Met police says woman, 43, was detained after newborn girl in Westminster taken to hospital and pronounced dead A woman has been arrested on suspicion of murder after an 18-day-old baby girl fell from a property in central London. The Metropolitan police said officers attended Horseferry Road in Westminster after reports on Saturday morning that a baby had fallen from a residential property. Continue reading...

It was the moment to blow the roof off the Emirates Stadium, the exclamation mark on a victory that felt pivotal to the destination of the Premier League title. Everton had been excellent, an incredible test for Arsenal and their credentials. Mikel Arteta and his players passed it. They found a way. The goal to tilt it their way, the decisive one with time almost up, was tapped in by the substitute, Viktor Gyökeres. It came when Jordan Pickford touched the ball on to Piero Hincapié and, with luck on their side, it broke perfectly for Gyökeres in front of an empty net. Continue reading...

Humbled English clubs must realise that what works against the very good turns out to be inadequate against the best If the only tool you have is a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail. If the only tool you have is a set play, the solution to everything starts to look like a pre-programmed move based on blocking runs. And perhaps that’s especially true if you’re worn out, knackered by the attrition of a persistent schedule of two games a week against teams who are frustratingly well organised and physically imposing. Think? Dribble? Make a surprising run? Who has the bandwidth for that? Just sling it to the back post and get in the way of the keeper. Arne Slot had spoken in the buildup to Liverpool’s defeat by Galatasaray on Tuesday of how difficult it is to create chances in modern football, and how set pieces are a way to circumvent the sophisticated defensive setups of most Premier League teams. He is certainly not alone in taking that approach in the Premier League. But the Champions League is not like the Premier League. The crowding of the six-yard box, the full bearhug grappling, the meat wall to block the goalkeeper … it turns out all of those are penalised by European referees, and that is a problem for Premier League teams. Continue reading...

A half-century of Premier League London wins for Newcastle, a first win at Stamford Bridge since 2012, Anthony Gordon their match-winner against the club he was close to joining in 2022. He ran Chelsea ragged. In the stands, Todd Boehly, the co-owner who, when acting as de facto sporting director in the early days of ownership, targeted Gordon. Four years on, there may be regret that deal never happened, though there are deeper doubts to consider, including the current team’s stall under Liam Rosenior. Newcastle supplied the know-how and organisation, Sven Botman outstanding in leading the defensive effort as Chelsea and their supporters’ belief in them sagged collectively. Full time was followed by fierce barracking of players and manager. A blame game is being played at Stamford Bridge. How much has been spent now? The answer is closing on £1.5bn in the Boehly years and Chelsea are falling short of their objectives. Continue reading...

Six Nations updates from Paris (8.10pm GMT) Sign up for The Breakdown newsletter | Email Lee Pre-match reading to get you in the mood The final game of the tournament is upon us, share your thoughts on this and anything else from the past few weeks if you like on this very email. I look forward to reading them. Continue reading...

Wales 31-17 Italy Steve Tandy’s side end 15-game losing run in competition So that’s what it was like. Wales win a Six Nations match in Cardiff for the first time in more than four years. A crowd of 70,000 fairly ripped the stadium off the roof. And they did it with virtually every play of the game. Most plays of those gave some cause or other for a cheer - and, boy, did the locals respond. How familiar an experience, and yet how not, a ghostly echo of times past. Wales’ mission now is to put flesh on the spirit, to do it again as a matter of course, as of old. Continue reading...

We take a look at the best images from the Games, including skiing, curling and ice hockey Continue reading...

As users turn to VPNs to access pornography, experts warn collection of information creates a ‘honeytrap’ for bad actors Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast When porn sites began blocking Australians from access, it also meant X began age-checking users before they could look at adult content on the social media site. But it asked some users to send a video selfie every time they wanted to look at a single picture or video. Continue reading...

Liz Steel and Marc Taro Holmes live on opposite sides of the globe, but connected through a sketching challenge. Now it’s a phenomenon If you’re lucky, you may spot Liz Steel tucked into the corner of a sun-dappled Sydney cafe, water-soluble pencils and markers in hand. Half a world away, Marc Taro Holmes is led by his sketchbook on to the thawing streets of Montreal, “like a bear coming out of hibernation”. The duo are co-founders of #OneWeek100People challenge, an informal global initiative that asks artists to sketch 100 people in seven days. The challenge, now in its 10th year, took place this week, but Steel and Holmes stress it is entirely for enjoyment and anyone can take it up and post with the hashtag at any time. Continue reading...

In addition to near-20% of the beachside suburb’s population claiming Irish ancestry, it also boasts an astounding array of Irish entities, from themed bars to two fully fledged rugby teams “I remember having my mind blown seeing boys walking down the beach in Irish football jerseys,” says Luke McCaul, a Dublin-born hairdresser and drag queen who moved to the beachside Sydney suburb of Coogee to work 15 years ago. “Like, ‘what the fuck are they doing?’ Gaelic football jerseys – in Australia!” Continue reading...

In primary school, Larry Garner knew little about the classmate behind a mesmerising artwork of a ship. He often wondered about ‘galleon girl’ Find more stories from the moment I knew series In 1961 I was at primary school in north London when our teacher asked everyone in the class to paint a galleon. Without thinking much about it I made a 10-year-old’s attempt, with uninspiring results. When I arrived at school the next day I was surprised to see it hanging on the wall – but not nearly as surprised as I was by what was hanging next to it. Beside my shoddy rendering was a Spanish galleon – in brilliant detail – sailing into a sunset. Its masts were perfect and its sails hung limp in the air on the calm sea. It was incredible and I couldn’t believe one of my classmates had done it. I asked the boy standing beside me who had painted it. “Little Brownie”, he told me and pointed at a blond girl. Continue reading...

More than 20,000 sq km of coast has succumbed to Australia’s first ever bloom of toxic Karenia cristata algae – and scientists worry it could explode again Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast The largest and most destructive algal bloom in Australia’s history is persisting along parts of the South Australian coastline, a year on from when it was first detected. From a distance, it can be hard to grasp just how unusual and devastating the crisis has been. Continue reading...

⚽️ Updates from the 8pm GMT KO at the London Stadium ⚽️ Premier League table | Email Scott Relegation-threatened West Ham desperately need the points; title-chasing Manchester City desperately need the points. All this yearning could lead to a highly entertaining to-and-fro, or a dramatic denouement, or a one-sided rout, or a big fat nothingburger. We start finding out what’s what at 8pm GMT. It’s on! Continue reading...

Canada edge to 4-3 victory against China in thriller Secures country’s fourth win in blue riband event Canada have returned to the summit of wheelchair curling, edging out the reigning champions, China, 4-3 to earn their fourth gold medal in this blue riband event at the Winter Paralympics. A tense encounter was decided by the very last shot of the match as skipper Mark Ideson struck a perfectly judged hit and roll to take a solitary, definitive point in the eighth end. Both teams had entered the final in impressive form. The only defeat for China had come at the hands of the Canadians in the round robin stage, with the North Americans themselves unbeaten. In front of a full house in the Cortina curling arena, and with loud partisan support for both sides, it was a match of nip and tuck. Continue reading...

SNP leader hails prospect of success for parties in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland that want to break up union The UK is facing an “absolutely seismic moment”, John Swinney has said, with the prospect of the election of first ministers in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in May who are all committed to the break-up of the union. Speaking at the Scottish National party’s campaign conference ahead of the Scottish parliament elections, the first minister told delegates: “For people watching around the world, there could be no clearer sign that Westminster’s time is up.” Continue reading...

Joshua Nass, of alleged $600,000 extortion plot, played role in pardon of man convicted of failing to pay $40m in taxes A New York lobbyist and attorney connected to a presidential pardon issued by Donald Trump in November has been charged with attempting to extort a former client and the client’s son over an alleged $500,000 debt. Joshua Nass, 34, was arrested on Friday after being charged in federal court in Brooklyn with attempted Hobbs Act extortion. US justice department prosecutors contend that Nass threatened a client for payment that he claimed he was owed for his services. Continue reading...

Palantir’s CEO says the platforms will have a vast effect on the electoral landscape … especially women. Is it a warning or a sales pitch? Don’t you just love AI? It has inundated the internet with slop, destabilized the concept of truth, and made it much easier to bomb people. And that’s just the beginning. As we look towards the future of our brave new world, AI might also disrupt all those pesky highly-educated female voters who keep casting a ballot for Democrats. To be clear: that assessment isn’t coming from me, a highly exhausted female who wishes the Democrats would work a little harder for people’s votes. Rather, it’s coming from one of the key architects of our glorious AI-driven economy: Alex Karp, the co-founder and CEO of tech firm Palantir. Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Exclusive: Senior party figures conclude outsiders or existing senior staff deemed more suitable should take over from current permanent secretaries A Reform UK government would expect to dismiss the top civil servant in every government department and replace them with people seen as more likely to implement the party’s priorities, the Guardian has learned. Senior Reform figures have concluded that the current crop of permanent secretaries, the lead civil servant in each department, are not up to the necessary standard. Some would be replaced by outsiders, and others by existing officials viewed as more suitable. Continue reading...

Royal couple criticise Tom Bower’s ‘fixation’ on them and describe released extracts as ‘conspiracy and melodrama’ The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have launched a scathing attack on a “deranged” author whose new book claims Queen Camilla once told a friend: “Meghan’s brainwashed ‌Harry.” The royal couple hit out at Tom Bower, the author of Betrayal: Power, Deceit and the Fight for the Future of the Royal Family, criticising his “fixation” on the pair. Continue reading...

Celtic recover to defeat 10-man Motherwell 3-1 Cvancara scores penalty after Longelo red card Tomas Cvancara converted another crucial penalty as a major intervention by the video assistant referee helped second-placed Celtic come from behind to beat Motherwell 3-1. The Czech striker followed up his Scottish Cup penalty shootout winner at Ibrox with Celtic’s second goal in the 72nd minute after Emmanuel Longelo had been dismissed for a challenge on Daizen Maeda. The referee, John Beaton, had initially given a goal-kick, but a lengthy look at the VAR monitor at the behest of Kevin Clancy changed the complexion of the game. This story will be updated Continue reading...

Wearside will always be a special place for James Milner. On Boxing Day 2002 he scored his first Premier League goal for Leeds here, at the age of 16 years and 356 days. Who, back then, could possibly have imagined that the 40-year-old Milner would have been back at the Stadium of Light on Saturday as an impressive part of Fabian Hürzeler’s Brighton midfield? He played the entire game too, helping guide the 33-year-old Hürzeler’s team to their first win at Sunderland since 1981 as Régis Le Bris’s injury-hit side could find no riposte to Yankuba Minteh’s fortuitous second-half winner. Continue reading...

Burnley and Bournemouth played out a tepid goalless draw at Turf Moor that does little to help either team’s Premier League ambitions. The Clarets managed just a fourth clean sheet in the league this season but remain eight points adrift of safety with only eight games left, while Bournemouth are now unbeaten in 10 matches but really needed three points to boost their European hopes. Continue reading...

Exceptionally rare ‘fee’ to be paid by investors who took control of US operations from Chinese parent company Donald Trump’s administration is reportedly poised to be paid $10bn by investors as part of a deal to create a US-controlled version of TikTok. The $10bn, considered by the US government as a sort of transaction fee, will be paid by the administration-friendly investors who took control of TikTok’s US operations from its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, according to reporting that first appeared in the Wall Street Journal. Continue reading...

Harry Kane has goal disallowed on return Serie A leaders Inter drop more points Bayern Munich came from behind and finished the match with nine players in a 1-1 draw at Bayer Leverkusen on Saturday, allowing Borussia Dortmund to close to within nine points of the Bundesliga leaders. Luis Díaz, who scored the equaliser following Aleix García’s opener, was sent off in the 84th minute for a second yellow card. Nicolas Jackson had received a red card in the 42nd minute. Leverkusen took the lead in the sixth minute after Montrell Culbreath stole the ball off Díaz and fed it to Patrik Schick, who set up García on the edge of the box. The midfielder slotted home with a deflected shot. The hosts defended well to contain Bayern, and frustration showed when Jackson was sent off before halftime for a late challenge on Martin Terrier. This story will be updated Continue reading...

Habermas’ political consensus-building theory argued formation of public opinion vital for democracies to survive The influential German philosopher and sociologist Jürgen Habermas has died at the age of 96, his publisher has said. Habermas, a towering figure in the intellectual history of postwar Germany, is best known for his theory of political consensus-building. Widely considered one of most influential philosophers of the 20th century, he also helped to shape the discourse around European integration and the formation of the EU. Continue reading...