Winter Olympics 2026: Jutta Leerdam takes speed skating gold but GB medal wait goes on – live

• Medal table | Live scores and schedule | Results | Briefing

• Gallery: best pictures from day three | And email Geoff

Which of these events is most terrifying? This a question that reminds me of when a teacher asked five-year-old me which hand I wanted to be caned on, and I kept saying neither – yes, a real man would’ve said either or both – except the other way around, the answer being all of them. But for the less lily-livered, there must be an answer.

The slalom section of this competition is tomorrow, which is to say the downhillers go today, then the times of the two team members are added together, with the quickest taking gold. Germany now lead, having gone faster than Switzerland.

Massive release of Epstein files includes 3 million documents and photos

The Justice Department released more new documents on Jan. 30 from the Jeffrey Epstein files, more than a month after the DOJ's original deadline to do so.

Starmer tells Labour MPs he is ‘not prepared to walk away’ after call for him to resign – UK politics live

Prime minister addresses parliamentary Labour party amid Mandelson scandal fallout

• Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar calls on Keir Starmer to stand down

Tim Allan said he was standing down to allow Keir Starmer the opportunity to build a new team.

In a statement, he said:

I have decided to stand down to allow a new No 10 team to be built.

I wish the PM and his team every success.

U.S. guaranteed 1st Olympic curling mixed doubles medal

Team USA's mixed doubles curling gold medal match against Sweden is slated for Tuesday, Feb. 10.

How much is a Winter Olympics gold medal worth as shiny metal prices soar?

Olympic medals have what's known as a "melt value." But they're worth far more financially than their mineral contents, an auction expert notes.

Cuba says international airlines can no longer refuel there as Trump turns up the pressure

The update comes shortly after President Donald Trump threatened tariffs on any country that supplies Cuba with oil.

2/1: Face The Nation

This week on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan," we speak to mayors from cities across the country as anger at ICE persists across the country, plus our interview with Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado.

Novo Nordisk sues Hims & Hers over copycat versions of Wegovy drugs; Hims stock falls 18%

Novo is asking the court to permanently ban Hims from selling compounded versions of its drugs that infringe patents, and is seeking to recover damages.

The evolution of the quad, ice skating's most daring jump

When self-proclaimed "Quad God" Ilia Malinin landed seven quad jumps in a single program last December, he boisterously ushered in a new era of skating with his daring routines.

FDA says Novo Nordisk's TV ad for obesity pill includes 'false or misleading' claims

The FDA requested that Novo take immediate action to address the violations, which could include ceasing all ads containing misleading claims about the pill.

Epstein files: White House rejects calls for Lutnick resignation after lawmaker demands

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick previously said on a podcast he had cut ties with notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein since an initial 2005 encounter.

Eddie Bauer's retail operator declares bankruptcy

Eddie Bauer, a 106-year-old retailer, points to declining sales and "tariff certainty" as factors behind its latest move to seek bankruptcy protection.

‘A beaver blind date’: animals given freedom to repopulate Cornish rivers

Release into Helman Tor reserve marks historical first for keystone species hunted to extinction in UK 400 years ago

Shivering and rain-drenched at the side of a pond in Cornwall, a huddle of people watched in hushed silence as a beaver took its first tentative steps into its new habitat. As it dived into the water with a determined “plop” and began swimming laps, the suspense broke and everyone looked around, grinning.

The soggy but momentous occasion marks the first time in English history that beavers have been legally released into a river system, almost one year after the government finally agreed to grant licences for releases.

Pakistan agree to play India at T20 Cricket World Cup after scrapping boycott

• Match to go ahead in Sri Lanka on Sunday

• Government made decision after negotiations

Pakistan have agreed to play India in the T20 World Cup match scheduled to take place in Sri Lanka on Sunday, reversing a decision to boycott the game citing geopolitical tensions.

Pakistan announced their decision to boycott the match in Colombo after the International Cricket Council last month replaced Bangladesh with Scotland in the tournament, following Bangladesh’s refusal to travel to the co-hosts India. Following negotiations on Monday, the Pakistan government announced the game would be played.

The Guardian view on Morgan McSweeney’s resignation: Sir Keir’s premiership is on the road to nowhere | Editorial

The departure of the prime minister’s chief of staff signals the demise of the political project which put him in No 10. All bets are off now.

The Labour party spent 14 years in the wilderness, following the general election of 2010. It has taken only 18 months for the political project with which it returned to power to implode. The resignation of Morgan McSweeney, Sir Keir Starmer’s chief of staff and the man credited with orchestrating his path to Downing Street, has left the prime minister isolated, rudderless and at the mercy of events he is in no position to control.

Mr McSweeney fell on his sword after taking responsibility for backing the appointment of Lord Mandelson as US ambassador, despite what was known about the peer’s friendship with Jeffrey Epstein. The hope, clearly, was that his departure will give the prime minister the breathing space to reset yet again. Monday’s call for Sir Keir’s own resignation by Anas Sarwar, Labour’s leader in Scotland, soon dispelled that illusion, although it also provoked a show of loyalty from cabinet colleagues.

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

Keir Starmer, you have two choices now – sort your warring party out or call an election | Ed Davey

The country just can’t afford another three and half years of this dysfunctional soap opera. I say, get a grip or get thrown out

“It’s nice, isn’t it. The quiet.” The now-infamous social media post produced by a Starmer supporters at the start of his time in office is now written only in sarcasm beside yet another terrible news headline. Rayner resigns: “Nice, isn’t it. The quiet”; Mandelson sacked: “Nice, isn’t it. The quiet”; the prime minister loses his chief of staff – you get the picture.

Around the time of that post, we had our glorious first conference in Bournemouth after winning our best election result in a century, and a prominent BBC journalist said to me: “We won’t have to cover the soap opera like before – it’s going to be about policy.” Imagine being the leader of the Liberal Democrats, known for our torrents of policy, and being told this by a BBC journalist; the phrase pig in excrement comes to mind.

Ed Davey is leader of the Liberal Democrats

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

Best and worst Super Bowl commercials of 2026 as rated by experts

Google and Pepsi were among the best ads of the Big Game, while Coinbase and ai.com got failing grades, according to one ranking.

Is Britain about to lose another prime minister?

While the herd is yet to move against Keir Starmer, many believe his tenure may be coming to an end

When Boris Johnson resigned as the British prime minister in 2022, he explained that the politicians who had once loyally supported him had turned against him.

This had sealed his fate. “The herd instinct is powerful and when the herd moves, it moves,” he said.

Futile resignations and blatant revisionism to the fore as Starmer staggers on | John Crace

The same cabinet ministers who failed to speak up for the PM in the morning were soon offering their undying support

Not another one. On Sunday it was Morgan McSweeney, Keir Starmer’s chief of staff, who took one for the team by resigning over the Peter Mandelson appointment. On Monday, No 10’s head of communications, Tim Allan, did likewise without offering much by way of an explanation.

Presumably it was another effort to delay the inevitable. “We need a futile gesture, chaps.” No matter that most normal people won’t have heard of either of them. Let alone be able to identify them in a police lineup.

Emma Raducanu retires in Qatar opener after on-court blood pressure test

• Briton forced to pull out when 2-0 down in deciding set

• Qualifier Camila Osorio into Qatar Open second round

Emma Raducanu retired during the third set of her first-round match with the qualifier Camila Osorio at the Qatar Open, having tried to play on after taking a medical timeout.

The British No 1 was looking to move swiftly on from the disappointment of losing in straight sets on Saturday against the home ­favourite Sorana Cirstea in the ­Transylvania Open final, a match she described as “very difficult emotionally and physically”.

Prominent Venezuelan opposition politician detained hours after release

Prosecutor claims Juan Pablo Guanipa was re-arrested due to non-compliance with terms of release

One of Venezuela’s most prominent opposition politicians, Juan Pablo Guanipa, has been detained by security forces just hours after being released from prison, as the South American country’s leaders sent mixed signals about their commitment to political reform after Nicolás Maduro’s downfall.

Guanipa, who is a close ally of the Nobel laureate María Corina Machado, emerged from nearly nine months’ detention on Sunday – one of at least 35 political prisoners to be freed over the course of the day.

Athletes to watch from Team USA at the Winter Olympics

American athletes are going for the gold at the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics. These are some of the top Team USA competitors to watch.

Streeting wrote off his re-election chances in WhatsApp exchanges with Mandelson

Health secretary publishes messages as he seeks to draw line under his relationship with former peer

• UK politics live – latest updates

Wes Streeting predicted he would be “toast” at the next general election, according to private WhatsApp messages exchanged with Peter Mandelson and published by the health secretary in an effort to draw a line under his relationship with the disgraced peer.

In the messages, Streeting said the government lacked a growth strategy and questioned No 10’s communications operation – remarks that appeared to form part of an effort to position himself for a potential leadership contest.

France’s letters to 29-year-olds to remind them to have babies is a spectacular missing of the point | Zoe Williams

A serious plan to tackle low birthrates could include addressing the fact that if people could afford to house themselves, they might be quicker to settle down

I almost never wonder how I’d feel if I were a 29-year-old French woman. I fear the question would lead to dissatisfactions too profound (would I be eating oysters right now? Would my socks be cashmere? Would I know what existentialism meant – no, I mean really know?). This morning, however, I did stop and give it some serious thought: specifically, how would I feel if my government wrote to me, reminding me to have children? To get that letter from childless Macron would be like getting told off about your BMI by a nurse whose BMI is definitely the same as yours, if not greater: on the one hand, it’s none of your business who has kids or what anyone’s BMI is. But on the other, how about we just all keep out of each other’s business? Luckily the letter is going to be sent out by the health ministry, and say what you like about ministries, you can’t criticise their lifestyle choices.

Before you get your panties in a twist, feminists, this letter will be sent to both men and women of the 29-year-old variety, and the government underscored that “fertility is a shared responsibility between women and men” – a statement that is both true and woke (yup, I’m reclaiming “woke” to mean “things I approve”).

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

Strangers help man and his dog survive winter storm in South Carolina

A man and his dog in a small South Carolina town had nowhere to turn when a rare winter storm struck, until the community pulled together to help.

Nancy Guthrie search enters its second week as a purported deadline looms

"This is very valuable to us, and we will pay," Savannah Guthrie said in a new video message, seeking to communicate with people who say they're holding her mother.

Twickenham crackdown with 24 fines for ‘public urination’ after England v Wales

• RFU trying to tackle antisocial behaviour after games

• It wants residents to allow more Twickenham events

Unruly spectators at Twickenham felt the force of a crackdown on antisocial behaviour at the match between England and Wales last Saturday, with Richmond council issuing 24 fixed-penalty notices for public urination, the Guardian can reveal.

The Rugby Football Union is trying to persuade local residents to ditch their opposition to proposals to increase the number of concerts held every year from three to 15. Much of the opposition centres around antisocial behaviour experienced during England matches and, as revealed by the Guardian, the RFU hosted a drop-in event for residents in an effort to convince them that their concerns were being taken seriously.

Ben Jennings on the growing pressure on Keir Starmer – cartoon

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Immigration courts fast-track hearings for Somali asylum claims

Their lawyers fear the notices are merely the first step toward the removal without due process of Somali asylum applicants in the country.

Automakers largely sit out 2026 Super Bowl advertising amid industry uncertainty

Automakers are largely sitting on the advertising sidelines during this year's Super Bowl amid broader uncertainty in the U.S. automotive industry.

Pressure mounts on American Airlines CEO as carrier lags rivals

American Airlines made $111 million last year, while rivals Delta Air Lines and United Airlines, brought in $5 billion and $3.3 billion, respectively.

Ghislaine Maxwell's lawyer says she'll testify if Trump grants her clemency

Ghislaine Maxwell's lawyer said she would be willing to cooperate with a House panel's probe if President Trump grants her clemency, and would testify that he is "innocent of any wrongdoing."

Less than 14% of those ICE arrested had violent criminal records, data show

The official DHS statistics, which had not been previously reported, provide the most detailed look yet into who ICE has arrested during the Trump administration's crackdown.

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 or person of interest.

Jimmy Lai: will Hong Kong media tycoon die in jail? | The Latest

The media mogul and prominent pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai has been sentenced to 20 years in prison in Hong Kong for national security offences. His family has described the sentence as ‘heartbreakingly cruel’, given the 78-year-old’s declining health. Lai was convicted in December on charges of sedition and conspiracy to collude with foreign forces, after pleading not guilty to all charges.

Lucy Hough speaks to the Guardian’s senior China correspondent, Amy Hawkins.

Irish man with valid US work permit held in ICE detention for five months

Seamus Culleton has lived in US for two decades, married a citizen and runs a plastering business but faces deportation

• US politics live – latest updates

An Irish man has spent five months in US Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention and faces deportation despite having a valid work permit and no criminal record.

Seamus Culleton was a “model immigrant” who had become the victim of a capricious and inept system, said his lawyer, Ogor Winnie Okoye.

Search for Savannah Guthrie’s mother continues as detectives analyze ransom note

Investigation in apparent abduction enters second week as deadline for purported ransom note demanding $6m looms

The search for television host Savannah Guthrie’s missing mother entered its second full week on Monday, with investigators returning over the weekend for a new search of her Arizona home. They appear no closer to finding her, or identifying an alleged abductor.

Detectives are analyzing a purported ransom note giving a deadline of 5pm MT (7pm ET) Monday for Guthrie’s family to pay $6m, a development that prompted the Today show presenter and her siblings to record a video released on Saturday saying: “We will pay”.

Goat review – noisy, lightning-speed basketball animation does it for the kids

A diminutive young buck aspires to compete with rhinos and horses in ‘roarball’, but this by-numbers tale is not the greatest of any time

Greatest of all time? No. Possibly not even the greatest of half-term. This loud, chaotic and unlovable animated kids’ comedy feels as though it is bordering on AI slop, algorithmically generated and instantly familiar from Zootropolis, Sing and other movies with talking animals. It is a shame, because it has a real-life inspiration: basketball star Stephen Curry, who was repeatedly told at the start of his career that he was too skinny and too small to make it as a pro. Curry is a producer here, and has a performing role. But in spite of this connection, Goat lacks heart and soul, and a sense of genuine emotions.

What it does have is some pretty decent voice acing, bringing a degree of charm to the movie. Will Harris (voiced by Caleb McLaughlin) is a goat who has grown up dreaming of playing professional “roarball”, a fiercer and faster version of basketball. But Will is a “small” and roar players are all “bigs” – powerful beasts such as rhinos and horses. Will’s hero and the star of his favourite team, the Thorns, is a panther called Jet (Gabrielle Union), a champ close to retirement but determined to win the league. When Will gets a shot at joining the Thorns, he is laughed at, underrated but undeterred.

‘Made me feel proudly American’: stars react to Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl show

While Trump has attacked the Grammy-winning Puerto Rican star, celebrities have come out in force to support the half-time show

As blue, red and white fireworks filled the sky at the end of Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl half-time show, a message filled the screen in all capitals: “The only thing more powerful than hate is love.”

It was the enduring statement from a 13-minute spectacle that invited an estimated 135.4 million viewers into Bad Bunny’s world, with richly textured references to politics, history and Puerto Rican culture. The artist born Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio transformed the pitch of the Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, into his own love letter to the island, with cinematic set pieces including sugarcane fields, a house party, and a lively wedding ceremony featuring a surprise performance by Lady Gaga.

Winter Olympic officials to investigate why medals keep breaking

• Athletes report medals are chipped, cracked or damaged

• ‘We are aware. We are looking into what the problem is’

They are among the most prized possessions in sport, yet embarrassingly for Olympic officials the medals in Milano Cortina keep breaking.

On Monday organisers promised to launch an investigation into why it was happening after Winter Olympic medallists, including the American downhill skiing champion Breezy Johnson, reported chipped, cracked and damaged medals.

Ghislaine Maxwell’s refusal to answer questions before Congress draws criticism: ‘Who is she protecting?’

Democratic representative says Epstein associate’s decision to invoke fifth amendment points to ‘White House cover-up’

Ghislaine Maxwell refused to answer questions during a closed-door congressional deposition on Monday, prompting criticism from a House representative backing efforts to release Jeffrey Epstein investigative files.

Robert Garcia, ranking member of the committee on oversight and government reform, said in a statement that Maxwell invoked the fifth amendment and refused to testify during her scheduled deposition. Maxwell’s attorney, David Oscar Markus, also said that she invoked her fifth amendment right.

‘She’s a grown woman’: skiers defend Lindsey Vonn’s decision to race despite crash

• American was competing with ruptured ACL

• Vonn fractured leg after crashing in Sunday’s race

Lindsey Vonn’s fellow skiers have defended her decision to compete in the women’s downhill at the Winter Olympics while dealing with a ruptured ACL.

The American crashed out early in her run on Sunday. She suffered a fractured leg and was airlifted from the course. Some users on social media said she should not have been racing only a week after injuring her knee. But those who know the risks of skiing best supported Vonn’s decision.

Paul Thomas Anderson and Jonny Greenwood demand Phantom Thread music removed from Melania film

Director and composer of 2017 drama allege breach of agreement after score reused in controversial documentary

Paul Thomas Anderson and Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood, the director and composer, respectively, for Phantom Thread, have requested that music from the 2017 film be removed from the controversial new documentary on Melania Trump.

“It has come to our attention that a piece of music from Phantom Thread has been used in the Melania documentary,” the pair said in a statement to Variety. “While Jonny Greenwood does not own the copyright in the score, Universal failed to consult Jonny on this third-party use which is a breach of his composer agreement. As a result Jonny and Paul Thomas Anderson have asked for it to be removed from the documentary.”

‘That make-or-break feeling? I love it’: can André de Ridder put ENO back on its feet?

Budgets have been slashed, morale is through the floor and the company has been forced to find a second base in Manchester. But the new musical director is up for a challenge. We meet the man with the hardest job in music

André de Ridder is either brave or stupid. He has accepted the role as the music director of English National Opera – its chief conductor and keeper of its musical flame. He will take up the role formally in 2027. The post has been empty for several anguished years, sparked by Arts Council England’s 2022 announcement that the company would lose all its funding unless it moved out of London. Amid a fightback that, to cut a long story short, resulted in the company retaining a foothold in the London Coliseum, but partially moving to Manchester, De Ridder’s predecessor, Martyn Brabbins, abruptly quit in 2023, saying that the company was heading into “managed decline”. Brabbins’s predecessor, Mark Wigglesworth, had also resigned suddenly in 2016, saying ENO was evolving into “something I do not recognise”. It was beginning to sound like an opera plot. Bluebeard’s Castle, maybe. A murdered conductor behind every door in the mansion.

And yet: De Ridder’s enthusiasm is irrepressible. For some, it would be daunting to come into a company whose world-class orchestra and chorus have had their full-time contracts slashed to seven months of the year; from which the chief executive has just resigned; where morale (insiders tell me) is rock bottom. But the Berlin-raised 54-year-old sees only the opportunities. From his perspective, the shake-ups are in the past.

Ilia Malinin's Olympic backflip made history. But he's not the first to do it

U.S. figure skating phenom Ilia Malinin did a backflip in his Olympic debut, and another the next day. The controversial move was banned from competition for decades until 2024.

'End of Days' recalls the violent 1992 Ruby Ridge confrontation in Idaho

Author Chris Jennings talks the apocalyptic religious views that fueled the standoff between federal agents and the family of Randy Weaver — and the use of force rules that made it so deadly.

Ukrainian competitor displays images of athletes killed in war on Winter Olympics helmet

• Heraskevych held up ‘No War in Ukraine’ sign in Beijing

• IOC have contacted Ukrainian officials over his protest

Ukrainian skeleton athlete Vladyslav Heraskevych trained on Monday at the Winter Olympics in a helmet with images of compatriots killed during the war in Ukraine, delivering on a promise to use the event to keep attention on the conflict.

“Some of them were my friends,” Heraskevych, who is his country’s flag bearer, said after his training session at the Cortina sliding centre.

A couple of teas or coffees a day could lower risk of dementia, scientists say

Findings suggest smaller cognitive decline, but US study cannot prove daily caffeine hit is good for the brain

People who have a couple of teas or coffees a day have a lower risk of dementia and marginally better cognitive performance than those who avoid the drinks, researchers say.

Health records for more than 130,000 people showed that over 40 years, those who routinely drank two to three cups of caffeinated coffee or one to two cups of caffeinated tea daily had a 15-20% lower risk of dementia than those who went without.

Ofcom under fire after refusing to investigate ‘misleading’ GB News Trump interview

US president not challenged over false claims climate change is ‘hoax’ and parts of London have sharia law

The UK’s media regulator Ofcom has been accused of abandoning “any pretence” of guarding against misleading and biased television coverage, after it refused to investigate a series of complaints about a GB News interview with Donald Trump.

During the interview with the rightwing network, broadcast last November, the US president falsely claimed human-induced climate change was “a hoax” and that London had no-go areas for police. He said parts of the capital had “sharia law”.

Face the Nation: Omar, Vinograd, Krebs

Missed the second half of the show? The latest on...Dem. Rep. Ilhan Omar says that as the Trump administration has steamrolled forward with executive orders to dismantle USAID and the Department of Education as well accessing the Treasury Department records because the president doesn't "have the support" among Republicans in Congress, amid the Trump administration's bureaucratic overhaul, CBS News Justice Department correspondent Scott MacFarlane, chief legal correspondent Jan Crawford, CBS News homeland security contributor Sam Vinograd and CBS News cybersecurity expert and analyst Chris Krebs join to discuss the impact, and USAID had only accounted for less than 1% of the federal budget before the Trump administration began its campaign to dismantle it. It isn't clear why this sliver of spending is the first focus of the so-called efficiency project, but it feels like a demolition — and perhaps a preview of the future for other public servants.

Seahawks ride their stifling defense to dominant Super Bowl win over the Patriots

The Seattle Seahawks defeated the New England Patriots Sunday to win the 2026 Super Bowl.

From Spielberg to Tarantino: the year’s big Super Bowl movie trailers

This year’s set of $8m TV spots gave us new looks at alien conspiracy thriller Disclosure Day, slasher sequel Scream 7 and an unlikely new David Fincher film

• Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl half-time show review – a thrilling ode to Boricua joy

With Super Bowl spots now up to a reported $8-10m, the market has grown a little less welcoming to Hollywood, an industry still not quite up to pre-pandemic numbers (the global box office for 2025 was down almost $10bn on 2019).

So while last night saw us assaulted with ads for beer and, depressingly, AI, there was a continued decrease in the number of major film ads, a harder spend to justify in this weakened climate. But the biggest of guns still came out, from Spielberg to Ghostface to the Minions …

You may not like the Liverpool red card, but it was the right call | Jonathan Wilson

Referee Craig Pawson sent off Dominik Szoboszlai by the letter of the law; the only way it should be done

• Sign up for Soccer with Jonathan Wilson here

Refereeing is the most thankless of jobs. There are times when you can get a decision absolutely right and still you get criticised on all sides.

In the final seconds at Anfield on Sunday, with the Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson caught upfield, Rayan Cherki rolled the ball towards the Liverpool goal. Erling Haaland gave chase and would have gotten there to nudge the ball definitively over the line but he was pulled back by Dominik Szoboszlai, who would then have caught up with the ball to clear had he not been pulled back by Haaland. The ball crossed the line but the referee Craig Pawson, after a VAR review, gave not a goal but a free-kick for the first offence, sending Szoboszlai off for the denial of an obvious goal-scoring opportunity.

The flawed Patriots face a harsh truth: only the very best teams get a Super Bowl sequel

Successful reruns are rare in the NFL. And New England showed enough holes on Sunday to suggest making it back to the big dance soon will be tough

The greatest lie a fanbase tells itself is that there is always next year.

It is the softest landing spot in sport, a comfort blanket after a crushing defeat. Next year, we’ll be healthier. Next year, we’ll fix our offensive line. Next year, we’ll add that superstar receiver and retain all our guys. Next year.

Bad Bunny holds top 6 spots on U.S. Spotify chart after Super Bowl show

Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny, born Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, is one of the most-streamed artists on the planet.

Hims & Hers pulls copycat weight-loss pill after threats of legal action

Hims & Hers on Saturday announced it would stop offering its copycat of the weight-loss pill Wegovy after threats of legal action.

Choremancing: is this the best way to date – or the death of romance?

You could do the weekly shop on your own, or you could turn it into the ultimate compatibility test by inviting a date along. And there’s always that flatpack furniture to assemble ...

Name: Choremancing.

Age: About four months.

‘We recorded it in a kitchen!’ How China Crisis made Black Man Ray

‘Our producer was toasting sesame seeds in a pan. Coming from a working-class family, I’d never seen such a thing’

Ed and I had just come off a long tour of Europe and North America supporting Simple Minds and needed a break. I immersed myself in music-making with a synth, drum machine and a four-track Tascam Portastudio. I was very inspired by Brian Eno. I’d seen the words “found sounds” on his album credits. The notion that any sound could be included in a recording struck me as magical. I just held a mic out of my bedroom window. Black Man Ray started out as an ambient number with an intro featuring the sound of a boy I recorded singing in the street below. In the end, he actually featured in the opening bars of our song The Highest High.

From nightmarish noir to Bolero on trampolines: the audacious Holland Dance festival hits dizzy heights

Shadowy urban terror gives way to airborne exuberance as the festival celebrates its 20th edition with a programme that disturbs and delights

Suited dancers swing around a streetlight in Spanish choreographer Marcos Morau’s Horses but it’s not exactly Singin’ in the Rain. The mood is more like a stray dog has sidled up to that lamp-post and cocked its leg. The lamps multiply on these squalid, mean streets: uprooted, they become giant props for performers to illuminate and edit the action on a vast stage with its wings exposed and no artificial backdrop. A suspicious figure roams the outskirts with a torch; another drives a vehicle back and forth in the distance. One long-necked light snakes down from above like a tendril, its glow deepening the chiaroscuro. Bodies melt and morph. It is as if a film noir has caught fire in the projector, distorting each scene.

Nederlands Dans Theater’s production, at the 20th edition of Holland Dance festival, confounds from its ragged beginnings to the final seconds, when even the curtain is not allowed to fall in peace. Horses starts with the house lights up and a solo with instinctive flinches and hoof-like hands suggesting hunter and hunted before a second dancer arrives nose-first, as if led by scent. The animality briefly evokes NDT’s Figures in Extinction but this is an acutely urban nightmare, with humans’ survival skills put to the test. Suddenly, the auditorium’s doors slam shut and we are plunged into darkness.

Databricks completes $5 billion funding round at $134 billion valuation

Databricks is prepared to go public "when the time is right," CEO and co-founder Ali Ghodsi told CNBC in an interview.

‘Chia pudding is Cathy’s composed side’: the wild and worrying world of official Wuthering Heights merchandise

Emerald Fennell’s lust-fuelled take on Emily Brontë’s novel has cued a hot flush of merchandise ranging from themed snacks to thongs. What exactly are they buying into?

That appetite for Emerald Fennell’s bodice-ripping adaptation of Emily Brontë’s yarn of doomed romance is high is not in doubt. Whether it’s high enough to sustain sales for an official Wuthering Heights açai bowl seems less certain.

Yet this is exactly what is on offer in food aisles across the US, with two bespoke bowls churned up for hungry film fans with the explanatory slogan: “This is what happens when you turn yearning into flavour.”

New video from deadly Brown University shooting is released

New video footage from the day of the Brown University shooting that killed two students and injured nine others was released Monday.

53 people dead or missing after migrant boat capsizes in Mediterranean

Only two survivors rescued after boat overturned off Libyan coast, UN migration agency says

Fifty-three people are dead or missing after a boat capsized in the Mediterranean Sea off the Libyan coast, the UN migration agency said on Monday. Only two survivors were rescued.

The International Organization for Migration said the boat overturned north of Zuwara on Friday, in the latest disaster involving people attempting the perilous Mediterranean crossing in the hope of reaching Europe.

The Testament of Ann Lee with Daniel Blumberg and Amanda Seyfried review – yelps, bells and bruised beauty

Milton Court, London
Live on stage the Oscar-winning composer’s score is disorientating, ecstatic and strange. Its star, Amanda Seyfried’s pure voice is the anchor in a brief but absorbing set

A few days ago, Amanda Seyfried was on the Graham Norton couch alongside Margot Robbie and Johannes Radebe from Strictly. Tonight, the star of Mean Girls, Les Misérables and Mamma Mia is seated among a rather different set of luminaries: key figures from London’s avant garde jazz scene.

The link here is composer Daniel Blumberg. When he accepted an Oscar last year for his extraordinary score to The Brutalist, Blumberg namechecked Cafe Oto, the leftfield Dalston venue whose improvising musicians have long formed the bedrock of his work. While scoring The Testament of Ann Lee – a biopic starring Seyfried as the founder of the Shaker religious movement – Blumberg was struck by parallels between Shaker worship and free improvisation: a shared ascetic intensity, a cult-like devotion, and moments of wild, euphoric release. The speaking-in-tongues qualities of Shaker devotional singing, he realised, had uncanny echoes in the work of vocal improvisers such as Phil Minton and Maggie Nicols, both of whom feature in the film – and in this performance.

Tearful Kirsty Muir rues agonising fourth place in Winter Olympics slopestyle

• British skier breaks down after making crucial mistakes

• ‘I’m obviously a bit sad – it’s a tough place to be, fourth’

Long after the finale of this compelling women’s freeski slopestyle competition, Kirsty Muir was still struggling to process the cruellest loss of her young career.

“I’ll be proud of myself in a minute,” the 21-year-old Team GB star told one reporter, through the sobs and the pain. “But I’m in a bit of a hole right now.”

French riot officers go on trial accused of beating gilets jaunes protesters

Nine members of police’s CRS division allegedly ‘repeatedly struck non-hostile demonstrators’ in Paris in 2018

Nine officers from the French riot police have gone on trial in Paris accused of beating peaceful protesters who were sheltering from teargas during the “gilets jaunes” (yellow vests) anti-government demonstrations in 2018.

The case at Paris’s criminal court is one of the biggest trials over alleged police violence during the unrest in 2018 and 2019, when hundreds of thousands of protesters in fluorescent jackets took to the streets over rising fuel taxes in what morphed into broader anti-government protests against the president, Emmanuel Macron.

Meta starts big week in court, with opening arguments beginning in New Mexico, LA trials

Opening arguments begin on Monday in high-profile social media trials in New Mexico and Los Angeles.

UK, UN and EU deplore ‘monumental injustice’ of Jimmy Lai’s 20-year jail sentence

Son says Hong Kong media figure, 78, fears dying alone while legal team say Lai is now world’s highest profile political prisoner

The UK, the UN, EU and rights groups have condemned the sentencing of the pro-democracy activist and publisher Jimmy Lai, a British citizen who has been jailed for an unprecedented 20 years in Hong Kong for national security convictions that critics say are politically motivated.

Yvette Cooper, the UK foreign secretary, said: “For 78-year-old Jimmy Lai, 20 years is an effective life sentence, following a politically motivated prosecution under a law that was imposed to silence China’s critics. The Hong Kong authorities must end Jimmy Lai’s appalling ordeal and release him to be with his family.”

Nancy Guthrie search enters 2nd week as deadline looms

The FBI says it is taking two emails seriously, including what appears to be a ransom note with a second deadline set for later on Monday.

How a decades-old video game has helped me defeat the doomscroll

Trading social media for Pokémon battles and evolutions in Kanto on a Game Boy Advance has been surprisingly serene

Cutting back on doomscrolling must be one of the hardest new year resolutions to keep. Instinctively tapping on the usual suspects on your phone’s home screen becomes a reflex, and vast quantities of money and user data have been specifically employed to keep you reaching for the phone, ingraining it into our work, leisure and social lives. You’ll get no shame from me if you love your phone and have a healthy relationship with your apps, but I’ve found myself struggling lately.

This year, I’m attempting to cut back on screen time – sort of. I’m replacing the sleek oblong of my smartphone with something a little more fuzzy and nostalgic. In an attempt to dismantle my bad habit, I’m closing the feeds of instant updates and instead carrying around a Game Boy Advance. I’ve been playing Pokémon FireRed, a remake of the very first Pokémon games, which turn 30 this month. Even this refreshed version is more than two decades old.

A forest of incense sticks and football in Gaza: photos of the day – Monday

The Guardian’s picture editors select photographs from around the world

The left warned that Starmerism would end like this. Now all of Britain faces the fallout | Owen Jones

Peter Mandelson helped Morgan McSweeney privilege Labour’s reactionary forces in a Faustian pact to sustain the PM. What they sowed, we’ll reap

A chicken that loses its head can still, for a short period, run around and flap its wings: the illusion of life sustained by residual nerve impulses. After the downfall of Morgan McSweeney – our de-facto prime minister – this is the phase Britain’s government has now entered. Those who have worked closely with Keir Starmer emphasise his lack of politics, while his own aides privately boast that he is merely their frontman. McSweeney was the head, and the head has gone. There will be some flapping about in every direction. Starmer’s director of communications, Tim Allan has stepped down, the Scottish Labour leader, Anas Sarwar, is calling for Starmer’s resignation and the question of whether and when he will go is still open. But this political project is all over.

This was not supposed to happen, at least according to conventional political wisdom. Before his collision with real power, Starmer was sold as competence incarnate: a figure committed to public service, presiding over a team of adults in the room who would spare us from the psychodramas of the Tory era. They had, we were told, discovered an electoral elixir. Ruling out significant tax rises on wealthy elites, attacking the welfare state and bashing migrants placed them in the fabled centre ground and would appeal to mainstream public opinion.

Bad Bunny and jingoism lite: was this the Super Bowl where woke roared back?

The NFL appeared keen to welcome the sport’s non-Maga contingent back into the tent. But the theater and violence of capitalism was still there

Roger Federer smiling wolfishly to the crowd: a return to woke? Adam Sandler hangdog in the Levi’s Stadium stands, Jon Bon Jovi mooching on the sideline like a retired dentist on a cruise, Billie Joe Armstrong belting out American Idiot during the pre-game show under his motionless meringue of fogey-blond hair: were they a sign? A New England Patriots team who were neither favored to win nor widely reviled, then promptly repaid a grateful public by losing: was this the Super Bowl which proved that history really can move on, that America is not fated to remain hostage to the tremors and hatreds of the past? Well, yes and no.

A year after Donald Trump made American football’s showpiece all about him, Sunday’s game in Santa Clara always promised a sort of correction – a cooling of the mood, perhaps even an end to the manipulation of sport for political ends. As always the best way to gauge the success of this mission was as the gods intended: through a TV screen. Trump – saddled with historically low approval ratings, facing a massacre in this year’s midterms, and no doubt wary of risking a public appearance in the deep blue sea of the Bay Area – was absent on this occasion, and he kept the F-22 fighter jets that were scheduled to be part of the pre-game flyover away from Levi’s Stadium too. (Unspecified “operational assignments” were the reason offered for the jets’ withdrawal, which means there’s probably a low-ranking member of the Trump administration putting big money on a US military strike somewhere in Latin America as we speak.) And yet, the absent autocrat still weighed on proceedings, his curdling influence turning every moment and gesture on Sunday into a referendum on the prospects for a post-Trumpian sporting future. Could football be normal again?

Files cast light on Jeffrey Epstein’s ties to cryptocurrency

Newly released documents detail convicted sex offender’s early backing of bitcoin and Coinbase

Millions of files related to Jeffrey Epstein have brought to light his ties to the highest echelons of the cryptocurrency industry.

Documents published last week by the US Department of Justice reveal Epstein bankrolled the “principal home and funding source” for bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency, during its nascent stages; he also invested $3m in Coinbase in 2014, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the US, and cut a check that same year to Blockstream, a prominent bitcoin-focused technology firm. Both crypto startups accepted Epstein’s investments in 2014 – six years after his 2008 conviction in Florida for soliciting prostitution from a minor.

‘We’re being turned into an energy colony’: Argentina’s nuclear plan faces backlash over US interests

Push to restart uranium mining in Patagonia has sparked fears about the environmental impact and loss of sovereignty over key resources

On an outcrop above the Chubut River, one of the few to cut across the arid Patagonian steppe of southern Argentina, Sergio Pichiñán points across a wide swath of scrubland to colourful rock formations on a distant hillside.

“That’s where they dug for uranium before, and when the miners left, they left the mountain destroyed, the houses abandoned, and nobody ever studied the water,” he says, citing suspicions arising from cases of cancer and skin diseases in his community. “If they want to open this back up, we’re all pretty worried around here.”

My rookie era: on my first ski trip, I felt like a natural – then I was rapidly humbled by the mountain

I was a ski god. An avalanche. I was starting to think about the Olympics. Darude’s Sandstorm was playing in my head. Then wham, bam, stacked it

• Read more summer essentials

Twenty hot lesbians in a cabin in the snow. It sounds like a budget porn plot from the 70s, but it was the pitch my sister gave when she convinced me to try out skiing for the first time.

I am not a sports dyke. I am a like-to-read-books-and-sit-in-saunas dyke.

Middle seats on planes are unpopular – so what can we learn from those who pick them? | Emma Beddington

For people who love the middle seat, the attractions are many, from a taste of humility to ethical entitlement to the armrests to ‘strangermaxxing’

Embracing friction and inconvenience in our lives is a 2026 trend, but the New York Times has drawn my attention to individuals who are frictionmaxxing further than most of us might be able to fathom: travellers who choose the awkward, inconvenient middle seat on planes.

Airlines expect us to pay extra to choose our seat now, and refusing means becoming the filling in a stranger sandwich, but actively embracing that seems perverse. Some, I learned, claim middle seats offer the best of both worlds – you can see out of the window but enjoy a relatively easy escape – and you’re “ethically entitled to both arm rests” (good luck explaining that to your neighbours). Others treat it as an exercise in Zen humility. I suppose relinquishing main-character energy could make travel less painful? “Be grateful that you’re flying and that’s it,” as James Cashen, a middle seater, explained his philosophy on TikTok.

Federal judge orders Fulton County Georgia election case documents unsealed by Tuesday

The FBI last month raided an election facility central to President Donald Trump's debunked claims of fraud in the 2020 election.

Uproar in the Maldives as football relegation battle decided by last-day no-show

• Green Streets failed to play last game of season

• Team stayed up on goal difference, rivals relegated

There is uproar in the Dhiraagu Dhivehi Premier League, the leading football competition of the Maldives, after it was alleged one of the tropical archipelago’s leading clubs sought to escape relegation by failing to play a match.

The Premier League side Green Streets beat the drop last Thursday after not fulfilling their final league fixture of the season against New Radiant.

Ebo Taylor, Ghanaian highlife pioneer and guitarist, dies age 90

Taylor, who did for Ghanaian music what his friend Fela Kuti did for Nigeria, has been called the greatest rhythm guitarist in history

Ghanaian musician Ebo Taylor, a definitive force behind the highlife genre, has died age 90.

His son Kweku Taylor announced the news on Sunday: “The world has lost a giant. A colossus of African music. Ebo Taylor passed away yesterday; a day after the launch of Ebo Taylor music festival and exactly a month after his 90th birthday, leaving behind an unmatched artistry legacy. Dad, your light will never fade.”

Chinese technology underpins Iran’s internet control, report finds

The technologies include facial recognition tools used on Uyghurs in western China, say experts

Iran’s architecture of internet control is built on technologies from China, according to an analysis published by a British human rights organisation.

The report by Article 19 says the technologies include facial recognition tools used on Uyghurs in western China and a Chinese alternative to the US-based GPS system, BeiDou.

Guthrie family pleads again for mother's release ahead of possible ransom deadline

With a second ransom deadline apparently set for Monday, "Today" show co-host Savannah Guthrie and her siblings issued a new plea over the weekend to whoever may have abducted their mother, Nancy Guthrie, from her Tucson home. It's not clear what the terms of the ransom deadline are, but the FBI said it's taking the letter seriously.

St Pauli plotting their next miracle in tantalising Bundesliga survival battle | Andy Brassell

Win against Stuttgart was a reminder that unity remains St Pauli’s greatest strength in defying the odds again

It had begun to look like a lost cause. In a season where the Bundesliga’s relegation battle increasingly promises a richness that the title race may lack (with all due respect to Borussia Dortmund’s efforts to stalk Bayern Munich at closer quarters in recent weeks), it has felt like St Pauli were, like fellow minnows Heidenheim, ready to be cut away. The Hamburg club’s best-ever start to a top-flight season, two wins and a draw from their first three games, felt like an age ago. Nine successive defeats will do that to you.

Yet these masters of the unusual and the unexpected had another surprise up their sleeve this weekend; not least, one suspects, to themselves. Stuttgart travelled north on a fine run of form, sitting pretty in a Champions League spot and fresh from a week of qualifying for the DFB Pokal semi-finals, a trophy which they have every hope of retaining. With one league win against largely hopeless Heidenheim since that golden start for their hosts, who are also harbouring an injury list as long as one of Scottie Pippen’s arms (to paraphrase Jay-Z), it looked straightforward for Sebastian Hoeness and his men.

Japan's Takaichi to pursue conservative agenda after election landslide

Japan's first female Prime Minister, Sanae Takaichi, brought the ruling Liberal Democratic Party its biggest-ever electoral victory, fueling her ambitions to pursue to a political agenda which she says could "split public opinion."

Barry Wilburn, Super Bowl-winning star for Washington, dies in house fire

Barry Wilburn, who led the NFL in interceptions in 1987 and won a Super Bowl with Washington that same season, has died. He was 62.

Olympic COVID restrictions are gone, but some athletes are still self-quarantining

For most people, the pandemic days of masking are behind them. In certain corners of the Winter Olympics, though, things still look a lot like they did in COVID times. Some athletes are taking extreme measures to stay healthy.

Georgina Hayden’s quick and easy recipe for creamy chicken and mustard fricassee | Quick and easy

A versatile, one-pan dish to which you can add pretty much whatever seasonal vegetables you like and whatever side suits, and all ready in about half an hour

This is a one-pan dinner at its finest: elegant and full of flavour, something that feels as if it has taken more effort and time than it actually has, and versatile in its finish – serve with creamy mash, fluffy rice, boiled potatoes; even hunks of fresh baguette would be wonderful for mopping up the creamy mustard sauce. I use whatever veg is in season: purple sprouting broccoli is at its best right now, but you could add stalks of rainbow chard, shredded cavolo nero, even halved baby carrots. Play around with whatever veg you have and love.

Mikaela Shiffrin has battled grief, PTSD and freak injury. Now come the Olympic Games

Shiffrin became a celebrity at 18 years old after becoming the youngest-ever skier to win Olympic slalom gold. Since then, she has faced grief, PTSD and freak injury — yet she is ready to bounce back.

Russian military scrambles to find Starlink alternative after access blocked

Elon Musk’s SpaceX curbs illicit use of satellite internet network, which Ukraine says is already affecting operations

Russia’s military is scrambling to find alternatives to Starlink satellite internet after access to the network was curtailed, disrupting a key communications system that its forces had been using illicitly on the battlefield.

Ukraine said last week that Starlink terminals being used by Russian troops had been deactivated after talks between its defence minister and Elon Musk, whose company SpaceX operates the satellite network.

The latest on the search for Nancy Guthrie. And, takeaways from Super Bowl 60

The search for Nancy Guthrie enters a second week. And, the Seattle Seahawks win Super Bowl 60, beating the New England Patriots 29-13. Here are the highlights from the big game.

Post your questions for George Takei

The Star Trek star will have lots to say about playing Sulu, but you can also ask about his books and stage career – and getting fired by Donald Trump

There’s so much more to George Takei, beyond his role as Sulu, helmsman of the USS Enterprise. Born Hosato Takei in Los Angeles to Japanese-American parents, he was renamed George by his father after King George VI’s coronation. He and his family were forced to live in various US Japanese concentration camps during the second world war, after which Takei went on to study architecture and theatre, including time at the Shakespeare Institute at Stratford-upon-Avon.

Takei’s early acting career included providing English dubbing voices for 1950s Japanese monster films, including Rodan and Godzilla Raids Again. He got a few small roles on the big screen, largely in war films (including Never So Few and Hell to Eternity), but was more successful on TV, getting cast in a number of popular shows including Perry Mason, The Twilight Zone, My Three Sons and Mission: Impossible. In the same year as his M:I role – 1966 – Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry cast him as physicist Hikaru Sulu in the second pilot episode, leading him to play Lieutenant (later Captain) Sulu in all three seasons of the original 1960s Star Trek series and in the first six Star Trek films between 1979 and 1991.

VAR calls leave De Rossi and Spalletti fuming as Napoli prevail at the last | Nicky Bandini

VAR’s application has been a divisive topic everywhere it has been introduced. It was more of the same in Serie A

You might not be shocked to learn that Daniele De Rossi thinks football has gone soft. Since retiring and moving into management, the man with the “beware the sliding tackle” tattoo has acknowledged he sometimes misses getting to stick the boot in. But would the stick figure seen flying into an opponent on the back of his right calf even stand a chance in this era of VAR?

“I don’t know what to say any more,” lamented De Rossi after his Genoa team lost 3-2 to Napoli on Saturday. “The football we played no longer exists. We were naïve, but it seems I don’t know anything. I don’t know what sport I am coaching.”

As US Olympians call for tolerance and LGBTQ rights, some face Trump attacks and online hate

President Trump called U.S. Olympic skier Hunter Hess a "loser" after Hess voiced concern about political turmoil in the U.S. Gold medal U.S. figure skater Amber Glenn says she's faced online hate and threats after advocating for LGBTQ rights.

‘If I didn’t write about him, I’m afraid I might become him’: the making of Taxi Driver at 50

Screenwriter Paul Schrader talks the inspiration and legacy of Martin Scorsese’s incendiary New York nightmare

If Travis Bickle were real and alive today, he would not be a taxi driver but more likely be sitting in his parents’ basement, exploring the dark, misogynistic depths of the internet.

“We call them incels now,” reflects Paul Schrader, who wrote the screenplay for Taxi Driver, released 50 years ago on Sunday. “‘Incels’ wasn’t a word at that time but it is these guys who are lonely, who see themselves unable to make contact with women, have a repressed backlog of anger and resentment and imagine some kind of glorious transcendent transformation through violence.”

Weather tracker: Spain and Portugal hit by third deadly storm in two weeks

Storm Marta sweeps Iberian peninsula just days after Storms Kristin and Leonardo brought deadly flooding and major damage

Spain and Portugal have endured another storm over the weekend, just days after the deadly flooding and major damage caused by Storm Kristin and Storm Leonardo last week. Storm Marta passed over the Iberian peninsula on Saturday, bringing fresh torrential rain and killing two people. Storm Kristin killed at least five people after it made landfall on 28 January with Storm Leonardo claiming another victim last Wednesday.

The outlook for this week is for more rain across Spain, Portugal and France, especially across north-west Portugal, where more than 100mm is possible during the first half of the week. Some of the heaviest of the rain will transfer to southern Italy and western parts of Greece and Turkey later in the week.

The pet I’ll never forget: Mishka, the surly but beloved raccoon

She hated water, attacked our Christmas tree, destroyed our wallpaper – but everyone who met her was won over

Mishka was about eight weeks old when we got her. It was 2004, we were living in Dibden, New Forest, and I was looking to buy some guinea pigs. I saw an ad for a raccoon on the secondhand site Preloved. My husband, Graham, and I lived in Florida in the 90s and had a raccoon that would come into the yard. It had a bad leg, and we nurtured it, so I was very interested in raccoons.

I met someone who bred them after researching on Google, and we ended up with three, one after the other – we bought two, Nigel and Casey, and later, Mishka was given to us.

Epstein was not ostracised for his crimes. To some powerful men, he became even more appealing | Moira Donegan

The latest tranche of files expose how he was viewed as a sexual svengali – and an expert on dodging the #MeToo movement

A new tranche of Epstein files has blasted its way through the worlds of media, politics, tech, academia, finance and Hollywood. High-profile individuals have once again been forced to explain their relationship with the billionaire financier – and why exactly they sent that email, or what they were doing in that photo, in that place, at that time. There have been resignations in Norway, Slovakia, France, the UK and on Wall Street. Each individual scandal matters. But take the files as a whole and a new picture forms: of Jeffrey Epstein as a man who was seen to survive a sexual abuse scandal, and who was then feted as a sexual svengali and a valuable ally in navigating allegations of sexual abuse amid the #MeToo movement.

The 3.5m documents that have thus far been released to the public – out of a reported 6m documents pertaining to Epstein in the US justice department’s possession – paint Epstein as someone for whom elites, and particularly elite men, often felt a sense of camaraderie and affection, maintaining intimate and friendly relationships long after his 2008 conviction on child sexual abuse charges. And their content implies that, in some cases, this was not simply a case of them turning a blind eye to their friend’s sexual crimes: the powerful actively approached Epstein for sexual and romantic advice, and saw him as a thrower of “wild” parties and a listening ear in whom they could confide their anxieties about the excesses of the #MeToo movement.

Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist

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Ultrarunners in secondhand trainers: the rickshaw drivers taking on the world’s toughest races – photo essay

Members of an athletics club in Madagascar formed by rickshaw drivers are now beating elite athletes in international endurance events

It is a fiercely competitive market, and one of the toughest physical jobs in Madagascar’s Antsirabe, but over the past five years cycle rickshaw driver Haja Nirina has honed his athletic prowess alongside his business.

In this city, about 100 miles (160km) south of the capital, Antananarivo, there are more than 4,000 rickshaws for a population of 265,000, the cheapest transport available for people and goods. Some are pulled by cycles, others by hand. Each day, Nirina makes between 10 and 15 trips, making 10,000 to 15,000 ariary (£1.70 to £2.60). Unlike 99% of drivers, Nirina doesn’t lose 5,000 ariary of his income paying a daily rental fee for the rickshaw. For the past three years, he has owned his, thanks to a programme run by his local athletic club.

The chaotic streets of Antsirabe, where the rickshaw drivers vie for trade

Winter Olympian Gus Kenworthy says he has received death threats over anti-ICE protest

• British freestyle skier targeted on Instagram account

• ‘A lot of the messages have been awful – it’s insane’

The Team GB freestyle skier Gus ­Kenworthy says he has received death threats and messages hoping that he breaks his neck after posting an image apparently showing him urinating “fuck ICE” in the snow last week.

Kenworthy, who has lived in ­America for most of his life, also ­doubled down on his criticisms of the US immigration and ­customs ­enforcement agency, ­calling them “absolutely evil and awful and terrifying”.

4 top U.S. speedskaters to watch at the Olympics

U.S. speedskaters set to compete in Milan are drawing comparisons to past greats like Eric Heiden, Bonnie Blair, and Apolo Ohno. Here are four to watch in the 2026 Winter Olympic Games.