LONDON (AP) — The co-creator of British TV sitcoms “Father Ted" and the "IT Crowd" said he was arrested over a series of posts about transgender people.
Graham Linehan, 57, said he was arrested Monday at Heathrow Airport after arriving from Arizona. The Metropolitan Police didn't name Linehan but said it had arrested a man at the airport on suspicion of inciting violence in posts on X.
Linehan, who is well known for posts asserting that trans women are men, said in April that trans women were violent criminals if they used women-only facilities. He advocated hitting them if calling police and other measures failed to stop them from using such facilities.
His post on X came just days after the head of the U.K’s Equality and Human Rights Commission said transgender women would be excluded from women-only spaces such as toilets, single-sex hospital wards and sports teams. The decision followed a ruling by Britain's highest court that the terms “woman” and “man” refer to biological sex for antidiscrimination purposes.
Conservative members of Parliament condemned the arrest.
“Britain used to be known for its sense of humor," Conservative MP Claire Coutinho said. “Now the police are arresting people for making jokes.”
Linehan said in a post on Substack that the questioning by police sent his blood pressure soaring and he was taken to the hospital and kept under observation before being released on bail. The Irish writer said the only condition for his release was that he could not post on X.
He is due to appear Thursday in Westminster Magistrates’ Court on a separate case in which he is accused of harassing a transgender woman and damaging her phone. He has denied the charge.
This May 12, 2025 photo shows Graham Linehan in London. (Lucy North/PA via AP)
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia has not spared a single Ukrainian power plant from attack since its all-out invasion, Ukraine’s new energy minister said Friday, as a recent escalation of aerial bombardments left hundreds of thousands of people without heat or light for days during the coldest winter in years.
Denys Shmyhal said Russia conducted 612 attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure objects over last year. That barrage has intensified in recent months as nighttime temperatures plunge to minus 18 degrees C (minus 0.4 F).
“Nobody in the world has ever faced such a challenge,” Shmyhal told lawmakers in a speech at Ukraine’s Parliament, the Verkhovna Rada.
Russia has hammered Ukraine’s power grid, especially in winter, throughout the almost four-year war. It aims to weaken the Ukrainian will to resist in a strategy that Kyiv officials call “weaponizing winter.”
Securing from abroad new missile supplies for air defenses that can counter Russia’s power grid attacks is a difficult and exhausting process, Zelenskyy said, revealing that some of the country’s air defense systems were out of missiles and at Russia’s mercy until a new shipment arrived Friday morning.
Obtaining supplies requires intense diplomatic pressure due to minimum stockpile levels and national laws in allied countries, according to the Ukrainian leader.
“But honestly, what do those rules and laws mean when we are at war and we desperately need these missiles?” Zelenskyy said.
The grim outlook roughly halfway through the winter season coincides with uncertainty about the direction and progress of U.S.-led peace efforts.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Friday that a Ukrainian delegation is on its way to the United States to try and finalize with Washington documents for a proposed peace settlement that relate to postwar security guarantees and economic recovery.
If American officials approve the proposals, the U.S. and Ukraine could sign the documents next week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Zelenskyy said at a Kyiv news conference with Czech President Petr Pavel.
U.S. President Donald Trump plans to be in Davos, organizers say.
Russia would still need to be consulted on the proposals.
In Ukraine, the hardship was acute amid extended blackouts.
“This is a critical moment,” Jaime Wah, the deputy head in the Kyiv delegation of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said Friday.
“This is the hardest winter since the escalation of the conflict: punishing cold temperatures and the lack of heating and electricity are affecting millions who are already pushed to the edge by years of violence and economic strain,” he told a briefing in Geneva.
Ukraine's power shortage is so desperate that Shmyhal urged businesses to switch off their illuminated signage and exterior decorations to save electricity.
“If you have spare energy, better give it to people,” the energy minister said. “This is the most important thing today. People will be grateful.”
Ukraine has introduced emergency measures, including temporarily easing curfew restrictions to allow people to go whenever they need to public heating centers set up by the authorities, Shmyhal said. He said hospitals, schools and other critical infrastructure remain the top priority for electricity and heat supplies.
Officials have instructed state energy companies Ukrzaliznytsia, Naftogaz and Ukroboronprom to urgently purchase imported electricity covering at least 50% of their own consumption, according to Shmyhal.
U.K. Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy was in Kyiv on Friday to mark the first anniversary of the “100-year partnership” between Britain and Ukraine. To coincide with the anniversary, Britain announced a further 20 million pounds ($27 million) for repairs to Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.
A grinding war of attrition is continuing along the roughly 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front line. For all its military might, Russia has managed to occupy less than 20% of Ukraine since 2014.
Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
Emergency tents are set up in a residential neighborhood where people can warm up following Russia's regular air attacks against the country's energy objects that leave residents without power, water and heating in the dead of winter, in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Vladyslav Musiienko)
