© Hilary Swift for The New York Times
In the search for stability, some western nations are turning to a country that many in Washington see as an existential threat
If geopolitics relies at least in part on bonhomie between global leaders, China made an unexpected play for Ireland’s good graces when the taoiseach visited Beijing this month. Meeting Ireland’s leader, Micheál Martin, in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China’s president, Xi Jinping, said a favourite book of his as a teenager was The Gadfly, by the Irish author Ethel Voynich, a novel set in the revolutionary fervour of Italy in the 1840s.
“It was unusual that we ended up discussing The Gadfly and its impact on both of us but there you are,” Martin told reporters in Beijing.
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© Composite: Guardian Design/REX/Shutterstock/Getty Images
© Composite: Guardian Design/REX/Shutterstock/Getty Images
© Composite: Guardian Design/REX/Shutterstock/Getty Images
Maxwell Alejandro Frost says attacker ‘told me Trump was going to deport me’ as police say suspect arrested
The Florida congressman Maxwell Alejandro Frost said he was assaulted by a man who said Donald Trump would deport him at a party during the Sundance film festival in Utah.
“Last night, I was assaulted by a man at Sundance Festival who told me that Trump was going to deport me before he punched me in the face,” Frost said in a Saturday post on X. “He was heard screaming racist remarks as he drunkenly ran off. The individual was arrested and I am okay.”
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© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images
© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images
© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images
© Illustration by The New York Times; source photograph by Christinne Muschi/Canadian Press, via Associated Press
© Hilary Swift for The New York Times
Career public servant and former chief of staff to Malcolm Turnbull to represent Australia’s interests with Trump administration from April, including progression of Aukus agreement
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The head of the department of defence, Greg Moriarty, will succeed Kevin Rudd as Australia’s ambassador to the United States.
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, and foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, announced Moriarty’s appointment to the role on Sunday. A former chief of staff to Malcolm Turnbull and former Australian envoy to Iran and Indonesia, he has led the defence department since 2017. He will take up the posting in Washington from April.
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© Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian
© Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian
© Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian
Dangerous weather engulfing large area of country as 16 states plus DC declare states of emergency
A powerful winter storm with more than 140 million Americans in its crosshairs started sweeping across much of the US on Saturday, packing heavy snow and sleet as well as freezing rain and causing widespread power outages.
Snowfall was already being reported on Saturday morning across parts of the plains, the south and the midwest, including in areas of Oklahoma, Iowa, Tennessee, Kansas, Texas and Missouri.
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© Photograph: Nick Oxford/Reuters
© Photograph: Nick Oxford/Reuters
© Photograph: Nick Oxford/Reuters
© David Guttenfelder/The New York Times
After anger at claim that Nato troops ‘stayed off frontlines’, US president says UK forces were ‘great and very brave’
Donald Trump has said UK soldiers who fought in Afghanistan were “among the greatest of all warriors” after previously drawing criticism for his claims that Nato troops stayed away from the frontlines during the conflict.
In a post on social media on Saturday, the US president said: “The great and very brave soldiers of the United Kingdom will always be with the United States of America.
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© Photograph: Evan Vucci/AP
© Photograph: Evan Vucci/AP
© Photograph: Evan Vucci/AP
The rules-based global order is rapidly disintegrating. It’s time for middle powers to stand together
The French president Emmanuel Macron borrowed some lines from Hugh Grant about bullies at the World Economic Forum in Davos. His target was Donald Trump, who had leaked a conciliatory text message from Macron who, evidently, was trying to get the US president to the table to shore up the rapidly disintegrating global order.
In the love-it-or-hate-it Christmas film Love Actually, Grant – playing the foppish British prime minister of the day – confronts the US president, saying: “A friend who bullies us is no longer a friend, and since bullies only respond to strength, from now onward, I will be prepared to be much stronger.”
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© Photograph: Markus Schreiber/AP
© Photograph: Markus Schreiber/AP
© Photograph: Markus Schreiber/AP
Trump tells New York Post he will skip Super Bowl
NFL stands by Bad Bunny amid rightwing backlash
Donald Trump said he will not attend next month’s Super Bowl in northern California, citing the distance to the game, amid an ongoing culture-war backlash over the NFL’s choice of half-time and pre-game performers.
Trump told the New York Post he plans to skip the 8 February championship game at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara because the trip is “just too far away”, adding that he would have considered attending if it were a shorter flight. The decision means Trump will not repeat his appearance at last year’s Super Bowl in New Orleans, where he became the first sitting US president to attend the NFL’s showcase event.
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© Photograph: Jamie Squire/Getty Images
© Photograph: Jamie Squire/Getty Images
© Photograph: Jamie Squire/Getty Images
© Markus Schreiber/Associated Press
© Eric Lee for The New York Times
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