Crisis in the Middle East, Ramadan in Gaza, the Milano Cortina Winter Paralympics and Paris fashion week – the past seven days as captured by the world’s leading photojournalists Continue reading...

⚽ Championship news from the 8pm GMT kick-off ⚽ Live scores | Table | Read Football Daily | Mail Scott This is ostensibly an affair between two Welsh concerns: Wrecsam ac Dinas Abertawe. But it’s not just that, is it. It’s Philadelphia versus California. It’s X-Men versus G-funk. It’s Don’t Forget versus Drop It Like It’s Hot. It’s Fight Milk versus Chandon. Rob Mac, Ryan Reynolds and Snoop Dogg have changed everything. Kick-off is at 8pm GMT. Mae ymlaen! Continue reading...

Bolivian interior ministry says Sebastián Marset is being extradited to US, where he’s wanted for money laundering Sign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inbox Sebastián Marset, an alleged Uruguayan drug trafficker and one of South America’s most wanted criminals, has been arrested in Bolivia. Marset, 34, is accused of trafficking tonnes of cocaine from South America to Europe, and also of having ordered the murder of a Paraguayan prosecutor who was shot dead as he honeymooned on a Colombian beach in 2022. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Chancellor plans help for vulnerable and low-income customers due to conflict in Middle East Rachel Reeves will set out extra support next week for households across the UK facing a surge in the cost of heating oil due to the conflict in the Middle East. The chancellor is expected to set out plans to assist those on low incomes or with other vulnerabilities, particularly in rural areas. The help will be delivered in England via councils using the new crisis and resilience fund. Continue reading...

Well-backed favourite is trainer’s fifth winner in race Jockey Townend out on his own with five successes A capacity crowd had squeezed into the grandstands on Friday hoping to see a football legend lift the festival’s biggest prize, but the greatest trainer in National Hunt history had other ideas. The Gold Cup was one of the last races at the meeting to elude Willie Mullins until his first win in 2019. Now, he has five, joining Tom Dreaper, Arkle’s trainer, as the co-holder of the all-time record, after Gaelic Warrior’s relentless charge up the hill to an eight length success. Paul Townend, meanwhile, is now out on his own as the only rider to win five Gold Cups, one more than Pat Taaffe, who steered Arkle to all three of his Gold Cup victories in the 1960s. Continue reading...

Most transatlantic cables go through or close to Ireland, making its waters particularly vulnerable to attack The UK has signed a “rebooted” defence agreement with Dublin that could mean the Royal Navy responding to hostile ships and other issues in Irish waters. The deal, announced at the second post-Brexit Ireland-UK summit, held in Cork on Friday, updates a 2016 agreement to include cyber-threats and the sabotage of critical internet and electricity undersea cables. Continue reading...

Double standards in Europe and elsewhere are laid bare by the muted response to US and Israeli aggression and the killing of civilians When Russia launched its full scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the international condemnation from Europe and elsewhere was loud and clear. Leaders did not expect legal threats to shift Vladimir Putin or end war crimes by his troops. But they understood the importance of naming what had happened as an illegal act of aggression, and of seeking to hold those responsible accountable. The same countries have been strikingly muted since the US and Israel launched their war on Iran. This too was an act of aggression. Spain’s Pedro Sánchez has been lonely in his forthright condemnation, though Norway and others also pointed to the breach of international law. Meanwhile, Australia’s prime minister, Anthony Albanese, offered unreserved support and Germany’s chancellor, Friedrich Merz, declared that it was “not the moment to lecture our partners and allies”. 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. Continue reading...

Writers are voicing their anger at AI theft of their work with ‘Human Authored’ logos and an empty book. The government must listen In a scene that might have come from a dystopian novel, books were being stamped with “Human Authored” logos at this week’s London Book Fair. The Society of Authors described its labelling scheme as “an important sticking plaster to protect and promote human creativity in lieu of AI labelled content in the marketplace”. Visitors to the fair were also being given copies of Don’t Steal This Book, an anthology of about 10,000 writers including Nobel laureate Kazuo Ishiguro, Malorie Blackman, Jeanette Winterson and Richard Osman, in which the pages are completely blank. The back cover states: “The UK government must not legalise book theft to benefit AI companies.” The message is clear: writers have had enough. 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. Continue reading...

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva revokes Darren Beattie’s visa in retaliation for Brazilian health minister being denied visa for US Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has said he has “forbidden” one of Donald Trump’s advisers from visiting the South American country in retaliation for his health minister being denied a US visa. Darren Beattie, a far-right political strategist who was recently tapped for a senior advisory role on Brazil, had reportedly hoped to use a trip to the country to visit the former president Jair Bolsonaro, who is serving a 27-year sentence for plotting a coup to stop Lula taking power after the 2022 election. Beattie is a longstanding critic of Brazil’s judiciary and president and once called the moderate leftwing leader a representative of “the most destructive and corrosive version” of communism. Continue reading...

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White House contends with reality of shoddy preparations for war and unclear conditions for victory Middle East crisis – live updates Sign up for the Breaking News US newsletter email As US and Israeli jets descended to deliver the opening salvos of the war in Iran, Donald Trump’s back-of-the-envelope plan for regime change in Tehran was about to run into the reality of the largest US intervention in the Middle East since the start of the Iraq war in 2003. That reality came quickly. Continue reading...

After 11 straight defeats against Ireland, victory in Dublin would vindicate Gregor Townsend’s faith in his players Trusting the process. It sounds like a fine idea in principle: although it really depends if your process was any good in the first place. Gregor Townsend faced down a familiar cacophony of criticism after Scotland’s opening defeat by Italy last month. The same old shortcomings had been exposed, it was said, and another year of disappointment beckoned. Townsend had insisted the embarrassing capitulation against Argentina in November, from 21-0 ahead, was a “line in the sand moment” – only to see that line swiftly washed away in the sheeting Roman rain. Continue reading...

After months of red carpets and awards season campaigns, it’s all eyes on Hollywood’s night of nights - the Academy Awards. It looks like it will be a fight between Ryan Coogler’s thriller Sinners and Paul Thomas Anderson’s adaptation One Battle After Another for most of the big prizes, with Jessie Buckley’s performance in Hamnet the clear favourite for best actress. Lucy Hough speaks to the Guardian’s film editor, Catherine Shoard Continue reading...

Readers respond to Polly Toynbee’s article praising Louise Casey’s speech on social care funding Louise Casey may have the power of words behind her (The blistering speech that tells me Britain’s social care deadlock can finally be broken, 10 March), but what she’s uncovered is a truth that local authorities have been voicing for years: the national care service will fail unless ministers stabilise the local systems that underpin it. Key Cities (a cross-party network of UK local authorities) has long been calling for an urgent funding reset for the social care system. And while the Casey commission’s reforms are welcome, what’s still missing is the transition plan to enable councils to make this happen. A key part of the government’s NHS 10‑year plan must be a significant expansion of joint commissioning, across regional and national scales. This collaboration will finally end the costly push‑pull between those who fund and those who deliver care and, vitally, lay the foundations for effective transformation from local to national provision. Continue reading...

Hoddinott Hall, Cardiff Joan Tower’s concerto for alto saxophone was brilliantly delivered by Steven Banks, part of a lively concert The BBC National Orchestra of Wales is marking the 250th anniversary of the US Declaration of Independence in a series of concerts, and the UK premiere of Love Returns, by the 87-year-old American composer Joan Tower, was at the centre of this programme with Finnish conductor Tomas Djupsjöbacka. Tower is best known for her Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman and, in this work, a concerto for alto saxophone, she has realised an uncommonly appealing piece. Its title relates to Tower’s use of a melody from her piano piece, Love Letter, written in memory of her late husband, as the basis for a theme and variations structure, as different from conventional concerto form as can be, evolving and gradually accelerating in tempo over its whole span of six sections. The only departure from this is in the fifth of the six: a solo saxophone cadenza, brilliantly delivered by soloist Steven Banks. His sometimes edgy, sometimes honeyed tone was wonderfully expressive throughout, whirling virtuoso passagework countered by aching lyricism, with Djupsjöbacka ensuring that Tower’s orchestral textures offered the optimal balance to the solo lines. Continue reading...

Readers respond to Sam Dumitriu’s article on protecting Britain’s environment In his article on nature protections (How can we really protect Britain’s environment?, 8 March), Sam Dumitriu of Britain Remade celebrates habitat recovery and calls for more focus on such efforts and less on legal protections for nature. But legal protections are the only thing protecting the habitats we have left. Over the past 100 years, the amount of healthy natural habitat in England has shrunk: 99.7% of fens, 97% of species‑rich grasslands, 80% of lowland heathlands, up to 70% of ancient woodlands and up to 85% of saltmarshes have been lost. Continue reading...

Dave Lawley recalls his father’s involvement with the Argyle Library Egg It was sad to read the saga of the Argyle Library Egg (My dad made the biggest jewelled egg in the world. The obsession would destroy his marriage, family and fortune, 7 March) and of the untimely death of Paul Kutchinsky. But repeated references to the egg that he made is akin to crediting Elon Musk with devising the Tesla car. There were six master craftsmen who worked 7,000 hours to create the egg. My father, Geoff Lawley, made all the intricate furniture mounted on the three 120-degree vistas inside the egg. When the egg could not be sold, my father and the other craftsmen were made redundant by the De Vroomen Alexander workshop. He never worked again, but I’m pleased to report he is alive and well and celebrated his 95th birthday this week, although his memories of his part in the creation of this masterpiece are now fading. Dave Lawley Buckland, Hertfordshire Continue reading...

Prof Liv Nilsson Stutz and Prof Sarah Tarlow respond to an article on ethical questions about remains from overseas in UK museums Regarding your article on “overseas” human remains in British museums (Vast scale of overseas human remains held in UK museums decried by MPs and experts, 7 March), while the public may be surprised, the issue of human remains in museums has been central to archaeologists, anthropologists and museum professionals for decades. The question for us is not whether it is acceptable that human remains can be found in “sacrilegious” conditions (clearly not), but how can we best care for human remains in museum collections? What we find both counterproductive and incorrect is the suggestion that collection managers and museums are unmoved by the ethical challenges posed by the remains in their care. We recently concluded a large research project examining the ethical treatment of human remains in European institutions. Our survey clearly shows that collection managers, often with very scarce resources, are deeply concerned with the human remains in their care, and overwhelmingly demonstrate empathy and concern for them. Moreover, human remains from colonial contexts tend to receive more, not less, ethical attention than human remains from local or archaeological contexts. Continue reading...

Actor who played farmhand Bert Fry in The Archers for 24 years, and appeared in early episodes of Emmerdale Farm Eric Allan, who has died aged 85, was a prolific character actor best known for playing country folk, on radio as the gentle, poetry-loving farmhand Bert Fry in The Archers and on television as the blacksmith Frank Blakey in the early days of Emmerdale Farm (later retitled Emmerdale). He previously had a starring role in Mike Leigh’s first feature film, Bleak Moments (1971), playing a socially awkward teacher, Peter, who is attracted to Sylvia, an office worker and the carer of her learning-disabled sister. In one scene he fulfilled Leigh’s ambition to portray “a couple kissing the way it happens and not the way people always kiss in movies”. Continue reading...

Two weeks in, it’s increasingly clear that the US-led war has taken every problem it aimed to solve – and made it worse It’s not easy, but let’s try to look at this war in the best, most charitable light. Let’s try to see the US-Israel conflict with Iran as its prosecutors and advocates would want us to see it. They would say that it has two aims, both legitimate. The first is to weaken if not remove a regime that has done terrible evil to its own people. Who could mourn the supreme leader of a government that, according to one report, gunned down 30,000 of its citizens on the streets in just two days on 8 and 9 January? Listen to those Iranians who long ago reached the glum conclusion that the only way they could be rid of their tormentors was through external military action. As one exiled Iranian put it to me this week: “The Iranian people have been begging the world for help for so many years. They tried voting for change in 2009; they were killed. They tried protesting in 2019, 2022 and this year; they were massacred in the tens of thousands … They were out of all other options.” Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

United manager says defender ready for England return; Chelsea’s goalkeeper dilemma; plus Slot on Liverpool’s fine margins Continue reading...

He dismisses talk of club being cursed by ‘black magic’ Interim manager admits some players are not coping Igor Tudor has told his Tottenham players to stand up and fight rather than wallow in the role of victims and hide behind “bullshit” excuses such as the club being cursed by “black magic”. The interim manager is under intense pressure as he prepares for Sunday’s Premier League trip to Liverpool after losing his first four matches. He will be without 12 players, with Cristian Romero and João Palhinha undergoing concussion protocols after their clash of heads in Tuesday’s 5-2 Champions League defeat at Atlético Madrid and Yves Bissouma added to the casualty list with a muscle problem. Continue reading...

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Trio captured relaxing around a wooden table in photo believed to have been taken on Martha’s Vineyard Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Peter Mandelson have been pictured in bathrobes alongside Jeffrey Epstein, in the first known photograph of them together. The trio were captured relaxing outside at a wooden table with mugs decorated with the American flag in the newly unearthed photograph believed to have been taken on Martha’s Vineyard, an island off Cape Cod in Massachusetts that is favoured by the wealthy. Continue reading...

George Russell and Kimi Antonelli took a one-two win in Australia and team’s ability to master dark art of energy management is paying off As Formula One grapples with its new, controversial regulations, there is consensus at least that Mercedes are expected to be on top once more in the second race of the season on Sunday in Shanghai. The team have a fearsome car but most importantly in a formula dominated by the engine, appear to have also stolen a march in optimising the dark art of energy management. George Russell and Kimi Antonelli claimed a one-two at the opening round in Australia last weekend. In qualifying Russell was eight-tenths quicker than Mercedes’ nearest rival, the Red Bull of Isack Hadjar and in the grand prix itself finished 15 seconds in front of third-placed Charles Leclerc having eased up in the final third of the race. Continue reading...