We’re heading over to Livigno shortly for the women’s halfpipe. Team GB’s Zoe Atkin qualified first but there is plenty of competition, not least from China’s Eileen Gu.
Some big news coming out of the 50km women’s cross-country skiing, with Frida Karlsson pulling out. The Swede was the gold meal favourite having won the skiathlon and the 10km intervals, as well as a silver in 4x7.5km relay.
Liam Rosenior has revealed that one of his Chelsea stars marked the wrong Burnley player in added time yesterday, resulting in Zian Flemming’s equaliser.
The Chelsea head coach said: “An assignment was missed. An assignment, a marking assignment wasn’t done. Flemming, we know, is their best header of the ball.
The government plans to halve the attainment gap in England
A total overhaul of the special educational needs and disabilities (Send) system is due to be unveiled on Monday in a schools white paper that could face major opposition from Labour MPs.
The changes will raise the bar at which children in England qualify for an education, health and care plan (EHCP), which legally entitles children with Send to get support. EHCPs will be reserved for children with the most severe and complex needs, but new plans for children on lower tiers will still confer additional support and legal rights.
Hundreds of thousands of visitors expected for month-long display of remains of 13th-century saint
Saint Francis of Assisi’s skeleton is going on full public display from Sunday for the first time, in a move that is expected to draw hundreds of thousands of visitors.
Inside a nitrogen-filled plexiglass case with the Latin inscription “Corpus Sancti Francisci” (the body of Saint Francis), the remains are being shown in the Italian hillside town’s Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi.
From opposing apartheid in South Africa to supporting Palestinian rights, the US civil rights leader left his mark across the globe
When Jesse Jackson called for the Democratic party platform to include Palestinian statehood, the pushback was fierce. “While we had strong support from delegates at the convention, there was still a fear factor that the issue couldn’t be discussed,” recalls James Zogby, who was deputy manager of Jackson’s presidential campaign. “I was told by the [nominee Michael] Dukakis negotiators, if you even say the P-word, you’ll destroy the Democratic party.”
Jackson’s effort did not succeed at the 1988 Democratic National Convention in Atlanta. But 10 Democratic state parties had already passed resolutions in favour of Palestinian self-determination. And as the decades rolled by, more and more progressives came to share Jackson’s stance. Zogby, founder of the Arab American Institute, reflects: “He was way ahead of the base. Even the activists who supported Palestinians did not have the same depth of understanding.”
Jesús Armas’s joy at being released has been tempered by reality that the march towards democracy will be slow
Jesús Armas was asleep inside Venezuela’s most infamous political prison at the start of January when a thunderous explosion and a blackout announced the start of a new era.
The activist remembers roars of excitement rippling through the jail’s cells as befuddled guards scurried around “like something really big was happening”. Prisoners began to belt out Venezuela’s national anthem, a stirring battle cry against tyranny: “Glory to the brave people! … Down with the chains! … Death to oppression!”
What happens when you’re sporting signs of your devotion long after your idol has fallen from grace? Meet the fans whose tattoos have become embarrassing – even problematic
On 20 February 2012, Coté Arias met Morrissey at a fan meet-up in Santiago, Chile. The former Smiths frontman signed her forearm in spiky capitalised lettering, which Coté later had traced permanently on to her skin with ink. Her years-long plan for the tattoo, which had started with her founding Morrissey’s Chilean fanclub, had worked. “Morrissey had such an impact on me growing up,” she says. “I struggled with shyness and lacked confidence for much of my life, and his lyrics helped me feel seen while transitioning into adulthood.”
Parliament is steeped in history, but too many parts of the estate are dangerous and squalid. The promised upgrade can’t come a minute too soon
Kemi Badenoch, mid-TV interview with Robert Peston at the House of Commons recently, was embarrassingly upstaged by a mouse. Just another day in a parliament building not fit for purpose.
Last week, a critical meeting between the prime minister and his more than 400 MPs plus assorted peers (who total another 800) happened in a room only big enough to accommodate 170. Consider that the Commons chamber itself seats only 430 of the total 650 MPs. That same day, exhibition boards went up around parliament explaining the “restoration and renewal” options for the Palace of Westminster.They are expected to be voted on as early as March.
Rupa Huq is Labour MP for Ealing Central and Acton
Rising temperatures are forcing some ski resorts to close, while leaving others at greater risk of extreme weather
Avalanches kill about 100 people in Europe each year, with vast masses of ice, snow and rock regularly crashing down on hikers and skiers who have been caught unawares.
The structure of the snow, angle of the slope and variation of the weather can dictate whether a gentle disturbance – like a gust of wind or the glide of a snowboard – can trigger a deadly shift in the mountain.
The Blur bassist loves his Britpop rivals, weeps over Radiohead’s Creep and finds Chitty Chitty Bang Bang sexy. But which Beatles hit did he get sick of?
The first song I fell in love with
I remember standing up in year 3 and doing the routine to The Trail of the Lonesome Pine by Laurel and Hardy and the Avalon Boys. I really wanted it for Christmas – it went to No 2 in 1975 – and Father Christmas managed to get it in my stocking.
The first single I bought
I was on a canal boat holiday with the Scouts and Come on Eileen by Dexys Midnight Runners was all over the radio, so I went down on my bike to buy it from Wilco in Bradpole Road in Bournemouth.
After a slow start, when the hosts began to pick up medals in the second week the public’s imagination was captured
With the atmosphere in Rome subdued as the Winter Olympics unfolded across northern Italy, travelling to the Games was not on Amity Neumeister’s radar.
That was until the event entered its second week and, inspired by images of the Dolomites on TV, Italy racking up the medals and friends in Milan describing an energetic vibe, Neumeister, originally from the US, decided she wanted to join the action. “It was a late-night, last-minute crazy decision, completely unplanned,” she said. “I hadn’t even considered going before, but it felt like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see the Games and celebrate people coming together from around the world.”
Will Paul Thomas Anderson’s ICE age conspiracy thriller sweep the board, or will Sinners and Hamnet share some glory? Our critic places his bets Full list of Bafta 2026 nominations
Norwegian cross-country skier achieved unprecedented feat with victory in the 50km mass start
“I’m starting to believe maybe he is a machine.” Martin Løwstrøm Nyenget was not alone in his assumption on the final weekend of an Olympics that has belonged to Johannes Høsflot Klæbo. Nyenget had as good a view as anyone of his fellow Norwegian’s sixth gold medal of the Games in the 50km mass start.
It was not until the final uphill slope that Klæbo landed the killer blow. Nyenget had stayed with him until then and admirably fended off a couple of attacks on the final lap of the 7.2km course. It was inevitable, though, that when push came to shove, Klæbo would find another gear. “It’s close to impossible to beat him in the finish,” said Nyenget, who could only laugh as crossed the line for silver and Emil Iversen completed a Norway one-two-three.
Rivers drained dry to create artificial snow, a forest cut down for the bobsleigh track – IOC’s claims to prioritise sustainability at Milano Cortina exposed
On the foothills of the mountains, by the banks of the river in Cortina, there was a forest. It was full of tall larch trees. Arborists said the oldest of them had been there for 150 years and dendrologists that it was unique because it was unusual to find a monocultural forest growing at such a low altitude in the southern Alps.
The locals knew mostly it was the place where the old wooden bobsleigh run was, where you went on your walks in summer or autumn, or when you wanted to play tennis on the small courts built near the bottom. They called it the Bosco di Ronco and it isn’t there any more.
As the fourth anniversary looms of Russia’s war on Ukraine, those close to the Kremlin prosper while others merely strive to escape the worst repression
Four years into the full-scale war in Ukraine, Russia’s elite has shown no sign of resisting the very difficult spot that Vladimir Putin placed them in by acting without their consultation. Instead, it has largely adapted, reshaping itself in ways that ensure its survival in what increasingly looks like a state of permanent conflict.
In the atmosphere of repression, Russian top-level officials and public intellectuals, who are tasked with ruling the country and shaping what society thinks and discusses, remain reluctant to express directly what they really think. The narratives they offer through culture are therefore some of the clearest expressions of how they see their role in a wartime country.
Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan are Russian journalists in exile in London and authors of Our Dear Friends in Moscow: The Inside Story of a Broken Generation
CBI and Energy UK report finds 40% of firms have cut investment as electricity costs remain far above pre-Ukraine levels
The UK is at risk of losing its status as a major manufacturing centre after a sharp rise in energy prices that has forced about 40% of businesses to cut back investment, according to a report by the CBI and Energy UK.
In a stinging message to ministers, the report said British businesses – from chemical producers to pubs and restaurants – were being undermined by a failure to cap prices and upgrade the UK’s ageing gas and electricity networks.
Indoor growers warn April price jump will hinder sector’s competitiveness and drive up costs for consumers
Outside, it’s an overcast and blustery February day in Kent – hardly the ideal conditions for growing tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers. Yet inside the enormous glasshouses run by grower Thanet Earth, the climate has been optimised to a humid 20C, perfect for the regimented rows of small pepper plants poking out of raised trays.
Growing fresh produce indoors in the south of England year-round requires plenty of energy to provide light, warmth and carbon dioxide. But the site’s energy bills are about to grow too, when a significant increase in electricity standing charges comes into force on 1 April.
Animal rights activists disagree with authorities on how best to handle boom in primate population near Table Mountain
At the edge of Da Gama Park, where the Cape Town suburb meets the mountain, baboons jumped from the road to garden walls to roofs and back again. Children from South African navy families living in the area’s modest houses played in the street. Some were delighted; some wary; most were unfazed by the animals.
A few miles away, overlooking a soaring peak and sweeping bay, Nicola de Chaud showed photos of food strewn across her kitchen by a baboon. In another incident, a baboon threw one of her dogs across the veranda. In January, a male baboon lunged at her and refused to leave the house for 10 minutes.
Insurers say cases of scammers manipulating people into staging crashes and filing bogus claims are under-reported
Romance fraud typically evokes images of people being tricked out of their life savings by partners they meet on dating sites, but some scammers use a different tactic: recruiting unsuspecting victims into fake insurance claims.
The scam involves a fraudster convincing their partner, or a person they are dating, either to say they have witnessed a car accident, or to take out an insurance policy and file a bogus claim in order to secure a payout.
Dolls that look like real babies – complete with tiny veins and folds of skin – can be endearing yet deeply unsettling. In the Netherlands, however, there are tens of thousands of ‘reborn’ doll enthusiasts
“It’s a doll,” Ineke Schmelter, 71, often says as she walks down the street with a pram and someone peers fondly under the hood, asking: “How old is the baby?” Then she pulls back the blanket and reveals the doll. She points out the craftsmanship – the little veins, the creases in the skin – and explains that it can take as many as 20 layers of paint to achieve such a lifelike finish. Sometimes, though, she can’t be bothered with the long version – the explanations, the strange looks. “As if I’m not quite right in the head.” Then she just says: “Two months,” and keeps walking.
Ineke Schmelter in the kitchen with her reborn baby Ronin
With pine-fringed beaches, crystal waters and affordable seafood restaurants, L’Étang de Thau is a hidden gem worth visiting at any time of year
When I asked Nordine Nid Hsain, the owner of my favourite Parisian bistro, why he sold up and left the capital to join the arty diaspora living in the Mediterranean port of Sète, he said: “What really drew me here was not Sète itself, but the natural paradise of the adjoining Thau lagoon. I love cycling and, after 10 years here, I am still excited to go out every day to explore the bike paths that run around the lagoon.”
He added: “There’s always something new to discover – beaches; wetland landscapes; enjoying a plate of freshly harvested oysters at the water’s edge; riding through the vineyards then tasting the wine in the vigneron’s cellar.”
Democrats accuse DHS of ‘kneecapping’ programs that help speed registered travelers through security lines
The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is suspending the TSA PreCheck and Global Entry airport security programs as a partial government shutdown continues.
The programs are designed to help speed registered travelers through security lines. Suspending them could cause headaches for passengers.
Nigel Farage’s man in Gorton and Denton has a huge public platform, and a taste for culture war. What happens when he concerns himself with bin collections?
On a bracingly cold February night in Levenshulme, a black Volkswagen people-carrier draws up outside a little parish church, around which a small crowd has begun to gather. From behind the car’s darkened windows steps the Reform candidate for the Gorton and Denton byelection, dressed in the trademark gilet that makes him look less like a politician and more like a man who has come straight from a grouse shoot. As he enters the church where the electoral hustings will take place, a leaflet is thrust into his hand, which as he will later discover with a horrified grimace, is a flyer for the local branch of the Communist League, bearing policies such as “amnesty for all immigrants” and “defend Cuba’s socialist revolution”.
But then, when you are trying to attract the attention of someone as elusive as Prof Matt Goodwin, you have to seize your opportunities whenever they arise. Over recent weeks the former academic and rightwing firebrand has been a curiously intangible presence in the constituency whose representation he is seeking: perpetually detectable but not remotely approachable, always visible without ever really being seen.
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