Updates from the decider in Colombo, 9am GMT start
Always in reserve: Dawson’s moment beckons at last

6th over: England 17-0 (Rehan 10, Duckett 6) Six dot balls in a row from Liyanage to Rehan. I thought England might go after the seamers, given how spin-dominated this series has been, but Fernando and Liyanage have bowled well.

5th over: England 17-0 (Rehan 10, Duckett 6) Duckett slashes Fernando behind square for two; it would have been four but for a good sprawling stop. All very quiet at the moment.

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© Photograph: Eranga Jayawardena/AP

© Photograph: Eranga Jayawardena/AP

© Photograph: Eranga Jayawardena/AP

Meta, YouTube and TikTok accused of making products intentionally addictive and harmful to young people

For the first time, a massive group of parents, teens and school districts is taking on the world’s most powerful social media companies in open court, accusing the tech giants of intentionally designing their products to be addictive. The blockbuster legal proceedings may see multiple CEOs, including Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, face harsh questioning.

A long-awaited series of trials kicks off in Los Angeles superior court on Tuesday, in which hundreds of US families will allege that Meta, Snap, TikTok and YouTube’s platforms harm children. Once young people are hooked, the plaintiffs allege, they fall prey to depression, eating disorders, self-harm and other mental health issues. Approximately 1,600 plaintiffs are included in the proceedings, involving more than 350 families and 250 school districts.

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© Photograph: David Zalubowski/AP

© Photograph: David Zalubowski/AP

© Photograph: David Zalubowski/AP

A country where safety is under threat from federal violence on the streets is not fit to stage soccer’s showpiece event

Removing the United States as co-host of the 2026 World Cup would hurt for pretty much everyone. Fans would miss out on seeing the sport’s pinnacle in their home towns (or somewhere nearby). Cities and businesses small and large would lose the financial benefits they had banked on. It would be a logistical and political nightmare on an international scale, the likes of which have never been seen before in sports. It would be eminently sad. And it would be entirely justified.

It brings me no pleasure to say this. The United States has been eager to host a men’s World Cup for more than a decade and a half. The desire survived and even grew after 2010’s failure to out-bid Russia and Qatar (in public and behind closed doors) for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. With hosting rights for 2026 later secured alongside Canada and Mexico, the US soccer scene prepared to show off that the sport is now part of the nation’s fabric, 32 years after hosting the tournament for the first time in 1994. Soccer’s growing popularity in America has helped inspire other US sports to try new formats, encouraged us to engage more fully with the world in a sporting context, and has been at the center of conversations about our society and culture. The 2026 World Cup was seen as the best chance for the world to fully experience not just how much the US has improved at soccer, but how much soccer has improved the US.

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© Photograph: Carlos Barría/Reuters

© Photograph: Carlos Barría/Reuters

© Photograph: Carlos Barría/Reuters

Since the Trump administration sent ICE agents into the city in December, there have been 3,000 arrests and two fatal shootings. In the freezing cold, as the crisis deepens, the Minnesotan people continue to resist

In many ways, Alex Pretti and Renee Good could have been any of the dozens of Minneapolis residents I met last week. Among them were teachers, store clerks, Uber drivers, charity workers and clergymen – a patchwork of humanity withstanding what many have called the Trump administration’s siege on their city, which began in December last year and has led to 3,000 arrests, two fatal shootings, and routine rights violations in an operation defined by government brutality.

What the administration has attempted to laud as the largest immigration operation in US history has instead become a fully fledged crisis, and the sharpest test of American democracy under Trump’s second term.

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© Photograph: Octavio Jones/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Octavio Jones/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Octavio Jones/AFP/Getty Images

Today’s rumours are wet

It’s been a quiet transfer window, all things considered, with even the worst internet attention-seekers refusing to don their yellow ties and take a day off school for its final day, their mum’s toy spaceship left idling in a shoebox under the bed. But there might yet be some action – not like that, how dare you – so let’s dive in.

Crystal Palace are enduring a miserable season, rapidly slipping down the table and now in danger of relegation, the perfect example of how to ruin unexpected success. On the other hand, Steve Parish’s quiff still looks pristine, so swings and roundabouts, but he’s now faced with a problem: does he stop lovingly tending it to consider Nottingham Forest’s £35m bid for Jean-Philippe Mateta, or simply pretend that no such thing ever happened?

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© Photograph: Paul Marriott/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Paul Marriott/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Paul Marriott/Shutterstock

Deal expected to ease access for European cars and wine, in return for Indian exports of textiles, gems and pharmaceuticals

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India and the EU have finalised a landmark free trade agreement, which the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, hailed as the “mother of all deals”.

The agreement comes after almost two decades of on-off negotiations between India and the EU, which vastly accelerated in the past six months and were finally concluded late on Monday night.

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© Photograph: Rajat Gupta/EPA

© Photograph: Rajat Gupta/EPA

© Photograph: Rajat Gupta/EPA

• England captain’s deal runs to end of next season

• Kane and his family are settled in Munich, CEO says

Bayern Munich have confirmed they are in talks to extend Harry Kane’s contract. The England captain joined from Tottenham in 2023 on a deal to the end of next season and secured a long-awaited first major trophy when Bayern won the Bundesliga last May.

He has been the Bundesliga’s top scorer twice and, with 21 goals in 19 Bundesliga games this season, could chase down Robert Lewandowski’s single-season record of 41 goals.

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© Photograph: Angelika Warmuth/Reuters

© Photograph: Angelika Warmuth/Reuters

© Photograph: Angelika Warmuth/Reuters

The radio host's comments come after Alex Pretti was killed during a confrontation with federal law enforcement officers in Minneapolis.

Gregory Bovino, aggressive promoter of Trump’s deportation agenda, also said to have been stripped of ‘commander at large’ title

Gregory Bovino, the Border Patrol commander who has become the public face of the Trump administration’s on-the-ground immigration crackdown in Minneapolis, is expected to leave the city on Tuesday, as the Trump administration reshuffles leadership of its immigration enforcement operation and scales back the federal presence after a second fatal shooting by officers.

A senior Trump administration official told Reuters that the 55-year-old, who has been a lightning rod for criticism from Democrats and civil liberties activists, would be leaving Minnesota along with some of the agents deployed with him.

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© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

A quietly revolutionary account of cohabiting captured a nation’s heart – but what does it mean for the rest of the world?

When Sunwoo and Hana met on Twitter, they were in their 40s and committed bachelorettes. Both raised by the sea in Busan, they studied in Seoul before entering the city’s famously brutal rat race, Sunwoo as a fashion journalist, Hana as a copywriter. They shared the same taste in music and books, and importantly, both had rejected marriage. No wonder. In South Korea’s stubbornly patriarchal culture, women in dual-income families spend nearly three hours more a day on household chores than men. Instead, Sunwoo and Hana joined the large number of South Koreans living alone. At first, independence felt exhilarating. By middle age however, loneliness was beginning to gnaw, and their boxy studio apartments felt oppressively small.

Two Women Living Together, a 2019 South Korean bestseller that spawned a popular podcast, charts Sunwoo and Hana’s decision to buy a sunlit house together and live not as a romantic couple but as friends. Across 49 warm, chatty essays, they invite us into the life they share with four cats, reflecting on everything from the food they love to their retirement fantasies.

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© Photograph: Melmel Chung B

© Photograph: Melmel Chung B

© Photograph: Melmel Chung B

Lifetime alcohol use associated with 91% higher risk of colorectal cancer.

Demonstrators gathered outside a hotel in Maple Grove, where they suspected Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino was staying.

The school district confirmed that the teacher was placed on leave on Monday.

As the temperature nears 49C in the Mallee region, residents take refuge in air-conditioned rooms

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In the slanting, late-afternoon summer sun, the fields around the small Australian town of Ouyen – almost 450km north-west of Melbourne – turn the colour of honey. The edges shimmer with silver, that old cruel trick of feigning water where it hasn’t rained for weeks.

Summer is always hot out here in the sparse, flat Mallee, but this year is shaping up to be particularly harsh. Just two weeks ago, on Thursday 8 January, Ouyen got to 47.5C. On Monday it reached 44.3C.

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© Photograph: Ellen Smith/The Guardian

© Photograph: Ellen Smith/The Guardian

© Photograph: Ellen Smith/The Guardian

Mark Carney delivers controversial Davos speech criticizing U.S. as 'hegemon' while Canada fails to meet NATO's 2% defense spending requirement for decades.

The attorney general of Alabama, who escaped an 2024 explosive device attack, warns that Democratic leaders in Minnesota are creating same conditions that nearly got him killed.

Democratic leaders Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Governor Kathy Hochul face criticism for policies on homeless encampments and anonymous child abuse reporting in New York.

Arizona senator explains why he and colleague Mark Kelly have introduced the Stop Excessive Force in Immigration Act of 2026 to reform ICE tactics following Minnesota civilian deaths.

Cuba's regime faces its weakest point in 65 years as Mexico allegedly steps in with oil aid, sparking growing U.S. concerns about Communist support.

Trump's immigration crackdown faces growing backlash after fatal Minneapolis shootings spark heated debate, putting Republicans in difficult position.

A Republican member of Congress argues that neither Biden nor Trump had the right solution on immigration.

© Mark Peterson for The New York Times

But being a “hot” country does not make you a good country. Or a decent one.

© Mark Peterson for The New York Times

Sir Keir Starmer made fun of Emmanuel Macron wearing a pair of aviator sunglasses during an appearance at a comedy show in London.

© Keir Starmer/Tiktok

Around 300 schools are closed across the UK while the Severn Bridge between England and Wales has also been shut to traffic

© Danny Lawson/PA Wire