bikinis generated by its AI tool Grok, despite the company’s claim to have cracked down on misuse. The Guardian was able to create short videos of people stripping to bikinis from photographs of fully clothed, real women. It was also possible to post this adult content on to X’s public platform without any sign of it being moderated, meaning the clip could be viewed within seconds by anyone with an account. Continue reading...

The light L-159 fighter is likely the plane promised by president of Czech Republic, Petr Pavl, to Volodymyr Zelenskyy. What we know on day 1,424

There are many excuses for failing to tax the ultra-wealthy. The truth is that governments don’t tackle the problem because they don’t want to, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot

Mother of Elon Musk's child sues his AI company over sexual deepfake images created by Grok

The president made the threat while a bipartisan group of US lawmakers were visiting Denmark in the hope of easing tensions over the territory.