Executive chair Richard Baker to replace Marc Metrick after company misses $100m interest payment on debt

Saks Global said on Friday that its CEO, Marc Metrick, has stepped down and named executive chair, Richard Baker, as his successor, amid reports that the luxury retailer is preparing for bankruptcy.

The change at the top comes days after the Wall Street Journal reported that the Neiman Marcus parent company is preparing for bankruptcy after missing an interest payment exceeding $100m on debt from its Neiman merger.

FBI says teen was planning Islamic State-inspired hammer and knife attack on Jews, Christians and LGBTQ+ people

The FBI has said it thwarted an alleged plot to carry out a New Year’s Eve terrorist attack on a grocery store and restaurant in North Carolina in support of the Islamic State (IS).

Christian Sturdivant, 18, of Mint Hill – a town outside Charlotte – was arrested on 31 December as he was being released from a special medical facility. He was charged with attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, the US attorney for the western district of North Carolina, Russ Ferguson, said at a press conference on Friday morning.

These malign figures will do anything to avoid paying for the harm they have done, but accountability must eventually come to both

It’s not quite a new year resolution, and it’s certainly not a prediction. Think of it instead as a hope or even a plea for the next 12 months. May the coming year see those leaders who have done so much damage to their own countries, and far beyond, at last be called to account. Let 2026 be a year of reckoning.

Start with the man whose reach is longest, by dint of the mighty power he wields. Such is the nature of the US electoral system that Donald Trump, who returned to power less than a year ago, will face the judgment of voters in 10 months’ time. His name will not be on the ballot but, make no mistake, the midterm elections of 3 November will deliver a verdict on the second Trump presidency.

Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist

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Foreign ministry says mayor has poured ‘antisemitic gasoline on an open fire’ by scrapping IHRA definition

Israel’s foreign ministry has accused the New York mayor, Zohran Mamdani, of pouring “antisemitic gasoline on an open fire” after he reversed a recent order by the outgoing mayor, Eric Adams.

“On his very first day as @NYCMayor, Mamdani shows his true face: he scraps the IHRA definition of antisemitism and lifts restrictions on boycotting Israel. This isn’t leadership. It’s antisemitic gasoline on an open fire,” the foreign ministry said in a post on X.

Sales at Elon Musk’s company slump after Donald Trump’s withdrawal of EV subsidies

China’s BYD overtook Tesla as the world’s largest electric carmaker in 2025, after the US company run by Elon Musk reported a slump in deliveries at the end of the year.

BYD sold 2.26m battery electric cars during the year, easily outstripping the 1.63m deliveries reported on Friday by Tesla for the same period.

Americans are increasingly turning to courts to hold big oil accountable. Here are major trends that emerged last year

As the Trump administration boosts fossil fuels, Americans are increasingly turning to courts to hold big oil accountable for alleged climate deception. That wave of litigation swelled in 2025, with groundbreaking cases filed and wins notched.

But the year also brought setbacks, as Trump attacked the cases and big oil worked to have them thrown out. The industry also worked to secure a shield from current and future climate lawsuits.

After losing a year to havoc and job-slashing at Nasa, the pressure is on billionaire administrator Jared Isaacman

With astronauts set to fly around the moon for the first time in more than half a century when Artemis 2 makes its long-awaited ascent some time this spring, 2026 was already destined to become a standout year in space.

It is also likely to be one of the most pivotal, with new leadership at Nasa in billionaire private astronaut Jared Isaacman, and the tycoon-led private space industry assuming more than a mere supporting role to help win for the US its race with China back to the lunar surface.

Brian King Joseph claims the rapper and actor was ‘priming’ him for ‘sexual exploitation’. Smith’s lawyer has called the allegations ‘false, baseless and reckless’

Will Smith is being sued by a violinist from his 2025 tour, who claims the rapper and actor exhibited “predatory behaviour” and was “deliberately grooming and priming” him for “further sexual exploitation”. Brian King Joseph is also pursuing the performer and his company Treyball Studios Management for wrongful termination and retaliation in a suit filed in the superior court of California.

Joseph alleges that he was hired for the tour in support of Smith’s new album, Based on a True Story, after first appearing on stage with Smith in December 2024. The suit claims that Smith once told Joseph, “You and I have such a special connection that I don’t have with anyone else.”

Reports say actor, 34, found unresponsive in corridor of Fairmont hotel in early hours of New Year’s Day

Victoria Jones, the daughter of the actor Tommy Lee Jones, has been found dead in a San Francisco hotel.

Jones, 34, was discovered in the early hours of New Year’s Day, according to TMZ, which cited law enforcement sources.