• Email includes ‘FAQ’ on crossing picket line

• Active player calls letter ‘a bunch of bullshit’

• USL declines to comment

On Wednesday night, the United Soccer League (USL) emailed every player contracted in the second-division Championship with information about the procedures for crossing a potential picket line and resigning their membership in the USL Players’ Association, multiple sources have confirmed to the Guardian.

The USL, which runs the second-division Championship and the third-division League One as its professional US men’s leagues, has been locked in labor talks with Championship players for more than a year, with tensions recently spilling into the public. The previous agreement between the league and the USL Players Association (USLPA) expired on 31 December 2025.

Think back to the reason you started making art, advice columnist Eleanor Gordon-Smith writes, then separate this from the money or acclaim

• Read more Leading questions

I’m an artist in my 30s without any major success. Before the pandemic I had quite a lot of opportunities. Unfortunately Covid and then political and personal matters beyond my control shattered my work and social circles. I lost contacts and had no time for networking.

My art evolved with me and has become less conceptual, more narrative and accessible. The most fulfilling moment in the last few months was when I surprised a local cashier by giving her an illustration. Nevertheless, I’ve started to doubt that I can move people with my art.

Reports say talks have resumed between defense department and startup over military’s use of company’s AI

• US politics live – latest updates

• Trump ousts DHS secretary Kristi Noem

Donald Trump boasted about severing the ties between the US military and Anthropic the same day multiple reports said that negotiations between the Department of Defense and the AI startup had resumed.

“Well, I fired Anthropic. Anthropic is in trouble because I fired [them] like dogs, because they shouldn’t have done that,” Trump told Politico.

The Shed, New York City
At a six-night residency, the singer creates an immersive world filled with wry humor and big emotions

Mitski was one of the great social media posters before the internet tried to swallow her whole. “I used to rebel by destroying myself, but realized that’s awfully convenient to the world,” went a 2016 tweet from the musician, who long ago nuked that account. “For some of us, our best revolt is self-preservation.”

As her career has skyrocketed with multiple TikTok-powered streaming juggernauts following the 2018 viral hit Nobody, Mitski has gradually withdrawn from the public eye and declined most interviews. Over her last few albums, she has adopted a mode of performance that contrasts with the emotion of her lyrics: on the tour to support 2018’s Be the Cowboy, she used plain folding chairs and tables as props in a performance that felt almost robotic in its precision.

Lawsuit says president does not have authority to impose levies and demands refunds from federal government

A coalition of Democratic attorneys general and governors across 24 US states are suing Donald Trump to block his latest round of tariffs.

The White House is planning to enact a new 15% tariff on all imports after the supreme court declared Trump’s “liberation day” tariffs illegal. The tariffs have yet to go into effect, though the White House said the new rate would start this week.

Critics sceptical Pentagon chief’s plan for increased military force – amid rising US intervention – will stop drug gangs

Pete Hegseth, the US defence secretary, has urged Latin American countries to adopt a more aggressive approach against drug cartels, warning that the Trump administration may otherwise act unilaterally in the region.

Hegseth’s remarks come in a context of escalating US intervention in the region, both militarily and in elections, which culminated in the capture of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro – the first US ground military attack on a South American country.

Lawmakers will outlaw use of 31 meat-related names as part of efforts to help livestock farmers in food supply markets

EU lawmakers have agreed to ban meaty names such as steak and bacon for vegetarian and vegan foods, but “veggie burgers” and “meat-free sausages” will remain on the table.

Negotiators from the European parliament and EU council of ministers found a recipe for compromise on rules for food names on Thursday, although critics said they were creating needless complexity.

• CAF postpones tournament after weeks of speculation

• Decision due to ‘unforeseen circumstances’

The Confederation of African Football has confirmed the postponement of the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations to July-August just 12 days before the tournament was due to start.

The decision ends weeks of speculation as to whether it would go ahead as scheduled this month but leaves teams without games to play during this international break.

As part of his Maha agenda, health secretary wants schools to incorporate 40 hours of instruction

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Health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr unveiled a new effort on Thursday aimed at increasing the amount of nutrition education taught in medical schools.

For months, Kennedy has urged medical schools to expand their nutrition curriculum and warned that institutions refusing to do so could face cuts to federal funding, while those that adopt the changes may receive public acknowledgment.

FTSE 100 and France’s CAC down 1.5%; Germany’s DAX and Italy’s FTSE MIB down 1.6%; the Dow Jones was down 2%

• Middle East crisis – live updates

A market sell-off resumed on both sides of the Atlantic on Thursday as fears mounted that there would be no quick resolution to the conflict in the Middle East.

Early gains in European markets, which had followed a rebound in Asia, were wiped out in later trading and Wall Street was also trading sharply lower by early afternoon in New York.

A nationless ethnic group of more than 30 million people, their homegrown militia has a reputation as an effective fighting force

The Kurds are one of the biggest ethnic groups in the world without their own nation. Numbering between 30 and 40 million worldwide, most live amid the peaks and valleys straddling the borders of Armenia, Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey.

Though they link their history to that of the Medes, an ancient Middle Eastern people, the Kurds were left stateless a century ago when the borders of the modern Middle East emerged from the collapsing Ottoman empire. Repeatedly caught in the bloody political competition of a volatile region and often forced to rely on their homegrown militia, the peshmerga, for defence, the Kurds say their tough and often bloody history has taught them that they have “no friends but the mountains”.

Instruction comes as Israel continues to bomb Lebanon and Iran, while Tehran launches retaliatory strikes

• Middle East crisis – live updates

The Israeli military has ordered the entire population of Beirut’s southern suburbs to evacuate, as it continued to bomb Lebanon and Iran, while Tehran launched retaliatory strikes against Israel and US bases across the region.

An Israel Defense Forces spokesperson told all residents of Beirut’s southern suburbs – more than 500,000 people – to “save your lives and evacuate your homes immediately”, before Israel launched airstrikes on what he described as Hezbollah targets. The area covered by the order included several hospitals and government ministries.

In leaked chats, students at Florida International University referenced Nazis and made antisemitic and racist remarks

It only took three weeks for a group chat for conservative students at Florida International University (FIU) to become a place where participants eagerly used racist slurs, prompting widespread condemnation from community leaders.

Abel Alexander Carvajal, secretary of Miami-Dade county’s Republican party and a student at FIU’s College of Law, reportedly started the chat after the killing of Charlie Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA, in September 2025.

• Follow latest updates from 8pm (GMT) kick-off

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Palace, meanwhile, will look to play off Strand Larsen, with Sarr and Guessand asked to run at defenders, width supplied by the excellent wing-back pairing off Munoz and Mitchell. I quite fancy those two to cause problems, especially if, behind them, Wharton and Kamada are at it with their passing.

So where is the game? I imagine Spurs are playing 4-3-3 – if they are – partly to get down the sides of Palace’s outside centre-backs and in behind their wing-backs. For what it’s worth, 4-4-2 is also a decent antidote to three at the back. Otherwise, they’ll want to serve Solanke cut-backs and low crosses to the front post, with Kolo Muani asked to clear space for him, by carrying the ball, bumping defenders out of the way or both.

Markwayne Mullin, Republican senator and Maga ally, to replace Noem as Democrats cheer departure of ‘disaster’

• US politics live – latest updates

Donald Trump on Thursday announced he was replacing Kristi Noem as the homeland security secretary, capping weeks of bipartisan complaints about her leadership after immigration agents killed two US citizens and reports emerged that she was involved in a personal relationship with a top deputy.

Noem’s firing was the first major personnel shake-up of Trump’s second term. The president made it public in a post on Truth Social, in which he said Markwayne Mullin, a Republican Oklahoma senator, would take over from Noem starting on 31 March.

Lower house votes in favour of polarising law after rapid increase in population and attack on grazing farm animals

Wolf hunting will be allowed in Germany under legislation passed by the lower house of parliament in response to a rapidly growing population and a sharp rise in attacks on livestock.

The return and growth of the wolf population in the last three decades has emerged as a wedge issue in Germany, the land of the Brothers Grimm who popularised the spectre of the Big Bad Wolf.

The US and Israel started a war that is escalating rapidly, with repercussions beyond the region too

There will be no quick or easy wins – even on US and Israeli terms. They have celebrated assassinating Iran’s supreme leader; their offensive has also killed more than 1,000 civilians so far, including scores of children, according to a US-based rights group. As Iran retaliates, hoping America’s allies will try to rein it back, it is targeting US bases and civilian sites across the region – even in Oman, which was at the forefront of efforts to stave off the war. Gulf powers are increasingly irate, though wary of acting on threats to go beyond defensive action. Israel has ordered hundreds of thousands of civilians to leave a vast swathe of southern Lebanon, blaming Hezbollah’s retaliation for the killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Those who warned that the US-Israeli attack on Iran would lead to war engulfing the Middle East have proved, if anything, conservative in their predictions. A Hezbollah-launched drone hit an RAF airbase in Cyprus at the weekend. On Wednesday, Azerbaijan reported strikes on an airbase (though Iran denied responsibility, as it did over a missile fired towards Turkey). The day before, the US sank an Iranian warship 2,000 miles away, in waters close to Sri Lanka, as it returned from multilateral exercises with India – killing at least 87 people. And governments around the world face soaring energy prices and rattled markets thanks to Iran’s chokehold on the strait of Hormuz.

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Lawyers for Oren, Alon and Tal Alexander argued that the brothers were womanizers but not rapists

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Oren, Alon and Tal Alexander surrounded themselves with beautiful women. Young and wealthy, they enjoyed sex and the pursuit of it. They flirted at nightclubs and on dating apps, and partied with potential hookups in the Hamptons, Aspen and other ritzy locales.

The brothers – two of them high-end real estate brokers known as “the A Team”, the other a private security executive – were certainly womanizers, their lawyer told jurors. But they aren’t the drink-spiking rapists and sex traffickers that federal prosecutors allege.

Seven-time world champion admits he ‘lost sight of who I was’ but has optimism as new campaign begins on Sunday

In the dying embers of the 2025 Formula One season there was a period when Lewis Hamilton, one of the greatest drivers of all time, seemed cut from an almost unrecognisable cloth. The confidence, humour and calm assurance in his own abilities had been stripped away, replaced by an almost despairing bewilderment.

It was so alien to his usual character that many considered it a wonder that he was managing to drag himself on to see the year out. In the buildup to this weekend’s season-opening Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne, Hamilton was typically forthright in acknowledging it had been something of a psychological break.

• India 253-7 bt England 246-7 by seven runs

• Multiple records broken in thrilling match

England, India and the Wankhede Stadium ground staff conjured a ludicrous, blockbuster semi-final, but for the English in the end it was a bust, a night when records fell, and they eventually went with them.

Only three times in their history have they scored more than the 246 they got on Thursday, but still it was not enough. Never before have so many runs been scored in a T20 World Cup match, nor as many sixes (34), nor more sixes in an innings than India’s 19. Neither England nor India had ever conceded as many runs in any T20 anywhere as they did here. It was dizzying stuff, ending in appropriate style with Jofra Archer scoring sixes off the last three legal deliveries to trim the winning margin to just seven runs. So India march on to the final, with only New Zealand in Sunday’s final standing between them and a third T20 World Cup title.

After the joint US-Israeli attack on Iran, Tehran has responded with retaliatory attacks across the Middle East. The Guardian's defence editor, Dan Sabbagh, explains what military capabilities Iran has and how long it might be able to sustain the war

• Iran’s Shahed drones have brought terror to Ukrainian skies – now they are being deployed in the Middle East

Intense waves of airstrikes have hit dozens of military positions, frontier posts and police stations along northern parts of Iran’s border with Iraq in what appears to be preparation by the US and Israel for a new front in their war. Iran has warned ‘separatist groups’ in this region against joining the widening conflict and launched strikes against Iraq-based Kurdish groups it described as ‘opposed to the revolution’. Could the involvement of these militant groups increase the risk of a civil war in Iran if the regime collapses? Nosheen Iqbal speaks to deputy head of international news Devika Bhat.

• Exact terms of deal have yet to be revealed

• Moore recorded career lows last year with Bears

The Buffalo Bills are acquiring wide receiver DJ Moore from the Chicago Bears, multiple media outlets reported on Thursday.

It is not immediately known what the Bears will receive in the deal, which cannot be processed until the new league year begins on March 11.