Panama’s president says strategic waterway will operate as normal after ruling that advances US policy aims

Panama’s president said ports at each end of the Panama canal would operate as usual after the country’s supreme court ruled the concession held by a subsidiary of a Chinese company was unconstitutional.

The court’s decision on Thursday, which helps US attempts to block any Chinese influence over the strategic waterway, immediately drew a sharp rebuke from Beijing.

Updates from the first T20 in Kandy, delayed start to play
T20 row sounds alarm for India’s Olympic bid | Mail James

The tarpaulins have been hauled on, which is not good. The whole outfield is now covered and steady rain is falling. So confident am I that we aren’t going to get an update any time soon that I’m off to pad into the kitchen and scramble some eggs.

Before I crack into some Burford Brown’s (very Guardian?) wait a minute, where’s Rooty?

The Guardian’s picture editors select photographs from around the world

Lemon’s lawyer said he was taken into custody after attending protest in which demonstrators disrupted a church service earlier in January

• US politics live – latest updates

Don Lemon, the former CNN anchor, was arrested late Thursday on charges that he violated federal law during a protest at a church in Minnesota earlier this month, according to his lawyer.

Abbe Lowell, a lawyer for Lemon, said that Lemon was “taken into custody by federal agents last night in Los Angeles, where he was covering the Grammy awards”.

Deng Chol Majek stabbed Rhiannon Whyte 23 times in October 2024 attack

A Sudanese asylum seeker described as “demonic and inhuman” has been jailed for at least 29 years for a vicious attack on a woman who was working at the hotel where he was living.

Deng Chol Majek is believed to have entered the UK by small boat less than three months before launching a frenzied assault on Rhiannon Whyte at Bescot Stadium railway station in Walsall on 20 October 2024, stabbing her 23 times.

Trump now has the firepower in place, but using it might not end well

A fortnight ago, when Donald Trump first threatened Iran’s regime, telling protesters in the country that “help is coming”, there were not enough US military assets in the Middle East to back up the rhetoric. That has now changed, although plenty of questions remain about what an attack on Iran could achieve.

An aircraft carrier, the USS Abraham Lincoln, has arrived in the Indian Ocean, dispatched from the South China Sea alongside three destroyers equipped with Tomahawk cruise missiles. Its eight-squadron air wing includes F-35C and F/A-18 jets and, critically, EA-18G Growlers to suppress anything that is left of Iran’s air defences after last year’s war with Israel.

Mobile Fortify lets agents obtain vast amounts of information on anyone by scanning their face

The lethal force Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is meting out on American streets is rightly drawing loud condemnations from politicians and editorial boards across the nation and around the world. Now is the time we must start paying attention to another highly damaging part of ICE’s arsenal: the agency’s deployment of mass surveillance.

I’m referring specifically to Mobile Fortify, a specialized app ICE has been using at least since May 2025. (Usage of the app was first reported last June by 404Media.) What is Mobile Fortify? It’s an app for facial recognition that can additionally take “contactless fingerprints” of someone simply by snapping a picture of a person’s fingers. The app has been used more than 100,000 times, including on children, as alleged in a lawsuit filed by the State of Illinois and the City of Chicago. And it’s dangerous.

Moustafa Bayoumi is a Guardian US columnist

A sherry old-fashioned with added southern Spanish sizzle

This reimagining of the old fashioned, in which American whiskey meets Andalusian flair, is a well-earned indulgence for the depths of winter. Deep, dark and full of Spanish warmth, it’s a cocktail that wraps you up like a velvet jacket with bourbon spice, sherry sweetness and a glint of orange zest.

Neki Xhilaga, head bartender, El Pirata, London W1

• Concern raised over politicisation of sport

• Bangladesh pulled out of men’s World T20 after row

Bangladesh’s withdrawal from the men’s T20 World Cup could have implications for India’s 2036 Olympic bid amid concern at the International Olympic Committee over the potential politicisation of sport.

Bangladesh pulled out of next month’s tournament last weekend after the International Cricket Council declined a request to move their group matches from India to the cohosts Sri Lanka, after a long-running political row triggered by Kolkata Knight Riders’ decision to remove the Bangladeshi bowler Mustafizur Rahman from their Indian Premier League squad.

Have you been following the big stories in football, rugby, cycling, tennis, cricket, NFL and winter sports?

The Night Manager’s Diego Calva and James Norton are also helping to build hype around small singular hoops

While Chloé Zhao’s Hamnet has been nominated for eight Academy Awards including best picture, for many it is a tiny silver hoop earring worn by Paul Mescal in his portrayal of William Shakespeare that steals the show. Worn in his left ear lobe, the barely there hoop has people fixated online.

“Begging my boyfriend to get a tiny hoop earring too,” reads one post dedicated to the accessory. “I cried for over half of Hamnet, but Paul Mescal’s slutty little earring made me feel conflicted,” reads another.

A sip in the glass and the rest in a little carafe, please – and make sure it’s ice-cold, otherwise it’s an absolutely degenerate drink

There is very little in life as elegant as the martini. You select vodka or gin. But really, you’re an adult, you select gin. A whisper of vermouth, then it’s chilled. A twist of lemon is added or an olive and her brine, then it’s served. And it’s served – we pray – with a sidecar.

All martinis should have sidecars. You know when you get a martini and there’s only a sip in the glass and the rest is in a little baby carafe sitting on ice? That’s a sidecar and it should be the law.

Josh Sharp is a New York-based comedian. His show, Josh Sharp: ta-da!, is at Soho Theatre, London, from 9 to 28 February

Tour guide reports drawing of naked woman pointing knife at baby and coded writing at Old Calton burial ground

The tomb of the philosopher David Hume and two other memorials at a historic cemetery in Edinburgh have been vandalised with “disturbing occult-style paraphernalia”.

A tour guide made the discovery at the Old Calton burial ground. It included a drawing of a naked woman pointing a bloodied knife at a baby with a noose around its neck, and coded writing on red electrical tape attached to the David Hume mausoleum and two nearby memorial stones.

I played out a torturous, all-too-familar dance after the Gunners’ title-race stumble. But if we’re suffering like this in January, how will we feel in May?

I sometimes joke that I’m not sure I actually like football, just Arsenal. Hate-watching rivals aside, if a game doesn’t concern the Gunners it probably doesn’t concern me, such is my one-club tunnel vision. Even then, there are occasions where my love of Arsenal appears debatable. As a friend recently put it to me: “I’ve watched Arsenal games with you. I’m not sure you like Arsenal and yet you’re possibly the most fervent Gooner I know.”

Ah, the torturous dance between joy and torment. I relived it again last Sunday evening, when Arsenal lost to Manchester United. On paper, it should have been simple enough to compartmentalise: you can’t win them all and we’re still four points clear at the top of the league table and looking strong in all three cups. And yet, for the first time this season, I succumbed to true result-induced head loss.

The prediction market’s disciples and CEO believe its an unbiased way of knowing the future. But experts warn users could reshape the world to win big

In the early hours of 13 June, more than 200 Israeli fighter jets began pummeling Iran with bombs, lighting up the Tehran skyline and initiating a 12-day war that would leave hundreds dead.

But for one user of the prediction market Polymarket, it was their lucky day. In the 24 hours before the strike occurred, they had bet tens of thousands of dollars on “yes” on the market “Israel military action against Iran by Friday?” when the prospect still seemed unlikely and odds were hovering at about 10%. After the strike, Polymarket declared that military action had been taken, and paid the user $128,000 for their lucky wager.

Theo Zhykharyev, the Ukrainian wizard working low-profile under this brand since 2017 has pivoted to a new realm which blends ferocious energy with freewheeling fun

From London
Recommend if you like Devo, Home Front, Snõõper
Up next New album Bridge of Sacrifice released 13 March

Theo Zhykharyev is one of those brilliant weirdos capable of turning wild ideas into reality. Since starting Powerplant as a bedroom recording project in 2017, a couple of years after he left Ukraine to study in London, he has released records built around fizzing electro-punk, dungeon synth and treble-heavy hardcore, concocting Dungeons & Dragons-inspired role-playing adventures to accompany some of them, while slinging visually arresting DIY merch through his Arcane Dynamics label. Yet even coming amid an output this freewheeling, his upcoming new record is full of surprises.

Exclusive: ‘Regional defence’ settler units are escalating violent displacement of Palestinians, Israeli reservists and activists say

Israel’s army has become a vehicle for violent settlers to escalate their campaign against Palestinians across the occupied West Bank, with reserve units drawn from settlements functioning as vigilante militias, according to Israeli soldiers and activists, and the United Nations.

Hagmar, or regional defence units, were set up across the West Bank from October 2023, as conscripts and the standing army deployed there prepared to move to Gaza.

Raid on Fulton county election office is part of the Trump administration’s wider US push to fuel false claims of fraud

The FBI raid on the Fulton county election office Wednesday was an aggressive new front in Donald Trump’s effort to use his 2020 election loss to continue to sow doubt about American elections ahead of the 2026 midterms.

As Trump sought to overturn the 2020 election, false claims of malfeasance during ballot-counting in Atlanta became a key part of the big lie about a stolen election. Misleading surveillance video showing ballots being retrieved from suitcases became the basis for a myth that fraudulent ballots were included in the tally. Rudy Giuliani, the president’s lawyer and a close ally at the time, was ordered to pay $148.1m to the election workers as part of a libel suit for spreading lies about them. He later settled.

More than 200 women with caring responsibilities have been freed from prison under the country’s Public Utility Law

Jennifer Chaparro Pernet cannot remember the exact moment she became aware of a commotion outside the prison. But she recalls feeling a ripple of excitement when she heard people shouting, and then a guard calling her name. By 6pm she was walking out of El Buen Pastor women’s prison in Bogotá, a small bag of clothes in her hand, to a cacophony of banging, cheering and stomping as her fellow prisoners celebrated her release. She was four years into a 12-year sentence.

It was 4 May 2024, and Chaparro Pernet, 36, was the first woman to be released under Colombia’s 2023 Public Utility law, which allows first-time female offenders who are heads of households with caring responsibilities to apply to serve their remaining sentence in the community.

Pick of former Fed governor to replace Jerome Powell comes as White House seeks to tighten grip on central bank

• Business live – latest updates

Donald Trump has announced Kevin Warsh as his nomination for the next chair of the Federal Reserve, selecting a candidate who has been an outspoken critic of the US central bank.

The move ends months of speculation about who the president would pick to replace Jerome Powell , as he waged an extraordinary campaign to influence policymaking at the Fed by repeatedly calling for rate cuts.

Seeing large men dressed in goggles and trenchcoats echoes the camp fascism of musical comedies

An aspect of ICE’s deadly performance in Minneapolis that goes hand-in-hand with its mission to intimidate is the absolutely farcical tone of the ICE aesthetic. Broadway numbers like Springtime for Hitler in The Producers and, more recently, Das Übermensch in Operation Mincemeat, a showstopper performed with a German techno beat and Nazi boyband – “Third Reich on the mic” – vocals, present fascism as an essentially camp enterprise and we’re reminded this week that ICE fits the mould entirely.

Canadian PM swaps tough talk at Davos aimed at Donald Trump for some fun at a film gala with Hudson Williams

Last week, Mark Carney was at the World Economic Forum in Davos, giving global leaders a lesson in realism. His powerful speech about the end of the old order and the need for middle powers to unite in the face of fractured international norms received a standing ovation.

The economist and central banker struck a slightly different tone at a gala in Ottawa to promote the Canadian film industry on Thursday evening. Appearing on the red carpet with the Canadian actor Hudson Williams, star of the hit HBO ice hockey drama Heated Rivalry, Carney was in a playful mood.

• Vonn crashes into nets and clutches left knee

• Race in Crans-Montana abandoned after early falls

• US star’s Olympic fitness now under scrutiny

Lindsey Vonn crashed out of the final World Cup downhill before the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics on Friday, leaving the American skiing great limping and clutching her left knee as organizers abandoned the race amid worsening conditions.

The 41-year-old lost control after landing a jump on the upper section of the course in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, skidding sideways into the safety netting as snow fell steadily and visibility deteriorated. Vonn’s airbag deployed on impact and she remained down for several moments while medical staff attended to her on the piste.

Victims of terrorist attacks say BAT’s operations in North Korea helped fund weapons used in the Middle East

Hundreds of US military service members, civilians and their families have filed a lawsuit for unspecified damages against British American Tobacco (BAT), one of the world’s largest tobacco companies, and a subsidiary, claiming the company spent years illicitly helping North Korea fund terrorism weapons that were used against Americans.

BAT formed a joint venture in 2001 with a North Korean company to manufacture cigarettes in the country. The venture quietly continued, a 2005 Guardian investigation revealed, even as the US government publicly warned North Korea was funding terrorism and imposed sanctions on the country. Amid mounting international pressure in 2007, the company claimed it was ending business in North Korea, but secretly continued its operation through a subsidiary, the US justice department said in 2023. BAT’s venture in North Korea provided around $418m in banking transactions, “generating revenue used to advance North Korea’s weapons program,” Matthew Olsen, then the justice department official in charge of its national security division, said during a 2023 Senate hearing.