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Starmer’s calm diplomacy makes mistake of assuming Trump is a sentient being | John Crace

PM’s effort to take heat out of Greenland situation is yet another humiliation in his relationship with The Donald

Toady, or not toady? That is the question. When even Piers Morgan has taken his head out of Donald Trump’s bum far enough to see a glimmer of daylight, then it’s fair to say the US president has probably overstepped the mark.

Not content with threatening tariffs against the UK and seven EU countries for sending troops to Greenland – having previously demanded Nato allies get stuck in to protect the country from Russia and China – The Donald has now sent a letter to the Norwegian prime minister to complain about not winning the Nobel peace prize and to say he was so pissed off he was thinking of starting a war instead.

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Mon, 19 Jan 2026 15:28:33 GMT
Who said it: the Robert Jenrick memo or David Brent?

Memo on how ex-Tory should act after Reform defection seems to channel Ricky Gervais character from The Office

The fallout from Robert Jenrick’s abrupt and chaotic defection from the Conservatives to Reform UK on Thursday continued over the weekend, with the leaking of a memo prepared by his aides for how he should face the press after the event.

The six-page document coaches Jenrick on how to answer some potentially tricky questions. While it reflects the character of the man himself, it also somehow manages to channel the spirit of David Brent, the character created by Stephen Merchant and Ricky Gervais, and played by Gervais in the original UK version of The Office, which aired from 2001 to 2003.

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Mon, 19 Jan 2026 13:02:27 GMT
Crossing into Darkness review – Tracey Emin takes her heroes on a descent to the gates of hell

Carl Freedman Gallery, Margate
Munch, Bourgeois, Gormley and Baselitz go shoulder to shoulder with up-and-coming artists in an exhibition that revels in its stygian gloom

Tracey Emin catches me looking from her self-portrait to her as I try to assess the closeness of the resemblance. Not that close. This inky screenprint is bigger than she is, its face wider and taller. But it’s not a picture of the outer person but an inner vision. As we stand in front of it I seem to fall into radiating pools of blackness – to cross into darkness.

Emin has curated an exhibition for the depths of winter. It’s a generous, unexpected show with an eclectic yet profound openness to kinds of creativity many might think incompatible: paintings, installations, performance art all face the night here. She sets artists she nurtures at the Emin Studios alongside her heroes Edvard Munch, Louise Bourgeois and other luminaries of modern art – if luminary is the right word in this stygian setting. For, by a stroke of lighting genius, the Carl Freedman Gallery has been plunged into nocturnal shadow that still lets you see the art.

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Mon, 19 Jan 2026 15:40:23 GMT
Markets stay calm amid Trump’s gambit, but long-term risks are huge | Nils Pratley

Traders have learned to live with the US president’s rhetoric, but the EU’s measures could go beyond tariffs and into capital markets

That’s how the chancellor’s luck runs these days. You arrange to open the day’s trading on the stock exchange to hail a “new golden age” for the City and bask in the sight of the FTSE 100 index above 10,000, and what happens? You have to skip off to the prime minister’s statement on Greenland.

In the event, Rachel Reeves needn’t have worried about the poor optics of overseeing a terrible day for share prices. Donald Trump’s weekend threat of tariffs on eight European countries, including the UK, did not cause an explosion in the London stock market. The Footsie closed down 0.4%, which doesn’t register on the doomsday radar, although European stocks did worse. There was even a £7.7bn bid for the insurer Beazley at a fat premium.

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Mon, 19 Jan 2026 18:02:35 GMT
A beginner’s guide to Arc Raiders: what it is and how you start playing

Embark Studios’ multiplayer extraction shooter game has already sold 12m copies in just three months. Will it capture you too?

Released last October Arc Raiders has swiftly become one of the most successful online shooters in the world, shifting 12m copies in barely three months and attracting as many players as established mega hits such as Counter-Strike 2 and Apex Legends. So what is it about this sci-fi blaster that’s captured so many people – and how can you get involved?

So what is Arc Raiders?

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Mon, 19 Jan 2026 15:35:41 GMT
Starmer: ‘We don’t want a trade war’ – podcast

Keir Starmer has held an emergency press conference in response to Donald Trump’s tariff threats over Greenland. Pippa and Kiran discuss what the UK prime minister said and how it may be received

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Mon, 19 Jan 2026 13:19:37 GMT
Donald Trump links Greenland threats to Nobel snub as EU trade war looms

US president tells Norwegian PM he no longer feels obliged to think ‘purely of peace’ as relations with Europe plunge into chaos

Donald Trump has linked his repeated threats to seize control of Greenland to his failure to win the Nobel peace prize, as transatlantic tensions over the Arctic island escalated further and threatened to rekindle a trade war with the EU.

In an extraordinary text message sent on Sunday to the Norwegian prime minister, Jonas Gahr Støre, the US president wrote that after being snubbed for the prize, he no longer felt the need to think “purely of peace”.

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Mon, 19 Jan 2026 18:05:02 GMT
UK ministers launch consultation into whether to ban social media for under-16s

Move comes as peers prepare to vote on an amendment to a bill that would enact a ban within a year of the bill passing

Ministers have launched a consultation into whether to ban under-16s from using social media as part of a package of measures designed to curb mobile phone use among young people.

Liz Kendall, the technology secretary, announced the consultation on Monday as the government responds to mounting pressure for stricter curbs on social media use for younger teenagers. On Monday afternoon, Esther Ghey, the mother of the murdered teenager Brianna Ghey, became the latest high profile figure to add her name to those in support of a ban.

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Mon, 19 Jan 2026 22:30:05 GMT
Water firms could be let off pollution fines as part of government overhaul

Exclusive: Campaigners claim changes will let companies ‘off the hook’, as government prepares to unveil new white paper for water industry

Water companies could be let off fines for polluting the environment under changes announced in the government’s new white paper.

The environment secretary, Emma Reynolds, hailed the changes as “once-in-a-generation reforms” featuring “tough oversight, real accountability and no more excuses”.

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Mon, 19 Jan 2026 22:30:06 GMT
Spain to hold three days of mourning after train crash that killed at least 40

Officials say death toll likely to rise as rescuers continue to comb through wreckage in remote area of Andalucía

Spain will begin three days of mourning on Tuesday as rescuers continue to comb through the wreckage of twisted train cars and scattered debris to locate victims after a train collision that killed at least 40 people and injured dozens.

On Monday, more than 18 hours after a high-speed train carrying about 300 Madrid-bound passengers derailed and collided with an oncoming train, people across the country were still scrambling to make contact with missing loved ones caught up in Spain’s worst rail disaster in more than a decade.

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Mon, 19 Jan 2026 19:24:36 GMT

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