Yvette Cooper says claim against Kremlin ‘deeply serious’ while Russia dismisses western ‘feeblemindedness’ The UK is mulling fresh sanctions against Moscow after pinning blame on the Kremlin for the poisoning of the Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, Yvette Cooper has suggested. The Foreign Office and four of the UK’s allies – Sweden, France, Germany and the Netherlands – announced on Saturday they had determined that Navalny’s death was most likely the result of poisoning using dart frog toxin arranged by the Russian state. Continue reading...

Precipitation not perspiration was the order of the day here, as the rain hammered down on the banks of a bloated River Thames and Sunderland made it to the FA Cup fifth round without having to break a sweat. Habib Diarra’s first-half penalty secured victory for Régis Le Bris’s visitors but the margin flattered Oxford who put up the meekest of fights. Continue reading...

Omnibus theatre, London Inspired by the 1998 shooting of Tyisha Miller, the lost hopes and memories of a young Black woman – played beautifully by Jada Evelyn Ramsey – are explored through words, dance and beatboxing Before George Floyd, after Rodney King, and in between countless others, there was Tyisha Miller. She was 19 when she was shot dead by police officers while she lay unconscious in her car in California, in 1998, joining the long, appalling, litany of Black victims of police violence. Here she is named Myeisha Mills, still dead after an officer shoots 12 bullets into her body, but simultaneously alive or rising from the dreamscape of the title to tell us about herself with a painfully exuberant, sweet guilelessness. Continue reading...

Talk of a stronger, independent Europe was the dominant mood in Munich amid bitter disagreement on Ukraine If JD Vance’s thuggish speech last year to the Munich Security Conference directed at the solar plexus of Europe marked the moment when a transatlantic break up started, this weekend’s subsequent event, in a rainy and cold Bavaria, was where the debate about the terms of the divorce settlement got under way. Marco Rubio, the chosen Washington representative this year, is a diplomat, so he softened the Trumpian tone with references to German beer, the Beatles, Dante and the Mayflower. But his speech remained a stern warning that if Europe wanted to continue on its path of civilisational decline, as this US administration sees it, America will not be interested and has different hemispheres on which to focus. Continue reading...

Santiago Bueno’s second-half winner ensured a safe passage into the FA Cup fifth round for Wolves as the League Two side Grimsby bowed out with pride intact. The Premier League visitors had not won away in any competition since last April and look certain to be relegated to the Championship this season. But Rob Edwards’s side showed impressive resilience to avoid the kind of ignominy which led to Manchester United being dumped out of the Carabao Cup here this season. Continue reading...

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Italian wins her second gold medal on Cortina slopes Sara Hector and Thea Louise Stjernesund share silver Federica Brignone, the racing queen of Cortina, has won her second gold medal in the space of three days at the Winter Olympics. After her victory in the women’s Super-G on Friday, she won the giant slalom by just over six-tenths of a second. As small as that gap sounds, it was an enormous margin in a race where there were only six-hundredths of a second between the three women who finished behind her; Sweden’s Sara Hector, Norway’s Thea Louise Stjernesund, and Brignone’s Italian teammate Lara Della Mea. The gap between Brignone and second place was the same as that between second and 15th. Continue reading...

Cabinet Office minister commissioned report that made ‘baseless claims’ about reporters who were investigating Labour Together Keir Starmer is facing calls by MPs for an inquiry into the commissioning of a report that made “baseless claims” about journalists who were investigating a thinktank linked to the prime minister. The calls add to pressure on the Cabinet Office minister Josh Simons, who commissioned a report in 2023 on journalists investigating Labour Together, the thinktank that would help propel Starmer to power. Continue reading...

Trump sparked public backlash when he abruptly began demolishing the East Wing to clear space for his ballroom New renderings released this week provide the most detailed vision yet of Donald Trump’s proposed $400m White House ballroom addition. The renderings, submitted by the project’s architects and released on Friday by the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC), depict a vast sprawling structure, expected to be around 90,000sq ft, from multiple angles. Continue reading...

Exclusive: National security adviser previously held the role under Blair but is considering plans to step down this year Jonathan Powell, Keir Starmer’s national security adviser (NSA), has rejected overtures to become the prime minister’s chief of staff after the resignation of Morgan McSweeney, the Guardian has been told. Powell’s allies say his decision not to take forward discussions about the job – the same role he undertook under Tony Blair’s premiership from 1997 to 2007 – was largely motivated by an intention to return to the mediation consultancy that he set up in 2011, with little interest in returning to a job he has already done. Continue reading...

⚽ FA Cup news from the 4.30pm GMT kick-off in London ⚽ Live scoreboard | Follow us on Bluesky | And mail John Both these teams have been winners in the 21st century, with Wigan winners in 2013. Arsenal are an opponent who carry portents as it was at the Emirates, three days later, that a 4-1 defeat condemned them to relegation from the Premier League, where they have never returned. This season, the Latics, who have been through financial and ownership issues in recent years, are fighting a relegation battle, one that should they lose, will drop them down to League Two. They have not been a fourth-tier club since 1982, when they had only been in the Football League for four years. So, the FA Cup is a holiday for Ryan Lowe and his team. Arsenal have one trophy in focus, the Premier League but surely they can’t slip up here? It would register as one of the greatest FA Cup shocks in history. Which is why we’re here. Kick-off at 4.30pm, UK time. Join me. Continue reading...

Leeds United advanced to the fifth roundof the FA Cup, with sights set on a possible first quarter-final place since 2002-03. But after scoring a last-gasp equaliser to take the tie to a penalty shootout, Birmingham City could draw some consolation from pushing their top-flight opponents. Sean Longstaff scored the clinching penalty, after Patrick Roberts, who had scored in the 89th minute to earn Birmingham parity, blasted his over the crossbar. Lucas Perri also saved from Tommy Doyle, who was probably man of the match. Continue reading...

Safeguarding minister says she wants to use momentum to invest in prevention and get more than quick-fix policies Read Jess Phillips’ article: We owe it to every Epstein victim to better protect British women and girls Institutions can be persuaded to take action on violence against women and girls only when some sort of “calamity” or “political scandal” hits the headlines, Jess Phillips has said. Phillips, the minister for safeguarding and violence against women and girls, said she wanted to use the momentum from the Epstein files to push for long-term legislative change and greater support for survivors, rather than quick-fix reactive policy announcements. Continue reading...

I am furious that women and children have to endure a crisis like this for progress to become politically possible. But I will seize this moment Jess Phillips MP is parliamentary under-secretary of state for safeguarding and violence against women and girls Jess Phillips calls for Epstein files to be catalyst for long-term legislative change It always takes a calamity – a dreadful murder that reaches every front page, a mass paedophile ring being uncovered, or a political scandal unfolding – to make institutions sit up and act on violence against women and children. These windows of potential energy are never wasted by women’s rights activists. Historically, they have used them to build the #MeToo movement, to fight for legislation change and to push for greater resources for victims. I’ve done it, many times – “never waste a crisis” is my mantra. In the past few weeks, while the nation’s attention has been on the political fallout from the Epstein files, I have seen the opportunity to push for more, for better. To move beyond the throwaway line about the victims being the most important thing – and to actually make them just that. Deeds not words are what matter. If repentance and sorrow is all we achieve out of the courage of the Epstein victims, we will have failed; change is all that will suffice. Jess Phillips is MP for Birmingham Yardley and parliamentary under-secretary of state for safeguarding and violence against women and girls Continue reading...

Real estate agent brothers Tal, Oren and Alon Alexander – known as ‘closers’ – are on trial in New York for sex trafficking In their time as real estate brokers, the Israeli-American Alexander brothers – twins Alon and Oren and older brother Tal – were known as “closers”, the salesmen who could a get a sale over finish line, often to wealthy hedge funders who were then making hay in aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. Their technique, one real estate expert explained outside the 26th floor of the federal court house in lower Manhattan last week, was based on the sense that the property salesman “were just like their clients” – young, eager and successful. Kim Kardashian and then-husband Kanye West, Jared and Ivanka Trump were clients. Continue reading...

Elation as anti-extremists fight back against influence of billionaire megadonors through grassroots organizing Chris Tackett started tracking extremism in Texas politics about a decade ago, whenever his schedule as a Little League coach and school board member would allow. At the time, he lived in Granbury, 40 minutes west of Fort Worth. He’d noticed that a local member of the state legislature, Mike Lang, had become a vocal advocate for using public money for private schools – despite the fact that Lang campaigned as a supporter of public education. With a little research, Tackett found that Lang had received hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign donations from the Wilks brothers and Tim Dunn, billionaire megadonors whose deep pockets and Christian nationalist views have consumed the Texas GOP. Tackett published his findings on social media, and soon enough, people started asking him to create pie charts of their representatives’ campaign funds. These charts evolved into the organisation See It. Name It. Fight It. Continue reading...

In a rapidly changing job market, it’s not necessarily good for workers to cling to their current employment After all the employee protests over the past few years – the “great resignations”, the “quiet quittings”, the “bare-minimum Mondays” and “coffee badgings” – we have finally arrived at “job hugging”. Amid all the economic uncertainty and the rising costs of everything, people aren’t feeling as confident as they once were. Instead of slacking off while you hunt for something better, everyone’s scared about losing their jobs. With all the news about big corporate layoffs and the ominous and still-undefined threat of AI, it’s understandable that people are hugging their jobs. Continue reading...

MP who fell out with Nigel Farage and has backing of Elon Musk launches anti-immigration party in Great Yarmouth On a cold night in a dilapidated theatre tucked away at the end of Great Yarmouth’s Britannia Pier, Rupert Lowe was launching a far-right revolution. “Millions will have to go,” the MP said, pledging a policy of mass deportations, to rapturous applause and foot stamping from hundreds gathered for what had been billed as the launch of a local “Great Yarmouth First” party. But after introducing five councillors who will stand at the next Norfolk county council elections under that banner, the former Reform UK figure went further by announcing that his Restore Britain movement would become a national party. Continue reading...

Project in Ceredigion aims to help country catch up with large-scale nature recovery projects elsewhere in UK A Welsh charity has bought more than 405 hectares (1,000 acres) in Ceredigion to establish Cymru’s “flagship” rewilding project, helping the country catch up with large-scale nature recovery projects under way elsewhere in the UK. Tir Natur (Nature’s Land), founded in 2022, announced it had acquired the site at Cwm Doethie in Elenydd, or the Cambrian mountains, after a fundraising drive raised 50% of the £2.2m purchase price. A philanthropic bridging loan enabled the sale. Continue reading...

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Berlinale head says artists should not be pushed into soundbites after Arundhati Roy quit over president Wim Wenders’ apolitical comments The Berlin film festival has issued a lengthy statement “in defence of our film-makers, and especially our jury and jury president”, after what it described as a “media storm that has swept over the Berlinale” in its first few days. The defence follows criticism levelled at the jury, in particular president, Wim Wenders, for comments made when fielding questions about the war in Gaza. Asked during the opening press conference if films can affect political change, the German film-maker said that “movies can change the world” but “not in a political way”, adding that film-makers “have to stay out of politics”. Continue reading...

Charlotte Bankes and Huw Nightingale win a thriller First time GB have won two golds at a Winter Games After 102 years at the Winter Olympics, Great Britain has finally won its first gold medal on snow after Charlotte Bankes and Huw Nightingale took a thrilling victory in the mixed team snowboard cross. Few had pinned down Bankes and Nightingale as one of the favourites after poor performances in the individual events early in the week. Afterwards they had been so disappointed they had drowned their sorrows in the pub. Continue reading...

Six Nations news from the 3.10pm GMT kick-off in Cardiff Sign up for The Breakdown | Follow on Bluesky | Mail Lee Who likes Disney sports movies? I’m partial to them myself on occasion. Sometimes the soul needs the warming elixir that can only be found in tales of bringing interracial harmony and victory to early 1970’s high school football, Mark Walhlberg being Mark Wahlberg but this time as a barman playing the NFL, or some plucky college and semi-pro hockey players defeating all of communism. Other inspirational narratives are also available. How Wales would welcome some Disneyfication of their experience today. Trouble is these films are not documentaries, instead much of the content is “inspired" by real events; the rarity of an underdog not being absolutely lamped is that what makes the tales such a salve to the mood. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Delay at Glascoed is latest setback for armed forces and for UK’s capacity to supply shells to Ukraine A new factory in Wales seen as crucial to boosting UK munitions production remains unopened more than six months after its planned launch, adding to a string of delays dogging the armed forces. The explosives facility at Glascoed, south Wales, was expected to bring a 16-fold increase in Britain’s capacity to make artillery shells, replenishing dwindling stock and increasing supplies for Ukraine. Continue reading...

I was frantic – I had to get the couch inside before my parents arrived. Out of desperation, I drove to a nearby gym Read more in the kindness of strangers series I’d bought a nice new couch after my labrador chewed through the first one. But I didn’t put it in my apartment straight away. My plan was to swap the old couch for the new one right before my parents came to visit from overseas, so the dog wouldn’t have a chance to destroy it before their arrival. My apartment was upstairs and the new couch was in storage on the ground floor, so I hired removalists to swap the two couches the day my parents arrived. They took the tattered old couch down – but didn’t carry the new one up. Instead, they left it on the street for anyone to grab, and were gone before I had the chance to correct them. Continue reading...