Before wild feline was caught, authorities had advised residents to slowly back away if they encountered it Wildlife officials in San Francisco captured a young mountain lion who was spotted roaming the streets of the city in past days. Authorities issued a warning to residents late on Monday, saying a mountain lion had been seen walking the streets in the Pacific Heights neighborhood and advised people to slowly back away from the animal if they encountered it. Continue reading...

Root hails captain’s calmness in third ODI victory Brook imitates move of wrestler after making century The wrestler “Stone Cold” Steve Austin was the surprising inspiration for Harry Brook’s century celebration as the England white-ball captain led his side to a one-day international series victory against Sri Lanka with a thrilling, unbeaten 136. Brook, who was involved in a clash with a nightclub bouncer on the tour of New Zealand earlier this winter, took his gloves off upon reaching his hundred and imitated Austin’s move of bashing beer cans together in the ring before drinking them. Continue reading...

Company cites impact of mandatory age checks introduced in summer 2025 under the Online Safety Act Pornhub is to stop new users accessing its site in the UK from next week, citing the impact of mandatory age checks that were introduced last summer under the Online Safety Act. The porngraphy website, which is one of the most visited in the world, announced that from 2 February only users who have already verified their age will retain access through their existing accounts. The change also affects YouPorn and RedTube, explicit websites operated by the same Cyprus-based company, Aylo. Continue reading...

Exercises described by President Trump as an ‘armada’ to be led by the USS Abraham Lincoln amid standoff The US has announced plans to hold multi-day military exercises in the Middle East as it deploys what Donald Trump has called an “armada” led by the USS Abraham Lincoln to the region as part of a tense standoff with Iran. The display of US air power was announced as the White House has suggested it could launch new strikes on Iran after the government’s crackdown on pro-democracy protesters that has left thousands dead and many more in detention with their fates uncertain. Continue reading...

‘It’s not an episode of The Apprentice, there has to be a lawful process’, says West Midlands police chief commissioner The West Midlands police and crime commissioner has said politicians provided a “degree of fiction” regarding his power to sack a police chief over the ban on Maccabi Tel Aviv fans, adding it was not an “episode of The Apprentice”. The home secretary withdrew her confidence in chief constable Craig Guildford after an official inquiry found West Midlands police had “exaggerated” intelligence to justify a ban on fans attending the Europa League match against Aston Villa last year, leading to calls for the police and crime commissioner to sack him. Despite this, Guildford remained in post for a further two days until he announced his retirement. Continue reading...

English clubs stroll through Champions League group phase but fatigue tends to take its toll by the spring Has there been a great game in the Champions League group stage this season? Probably not. Even if there had been, it almost certainly didn’t mean all that much. But that’s the way of the modern game: an extremely protracted clearing of the throat before the real business begins. Uefa will proudly tell the world that only six teams have nothing to play for in the final round of games on Wednesday, but whether it was worth 126 games to get to the mild peril of Napoli or Club Brugge possibly going out, or the questionable thrill of finding out whether Tottenham or Atalanta will have to endure the playoff round, is debatable. Continue reading...

All government departments and local authorities will get real-terms funding increases after Plaid agrees to abstain Cardiff Bay’s Labour administration has managed to pass the Welsh budget after striking a deal with Plaid Cymru, releasing a real-terms funding increase for all government departments and local authorities ahead of May’s Senedd elections. With 100 days to go before the contest, in which polls suggest the pro-independence Plaid Cymru will end more than 100 years of Labour hegemony in Wales, the government has allocated £27.5bn in spending for 2026-2027, up £1.2bn on the previous fiscal year. Continue reading...

Manager wants players ‘to improve in both boxes’ Liverpool without Konaté and Gomez against Qarabag Arne Slot has said an early Champions League exit may have contributed to Liverpool winning the Premier League title last year but said his team must improve in both boxes to secure silverware this season. Slot has faced renewed criticism after his side’s 13-game unbeaten run ended at Bournemouth on Saturday, leaving the reigning champions sixth in the Premier League. Continue reading...

Suit against Debra Lynch is latest from Texas’s Republican attorney general amid ongoing attacks on abortion pills As part of its ongoing crusade against abortion pills, Texas sued a nurse practitioner on Tuesday, accusing her of shipping pills into Texas in defiance of the state’s abortion ban. The nurse practitioner, Debra Lynch, operates a Delaware-based group called Her Safe Harbor, which mails abortion pills to women living in states with abortion bans. Now, Texas wants a court to block Lynch from “performing, inducing or attempting abortions” in Texas, on the grounds that Texas law only permits physicians to facilitate abortions in cases of medical emergencies. Continue reading...

People urged to stand up against populism and extremism as the world marks International Holocaust Memorial Day Survivors of Auschwitz, the Nazi concentration camp, laid flowers and candles at the memorial site on Tuesday, as commemorations marking its liberation 81 years ago took place around Europe and beyond. Marking International Holocaust Memorial Day, Jewish leaders across the continent warned against forgetting the extermination of millions, while some of the few remaining survivors urged ordinary people to stand up against populism and extremism. Continue reading...

Critics say government is concealing ‘true cost’ of deal, ‘despite being forced to admit the financial burden will grow year on year’ Ministers are under growing pressure to end the “secrecy” around the UK’s deal with the US over the cost of medicines, which critics claim is “a Trump shakedown of the NHS”. MPs from Labour and several opposition parties want the government to publish its impact assessment of the agreement it reached last month with Donald Trump’s administration. Continue reading...

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Claudia Sheinbaum denied move was response to pressure from the US, after Trump said ‘zero’ oil would go to Cuba Mexico has cancelled a shipment of oil to Cuba, the country’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, appeared to confirm on Tuesday, but she insisted the decision was “sovereign” and not the response to pressure from the US. Fuel shortages are causing increasingly severe blackouts in Cuba, and Mexico has been the island’s biggest oil supplier since the US blocked shipments from Venezuela last month. Continue reading...

A new Joseph Rowntree report underlines the corrosive impact of years of anti-welfare rhetoric. A reframing of the debate is urgently needed The Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s latest report on poverty in the UK, published this week, should be read first and foremost as an indictment of all Conservative governments between 2010 and 2024. During almost a decade and a half of Tory rule, the JRF estimates that no progress at all was made in reducing overall levels of relative hardship. No surprise perhaps. Through wide-ranging, ideologically driven welfare cuts, ministers actively sought to make life harder, not easier, for many of the least well-off. The grim legacy of that approach is that in 2023-24 – the last dataset available – about one in five people were in relative poverty, defined as less than 60% of median income. But it also turns out that 6.8 million people were struggling to survive on far, far less than that, having effectively been economically cut adrift. Some 3.8 million people experienced destitution in 2022. As the JRF’s chief analyst, Peter Matejic, puts it: “Poverty in the UK is still not just widespread, it is deeper and more damaging than at any point in the last 30 years.” Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

Checks and balances will be needed under the home secretary’s new vision of policing, with its ‘British FBI’ The police, said the home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, in the House of Commons on Monday, is “the last great unreformed public service”. Her white paper aims to redraw the policing map of England (though policing is devolved, the other nations will feel the effects). If she succeeds, the current patchwork will be replaced by a multi-tier system. The 43 existing police forces, most serving a single county, will be abolished and replaced with a smaller number of bigger organisations. Above all this will sit a new National Police Service – likened to a British FBI – that will take over responsibility for counter-terrorism from London’s Metropolitan police, and for serious and organised crime from the National Crime Agency set up under David Cameron. It will also take over major fraud investigations, as well as functions of the National Police Chiefs’ Council and the College of Policing. Training, standards and leadership will henceforth be under one umbrella. The leader of this organisation will be the country’s most senior officer. Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

Jeff Bezos’s Amazon MGM Studios is to release its feature-length documentary about Melania Trump, directed by Brett Ratner, a formerly exiled film-maker accused of sexual misconduct by multiple women. The film was screened at a promotional event at the White House attended by what the Hollywood reporter described as '70 assorted VIPs', including Amazon’s Andy Jassy, Apple’s Tim Cook and Mike Tyson. Bezos bought the rights to the film for $40m (£30m) and spent a further $35m on a global marketing push – but so far, ticket sales are reportedly ‘soft’. It is expected to be screened in more than 100 UK cinemas Continue reading...

First of two 1,600-tonne boring machines drilling the 4.5 miles from Old Oak Common station switched on in London Ministers have pledged that a redeveloped Euston HS2 station will be big enough to “serve the nation” as tunnelling began for the last miles of high-speed railway into central London. Excavating the 4.5-mile tunnels from Old Oak Common in west London is expected to take between 12 and 18 months – although details of the terminus, and how it will be funded, are yet to be revealed. Continue reading...

The Greater Manchester mayor’s aborted return has reopened quiet speculation about the party’s future leadership The political world abhors a vacuum of intrigue and gossip. The scuppering of Andy Burnham’s return to Westminster has therefore brought renewed attention to other potential successors to Keir Starmer. That is in turn likely to involve renewed scrutiny of Angela Rayner. Starmer’s former number two and housing secretary has been quietly loyal since she resigned as a minister nearly five months ago after what she said was the inadvertent underpayment of stamp duty on a flat in Hove. Continue reading...

Both the health and education departments have proposed cuts to funding for physical education A major row between government departments has broken out after the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) proposed cutting all its funding for physical education in schools, the Guardian understands. The DHSC is now intending to restore the funding despite insisting privately for weeks that it would end its contribution, until the Guardian contacted the department. Ministers are understood to have overruled the cuts. Continue reading...

Composer says values of Trump-dominated Kennedy Center ‘are in direct conflict’ with symphony’s message Celebrated US composer Philip Glass has withdrawn the world premiere of his latest symphony at Washington DC’s John F Kennedy Center in protest of Donald Trump’s presidency. In a statement on Tuesday, the 88-year-old composer said: “After thoughtful consideration, I have decided to withdraw my Symphony No 15 ‘Lincoln’ from the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Symphony No 15 is a portrait of Abraham Lincoln, and the values of the Kennedy Center today are in direct conflict with the message of the symphony. Continue reading...

WSL says it is committed to increasing pay floors Clubs can be docked points for breaching salary cap Players aged under 23 in Women’s Super League 2 are not guaranteed to be paid the equivalent of the national living wage for a typical full-time worker annually, despite a large pay increase for the division’s lowest-paid players after the introduction of minimum salaries this season. WSL2 clubs must pay players aged 21 and 22 a minimum of £22,200 and those aged 18 to 20 at least £17,500. Regulations state they must receive a minimum “contact time” of 20 hours a week excluding matchdays and mealtimes. For players aged 23 and over, the minimum salary is £26,900. Continue reading...

The package being offered is not insignificant but the hospitality sector is still in trouble Will the chancellor’s inevitable U-turn on business rates for pubs be enough to quieten the developing riot behind the taps? Possibly, a bit. After two months of damaging headlines, Rachel Reeves has granted pubs a 15% discount on bills, worth £1,650 on average in the next tax year, then a two-year freeze in real terms, with the promise of a change in methodology in time for the next revaluation in 2029. Live music venues get the same deal. The package is not insignificant, especially as it was the year-three escalation in bills that was causing the most angst. Yet it would be a mistake to think the government’s troubles on business rates end there. First, and most significantly, the rest of the hospitality industry got nothing extra in Tuesday’s announcement beyond a similar pledge to rethink valuation methods for hotels in future. Continue reading...

ICA, London Lima made her name with surreal encounters meant to free you from mundane everyday thinking. It’s rather a lot to ask of a key-grabbing hand, a dancing parasol and some melting ice One of the worst things contemporary art can make you do is think serious thoughts about stupid things. Sure, sometimes a urinal is beautiful, a shed is interesting, and an empty room is a container of countless ideas. But sometimes, it has no deeper meaning worth seeking out. Sometimes it’s just a bit silly. Brazilian conceptualist Laura Lima would rather call it absurd. Her show at the ICA – her first solo presentation in the UK despite decades of international exhibitions and biennale appearances – is filled with surreal encounters, all of which are meant to jostle you out of your mundane, staid mental rut (“our habitual modes of attention”) and find meaning in the unexpected. Continue reading...

Drummer who with the bassist Robbie Shakespeare provided the rhythm section for Peter Tosh, Grace Jones and Black Uhuru Sly Dunbar, who has died aged 73 after a long illness, was one of the most renowned Jamaican drummers, respected internationally for his precision timing and for the inventiveness with which he approached his instrument. Crafting non-standard reggae rhythms that drew on funk, soul and disco, Dunbar and his bass-playing partner, Robbie Shakespeare, backed nearly every reggae artist of note and collaborated with an array of admirers, including Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, Ian Dury, Joan Armatrading, Madonna, the Fugees and Sinéad O’Connor, though many will remember him best for the outstanding hits that brought Grace Jones to stardom. Continue reading...

Craft retailer says there is ‘risk to health’ after some vials in Giant Box of Craft set contained fibrous tremolite asbestos Hobbycraft has issued a full recall of children’s coloured play sand after confirming some bottles contained asbestos, presenting “a risk to health” . The Guardian revealed at the weekend that the craft retailer had stopped selling the kit containing the vials after being alerted to the risk, but stopped short of alerting customers who had already bought the item. Continue reading...