⚽ All the latest pre-match news and analysis ⚽ Fixtures | Tables | Read Football Daily | Mail Stuart Happy Saturday everyone! Another festival of football is on the way, with early Championship action a-comin’, all the way through to Liverpool v Newcastle in today’s 8pm GMT game. Meanwhile there’s a transfer window flapping open in the breeze, and managers have been chinwagging with varying degrees of satisfaction about their current lot. Continue reading...

In the second part of our series on digital politics, we look at how online provocateurs have advanced extreme political ideas – and watched them seep into the mainstream Robert Topinka is a reader in digital media and rhetoric at Birkbeck, University of London Part one: How liberals lost the internet The internet has totally changed the way in which politics is conducted. As established in the first piece in our series, liberals have totally failed to grasp this fact. The right, however, are thriving in this new world. Future historians studying the role that fringe online ideas played in the US republic’s demise will be spoiled for choice. One episode in particular comes to mind: Tucker Carlson, a former primetime speaker at a Republican convention, inviting a white supremacist livestreamer, Nick Fuentes, on to his YouTube show in 2025 for a chat in which he talked about the influence of “organised Jewry” in the US. Carlson spent years echoing white nationalist talking points on his Fox News show, but Fuentes’ style – combining Nazi salutes with cheeky grins – places him beyond the pale for broadcast television. However, under the logic of YouTube, the meeting of these two major influencers is almost inevitable. Platforms incentivise audience cross-pollination, which is why Fuentes routinely livestreams with figures such as Adin Ross and Andrew Tate, who are known more for their homophobia and misogyny than their thoughts on ethnostates. Robert Topinka is a reader in digital media and rhetoric at Birkbeck, University of London Continue reading...

Thousands set to gather in Budapest after János Lázár’s remarks captured on video Thousands of people are set to gather in Budapest to demand the resignation of a senior Hungarian politician, for making a racist remark against Roma people earlier this month. János Lázár told attendees at a political forum that migration was not the solution to the country’s labour shortage. “Since there are no migrants, and someone has to clean the bathrooms on the InterCity trains,” Lázár said Roma people would do the job, using an offensive slur in his speech. Continue reading...

Trump nominated Kevin Warsh, an ex-Fed governor, for the role as the White House continues to attack Jerome Powell The US Federal Reserve requires “strong, sound and steady leadership”, according to Donald Trump. The president found a man to lead the central bank who would “provide exactly that type of leadership”, he declared.“He’s strong, he’s committed and he’s smart.” This is not how Trump described Kevin Warsh, the former Fed governor whom he unveiled as his new nominee to chair the central bank on Friday – but how he hailed Jerome Powell, the current Fed chair, when nominating him for the job about eight years ago. Continue reading...

Women’s singles final in Melbourne, 8.30am GMT start Rybakina poses threat | Follow us on Bluesky | Mail Katy G’day everyone! After this tournament suddenly and belatedly exploded into life yesterday with two men’s semi-finals for the ages, today we could have another blockbuster as Aryna Sabalenka and Elena Rybakina face each other for the women’s title, in a repeat of the 2023 final. Sabalenka came from a set down then to win her first grand slam, and has gone on to not only become a four-time major champion and undisputed world No 1 but accumulate serious numbers on hard courts that have surpassed even some of Serena’s stats. This is Sabalenka’s seventh consecutive major final on the surface – something matched only by Martina Hingis and Steffi Graf in the open era – and victory would secure her third Australian Open title in four years. She’s the female version of Jannik Sinner on hard courts – well, Sinner before he lost to Novak Djokovic. Continue reading...

The strikes, which killed women and children, came a day before a border crossing is expected to open in Gaza’s southern most city Hospitals in Gaza said Israeli strikes killed at least 12 Palestinians on Saturday, one of the highest tolls since an October agreement aimed at stopping the fighting. The strikes hit locations in northern and southern Gaza, including an apartment building in Gaza City and a tent in Khan Younis, officials at hospitals which received the bodies said. The casualties included two women and six children from two families. Continue reading...

Campaigners criticise use of ‘vulnerable’ devices at Salisbury Cathedral and Parthenon despite their removal from sensitive UK government sites Security cameras guarding Magna Carta are provided by a Chinese CCTV company whose technology has allegedly aided the Uyghur “genocide” and been exploited by Russia during the invasion of Ukraine, it has emerged. In letters seen by the Guardian, campaigners called on Salisbury Cathedral, which houses one of four surviving copies of the “powerful symbol of social justice”, to rip out cameras made by Dahua Technology, based in the Chinese city of Hangzhou. Continue reading...

From the Cloak of Invisibility and the Elder Wand to Eugène Manet on the Isle of Wight, test your knowledge with the Saturday quiz 1 Which European city changed its name in 1914, 1924 and 1991? 2 Which gun dog has won best in show at Crufts the most times? 3 Catherine Connolly is the third woman to become what? 4 Which arm of the Arctic Ocean is named after a Dutch navigator? 5 Which nut characterises Dubai-style chocolate? 6 What is the most abundant metal in the human body? 7 Where do you hear Hayley Sanderson and Tommy Blaize sing? 8 Where were the monumental Buddhas of Bamiyan destroyed in 2001? What links: 9 Court and King, 1973; Navratilova, 1992; Sabalenka, 2025? 10 Cloak of Invisibility; Elder Wand; Resurrection Stone? 11 AMS; AV; AV+; FPTP; PR; STV? 12 JB Books; Father Karras; Władysław Szpilman; László Tóth; George Valentin? 13 Bucentaure; Santísima Trinidad; Victory? 14 Adopt Me!; Dress to Impress; Flee the Facility; Grow a Garden; Steal a Brainrot? 15 The Cradle; Eugène Manet on the Isle of Wight; The Harbour at Lorient; Woman at her Toilette? Continue reading...

‘ICE Out of Everywhere’ demonstrations, including vigils and marches, follow Friday’s national strike More than 300 demonstrations are expected to take place across all 50 states and Washington DC, today, in what organizers are calling “ICE Out of Everywhere”. Organizers, led by the national grassroots organization 50501, say today’s protests are a response to a series of recent deaths involving federal immigration agents, including the fatal shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minneapolis earlier this month, the homicide of Geraldo Campos in an immigration detention facility in Texas and the shooting of Keith Porter Jr by an off-duty Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer in Los Angeles. Continue reading...

Keir Starmer says he wants to ‘go further’ in relations with Brussels as ministers look to restart stalled negotiations The UK and the EU are exploring the prospect of new talks on closer defence cooperation, as Keir Starmer stressed on Friday that he wanted to “go further” in the UK’s relationship with Brussels. Maroš Šefčovič, the EU’s trade commissioner, is due in London for talks next week, with trade, energy and fisheries on the agenda. But diplomatic sources said the UK is keen to discuss restarting negotiations on defence as soon as it can. Talks for the UK to join the EU’s €150bn (£130bn) Security Action for Europe (Safe) defence fund collapsed in November 2025 amid claims that the EU had set too high a price on entry to the programme. Continue reading...

A wave of affordable Chinese-made EVs is accelerating the shift away from petrol cars, challenging long‑held assumptions about how transport decarbonisation unfolds • Don’t get Down to Earth delivered to your inbox? Sign up here Last year, almost every new car sold in Norway, the nature-loving country flush with oil wealth, was fully electric. In prosperous Denmark, which was all-in on petrol and diesel cars until just before Covid, sales of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) reached a share of 68%. In California, the share of zero-emissions vehicles hit 20%. And at least every third new car now bought by the Dutch, Finns, Belgians and Swedes burns no fuel. These figures, which would have felt fanciful just five years ago, show the rich world leading the shift away from cars that pump out toxic gas and planet-heating pollutants. But a more startling trend is that electric car sales are also racing ahead in many developing countries. While China is known for its embrace of electric vehicles (EVs), demand has also soared in emerging markets from South America to south-east Asia. BEV sales in Turkey have caught up with the EU’s, data published this week shows. The Fukushima towns frozen in time: nature has thrived since the nuclear disaster but what happens if humans return? The UK government didn’t want you to see this report on ecosystem collapse. I’m not surprised The 16-month battle to reveal the truth about Sydney Water’s poo balls Powering up: how Ethiopia is becoming an unlikely leader in the electric vehicle revolution ‘My Tesla has become ordinary’: Turkey catches up with EU in electric car sales The electric vehicle revolution is still on course – don’t let your loathing of Elon Musk stop you joining up Continue reading...

Leicester’s quirky prop on beating adversity, being second-string goalkeeper at Nottingham Forest and his love of ‘cooking with butter’ For some people the road to the top is painfully long and winding. Joe Heyes used to be a player whose dreams of making England’s matchday squad were constantly dashed. Driving home from Bagshot, having been omitted yet again, he would listen to Johnny Cash’s Folsom Prison Blues – “I ain’t seen the sunshine since I don’t when …” – and wonder if the hardship and sacrifice would ever be worth it. And now? Less than two years later he is suddenly the most important player in England. The national management have already lost two injured tightheads in Will Stuart and Asher Opoku-Fordjour plus the loosehead prop Fin Baxter. If they had enough cotton wool England would be wrapping the now indispensable Heyes up in it. Continue reading...

Team GB’s ice dance duo warmed up for the Winter Olympics by re-enacting the classic routine and are confident they can end Britain’s 32-year medal wait Even after 42 years, the images remain seared into the mind’s eye. Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean staring deeply into each other’s souls as Ravel’s haunting Boléro strikes up. Dean tenderly caressing his partner’s face as they dance. And the dramatic denouement as the pair collapse on the ice after four minutes and 28 seconds of perfection. Most figure skaters would shy away from that unforgettable gold medal-winning performance at the 1984 Winter Olympics. But in late October, Team GB’s Lewis Gibson and Lilah Fear lovingly recreated it in a series of images on Instagram. Continue reading...

Motorists benefit as industry offers deals of up to 18% off to attract buyers for petrol, diesel and electric models If you are considering buying a new car, now might be the time to act as new data shows manufacturers and dealers slashing prices by more than 10%, with the average discount close to £6,000. The typical discount available across all petrol, diesel and electric cars sold in the UK is 11.4% of the on-the-road price – the equivalent of £5,911 – according to Insider Car Deals, which sells discount data to people looking to buy. Continue reading...

Sabrina Carpenter fangirling Miss Piggy, Beaker losing his eyes … yes, Kermit and co are back for a trip down memory lane – and it’s a perfect, saucy joy The Muppet Show is back! We need this, don’t we? We need them. The TV show ended in 1981, yet decades later, memes of Kermit, Miss Piggy, Animal et al still circulate. We give their movies Oscars. Their version of A Christmas Carol is a non-negotiable tradition for anyone with sense. Jim Henson’s furry anarchists bring us together like few things can. As a beady eyed fun-sponge, I can’t help but wonder – why? In an 1810 essay, German poet Heinrich von Kleist argued that puppets demonstrate pure grace: a weightless unself-consciousness that humans long for but never achieve. He was talking about marionettes, suspended from strings. Yet Muppets are hand puppets; extensions of a body. They have weight. As for grace, have you seen how Kermit moves? His arms flap, and he bounces vertically, while moving forwards. It’s hard to imagine a less efficient walk. That frog, he silly. Continue reading...

Silver arrows finish 500 laps, well clear of all their rivals Fears around new engines and regulations unfounded Fears the swathe of new regulations and entirely new engines might be problematic on their first outing proved unfounded, after Formula One’s first pre-season test concluded in Barcelona on Friday. Mercedes put in an almost bulletproof performance in distance and reliability while Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton grabbed the quickest lap of the week. Held behind closed doors at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, it is believed at least partly to minimise attention on the potential negative impressions of the new formula that might be formed by new engines going bang and cars struggling on track, as happened when turbo-hybrid engines were introduced in 2012, the running was overwhelmingly positive given the challenge of the biggest regulation change of the modern era. Continue reading...

That 1 February 2016 announcement led to Johan Cruyff’s gospel spreading to all corners of our game – and a bromance with Neil Warnock It wasn’t quite without fanfare but when Manchester City announced, 10 years ago on Sunday, that Pep Guardiola was to be their manager from the next summer, it was a banal, bald press release that brought English football the news that would change it for ever. That was a simpler time, pre-Brexit and Donald Trump’s presidency, and before centre-halves in League Two would split wide for the keeper to pass out from the back to the holding midfielder, dropping in to receive the ball as a false 9 came deep to link with full-backs stepping into midfield. “It’s not about coaches adapting to English football,” said Jordi Cruyff in 2016 as Guardiola began to make his mark on England. “It’s about English football adapting to the new things of the game.” And yet that typical Cruyffian confidence looked like hubris when Guardiola’s Manchester City got hammered 4-2 by Leicester, 4-0 by Everton and experienced Champions League humiliations at Barcelona and Monaco in that first season. Continue reading...

Shy 63-year-old’s decision to blow up London traffic camera linked to online conspiracy theories and Islamophobia To his neighbours, Kevin Rees did not seem like an extremist. The shy 63-year-old lived on a tree-lined street in suburban Sidcup, in Bexley, south-east London. He appeared to be enjoying retirement after a career mending dishwashers and other domestic appliances. “He’s a quiet character – I’ve lived opposite him for 10 years and never really spoken to him,” says Sam, who declined to give her full name. Behind the lace curtains, Rees was much more abrasive, at least online. Under the user name the “Exterminator” he ranted about London’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, and the ultra-low emission zone (Ulez) which in 2023 was expanded to the capital’s outer borough, including Bexley. Continue reading...

For the last eight years, Finland has topped the list of the world’s happiest countries. Our writer embarks on a tour to discover their secret I’ve been visiting the happiest country on Earth every year since I was a baby. At first glance, Finland doesn’t seem like an obvious breeding ground for happiness. In midwinter the sun only appears for two to five hours a day and temperatures can plummet to below -20C. (It would seem a warm-year-round, sunny climate is not a prerequisite to happiness.) The World Happiness Report is based on a survey in which people rate their satisfaction with life – and the Finns have been happiest with their lot for the last eight years. Not short of marketing savvy, Visit Finland latched on to this with a “Masterclass of Happiness” advertising campaign. And it’s probably no coincidence that Lonely Planet named Finland in its 2026 Best in Travel guide as a country “for finding happiness in wild places”. Continue reading...

Bruce Friedrich argues the only way to tackle the world’s insatiable but damaging craving for meat is like-for-like replacements like cultivated and plant-based meat For someone aiming to end the global livestock industry, Bruce Friedrich begins his new book – called Meat – in disarming fashion: “I’m not here to tell anyone what to eat. You won’t find vegetarian or vegan recipes in this book, and you won’t find a single sentence attempting to convince you to eat differently. This book isn’t about policing your plate.” There’s more. Friedrich, a vegan for almost four decades, says meat is “humanity’s favourite food”. Continue reading...

Five multiple-choice questions – set by children – to test your knowledge, and a chance to submit your own junior brainteasers for future quizzes ​Submit a question Molly Oldfield hosts Everything Under the Sun, a podcast answering children’s questions. Do check out her books, Everything Under the Sun and Everything Under the Sun: Quiz Book, as well as her new title, Everything Under the Sun: All Around the World. Continue reading...

A candid chat between the ‘hardest working man’ in rock and Zoe Ball. Plus, how will it end for DS Lucey in Blackshore? Here’s what to watch this evening 11.30pm, BBC Two Continue reading...

My use of mobile phones has been compulsive – has it been for better or for worse? • From a priest to a pensioner, a teenager to a tech CEO: can you guess our screen time? In 2003, the Stanford social scientist BJ Fogg published an extraordinarily prescient book. Persuasive Technology: Using Computers to Change What We Think and Do predicted a future in which a student “sits in a college library and removes an electronic device from her purse”. It serves as her “mobile phone, information portal, entertainment platform, and personal organiser. She takes this device almost everywhere and feels lost without it.” Such devices, Fogg argued, would be “persuasive technology systems … the device can suggest, encourage, and reward.” Those rewards could have a powerful effect on our relationship with these devices, akin to gamblers pumping quarters into slot machines. Continue reading...

Intermediate Dog School involves hiding behind trees in the park … It is rare for my wife and I to do a midweek dog walk together, but on this particular afternoon I find myself at a loose end, and volunteer to come along. Joint walks require a bit of negotiation: my wife expects a minimum level of conversation, which is not a normal feature of my weekday afternoon. To solve this, we take turns delivering monologues of complaint – my wife going first. Because I’m a good listener, I can’t help but notice that a lot of my wife’s complaints are about me. Finally, she exhausts herself. Continue reading...

PM flies out after courting world’s second biggest economy aware of difficult balance of risks and potential rewards The last British prime minister to visit China was Theresa May in 2018. Before the visit, she and her team were advised to get dressed under the covers because of the risk of hidden cameras having been placed in their hotel rooms to record compromising material. Keir Starmer, in Beijing this week, was more sanguine about his privacy, even though the security risks have, if anything, increased since the former Tory prime minister was in town. Continue reading...