When funding cuts closed National Theatre Wales, the actor saw it as an emergency, and set about building a replacement. As its first show comes to the stage, he explains his plan to bring big productions back to his homeland

Since Thornton Wilder wrote Our Town in 1938, it is said that not a day has passed when the Pulitzer prize-winning show hasn’t been performed. “Every time I read it, I come away with the feeling of having been woken up,” says Michael Sheen, star of the upcoming touring production of Wilder’s play about a close-knit community in small-town America. “With this urgent sense of ‘I have to not waste this.’”

Transposing the heart of the American classic to Wales, this new production also marks the launch of Welsh National Theatre, a hugely ambitious company formed – and financed – by Sheen in response to the collapse of the former National Theatre Wales. “Opening night is going to be more than just the opening night of a play,” says Russell T Davies, the show’s creative associate. “I think in 10 years, we’ll be having a marvellous celebration that all began with Our Town.”

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

“We did not have a lot of money,” said JD Vance, placing hand on heart as he recalled his childhood in Middletown, Ohio in the 1990s. “I was raised by a woman who struggled often to put food on the table and clothes on her back.”

There was an earnest cry from the audience. “Mamaw!” shouted a man.

The food, beauty and pharmaceutical industries poison our self-image. GLP-1 drugs will only make them richer – and strengthen the hold they have over us

Fifty years ago, I started thinking about the demand for women to look a certain way and the rebellions against the narrow ways in which we were supposed to display (and not display) our bodies. For a while, there was a conversation about the strictures. Some young women refused to conform. Some women risked being in the bodies they had rather than embodying the dominant images of being Madonna or the whore. But troubled eating abounded, even if it wasn’t always visible, stoked by the food and diet industries and their bedfellows in the beauty and fashion industries. These industries targeted appearance as crucial to girls’ and women’s identity and their place in the world.

Today, a new kind of troubled eating is stalking the land, entirely induced by the new GLP-1 weight-loss drugs produced by pharmaceutical companies and promoted by their willing agents on social media. It is totally understandable that people want relief from obsessive and invasive thoughts about their bodies and food. The explosion of GLP-1 drugs has provided a kind of psychological peace for many who feel less frightened of their appetites.

Susie Orbach is a psychotherapist, psychoanalyst and social critic. She is the author of many books, including Bodies and Fat Is a Feminist Issue

The first grand slam of 2026 is under way in Melbourne
Britain’s Fery delivers upset with win over seed Cobolli
Follow us over on Bluesky | Get in touch: email Daniel

I’m not sure why, but I can’t get commentary on Bublik v Brooksby, which isn’t helpful, but Bublik leads 3-1; Tiafoe is up a break in set three, so at 4-2 is only two games away from seeing off Kubler; Zheng leads Korda by a break at 4-3 in the fifth; and Norrie is up a set on Bonzi, but serving to stay in the second at 4-5.

We’re away on Laver, Sabalenka in dayglo straight out of 1989 … and Rakotomanga Rajaonah immediately makes 0-30 on her serve. Oh! And when the champ swats a backhand long, she’s down three break points! All three are saved, but then the underdog raises a fourth on advantage, thrashes a deep return, and Sabalenka nets a forehand! Rakotomanga Rajaonah need only hold five times and she’s a set up! Er yeah, let’s see…

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The likes of Arsenal, Manchester United, Tottenham and Manchester City are also back in Women’s FA Cup action today…

Tottenham v Leicester City

Bournemouth v Manchester City

Brighton v Nottingham Forest

Chatham v York City

Ipswich Town v Sheffield United

London Bees v Liverpool

Manchester United v Burnley

Oxford United v Middlesbrough

Southampton v Bristol City

Arsenal v Aston Villa

Charlton v Swindon

Hull v Birmingham

Strasbourg v Metz

Nantes v Paris FC

Rennes v Le Havre

Lyon v Brest

Stuttgart v Union Berlin

Augsburg v Freiburg

Parma v Genoa

Bologna v Fiorentina

Torino v Roma

AC Milan v Lecce

Getafe v Valencia

Atletico Madrid v Alaves

Celta Vigo v Rayo Vallecano

Real Sociedad v Barcelona

First journey around moon with astronauts in more than 50 years could blast off in February

Nasa’s giant new moon rocket has moved to the launch pad in preparation for astronauts’ first lunar fly-around in more than half a century.

The trip could blast off in February.

European leaders say tariff threat ‘unacceptable’ as Trump escalates plan for the US to acquire Greenland

The UK needs to have an “adult debate” with the US after Donald Trump threatened to ramp up tariffs until a deal is reached for the US to acquire Greenland, culture secretary Lisa Nandy said.

She said Keir Starmer will talk to Trump at the “earliest opportunity” but could not say if that would be at Davos in the coming week.

As the prime minister has very clearly said we disagree with this decision.

We’re going to go and have that conversation with our American counterparts, and while we’re having that conversation with them, we’re also going to be talking about the security of the United Kingdom and the United States and how our interests are better served by working together.

Experts warn use of VPNs makes it hard to limit access to technology that can create nonconsensual explicit images

Days after Malaysia made global headlines by announcing it would temporarily ban Grok over its ability to generate “grossly offensive and nonconsensual manipulated images”, the generative AI tool was conversing breezily with accounts registered in the country.

“Still here! That DNS block in Malaysia is pretty lightweight – easy to bypass with a VPN or DNS tweak,” Grok’s account on X said in response to a question from a user.

Politicians are raising the alarm, while MI5 quietly welcomes the prospect of Beijing’s new London facility

While there has been no shortage of politicians eager to raise concerns about China’s proposed “mega embassy” near the Tower of London, the espionage community quietly takes a different view, arguing that concerns about the development are exaggerated and misplaced.

The domestic Security Service, MI5, is already quietly welcoming the prospect of rationalising China’s seven diplomatic sites to one, but a more significant argument is that modern technology and the nature of the Chinese threat means that, in the words of one former British intelligence officer, “embassies are less and less relevant”.

The former heptathlete throws shapes to Cameo and got gold-medal inspiration from Whitney, but which rapper helps get her out of bed?

The first song I fell in love with
I was at nursery school when Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen was the song of the moment. I remember seeing the video on Top of the Pops, which is chilling at first, but epic when it gets to the big guitar break.

The first single I bought
My mum had this little record player that used to keep me very entertained, so I got her to buy me Ring My Bell by Anita Ward for my birthday or Christmas, from a record shop in Wolverhampton.

A father helping a son across the line, Kevin Sinfield’s inspirational friendship with Rob Burrow and more – when devotion to others takes centre stage

The older I get, the more profoundly I appreciate that, when I’m writing about sport, I’m also writing about love. This makes perfect sense given these are mankind’s two greatest inventions and the stuff we can least do without, but there’s more to it than that: sport and love are both expressions of identity, creativity and devotion, pursued because they are right but also because it’s impossible not to.

Saturday’s visiting fans know a thing or two about being a dysfunctional club but the level of hate inside Tottenham’s gleaming home surprised even them

It comes to something when the level of discontent at Tottenham had people who have spent all season watching West Ham wondering if it was all a bit much. There were cries of mutiny whenever Guglielmo Vicario tried to play out from the back, jeers at half-time and, of course, sustained boos when another home defeat for Thomas Frank’s nervous wreck of a team ended with one last cross from Djed Spence drifting sadly out of play in the ninth minute of added time.

At times it felt like not knowing how to leave the room after accidentally walking in on a bitter row between a warring couple. How is anyone supposed to function in such a poisonous atmosphere? Somehow, the malaise at West Ham felt mild by comparison. At least the anger in east London tends to be focused mainly at the board for the failure to kick on since swapping Upton Park for the soullessness of Stratford in 2016. It is not targeted at the team or the manager as much, whereas the grumbling at Spurs seems to fly in all directions, especially as the brutal departure of Daniel Levy five months ago has left fans without one standout candidate to be their hate figure.

Worth £6bn and with revenues recently rising by 10.9%, the niche interest game has become a global business

You don’t need to spend your weekends organising a face-off between bloodthirsty orcs and elves to have heard of the game Warhammer.

So popular is the fantasy game that its parent company Games Workshop is valued at a staggering £6bn and is almost ever-present on British high streets.

A guide to each club’s setups, from Chelsea’s multi-headed structure to Brentford’s smooth planning and Manchester United’s muddles

The appointment of Andrea Berta as sporting director in March was greeted with much enthusiasm by Arsenal’s supporters, given his impressive track record in more than a decade at Atlético Madrid,. The Italian, who began his career in finance, has made an instant impression. Known as a shrewd negotiator, the suave and softly spoken 54-year-old masterminded Arsenal’s outlay of more than £250m in the summer that included the arrivals of Viktor Gyökeres, Eberechi Eze and Noni Madueke. Berta takes the lead on recruitment in consultation with Richard Garlick, who was promoted to chief executive in September, the manager, Mikel Arteta, and the co-chair Josh Kroenke. James Ellis, a former scout who then spent two years as head of recruitment, was appointed as technical director in the summer and is tasked with “delivering the club’s long-term player progression strategy”, with a focus on creating a pathway from academy to first team. Ed Aarons

Independent media, civil society, the rule of law – these are the things that Iranians truly need. And there are ways for the west to help secure them

Soon after becoming president in 2017, Donald Trump ordered an attack on an Islamic State (IS) underground complex in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province. The strike involved the first-ever use in combat of a GBU-43 massive ordnance air blast (Moab) “bunker buster” bomb – the US’s most powerful conventional weapon. The bombing killed about 90 insurgents but failed to crush IS. It also made zero long-term difference to the US’s losing battle with the Taliban.

Yet that was not the point. Inexperienced Trump, who had famously avoided military service, was keen to show he was in charge, a commander-in-chief unafraid to make tough calls and send troops into harm’s way. He craved a big bang – a spectacular demonstration of unmatched US power. Like a teenager who unexpectedly obtains the keys to the family gun cabinet, he could not resist the temptation to play with all those shiny new Pentagon weapons.

Simon Tisdall is a Guardian foreign affairs commentator

Child in a critical condition in hospital after being pulled from the water in Vaucluse at about 4.20pm Sunday

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A boy has been attacked by a shark in Sydney’s east and is in a critical condition after suffering serious injuries to both legs.

The boy, believed to be aged about 13, was pulled from the water near Shark beach at Neilsen Park, in the eastern suburb of Vaucluse, at about 4.20pm Sunday afternoon.

Pioneering scheme hopes species that thrived for thousands of years in Irish waters can do so again

The dinghy slowed to a stop at a long line of black bobbing baskets and David Lawlor reached out to inspect the first one.

Inside lay 60 oysters, all with their shells closed, shielding the life within. “They look great,” beamed Lawlor. So did their neighbours in the next basket and the ones after that, all down the line of 300 baskets, totalling 18,000 oysters.

With tens of thousands thought to be arriving each year, the ‘southern route’ is becoming more perilous and extortionary

On the evening of 5 January, residents driving through the suburb of Mulbarton in south Johannesburg saw five young men in the street dressed only in underwear.

They were later picked up along with seven other young men by South African police. Police said two were in a car involved in a high-speed chase. A 47-year-old Ethiopian man was arrested and charged with kidnapping and failing to stop when police instructed him to. The 12 men, originally thought to be teenagers but said by police to be 22 to 33, were charged with being in South Africa illegally.

Food produce and other waste has been littering Sussex coastline as capsized shipping containers wash ashore

Coral Evans was walking along the beach in Brighton on Tuesday evening when she came across an unfamiliar sight.

“Hundreds of dust masks had washed up, along with single-use plastic gloves and cans of dried milk,” she said. “It was odd to see in winter – because nothing surprises us in summertime with the amount of people on the beach.”

Kick back and dream of summer with our pick of seaside gems, including a stylish Andalucian bolthole and a villa with views of Stromboli

Wild, windswept and wonderfully unspoilt, the Costa de la Luz is the Spanish coastline time forgot; a great swathe of Atlantic drama, fringed with sandy beaches and small seaside villages and resorts. Hotel Madreselva, surrounded by the pine forest, wetlands, dunes and sea cliffs of the Breña y Marismas de Barbate nature reserve, makes a suitably tranquil base, with a palm-shaded courtyard, flame-walled pool area and 18 stylish rooms, all with a private patio. A minute’s walk from the beach at Los Caños de Meca, the hotel is perfect for watersports lovers, as well as exploring this unspoilt corner of Andalucia. The hilltop pueblo blanco of Vejer, a 20-minute drive away, has charm in spades, while Cape Trafalgar, a lighthouse with views over the Strait of Gibraltar, is 10 minutes’ walk along the beach.
Doubles from £83 B&B, hotelmadreselva.com

Tony Cholerton created Robovacc to inoculate a timid tiger at London zoo – but says it could administer jabs to badgers

It began with the tiger who wouldn’t come to tea. Cinta was so shy that she refused to feed when keepers at London zoo were around, and staff wondered how they would ever administer the young animal’s vaccinations without traumatising her.

So Tony Cholerton, a zookeeper who had been a motorcycle engineer for many years, invented Robovacc – a machine to quickly administer vital jabs without the presence of people.

Call for UK state to step in after Gupta-owned Dalzell works in Scotland unable to produce metal for three new warships

A shipbuilder for the Royal Navy faces an uncertain wait for the steel to build three warships because of a shortage of cash at the Scottish steel mill that has won the contract.

Liberty Steel Dalzell in Scotland has been unable to start production in earnest because there is “no cashflow to buy slab”, despite an order to supply 34,000 tonnes of metal plates to build fleet solid support (FSS) ships for the navy, according to two sources with knowledge of the situation.

At the Faversham there was thumping house music, projections of lava lamp bubbles, and bottles of K Cider. Rave culture had hit Leeds, and my friends and I plunged in

I can mark out stages in my life by the pubs I’ve been to – and I started early. My grandparents used to take me to the Sandford Arms across the road from their house in Leeds on a Saturday afternoon to play the jukebox – and since I remember records like Boney M’s Rivers of Babylon this must mean I was about four. My other grandparents, meanwhile, actually ran a pub in the city centre. Their days usually started with my grandad, who did not have the bonhomie of a natural landlord, groaning to my grandmother: “You open up, Kath, I can’t face it!”

• Walker rushes for 116 yards, scores three TDs

• Shaheed opens game with 95-yard kickoff TD

• Denver one win from Super Bowl after edging Bills

Rashid Shaheed returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown, Kenneth Walker III rushed for three scores and the Seattle Seahawks advanced to the NFC Championship Game with a dominant 41-6 victory over the San Francisco 49ers on Saturday night.

Sam Darnold threw a touchdown pass and got his first career playoff win in his first season with the Seahawks (15-3), who will host either the Chicago Bears or the Los Angeles Rams next Sunday with a trip to the Super Bowl at stake.