US policy document suggests South Korea take primary responsibility, as Pentagon prioritises defending US homeland
The Pentagon foresees a “more limited” role in deterring North Korea, with South Korea taking primary responsibility for the task, a Pentagon policy document released on Friday said, in a move likely to raise concern in Seoul.
South Korea hosts about 28,500 US troops in combined defence against North Korea’s military threat and Seoul has raised its defence budget by 7.5% for this year.
There are fears that Europe is exhausted with the war, worries about Trump’s logic but some hope of a silver lining
In the Benedikt cafe in the Ukrainian port city of Odesa, one wall is covered by a giant map with countries and territories cut out of lacquered wooden pieces, with Greenland at its apex.
The waiter has not been following news of the Greenland crisis and Donald Trump’s desire to annex the Danish territory. But the echoes of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin’s imperial land grab of the waiter’s own country are clear to him. “They’re crazy. The pair of them.”
Wolves killed more than 2,100 reindeer in Finland last year, and herders are blaming the Ukraine war
Juha Kujala no longer knows how many reindeer will return to his farm from the forest each December. The 54-year-old herder releases his animals into the wilderness on the 830-mile Finnish-Russian border each spring to grow fat on lichens, grass and mushrooms, just as his ancestors have done for generations.
But since 2022, grisly discoveries of reindeer skeletons on the forest floor have disrupted this ancient way of life. The culprits, according to Kujala: wolves from Russia.
A 12-year-old boy has died in hospital after being mauled by a shark in Sydney Harbour last weekend, his family has confirmed.
The boy, named as Nico Antic in an online fundraiser, had been fighting for his life after being bitten on both legs on 18 January at a harbour beach in Vaucluse, in Sydney’s east.
DHS detain a toddler and her father on Thursday and fly them to Texas before returning child on judge’s order
Federal immigration agents detained a two-year-old girl and her father in Minneapolis on Thursday and transported them to Texas, according to court records and the family’s lawyers.
The father, identified in court filings as Elvis Joel TE, and his daughter were stopped and detained by officers around 1pm when they were returning home from the store. By the evening, a federal judge had ordered the girl be released by 9.30pm. But federal officials instead put both of them on a plane heading to a Texas detention center.
Sundance film festival: two teenage girls find their friendship put to the test in a witty and charmingly odd British comedy
If you know, you know that first best friendship is a world unto itself – lush, rugged and expansive, nutritive and intoxicating, vulnerable to freak changes in the weather. Its specific terrain stays invisible to outsiders; only the two within it know, and they themselves are likely to lose it in time. So goes the perilous trekking in Extra Geography, Molly Manners’ nimble and frequently funny debut film, which astutely maps the peaks and valleys of one charged friendship between two adolescent girls at an English boarding school.
Minna and Flic, played by remarkable newcomers Galaxie Clear (coming for Chase Infiniti’s name game) and Marni Duggan, begin year 10 sometime in the early 2000s, in a sunny meadow of boundless, heady entanglement. They move in playful unison, share beds and mannerisms, hold common goals (Oxbridge) and disdain (for boys, and those who covet them). Manners, a Bafta nominee for her work on the better-than-it-should-be Netflix series One Day, is particularly attuned to the energizing rhythm of platonic-ish intimacy; the first third of this brisk, 94-minute film is a mesmerizing symphony of female mind-meld, the girls slamming lockers, opening notebooks, flopping on the floor and hatching plans to a swift, synchronous beat.
Keys, Pegula, and Anisimova all cruise into fourth round Defending champion overcomes cramp amid extreme heat
Pliskova 0-1 Keys (9)* The 186cm Czech intersperses a trademark ace between a series of unforced errors to hand Keys a couple of break points. She saves the first but Keys secures the early advantage with a lovely in-to-out forehand winner. The champion has started strongly, striking the ball cleanly from the baseline. Pliskova, by contrast, looks a bit flat-footed and lacking timing.
The players are out on RLA. Key’s’s neon green Nike outfit is irridescent in the bright sunshine. Pliskova is serving in orange Adidas.
Police have widened the search for a gunman suspected of killing his pregnant former partner and two others in remote New South Wales, as police explore whether the Lake Cargelligo local may be receiving help to evade authorities.
Julian Ingram, 37, was last seen driving out of Lake Cargelligo, in the NSW central west, on Thursday. Police suspect he is armed with at least one firearm, but confirmed he has never held a firearms licence.
The departure of pandas will leave legions of Japanese admirers bereft, but it is also symptomatic of a dramatic deterioration in China-Japan relations
The panda house at Ueno Zoo in Tokyo is not due to open for several hours, but visitors are already milling around its entrance, pausing to pose for photographs in front of murals of the facility’s most beloved residents. A short walk away the gift shop is doing a roaring trade in themed souvenirs – from cuddly toys and stationery to T-shirts and biscuits.
The visitors are here to say goodbye to Xiao Xiao and Lei Lei. Early next week, the twin pandas, born at the zoo in 2021 but technically on loan from China, will be flown out of Tokyo’s Narita airport to China, where they will undergo quarantine and be reunited with their sister, Xiang Xiang, at a conservation and research centre in Sichuan province.
Since September, military has carried out more than 30 strikes against boats that it alleges smuggle drugs
The US military said on Friday that it carried out a strike on a vessel in the eastern Pacific, killing two people.
“Intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations,” the US Southern Command said in a statement.
Journalist’s wife had contacted authorities with concerns and ‘potential information’ regarding inquiry into his death
A review of the 2005 shooting death of the journalist Hunter S Thompson has confirmed authorities’ original finding that his death was a suicide, Colorado investigators said on Friday.
The review by the Colorado bureau of investigation (CBI) was announced in September after Thompson’s wife, Anita Thompson, contacted authorities with “new concerns and potential information regarding the investigation” into Thompson’s death, the agency said in a news release.
Coroner is yet to determine the cause of death of Piper James, a 19-year-old Canadian woman found surrounded by dingoes on Monday
In the early hours of Monday morning, a young woman’s body was found being mauled by a pack of dingoes near a shipwreck on a windswept stretch of white sand beach on an island off the east coast of Australia.
The island was K’gari, formerly known as Fraser Island, in southern Queensland, home to about 150 human inhabitants and a population of dingoes genetically distinct from those on the mainland. Called wongari in the language of its Butchulla traditional owners, the lean yellow and white canids are sacred to the First People and indelibly entwined in the cultural fabric of this world-heritage listed sand island.
Inter recover from 2-0 down to go six clear in Serie A
In Ligue 1, PSG go above Lens, who play on Saturday
Inter were shocked to go two goals down at home to relegation-battling Pisa but fought back to earn a 6-2 win at San Siro on Friday, as they continue to set the pace at the top of Serie A.
Stefano Moreo scored twice to put Pisa 2-0 up, the first thanks to a howler from the goalkeeper Yann Sommer, but Inter were ahead by the break. Piotr Zielinski converted a penalty and Lautaro Martínez and Francesco Pio Esposito both scored with headers in six minutes just before half-time.
Gregory Bovino’s outwear choice prompts German commentators to compare it to fascist aesthetic
A greatcoat worn by the senior US border patrol official Gregory Bovino, who has spearheaded aggressive immigration operations across the country, has raised eyebrows in German media with some commentators saying it resembled a fascist aesthetic.
Bovino has been an increasingly recognisable figure during the raids in Minneapolis for the brass-buttoned, calf-length olive green coat, which is unlike the fatigues and body armor worn by many of the federal agents.
Sea lion named Confetti was rescued early January and has ‘really great chance’ of being released, marine biologist says
A rescued sea lion is recovering in Los Angeles after a marine care center discovered he had two bullets in his head.
The sea lion, named Confetti, was rescued from Ballona creek, a watershed connected to the Santa Monica bay, on 5 January, the Marine Mammal Care Center Los Angeles announced on Thursday.
Altered image shows Nekima Levy Armstrong sobbing after arrest during protest outside a Minneapolis church
The White House’s decision to post a doctored photo of a woman arrested in Minneapolis on Thursday will probably be raised in court as her criminal case proceeds, though it is unlikely to derail the case entirely, legal experts said.
The woman in the image, Nekima Levy Armstrong, is one of three people who was arrested on Thursday in connection with a disruptive protest at a church service. About 30 minutes after Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, posted a picture of her arrest, the White House posted a digitally altered photo of Armstrong in which her skin appears to be darkened and with tears running down her face. Noem posted pictures of two other defendants arrested on Thursday in connection with the protest, but only posted an altered image of Armstrong.
Sundance film festival: there’s a dearth of both laughs and scares in this one-joke comedy horror that feels like it would have made for a better short film
Before we get Ayo Edebiri and Daniel Kaluuya’s take on an A24 Barney movie, a project that’s been in some various level of development hell for seven years, here comes Buddy. Like an off-brand ripoff from the 90s (anyone remember Ricky’s Room?), he’s another friendly, furry friend to wide-eyed young children, the main star of a TV show we’re thrown straight into, neatly styled to feel like we’re suddenly transported back to that era (similar to 2024’s far darker and far superior Sundance throwback I Saw the TV Glow).
The formula is familiar – lessons, singing, syllables overpronounced – but there’s something off. The persistence of Buddy, an orange unicorn with undying enthusiasm, is bordering on aggressive as his playful suggestion to dance suddenly devolves into something far more sinister. What if Buddy isn’t really our friend after all?
Buddy is screening at the Sundance film festival and is seeking distribution
Fight with Ricky Turcios canceled from prelim card
Incident reignites debate over UFC weight cutting
UFC bantamweight Cameron Smotherman was taken for medical evaluation after collapsing moments after making weight ahead of Saturday’s UFC 324 card in Las Vegas, prompting the cancellation of his scheduled bout.
Smotherman, 28, appeared visibly unstable as he completed his weigh-in Friday morning at T-Mobile Arena. After stepping on the scale and registering at 135.5lb, the American fighter walked off the platform before losing consciousness and falling forward onto the stage floor.
Sundance film festival: the documentarian’s feature debut, essentially an extended episode of his HBO series, turns an exploration of concrete into a meditation on change
For those in the know, the release of the Sundance film festival lineup last December contained one perfect, tantalizing log line, for a documentary plainly called The History of Concrete: “After attending a workshop on how to write and sell a Hallmark movie, filmmaker John Wilson tries to use the same formula to sell a documentary about concrete.”
Wilson, a film-maker from the Nathan Fielder school of meandering, bone-dry observational comedy, is a master of the modern documentary-essay-memoir, with an uncanny eye for the idiosyncratic, unintentionally hilarious and disturbing vignettes hiding in plain sight. Over three near-perfect seasons, his peerless HBO series How To With John Wilson, executive-produced by Fielder, spun spoofs of practical guides (“How to Cook the Perfect Risotto”) into profound meditations on the loudness, loneliness and ridiculousness of modern urban life, each half-hour episode a magic trick of elaborate, bizarre tangents reined in at the last second. For fans of the show – in my opinion, the single best TV series about New York this decade – Wilson’s feature documentary debut, supposedly about the most iconic element of urban life, was a must-see.
The History of Concrete is screening at the Sundance film festival and is seeking distribution
Mikel Arteta’s side have scored 19 goals from corners this season. Why are their set pieces so effective and can they be stopped?
Set pieces are dominating the Premier League this season, with almost 30% of goals coming from corners, free-kicks, penalties or long throws. The leaders, Arsenal, are kings of the dead ball, scoring 17 of their 40 league goals from set pieces (including penalties). But what makes Mikel Arteta’s side so effective in these areas, and what can opponents do to stop them? The data provides some answers.
Evonne Goolagong Cawley Day is a welcome initiative but meaningful change will only come with a structural approach
The riverside walk to the Australian Open courts is a scenic joy for the sporting pilgrim. Rowing crews train up and down the water, framed by the city’s sun-flecked skyline. The Melbourne Cricket Ground floodlights signal distantly ahead. Beneath the feet of the crowds hurrying to ticket barriers, the concrete path transforms into an artwork: a twisting confluence of eels honouring their Yarra River migration, which once provided abundant food for the Wurundjeri people.
On Wednesday the celebration of country continued inside the precinct. This was Evonne Goolagong Cawley Day, when the tournament celebrates First Nations people and culture. A packed schedule of entertainment included a smoking ceremony on the steps of Margaret Court Arena, a Q&A with Cathy Freeman, and a performance from the Coodjinburra pop star Budjerah. There were taster sessions and weaving workshops, and all the ball kids were from tennis programmes for Indigenous peoples.
In an exclusive interview at his base, athletics’ ‘iron man’ reveals why his career feels like ‘99% losses’ but he plans to retire as the greatest distance runner in history
On a bone-cold new year’s morning, the world’s most compelling athlete is sweating so much that tiny puddles are starting to ooze across his treadmill.
For 40 minutes Jakob Ingebrigtsen makes 6min 40sec mile pace look like a Sunday stroll, breezily chatting away even as the heatbox in his home gym pushes the temperature inside to more than 32.4C (90F). Only when I ask the double Olympic champion what his super-strength is does he pause to take a proper breath. “In Norwegian we have a word for it,” he eventually replies. “Ingen kompromiss. No compromise.”
Talks between Russia, Ukraine and the United States have begun in Abu Dhabi, according to the United Arab Emirates’ ministry of foreign affairs.
The UAE is hosting a rare set of trilateral talks, bringing together negotiators from Russia, Ukraine, and the US. The talks have started today, and are scheduled to continue over the next two days.
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