Winter Olympics 2026: Klæbo eyes third gold; Italy’s Passler to compete despite positive test – live

• Medal table | Live scores and schedule | Results | Briefing
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Italian biathlete Rebecca Passler will be able to participate in the Winter Olympics despite failing a doping test, the Italian skiing federation (Fisi) said on Friday. Italy’s anti-doping body (Nado) upheld her appeal against a provisional suspension that followed a positive test for the banned substance Letrozole on 26 January.

Nado’s Court of Appeal acknowledged the possibility of unintentional ingestion or unknowing contamination of the substance. “Passler will rejoin her teammates starting Monday, February 16, when she will be available to the coaching staff for the subsequent competitions on the Olympic programme,” Fisi said in a statement.

Tottenham manager latest, Ratcliffe reaction, FA Cup, Thiago’s new deal and more – live

⚽ Latest news, previews and updates before the weekend
⚽ Ten things to look out for in the FA Cup | And email Niall

Brentford striker Igor Thiago has signed a new contract, extending his deal until 2031, with the option for an additional 12 months. The Brazilian was signed from Club Brugge in February 2024, but had to overcome a knee injury last season before hitting form this term, scoring 17 Premier League goals so far.

“I love the club and the people in the club,” said Thiago. “It’s a true love, a real love. When the fans support me, and I see them singing my name and singing my song, it gives me more power. It’s been a great season for us. Everybody has been on the same page. I hope we can get something special from it.”

Euan Uglow review – No wonder Cherie Blair didn’t model for long, these pictures are exhausting just to look at

MK Gallery, Milton Keynes
His work was so painstaking and slow to produce that the models – including a certain trainee barrister – often didn’t make it to the end of a portrait. It makes for paintings that seem drained of life

Euan Uglow, they say, is an artist’s artist, and therein lies the problem. If you were approaching his painstaking canvases out of curiosity – how to construct the figure, capture precise perspective, proportions – I can see how their visible workings (complex little dashes and crosses and plumb lines and geometric grids) would prove revelatory. But lots of us come to art to be inspired, transported, to feel. And for all their technical prowess, Uglow’s 70-odd regimented paintings at MK Gallery leave me cold.

First, some context, which we get immediately upon entering – in a slightly maddening move, the five-room retrospective of the artist opens with a room of seven paintings, of which only two are by him. After studying at the Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts in London from 1948 to 1950, he moved to the Slade. He was influenced by Paul Cézanne and Alberto Giacometti, as well as three tutors, all of whom are represented here.

Munich Security Conference: Rubio flies in amid testing times for US-Europe ties – live

German chancellor Friedrich Merz among key figures to speak as three-day security gathering opens

If you need a primer on what’s on the agenda for the next three days, I spoke with the MSC’s head of policy Nicole Koenig, the author of the European part of their security report published ahead of the meeting.

I asked her what is most likely to be the focus of this year’s forum, will Rubio deliver a “JD Vance 2.0” speech or say something more (nomen omen) diplomatic, and what other topics are likely to come up.

“We have had years, decades of complaints by the US about the fact that in Europe, we were not spending enough on defence. That has changed since the summit in The Hague.

The shift in mindset is that yesterday in the room, what we felt, all of us, there was a clear coming together of vision and of unity.

“They want [us] to perceive the Russians as a mighty bear, but you could argue they are moving through Ukraine at the stilted speed of a garden snail, so let’s not fall the trap of the Russian propaganda.”

Television made easy … for phone scrollers. The Stephen Collins cartoon

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‘It launched a million fantasies’: the greatest ever TV romances

From sparks flying during The OC’s Spider-Man snog to love stories so powerful they make you weep, Guardian writers pick the television couples whose tales never fail to make hearts pound

As TV romances go, it’s not the most original. Nerdy teen boy finally gets the queen bee he’s loved since they still had baby teeth – and off we pop on a four-season cycle of dramatic breakups and grand-gesture-fuelled reunions. Yet through all of the faintly ridiculous plotlines, their romance is anchored by that most elusive of on-screen tricks: actual, palpable chemistry. There is the sarcastic sparring, the physical spark (who could ever forget that Spiderman snog?) but also a feeling of deep care and genuine friendship – one that helps both characters grow into promising mini-grownups by the end. Watching the pair navigate insecurities, battle identity crises and generally make some spectacularly poor choices, lets us all feel better about the emotional dumpster fires of our own adolescence. And the fact that they keep on choosing each other speaks to that part of our teen selves that longed to find someone who might jump on to a coffee cart and declare their love for us – or at least wait around all summer while we campaigned to save sea otters. Lucinda Everett

Tell us: has the new Wuthering Heights film adaptation inspired you to read Emily Brontë’s novel?

We want to hear people’s thoughts on reading the novel ahead of the new adaptation – and if you’ve watched the film how does it compare?

Emerald Fennell’s adaptation of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights came to theatres worldwide on 13 February, with the director Emerald Fennell saying she hopes it will “provoke a sort of primal response.”

But Brontë’s tempestuous 1847 novel itself has been described as too extreme for the screen and on its release it was certainly not interpreted as a love story. “I can’t adapt the book as it is but I can approximate the way it made me feel,” Fennell has said.

On their way! 4 people on NASA Crew-12 mission launch to International Space Station

The four people are set to dock with the I.S.S. on Saturday, returning the orbital lab to its full complement of seven. NASA's last mission, Crew-11, left a month early due to an ill crew member.

Pinterest shares tank as CEO blames tariffs for revenue miss, weak outlook

"Looking ahead to Q1, we expect these headwinds will continue and may become slightly more pronounced," CFO Julia Donnelly told analysts on Thursday.

UK ban on Palestine Action unlawful, high court judges rule

Protest group’s co-founder wins legal challenge against decision to proscribe it under anti-terrorism laws

The co-founder of Palestine Action has won a legal challenge to the home secretary’s decision to ban the group under anti-terrorism laws.

The proscription of Palestine Action, which categorised it alongside the likes of Islamic State, was the first of a direct action protest group and attracted widespread condemnation as well as a civil disobedience campaign defying the ban, during which more than 2,000 people have been arrested.

Can you medal in quiz? Go for the gold!

Plus: more Olympics, the Super Bowl and some monks.

Who will police Gaza, and how?

Under President Trump's Gaza ceasefire plan, Arab countries and the European Union are supposed to train a new police force in the Gaza Strip. But U.S. plans have run into serious challenges.

Down with the neo-puritans: I say a true Christian can watch horror films – and Emmerdale | Ravi Holy

My praise for the movie Send Help drew brickbats. If it’s new Puritans versus liberal cavaliers, I know which side I’m on

• Ravi Holy is the vicar of Wye in Kent and a standup comedian

I posted a rave review of the new Sam Raimi film, Send Help, the other day and triggered a debate I didn’t expect: is it OK for Christians to watch horror films? Send Help – a “gore-laced plane-crash survival face-off”, according to the Guardian review (which was less kind than mine) – is more comedy-horror than horror, or maybe horror/thriller. But there’s definitely horror there – you get the point.

The most extreme response was the man who said that not only are horror movies verboten, Christians shouldn’t even watch soap operas. So, for him, Emmerdale is as bad as The Exorcist – which itself seems a bizarre film to rule out, given its hero is a priest. Who rediscovers his faith after an encounter with evil. Which he wins. I call that a positive religious message.

Ravi Holy is the vicar of Wye in Kent and a standup comedian

‘The most expensive mistake I see’: how to make your vacuum cleaner last longer, according to experts

Cordless or corded, bagged or bagless – whatever vacuum you use, help is at hand to tackle blockages, trapped hair and loss of suction

• The best cordless vacuum cleaners, tested

No household gadget works harder to keep our homes spick and span than the vacuum cleaner. Most models can deal with all manner of everyday household dirt, but as with any tool or appliance, you can give yours a longer and more fruitful life by performing a few regular maintenance jobs.

Iwan Carrington, author of Clean in 15 and the cleaning expert from BBC’s Sort Your Life Out, explained to me that you should “give your vacuum a quick check before each use to avoid problems such as clogging or low power”. We’ll go through the list of things to look for below.

Meera Sodha’s vegan recipe for prosperity toss noodle salad | The new vegan

The higher you toss it, the more luck you’ll have this new lunar year. Chopsticks at the ready …

This Tuesday marks the start of the lunar new year and the year of the fire horse, which represents fresh opportunities, personal growth and good fortune. I, for one, am keen to usher that horse in, and to celebrate I’ll be making this noodle salad, which is a variation on one I first ate at Mandy Yin’s restaurant, Sambal Shiok. It’s a dish that’s eaten across Malaysia and Singapore, and the idea is that everyone around the table tosses the salad high into the air at the same time: the superstition goes that the higher the salad is tossed, the more luck will ensue. Come on, Nelly.

RFK Jr. made promises to get his job as health secretary. He's broken many of them

In his confirmation hearings, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told U.S. senators that he would not cut funding for vaccine research or change the nation's official vaccine recommendations. He did both.

A bipartisan effort to save health subsidies failed. Will ICE reform be different?

A bipartisan effort in Congress to restrain immigration enforcement tactics is flailing despite a Friday deadline to fund the Department of Homeland Security. The pattern is increasingly familiar.

Oldest living married couple shares their love story

For StoryCorps, a husband and wife, who are both more than 100 years old, talk about how they met and fell in love.

Australia’s T20 World Cup campaign on brink of collapse after shock defeat to Zimbabwe

• Group B: Zimbabwe 169-2 bt Australia 146 by 23 runs

• Renshaw half-century in vain as Muzarabani shines

Australia’s T20 World Cup campaign is threatening to implode after suffering a shock 23-run loss to Zimbabwe in Colombo. Set 170 runs for victory after winning the toss, Australia slumped to a dismal 29 for 4 inside the powerplay and gave Zimbabwe, 11th on the ICC rankings, reason to dream.

Glenn Maxwell (31 off 32 balls) and top-scorer Matthew Renshaw (65 off 44 balls) spearheaded the rescue mission with a 77-run stand for the fifth wicket in pursuit of Zimbabwe’s 169-2. But when Maxwell chopped on and last recognised batter Marcus Stoinis (6) holed out, Zimbabwe were on their way to dismissing Australia for 146 with three balls left on Friday.

Bangladesh election: BNP wins historic first election since overthrow of Hasina

Voting was largely peaceful in an election seen as a test of Bangladesh’s democracy after years of political turmoil

The Bangladesh Nationalist party, led by Tarique Rahman, has won a sweeping victory in the country’s first election since a gen Z uprising toppled the autocratic regime of Sheikh Hasina.

Results from the election commission confirmed the BNP alliance had won 212 seats, returning the party to power after 20 years, while the rival alliance, led by Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami, won 77 seats.

Shares in trucking and logistics firms plunge after AI freight tool launch

SemiCab platform by Algorhythm, previously considered a ‘penny stock’, sparks ‘category 5 paranoia’ across sector

Shares in trucking and logistics companies have plunged as the sector became the latest to be targeted by investors fearful that new artificial intelligence tools could slash demand.

A new tool launched by Algorhythm Holdings, a former maker of in-car karaoke systems turned AI company with a market capitalisation of just $6m (£4.4m), sparked a sell-off on Thursday that made the logistics industry the latest victim of AI jitters that have already rocked listed companies operating in the software and real estate sectors.

‘A great wee place’: the small Scottish factory crafting Olympic curling stones

All stones in Cortina are made from granite found on tiny island in Firth of Clyde and crafted in East Ayrshire

“It takes 60m years and about six hours to make a curling stone,” shouts Ricky English above the whine of the lathes. The operations manager at Kays Scotland is surrounded by wheels of ancient granite in varying states of refinement.

It is a small business with a big responsibility: the only factory in the world to supply the Winter Olympics with curling stones. Competitors don’t travel with their own stones, which weigh about 18kg each, and with 16 required for a game. Instead, this year, 132 stones were crafted in the East Ayrshire town of Mauchline and shipped to northern Italy.

Converge: Love Is Not Enough review – metalcore veterans’ rage remains fresh and furious

(Epitaph)
Even after 35 years, the intricacies and emotional pangs of these masters of technicality remain undimmed, drawing from a seemingly bottomless well of inspiration

Metalcore has become a diluted premise, associated more with bands that write processed, sing-along choruses than the mix of metal technicality and punk-rock fury it started as. Converge’s 2001 breakthrough Jane Doe remains the masterpiece of the genre’s pre-bastardisation days: vicious as a pit bull, yet played by men unafraid to test the limits, as evidenced by the tormented, 11-minute title track. The New Englanders have never rested on their laurels, either, with subsequent releases emphasising different shades of their trademark anarchy.

The band’s 10th album and first in nine years (Chelsea Wolfe collaboration Bloodmoon: I not included), Love Is Not Enough condenses their carnage, intricacies and emotional pangs into their shortest-ever run time. Distract and Divide and To Feel Something are incensed and tightly arranged, as if Napalm Death and Slayer had joined forces to strangle you through the speakers.

Reader Q&A: what does Europe’s future look like? Post your questions for Jon Henley

What comes next for Europe with the transatlantic alliance in tatters? Guardian Europe editor Jon Henley will be answering readers’ questions live here from 12pm GMT. Join us then and post your questions and comments now

• Sign up for a Guardian account here

Today’s opening of the Munich Security Conference marks a year since JD Vance’s blistering attack on European leaders signalled the start of a new world order – and huge questions for Europe about its future.

Writing in the This Is Europe newsletter this week, Jon described this as Europe’s moment of reckoning as it faces what Emmanuel Macron called a “tsunami” of competition from China and a US that is “openly anti-European”.

Munich Security Conference: Rubio flies in amid testing times for US-Europe ties – live
German chancellor Friedrich Merz among key figures to speak as three-day security gathering opens

Democrats at Munich security summit to urge Europe to stand up to Trump
European leaders divided over how far to accommodate Trump’s ‘wrecking ball’ politics and foreign policy

‘Made in Europe’ – an industrial strategy: an idea whose time has come
Defending European strategic interests must be a priority to level the economic playing field in an increasingly volatile world

Joshua Chuquimia Crampton: Anata review | Safi Bugel's experimental album of the month

(Self-released)
The Aymara musician takes inspiration from an Andean tradition, resulting in a scrappy sonic meditation with woozy melodies and pockets of warmth

The new album from Joshua Chuquimia Crampton takes its name from the Andean ceremony Anata, which gives thanks for the harvest before the rainy season. Made up of seven dense and distorted instrumentals, the record is the California-based Aymara musician’s attempt at capturing the energy of ceremonial music – not some rosy, polished version, but how it might sound recorded on a phone, clipping and all.

The concept might sound bizarre, but for fans of JCC, it makes total sense. His music, often self-released and proudly unmastered, is characterised by its murky textures and amp-blasting volume. He took this rudimentary approach to the max with last year’s collaborative project Los Thuthanaka, alongside his sibling Chuquimamani-Condori, which was splattered with cartoonish vocal samples, whistles and syncopated rhythms. Here he returns to his solo formula, with just guitar, bass and a few Andean instruments. You’d call it stripped-back if it wasn’t so noisy.

Sports quiz of the week: romance, heartbreak, crime and punishment

Have you followed the big stories in the Six Nations, Winter Olympics, Premier League, Super League and Super Bowl?

How to plan Ramadan meals: minimal work, maximum readiness

Preparing simple, repetitive meals is the key to 30 days of fasting

Ramadan arrives this year in February, in the heart of winter. Short days, cold evenings and the pressure of everyday work mean that preparation is no longer about producing abundance, but about reducing effort while maintaining care. For many households balancing jobs, children and long commutes, the question is not what to cook, but how to make the month manageable.

The most effective approach to Ramadan cooking is not variety but repetition. A small set of meals that are easy to digest, quick to prepare and gentle on the body can carry a household through 30 days of fasting with far less stress than daily reinvention. The aim is to do the thinking once, not every day.

Chess: Magnus Carlsen triumphs in London speed event but Nakamura fails

The Norwegian showcased his skills in the chess.com speed championship, but the US star and streamer was twice beaten

Magnus Carlsen, the world No 1, visited Central London last weekend and won the chess.com speed championship for the fourth time in a row. The Norwegian, 35, defeated France’s Alireza Firouzja, 22, by 15-12 after a three-hour struggle. Last year in Paris the same two players met, but Carlsen’s winning margin was a much wider 23.5-7.5.

The format for speed chess is 90 minutes of five minutes blitz, 60 ­minutes of three minutes blitz, and 30 minutes of one minute bullet. All the segments had additional increments of one second per move.

Week in wildlife: a thirsty raccoon, a superhero squid and a delinquent swan

This week’s best wildlife photographs from around the world

‘We thought Midnight Cowboy might end everybody’s career’: the diverse, disruptive, Oscar-winning cinema of John Schlesinger

In the 60s and 70s, he pioneered kitchen-sink drama and made bisexuality mainstream. So why did the director end up making Tory ads? Those who knew him best reveal all

Michael Childers was a 22-year-old Los Angeles student when a friend set him up on a date with John Schlesinger, a visiting British director nearly two decades his senior. The esteemed film-maker was licking his wounds: his most recent picture, Far from the Madding Crowd, which imbued its 19th-century rural characters with an anachronistic King’s Road style and panache, had flopped stateside.

Childers approached the date with mixed feelings. He adored Schlesinger’s previous movie, the jazzy Darling, starring Julie Christie as a model on the make, and had seen it three times.But he had heard the director described as “mercurial”. His solution was to take a friend along with him to the bar at the Beverly Wilshire hotel for backup. “I thought: This guy might be a total shit,” recalls Childers, now 81, on the phone from Palm Springs. “I told my friend, ‘Two kicks under the table means we’re out of here. One kick means you’re out of here.’”

Love Story: John F Kennedy Jr & Carolyn Bessette review – TV to send you cross-eyed with boredom

Ryan Murphy turns his increasingly unsteady hand to the tale of America’s privileged, cursed dynasty – even diehard fans will find this tedious drama a punishing slog

A new product from the Ryan Murphy brand is becoming ever less dependable a delight. Will it be a Nip/Tuck or Glee-level triumph? A return to inaugural American Horror Story form, as his recent outing The Beauty so nearly was? Or will it be something towards the other end of the scale, where the so-bad-it’s-bad, Kim-Kardashian-as-a-divorce-lawyer All’s Fair lurks?

Hmm. The latest one is Love Story: John F Kennedy Jr & Carolyn Bessette. It is a nine-episode series that lasts roughly as long as the golden couple’s relationship did in real life and is (unlike All’s Fair) punishingly boring. Some of this will be due to the fact that for a UK audience the Kennedys simply do not hold the fascination they have always held for Americans. Ever since the patriarch Joe successfully manoeuvred his telegenic son John F Kennedy into politics, the political dynasty have been the United States’ answer to the royal family. The minutiae of their privileged, cursed lives have been breathlessly chronicled in books by hagiographic biographers, tabloid articles seeking scandal, and everything in between. Over here, of course, we have naturally been less enthralled.

Goldman Sachs' top lawyer to resign after emails show close ties to Jeffrey Epstein

Kathy Ruemmler, a former White House counsel to President Obama, says she will resign from Goldman Sachs after emails between her and Jeffrey Epstein showed a close relationship between the pair.

Trump pardons 5 former NFL players for crimes ranging from perjury to drug trafficking

Those pardoned include ex-NFL players Joe Klecko, Nate Newton, Jamal Lewis, Travis Henry and the late Billy Cannon.

Judge blocks Trump admin from rescinding health grants to Democratic-led states

The ruling temporarily blocks the Trump Administration from cutting $600 million in public health grants that had already been allocated to four Democratic-led states.

Winter Olympics briefing: Heraskevych’s helmet dispute raises tough questions

The controversy over the IOC’s decision to bar the Ukrainian from competing has cast a long shadow over the Games

The Winter Olympics have been presented as a stage for unity – a place where nations set aside conflict, athletes chase excellence, and the world gathers in a shared celebration of human potential. Yet Thursday was shadowed by controversy for the International Olympic Committee that raise difficult questions about neutrality and the limits of political expression in sport.

The Ukrainian skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych was barred from competing after he insisted on wearing what he called a “helmet of memory”, created to honour Ukrainian athletes killed during Russia’s war against his country. He was informed only 21 minutes before racing by the IOC president, Kirsty Coventry, who spoke to the media in tears after she could not persuade him to change his mind.

Bangladesh National Party claims victory in first election since student uprising

(Image credit: Mahmud Hossain Opu)

Businesses must take responsibility for biodiversity loss – for their sake as much as ours

Scientists believe we’re seeing the largest loss of life since the dinosaurs – and it’s a risk to the global economy. Governments and companies need to work together on solutions

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It feels like groundhog day: another week, another warning about the seriousness of the biodiversity crisis. This time it was the financial sector’s turn, as on Monday a major report, approved by more than 150 governments, said that many companies face collapse unless they better protect nature.

From healthy rivers to productive forests, the natural world underpins almost all economic activity. But human consumption of the Earth’s resources is unsustainable, driving what many scientists believe is the largest loss of life since the dinosaurs. And companies are not immune to the consequences.

Economics has failed on the climate crisis. This complexity scientist has a mind-blowing plan to fix that

‘To live a normal life again, it’s a dream come true’: UK’s first climate evacuees can cast off their homes and trauma

‘We’ve lost everything’: anger and despair in Sicilian town collapsing after landslide

‘It sounds apocalyptic’: experts warn of impact of UK floods on birds, butterflies and dormice

Indonesia takes action against mining firms after floods devastate population of world’s rarest ape

‘We thought they would ignore us’: how humans are changing the way raptors behave

The tunnel runway at the Super Bowl – and the rise of the ‘unicorn bag’

On game day, where fashion has become a huge part of athlete identity, professionals are reaching for codified displays of their wealth

• Don’t get Fashion Statement delivered to your inbox? Sign up here

On Sunday night the Seattle Seahawks beat the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LX, Bad Bunny put on a spectacular half-time show, and multiple players all walked down the tunnel from the car park to the dressing rooms carrying the same logo’d bag. The bag in question, by luxury French brand Goyard, isn’t part of any official uniform – and isn’t really known outside of its 0.1% customer base. But it has become as ubiquitous a status symbol among American football players as their AirPods Max headphones and Richard Mille watches – and is part of a brave new world of tunnel fits.

Most primetime NFL games’ coverage start hours before kick-off, as photographers, fans and pundits alike pore over players’ sartorial choices just as they would their missed tackles and spectacular catches.

Israeli journalists fear for press freedom if UK billionaire sells TV channel stake

Union urges Leonard Blavatnik to scrap Channel 13 deal, saying it is part of Netanyahu plan ‘to capture the media’

Israeli journalists have appealed to a British billionaire not to proceed with the sale of a stake in an Israeli television channel, which they warn would represent a severe blow to the independence of the country’s media.

Sir Leonard Blavatnik, listed by the Sunday Times as the UK’s third richest person, is selling a nearly 15% share in Channel 13, a commercial channel that has run critical news coverage of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government in recent years, including investigations into the prime minister’s financial dealings.

‘It feels as if I’m in a Richard Curtis film’: readers’ favourite romantic trips in Europe

Romance is in the air on a roof terrace in Venice, rowing across Lake Bled and a fairytale garden in Stuttgart
• Tell us about your memorable breaks in Wales – the best tip wins a £200 holiday voucher

We had our wedding reception at the Grand Hotel Royal in Sorrento, south of Naples. We danced to two guitarists playing Justin Bieber’s Despacito with our 50 guests singing and dancing along with us. We watched as the sun began to melt into the Mediterranean Sea from this time-capsule hotel balancing on the edge of a cliff. I floated out of my body and felt a rush of euphoria – perhaps it was the limoncello spritzers. We’ve returned many times and I get the same rush – the gelato, the pizza, the people, it feels as if I’m in a Richard Curtis film.
Charlotte Sahami

Reeves urged to reassure MPs over public finances amid £6bn-a-year Send costs

City analysts say financial market investors will be worried if cost is deducted from budget surplus

Rachel Reeves is under pressure to reassure MPs over the state of the UK’s public finances, amid concerns that the rising cost of special educational needs and disabilities (Send) could leave a significant hole in the government’s financial buffer.

Meg Hillier, the chair of the all-party House of Commons Treasury committee, said the chancellor should make clear her long-term plans for the £6bn-a-year Send bill as uncertainty grows over how it will be accounted for at the end of the decade.

Good People by Patmeena Sabit review – addictive mystery caters to modern attention spans

Who killed Zorah? Snippets of gossip expose the divisions in a migrant community in this polyphonic portrait of contemporary America

There has been debate lately about whether novels should cater for our cauterised attention spans. If that means narratives constructed in short chunks that can be consumed in five-minute bursts on a phone – intelligent, but with plenty of cliffhangers and well-timed packets of information to keep us coming back – then Good People ticks all the boxes.

Patmeena Sabit’s debut is constructed from a chorus of short testimonies – none more than a few pages, some just a few lines – about the death of Zorah Sharaf, an Afghan American teenager who has drowned in a canal at the wheel of the family car. We hear from family, friends and those in the wider community – neighbours, teachers, schoolmates, journalists, the guy who found the body – as well as those involved in the investigation (though very little from the police), and bites of media commentary. A picture slowly forms of a devastated family, but what kind of family was it? Versions are multiple and contradictory. The Sharafs are perfect, loving, tight-knit. They are dangerously dysfunctional.

Justice department moves to drop charges against men accused of hitting ICE officer in Minnesota

Prosecutor says ‘newly discovered evidence’ in case against Alfredo Alejandro Aljorna and Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis ‘materially inconsistent with the allegations against them’

Federal prosecutors in Minneapolis have moved to drop felony assault charges against two Venezuelan men, including one shot in the leg by an immigration officer, after new evidence emerged undercutting the government’s version of events.

In a filing on Thursday, the US attorney’s office for the district of Minnesota said “newly discovered evidence” in the criminal case against Alfredo Alejandro Aljorna and Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis “is materially inconsistent with the allegations against them” made in a criminal complaint and a court hearing last month.

Shooting at South Carolina State University leaves 2 dead, 1 wounded

Two people are dead and another wounded after a shooting in a South Carolina State University residential complex, the school says.

‘We are hopeful’: small signs of recovery for Scotland’s rare capercaillie bird

Number of males at RSPB Abernethy rises to 30, after ‘huge amount of work’ by conservationists in Highlands forests

After decades of decline, there are signs of hope for the capercaillie, one of Britain’s most endangered birds.

Populations of the charismatic grouse, which is found only in the Caledonian pine forests of the Scottish Highlands, have increased by 50%, from 20 males in 2020 to 30 in 2025 at RSPB Abernethy.

The look of love: what to wear for Valentine’s weekend

Valentine’s, Galentine’s, staying in – or going out? Sometimes it’s just nice to dress up

Ensemble Intercontemporain: Unsuk Chin album review – rich and strange music of kaleidoscopic colours

Bleuse/Favre/Vassilakis
(Alpha)
Berlin-based Chin’s intricate music is performed with panache in this disc of three of her orchestral works

Unsuk Chin describes her music as a conscious attempt to render in sound the visions she encounters in her dreams. This ear-catching profile album from Ensemble Intercontemporain presents three of the Korean-born, Berlin-based artist’s works: a triptych of visionary panels that flicker and swarm with kaleidoscopic colours.

It opens with Gougalon, a playful suite inspired by the travelling amateur theatres of her native country. Prepared piano and a percussion section that hums with gongs, bells, bottles and vibraslap lend a riotous jocularity to six contrasting episodes, including the lugubrious Lament of the Bald Singer, the clangorous Grinning Fortune Teller With the False Teeth and the madcap Hunt for the Quack’s Plait. First-class engineering allows the listener to savour every sonic jot and tittle.

If you want to know what Reform would be like in power, look at how it threatened Bangor University | Gaby Hinsliff

A debating society didn’t want to invite two figures connected to the party to speak. Cue an authoritarian response

It must have seemed the easiest offer in the world to refuse. Would students at Bangor University enjoy a question-and-answer session with Sarah Pochin – the Reform UK MP famous for saying it “drives me mad” to see TV adverts full of black people – and Jack Anderton, the 25-year-old influencer who helped send Nigel Farage’s TikTok account viral among teenagers? No, the university’s debating society decided, it would not.

And had it filed the request in the bin, you wouldn’t be reading this. Until now, Anderton’s A New Dawn campus tour – a homage to the “debate me bro” style of the American rightwing activist Charlie Kirk, killed last year, who was famed for inviting liberal students to take on his arguments and live-streaming the results – hadn’t exactly set the heather alight. Reform is actively pushing to recruit inside universities, but in Cambridge, according to its student newspaper Varsity, only about 30 people turned up to hear Anderton argue that migrants are taking the part-time jobs students once used to do.

Gaby Hinsliff is a Guardian columnist

Guardian Newsroom: Can Labour come back from the brink?
On Monday 30 April, ahead of May elections, join Gaby Hinsliff, Zoe Williams, Polly Toynbee and Rafael Behr as they discuss how much of a threat Labour faces from the Green party and Reform – and whether Keir Starmer can survive as leader of the Labour party
Book tickets here

Experience: I’m a professional chef in Antarctica

You have to be careful managing supplies – there is one delivery a year

The first time anyone goes to the Antarctic is truly special. Just getting there is an adventure: it takes several planes, and about three to five days. Travelling there was a childhood dream of mine. I saw it as a way to test myself against something so much bigger. I nearly applied for a role at the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) 30 years ago, but then my wife and I were expecting our first child. Instead, I’ve worked as a chef in Michelin-star restaurants in Paris and London, hotels in Kuala Lumpur and St Moritz, and even at a school in Oxfordshire.

In 2016, I took a sabbatical and finally joined BAS as a chef for a summer. Five years later, I went back for the winter, and last year, I became the organisation’s full-time catering manager. I felt ready for an adventure. Now I oversee the catering across BAS’s five Antarctic stations: bases for the organisation’s research and also where the staff live. Each year, I spend three months there; for the rest of the time I work at BAS’s HQ in Cambridge.

‘Everything is frozen’: bitter winter drags on for Kyiv residents as Russia wipes out power

Kremlin’s repeated targeting of infrastructure has left thousands without heating, reliant on shelters and desperate home hacks

Natalya Pavlovna watched her two-year-old son, Danylo, play with Lego. “We are taking a break from the cold,” she said as children made drawings inside a warm tent. Adults sipped tea and chatted while their phones charged. The emergency facility is located in Kyiv’s Troieshchina district, on the left bank of the Dnipro River. Outside it was -18C. There was bright sunshine and snow.

“Russia is trying to break us. It’s deliberate genocide against the Ukrainian people. Putin wants us to capitulate so we give up the Donbas region,” Natalya said. “Kyiv didn’t use to feel like a frontline city. Now it does. People are dying of cold in their homes in the 21st century. The idea is to make us leave and to create a new refugee crisis for Europe.”

Natalia and Danylo near the ‘resilience point’ in Troyeshchyna district

‘Invisible’ children born in the brothels of Bangladesh finally get birth certificates

Destined to a perilous life with no right to an education or to vote, state recognition ‘gives them hope’, campaigners say

Through the decades that the Daulatdia brothel in Bangladesh has existed, children born there have been invisible, unable to be registered because their mothers were sex workers and their fathers unknown. Now, for the first time, all 400 of them in the brothel village have their own birth certificates.

That milestone was reached after a push by campaigners who have spent decades working with Bangladesh’s undocumented children born in brothels or on the street. It means they can finally access the rights afforded to other citizens: the ability to go to school, to be issued a passport or to vote.

The Winter Olympics is a dazzling spectacle – but on the ground in Italy the mood is darker | Jamie Mackay

The Games could have showcased Milan’s abundant culture and architecture. Instead it has filled the city with gaudy pavilions and gentrification

On a bad day, Milan can feel less like a city than an open-air shopping mall. Since winning the bid to host the Winter Olympics in 2019, the urban landscape has been flattened into construction dust and swamped in corporate messaging. What started as a logo on a tram has gradually evolved into a feverish, full-scale takeover of the public realm. From Piazza del Duomo to the Sforzesco Castle, the city’s most popular spaces have been appropriated by gaudy pavilions, turning Milan into a bizarre spectacle staffed by dancing mascots.

Last Friday, I sat down with friends to watch the opening ceremony, broadcast live from the San Siro, the much-loved brutalist football stadium that has been slated for demolition The reaction in the room was telling. On the one hand, after so much buildup, most people were excited the big moment had finally arrived. But as the proceedings went on and the parade of familiar faces gave way to the peculiar sight of bobble-headed puppets of Rossini, Puccini and Verdi dancing to Italo disco hit Vamos a la playa, the melancholy kicked in. Was this really what these years of disruption had been for? Was this strange, kitsch pop concert worth all the political repression, the public inconvenience, the relentless marketing, the unspecified millions of euros in cost?

Jamie Mackay is a writer and translator based in Florence

‘Choosing happy is a hell of a process’: Thundercat on funk, lost friends and being fired by Snoop Dogg (possibly)

The genre-hopping bass virtuoso has backed Ariana Grande and Herbie Hancock, appeared in Star Wars and become a dedicated boxer. Ahead of his fifth album, Stephen Bruner explains his polymath mindset

It is an overcast Thursday afternoon at the end of January, and Thundercat is telling me about the time he tried to interest Snoop Dogg in the mid-70s oeuvre of Frank Zappa. He wasn’t Thundercat then, he explains. He was still Stephen Bruner, bass player for hire, who had fetched up in what he calls a “stupid-as-hell, Rick James-level band” backing the venerable rapper, packed with Los Angeles jazz luminaries who would later contribute to Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly: Kamasi Washington, Josef Leimberg, Terrace Martin. Alas, their jazz chops were sometimes deemed surplus to requirements. At one point, while Bruner was playing an expansive bass solo on stage, Snoop sidled up to him and flatly announced: “Ain’t nobody told you to play all that.”

So perhaps it was in the spirit of horizon-broadening that Bruner took it upon himself to play Snoop the song St Alfonzo’s Pancake Breakfast, a knotty, marimba-heavy slice of jazz-rock from Zappa’s 1974 album Apostrophe, which switches time signatures three times in less than two minutes, and features lyrics about a man stealing margarine and urinating on a bingo card. “Yeah, I hit him with the rollercoaster,” Bruner chuckles. “He was smoking, and he almost ate his blunt, saying: ‘What the hell is going on?’ I said: ‘My sentiments exactly.’ I think I did a cartwheel after that and left the band: I played Snoop Dogg St Alfonzo’s Breakfast, my job is done here, I have no more work to do.” He thinks for a moment. “Or maybe I got fired: ‘Get out of here dude, you’re too weird.’ I forget. It was a great moment.”

‘The tears just keep flowing’: child victims of Tumbler Ridge shooting remembered as Carney heads to join vigil

Prime minister to meet mourners in mining town as families speak of their loss in one of Canada’s deadliest mass shootings

Canadian prime minister Mark Carney is to join mourners in Tumbler Ridge on Friday, as authorities and relatives released details of the six children and assistant teacher killed by a shooter in the remote mining town’s high school.

Carney will attend a vigil in Tumbler Ridge in memory of the victims, and he invited leaders from all political parties to join him in the town, the site of the country’s deadliest mass shooting in years.

Japan seizes Chinese fishing boat inside its economic zone amid Beijing rift

Japan says vessel failed to comply with order to stop, with incident coming weeks after row with China over Taiwan

Authorities in Japan have seized a Chinese fishing boat and arrested its captain in a move that is likely to inflame an ongoing diplomatic row between Tokyo and Beijing.

The seizure, which occurred on Thursday about 105 miles (170km) from the south-western port city of Nagasaki, came after the skipper refused an order to stop for an onboard inspection, according to media reports.

Epstein files: Goldman Sachs top lawyer Kathryn Ruemmler to step down after email fallout

Kathryn Ruemmler joins a growing list of people whose professional lives have been rocked by their past associations with Jeffrey Epstein.

Gold thief flees scene of the crime on donkey in central Turkey – video

A suspect who broke into a jewellery store using a forklift, allegedly stole 150 grams of gold, and fled the scene on a donkey was arrested in Kayseri, central Turkey. Police teams from the provincial police department identified the suspect after reviewing security camera footage following the incident.

Ruemmler resigning as Goldman Sachs' general counsel after appearing in Epstein files

Kathryn Ruemmler served as White House counsel under former President Barack Obama.

Judge blocks Pete Hegseth's censure of Sen. Mark Kelly over troops video, for now

The order comes days after federal prosecutors in Washington, D.C., tried and failed to get a grand jury to indict Sens. Mark Kelly and Elissa Slotkin.

Top lawyer at Goldman Sachs resigns after revelation of Epstein relationship

Emails show Kathy Ruemmler had close ties to convicted sexual abuser she called ‘Uncle Jeffrey’

Kathy Ruemmler, the top lawyer at Goldman Sachs and former White House counsel to Barack Obama, has announced her resignation in the wake of emails showing a close relationship between her and Jeffrey Epstein, whom she referred to as “Uncle Jeffrey”.

Ruemmler said in a statement on Thursday that she would “step down as Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel of Goldman Sachs as of June 30, 2026”.

CBP officer allegedly harbored unauthorized immigrant who was also his girlfriend and niece

The Justice Department alleges that CBP officer and supervisor Andres Wilkinson had been living in Laredo, Texas, with a woman who had overstayed her visa and is now in the U.S. illegally.

Meet the high-profile Emirati business leader lawmakers are linking to Epstein ‘torture’ email

U.S. officials have identified DP World's Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem as the recipient of a 2009 email from Jeffrey Epstein regarding a supposed "torture video." 

Feathers, lace and Jacob Elordi’s gold tooth: Wuthering Heights premieres in Australia – in pictures

Elordi and co-star Margot Robbie walked the carpet at Sydney’s State Theatre on Thursday night for Emerald Fennell’s lavish, hyper-stylised adaptation of Emily Brontë’s doomed romance

2/6: CBS Evening News

Authorities investigating "new message" in Nancy Guthrie disappearance; Man who carved scale model of New York City piece by piece gets museum debut

Amazon's Ring cancels Flock partnership amid Super Bowl ad backlash

Ring's decision to cancel its partnership with Flock comes as tech companies face growing pressure to reexamine their work with federal agencies.

U.S. men's hockey team cruises to 5-1 win over Latvia

In the easy win, Brock Nelson scored twice for the U.S., four players had two assists apiece and there was production up and down the lineup.

FBI releases first description of suspect in Nancy Guthrie case, increases reward

Authorities on Thursday released the first physical description of a male suspect wanted in connection with the Arizona disappearance of Nancy Guthrie.

At 87, he can't afford his rent without a roommate. He's far from alone.

More than 1 million Americans over 65 lived with roommates they aren't related to in 2024 — a 16% increase from 2019.

2 Navy ships collide in the Caribbean Sea, resulting in minor injuries

A U.S. destroyer and a supply ship collided Wednesday during a replenishment at sea.

Judge blocks Pentagon from downgrading Sen. Mark Kelly's military rank, pay

A judge banned the Trump administration from taking adverse action against Kelly after he and other Democratic lawmakers urged military members to "refuse illegal orders."

Professor holds college student's baby during class

After a new mom's childcare plans fell through during her senior year of college, a kind professor stepped in to help. Tony Dokoupil has the story.

87-year-old lives with roommate to help cover rent in New York

More than 1 million Americans over the age of 65 lived with roommates they aren't related to in 2024 -- a 16% increase from 2019. Elaine Quijano spoke to two of them in New York City.

In a pickle: couple charged with felony battery after pickleball brawl at Florida country club

Dispute about rules elevates from insults to fisticuffs, with as many as 20 players becoming involved

A dispute over a rule led to a brawl during a pickleball game at a central Florida country club, authorities said, with one player hitting his opponent in the face with a paddle and punching him on the ground before others got involved.

A 63-year-old man was charged Sunday with two counts of felony battery on a person 65 or older, and his 51-year-old wife, who joined the fight in Port Orange, was charged with a single count of felony battery on a person 65 or older, according to an arrest affidavit.

Measles outbreak at Florida university climbs to nearly 60 cases

Measles cases at Ave Maria University near Naples, Florida, continue to soar, with the outbreak climbing to nearly 60 cases this week. Cristian Benavides reports.

Two U.S. Navy ships collide in Caribbean Sea, resulting in minor injuries

Two people sustained minor injuries after a collision between a U.S. destroyer and a supply ship while transferring supplies in the Caribbean, according to U.S. Southern Command. Charlie D'Agata has details.

Minnesota ICE surge is ending, border czar announces

Border czar Tom Homan announced that Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota is concluding, with a drawdown of federal immigration officers set to occur over the course of next week. Lilia Luciano and Nicole Sganga have details.

A timeline of Nancy Guthrie's disappearance as search stretches on

Savannah's Guthrie's mom, Nancy Guthrie, was reported missing Feb. 1, and authorities have still not identified a possible suspect.

DHS shutdown all but certain as Democrats and Trump White House can't cut deal

The Department of Homeland Security is set to shut down early Saturday morning after the Senate did not pass a short-term funding deal.

Criminals exploit ‘stigma and embarrassment’ to sell fake erectile dysfunction drugs

UK officials have seized almost 20m fake pills since 2021, many containing incorrect doses or toxic ingredients

Men have been warned against buying illegal erectile dysfunction pills online after nearly 20m pills – enough to fill two doubledecker buses – were seized in the last five years.

The “stigma and embarrassment” of erectile dysfunction is being “exploited by criminals”, according to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).

Tony Blair’s oil lobbying is a misleading rehash of fossil fuel industry spin

Ex-PM’s thinktank urges more drilling and fewer renewables, ignoring evidence that clean energy is cheaper and better for bills

A thinktank with close ties to Saudi Arabia and substantial funding from a Donald Trump ally needs to present a particularly robust analysis to earn the right to be listened to on the climate crisis. On that measure, Tony Blair’s latest report fails on almost every point.

The Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (TBI) received money from the Saudi government, has advised the United Arab Emirates petrostate, and counts as a main donor Larry Ellison, the founder of Oracle, friend of Trump and advocate of AI.

FA Cup fourth round: 10 things to look out for this weekend

Burnley have the chance of a Cup run, Leicester fear an unwelcome repeat and Brighton fans get a raw deal

Chelsea have kept two clean sheets in 10 games since appointing Liam Rosenior as head coach last month. Repeated doziness at the back has cost them. They have held commanding advantages against Charlton, Crystal Palace, Wolves and Leeds, only to give away silly goals. It is a bad habit and proved costly when a 2-0 lead was squandered during Tuesday’s draw with Leeds. Rosenior was livid afterwards, and is waiting for a consistent performance. Chelsea travel to Hull , Rosenior’s former club, on Friday night. They will surely advance against Championship opponents, but how they do it will matter. It is time for them to get serious. Jacob Steinberg

Hull City v Chelsea, Friday 7.45pm (all times GMT)

Burton Albion v West Ham, Saturday 12.15pm

Burnley v Mansfield, Saturday 3pm

Southampton v Leicester, Saturday 3pm

Black gloves found in Nancy Guthrie search, sources say

The gloves will be tested for DNA as the search for Nancy Guthrie continues.

Madison Chock says ice dance judges should "be vetted and reviewed"

Americans Madison Chock and Evan Bates, considered the favorites, placed second in the 2026 Winter Olympics. France's Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron took home gold.

More exam stress at 15 linked to higher risk of depression as young adult – study

UK charity warns against excessive academic pressure and suggests reducing the number of high-stakes tests

Exam stress at age 15 can increase the risk of depression and self-harm into early adulthood, research suggests.

Academic pressure is known to have a detrimental impact on mood and overall wellbeing, but until now few studies had examined the long-term effects on mental health.

Border czar announces Minnesota immigration operation surge is ending

Border czar Tom Homan announced Thursday that Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota is concluding, with a drawdown of federal immigration officers set to occur over the course of next week.

AWS CEO Garman says software AI fears are 'overblown'

Amazon's cloud business is seeing faster growth than expected, and its margin is widening.

Break in the grey as Aberdeen sees sunshine for the first time in 21 days

Glimpse of sun after weeks of unrelenting rain marks end of longest sunless period in area since records began

Aberdeen has finally had some sunshine, for the first time in 21 days – marking the end of the longest sunless period in the area since Met Office records began in 1957.

Residents of the Granite city in north-east Scotland glimpsed the sun late on Thursday afternoon, with sunshine having been last recorded on 21 January.

Rivian stock rises 15% as automaker tops Q4 expectations, targets significant production increase

Rivian's 2026 guidance includes increasing vehicle deliveries to between 62,000 and 67,000 units, which would be up by 47% to 59% compared to 2025.

Seven of my relatives were killed in Gaza. For me, Herzog’s visit was never an abstract debate | Shamikh Badra

Australia stands at a crossroads as it rolled out the red carpet for some, while greeting others with batons

Isaac Herzog’s visit to Australia was not a routine diplomatic engagement. It was an ethical and political test of the Australian state. At the very moment a red carpet was rolled out for a man accused of inciting genocide, peaceful Australian citizens were met with batons while exercising their democratic right to protest.

For me, this was never an abstract political debate. Before the visit, I pursued the legal channels that are meant to protect citizens and lodged a formal complaint with the Australian government about the role Herzog played in rhetoric and policies that contributed to the destruction of my family in Gaza. Seven of my relatives were killed. My father died because of a lack of medicine, food and water. My brother, his wife, their four children and her father were also killed. Their bodies remain buried beneath the rubble. Despite the seriousness of this complaint, I have received no response from the government.

Atlético Madrid put one foot in Copa del Rey final after first-half blitz stuns Barcelona

• Semi-final first leg: Atlético Madrid 4-0 Barcelona

• E García 6og, Griezmann 14, Lookman 33, Alvarez 45+2

You must always have faith, Diego Simeone had insisted and so it was. A biblical storm blew through the Metropolitano, leaving Barcelona in pieces and Atlético Madrid closer to a first Copa del Rey final in 13 years. “I’m not a wizard but I did believe that the team could play like this,” Simeone said at the end of a wild night, yet even he could not have imagined anything quite like this, 45 extraordinary minutes giving his team a 4-0 lead to take to the Camp Nou in three weeks’ time.

“This will remain in the memory however the tie ends,” Simeone said, careful to note that this is not over yet. Hansi Flick, meanwhile, vowed that his Barcelona team will fight, claimed they had been handed a “great lesson” that might yet be helpful, and outlined a plan for the second leg: 2-0 in each half. But an an own goal from Eric García and three more before half-time here from Ademola Lookman, Antoine Griezmann and Julián Alvarez, did the kind of damage that will be mightily difficult to fix. Barcelona could not begin that task here, a Pau Cubarsí effort ruled out after a seven-minute VAR check the only “goal” of the second half. Indeed, another VAR check made their second leg task even harder when Eric García was sent off in the final minutes.

Oklahoma executes man for 2006 killings: "I apologize for murdering your sons"

Oklahoma has carried out its first execution of the year on a man convicted of killing two men in a drive-by shooting.

Southwest's new boarding process off to bumpy start

Some travelers are finding they don't have storage above their seats when they get on the plane because early boarders are taking up the overhead bins.

Southwest says it is making adjustments after launching new boarding process

Southwest Airlines says its making adjustments to its boarding process two weeks after the discount carrier switched to assigned seating. Officials with the airline told CBS News that one of the main issues the airline is troubleshooting is overhead bin space.

Americans paid nearly 90% of Trump's 2025 tariffs, new analysis found

Americans, not foreign exporters, shouldered nearly the costs from the Trump administration's tariffs last year, according to the New York Fed.

Terland and Malard set Manchester United on course for last eight in win over Atlético

Manchester United took a big step towards the quarter-finals of the Women’s Champions League by sealing a comfortable lead in the first leg of their playoff against Atlético Madrid after goals from Elisabeth Terland, Melvine Malard and Julia Zigiotti Olme.

“I think it was [a professional win],” a delighted Marc Skinner, the United manager, said. “It was ­difficult for both teams on the pitch. I can understand it with the number of storms they had ... but I did think it affected the football. I thought we were ruthless. The three goals were fantastic. I felt like our defending as a whole team was excellent.”

The January CPI inflation report is due out Friday morning. Here's what it's expected to show

Investors got some good news this week on the state of the labor market, and more may be on the way Friday on inflation.

This week on "Sunday Morning" (Feb. 15)

A look at the features for this week's broadcast of the Emmy-winning program, hosted by Jane Pauley.

One marriage, two campaigns: Iowa spouses launch dual campaigns for legislature

Married since 1998, Iowa couple Spencer and Sinikka Waugh now have his-and-hers campaign yard signs, as he pursues a state House seat and she runs for state Senate.

Trump's EPA revokes the "endangerment finding." Here's what to know.

The Trump administration says greenhouse gases emitted from sources like cars, trucks and power plants will no longer be regulated by the federal government.

Trump admin moves to end "universally hated" start/stop feature for cars

The EPA said it will end credits for the start/stop feature, which shuts off gas engines when cars are idle to save fuel.