US special envoy Steve Witkoff said that the countries agreed to exchange 314 prisoners, with talks to continue in coming weeks

US presidential envoy Steve Witkoff said that the US, Ukraine and Russia have agreed to exchange 314 prisoners in “the first such exchange in five months.”

He said:

“This outcome was achieved from peace talks that have been detailed and productive. While significant work remains, steps like this demonstrate that sustained diplomatic engagement is delivering tangible results and advancing efforts to end the war in Ukraine.”

“We may be, in the course of 2026, coming to a point where the whole thing becomes unsustainable, because so much of the Russian economy has been distorted so much by the building up of the war economy at the expense of the civil economy. I think defying the laws of economic gravity can only go on for so long.”

The 20-year-old is a ‘complete’ player who combines Marcel Desailly’s defensive ability with Laurent Blanc’s creativity

By Get French Football News

When you miss 18 months of football, there is a natural eagerness to make up for lost time. Jérémy Jacquet has certainly done that. This time last year Rennes recalled him from a loan spell at Ligue 2 side Clermont Foot and now he has been signed by Liverpool for £60m.

The conditions were always ripe for Jacquet to succeed at Rennes, a club known for developing talent. But even by their standards, the 2005 generation is something special. Désiré Doué, Mathys Tel, Jeanuël Belocian, Lesley Ugochukwu and, come the summer, Jacquet will have all left Rennes, but not before pushing each other to greater heights during their formative years.

As far back as 1867, White House officials have viewed Greenland, and Iceland, as having immense strategic value

Shortly before the United States descended into civil war and senior administration officials made a forceful case to purchase Greenland for its natural resources, an American ship appeared in Nuuk’s harbour. Its arrival at Greenland’s largest outpost was newsworthy enough to merit a large picture in the local newspaper.

The clipping, published in 1861, comes from the pages of the Atuagagdliutt, a Kalaallisut-language weekly that was the first in the world to use colour illustrations.

Seattle’s Aden Durde will be the first British coach to appear in the Super Bowl. He wants to ensure he’s not the last

Midway through the 2023 NFL season, Dallas Cowboys star edge rusher Micah Parsons was frustrated. Asked about the source – a feeling of being held by opponents all the time – Parsons credited his defensive line coach Aden Durde with keeping him in check.

“[Coach Durde] pulled me aside and said, ‘You gotta remember, you’re Micah fucking Parsons,” he recalled. “‘This shit is going to happen. You just gotta keep going. Fuck all the other stuff.’”

The interview,⁠ revealed in the latest tranche of Epstein files, was reportedly intended for a sympathetic documentary

Steve Bannon, a one-time adviser to Donald Trump, has long styled himself as a populist nemesis of the global elites. Yet the latest release of Jeffrey Epstein files shows that he exchanged hundreds of friendly texts with the wealthy financier, discussing politics, travel and other topics.

One of the biggest surprises in the files was a bizarre video in which Epstein – who exploited and abused dozens of young girls – is interviewed by Bannon at what appears to be Epstein’s New York home.

If US elites can find the courage to speak up, we can still prevent our country from descending into full-blown autocracy

Alex Pretti – an ICU nurse documenting alleged cases of federal immigration agents’ overreach – was killed by federal agents in Minneapolis on 24 January. Just hours later, Minnesotans gathered in their neighborhoods for vigils to mourn his death and demand an end to the federal incursion on their state.

Meanwhile, the CEOs of Apple, Amazon, Zoom and the New York Stock Exchange attended a glitzy screening of the new Melania documentary at the White House, where they munched on popcorn in special commemorative black-and-white boxes and took home Melania-branded cookies.

Cranston report highly critical of systemic failings and missed opportunities around deaths of more than 30 people

Loss of life was avoidable in the worst mass drowning from a small boat crossing in the Channel, a public inquiry has found.

The 454-page report by the former high court judge Sir Ross Cranston is highly critical of failings around the deaths of at least 24 men, seven women and two children in November 2021. Four of the deceased are still missing.

Clinical reports show the children had consumed batches of recently recalled products, UKHSA says

There have been 36 clinical reports of children suffering symptoms consistent with toxin poisoning linked to recent baby formula recalls, the UK Health Security Agency has said.

The UKHSA said it and partner agencies had received 24 notifications in England, seven in Scotland, three in Wales, one in Northern Ireland and one from the crown dependencies of children who had consumed implicated batches and developed symptoms.

It was a great year for Sinners and One Battle After Another but films with megastars like George Clooney, Julia Roberts and The Rock all struggled

Last year’s Oscars narrative might have been more about the little films that could, from The Brutalist to Anora to Emilia Pérez, but this year has become closer to the opposite with big-budget films like Sinners, One Battle After Another and Frankenstein all leading the way.

It’s therefore not quite as easy to explain why some of Hollywood’s biggest stars, from Julia Roberts to Dwayne Johnson to George Clooney to Emily Blunt to Adam Sandler, found themselves removed from the race. So here goes …

On Wednesday, storied newspaper axed nearly one-third of company after earlier unpopular moves by owner Jeff Bezos

Under Marty Baron, the Washington Post won 11 Pulitzer prizes and expanded its newsroom to house more than 1,000 journalists. The storied newspaper’s future is now in question, according to its former executive editor.

“The aspirations of this news organization are diminished,” Baron told the Guardian in an interview. “I think that’ll translate into fewer subscribers. And I hope it’s not a death spiral, but I worry that it might be.”

The move is among several measures the acting president has touted since Maduro’s capture – yet critics say it erases Venezuela’s long history of repression

It was designed in the 1950s to be the world’s first “drive-through shopping centre”, a futuristic structure with more than than two miles of ramps looping past 300 shops, as well as cinemas, a hotel, a private club, a concert hall and a heliport.

But the building was never completed, and under the regimes of Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro, spaces envisioned as shops were turned into cells, and El Helicoide became Venezuela’s most notorious torture centre for political prisoners.

New Start expires on Thursday. That leaves no limits on US and Russian nuclear arsenals

Let’s be honest: America needs another nuclear weapon about as much as Donald Trump deserves a Nobel peace prize.

Yet on Thursday, the last remaining nuclear arms control treaty between the U S and Russia will expire. When the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty – New Start – goes away, there will be no limits on US and Russian nuclear arsenals for the first time in more than 50 years.

Edward J Markey represents Massachusetts in the US Senate. He is a co-chair of the bicameral congressional nuclear weapons and arms control working group

As his team returns to the Super Bowl, the New England owner who once stood up on social issues proves he is just another transactional billionaire

During the worst of it, when Philando Castile and Alton Sterling were killed by police a decade ago and Colin Kaepernick took a knee in protest, when a widespread reaction was to tell the highly accomplished, overwhelmingly Black professional athletes they were un-American, or well-paid farmhands who needed to get back to work, or both, and some of his peers in the ownership class were releasing players as punishment for joining the protest, it was New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft who positioned himself as the voice of reason.

Kraft attempted to broker peace between the ownership hawks who saw the high-paid kneelers as ungrateful mutineers and, after decades of docility, the radicalized players unwilling to collect their checks in exchange for political silence. Kraft encouraged two of his players – the twins Devin and Jason McCourty – into deeper citizenship, to engage with the legal and political systems and promote reforms. As a sign of compassion and a willingness to listen, Kraft visited the incarcerated rapper Meek Mill, and later the two partnered with another artist, Jay-Z, on various criminal justice initiatives.

Diocese holds consultation on future of long-closed city centre site thought to be enslaver’s burial place

Work is about to begin repairing an unused city centre church in Bristol that is believed to be the burial place of the enslaver Edward Colston.

After the work on the roof of All Saints is completed, the building may be deconsecrated, turned into a community resource and the remains of Colston could be removed.

The ex-Home Secretary’s memoir of childhood racism is intimate and moving but raises difficult political questions

Sajid Javid’s memoir traces his journey from being a frightened child in racist 1970s Rochdale to becoming a leading member of a political party that attacks and marginalises people like him. However, it is an intimate, and sometimes moving, family portrait as well as a social history of race, class and aspiration in late 20th‑century Britain.

The opening chapters, with their ubiquitous skinheads and “Run, Paki, run” taunts, contain the book’s most arresting scenes. Racism is continuous and targeted: from graffiti on his father’s shop windows to the everyday humiliations at school, and on the buses where his father had bravely fought an informal colour bar to become a bus driver.

We would like to hear about your favourite ever moments from the Winter Olympics

With the Winter Olympic Games underway, we would like to hear about the moments from the games that stayed with you, and why. Was there a particular athlete who entertained you? Or an event that inspired you? Tell us your favourite ever moment from the Winter Olympics and why.

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We’d like to hear from people in Greenland on their thoughts about the US president’s renewed call to take over the territory

Speaking aboard Air Force One on Sunday, Donald Trump doubled down on his claim that Greenland should become part of the United States. “We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it,” Trump told reporters.

We’d like to hear from people in Greenland on their views on Trump’s renewed call to take over the autonomous territory. You can share your views below.

We’d like to hear from independent retailers about how changes to online searches has affected them. We’d also like to find out from customers about how easy it is to track down independent retailers

We’d like to find out more about how your business has been affected by changes to online searches amid the rise of AI.

Independent businesses have traditionally relied on online advertising for increased visibility and sales, even if they are based on the high street. However, with the introduction of AI mode and AI Overview summaries on Google, and the proliferation of LLMs such as ChatGPT or Google Gemini, people are altering their search habits, which may affect the online visibility of small businesses.

Team of pizza-makers and teachers brought together by a passion for the sport hope to win hearts back at home

In a basement office in the north of Rome, Riccardo Maggio is unpacking boxes of blue jerseys with “Italia” written on them. He sighs when the landline phone rings again, and then again. Maggio is on his own, multitasking in the headquarters of the Italian Cricket Federation, tucked away in the building that houses the Italian Olympic Committee (Coni), the governing body for national sports.

The room is small and improvised, its shelves cluttered with old trophies, faded photographs of players and souvenir cricket bats. The base for Italian cricket is hardly the nucleus of a global sporting moment. Yet, in a story that has largely flown under the radar in Italy, for the first time in their history the men’s national cricket team have qualified for the T20 World Cup, co-hosted by Sri Lanka and India, which begins this weekend.

Stars could align for USA and Canada in ice hockey, while hosts Italy are getting their downhill hopes up

All eyes are on the, ah, essentials of the Norwegian men’s ski jump team as they try to recover from one of the great botched crotch stitch switch scandals of 2025. Two of their gold medal-winning athletes from Beijing 2022, including the defending Olympic champion on the long hill, were banned for three months after a whistleblower published a video of their coach tampering with the (strictly regulated) crotch stitching on their jumpsuits at the Nordic world championships last year, in an attempt to make them more aerodynamic by adding padding. Groin-gate led to a national debate about ethics in sport and a complete overhaul of the rules. We’re told doctors are now using “3D measurements” to carefully scrutinise all competing athletes before competition.

Frida loves cycling everywhere, while Frantz likes to slow down and smell the roses. You decide who is getting a rough ride
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England have the squad depth, but France have a returning hero and hosting duties for the potentially decisive finale

What are you most looking forward to? Let’s hope it stops raining at some stage. Because if Matthieu Jalibert, Louis Bielle-Biarrey, Henry Arundell, Manny Feyi-Waboso, Louis Rees-Zammit et al have a licence to thrill with a dry ball this could be an eye-catching championship.

Vivid dreamscape sold to fans in 2021 is yet to materialise amid layers upon layers of bureaucracy, economics and geopolitics

Layer two: Nick Woltemade, signed for £69m in the hot madness of summer, has stopped scoring. Anthony Elanga, a £55m winger, has struggled for game time and goals. Malick Thiaw, a £35m centre-half bought from Milan, keeps making basic errors. Last summer’s transfer window, conducted without a sporting director and with an outgoing chief executive, looks increasingly like a disaster. The football seems a little slower and less urgent these days, St James’ Park a little quieter and more anxious. Eddie Howe is basically holding this thing together with hugs and smiles.

Layer three: turns out Alexander Isak lighted the exit path so that others might follow. Sandro Tonali’s agent decided to make a little mischief on transfer deadline day, putting Arsenal on alert. Perhaps Tonali will be the next painful transfer saga, perhaps Bruno Guimarães or Lewis Hall or Tino Livramento. The sporting director, Ross Wilson, is still getting his feet under the table. The chief executive, David Hopkinson, reckons Newcastle can be the best team in the world by 2030. They sit 11th in the Premier League. No signings arrived in January.

Women in rural communities describe trauma of moderating violent and pornographic content for global tech companies

On the veranda of her family’s home, with her laptop balanced on a mud slab built into the wall, Monsumi Murmu works from one of the few places where the mobile signal holds. The familiar sounds of domestic life come from inside the house: clinking utensils, footsteps, voices.

On her screen a very different scene plays: a woman is pinned down by a group of men, the camera shakes, there is shouting and the sound of breathing. The video is so disturbing Murmu speeds it up, but her job requires her to watch to the end.