In its second season, the award-winning medical drama is a scarily reflective show for the many Americans who watch it

If 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 warning that “aggressive behavior will not be tolerated”, a response to the real uptick in violence against healthcare workers. A memorial plaque to the victims of the mass shooting at PittFest, which drenched the back half of the acclaimed HBO Max show’s first season in unbelievably harrowing, bloody, very American trauma. Labels on the many homeopathic remedies carried, in Ziploc bags, by a prospective patient deeply skeptical of western medicine and big pharma. Promotional literature on the larger hospital system, for which The Pitt is its cash-strapped, paint-stripped, constantly beleaguered front door.

And, in its second season, which premiered earlier this month, so-called “patient passports” that supposedly help you understand the procedures and expected wait times at an urban emergency room. The leaflets are the brainchild of Dr Baran Al-Hashimi (Sepideh Moafi), the tech-affectionate, norms-challenging attending physician introduced this season as a foil to the more by-the-books Dr Michael “Robby” Robinavitch, the series anchor played by recent Golden Globe winner Noah Wyle. Dr Robby, the show’s raison d’être and the core of viewer sentiment, is skeptical of the patient passports, as he seems to be of most change at the Pitt; their introduction is one of many seeds planted in what will surely become a larger thematic battle between tradition and innovation, emotion and rationality, old, haunted attending physician and his upstart replacement.

Astrid Tuminez will step down as Utah Valley University president in May as school still reckons with Kirk’s murder

Astrid Tuminez, Utah Valley University’s seventh president, will step down at the end of the semester. She announced the decision on Wednesday during a State of the University address, speaking to a packed audience of students and faculty.

Tuminez, 61, said in an interview that the decision to step down had been building for some time. “There’s never a good time,” she said. “I love UVU so much.” The choice, she explained, came with a mix of grief and relief. “It is a swirl of emotion. I am heartbroken on one hand, but also happy and excited on the other, because life has its rhythms.

As Michael Carrick prepares for Saturday’s derby, fans wonder if this is the club’s worst moment – but they are spoilt for choice

Manchester United, without a permanent head coach or European football and knocked out of both domestic cups at the first time of asking, are facing another bleak season. In the almost 13 years since Sir Alex Ferguson left, the club have struggled to find stability, with his shadow stretching down from the directors’ box to the dugout, emphasised by the stand named in his honour staring back.

Manchester City arrive at Old Trafford on Saturday in the opposite position, having had Pep Guardiola in post for a decade, amassing 18 major trophies. Michael Carrick will take charge of United for the first time since being appointed until the end of the season at a club who appear to be without a functioning long-term plan. This will be a campaign of only 40 competitive games for United, their fewest since 1914-15, with some fans thankful for being able to cut down on trudging visits. So is this, in the post-Ferguson era, the lowest of the lows?

The brutal crackdown in Iran, ICE in Minneapolis, Russian aistrikes in Kyiv and heavy rain in Gaza – the past seven days as captured by the world’s leading photojournalists

Warning: this gallery contains images some readers may find distressing

Manager’s decision is no surprise having fought to keep Marc Guéhi in the summer and amid doubts over futures of a host of Palace’s FA Cup-winning stars

It was the day Crystal Palace supporters had dreaded but feared was inevitable. Oliver Glasner, having confirmed that the captain Marc Guéhi’s move to Manchester City is poised to go ahead, had another bombshell prepared for his press conference to preview Saturday’s trip to Sunderland.

Nearly eight months to the day since the Austrian led the club to their first major trophy by beating Manchester City in the FA Cup final, his announcement that he will leave Selhurst Park at the end of the season came as no surprise. It rounds off one of the worst weeks in the club’s history after the humiliating defeat by non-league Macclesfield that will be for ever an unwanted postscript to their victory.

The Tokyo Olympic champion has climbed more than 1,200 places back to the world top 10 following the birth of her daughter, Bella

“I definitely think I’m a better player now than I was before my pregnancy,” Belinda Bencic says as she reflects on climbing more than 1,200 places up the world rankings since returning to competitive tennis as a new mother. In October 2024 Bencic had plummeted to a lowly spot as world No 1,213 when she stepped back on to court feeling secure that baby Bella was being looked after by her husband, Martin Hromkovic – who is also her strength and conditioning coach.

On 11 January, 14 months since her comeback began, Bencic played Iga Swiatek in the final of the United Cup in Sydney. The world No 2, and current Wimbledon champion, won the first set but Bencic played supreme tennis as she swept Swiatek aside 6-0, 6-3 in the next two sets to seal her ninth consecutive victory of the week for Switzerland. Her imperious performance also meant that Bencic was back in the world top 10 again.

Reza Pahlavi sets out ambition to lead country his father once ruled, but many question his level of popular support

Reza Pahlavi, the son of Iran’s former pro-western monarch, has predicted the country’s Islamic regime will fall and claimed he is “uniquely” placed to head a successor government.

His bid to assume the leadership of a possible new Iran follows weeks of mass protests that have left thousands dead after being brutally suppressed by security forces.

• Relationship between pair had appeared fractious

• New race engineer to be named ‘in due course’

Ferrari have announced they are to replace Riccardo Adami as Lewis Hamilton’s race engineer for the 2026 Formula One season, after the pair endured what appeared to be a fractious and testing relationship during the seven-time world champion’s first season with the Scuderia.

Ferrari issued a statement on Friday stating Adami would be moved to a new role with the team’s driver academy as academy and test previous cars manager, adding that his replacement as Hamilton’s race engineer, the crucial link between team and driver on the pit wall, would be announced in due course.

News from Friday’s press conferences, including updates on Arsenal, Nottingham Forest and West Ham

Ads to be placed alongside answers as OpenAI looks to beef up revenue for flagship AI product

ChatGPT will start including advertisements beside answers for US users as OpenAI seeks a new revenue stream.

The ads will be tested first in ChatGPT for US users only, the company announced on Friday, after increasing speculation that the San Francisco firm would turn to a potential cashflow model on top of its current subscriptions.

The US president wants Americans to believe they are facing an emergency. The real danger is from his administration

In 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 for the three children left motherless. It also marks her country’s crossing of a Rubicon.

Where Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) once preferred to keep a low profile, it now seeks publicity and confrontation – pumped up on billions of dollars in funding, the aggression and brazenness of the administration and the licensing of bigotry.

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

Federal agents face widespread accusations of misconduct – but Trump administration leaders won’t prosecute them

• US politics live – latest updates

• US citizens and permanent residents: have you been racially profiled by ICE?

Rochelle Bilal, Philadelphia’s sheriff, warned ICE agents last week: “If any of them want to come in this city and commit a crime, you will not be able to hide.

“Nobody will whisk you off,” she said. “You don’t want this smoke, ’cause we will bring it to you.”

Full-time carer Martina Karos and Eleni Edwards, eight, were found dead at home in Salford

A 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, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org

John Ratcliffe meets Delcy Rodríguez in Caracas less than two weeks after his agents helped to oust her precedessor

The CIA chief whose agents reputedly played a key role in abducting Nicolás Maduro has flown to Venezuela to meet his successor as the sidelined opposition leader, María Corina Machado, vowed she would become the country’s first elected female president.

Machado’s comments were broadcast on Friday, a day after she handed her Nobel peace prize medal to Donald Trump in recognition of what she called a principled and decisive move against Maduro, whom US special forces snatched on 3 January.

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 kink

First 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 Sex podcast. Dr Laurie Mintz, sex therapist and author of Becoming Cliterate: Why Orgasm Equality Matters – and How to Get It agrees: “The limerence stage, where you can’t keep your hands off each other, lasts six months to two years, then fades, but people think there’s something wrong with them or the relationship.”

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.

Actor held without bond in New Mexico on child abuse charges stemming from twin brothers’ complaint

With allegations of prior sexual misconduct against him continuing to mount, Timothy Busfield received an expression of support from his wife and fellow actor, Melissa Gilbert – as he was also ordered held without bond in connection with on-set child abuse charges in New Mexico.

A statement that a representative for Gilbert, known best for her work on Little House on the Prairie, shared with media outlets said she “supports her husband” and was keeping “her focus … on supporting and caring for their … family, as they navigate this moment”.

US bombs are not the answer, but there’s much the outside world can do – starting with noticing the horror unfolding in Tehran

Did you notice history being made this week? I am not referring to what may have been the most pathetic moment in recorded time – Donald Trump gratefully taking the Nobel peace prize medal from the woman who actually won it – nor the defection of a politician from one British rightwing party to another, but something grimmer. For this week witnessed what could well prove to be a landmark chapter in the blood-soaked history of the Middle East.

Thanks to an information blackout caused by Tehran’s decision to switch off the internet, it is hard to be precise about what just happened on the streets of Iran. But one official has admitted to a death toll of 2,000. CBS News put the number of dead at 12,000, while some warn it could be many thousands more – all of them Iranian civilians, gunned down for daring to protest against their government and to demand a better life.

Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist

Guardian newsroom: Year One of Trumpism: Is Britain Emulating the US? On Wednesday 21 January 2026, join Jonathan Freedland, Tania Branigan and Nick Lowles as they reflect on the first year of Donald Trump’s second presidency. Book tickets here or at guardian.live

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

Woman who paired Buckley with Paul Mescal in critics’ favourite is contender in new Academy Award category

If you were to compile a list of the most powerful people in the movie business, you might start with the auteurs, the A-list actors or the execs who bankroll Oscar-winning projects.

But among those better-known powerbrokers is another vital cog in the Hollywood machine: the people with the ability to make and grow stars.

Trump continues to claim, baselessly, that people protesting against federal immigration enforcement in Minneapolis are ‘highly paid professionals’

Trump began his remarks today by undermining the Affordable Care Act, and touted his newly unveiled “Great Healthcare Plan”.

A reminder that Affordable Care Act subsidies, that were extended during the Covid pandemic, expired at the end of last year, and legislation to revive them has stalled in Congress.

Company says TB testing carried out as ‘precaution’ after small number of workers contracted lung disease

Amazon 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.

Transcripts of 911 calls and police communications after ICE agent killed Renee Good reveal chaotic scene

• People in Minneapolis and St Paul: what is life like in the Twin Cities right now?

New incident reports from the Minneapolis police and fire departments, along with transcripts of 911 calls, provide new details about the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Renee Good last week in Minneapolis by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer.

According to a Minneapolis fire department incident report obtained by the Guardian, along with police records and 911 transcripts, paramedics arrived at the scene at about 9.42am on 7 January and found Good “unresponsive” in the driver’s seat of her car, “with blood on her face and torso”.

The Venezuelan opposition leader, María Corina Machado, has presented her Nobel peace prize medal to Donald Trump during a meeting at the White House, saying it was a recognition of his commitment to Venezuela’s freedom.

The gesture came after Machado was unexpectedly sidelined by Trump after US forces abducted Nicolás Maduro.

Lucy Hough speaks to the US live news editor, Chris Michael