With debate still swirling over the unlikeable nature of Marty Supreme’s careless protagonist, Guardian writers have picked their all-time love-to-hate leads

Spoilers ahead

I can remember seeing As Good As It Gets in theaters as a teenager and being pleasantly startled by the sight of Jack Nicholson’s Melvin Udall, romcom super grouch. Here’s a bestselling romance author who disdains love, an OCD sufferer who weaponizes his affliction, a New Yorker who hates crowds (who can’t relate?). In one scene, an adoring fan asks Melvin his secret to writing women. “I think of a man, and I take away reason and accountability,” he says, an epic burn forever seared in my brain. Of course Melvin’s anti-charm offensive only goes so far in a James L Brooks project. Before long, the rudeness erodes as Melvin is forced on to a journey of self-discovery with the nextdoor neighbor he can’t abide (Greg Kinnear) and the diner waitress he can’t live without (Helen Hunt). Melvin comes out a changed man in the end, but retains the essence of his super grouch-dom. That was the moment I fell in love with the writer’s life. Andrew Lawrence

Biopic charting Naseem Hamed’s rise has reopened old wounds but is also a reminder of what was and what might have been

The first time I watched Prince Naseem Hamed train, my jaw couldn’t have dropped any faster if he had hit me with one of his lassoing uppercuts. I had followed all his fights on TV, of course. But to see him in the flesh in September 1994, a year before he became world champion, was an altogether more visceral and mesmeric experience.

Hamed’s punches sounded like firecrackers welcoming in the new year as they smashed into the pads. He was almost impossible to hit. And, most staggering of all, despite standing 5ft 4in tall and weighing only nine stone, he would bully far bigger men in sparring – including fighters such as John Keeton, who went on to become the British cruiserweight champion – until my great uncle, Brendan Ingle, called time.

The irreverent approach of the Colombian hotline Jacarandas has made it the most-followed abortion account on social media in the Spanish-speaking world

What do a purple cartoon cat and abortion have in common? Nothing – and that is the point, say the women behind Jacarandas, a Colombian abortion helpline. Determined to set themselves apart from more traditional reproductive health organisations, Jacarandas commissions street and graphic artists to create eye-catching illustrations – most recently a cartoon feline called Gataranda, inspired by the team’s much-loved office pet.

The aim is not to make light of abortion but to appeal to the teenagers and young women who use Jacarandas’ services. “A lot of people do not connect with [an image of] the uterus on fire, so we thought ‘what can we do to connect more with young women?’” says Carolina Benítez Mendoza, the deputy director.

UK media regulator is investigating whether X has breached the Online Safety Act – what could happen next?

The UK government is threatening Elon Musk’s X with the nuclear option under the country’s online safety laws: a ban. The social media platform is under pressure from ministers after it allowed the Grok AI tool, which is integrated within the app, to generate indecent images of unsuspecting women and children.

The government has said it will support the media regulator Ofcom, which has launched an investigation into X, if it decides to push ahead with a ban. But is such a move likely?

Previous meddling has damaged the region, and once again the the US and Israel don’t have Iranians’ best interests at heart

What does it take to shake illusions in western intervention? This is not a question designed to deflect from the barbarism being unleashed by Iran’s theocratic regime. Because it severed the country’s internet connection, facts are difficult to establish, but the respected Human Rights Activists in Iran has confirmed 544 have been killed and well over 10,000 arrested – those numbers are probably significant underestimates.

Here is a regime that consolidated its power in the 1980s by butchering leftists – helped, it should be noted, by both MI6 and the CIA, who supplied them with lists of alleged Soviet agents. Today, trade union activists are arrested and tortured, while women’s activists languish in jails. The economic disaster resulting from sanctions may have helped spark these latest protests, but millions of Iranians are fed up with living under fundamentalist rule – underlined by surveys confirming growing religious non-observance and opposition to the compulsory hijab.

Owen Jones is a Guardian columnist

Given how easy it is to kill plants by overwatering, these devices are tempting – but can they beat simply sticking your finger in the soil?

The problem
Houseplants often die from too much water, not neglect. Might a moisture meter help?

The hack
For around £10, a probe promises to tell you exactly when to water.

Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news, as central bankers from across the world say they stand with Fed’s Powell

Global central bank officials are reportedly planning to release a coordinated statement of support for US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, after America’s top central banker was threatened with a criminal indictment.

Reuters is reporting that the statement, which is expected to contain the signatures of central bankers from around the world, will back Powell and stress the need for independent central banking.

Friedrich Merz says government is ‘effectively at the end’ after nearly 650 protesters reportedly killed in the ongoing crackdown

• Trump says countries doing business with Iran face 25% tariff on US trade

• People in Iran: share your views on the current situation

About 2,000 people, including security personnel, have been killed in the protests in Iran, an Iranian official has told the Reuters news agency. We have not been able to independently verify this figure yet. It is difficult to do so because of the ongoing internet blackout in Iran. More details soon…

Australia’s foreign minister Penny Wong has urged her country’s nationals in Iran to leave “now” as tensions remain high between Washington and Tehran as the US reportedly weighs a series of potential military options in Iran.

Australia stands with the brave people of Iran in their struggle against an oppressive regime.

We unequivocally condemn the Iranian regime’s brutal crackdown on its own people – the killing of protesters, the use of force, and arbitrary arrests must stop.

Health secretary says: ‘If we tell the public that we can’t make anything work, then why on earth would they vote to keep us in charge’

Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, has set out a plan to end 12-hour A&E waits in English hospital. The party says the problem has escalated hugely over the past few years, and it is proposing two measures that it says would address the problem.

They are:

“A new law to enshrine the right for patients to be seen in A&E within 12 hours.”

“Spending £1.5bn to make around 6,000 more beds available each day by expanding hospital capacity and creating ‘safety net’ social care beds for patients waiting on long-term care decisions.” The Lib Dems would get the money by “cancelling the planned medicine price hike agreed with the Trump administration before Christmas”.

Right now, in the corridors of A&E departments across our country, there are thousands of people – sick or injured – lying on trolleys or waiting on plastic chairs. No privacy. No dignity. There have even been tragic cases of people dying on those trolleys and left undiscovered for hours.

What more stark an example could there be, of the way things in our country aren’t working the way they should, than thousands of people lying for hours in corridors in our hospitals, and people dying on those trolleys? This deadly corridor crisis isn’t befitting of the heroic doctors, nurses and other health professionals who work in our NHS. It’s not what we expect from our NHS, and it’s not what we pay our hard-earned money in taxes to fund our NHS for …

Road project, part of blueprint for new illegal settlement in E1 area east of Jerusalem, is considered a tool of annexation

Israel plans to start work next month on a bypass road that will close off the heart of the occupied West Bank to Palestinians and cement the de facto annexation of an area critical for the viability of a future Palestinian state.

The road is a key part of the blueprint for a vast illegal new settlement in the E1 area east of Jerusalem, which would fragment the occupied West Bank. The Israeli finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, said the plans were intended to “bury the idea of a Palestinian state”.