Authorities allege Ryan Wedding, 44, ‘turned to a life of crime’ after his snowboarding career ended

Ryan Wedding, the Canadian former Olympic snowboarder accused of cocaine distribution and orchestrating several murders, appeared on Monday in a southern California courtroom for arraignment.

The 44-year-old has been charged with drug trafficking, conspiracy to murder, witness tampering and money laundering, among other charges. Authorities allege that after his snowboarding career, Wedding “turned to a life of crime” as a narcotics trafficker and led an organization that moved cocaine from South America to the US and Canada.

• 18-year-old was expected to stay with Hansi Flick’s side

• Joan Laporta describes move as ‘an unpleasant situation’

Barcelona have confirmed the departure of talented young midfielder Dro Fernández to Paris Saint-Germain with the club president, Joan Laporta, describing the situation around his move as “unpleasant”.

Dro, who joined the club at 14, made his first-team debut in September, and turned 18 on 12 January, arrived in the French capital on Sunday night for a medical. Considered one of the outstanding players of his generation, his representatives had appeared to agree a new contract with Barcelona, due to be signed after his birthday, but he informed the head coach, Hansi Flick, of his decision to depart the same week.

Claudia Sheinbaum sent a diplomatic letter requesting more shows, after a worldwide scramble for tickets

Huge demand to see K-pop septet BTS has led the Mexican president, Claudia Sheinbaum, to formally request of her counterpart, the South Korean president, Lee Jae Myung, that he help arrange more concerts in Mexico.

“Everyone wants to go,” Sheinbaum said at her daily morning press conference on Monday, adding she had sent a diplomatic letter to South Korea’s Lee seeking more concerts.

Judicial review request made in Edinburgh says Avtandil Kalandadze of Russian-flagged Marinera is being detained unlawfully

Lawyers acting for the wife of the captain of a Venezuela-linked oil tanker captured by US forces in UK waters are calling for a judicial review of his situation, claiming he is being detained unlawfully.

The Marinera, a Russian-flagged vessel previously known as Bella 1, has been in the Moray Firth in recent days.

Warning: this video contains footage that may be distressing to some viewers

At about 9am on Saturday, US federal agents shot and killed Alex Pretti, a Minneapolis nurse who was observing immigration officers in the city. The Guardian’s video team has pieced together footage showing the attack from different angles

Leeds may have felt pressure after Nottingham Forest and West Ham closed the gap over the weekend but showed no discernible sign of nerves at Everton. Daniel Farke’s visitors claimed a well-earned point at Hill Dickinson Stadium following a dominant first half display. It could have been much more but for the David Moyes changes that turned the tide Everton’s way in the second half.

Thierno Barry’s encouraging recent run continued as he cancelled out James Justin’s opener with an excellent finish. Everton were a distant second best until Moyes changed personnel and formation.

Ouyen and Mildura in northern Victoria forecast to break state’s all-time maximum on Tuesday, as weather warnings issued

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A day of record-breaking heat looms for Victoria, with temperatures forecast to hit 49C in the Mallee and Melbourne facing its hottest day since Black Saturday 2009.

It was 26.1C as the sun rose on Tuesday over the small Victorian town of Ouyen, the Mallee town of 1,170 people whose forecast high of 49C would break the state’s temperature record of 48.8C set in Hopetoun on Black Saturday in 2009.

Researchers say artificial intelligence system matches human expert classification about 90% of the time

Experts have created an app that uses artificial intelligence to identify dinosaurs from the footprints left behind after they stomped across the land tens of millions of years ago.

“When we find a dinosaur footprint, we try to do the Cinderella thing and find the foot that matches the slipper,” said Prof Steve Brusatte, a co-author of the work, from the University of Edinburgh. “But it’s not so simple, because the shape of a dinosaur footprint depends not only on the shape of the dinosaur’s foot but also the type of sand or mud it was walking through, and the motion of its foot.”

There is no special trick to the interim manager’s early success, just a commitment to sound and sensible thinking

What must Ruben Amorim make of it? Maybe that 3-4-2-1 might not be the answer for this Manchester United team? Perish the thought. The club’s recently sacked manager was clear that not even the pope would make him change – presumably because Leo XIV is also a big fan of three centre-halves. Saying that, Amorim did come close to losing his religion towards the bitter end, however brief and unconvincing his dalliance with a back four was. He reverted to a three for his final game at Leeds in early January.

As the dust settles on Michael Carrick’s second thrilling win as the United interim manager in two matches, the last-gasp triumph at Arsenal following the home win against Manchester City, it is a moment, first and foremost, for the club’s supporters to savour.

The home favourite has taken his speed and returns to new levels in Melbourne, but it’s his serve that will be key against world No 1

Alex de Minaur went into his quarter-final with Jannik Sinner at the 2025 Australian Open hopeful that he could make life difficult for the defending champion. Not only did that not happen, but the manner of his one-sided defeat left him wondering if he really had the game to trouble the top players.

Fast forward a year and the Australian again finds himself in the last eight, again facing one of the sport’s superstars, this time Carlos Alcaraz. As with Sinner, the head to head doesn’t make pretty reading for De Minaur, with Alcaraz leading 5-0. This, though, is their first grand slam meeting and there is a growing feeling that things can be different.

Designer spins the historic house off on a tangent in Paris, with his reading of its history being that shock value can sell

For billionaires with an eye on best-dressed lists and Oscar nominees with sights set on red carpet domination, Paris haute couture – where a dress can take months to make by hand, and cost as much as a small apartment in the city – is a shopping opportunity. For the rest of the fashion industry, it is a battle for bragging rights between the haughtiest brand names in the world. With ambitious young designers newly installed at Dior and Chanel vying for domination, that battle is feistier than ever.

Haute couture is an arms race like no other. At 10 o’clock on a Monday morning, the Oscar nominee Teyana Taylor was in a diamond tiara in the front row of Schiaparelli, where the house is preparing for a lavish exhibition opening at the V&A Museum this spring. A few hours later in the garden of the Rodin Museum, where a mirrored Dior catwalk reflected a suspended canopy of lush moss studded with silk flowers, Pharrell Williams and the actor Josh O’Connor arrived promptly, but the show was delayed an hour for the arrival of Rihanna in a black satin cocoon coat.

Four arrested after authorities intercept semi-submersible vessel bound for Europe

Portuguese police have made a record seizure of almost nine tonnes of cocaine after intercepting a “narco-sub” off the Azores carrying what is thought to be the largest shipment of the drug ever found on one of the Europe-bound, semi-submersible vessels.

The Portuguese Judicial police said its officers had confiscated the haul in a recent joint operation with the country’s navy and air force that had been conducted in coordination with the US Drug Enforcement Administration and the UK National Crime Agency.

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The teams are out! Everton in their blue shirts and white shirts, blue socks. Leeds in their famous all-white kit.

Experts suggest Xi Jinping is asserting his authority by sidelining an officer who has significantly betrayed his trust

Standing inches from Xi Jinping at a military ceremony in late December, China’s highest-ranking general, Zhang Youxia, may have had little inkling about the fate that was to befall him just a few weeks later when he was put under investigation.

The 75-year-old’s physical proximity to China’s leader, who stands to his right, reflects the position he holds in China’s hierarchy. As vice-chair of the Central Military Commission (CMC), the ruling body of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), he is the second-most powerful person in China’s military, after Xi, the commander-in-chief.

The shooting of Alex Pretti was carried out by a federal agent licensed to act with impunity. The US must be rescued from Trump’s authoritarianism

Following the fatal shooting earlier this month of Renee Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent, his colleagues received reassurance that they continued to enjoy “federal immunity” for their actions. “Anybody who lays a hand on you or tries to obstruct you is committing a felony,” the White House deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, had previously stated. “No city official, no state official, no illegal alien, no leftist agitator or domestic insurrectionist can prevent you from fulfilling your legal obligations and duties.”

Words have consequences. Ms Good, a US citizen and mother of three children, had in fact been attempting to drive away from a protest in Minneapolis, where ICE’s deportation snatch squads have terrorised migrants and those who have attempted to defend their rights. On Saturday, in the same city, the same quasi-paramilitary force was responsible for a second shocking death. Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse, was shot multiple times in the back after being wrestled to the ground and pepper-sprayed.

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American forces, aided by Israel, could have enough firepower to mount attack designed to topple regime

The Iranian government is bracing itself for a fresh US and Israeli missile assault after it was announced that the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group has now deployed key assets to the region, observers have said.

It is thought that Washington has the firepower in conjunction with Israeli aircraft to mount an attack designed to topple the government accused of brutally suppressing protests and killing thousands of Iranians.

• Open letter to Fifa and all football associations

• Killings, arrests and threats against athletes are condemned

A group of prominent Iranians with links to football have called on Fifa’s president, Gianni Infantino, to condemn the killing and arrest of footballers and the threats made against players in the country. The demand was made in open letter also addressed to the presidents of Fifa’s 200-plus national associations.

Among its 20 signatories are Ali Karimi, who played 127 times for Iran, and three other former full internationals. The list also includes a coach, a referee and sports journalists.

• Borthwick: ‘We are deeply saddened for him’

• Itoje misses launch of 2026 Six Nations

England will kick off their Six Nations training camp in Spain this week without their captain, Maro Itoje, who has travelled to Nigeria for his mother’s funeral. Itoje was absent from the official Six Nations championship launch in Edinburgh on Monday and is not expected to join his squad until Wednesday evening.

With the tournament commencing on Thursday week every team is scrambling to be ready, but the Saracens lock has been given permission to miss the start of the training block in Girona this week.

Scientists expect 41% of the projected global population to face the extremes, with ‘no part of the world’ immune

The number of people living with extreme heat will more than double by 2050 if global heating reaches 2C, according to a new study that shows how the energy demands for air conditioners and heating systems are expected to change across the world.

No region will escape the impact, say the authors. Although the tropics and southern hemisphere will be worst affected by rising heat, the countries in the north will also find it difficult to adapt because their built environments are primarily designed to deal with a cooler climate.

Azruddin Mohamed’s election comes six months after he formed political party that became country’s second largest

A Guyanese businessman facing extradition to the US on gold-smuggling and money-laundering charges has been elected as the country’s opposition leader, six months after he formed a political party that quickly became the second largest in the South American country.

Azruddin Mohamed, 38, was confirmed as Guyana’s opposition leader after 16 lawmakers from the We Invest in Nationhood party (Win) and another from a single-seat outfit voted in his favor. The tally made Win the second-largest party in parliament, securing Mohamed’s election even as a magistrate’s court hears state arguments for his extradition to the US.

• AMR26 car will not run until Thursday and Friday

• Williams unable to take to the track at all in Spain

The Aston Martin team have admitted they are to miss at least one day of their allotted three at Formula One’s first pre-season test in Barcelona and will not run their car before Thursday at the earliest. They are the second team to fail to take full advantage of the opening test after Williams also announced they would be unable to take to the track at all in Spain.

Testing is taking place from Monday to Friday this week at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya with teams able to use three of the five days to assess their cars. They have been designed to entirely new regulations and with new engines this season and consequently three full pre-season tests are being held. But as the track running began, Aston Martin conceded they would not be there at the off and issued a statement.

Drummer helped to define the sound of roots reggae and dancehall, and worked with stars including the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan and Grace Jones

Sly Dunbar, the Jamaican musician and producer who created generations of global hits as one half of production duo Sly and Robbie, has died aged 73.

His wife, Thelma, told Jamaican newspaper the Gleaner that she found him unresponsive on Monday morning, with doctors later pronouncing him dead. Other sources close to Dunbar confirmed the news to the Guardian, adding that Dunbar had been unwell for some months.

Move comes as the SEC has taken a series of friendly stances towards the cryptocurrency industry under Trump

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Friday agreed to dismiss its enforcement case against a cryptocurrency exchange founded by the billionaire twins Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, after investors in its lending program recovered their assets in full.

The SEC has taken a series of industry-friendly actions in recent years, a shift in its approach to crypto enforcement under Donald Trump, who promised to be the “crypto president”. He brought in more favorable rules and pledged to popularize mainstream use of digital currencies.

European retailers urge traders to adhere to commitments after Brazilian lawmakers wreck forest protection pact

Leading British and European retailers are trying to salvage the core elements of the Amazon soy moratorium after the world’s most successful forest protection agreement was wrecked by Brazilian lawmakers and abandoned by international traders.

In an open letter, high street brands including Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Asda say the breakdown this month of the 20-year-old agreement will damage consumer confidence unless new arrangements are put in place to ensure grain production is not linked to deforestation.