Rachel Reeves’s inheritance tax changes encourage more people to invest in previously unloved product
The government’s “inheritance tax raid” on pensions has helped drive sales of retirement annuities to new highs.
Industry data this week revealed they enjoyed a “record-breaking” 2025, with sales growing by 4% to £7.4bn and the average amount invested in an annuity surpassing £80,000 for the first time.
In this week’s newsletter: Everyone has to start somewhere … and in front of someone. Thankfully, these soon-to-be-huge artists left the mime act and dodgy covers (mostly) in the past
From the Beatles slogging through mammoth sets for jeering sailors in Hamburg basement bars, to Ed Sheeran playing just about every open mic night in the south of England, even the biggest acts had to start small. So when we asked Guide readers to share their memories of seeing now-massive bands and artists before they were famous, it was inevitable we’d get some great tales. So much so, in fact, that we’ve decided to devote the main chunk of this week’s Guide to your pre-fame gig recollections. We’ve also asked Guardian music writers – seasoned veterans of seeking out the next big thing – to share a few of their memories. Read on for tales of Kurt Cobain in Yorkshire, Playboi Carti’s set in an east London snooker club and an ill-advised David Bowie mime performance …
My teenage self was shy and miserable, before a coming-of-age film unleashed an adolescence of drink, sex and drugs. It was a years-long party that eventually came crashing down
At 13, what felt like almost overnight, I turned from a happy, musical-theatre-loving child into a sad, lonely teenager. Things I had cared about only yesterday were suddenly irrelevant, as I realised that nothing and no one mattered, least of all me. It’s an angst that adults often find difficult to remember or understand; as the famous line from The Virgin Suicides goes: “Obviously, Doctor, you’ve never been a 13-year-old girl.”
Going to an all-girls Catholic school, I didn’t even really know that sex, drugs and alcohol existed, or that they had currency, until I watched Thirteen for the first time at 14, after seeing a still on Pinterest. The reckless rebellion the two best friends portrayed was seductive to me, and within weeks of watching the film, I’d met some girls from the co-ed school opposite who were having sex, going to parties and taking drugs. Soon, I was doing it all too.
Epstein files release shows David Stern advised against mentioning ‘being denied previously or criminal charges’
An aide to Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor advised Jeffrey Epstein to illegally hide his child sexual abuse conviction to obtain a visa to China, according to the latest Epstein files release.
Auditorium to remove bacon and sausages from cafe during stage run after request from campaign group
Campaigners are calling on theatre bosses to stop serving bacon, sausages and ham in their cafes – at least while Peppa Pig and her family are performing in the same building.
It’s an ideal time of year for snuggling up on a countryside break. We pick accommodation from shepherds’ huts in Somerset to a chateau in Wales
Six vintage-style “luxury huts” spaced out around a lake make up The Shepherds Hut Retreat in south Somerset. They have modern kitchens and bathrooms, private areas with hot tubs, and fancy features such as telescopes, gin bars, pizza ovens, fire pits and hammocks. There is also a woodland sauna on site. The newest hut, 1898, is the grandest, and is inspired by the Pig hotels. It is a mile’s walk to the Lord Poulett Arms, a thatched 17th-century pub in the village of Hinton St George, and half an hour’s drive to the beaches of the Jurassic Coast in east Devon and Dorset. From £169, coolstays.com
A family struggled to rebuild their lives after an abusive marriage ended in tragedy and financial ruin
Family life ended for Francesca Onody on a late summer evening in 2022 when her abusive husband doused their cottage with petrol as police arrived to arrest him. She and her children escaped seconds before the building exploded. Her husband Malcolm Baker died in the blaze.
That night, Onody lost her husband, her home, her pets and her possessions.
From Boy, Baby, Reason and Diary to stubbin and rumpy, test your knowledge with the Saturday quiz
1 The world’s largest ocean current circles which continent? 2 Who was both the 8th US president and the 8th vice-president? 3 Where did Britain’s first nudist beach open in 1980? 4 What term did Liz Hurley coin for non-celebrities? 5 Stubbin and rumpy are local names for what felines? 6 Who was introduced on The Porter Wagoner Show in September 1967? 7 Which country’s postal service stopped delivering letters in December 2025? 8 What was the only spin-off series from Friends? What links:
9 Royal Ascot; Open golf; Laver Cup; Olympic heptathlon; Cricket World Cup final (in descending order)? 10 Fleet; Holloway; Marshalsea; Millbank; Newgate? 11 Hirundine bird; Idris Elba DCI; male monarch; Mama Used to Say singer? 12 Boy; Baby; Reason; Diary? 13 1981 and 2005; 1973 and 1992; 1986; 1999? 14 Gulf of Mexico; Denali; US Department of Defense? 15 Septimius Severus; Constantius Chlorus; Dick Turpin; Joseph Rowntree?
Moth, Toastie and Conkers battle it with their microphones. Plus, the story of Sarah Ferguson’s former dresser who was found guilty of murder. Here’s what to watch this evening
A thatcher, gardener and others on keeping their business afloat in the bad weather – and their fears for the future
With76 flood warnings still in force across the UK and further downpours forecast this week and next, parts of the country have endured rain almost without pause since the start of the year.
The prolonged wet weather is disrupting livelihoods as well as daily life, particularly in rural areas, where flooded roads, waterlogged ground and repeated storms are making it harder to keep businesses afloat, protect crops and maintain steady work.
Bizarre idioms for downpours are just one facet of how the UK uses dark humour and ritual to brave the wet
May it fall as a blessing, not as a curse. So goes the ancient prayer inviting us to embrace days of rain.
It is a prayer that would not be welcomed by anyone on the floodplains the UK persists in filling with houses. It would be met with outright hostility by any farmers who are now unable to do any of the things they need to do in February because their land has had literally 40 days and nights of rain.
With so many platforms rife with racism, misogyny and far-right rhetoric, there must be a point where decent people walk away
In a week during which Keir Starmer has been under pressure to resign, cabinet ministers took to X to show their support. “We’ve all been made to tweet,” one Labour figure told a political journalist. Theironyis hard to escape: as the prime minister is embroiled in the scandal of Peter Mandelson’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, and now his former aide’s links to a sex offender, MPs are defending him on a platform that has in thepast monthallowed users to create sexualised images of women and girls.
This says something about the unprecedented way in which X has been tied to modern politics since it was still known as Twitter, as well as how widespread the culture of indifference is to the violation of female bodies, both online and off. But it also points to a growing dilemma facing not just politicians, but all of us: is it possible to post ethically on social media any more? And when is it time to log off?
For centuries in Ireland lifting huge boulders was a way to test strength and bond communities, says Instagram sensation Indiana Stones
David Keohan surveyed the County Waterford beach and spotted a familiar mound half-buried in sand: an oval-shaped limestone boulder. It weighed about 115kg.
He wedged it loose with a crowbar, wiped it dry with a cloth, dusted his hands with chalk and paused to gaze at the Irish Sea, as if summoning strength from the waves pounding ashore.
A thrifty and flavourful mashed potato dish beloved of most Indians – careful with that pav bhaji masala though!
Pav bhaji, or Indian spiced mash, is a home cook’s friend. It’s not fussy, and it will take most leftover vegetables and transform them into something delicious. Add a squeeze of lemon, chopped onion and fresh herbs, and mop up with a butter-fried roll, just as the people of Mumbai do. The odd potato? No problem. A bit of cauliflower? Sure. Some peas from the freezer? Ideal! What you do need, however, is a secret weapon in the form of pav bhaji masala, a little box of spice perfectly blended to add the appropriate magic (and available in most places where you’d find a hungry Indian).
She scandalised the art world in the 1990s with her unmade bed, partied hard in the 2000s – then a brush with death turned the artist’s life upside down. Now she’s as frank as ever
There is a long buildup before I get to see Tracey Emin – her two cats, Teacup and Pancake, preceding her like a pair of slinky sentries as she walks into the white-painted basement kitchen of her huge Georgian house in Margate. The lengthy overture is because – though I’ve been invited for noon – Emin is a magnificently late riser. Her average working day, her studio manager Harry tells me, runs from about 6pm to 3am. And so, while the artist is gradually sorting herself out, Harry takes me on a tour through her home town in the January drizzle, the sea a sulky grey blur beyond the sands.
At last, Harry is ringing the doorbell, and Emin’s lovely housekeeper, Sam, is sitting me down in the kitchen, then finally here she is, dressed in loose dark trousers and top, with those faithful cats. Emin is recognisably the same as she’s ever been – the artist who scandalised and entranced the nation in the 1990s with her tent embroidered with the names of everyone she’d ever slept with; with her unmade bed and its rumpled sheets and detritus. She still has that sardonic lip, those arched brows, those flashing eyes. But these days she is surprisingly calm, slow moving, her greying hair swept back into a loose bun. This is the Emin who has worked hard, survived a great deal and, somewhat unpredictably, ended up a national treasure.
Communal central heating means Moscow can plunge entire neighbourhoods into cold with a single strike
Many Ukrainians are without heating in sub-zero temperatures as a result of relentless Russian strikes on energy infrastructure, while the country suffers through its coldest winter of the war so far.
Ukraine is especially vulnerable to such attacks, as Moscow can exploit a widespread Soviet-era heat system in which multiple apartment blocks rely on communal central heating.
Exclusive: High levels of banned ‘forever chemical’ have been detected in rivers and groundwater at 25 sites
A string of toxic pollution hotspots has been uncovered across Cumbria and Lancashire, with high levels of the banned cancer-causing “forever chemical” Pfos detected in rivers and groundwater at 25 sites.
The contamination, spread across a large area, was uncovered by Watershed Investigations and the Guardian after a freedom of information request revealed high concentrations of Pfos in Environment Agency samples taken in January 2025.
Emerald Fennell’s film brings the raunch to Brontë’s romance, while Nintendo’s beloved plumber stars in a colourful, family-friendly sports game
Wuthering Heights Out now
Out on the wily, windy moors, writer-director Emerald Fennell has constructed a new interpretation of the Emily Brontë classic. Margot Robbie is Cathy while Jacob Elordi takes on Heathcliff, and as you might expect from the film-maker behind Saltburn, the passionate pair are set to leave no height unwuthered.
A stylish high-stakes armed robbery thriller with Chris Hemsworth and Mark Ruffalo, and a gentle supernatural comedy from Mackenzie Crook. Here’s the pick of the week’s culture, taken from the Guardian’s best-rated reviews
Lawmakers left Washington for a long weekend without resolving an impasse over much-criticized agency’s funding
The Department of Homeland Security has begun a partial shutdown, after funding for the much-criticized agency expired, with a range of services, including domestic flights and the US Coastguard, now vulnerable to disruption.
The shutdown was all but confirmed on Thursday, after the Senate failed to clear the 60-vote threshold needed to pass the DHS appropriations bill and lawmakers left Washington for a long weekend without resolving the impasse.
The Canadian prime minister told residents of Tumbler Ridge that the country is ‘with you’
Canadian prime minister Mark Carney has told residents of Tumbler Ridge that the country is “with you, and we will always be with you”, during a candlelight vigil for the eight victims of a mass shooting that has shattered the small mining town.
The prime minister, holding hands with opposition leader Pierre Poilievre while flanked by First Nations chiefs and local officials, paid tribute to the families enduring the loss of loved ones, after the shooting at a local school that has become one of the most deadly attacks in Canadian history.
Ukraine-Russia war high on the agenda at Munich Security Council; France’s Macron says world must not accept Ukraine defeated. What we know on day 1,452
Democratic representative also condemns US capture of Nicolás Maduro, Trump’s threats to annex Greenland and US support for Israel’s war on Gaza – key US politics stories from Friday, 13 February at a glance
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has accused Donald Trump of tearing apart the transatlantic alliance with Europe and of seeking to introduce an “age of authoritarianism”, as she condemned his administration’s foreign policy in front of its allies’ top policymakers at the Munich security conference.
Speaking at a panel on populism on Friday, the New York representative outlined what she called an “alternative vision” for a leftwing US foreign policy, challenging the Trump administration’s shift to the right in front an audience of US allies who have grown increasingly wary of the US’s increasingly nationalist – and militaristic – global posture.
New York congresswoman criticizes ‘unconditional’ US aid and calls for enforcement of Leahy laws
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said during a Munich security conference panel on Friday on the future of foreign policy that the Democratic party’s next presidential nominee should reconsider the country’s military aid to Israel.
Hagar Shezaf of the Israeli newspaper Haaretz asked the US congresswoman if she thought “the Democratic presidential candidate in the 2028 elections should re-evaluate military aid to Israel”.
Aldwych theatre, London William Nicholson’s take on CS Lewis’s marriage to an American divorcee should have you in bits but it fails to feel as eviscerating as it should
The drama of love and loss in Shadowlands has played out movingly in film and on television. William Nicholson’s take on CS Lewis’s marriage to an American divorcee is that of late-found passion, terminal illness and a crisis of the celebrated writer’s Christian faith. In all its iterations, it is an old-fashioned weepie. In this production, originally staged at Chichester Festival theatre, it just feels old-fashioned.
It has charm and pulls you into its sadness but seems as creaky as the half-filled, wood-panelled library in its backdrop. There is too much a sense of a drama unfolding, from the moment Lewis (Hugh Bonneville) receives a letter from American fan, Joy Davidman (Maggie Siff), to his slow falling in love and her descent into illness.
Defender’s current contract expires at end of the season
‘We wouldn’t be in talks if we didn’t want him to stay’
Arne Slot has described Ibrahima Konaté as “vital” to Liverpool and the club have not given up hope of convincing the defender to sign a new contract.
Konaté has endured a tough time on and off the pitch this season but has impressed since returning from compassionate leave against Newcastle following the death of his father. Liverpool’s central-defensive rebuild is under way with the signings of Giovanni Leoni and Jérémy Jacquet, for an initial £26m and £55m respectively, but Slot insists Konaté remains an essential part of his plans.
British PM to tell Munich Security Conference that Europe together is ‘sleeping giant’ and will say UK won’t turn away from its allies
Keir Starmer will say the UK and Europe need to step up their commitments to Nato and avoid the risk of overdependence on the US for defence, as he sets out one of the main planks of his foreign policy vision on Saturday.
Speaking at the Munich Security Conference, the prime minister will warn against the idea of the UK turning inwards on security, instead calling for a focus on what he will call the “sleeping giant” of shared European defence capabilities.
For nearly two years, Ilia Malinin has made men’s figure skating feel predictable in the most spectacular of ways. On Friday night on the southern outskirts of Milan, the Olympic Games reminded the sport, and perhaps Malinin himself, that predictability is never guaranteed on its biggest stage.
The overwhelming favorite entering the free skate, the 21-year-old American instead saw the Olympic title slip away to Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Shaidorov after an error-strewn performance that will go down among the biggest shocks in figure skating history.
Berlin film festival: Shahrbanoo Sadat is a charming presence in front of the camera and a skilled film-maker behind in this shrewd and contemporary tale
The Afghan film-maker Shahrbanoo Sadat is a warm and approachable presence as writer, director and star of No Good Men – a tale of Afghanistan’s women in 2021 as they are about to be surrendered to the Taliban with the withdrawal of US troops.
It’s an urgent tale, which incidentally closes with a fervent finale reminiscent of Casablanca – although the central turnaround in the male lead’s heart, gallantly disproving the title, is maybe a bit smooth.
No Good Men is screening at the Berlin film festival and will be released at a later date
With sleet, snow, swirling wind from the banks of the Humber and most importantly, a Hull City side pushing hard for promotion to the Premier League this season, it was hard not to believe pre-match that this had all the makings of a difficult evening’s work for Chelsea.
Liam Rosenior holds this city close to his heart, given how some of his family hail from Hull and he had an enjoyable spell in charge of the Tigers: well, until he was unceremoniously sacked nearly two years ago, that is. But his happy association with Hull continued with a magnificent display from his Chelsea side, who ultimately sauntered into the next round of the FA Cup.
Johnny Flynn and John C Reilly offer casting heft, but this moody, technically sound tale of an unfolding epidemic in 1870s Wisconsin lacks emotional substance
There is some very concerted image-making and mood-making in this technically accomplished yet unsatisfying drama from first-time, Norway-based director Dara Van Dusen. It is a sombre tale of the American old west, adapted by Dusen from the novel by Stewart O’Nan, and somehow has the feel of a short film indulgently taken to feature length. Its visual gestures and set pieces, although striking and often shocking, felt for me disconnected from any emotional truth – a truth that sustained, developed storytelling may have provided.
The setting is a frontier town in Wisconsin in 1870, and Jacob (Johnny Flynn) is both sheriff and pastor – although he wears neither badge nor religious garment. He has seen traumatising service in the civil war, in which he appears to have achieved high rank, although some in the town are suspicious of his Norwegian background. He is married to Marta (Kristine Kujath Thorp) and they have a young child.
Briton triumphs by nearly a second in Milano Cortina
First British man to win individual winter gold since 1980
And on the seventh day, Great Britain finally won their first medal of these Olympics. At nine o’clock on Friday night Matt Weston, the man his teammates call “Captain 110%”, became the first British man ever to win the gold in the men’s skeleton, after four faultless races across the two days of competition.
The 28-year-old broke the track record at the Cortina Sliding Centre four times in succession, and won in a combined time of 3min 43.33sec, which was almost a full second ahead of the runner-up, Germany’s Axel Jungk. “I’ve been fortunate enough to win world championships, and European championships and other things, and this blows them all out the water,” Weston said. “I almost feel numb. I keep touching this medal to make sure it is real.”
Scotland have lost only two of the last eight clashes with England but Borthwick’s squad are unscarred by failure
In one of sport’s weirder coincidences, England are about to play must-win games against Scotland in both rugby and cricket on the same day. The forecast 3C temperatures for the Calcutta Cup encounter may be cooler than in Kolkata – appropriately the venue for the T20 World Cup group fixture – but a white-hot contest inside a chilly Murrayfield can be absolutely guaranteed.
Because this particular collision, the 144th since the sides first met at Raeburn Place in 1871, looks set to shape the Six Nations prospects of all involved. To say Scotland are under additional pressure following their defeat by Italy in round one is to state the obvious. And England, too, will take the field knowing the time has come to demonstrate whether or not they are the real deal.
US homeland security eyeing 24 buildings, some as ‘primary locations’ for deportations, in escalation of Trump agenda
US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) expects to spend an estimated $38.3bn on a plan to acquire warehouses across the country and retrofit them into new immigration detention centers with capacity for tens of thousands of detainees, according to documents the agency sent to the governor of New Hampshire.
The documents, published on the state’s website on Thursday, disclose that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) estimates it will spend $158m retrofitting a new detention facility in Merrimack, New Hampshire, and an additional estimated $146m to operate the facility in the first three years.
A skier from France is also killed with manslaughter investigation to be carried out by mountain rescue police
Two Britons are among three skiers to have been killed in an avalanche in the French Alps.
The pair were part of a group of five people, accompanied by an instructor, off-piste skiing in Val d’Isère, in south-east France. A French national, who was skiing alone, was also killed.
Letter says it is clear the former US ambassador ‘holds critical information’ for their investigation into Epstein
Peter Mandelson has been asked to testify to the US Congress over his relationship with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Robert Garcia, ranking member of the committee on oversight and government reform, and congressman Suhas Subramanyam have written to Mandelson requesting he be questioned as part of the investigation into Epstein.
German chancellor rebuts idea of American unilateralism and says ‘democracies have partners and allies’
The US acting alone has reached the limits of its power and may already have lost its role as global leader, Friedrich Merz, the German chancellor, warned Donald Trump at the opening of the Munich Security Conference.
Merz also disclosed he had held initial talks with the French president, Emmanuel Macron, over the possibility of joining France’s nuclear umbrella, underlining his call for Europe to develop a stronger self-standing security strategy.
Wuthering Heights is the latest film to turn heads over anachronistic costumes, but it’s not by any means the first
Emerald Fennell’s retelling of Emily Brontë’s 1847 novel Wuthering Heights finally hits cinema screens this weekend. Ever since the first set of photos were released, the anachronisms of the costumes have been central to the conversation.
As fashion industry watchdog Diet Prada put it: “The costume design for Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights scandalised audiences with its freaky mix of Oktoberfest corseting meets 1950’s ballgowns meets futuristic liquid organza meets … Barbie?”
Protests in Buenos Aires, Lindsey Vonn crashes at the Winter Olympics and Bad Bunny performs at Super Bowl LX – the past seven days as captured by the world’s leading photojournalists
Nikhil Gupta faces up to 40 years over alleged India-backed attempt to kill Gurpatwant Singh Pannun
The Indian man who US prosecutors accused of plotting to kill a prominent US-based activist after being recruited by an agent of the Indian government has pleaded guilty to three criminal charges, according to a spokesperson for the US attorney’s office in Manhattan.
Nikhil Gupta faces a maximum 40 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to murder-for-hire, conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire, and money-laundering charges in connection to the failed attempt to assassinate Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a US resident who is an advocate for a sovereign Sikh state in
northern India.
Rising evidence that secondhand vapour from e-cigarettes poses health risks, government says
Vaping in cars carrying anyone under 18 will be banned in England under government plans to reduce the harm caused by smoking and e-cigarettes.
The move is included in the tobacco and vapes bill, which will also outlaw smoking, vaping and using heated tobacco in playgrounds and outside schools and hospitals.
Ghanaian guitarist, arranger, singer-songwriter and cult hero who rose to fame outside Africa only late in life
Ebo Taylor, who has died aged 90, was one of the great innovators of west African music, a Ghanaian guitarist, arranger and singer-songwriter who never received the fame he deserved outside Africa until late in life, by when he had become a much-sampled cult hero. It was only in 2010, when he was 74, that he released Love and Death, his first solo album to be given an international distribution.
Recorded with members of the Berlin-based Afrobeat academy, it included new versions of songs from earlier in his career that until now had been heard only on imports or compilations. And it showed how – like his far more celebrated Nigerian friend Fela Kuti – he had fused African and western styles to create a style of his own.
Customers flock to Daoxiangcun to pick up cakes selected by the president during lunar new year tour around city
A Beijing pastry shop visited by the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, on a lunar new year tour this week has been swarmed by customers hoping to get their hands on Xi-approved sweet treats.
Traffic was brought to a standstill in Beijing’s capital as the president took a tour around the city on Monday and Tuesday.
Olly Cracknell one of four changes in the Welsh team
Doris urges Ireland team to take greater responsibility
The Wales coach, Steve Tandy, has made four changes to his starting XV for the daunting visit of France to the Principality Stadium on Sunday, including Olly Cracknell at No 8 as they seek to arrest a 12-game losing streak in the Six Nations.
Following last weekend’s 48-7 defeat to England, beleaguered Wales have beefed up their pack with the inclusion of Cracknell for a first Six Nations start, and two changes in the front row as the props Rhys Carré and Tomas Francis replace Nicky Smith and Archie Griffin.
Canada Soccer has extended its controversial sponsorship and broadcast deal with its privately owned commercial partner, Canadian Soccer Business (CSB), on improved terms for the governing body ahead of this summer’s World Cup.
A new 11-year contract has been agreed through to 2037, with both parties having an option to extend by a further five years, despite the in-fighting that marred the original 10-year deal. It culminated in player strikes and the Canadian Soccer Players Association filing a $40m lawsuit against Canada Soccer board members two years ago.
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