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At the root of all our problems stands one travesty: politicians’ surrender to the super-rich | George Monbiot

16 janvier 2026 à 14:00

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

There is one political problem from which all others follow. It is the major cause of Donald Trump, of Nigel Farage, of the shocking weakness of their opponents, of the polarisation tearing societies apart, of the devastation of the living world. It is simply stated: the extreme wealth of a small number of people.

It can also be quantified. The World Inequality Report (WIR) 2026 shows that about 56,000 people – 0.001% of the global population – corral three times more wealth than the poorest half of humanity. They afflict almost every country. In the UK, for example, 50 families hold more wealth than 50% of the population combined.

George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist

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© Photograph: Getty Images

© Photograph: Getty Images

© Photograph: Getty Images

Are Trader Joe’s tote bags the last vestige of American soft power? | Dave Schilling

16 janvier 2026 à 14:00

No one wants to visit us any more – but they might pay $50,000 for a bag you could get here for $3

There aren’t many escapes from the grim onslaught of terrible news these days. You can stare at a blank wall, obsessively count the hairs on your arm, or, in a true moment of desperation, ponder the state of global fashion. I prefer the last one. I love being on the cutting edge of style, peacocking out in the decaying slopfest that is our planet. A crisp, well-made suit is a cure for all manner of emotionally trying times. I relish being hyper-aware of the goings-on of fashion, so I was one of the first sorry souls to learn of the current global obsession with flimsy canvas Trader Joe’s shopping bags.

For those unaware, Trader Joe’s is an American grocery store chain known primarily for its affordable prices, whimsical tropical branding, and heart-attack-inducing parking lots – apparently designed to be small because the stores themselves are so tiny that they can’t justify more spaces. I don’t naturally see the use in swanning about with a tote bag promoting a demolition derby disguised as a market, but I’m not most people.

Dave Schilling is a Los Angeles-based writer and humorist

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© Photograph: Robert Nickelsberg/Alamy

© Photograph: Robert Nickelsberg/Alamy

© Photograph: Robert Nickelsberg/Alamy

‘It’s very embarrassing’: Sophie Turner on rage, romance and the horror of watching Game of Thrones

16 janvier 2026 à 14:00

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 thriller

Sophie 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 incongruous given her various screen personas: first, in Game of Thrones. Thirteen when she was cast as Sansa Stark, 14 when she started filming, she embodied anxious, aristocratic self-possession at an age when a regular human can’t even keep track of their own socks. Six seasons in, arguably at peak GoT impact, she became Jean Grey in X-Men: Apocalypse, a role she reprised in 2019 for Dark Phoenix, action-studded and ram-jammed with superpowers.

Now she’s the lead in Steal, a Prime Video drama about a corporate heist, though that makes it sound quite desk and keyboard-based when, in fact, it is white-knuckle tense and alarmingly paced. The villains move in a malevolent swarm like hornets; hapless middle managers are slain almost immediately; it’s impossible to tell for the longest time whether we’re looking at gangster thugs or hacking geniuses, motivated by avarice or anarchy. It’s a first-time screenplay by novelist Sotiris Nikias (who writes crime under a pseudonym, Ray Celestin), and it feels original, not so much in the action and hyperviolence as in the trade-offs it refuses to make: whatever explosions are going on, however much chasing around a dystopian pension-fund investment office, you still wouldn’t call it an action drama. It has a novelistic feel, like characters from a David Nicholls book woke up in Die Hard, and there’s a constant swirl, as you try to figure out who’s the assailed and who’s the assailant.

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© Photograph: Marco Grob/Prime

© Photograph: Marco Grob/Prime

© Photograph: Marco Grob/Prime

‘Soon I will die. And I will go with a great orgasm’: the last rites of Alejandro Jodorowsky

16 janvier 2026 à 14:00

The Chilean film-maker’s psychedelic work earned him the title ‘king of the midnight movie’, and a fan in John Lennon. Now the 96-year-old is ready for the end – but first there is more living to do

There is an apocryphal story of an ageing Orson Welles introducing himself to the guests at a half-empty town hall. “I am an actor, a writer, a producer and a director,” he said. “I am a magician and I appear on stage and on the radio. Why are there so many of me and so few of you?”

If a fantasy author were to dream up Welles’s psychedelic cousin, he’d likely have the air of Alejandro Jodorowsky: serene and white-bearded with a crocodile smile, presiding over a niche band of disciples. He has been – variously, often concurrently – a director, an actor, a poet, a puppeteer, a psychotherapist, a tarot-card reader, an author of fantasy books. At the age of 96, Jodorowsky estimates that he’s lived 100 different lives and embodied 100 different Jodorowskys. “Because we are different people all the time,” he says. “I died a lot of times but then I’m reborn. Look at me now and you see I’m alive. I am happy about this. It is fantastic to live.”

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© Photograph: Le Pacte/SOMBRALUZ Film

© Photograph: Le Pacte/SOMBRALUZ Film

© Photograph: Le Pacte/SOMBRALUZ Film

‘We’re in danger of extinction’: can Bolivia’s ‘water people’ survive a rising tide of salt and migration?

The Uru Chipaya, one of South America’s most ancient civilisations, are battling drought, salinity and an exodus of their people as the climate crisis wreaks havoc on their land

In the small town of Chipaya, everything is dry. Only a few people walk along the sandy streets, and many houses look abandoned – some secured with a padlock. The wind is so strong that it forces you to close your eyes.

Chipaya lies on Bolivia’s Altiplano, 35 miles from the Chilean border. The vast plateau, nearly 4,000 metres above sea level, feels almost empty of people and animals, its solitude framed by snow-capped volcanoes. It raises the question: can anybody possibly live here?

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© Photograph: Wara Vargas Lara/The Guardian

© Photograph: Wara Vargas Lara/The Guardian

© Photograph: Wara Vargas Lara/The Guardian

Cocktail of the week: Bun House Disco’s pandan negroni – recipe

16 janvier 2026 à 14:00

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 1

Linus Leung, Bun House Disco, London E2

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© Photograph: Rob Lawson/The Guardian. Drink styling: Seb Davis.

© Photograph: Rob Lawson/The Guardian. Drink styling: Seb Davis.

© Photograph: Rob Lawson/The Guardian. Drink styling: Seb Davis.

Jenrick says he hopes his defection to Reform UK will ‘unite the right’ after Badenoch says he ‘tells a lot of lies’ – UK politics live

16 janvier 2026 à 13:56

Reform UK’s newest MP said he made the decision to leave the Tories over Christmas.

Kemi Badenoch said Robert Jenrick is now “Nigel Farage’s problem” and that he creates “instability” wherever he goes.

The Conservative party leader told the Press Association that Tories who supported Jenrick feel “betrayed” he has joined Reform UK.

Absolutely, he’s Nigel Farage’s problem. Now he and his acolytes are people who create instability wherever they go, and they can go do that in Reform.

They are a party that is just about people who want drama and intrigue - the public, quite frankly, are sick of this.

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© Composite: Jane Barlow/PA/Henry Nicholls/AFP/Getty Images

© Composite: Jane Barlow/PA/Henry Nicholls/AFP/Getty Images

© Composite: Jane Barlow/PA/Henry Nicholls/AFP/Getty Images

Female nurses win employment case over NHS changing-room use by trans colleague

Judge finds Durham trust violated nurses’ dignity and created intimidating environment by allowing use of single-sex space

A group of nurses who complained about a trans colleague using single-sex changing rooms at work suffered harassment, an employment tribunal judge has ruled.

The judge found the nurses’ dignity was violated and they encountered “a hostile, intimidating, humiliating and degrading environment” at work.

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© Photograph: Panther Media GmbH/Alamy

© Photograph: Panther Media GmbH/Alamy

© Photograph: Panther Media GmbH/Alamy

Liverpool consider drafting Mo Salah straight back into squad for Marseille trip

16 janvier 2026 à 13:35
  • Forward due to fly back from Afcon on Sunday

  • Liverpool play Champions League game on Wednesday

Liverpool are in talks with Mohamed Salah over the forward making an immediate return to Arne Slot’s squad for their Champions League trip to Marseille next week.

Salah is due back at Liverpool after Egypt’s involvement in the Africa Cup of Nations ends on Saturday. Egypt face Nigeria in a third-place play-off in Casablanca after suffering another loss to a Sadio Mané-inspired Senegal in the semi-finals. The 33-year-old Salah travelled to Morocco with uncertainty surrounding his future having accused the club of throwing him “under the bus” after a poor run of results and claiming he no longer had a relationship with Slot. Liverpool are unbeaten in the 11 matches since Slot first dropped Salah at West Ham.

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© Photograph: Ulrik Pedersen/NurPhoto/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Ulrik Pedersen/NurPhoto/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Ulrik Pedersen/NurPhoto/Shutterstock

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