Rwandan-backed M23 rebels are seizing control of areas within the DRC. This will only escalate unless western governments act

As if this world needs more bloodshed, here comes another major war knocking on the door of the crumbling international order. This week’s ferocious assault and capture of the largest city in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) by rebels backed by troops from its tiny neighbour, Rwanda, marks an escalation with far reaching consequences beyond Africa. It also exposes the complacency of western governments, who many Congolese accuse of paving the way for this crisis.

The rebellion, known as the M23, has been snowballing since 2021. In recent months, M23 seized swathes of territory as it encircled Goma, a city nestled below a group of volcanoes facing the Rwandan border. This week, the UN secretary general, António Guterres, called for Rwanda to stop supporting M23 and to remove its troops from Congolese territory, adding that the conflict had inflicted a “devastating toll” on civilians, millions of whom need aid. In DRC’s capital, Kinshasa, angry protesters lit fires and attacked the Rwandan, French and US embassies.

Dino Mahtani is an independent researcher and writer

This brash debut with Jack Quaid and Sophie Thatcher is slickly made but it’s not as clever or original as it thinks it is

Imagine, if you will, a skewed sci-fi reality that envisions a Black Mirror episode but for an entire movie? Can you even begin to grasp what that would look like? Maybe you can if in the last few years you’ve seen Foe or Fingernails or Don’t Worry Darling or Swan Song or Love Me or The Pod Generation or The Substance or Possessor or any one of the many attempts to recall the magic of at least some of the sci-fi anthology’s earlier episodes. It’s not as if the Charlie Brooker-created series was the first to spin “what if?” nightmares from the dangers of tech but its stickiness has had a noticeable effect on younger creators eager to Say Something about the times we live in.

Companion, a wink-wink pre-Valentine’s sci-fi comedy, is not just part of that trend but also belongs at the back of the long line of post-Get Out social thrillers, standing behind Fresh and Blink Twice, using an outlandish conceit to comment on something we’re all too aware of. The film, from the first-time writer-director Drew Hancock, is an attempt to skewer a certain, familiar type of shitty guy whose outward nice bro persona betrays a corroded and controlling core. He’s played by Jack Quaid, son of Meg Ryan and Dennis Quaid, who has cleverly turned his handsome and charming nepo baby privilege into something ultimately petulant and pathetic. It worked well as one of the Reddit-pilled killers in Scream 5 and works well here too, even if his character feels a little under-baked.

Trump’s meme coin has some conservatives complaining over ‘most blatant ponzi scheme in history’

When Donald Trump announced – three days before assuming the presidency of the United States, and followed shortly by Melania Trump – that he was launching a self-named “meme coin” cryptocurrency, many in the crypto industry were quick to express frustration. Ethics experts were also alarmed.

Among Trump’s base, however, a similar backlash – smaller, more muted, but similarly anguished – has been taking hold.

An adventure in Scandinavian baking, from starter to finish

In Scandinavia, people are crazy about cardamom buns. They’re usually much drier than I’d like, and after much testing I’ve found that the secret to making a much moister bun is underproofing the dough. Normally, baking something that’s underproofed is nothing but disappointing, but in this instance it’s the way to go. A slightly underproofed centre lets the dough hold on to that sticky, gooey texture you want in a cardamom (or cinnamon) bun.

This is an edited extract from Bread, by Richard Hart, published by Hardie Grant at £28. To order a copy, go to guardianbookshop.com

A demographic change is unfolding, and many of us can expect a long life. It’s time to provide the support needed

At the age of 111, a British accountant named John Tinniswood has just been declared the oldest man alive. Asked for the secrets to his remarkable longevity, he mentioned his fondness for a plate of fish and chips every Friday. Mostly, he thought it was down to “pure luck”.

When Tinniswood was born in Liverpool in 1912, the idea of living to 111 would have struck his parents as fanciful, if not absurd. The average life expectancy of a British male then was 52 years.

Andrew J Scott is Professor of Economics at London Business School and author of The Longevity Imperative : Building a Better Society for Healthier, Longer Lives, Basic Books, 2024.

Messaging app said it had ‘high confidence’ some users were targeted and ‘possibly compromised’ by Paragon Solutions spyware

Nearly 100 journalists and other members of civil society using WhatsApp, the popular messaging app owned by Meta, were targeted by spyware owned by Paragon Solutions, an Israeli maker of hacking software, the company alleged today.

The journalists and other civil society members were being alerted of a possible breach of their devices, with WhatsApp telling the Guardian it had “high confidence” that the users in question had been targeted and “possibly compromised”.

If China has done to Sam Altman what his OpenAI has been accused of doing to creatives, it would take a heart of stone not to laugh

I once saw an episode of America’s Dumbest Criminals where a man called the cops to report his car stolen, only for it to turn out he’d stolen it from someone else in the first place. I couldn’t help thinking of him this week while watching OpenAI’s Sam Altman wet his pants about the fact that a Chinese hedge fund might have made unauthorised use of his own chatbot models, including ChatGPT, to train their new little side project. This is the cheaper, more open, extremely share-price-slashing DeepSeek.

As news of DeepSeek played havoc with the tech stock market, OpenAI pressed its hanky to its nose and released a statement: “We are aware of and reviewing indications that DeepSeek may have inappropriately distilled our models, and will share information as we know more,” this ran. “We take aggressive, proactive countermeasures to protect our technology.” Oooooooooh! I want to say “welcome to America’s Dumbest Tech Barons”, except I can’t, because I think we all know that no law enforcement is coming to get Sam for the stuff he’s alleged to have made unauthorised use of first. That was the good type of alleged theft, whatever the claims of all the lawsuits belatedly trying to claw something back for the alleged copyright victims of his firm’s own inappropriate methods.

Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist

The Guardian’s reporter in the territory describes the journey back to see what might remain of their prewar lives

When the ceasefire came, there was a moment of relief that we had escaped death, although we still carry the sadness and pain of everything lost in those 15 months.

Palestinians know that there are still more battles ahead, they have to keep fighting, in a war of daily suffering – the fight for water, for a loaf of bread – and a war against memories, that bring pain to the heart and madness to the mind.

With nominations led by Beyoncé and Charli xcx, the event will serve a dual-purpose by acknowledging the devastating wildfires in California

• Grammy awards 2025: list of nominees

A “very different” Grammy awards will take place in Los Angeles this weekend, impacted by the recent wildfires that have affected California.

The annual celebration of music, taking place at the Crypto.com arena on Sunday, will still feature a range of big-name performers but there will be a noticeable shift in purpose.

The Guardian’s picture editors select photographs from around the world

• Warning: graphic content

I don’t think it’s fair your partner uses his past relationship to dictate the present with you. You need to have an open and honest conversation to understand each other’s feelings
• Every week Annalisa Barbieri addresses a relationship problem sent in by a reader

My partner has a child from a previous relationship who was two when we met a few years ago. For the first half of our relationship we discussed having future children together. Then one day he told me he no longer wanted more kids and that his child is his sole focus. The future was gone in one second.

We have an amazing relationship, so this is our only issue. His previous relationship has scarred him deeply.

For 17 years Brendan Stevens led a small conservative Christian sect known as the Saints, disavowing birthdays, schooling and medicine – including the insulin that would have saved Elizabeth Struhs’ life

They said he was “appointed by God”. They called him “the pastor”, “the messenger” and “the healer”.

For 17 years, Brendan Stevens led his small congregation known as the Saints, a religious sect thrust into the international spotlight this week after one of its flock, an eight-year-old diabetic named Elizabeth Struhs, died after members denied her life-saving insulin. Fourteen members of the Saints, including Elizabeth’s parents, her brother and Stevens, were this week convicted of her 2022 manslaughter in a Queensland court.

Ten years ago, Jo Nemeth quit her job and closed her bank account. Today, she’s more committed than ever to her moneyless life

• Get our weekend culture and lifestyle email

Sharon Brodie clearly remembers her first Christmas with her good friend Jo Nemeth. It was 2016 and also her first Christmas without her husband, Monty, who had died suddenly a month earlier.

“I didn’t even want to be alive,” says Brodie from her home in Lismore, northern New South Wales. “I definitely didn’t want to go to the shops or buy presents or do anything. But Jo had come to stay with us [Brodie and her two teenage boys] to help out, and on Christmas Eve I told her my gift to her was that we could go dumpster diving, which I’d never done before – and we did, that night.

Crash called ‘avoidable’, with lawmakers and residents previously sounding alarm about region’s crowded skies

After Wednesday’s fatal crash which took down a commercial jet and a military helicopter on a training flight at Washington DC’s Reagan National airport, public officials and aviation experts are resurfacing concerns about how uniquely congested the airspace is around the country’s capital.

As of Thursday night, authorities have said all 64 people on the American Airlines flight were presumed dead as well as three more on the army helicopter, making the incident the deadliest US air tragedy since 2001.

• Updates from the match in Pune, starts 1.30pm GMT
• Saqib Mahmood bowls triple-wicket maiden
• Women’s Ashes: Sutherland turns the screw on England

Tilak Varma is the new batter, which is a deviation from their coach Gautam Gambhir’s preference for a left/right combination.

He’s the old batter, too, because he’s gone first ball! Varma charged Saqib and sliced the ball down to third man, where Archer took an excellent low catch. Saqib Mahmood has figures of 0.2-0-0-2!

Preliminary research provides rare insight in to the reptile’s habits and movement across urban landscapes

New research has revealed surprising details about the secret lives of crocodiles swimming through Florida’s waterways, including the long distances some travel in search of food and shelter, and their ability to slither unnoticed through populous neighborhoods.

The preliminary study provides rare insight into the habits and habitat of the species in a state more commonly associated with its estimated 1.5 million alligators. Florida has a non-hatchling population of about only 2,000 American crocodiles, the researchers say, which made it difficult initially to find and tag a sufficient number of the reptiles in urban areas in order to observe them.

President’s cabinet picks suggest help for big companies and regulatory rollbacks will take precedence in food policy

• Trump will change the face of US food policy. These are the players to watch

When Robert F Kennedy Jr. suspended his campaign for the presidency in August 2024, throwing his support behind Donald Trump, he promised to continue fighting to “make America healthy again”. Kennedy’s criticism of ultra-processed foods and big food companies became a central feature of the Trump campaign. And after Trump was elected, he nominated Kennedy to be his secretary of health and human services.

Yet, just days before naming Kennedy, Trump nominated another senior official to his administration: Susie Wiles, a longtime lobbyist whose clients have included the same big food companies Kennedy has critiqued for their role in pushing ultra-processed foods into kitchens and grocery stores across the US. The two stood in stark contrast: a critic and a lobbyist for the food industry standing side-by-side the president-elect.

Andoni Iraola’s side host Liverpool on Saturday and look like one of the league leaders’ toughest away assignments

At any time in the Premier League, there is a model club to follow. In recent years such a label has been attached to Brentford and Brighton. Before that Southampton’s managerial recruitment and scouting network was feasted on, Mauricio Pochettino moving on to manage Tottenham before Virgil van Dijk, Sadio Mané and Adam Lallana also left to join Liverpool and became Champions League and Premier League winners there.

This year’s model? Undoubtedly Bournemouth, Liverpool’s seventh-placed opponents on Saturday, replete with candidates for Anfield’s next rebuild. Virgil van Dijk and Andy Robertson phased out for Dean Huijsen and Milos Kerkez? Simple, ideal solutions – the young Spaniard and Hungarian have been outstanding this season – but in this era of tightened profit and sustainability, perhaps beyond the realms of financial feasibility. The £65m Tottenham were asked to pay for Dominic Solanke last summer is an indicator of how hard a bargain a club owned by Texan billionaire Bill Foley are likely to drive.

Cousin of prospective US health secretary shares disturbing tale involving blender for his Senate confirmation hearing

“Trying not to upset the French” could be a chapter in a Debrett’s guide to etiquette and manners, one that may have been taken to heart by the government this week with its decision to change the name of a new submarine. The Astute-class attack vessel is still being built, but on Sunday night, the Royal Navy announced that what was to become HMS Agincourt would, instead, be given the more Franco-friendly name of HMS Achilles. Up pops Grant Shapps, the former Conservative defence secretary, to dust off his opportunism and accuse the navy of bending to Labourite “woke nonsense”. It’s just like riding a bike!

Yarden Bibas scheduled for release with Keith Siegel and Ofer Calderon on Saturday in latest handover of hostages

• Middle East crisis – live updates

Hamas has announced it will release Yarden Bibas on Saturday, the Israeli father of a young family kidnapped to Gaza who have been one of the most enduring symbols of Israel’s hostages in the coastal strip.

The Hamas spokesperson Abu Obeida said on its Telegram channel that Bibas would be released with Keith Siegel, a joint US citizen, and Ofer Calderon, who also has French nationality.

Uncertainty awaits the crowds of Palestinians who packed the road back home to northern Gaza this week

News that the singer had done a slot in New York’s Comedy Cellar was met with derision, but she has always walked a fine line between comedy character and over-the-top pop star

New York’s famed Comedy Cellar has long been known as a testing ground for hot young talent. The Greenwich Village club hosted stand-ups like Ray Romano and Jon Stewart early in their careers, and although tourists now flock to the venue in the hope of seeing an A-lister do a surprise drop-in, young comics can still get their start there. Case in point: last weekend, Madonna did a set at the Comedy Cellar. You may be able to draw nearly 2 million people to Rio’s Copacabana beach for a concert, but in the cutthroat world of comedy, you still have to start from the bottom.

A report in the Sun said that Madonna tested out material for about 30 minutes, and that she was accompanied to the club by her friend Amy Schumer, who later went on Howard Stern to big up Madonna’s act. “She has something in her that’s interested in standup and she knows that, like anything else, you have to work really hard on it. She is kind of working on her set and it’s not cringey,” Schumer told Stern. “She’s funny! She’s got jokes. She’s got things to say. She’s got tea.”

M23 rebel group swept into Congolese city after a rapid advance in recent weeks

People living in Goma on the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s eastern border with Rwanda have spoken of their fear and acute hunger after the M23 rebel group swept into the city earlier this week.

“We are very afraid. This situation feels hopeless,” said Judith Saima, a 28-year-old merchant in Goma, where heavy fighting that cut the city off from the outside world and left bodies piling up in the streets only subsided two days ago.

Melania Trump, Sabrina Carpenter and the Princess of Wales are among those turning up the volume

It’s big. It’s bouncy. And it’s back. From the catwalks to Capitol Hill, hair with added volume is trending. Raised at the roots and curled at the ends, big and bold hair has knocked relaxed, beachy waves off the hairstyle charts.

It’s the hairstyle Melania Trump loosely based her hair on for her official Flotus 2.0 portrait and it’s quickly becoming the signature style for her husband’s cabinet. Just days after being appointed White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt swapped her usual go-to straight and sleek look for it. Last year, Kristi Noem completed her Maga makeover with her previously short cropped hair in a shoulder-length style, alongside new teeth and fluttery fake eyelashes. This week, she posted images of herself attending her first deportation raid as homeland security secretary to X, her hair noticeably groomed and curled under a law enforcement cap. “Did she go to Drybar before this,” commented one user, referencing the hair salon chain that focuses on blow-drys.