Release into Helman Tor reserve marks historical first for keystone species hunted to extinction in UK 400 years ago

Shivering and rain-drenched at the side of a pond in Cornwall, a huddle of people watched in hushed silence as a beaver took its first tentative steps into its new habitat. As it dived into the water with a determined “plop” and began swimming laps, the suspense broke and everyone looked around, grinning.

The soggy but momentous occasion marks the first time in English history that beavers have been legally released into a river system, almost one year after the government finally agreed to grant licences for releases.

• Match to go ahead in Sri Lanka on Sunday

• Government made decision after negotiations

Pakistan have agreed to play India in the T20 World Cup match scheduled to take place in Sri Lanka on Sunday, reversing a decision to boycott the game citing geopolitical tensions.

Pakistan announced their decision to boycott the match in Colombo after the International Cricket Council last month replaced Bangladesh with Scotland in the tournament, following Bangladesh’s refusal to travel to the co-hosts India. Following negotiations on Monday, the Pakistan government announced the game would be played.

The departure of the prime minister’s chief of staff signals the demise of the political project which put him in No 10. All bets are off now.

The Labour party spent 14 years in the wilderness, following the general election of 2010. It has taken only 18 months for the political project with which it returned to power to implode. The resignation of Morgan McSweeney, Sir Keir Starmer’s chief of staff and the man credited with orchestrating his path to Downing Street, has left the prime minister isolated, rudderless and at the mercy of events he is in no position to control.

Mr McSweeney fell on his sword after taking responsibility for backing the appointment of Lord Mandelson as US ambassador, despite what was known about the peer’s friendship with Jeffrey Epstein. The hope, clearly, was that his departure will give the prime minister the breathing space to reset yet again. Monday’s call for Sir Keir’s own resignation by Anas Sarwar, Labour’s leader in Scotland, soon dispelled that illusion, although it also provoked a show of loyalty from cabinet colleagues.

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

The country just can’t afford another three and half years of this dysfunctional soap opera. I say, get a grip or get thrown out

“It’s nice, isn’t it. The quiet.” The now-infamous social media post produced by a Starmer supporters at the start of his time in office is now written only in sarcasm beside yet another terrible news headline. Rayner resigns: “Nice, isn’t it. The quiet”; Mandelson sacked: “Nice, isn’t it. The quiet”; the prime minister loses his chief of staff – you get the picture.

Around the time of that post, we had our glorious first conference in Bournemouth after winning our best election result in a century, and a prominent BBC journalist said to me: “We won’t have to cover the soap opera like before – it’s going to be about policy.” Imagine being the leader of the Liberal Democrats, known for our torrents of policy, and being told this by a BBC journalist; the phrase pig in excrement comes to mind.

Ed Davey is leader of the Liberal Democrats

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

While the herd is yet to move against Keir Starmer, many believe his tenure may be coming to an end

When Boris Johnson resigned as the British prime minister in 2022, he explained that the politicians who had once loyally supported him had turned against him.

This had sealed his fate. “The herd instinct is powerful and when the herd moves, it moves,” he said.

The same cabinet ministers who failed to speak up for the PM in the morning were soon offering their undying support

Not another one. On Sunday it was Morgan McSweeney, Keir Starmer’s chief of staff, who took one for the team by resigning over the Peter Mandelson appointment. On Monday, No 10’s head of communications, Tim Allan, did likewise without offering much by way of an explanation.

Presumably it was another effort to delay the inevitable. “We need a futile gesture, chaps.” No matter that most normal people won’t have heard of either of them. Let alone be able to identify them in a police lineup.

• Briton forced to pull out when 2-0 down in deciding set

• Qualifier Camila Osorio into Qatar Open second round

Emma Raducanu retired during the third set of her first-round match with the qualifier Camila Osorio at the Qatar Open, having tried to play on after taking a medical timeout.

The British No 1 was looking to move swiftly on from the disappointment of losing in straight sets on Saturday against the home ­favourite Sorana Cirstea in the ­Transylvania Open final, a match she described as “very difficult emotionally and physically”.

Health secretary publishes messages as he seeks to draw line under his relationship with former peer

• UK politics live – latest updates

Wes Streeting predicted he would be “toast” at the next general election, according to private WhatsApp messages exchanged with Peter Mandelson and published by the health secretary in an effort to draw a line under his relationship with the disgraced peer.

In the messages, Streeting said the government lacked a growth strategy and questioned No 10’s communications operation – remarks that appeared to form part of an effort to position himself for a potential leadership contest.

• RFU trying to tackle antisocial behaviour after games

• It wants residents to allow more Twickenham events

Unruly spectators at Twickenham felt the force of a crackdown on antisocial behaviour at the match between England and Wales last Saturday, with Richmond council issuing 24 fixed-penalty notices for public urination, the Guardian can reveal.

The Rugby Football Union is trying to persuade local residents to ditch their opposition to proposals to increase the number of concerts held every year from three to 15. Much of the opposition centres around antisocial behaviour experienced during England matches and, as revealed by the Guardian, the RFU hosted a drop-in event for residents in an effort to convince them that their concerns were being taken seriously.

Newly released documents detail convicted sex offender’s early backing of bitcoin and Coinbase

Millions of files related to Jeffrey Epstein have brought to light his ties to the highest echelons of the cryptocurrency industry.

Documents published last week by the US Department of Justice reveal Epstein bankrolled the “principal home and funding source” for bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency, during its nascent stages; he also invested $3m in Coinbase in 2014, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the US, and cut a check that same year to Blockstream, a prominent bitcoin-focused technology firm. Both crypto startups accepted Epstein’s investments in 2014 – six years after his 2008 conviction in Florida for soliciting prostitution from a minor.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX curbs illicit use of satellite internet network, which Ukraine says is already affecting operations

Russia’s military is scrambling to find alternatives to Starlink satellite internet after access to the network was curtailed, disrupting a key communications system that its forces had been using illicitly on the battlefield.

Ukraine said last week that Starlink terminals being used by Russian troops had been deactivated after talks between its defence minister and Elon Musk, whose company SpaceX operates the satellite network.

A serious plan to tackle low birthrates could include addressing the fact that if people could afford to house themselves, they might be quicker to settle down

I almost never wonder how I’d feel if I were a 29-year-old French woman. I fear the question would lead to dissatisfactions too profound (would I be eating oysters right now? Would my socks be cashmere? Would I know what existentialism meant – no, I mean really know?). This morning, however, I did stop and give it some serious thought: specifically, how would I feel if my government wrote to me, reminding me to have children? To get that letter from childless Macron would be like getting told off about your BMI by a nurse whose BMI is definitely the same as yours, if not greater: on the one hand, it’s none of your business who has kids or what anyone’s BMI is. But on the other, how about we just all keep out of each other’s business? Luckily the letter is going to be sent out by the health ministry, and say what you like about ministries, you can’t criticise their lifestyle choices.

Before you get your panties in a twist, feminists, this letter will be sent to both men and women of the 29-year-old variety, and the government underscored that “fertility is a shared responsibility between women and men” – a statement that is both true and woke (yup, I’m reclaiming “woke” to mean “things I approve”).

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

The media mogul and prominent pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai has been sentenced to 20 years in prison in Hong Kong for national security offences. His family has described the sentence as ‘heartbreakingly cruel’, given the 78-year-old’s declining health. Lai was convicted in December on charges of sedition and conspiracy to collude with foreign forces, after pleading not guilty to all charges.

Lucy Hough speaks to the Guardian’s senior China correspondent, Amy Hawkins.

Seamus Culleton has lived in US for two decades, married a citizen and runs a plastering business but faces deportation

• US politics live – latest updates

An Irish man has spent five months in US Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention and faces deportation despite having a valid work permit and no criminal record.

Seamus Culleton was a “model immigrant” who had become the victim of a capricious and inept system, said his lawyer, Ogor Winnie Okoye.

Investigation in apparent abduction enters second week as deadline for purported ransom note demanding $6m looms

The search for television host Savannah Guthrie’s missing mother entered its second full week on Monday, with investigators returning over the weekend for a new search of her Arizona home. They appear no closer to finding her, or identifying an alleged abductor.

Detectives are analyzing a purported ransom note giving a deadline of 5pm MT (7pm ET) Monday for Guthrie’s family to pay $6m, a development that prompted the Today show presenter and her siblings to record a video released on Saturday saying: “We will pay”.

A diminutive young buck aspires to compete with rhinos and horses in ‘roarball’, but this by-numbers tale is not the greatest of any time

Greatest of all time? No. Possibly not even the greatest of half-term. This loud, chaotic and unlovable animated kids’ comedy feels as though it is bordering on AI slop, algorithmically generated and instantly familiar from Zootropolis, Sing and other movies with talking animals. It is a shame, because it has a real-life inspiration: basketball star Stephen Curry, who was repeatedly told at the start of his career that he was too skinny and too small to make it as a pro. Curry is a producer here, and has a performing role. But in spite of this connection, Goat lacks heart and soul, and a sense of genuine emotions.

What it does have is some pretty decent voice acing, bringing a degree of charm to the movie. Will Harris (voiced by Caleb McLaughlin) is a goat who has grown up dreaming of playing professional “roarball”, a fiercer and faster version of basketball. But Will is a “small” and roar players are all “bigs” – powerful beasts such as rhinos and horses. Will’s hero and the star of his favourite team, the Thorns, is a panther called Jet (Gabrielle Union), a champ close to retirement but determined to win the league. When Will gets a shot at joining the Thorns, he is laughed at, underrated but undeterred.

While Trump has attacked the Grammy-winning Puerto Rican star, celebrities have come out in force to support the half-time show

As blue, red and white fireworks filled the sky at the end of Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl half-time show, a message filled the screen in all capitals: “The only thing more powerful than hate is love.”

It was the enduring statement from a 13-minute spectacle that invited an estimated 135.4 million viewers into Bad Bunny’s world, with richly textured references to politics, history and Puerto Rican culture. The artist born Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio transformed the pitch of the Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, into his own love letter to the island, with cinematic set pieces including sugarcane fields, a house party, and a lively wedding ceremony featuring a surprise performance by Lady Gaga.

• Athletes report medals are chipped, cracked or damaged

• ‘We are aware. We are looking into what the problem is’

They are among the most prized possessions in sport, yet embarrassingly for Olympic officials the medals in Milano Cortina keep breaking.

On Monday organisers promised to launch an investigation into why it was happening after Winter Olympic medallists, including the American downhill skiing champion Breezy Johnson, reported chipped, cracked and damaged medals.

Democratic representative says Epstein associate’s decision to invoke fifth amendment points to ‘White House cover-up’

Ghislaine Maxwell refused to answer questions during a closed-door congressional deposition on Monday, prompting criticism from a House representative backing efforts to release Jeffrey Epstein investigative files.

Robert Garcia, ranking member of the committee on oversight and government reform, said in a statement that Maxwell invoked the fifth amendment and refused to testify during her scheduled deposition. Maxwell’s attorney, David Oscar Markus, also said that she invoked her fifth amendment right.

• American was competing with ruptured ACL

• Vonn fractured leg after crashing in Sunday’s race

Lindsey Vonn’s fellow skiers have defended her decision to compete in the women’s downhill at the Winter Olympics while dealing with a ruptured ACL.

The American crashed out early in her run on Sunday. She suffered a fractured leg and was airlifted from the course. Some users on social media said she should not have been racing only a week after injuring her knee. But those who know the risks of skiing best supported Vonn’s decision.

Director and composer of 2017 drama allege breach of agreement after score reused in controversial documentary

Paul Thomas Anderson and Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood, the director and composer, respectively, for Phantom Thread, have requested that music from the 2017 film be removed from the controversial new documentary on Melania Trump.

“It has come to our attention that a piece of music from Phantom Thread has been used in the Melania documentary,” the pair said in a statement to Variety. “While Jonny Greenwood does not own the copyright in the score, Universal failed to consult Jonny on this third-party use which is a breach of his composer agreement. As a result Jonny and Paul Thomas Anderson have asked for it to be removed from the documentary.”

Budgets have been slashed, morale is through the floor and the company has been forced to find a second base in Manchester. But the new musical director is up for a challenge. We meet the man with the hardest job in music

André de Ridder is either brave or stupid. He has accepted the role as the music director of English National Opera – its chief conductor and keeper of its musical flame. He will take up the role formally in 2027. The post has been empty for several anguished years, sparked by Arts Council England’s 2022 announcement that the company would lose all its funding unless it moved out of London. Amid a fightback that, to cut a long story short, resulted in the company retaining a foothold in the London Coliseum, but partially moving to Manchester, De Ridder’s predecessor, Martyn Brabbins, abruptly quit in 2023, saying that the company was heading into “managed decline”. Brabbins’s predecessor, Mark Wigglesworth, had also resigned suddenly in 2016, saying ENO was evolving into “something I do not recognise”. It was beginning to sound like an opera plot. Bluebeard’s Castle, maybe. A murdered conductor behind every door in the mansion.

And yet: De Ridder’s enthusiasm is irrepressible. For some, it would be daunting to come into a company whose world-class orchestra and chorus have had their full-time contracts slashed to seven months of the year; from which the chief executive has just resigned; where morale (insiders tell me) is rock bottom. But the Berlin-raised 54-year-old sees only the opportunities. From his perspective, the shake-ups are in the past.

You could do the weekly shop on your own, or you could turn it into the ultimate compatibility test by inviting a date along. And there’s always that flatpack furniture to assemble ...

Name: Choremancing.

Age: About four months.