First round of trilateral meetings shows ‘a lot of progress’ made towards peace, says US official, despite new Russian attacks. What we know on day 1,432 Ukraine and Russia have agreed to hold a second round of US-brokered direct peace talks next weekend after a two-day meeting in Abu Dhabi, despite Ukrainian complaints that negotiations were undermined by a barrage of deadly strikes. The trilateral talks in the UAE would resume on 1 February, a US official said on Saturday, adding: “I think getting everyone together was a big step. I think it’s a confirmation of the fact that, number one, a lot of progress has been made to date in really defining the details needed to get to a conclusion.” The talks were the first known direct contact between Ukrainian and Russian officials on a plan being pushed by Donald Trump to end the nearly four-year war. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said “a lot was discussed, and it is important that the conversations were constructive”. Russia was criticised for launching drone and missile attacks on Kyiv and Kharkiv – Ukraine’s two largest cities – during peace talks in Abu Dhabi, reported Peter Beaumont. “Peace efforts? Trilateral meeting in the UAE? Diplomacy? For Ukrainians, this was another night of Russian terror,” the country’s foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, said after the latest Russian assault on critical infrastructure. With Kyiv and other cities in the midst of widespread outages of heat, water and power after Russian attacks on energy infrastructure, officials in the capital said one person had been killed and at least 15 injured in the strikes that continued until morning. US envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff spoke to Russian president Vladimir Putin for four hours in Moscow ahead of the trilateral peace talks, a US official said. They “met for just about four hours, and again, [a] very, very productive discussion, speaking about the final issues that are open”, the official told a media call on Saturday. The governor of the Russian border region of Belgorod said Ukrainian forces had launched a “massive” attack on the region’s main town, damaging energy infrastructure but causing no casualties. Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Telegram on Saturday that a building in the town – also called Belgorod – had been set on fire and an emergency crew was tackling the blaze. A downed drone had also damaged homes in a nearby village, he said. The Russian defence ministry said on Saturday its forces had completed the takeover of the village of Starytsya in Ukraine’s north-eastern Kharkiv region. The village is near the town of Vovchansk, close to the Ukraine-Russia border, where Russian forces launched an incursion in May 2024, and Moscow’s troops have been trying to extend their gains despite Ukrainian resistance. The Ukrainian military’s general staff said late on Saturday that Russian forces had launched six attacks on an area including Starytsya. It made no acknowledgement that the village had changed hands. Ukraine’s DeepState military blog made no mention of the village in a report on Friday but said Russian forces “are continuing their pressure in the Vovchansk area”. The battlefield reports could not be independently verified. An intercepted oil tanker suspected of belonging to Russia’s shadow fleet headed on Saturday to a port in southern France for police to inspect, French authorities said. The tanker, the Grinch, was intercepted on Thursday morning in international waters between Spain and North Africa, French president Emmanuel Macron said on X. French prosecutors suspect it of belonging to the network of vessels Moscow is accused of using to dodge sanctions imposed over its invasion of Ukraine. The tanker would be anchored at Fos-sur-Mere near Marseille and kept at the disposal of the Marseille public prosecutor as part of a preliminary investigation for failure to fly a flag, the regional maritime prefecture said. Continue reading...

Third and final phase of voting taking place on Sunday in village just days after military airstrike killed 21 people Polling stations open on Sunday for the final stage of Myanmar’s three-phase election, a one-sided vote that has been widely derided as a sham, with politicians jailed, the main opposition party banned and conflict raging across parts of the country. Junta leader Min Aung Hlaing has defended the vote as “free and fair”, presenting it as a return to democracy and stability. The election is happening almost five years after the military seized power in a coup, ousting the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi and triggering a fierce conflict. The 80-year-old has been detained since she was ousted, and her party has been banned. Continue reading...

Aryna Sabalenka takes on Victoria Mboko; Carlos Alcaraz to face Tommy Paul Updates from Sunday’s day session at Melbourne Park | Email Joey The other contender for yesterday’s biggest story came later in the evening, when Naomi Osaka (16) withdrew from the Australian Open just hours before she was set to face Aussie qualifier Maddison Inglis, citing an abdominal injury linked to body changes from her pregnancy. We had a big few stories yesterday but a contender for the biggest fortune, and a enforced heat break, coming to the aid of Jannik Sinner (2) as he struggled with full-body cramps in the stifling conditions against 85th-ranked American Eliot Spizzirri. Continue reading...

Police said group breached HMP Wormwood Scrubs grounds where Umer Khalid is being held A group of protesters supporting a Palestine Action prisoner on hunger strike have been arrested after they breached prison grounds, the Metropolitan police has said. The force said on Saturday evening that it had detained a group of protesters outside HMP Wormwood Scrubs, in west London, and was in the process of making a number of arrests. Continue reading...

Dangerous weather engulfing large area of country as 16 states plus DC declare states of emergency Winter Storm Fern - live updates A powerful winter storm with more than 150 million Americans in its crosshairs started sweeping across much of the US on Saturday, packing heavy snow and sleet as well as freezing rain, and the risk of widespread power outages. Snowfall was already being reported on Saturday morning across parts of the plains, the south and the midwest, including in areas of Oklahoma, Iowa, Tennessee, Kansas, Texas and Missouri. Continue reading...

National Police Service will investigate organised crime, terrorism, fraud and online child abuse The government is setting up a National Police Service – dubbed the “British FBI” – to deal with organised crime, terrorism, fraud and online child abuse in a major change to policing in England and Wales. The new organisation, which will be announced by the Home Office in a white paper on Monday, means fraud, criminal gang and UK-wide counter terror investigations will no longer be carried out by a combination of existing agencies such as the National Crime Agency and regional organised crime units run by local police forces. Continue reading...

Head coach highlights away game in Champions League Slot questions fixture list after difficult away trip Arne Slot conceded his Liverpool side ran out of steam in defeat at Bournemouth, after Amine Adli’s 95th-minute winner condemned his side to a first loss since November. Liverpool pulled level from 2-0 down late on courtesy of Dominik Szoboszlai’s sensational free-kick, but Bournemouth responded impressively and Adli struck a winner from a long throw with almost the last kick. The Liverpool head coach felt the referee, Michael Salisbury, should have played more second-half stoppage time taking in substitutions and video assistant referee checks but admitted he feared a Bournemouth winner. “I think it is safe to say they could have scored 3-2 a little bit earlier,” Slot said, alluding to chances for the Bournemouth pair Evanilson and Ryan Christie. “A few of our players ran out of energy and I cannot even criticise them for that because two days ago [three] we had to play an away game. We’re the only team that played in the Champions League that has two games in between. Continue reading...

Yellow warnings for heavy rain remain in place across parts of Northern Ireland, Scotland and south-west England and Wales Downpours and high winds are likely to continue after Storm Ingrid wreaked havoc in the south-west and washed away part of a historic pier in Devon, the Met Office said on Saturday. It has been a wet weekend for many, with yellow weather warnings for heavy rain in place across parts of Northern Ireland, Scotland and south-west England and Wales. Continue reading...

NBA postpones Wolves-Warriors game after shooting Alex Pretti, 37, killed by border control near arena Game rescheduled for Sunday amid safety concerns The scheduled Saturday contest between the Golden State Warriors and Minnesota Timberwolves was postponed and pushed back to Sunday afternoon. The NBA cited safety concerns as the reason for the schedule adjustment. Continue reading...

Federal agents release chemicals into the air and arrest people after shooting and killing a 37-year-old man Minneapolis shooting – latest updates Man killed in Minneapolis by federal agents identified as VA nurse Alex Pretti “I’m 70 years old and I’m fucking angry,” the man yelled, as clouds of chemicals hung in the sub-zero air in Minneapolis, capturing the sentiment of a city that has now seen two people killed by federal agents in less than three weeks. Agents shot and killed a 37-year-old US citizen at about 9am on Saturday, with other observers watching and videotaping their actions, in an area called Eat Street, a corridor of largely immigrant-owned restaurants and businesses. Continue reading...

Sundance film festival: Conversion therapy has gory results in a smart and surprisingly romantic debut feature from Australian writer-director Adrian Chiarella Something rather nasty is unfolding in Sundance horror Leviticus. If you asked the god-fearing residents of the isolated Australian town at its centre, they would say it’s the curse of homosexuality, quietly infecting the youth. If you asked the gay teens themselves, they would say it’s something far more horrifying. In writer-director Adrian Chiarella’s indelible debut feature, queer desire is not only a danger to one’s safety from the bigots that you live, work and pray with, but it’s also a supernatural affliction. We first see teens Naim (Joe Bird) and Ryan (Stacy Clausen) as they engage in a clandestine hang, that familiar dance of a play-fight leading into a kiss. For Naim, it’s a new world opening up, a reason to believe there might be something to be happy about in an otherwise dull new town with his warm yet clueless single mother (Mia Wasikowska). But when Naim sees Ryan engaging in a similar tryst with Hunter (Jeremy Blewitt), the son of the local preacher, he allows his heart to overrule his head and does something he’ll live to regret. Leviticus is screening at the Sundance film festival and is seeking distribution Continue reading...

Derby victory was undeniably impressive but how will club assess caretaker manager’s suitability to permanent job? The problem Manchester United have – after 13 years and seven managers of failure – is that for whatever action they take now, there is a bad precedent. Keep Michael Carrick on, and it’s just another Ole Gunnar Solskjær situation. But replace him and, for almost whoever they appoint – be it a Premier League veteran, foreign maestro, renowned past-his-best winner, Red Bull-adjacent gegenpresser, austere Dutchman or Portuguese ideologue – they have done it before and it hasn’t worked. It’s almost like the biggest problem at the club isn’t the manager. Carrick’s start was undeniably impressive. There was pace and zip and creativity. The relief of players being released from the 3-4-2-1 was akin to one of those videos of cows being allowed back into the pasture after being kept in a barn over the winter. Who could possibly have predicted that Amad Diallo would excel as a right-sided forward, or that Bruno Fernandes might thrive as a No 10? United didn’t just beat Manchester City 2-0; they hammered them. Continue reading...

Where to start with this intoxicating Premier League white-knuckle ride? As second-half stoppage time ticked into a fifth minute, the Bournemouth defender James Hill hurled a long throw into the box and, with Alisson slipping and sliding on the sodden turf, Amine Adli wellied in a winner with almost the last kick of the game to condemn Liverpool to defeat. Fifteen minutes earlier Dominik Szoboszlai cannoned in a stunning free-kick to haul Arne Slot’s side level from two goals down. Slot clenched both fists and gave his assistant Giovani van Bronckhorst a high 10, but it was Andoni Iraola, beaming from ear to ear, who departed the pitch high-fiving his staff. For Liverpool, this was another rather sobering experience. Virgil van Dijk made amends for presenting Bournemouth the lead and Milos Kerkez, who struggled on his return to the club and was exposed when Álex Jiménez doubled the hosts’ lead, was hooked at the interval. On this evidence Liverpool would be naive to allow Andy Robertson to depart for Tottenham. Mohamed Salah was anonymous, his greatest contribution backheeling the ball to Szoboszlai for his goal. Slot and Liverpool looked shell-shocked when Adli converted to earn their second win since October. Continue reading...

Sundance film festival: There’s a smart idea at play here, with the star playing a hellish version of herself fighting against corporate forces, but there’s not a lot else In April 2025, the pop singer Charli xcx posted a TikTok reflecting on nearly a year of her seminal album Brat: “It’s really hard to let go of Brat and let go of this thing that is so inherently me and become my entire life, you know?” she said, seemingly naked in bed. “I started thinking about culture, and the ebbs and flows and lifespan of things … ” She acknowledged that over-saturation is perilous, and that maybe she should stop, but “I’m also interested in the tension of staying too long. I find that quite fascinating.” The frank, informal admission fit with Brat, a pop culture-shifting album that channeled, with stunning immediacy, the imperious ego and bristling insecurity of an artist keenly aware of her own precarious level of fame. Her ambivalence was understandable – Brat rapidly turned Charli, who spent over a decade as a fixture of pop’s so-called middle class, into a main pop girl, an artist played at midwest sorority weddings and used by a US presidential campaign. But her interest in “the tension of staying too long” also felt a little trite, the type of smart-sounding musing that dead-ends in self-awareness. Brat summer was heady, hedonistic, fun – a meme, an aesthetic, a vibe, a moment. That said moment passes? Well … yeah. Continue reading...

The structure of wrists mean we have the capacity to do both handstands and neurosurgery. A lot can go wrong Read more summer essentials It’s a bad time of year for wrists. Parents – and sometimes grandparents – full of enthusiasm and holiday cheer hop on their child’s new scooter or bike, keen to show said child how great the new toy is, and forget that gravity isn’t as kind to the body when we’re older. Falls happen, and wrists often take the brunt. “It’s got its own name: ‘fall on an outstretched hand’,” says Brigette Evans, an occupational therapist at Bathurst Hand Therapy. As we fall, our instinct is to put our arms out in front of us to protect our body, face and head, and the wrist takes a lot of that force. Continue reading...

Experts say dirty waters can attract more sharks – but there are many other factors at play Fatberg the size of four buses likely birthed poo balls that closed Sydney beaches – and it can’t be cleared Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast After four shark attacks in New South Wales in less than 48 hours, authorities on Tuesday urged beachgoers “just go to a local pool instead”. Sydneysiders have heard similar warnings before – in the past, they’ve been issued for beaches polluted with faecal matter after heavy rains. Continue reading...

Susan Hayes and Craig got to know each other through an online game. When they finally met in person, it felt like a real-life romance novel Find more stories from the moment I knew series When 2023 rolled around, I was ready for a change. I’d spent the Covid years locked down in Victoria, Canada. I had quit my day job at the end of 2019 to write full-time and travel, only for the world to shut down. During those long, lonely years, I kept myself distracted by playing an online game. Nothing fancy, just a phone game about surviving a zombie apocalypse. It was a bit of fun and a way to connect with people from around the world. One of those people was a fellow named Craig. Continue reading...

The bass player and singer on naming his chickens, selling his Banksy and surviving cancer You used to keep chickens named after women from Blink-182 songs. Which was your favourite? There was Wendy, Holly, Josie … I forget the others. We lived in London, but also had a 25-acre farm out in Somerset with a Georgian farmhouse that was built in 1750. A guy from the British Beekeeping Association, who worked at the local church, would come over and help me open up my hives and harvest the honey. It was crazy how much honey we got – up to 150 jars a season. It was the best honey I’ve ever tasted. Continue reading...

Boro close gap on Coventry with 4-0 win at Riverside Leicester 1-2 Oxford, Sheffield United 3-1 Ipswich Kim Hellberg insisted there is more to come from Middlesbrough after they ruthlessly brushed aside Preston 4-0 to close to within three points of leaders Coventry. Alan Browne scored against the club where he made more than 400 appearances between 2014 and 2024, before Tommy Conway and Morgan Whittaker capitalised on defensive lapses to put Boro three up at half-time. Preston were down to 10 men just after the break when Jordan Storey saw red for hauling down Conway, who completed the scoring as Middlesbrough claimed a fourth successive league win. Continue reading...

Trump tells New York Post he will skip Super Bowl NFL stands by Bad Bunny amid rightwing backlash Donald Trump said he will not attend next month’s Super Bowl in northern California, citing the distance to the game, amid an ongoing culture-war backlash over the NFL’s choice of half-time and pre-game performers. Trump told the New York Post he plans to skip the 8 February championship game at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara because the trip is “just too far away”, adding that he would have considered attending if it were a shorter flight. The decision means Trump will not repeat his appearance at last year’s Super Bowl in New Orleans, where he became the first sitting US president to attend the NFL’s showcase event. Continue reading...

Head coach targeted in draw at Burnley Frank: ‘You can’t say we didn’t do everything to win’ Thomas Frank has called for “calm heads” after Tottenham fans urged the club to dismiss him during their draw at relegation-threatened Burnley. The away end sang “You’re getting sacked in the morning” at full time, making their views clear to the hierarchy and head coach. Cristian Romero salvaged a late point for Tottenham after Axel Tuanzebe and Lyle Foster had turned things around to counter Micky van de Ven’s opening goal. The draw leaves Tottenham with two wins in 14 and mired in mid-table. Continue reading...

After criticism over allegation Nato troops ‘stayed off front lines’ in conflict, US president says UK forces were ‘great and very brave’ Donald Trump has said UK soldiers who fought in Afghanistan were “among the greatest of all warriors” after previously drawing criticism for his claims Nato troops stayed away from the frontlines during the conflict. In a post on social media on Saturday, the US president said: “The great and very brave soldiers of the United Kingdom will always be with the United States of America. Continue reading...

Police say two men and a woman shouted abuse and struck vehicle outside Crowborough military site in East Sussex Three people have been arrested after two occurrences of disorder outside Crowborough training camp, which is being used to house asylum seekers. A 36-year-old man and a 62-year-old woman from Crowborough, and a 54-year-old man from Newhaven were arrested on Saturday on suspicion of an offence under the Public Order Act and are now in police custody. Continue reading...

Extreme heat wreaked havoc on Saturday’s schedule but tennis has changed its ways of dealing with extreme heat Even before the first set and first hour of his match elapsed, Tomas Machac had asked the umpire for the tournament doctor, trainer and pickle juice, the drink du jour for tackling cramps. Those preventive measures taken in the intense early stages of his third-round tussle with Lorenzo Musetti proved to be sensible, for the pair would spend a brutal four hours, 25 minutes on court. Four hours of that took place inside an open John Cain Arena, a furnace in suffocating heat. “We knew today was going to be really, really hot,” Musetti said. “I think I managed well to finish the match without cramping.” Continue reading...

Manchester City have a first Premier League win in four games and Wolves a first defeat after going five unbeaten in all competitions following a fixture in which the referee, Farai Hallam, on top-flight debut, dared to stick with his decision not to award a penalty despite being sent for a pitchside review by the video assistant referee. That was for a Yerson Mosquera handball and infuriated Pep Guardiola, though after their dire recent form a first three points since 27 December is what matters. Continue reading...