The once-lauded director of Black Swan and The Wrestler has drowned himself in AI slop with an embarrassing new online series

If you happen to find yourself stumbling through Time magazine’s YouTube account, perhaps because you are a time traveller from the 1970s who doesn’t fully understand how the present works yet – then you will be presented with something that many believe represents the vanguard of entertainment as we know it.

On This Day … 1776 is a series of short videos depicting America’s revolutionary war. What makes On This Day notable is that it was made by Darren Aronofsky’s studio Primordial Soup. What also makes it interesting is that it was created with AI. The third thing that makes it interesting is that it is terrible.

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© Photograph: YouTube

© Photograph: YouTube

© Photograph: YouTube

‘No light at the end of the tunnel for consumers’ as 2025 figure is 50% higher than previous year, says Citizens Advice

Royal Mail has been criticised for offering an “unacceptable” performance over the crucial Christmas period after it failed to deliver letters and cards on time to about 16 million people, Citizens Advice found.

The consumer watchdog, which carried out research into Christmas deliveries, said that figure was 50% higher than in 2024, and the highest level over the festive period in five years, excluding when Royal Mail was hit by strike action in the run-up to Christmas four years ago.

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© Photograph: Simon Dack/Alamy

© Photograph: Simon Dack/Alamy

© Photograph: Simon Dack/Alamy

The number of deaths, injuries and missing is approaching a grim milestone after nearly four years of fighting.

© Brendan Hoffman for The New York Times

Hunkering down in January; hiking boots for outdoor adventures; and cold-weather beauty essentials

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Congratulations, you’ve made it through more than 75% of January, Blue Monday and all. Extra kudos if you got through it without booking a holiday amid the onslaught of sun-soaked adverts, although I confess I’m not tempted. Would I rather spend hours on a plane with 200 strangers who had prosecco for breakfast, or hibernate until spring? I’ll take hibernation, thanks. Especially now that I’ve learned to do it properly.

Hunkering down may not sound like something you need tips to master, but January is the best of times and the worst of times for those of us who struggle with insomnia. On the upside, all the darkness encourages your body to produce plenty of the “sleep hormone” melatonin (nature’s way of telling you to sleep through it). On the downside, lack of sunlight is a key trigger for seasonal affective disorder (Sad) – one of the symptoms of which is broken sleep. Never simple, is it?

The best women’s boots for winter: 24 favourites, from knee-high to ankle

The best heated clothes airers to save time and money when drying your laundry, tested

The best women’s walking boots, tested by our expert hiker

The best men’s walking boots for every type of hiking adventure, tested

The best electric heaters, from traditional stove-style units to modern smart models – tested

How I shop with Dawn O’Porter: ‘Good skin is an obsession’

‘Wonderfully thick, creamy and clean-tasting’: the best supermarket natural yoghurts, tasted and rated

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© Photograph: Jane Hoskyn

© Photograph: Jane Hoskyn

© Photograph: Jane Hoskyn

• 37-year-old shot dead by federal agents on Saturday

• Angel Reese and Ryan Clark also post about shooting

• Hall of famer Alan Page seen at anti-ICE protests

A number of prominent US sports stars have condemned the killing of a registered nurse, Alex Pretti, by federal agents in Minneapolis on Saturday.

Pretti, 37, is the second person shot and killed by federal agents in Minneapolis in less than three weeks as protests over Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown sweep the city. Senior Trump administration officials have claimed Pretti intended to “massacre” federal officers with a handgun but video of the killing appears to contradict those claims.

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© Photograph: Nate Billings/AP

© Photograph: Nate Billings/AP

© Photograph: Nate Billings/AP

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr sees “legitimate competition concerns” in Netflix Inc.’s proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery Inc.’s studios and streaming businesses, concerns he doesn’t share if Paramount Skydance Corp. were to acquire those assets.

Single malt prices soar, but scotch should be fun and affordable

We have Robert Burns to thank for perhaps the greatest poem about any dish ever – a poem so good that it inspires an entire nation to dedicate an evening of each year to eating haggis, even though most people find it kind of gross.

No? If the “Great Chieftan o’ the Puddin-race” were that delicious, we’d all be eating it all the time, surely? And yet Burns’ Address to a Haggis is enticing enough to dispel any such doubts just once a year. I especially like the bit about slitting it open so the bright entrails spill out: “And then, O what a glorious sight / Warm-reekin, rich!”

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© Photograph: Catherine Falls Commercial/Getty Images

© Photograph: Catherine Falls Commercial/Getty Images

© Photograph: Catherine Falls Commercial/Getty Images

Paramount Skydance Corp. again extended its tender offer for Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. shares and said it would ask investors to vote against a proposed sale to Netflix Inc. at a special meeting of Warner Bros. shareholders.

President Trump’s verbal broadsides drew gasps and nervous laughter at the annual gathering of political and business leaders.

© Doug Mills/The New York Times

Helping Ukraine defend against Russian aggression should be Europe’s “No. 1 priority,” Mark Rutte, the secretary general of NATO, said in Davos.

© Fabrice Coffrini/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Netflix Inc. reached an amended, all-cash agreement to buy Warner Bros. Discovery Inc.’s studio and streaming business as it battles Paramount Skydance Corp. to acquire one of Hollywood’s most iconic entertainment companies.

With cameras rolling, President Trump met with more than 40 international leaders in his first year back in office.

© Eric Lee/The New York Times

The Chilean film-maker’s psychedelic work earned him the title ‘king of the midnight movie’, and a fan in John Lennon. Now the 96-year-old is ready for the end – but first there is more living to do

There is an apocryphal story of an ageing Orson Welles introducing himself to the guests at a half-empty town hall. “I am an actor, a writer, a producer and a director,” he said. “I am a magician and I appear on stage and on the radio. Why are there so many of me and so few of you?”

If a fantasy author were to dream up Welles’s psychedelic cousin, he’d likely have the air of Alejandro Jodorowsky: serene and white-bearded with a crocodile smile, presiding over a niche band of disciples. He has been – variously, often concurrently – a director, an actor, a poet, a puppeteer, a psychotherapist, a tarot-card reader, an author of fantasy books. At the age of 96, Jodorowsky estimates that he’s lived 100 different lives and embodied 100 different Jodorowskys. “Because we are different people all the time,” he says. “I died a lot of times but then I’m reborn. Look at me now and you see I’m alive. I am happy about this. It is fantastic to live.”

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© Photograph: Le Pacte/SOMBRALUZ Film

© Photograph: Le Pacte/SOMBRALUZ Film

© Photograph: Le Pacte/SOMBRALUZ Film

Daniel Reuss/Noord Nederlands Orkest/Cappella Amsterdam
(Pentatone)
Noord Nederlands Orkest and Cappella Amsterdam breathe colour and light into work from the composer’s most austere period

In his later years, Igor Stravinsky became fascinated by serialism, both as a means of distilling musical thought and as an intellectual and stylistic challenge for a composer entering his 70s and 80s. The results struck some contemporary listeners as austere, but there’s a self-effacing purity and beauty about this complex, intellectually probing music that deserves a wider audience than hitherto. Kudos, then, to conductor Daniel Reuss, whose precise yet vital interpretations teem with colour and light.

There are four main works here. In Memoriam Dylan Thomas from 1954 is an extended, impassioned setting for solo tenor of Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night. Threni, a spiny, multifaceted jewel from 1958, sets words from the Book of Lamentations. The haunting Introitus and bristling Requiem Canticles, from 1965 and 1966 respectively, complete the set, interspersed with briefer pieces including an unpretentious Lord’s Prayer and the severely cerebral two-minute Elegy for JFK.

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© Photograph: Diederik Rooker

© Photograph: Diederik Rooker

© Photograph: Diederik Rooker

Paramount Skydance Corp.’s leadership has held talks in recent days with French President Emmanuel Macron amid a European charm offensive to garner support for its $108.4 billion hostile bid for Warner Bros. Discovery Inc.

A judge refused to fast track Paramount Skydance Corp.’s lawsuit accusing directors of Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. of misleading investors about a more than $82.7 billion buyout bid from Netflix Inc.

Netflix Inc. is working on revised terms for its Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. acquisition and has discussed making an all-cash offer for the company’s studios and streaming businesses, people familiar with the discussions said. The changes are designed to expedite a sale that will take months to close and has faced opposition both from politicians and rival bidder Paramount Skydance Corp. Institutional investors have been divided in their support. Bloomberg's Geetha Ranganathan joins to discuss on Bloomberg Intelligence. (Source: Bloomberg)

Paramount Skydance Corp. ratcheted up the stakes in the monthslong battle for Warner Bros. Discovery Inc., saying it plans to nominate directors to the board to thwart a merger with Netflix Inc. The company, run by David Ellison, also said it filed a lawsuit against Warner Bros. in an attempt to force out into the open more details about Netflix’s $82.7 billion takeover agreement, escalating an acrimonious bidding war between the media company and the streaming giant that has captivated Hollywood and Wall Street. Bloomberg's Geetha Ranganathan joins to discuss on Bloomberg Intelligence. (Source: Bloomberg)

Paramount Skydance Corp. ratcheted up the stakes in the monthslong battle for Warner Bros. Discovery Inc., saying it plans to nominate directors to the board to thwart a merger with Netflix Inc.

Stirling Distillery project risks being viewed as heresy but it says it wants to make the industry more sustainable

Whisky drinkers and tourists are often bewitched by the amber rows of malt whisky that line the shelves of Scotland’s bars, restaurants and hotels.

So proposals from one of Scotland’s smallest distilleries could be viewed by many as heresy.

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© Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian

© Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian

© Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian