World

Hessy Levinsons Taft, Jewish Infant Used in Nazi Magazine Hoax, Dies at 91

Hessy Levinsons Taft, the Jewish infant whose portrait was used without her parents’ knowledge on the cover of a Nazi magazine as an alleged “ideal Aryan” baby, died on Jan. 1 at her home in San Francisco. She was 91, and her death was confirmed by her family. The photograph,

Politics

HMRC assigned NI number to deceased stranger, blocking pension top-up

A person from County Clare, Ireland has told the Guardian that HM Revenue and Customs allocated their national insurance (NI) number to a stranger who later died, and HMRC now insists the claimant is deceased and will not process a pension top‑up request. The individual said they had used

Culture

Jonathan Pine returns in The Night Manager Season 2 after nine-year gap

Time reports Jonathan Pine is back in Season 2 of The Night Manager, which begins Sunday, nearly nine years after the AMC series first debuted. Based on John le Carré’s 1993 novel and adapted by David Farr, the six-episode first season made an immediate splash with a starry cast—

Culture

Belgrave Road: immigrant life and fragile love in Leicester

Manish Chauhan's debut novel Belgrave Road is a coming-of-age love story set in Leicester that sketches the lived realities of immigrants in Britain and considers love as "home, hope and destiny." Newly arrived in England after an arranged marriage to British-Indian Rajiv, Mira finds herself out

Crypto

Van de Poppe says patient altcoin investors could be rewarded in 2026

In an exclusive interview with Beincrypto, Michaël van de Poppe said 2026 could reward patient altcoin investors after prolonged underperformance. He noted many investors accumulated altcoins during Q2 and the first half of Q3 2025 expecting outsized gains once Bitcoin regained strength, but Bitcoin rallied while most altcoins stagnated. October

Culture

Adelaide festival rejected 2024 request to remove Thomas Friedman

The Adelaide festival board did not remove New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman from its 2024 Adelaide Writers’ Week programme, despite a petition from 10 academics including Randa Abdel-Fattah requesting his exclusion. According to a letter dated 9 February 2024 and seen by the Guardian, the board rejected the request,

Culture

Top 10 classic rock ballads, ranked

Collider published a ranking of the 10 greatest classic rock ballads of all time by J.S. Gornael, published 1 hour ago. Gornael orders ten selections from the classic-rock era, placing Black Sabbath's "Changes" at No. 10 and Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven&

Tech

OpenAI and Handshake AI reportedly asked contractors to upload real past work

OpenAI and training data company Handshake AI are reportedly asking third-party contractors to upload real work they did in past and current jobs, according to a Wired report. A company presentation reportedly asks contractors to describe tasks theyve performed at other jobs and upload examples of "real, on-the-job

Crypto

Santiment says Ethereum social sentiment has fallen to pre‑rally levels

Santiment analyst Brian Quinlivan said Ethereum’s social media sentiment is “way down,” reaching levels similar to those seen before the token’s 2025 price rally, in a YouTube video published Saturday. Quinlivan described the situation as “reminiscent of what we saw before Ethereum went on its major run last

Sports

Bayern host Wolfsburg at Allianz Arena — kick-off time and team news

Goal says Bayern Munich return to Bundesliga action today as they host VfL Wolfsburg at the Allianz Arena; kick-off is at 11:30 am ET and 4:30 pm GMT. Bayern sit nine points clear at the top after 15 matches, with a 13-win, two-draw record and a +44 goal

Culture

Full House cast remember Bob Saget on fourth anniversary of his death

Movieweb reports Full House castmates remembered Bob Saget on the four‑year anniversary of his death. In January 2022 the 65‑year‑old's body was found in his Ritz‑Carlton hotel room in Orange County, Florida, and an autopsy later attributed his death to blunt head trauma, most

Culture

National Portrait Gallery Drops Language About Trump’s Two Impeachments

The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery removed wall text that referred to President Trump’s two impeachments when the museum recently replaced a portrait of him in its “America’s Presidents” exhibition. The earlier wall text described Mr. Trump’s appointment of three Supreme Court justices, his promotion of Covid-19

Politics

Trump proposes one-year 10% cap on credit card interest but offers no details

President Trump on Friday called for a one-year cap limiting credit card interest rates to 10 percent but offered no details on how he would enact such a policy, which would typically require congressional or regulatory action. The proposal revives a campaign pledge Mr. Trump made in September 2024, but

Culture

Smithsonian displays new Trump portrait with impeachment text removed

People reports the Smithsonian Institution's National Portrait Gallery is showing an updated portrait of President Donald Trump in its “America's Presidents” exhibition, and the new placard omits earlier text that mentioned his two impeachments and the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. The

Crypto

Tennessee orders Kalshi, Polymarket and Crypto.com to stop sports betting in state

Tennessee has ordered Kalshi, Polymarket and Crypto.com to cease offering sports betting contracts to customers in the state. The firms, which are federally regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, were told to shut down Tennessee-based activity, refund deposits and void open contracts. They were given a Jan. 31

World

Warnings for snow, ice, wind and rain remain after Storm Goretti

Warnings for snow, ice, wind and rain remain in place across the UK after Storm Goretti, Independent.co reports. The storm earlier brought gusts of almost 100mph and prompted a rare red warning for “dangerous, stormy” winds in the South West. Police said a man in his 50s was found

Politics

Federal judge halts end of family-reunification parole program for 14 days

A federal judge in Massachusetts on Saturday paused the Trump administration’s decision to cancel a family‑reunification parole program that allowed migrants from some Central and South American countries to reunite with relatives in the United States while awaiting visas. In a five‑page order, Judge Indira Talwani of

World

Nationwide antigovernment protests in Iran enter third night amid rising death reports

Nationwide antigovernment protests in Iran entered a third night as witnesses and videos verified by The New York Times showed large crowds in Tehran and other cities amid an intensified government crackdown and reports of a rising death toll. A Tehran resident who gave only her first name, Parisa, said

Politics

Trump says administration may strip naturalized citizens, targets Minnesota Somali community

Time reports President Donald Trump said his administration is looking into stripping some naturalized U.S. citizens of their citizenship, focusing criticism on Minnesota’s Somali community amid investigations into fraud schemes; in an interview with the New York Times conducted Wednesday night he said, “I would do it in

Business

Volkswagen U.S. sales fall 20% as tariffs and end of EV incentives bite

Volkswagen’s sales in the United States fell 20 percent in the last three months of 2025, the German automaker said, a decline the company and analysts attributed to tariffs, trade conflict and the withdrawal of tax credits and other incentives for electric vehicles. Industry observers say Volkswagen’s experience

Culture

Drinkable no- and low-alcohol beers gain traction in Britain

As people scale back alcohol after the festive season, the range and quality of drinkable no- and low-alcohol (nolo) beers in Britain has expanded, offering more convincing alternatives to full-strength pints, the article says. Traditionally nolo beers — defined in the piece as having at most 0.5% ABV — were produced

Crypto

Bitcoin ETFs Post $1.128 Billion Three-Day Outflow, Erasing Early-2026 Gains

Beincrypto reports that spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds logged $1.128 billion in outflows over three consecutive trading days, nearly reversing the net inflows recorded during the first two trading days of 2026. Data from SoSoValue show BTC ETFs had already closed 2025 weakly, with November outflows of $3.48 billion

Culture

Sarah Moss prefers Jane Eyre to Wuthering Heights

Author Sarah Moss said she never liked Wuthering Heights as much as Jane Eyre and that "these days I can’t see around the eroticised abuse", while noting Jane Eyre contains some of that too and praising Wuthering Heights' narrative structure. Moss recalled her earliest reading memory

Culture

Letterboxd is renting festival sci-fi horror It Ends

Collider reports Letterboxd is making several undistributed festival films available to rent for one-month windows, and one of the titles now accessible is the sci‑fi horror It Ends. It Ends follows recent graduates Tyler (Mitchell Cole), James (Phinehas Yoon), Day (Akira Jackson) and Fisher (Noah Toth) as they become

World

About 50 homes lost as bushfire rips through Harcourt and Ravenswood

A fast-moving bushfire that began near Fogarty's Gap Road on Friday afternoon ripped through Harcourt and Ravenswood in Victoria, destroying homes and critical infrastructure, authorities and residents said. Victoria's emergency management commissioner, Tim Wiebusch, told media about 50 homes had been lost in the Ravenswood and