Updates from the first men’s semi-final at Melbourne Park Are tennis players right to feel like they’re on Big Brother? Any thoughts? Get in touch with an email In case you didn’t see it, yesterday’s play saw the women’s singles finals locked in: Elena Rybakina (5) seeing off an attempted fightback from Jess Pegula (6) to secure her third grand slam final appearance and set up a date with Aryna Sabalenka (1), who earlier that evening got past Elina Svitolina (12) in straight sets. And in case you didn’t hear it, Sabalenka was none-too-pleased with a hindrance call that went against her early on in the match after she let loose with an unusual, late grunt. Continue reading...

Agencies accused of failing to take precautions to stop former contractor leaking returns to ‘leftist media outlets’ Donald Trump on Thursday sued the US treasury department and Internal Revenue Service for $10bn over the disclosure of his tax returns to the media in 2019 and 2020. In a complaint filed in Miami federal court, Trump, his adult sons, and his namesake company said the agencies failed to take “mandatory precautions” to prevent former IRS contractor Charles Littlejohn from leaking their tax returns to “leftist media outlets”, including the New York Times and ProPublica. Continue reading...

Albanese government awarded contracts to MTC despite allegations of ‘gross negligence’ in the US involvement with ICE Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast The Australian government’s main immigration detention contractor is playing a key role in Donald Trump’s hardline immigration crackdown and has attracted a string of complaints over its treatment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainees. In recent years, the Albanese government has awarded lucrative immigration detention contracts to the local subsidiary of Management and Training Corporation, a major US private prison company, to operate offshore processing facilities on Nauru and Australia’s onshore detention network. Continue reading...

Ukrainian president and German chancellor praise US efforts after Trump claims Putin agreed to pause, as six killed in latest Russian strikes. What we know on day 1,437 German chancellor Friedrich Merz and Volodymyr Zelenskyy have welcomed “efforts in favour of a truce”, Berlin said, after Donald Trump claimed Vladimir Putin had agreed to a week-long halt on attacks on Ukraine’s power grid after Moscow’s strikes left millions without heating during an “extreme” cold snap. Merz at the same time stressed that “the systematic and brutal destruction of Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure by Russian attacks” was “still ongoing”, which he condemned “in the strongest terms”, his spokesperson said on Thursday. Zelenskyy said he was counting on the US to help secure the claimed week-long pause in Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy network. The Ukrainian president thanked Trump and said he expected the agreement to be implemented. “We hope the United States can make this happen.” Ukraine’s state weather agency on Thursday forecast a drastic dip in temperatures to as low as minus 30C in coming days as authorities race to restore power services. Donald Trump claimed Vladimir Putin agreed to halt strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure for one week after he issued a personal appeal to the Russian leader, Andrew Roth reports. Volodymyr Zelenskyy did not immediately confirm the ceasefire was in place but said that the US president had made an “important statement … about the possibility of providing security for Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities during this extreme winter period”. The short-term ceasefire, which has not been confirmed by Russia, was first announced during a cabinet meeting of Trump’s top advisers at the White House on Thursday. “I personally asked President Putin not to fire into Kyiv and various towns for a week and he agreed to do that,” Trump said at the meeting. Russian attacks killed six people in central and southern Ukraine on Thursday, regional authorities and emergency services said. In the Zaporizhzhia region, Russian shelling killed a 62-year-old man and women aged 26 and 50, emergency services said, as well as causing a major blaze in an apartment building. Firefighters also battled fires in the Dnipropetrovsk region, where two people were injured. In the Kherson region, a Russian bombardment killed a 46-year-old man and a 39-year-old woman, regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin said. A Russian attack on the central city of Kryvyi Rig killed one elderly woman, the head of the city’s administration said. Ukraine is working with Elon Musk’s SpaceX to stop Russia from guiding drones using the firm’s Starlink internet system, according to the Ukrainian defence minister, after Kyiv said it had found Starlinks on long-range drones used in Russian attacks. “We are grateful to SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell and personally to Elon Musk for the quick response and the start of work on resolving the situation,” Mykhailo Fedorov said on Telegram on Thursday. SpaceX did not immediately reply to a Reuters request for comment. The European Union has blacklisted Russia for risk of money laundering, the EU foreign policy chief has said. “This will slow down and increase the costs of transactions with Russian banks,” Kaja Kallas told reporters. Continue reading...

The impact of fires on wildlife can be ‘catastrophic’, with some plant species feared extinct Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast As tinderbox conditions continue to hamper wildlife assessment and rescue efforts, bushfires in Victoria have burned habitat crucial to bird and animal species, including eastern bristlebirds and dingoes. Some plant species are feared extinct. Prof Don Driscoll, a terrestrial ecologist at Deakin University, said he was particularly concerned for the state’s population of endangered eastern bristlebirds – shy songbirds with cinnamon-brown feathers – after fires near Mallacoota burned about 60% of their habitat at Howe Flat. Continue reading...

Woman and man accused of sex outside marriage and drinking alcohol faced what is likely to be one of the severest punishments since Aceh province adopted sharia law Sharia police have caned a couple 140 times each in Indonesia’s Aceh province for having sex outside marriage and drinking alcohol, likely one of the severest such punishments since the deeply conservative region adopted Islamic law. Sexual relations between an unmarried couple are strictly outlawed in Aceh, the only place in Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation, to impose sharia law. Continue reading...

Law will give private companies more control but experts unsure whether reforms go far enough for US Venezuela’s congress has approved a bill making significant changes to the country’s oil sector after pressure from the US to open it up to foreign private investment. The new hydrocarbons law promises to give private companies control over oil production and sales, ease taxes and allow for independent arbitration of disputes, while largely maintaining state control over oil production. Continue reading...

MPs on influential committee excoriate health department and NHS England for errors costing £3.6bn a year Medical negligence in the NHS keeps harming and killing patients because governments and health service bosses have not acted on 24 years’ worth of warnings, MPs have said. In a scathing report published on Friday, the public accounts committee (PAC) excoriates the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and NHS England for allowing the cost of mistakes to balloon to £3.6bn a year. The £3.6bn cost of medical negligence is diverting funds away from frontline NHS care. Lawsuits involving brain-damaged babies can take up to 12 years to settle. Some patients sue because hospitals refuse to tell them what went wrong with their care. Continue reading...

Ecosystem known as the Com is carrying out extreme exploitation, violence and sexual abuse, says report A leading UK online safety charity has issued a “public warning” about a hacking community that is targeting vulnerable children for sexual abuse, self-harm and suicide. The Molly Rose Foundation (MRF) said online networks linked to a global ecosystem labelled the Com were carrying out extreme exploitation, cyberbullying, violence and abuse – and called for a coordinated global response from governments, regulators, law enforcement and tech companies. Continue reading...

Nico O’Reilly gives Manchester City options, Sunderland miss Granit Xhaka’s grit and West Ham find a way Just when Brighton supporters were hoping their side was building some momentum after a run of five games undefeated in all competitions, Saturday’s stoppage-time loss to Fulham arrived. Fabian Hürzeler’s side led at half-time, but their collapse was typical of performances on the road this season. Securing only two away wins – against Chelsea in September and Nottingham Forest in November – has undermined their challenge for Europe. Their next two games at the Amex, against Everton on Saturday and arch-rivals Crystal Palace next week, are an opportunity to make up some ground. Only seven points separate them from Chelsea in fifth place, but Brighton’s record against David Moyes’s side at home is terrible, having failed to beat them since 2019 when a late Lucas Digne own goal sealed the points for Graham Potter against an Everton team managed by Marco Silva. Ed Aarons Brighton v Everton, Saturday 3pm (all times GMT) Leeds v Arsenal, Saturday 3pm Wolves v Bournemouth, Saturday 3pm Chelsea v West Ham, Saturday 5.30pm Continue reading...

Swedish study of 100,000 women found higher rate of early detection, suggesting potential to support radiologists The use of artificial intelligence in breast cancer screening reduces the rate of a cancer diagnosis by 12% in subsequent years and leads to a higher rate of early detection, according to the first trial of its kind. Researchers said the study was the largest to date looking at AI use in cancer screening. It involved 100,000 women in Sweden who were part of mammography screening and were randomly assigned to either AI-supported screening or to a standard reading by two radiologists between April 2021 and December 2022. Continue reading...

Democratic senators question national intelligence head’s fitness for office after overt, unexplained appearance Democratic lawmakers are raising questions about why Tulsi Gabbard, the president’s director of national intelligence, was “lurking” in Fulton county on Wednesday while FBI agents carted off boxes of 2020 election documents. Gabbard visited an elections hub in Fulton county, home to Atlanta, on Wednesday as the FBI executed a search warrant for records related to the 2020 election. The warrant sought all ballots from the 2020 election in the county, tabulator tapes, ballot images and voter rolls, according to a warrant obtained by the Guardian. Continue reading...

Boxer fights back tears in first video since fatal car crash Joshua: ‘I am going to do what is right by them’ An emotional Anthony Joshua has insisted he knows what he has got to do after the death of close friends Sina Ghami and Latif “Latz” Ayodele last month, adding that their company was akin to “walking with giants”. The two-time world heavyweight champion Joshua was involved in a fatal car crash in Nigeria on 29 December which killed Ghami and Ayodele and shocked the boxing fraternity. Continue reading...

Sundance film festival: the story of the Marion County Record and the forces that tried to destroy is expanded for a charming, and concerning, look at freedom of the press On 11 August 2023, police officers executed a search warrant on the offices of the Marion County Record, a small, family-owned paper in central Kansas. Local law enforcement seized the computers, cell phones and reporting materials from all staff, as well as from the homes of one city council member and paper co-owner Eric Meyer, without incident – though they met the impassioned resistance of Meyer’s 98-year-old mother Joan, the paper’s other co-owner, who threw her walker to the ground and declared the raid “Nazi stuff”. “This is illegal,” Eric Meyers warns the officers, as seen in a new documentary on the episode. “You’re going to be on national news tonight.” Continue reading...

Jacob Frey accused the Trump administration of pursuing a ‘might is right’ policy and staging an ‘invasion’ of his city Jacob Frey, the embattled mayor of Minneapolis, has warned fellow mayors that their city will be next in line to be targeted by federal immigration agents unless they speak out against Donald Trump’s aggressive deployments. Addressing the US conference of mayors in Washington DC, Frey won loud applause as he accused the Trump administration of staging an “invasion” of his city and pursuing a “might makes right” philosophy, which he said was championed by Stephen Miller, Trump’s most powerful aide. Continue reading...

Celtic 4-2 Utrecht This was a little more fraught than it needed to be and looked as if it would be for Celtic. Still, Martin O’Neill can focus on the most important fact in that he has guided the Scottish champions into the Europa League’s playoff phase. Job done, once again, for the effervescent O’Neill. Celtic were fully deserving of their win in what became an entertaining clash. Their wobble in the second half proved to be only that. O’Neill, thought to be a managerial yesterday’s man not so long ago, continues to do his bit for 70-somethings everywhere. The Irishman will know Celtic must improve in order to make meaningful, further progress in this competition but such detail can wait. Even continuation in the Europa League had looked a long shot in the latter part of 2025. Utrecht will be delighted to see the back of a tournament which yielded just a single point from eight grisly fixtures. Continue reading...

Nottingham Forest cruised into the Europa League playoffs with a one-sided victory against Ferencvaros, Igor Jesus maintaining his impressive goalscoring form to cap a fine few days for Sean Dyche. The last time Forest won three successive home games in a European competition, in 1979, it culminated in them lifting their first European Cup under Brian Clough. While there is a long way to go in this competition, these are the kind of nights that foster hope of at least reaching the showpiece in Istanbul in May. James McAtee completed the scoring from the penalty spot to condemn Robbie Keane’s side to a 4-0 defeat. Continue reading...

Council said Edward Harris’s properties ‘failed to meet even most basic of living standards and legal requirements’ A Reform UK council chair has resigned after it was found he was illegally running two unsafe rental properties, according to a neighbouring local authority. Edward Harris, the chair of Warwickshire county council, owned two unlicensed houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) in Staffordshire that had “multiple serious safety failures”, according to Labour-led Tamworth borough council. Continue reading...

Met Office issues yellow rain alerts in south-west, with 66 flood warnings – indicating expected flooding – in force Nearly 150 flood alerts remain in place across England as communities continue grappling with the aftermath of Storm Chandra. A yellow rain alert spanning from noon to midnight on Thursday has been issued for parts of south-west England, with the Met Office warning that more flooding could hit roads, homes and businesses. Continue reading...

The Oscar-nominated star of The King’s Speech will check in for the new season of hit comedy drama set in France Oscar-nominee Helena Bonham Carter has joined Steve Coogan for the fourth season of HBO’s comedy drama The White Lotus. Bonham Carter is one of three new cast members officially announced today alongside Chris Messina and Marissa Long. Messina is known for roles in Sharp Objects, The Mindy Project and Julie & Julia, while Long is a model with only a short film to her name as an actor. Continue reading...

The iPhone maker is set to report earnings after market close Big tech results show investor demand for payoffs from heavy AI spending Apple will release its first quarter earnings Thursday after market close, and all eyes will be on the company’s roadmap for integrating artificial intelligence into its products. The tech titan has shown steady financial growth as iPhone sales remain strong. Investors have worried that Apple is getting left behind when it comes to AI. To assuage Wall Street’s fears, Apple announced earlier this month that the rebooted version of its voice assistant, Siri, will be powered by Google’s Gemini AI models. Continue reading...

US president says he made appeal to Russian leader, but no ceasefire has been confirmed by Moscow or Kyiv Donald Trump has claimed Vladimir Putin agreed to halt strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure for one week after he issued a personal appeal to the Russian leader due to the extreme cold in Ukraine. The short-term ceasefire, which has not been confirmed by either Ukraine or Russia, was announced during a cabinet meeting of Trump’s top advisers at the White House on Thursday. Continue reading...

Avaaraq Olsen tells content creators to think before making jokes after German tried to raise Stars and Stripes in Nuuk The mayor of Greenland’s capital has called on media professionals and content creators to act responsibly after a German comedian’s failed attempt to hoist the US flag. Maxi Schafroth, 41, a Bavarian comic, tried to run up the Stars and Stripes on a flagpole near the cultural centre in Nuuk but was confronted by angry passersby. Continue reading...

Lawmaker from Estonia says photo celebrates ‘the greatest war criminal of the 21st century’ Donald Trump has apparently added a framed photo of himself standing with Vladimir Putin to the White House decor, prompting criticism from a senator, members of the media and beyond. Newly surfaced photos from the Palm Room, which connects the West Wing to the executive residence, shows a framed image of the US president and the Russian president at their summit in Alaska last August. Notably, that event marked the first in-person meeting between US and Russian leaders since Russia invaded Ukraine in early 2022. The meeting drew complaints from Democrats who accused him of “cozying up” to Putin, and rolling out “the red carpet” for the Russian leader “instead of “standing with Ukraine and our allies”. Continue reading...

Agency updates guidance after increase in reports of condition to the yellow card scheme Patients on weight-loss jabs should be aware there is a small risk of developing severe acute pancreatitis, the medicines regulator has said. About 1.6 million adults in England, Wales and Scotland used GLP-1 medication, such as semaglutide (Wegovy, Ozempic) and tirzepatide (Mounjaro), between early 2024 and early 2025, to lose weight, according to recent research. Continue reading...