Price tag for winger’s move to Manchester City would make headlines in any other country but not in England Antoine Semenyo, it seems likely, will soon join Manchester City from Bournemouth for a fee of £65m. Given how well Rayan Cherki and Phil Foden have played from the right this season, it is not immediately obvious why City need him, but the modern game is the modern game, the rammed calendar makes large and flexible squads essential and Pep Guardiola may have some esoteric plan for the Ghanaian anyway. But perhaps what is most striking about the deal is the fee – or, more precisely, how little attention it has drawn. English football has become inured to big transfers. The fee feels about right. Semenyo is 25. He has four and a half years left on his contract. He is quick, skilful, intelligent and works hard. He is disciplined, but has the capacity to do the unexpected. Of course a player of his ability costs that much. Yet £65m would make him the third-most expensive player in Bundesliga history. He would be the seventh-most expensive in Serie A history, the 14th-most expensive in La Liga history. Only nine non-English clubs have paid a fee higher than that. Even in Premier League terms, Semenyo sneaks into the top 25. Continue reading...

Arsenal’s revenge mission this week has been a dish best served cold. After Unai Emery’s Aston Villa felt the force of the Premier League leaders in a 4-1 thrashing, this time it was Andoni Iraola’s Bournemouth who were vanquished despite being presented with the opening goal by Gabriel Magalhães. The Brazilian promptly equalised before Declan Rice capped his return from injury with two goals as Arsenal moved six points clear at the top, even if they had to survive a nervous last 16 minutes after substitute Eli Junior Kroupi pulled one back. Continue reading...

Early on Saturday morning, Donald Trump announced that US forces had captured the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores. Hours later, they were indicted on drug and weapons offences in New York. Later on Saturday, he suggested that the US was “going to run” the country for the time being Jonathan Freedland speaks to the Guardian’s Latin America correspondent, Tom Phillips, about whether or not Trump is likely to end his military campaign in the region – or if this is just the beginning Archive: CBC, Fox News Continue reading...

McKennie equalises in 1-1 draw but Juve’s title bid hit Espanyol ban fans with Barcelona shirts at city derby Juventus’s Serie A title hopes were dealt a blow as they were held to a 1-1 draw at home by relegation-battling Lecce on Saturday, with the hosts coming from behind but failing to win after Jonathan David had a Panenka-style penalty saved. Juventus remain fifth in the standings on 33 points, five off the leaders, Milan, who have played a game less. Lecce are 16th on 17 points, five points above the relegation zone. This story will be updated Continue reading...

Alexandra Palace hosts the final, 8.15pm GMT start Follow us on Bluesky | And get in touch: email Rob Van Veen has been the player of the tournament so far. He came through a much tougher half of the draw, beating two former world champions in Luke Humphries and Gary Anderson. Ban Veen’s timing and mental strength have been ceaselessly impressive, and he has saved his best darts for the biggest moments. In the second round he was dangerously close to going 2-0 down in a best-of-five match against Alan Soutar. Van Veen broke in the deciding leg to level the match – see the next paragraph – then reeled off six legs in a row to win it. In the final set he averaged 121.86; his match average of 108.28 is the highest of the tournament. First round Cristo Reyes 3-1 (average 98.91) Second round Alan Soutar 3-1 (108.28) Third round Madars Razma 4-1 (97.91) Fourth round Charlie Manby 4-1 (98.48) Quarter-final Luke Humphries 5-1 (105.41) Semi-final Gary Anderson 6-3 (102.99) First round Darius Labanauskas 3-0 (avg 101.54) Second round David Davies 3-0 (97.15) Third round Mensur Suljovic 4-0 (107.09) Fourth round Rob Cross 4-2 (106.58) Quarter-final Krzysztof Ratajski 5-0 (100.04) Semi-final Ryan Searle 6-1 (105.35) Continue reading...

Not clear whether more people will get the flu this season, but more than 3,100 people have died in last year in US The United States has seen the number of influenza cases climb significantly in December, coming after the most severe flu season since 2018, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. It’s not yet clear whether there will be an increase in the total number of people who get the flu this season – or whether more people just got it at once in December – but more than 3,100 people died from the virus in the US in the year ending August 2025, according to the latest data from the CDC. Continue reading...

The stage and screen actor on turning gaffes into gifts, the impact of Eowyn, and the Lord of the Rings stew scene fans won’t stop asking about Get our weekend culture and lifestyle email Your latest role is Queen of the Cuttlefish, in The Pout-Pout Fish; if you could be a fish for a day, which one would it be and why? The blue groper at Clovelly beach – because it’s like an institution, and people go there to see it. I just think it’s cool that there’s a local fish that people actually go and see and talk about – it’s a special fish. Continue reading...

As Andrew Ngeh and Kathleen Oliver paddleboarded together in a secluded bay in Vanuatu, the chemistry between them was undeniable Get our weekend culture and lifestyle email In 2015, I’d been living in Vanuatu for a year, coaching the Vanuatu women’s beach volleyball team as they aimed to qualify for the Rio Olympics. I was a volunteer through an Australian government program, and a new intake of Australians were arriving in Port Vila one afternoon in February so I went to the Australian High Commission to meet them. I got chatting with this gorgeous and bubbly girl called Kath, who’d been volunteering in Indonesia. I thought we were meeting for the first time, but as I introduced myself, Kath explained that we had in fact met before, walking across Pyrmont Bridge in Sydney during our training weekend. Continue reading...

In 2025 it felt as thought the world itself had dementia. But though incurable, it’s a disease that can be treated A few days before he took his last, mercifully peaceful, breath, my husband, Ian Reinecke, looked at me intently and asked, “Is there anything going on in the world I need to know about?” “No, nothing,” I said as calmly as I could to the man with whom I had intensely discussed events in the world and at home for nearly 50 years. Continue reading...

Hope, fear and unease ripple through Britain’s Venezuelan community after US forces seized Nicolás Maduro US strikes on Venezuela – live updates When Cinzia de Santis woke up to the news that Nicolás Maduro had been captured by US troops in a pre-dawn assault on Caracas, she had mixed emotions. “My first reaction was he’s gone, which is kind of good news,” she said. But the manner in which the Venezuelan president and his wife, Cilia Flores, were taken to New York to face criminal charges – in a military operation that, at this point, appears to have little to no legal or constitutional authority – has sparked concern. Continue reading...

‘I don’t recall one day that I felt so bad in football’ West Ham concede three first-half goals at Molineux Nuno Espírito Santo apologised to West Ham’s fans after his team lost 3-0 at Wolves, describing it as his worst day in football, but insisted he had the desire to keep fighting to get the team out of the relegation zone. West Ham are winless in nine matches after succumbing to rock-bottom Wolves. The result leaves the Hammers four points adrift of 17th-placed Nottingham Forest, whom they face on Tuesday. Nuno, who immediately walked down the tunnel at full time without shaking hands with Rob Edwards, has won two of his 15 Premier League games in charge since taking over from Graham Potter in September. Continue reading...

⚽ Afcon updates from the 7pm GMT kick-off in Casablanca ⚽ Live scores | Follow us over on Bluesky | Email Dominic Mali: Diarra; W.Coulibaly, Diaby, O.Camara; Bissouma, Dieng; Sangare, L.Coulibaly, Doumbia; Sinayoko. Subs: Diaware, H.Traoré, Dorgeles, Bilal Touré. Mo.Camara, Doucoure, Ma.Camara, Fofana, M.Doumbia, K.Doumbia, Samassa, Sissoko, Diakite, Gassama. Continue reading...

Tensions between the US and Venezuela exploded on 3 January when US forces launched strikes across Caracas and other parts of the country, and Donald Trump announced that they had captured the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores, and flown them out of the country Venezuela attack: what we know so far as US captures President Maduro Continue reading...

Zia Yusuf announces plans for mandatory sentences with no parole, as party targets grooming gangs Child rapists would be jailed for life if Reform UK wins the next election, its head of policy has said. Under plans announced by Zia Yusuf on Saturday, the party would introduce mandatory whole-life orders for offenders convicted of the crime, making them ineligible for parole, as part of a crackdown on grooming gangs. Continue reading...

Bath 33-26 Exeter Exeter fight back from 26-0 deficit to level match The champions needed something to lift them after their Christmas hangover. This might not have been how they chose it, but it is safe to say the desired effect was achieved, a try by Arthur Green in the last minute snatching victory from the jaws of, if not defeat, one of the more dispiriting draws a home team could ever have undergone. It was their fifth try of the afternoon, but their first points since the 20th minute, after they had blown Exeter away with their reaction to the defeat here last weekend to Northampton. But their four tries in that opening quarter were scored with the Chiefs down to 14, after Campbell Ridl was shown a 20-minute red card in only the third minute for his aerial challenge on Henry Arundell. Continue reading...

Brighton snapped a six-match winless run with a comfortable 2-0 home victory over second-bottom Burnley. Georginio Rutter gave Brighton a first-half lead before Yasin Ayari doubled the advantage early in the second period. Loum Tchaouna came close to halving the deficit but Scott Parker’s struggling side remain six points adrift of Nottingham Forest in 17th after their wait for a league victory stretched to 11 games. Continue reading...

This was the latest West Ham humiliation of the season, and possibly Nuno Espírito Santo’s last. They became the first team to lose to Wolves at the 20th time of asking, allowing the Midlands club to double their points tally in the process and bring hope of not being the worst team in Premier League history, while leaving the Hammers four points adrift of safety. Former Wolves head coach Nuno has already been sacked once this season and a ninth game without victory will increase the pressure on a man who was more popular with the home fans, who celebrated first-half goals from Jhon Arias, Hwang Hee-chan and Mateus Mané, than the away end at Molineux. West Ham failed to get a shot on target against a team without a clean sheet prior to Saturday, which had secured three draws and nothing else in 19 matches, to put them in contention of falling below Derby’s record low of 11 points, although if the Hammers continue to play like this they might only finish three better off. Continue reading...

Frenchman’s dire record continues with sixth loss in eight Fans protest against board and manager outside stadium Wilfried Nancy insisted he did not fear the sack, claiming, “We are really close to things turning around,” despite the Celtic manager moving dangerously close to dismissal with a comprehensive defeat by Rangers. Celtic led their oldest rivals at the interval but a second-half capitulation from the hosts allowed Danny Röhl’s team to move level on points with the defending Scottish Premiership champions. Nancy, who was hired from Columbus Crew in December, has presided over six defeats in eight games. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Survey finds growing number ‘neglecting responsibilities’ or ‘damaging relationships’ as a result ‘I’d try to hide it as best I could’: a UK man on his struggle with porn addiction More than half of therapists who work with men with addiction have noticed a rise in out of control porn use over the past year, according to new data. Experts are urgently calling for a national strategy on pornography as a total of 53% of therapists surveyed by the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) said they had seen a rise in people seeking help for problematic pornography use that was interfering with their life or driving them to seek out more extreme content. Continue reading...

Some suspected the attacks on Venezuela were coming, but the shock was still real and no one knows what will happen next • US strikes on Venezuela – live updates • Why has US attacked Venezuela and captured president? As they were jolted from their beds just before 2am on Saturday, many Caracas residents sought an innocent explanation for the racket that had interrupted their sleep: an exploding air conditioning unit, a tropical thunderstorm, an earthquake. Or perhaps a festive display of pyrotechnics over Venezuela’s mountain-flanked capital. “I thought it might be fireworks,” Carlos Hurtado, a resident of the 23 de Enero housing estate on the city’s westside, recalled of the moment he was woken by a mysterious sequence of rumblings and explosions. Continue reading...

Damage to cables means tens of thousands will be without electricity until Thursday amid freezing temperatures Tens of thousands of homes in Berlin will be without electricity until Thursday as authorities struggle to repair power cables seriously damaged in a suspected arson attack, officials have said. Some households may also be without heating as the outage has affected local systems at a time when the German capital is blanketed in snow and temperatures are hovering around freezing. Continue reading...

As Maduro faces trial in New York on alleged involvement in narco-terrorism, how will Venezuelans judge their president? US strikes on Venezuela – live updates Nicolás Maduro, a former bus driver and union activist, rose from humble origins to rule Venezuela for 13 years and eight months before being unceremoniously ousted on Saturday by US special forces who seized the 63-year-old leader and flew him out of the country. For years Maduro had accused the US government of seeking to undermine the supposed socialist revolution that his late mentor and predecessor, Hugo Chávez, ushered in in 1999. Now in the custody of US authorities, he will face indictment on narcotics charges and a potentially long prison sentence. Continue reading...

⚽ Premier League updates from the 5.30pm GMT kick-off ⚽ Live scores | Tables | Follow us on Bluesky | Email Barry Having missed Arsenal’s win over Villa with a swollen knee, Declan Rice could return for today’s game but will face a fitness test. “Let’s see how he comes and how that’s feeling,” said Mikel Arteta yesterday. “The Aston Villa game was too early for him.” Defenders Cristhian Mosquera and Riccardo Calafiori have been ruled out, while Max Dowman, who reached the ripe old age of 16 on New Year’s Eve, is also sidelined. Continue reading...

Suspected offences include homicide by negligence, causing bodily harm by negligence and arson by negligence The two managers of a bar where a blaze on New Year’s Day killed at least 40 people have been placed under criminal investigation, Swiss prosecutors said. The offences they are suspected of having committed are homicide by negligence, causing bodily harm by negligence and arson by negligence, the prosecutors’ office in the canton of Valais said in a statement on Saturday. Continue reading...

Paul removed from WBA top 15 after Joshua KO Fight drew 33m global viewers on Netflix Loss followed brief cruiserweight ranking run Jake Paul has fallen out of the World Boxing Association’s cruiserweight rankings following his sixth-round knockout loss to Anthony Joshua last month. The YouTuber-turned-boxer was stopped by the former two-time heavyweight champion in a scheduled eight-round bout in Miami, where Joshua scored four knockdowns before the referee halted the contest in the sixth round. Paul suffered a broken jaw in two places and required surgery after the fight. Continue reading...