From the Cure winning their first Grammys to a posthumous award for Chick Corea, it was a night of heartening wins and robust politics
• Grammy awards 2026: list of winners

There are arguments to be made about the efficacy or not of celebs making political statements at awards ceremonies – some might say it is just as impotent as celebrities endorsing US presidential candidates. In the case of last night’s Grammys, we hardly need musicians to reiterate that what ICE is doing is morally reprehensible. And yet the sheer force and variety of these statements was bracing, making it clear that the issue should remain paramount in any context.

The Pakistani writer on enduring an abusive relationship in the public eye, and how she broke free

Fatima Bhutto was born into one of Pakistan’s most famous families. A wealthy and powerful political dynasty, marked by decades of bloody violence. Threats to the family were constant. And so the need to keep secrets became Bhutto’s norm.

Her father, Murtaza Bhutto, was killed in a police shootout outside the family home. She was just 14 years old, her world turned utterly upside down. That sadness and trauma, the sudden and silent disappearances of her childhood, followed her as an adult.

The PM has told Labour it is in the ‘fight of our lives’ against Nigel Farage’s challengers. To win, it must first agree on a line of attack

After the past fortnight in which Labour’s internal bickering has once again distracted attention from government decisions that will affect real lives, it’s worth remembering how Keir Starmer briefly lifted his party’s gaze from its own navel to a higher purpose a few months ago.

That was back in September, the previous occasion when Andy Burnham’s name was being bandied around, when the prime minister seemed to galvanise Labour’s conference by telling it “we’ve got the fight of our lives ahead of us” against Reform UK and “racist” policies that would “tear the country apart”. This would be a “different battle”, he warned, because Labour was up against opponents who represented a strain of rightwing politics alien to a Britain that had never faced “a proposition like Reform before”. He has reiterated this view several times since, not least in a pre-Christmas interview, in which Starmer said that while he could still “sleep at night” under the Conservatives, that wouldn’t be the case if Nigel Farage’s party was in power.

Tom Baldwin is the author of Keir Starmer, The Biography

Winning a career grand slam at 22 is confirmation the world No 1 is on a unique path and justified the decision to jettison long-time coach

There were many things that could have rushed into Carlos Alcaraz’s mind that followed his attainment of a goal he has chased his entire life, the career grand slam, achieved by defeating Novak Djokovic at the Australian Open.

He could have thought about the immense hard work and discipline it took to achieve all of this, his comically large, tight-knit team and family that faithfully follows him around the world or even how close he came to losing his semi-final two days earlier.

Warm, funny and heartbreaking, The President’s Cake tells the story of a brutal ruler and a girl forced to make him a present in a time of sanctions-induced hardship. Its Iraqi director Hasan Hadi remembers his own fearful childhood

There were no cinemas in Iraq in the 1990s, when Hasan Hadi was growing up under Saddam Hussein’s regime. But he still managed to fall in love with films – after a family member roped him into helping her distribute VHS tapes of banned foreign movies. “I was a kid,” says the 37-year-old, “so no one would suspect me of smuggling. I’d put the tapes up my shirt or in my bag.”

Hadi started secretly watching the films, too, everything from Bruce Lee to Tarkovsky. At night, he crept into the living room after everyone had gone to bed, keeping the volume low in case his family woke up.

Every second, 11m bits of information enter our brains, which then efficiently prioritise them. We need to learn to work with the process, rather than against it

It’s believed that we have about 50,000 thoughts a day: big, small, urgent, banal – “Did I leave the oven on?”. And those are just the ones that register. Subconsciously, we’re constantly sifting through a barrage of stimuli: background noise, clutter on our desks, the mere presence of our phones.

Every second, 11m bits of information enter our brains. Just 0.0004% is perceived by our conscious minds, showing just how hard our brains are working to parse what’s sufficiently relevant to bring to our attention.

The peer said he resigned his membership of the party to avoid causing it ‘further embarrassment’ after emails appeared to show Jeffrey Epstein sent former US ambassador $75,000

Peter Mandelson was facing already disciplinary action from the Labour party when he announced he was resigning his membership, the party has revealed.

A Labour party spokesperson said:

It is right that Peter Mandelson is no longer a member of the Labour party. Disciplinary action was underway prior to his resignation.

Jeffrey Epstein’s heinous crimes destroyed the lives of so many women and girls, and our thoughts remain with his victims.

I think there is a lot that needs to be looked into, including investigating how he ever came to be appointed, and all levers which can be pulled in order to remove him from public office looked into, including removal from the House of Lords.

Musicians delivered impassioned speeches during a star-packed night that saw Lamar become the most awarded rapper of all time

• Grammy awards 2026: list of winners

Bad Bunny and Kendrick Lamar took home major Grammy awards during a night that saw musicians hit back at Donald Trump’s ICE occupation.

From Justin Bieber to Carole King, artists wore anti-ICE pins while others also spoke out during their speeches. Bad Bunny, who is performing at the Super Bowl next weekend, took home three awards, for album of the year, best música urbana album and global music performance, and used his time on stage to call out anti-immigration sentiment.

Exclusive: Andy George, who has been subject to several investigations, believes there is an effort to marginalise the views of those he represents

“I tell you now, there is an attempt by some of the longer serving chief constables to get rid of me,” says Ch Insp Andy George. “I can guarantee I know exactly what they think of me: that I’m a wee upstart, so I am, that doesn’t know my place,” he adds with a smile.

The eldest son of a Protestant mother from Armagh in Northern Ireland and a father who was born in Malaysia but served in the British army, George is the longest-serving president of the National Black Police Association (NBPA).

Norris, 66, was suspended by Labour last year after his original arrest on suspicion of child sexual abuse offences

Dan Norris, a former Labour minister and now an independent MP, has been rearrested on suspicion of rape, sexual assault, voyeurism and upskirting, it is understood.

Norris, 66, who defeated Jacob Rees-Mogg at the last election, had been suspended by the Labour party last year after his original arrest.