Brad Sigmon, 67, chooses to be shot dead amid concerns that lethal injections have caused ‘excruciating’ pain

A South Carolina man on death row has chosen to be killed by firing squad, and if his execution goes forward next month, it would be the first time in 15 years that capital punishment in the US is carried out by gunfire.

Brad Sigmon, 67, is scheduled to be shot to death on 7 March, part of a spate of rapid killings the state has pursued in the last six months as it revives executions after a 13-year pause. South Carolina now directs those on death row to choose how they will be killed – electric chair, lethal injection or shooting. If they decline to make a selection, the state electrocutes them.

Apple says removal of tool after government asked for right to see data will make iCloud users more vulnerable

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Apple has taken the unprecedented step of removing its strongest data security tool from customers in the UK, after the government demanded “backdoor” access to user data.

UK users will no longer have access to the advanced data protection (ADP) tool, which uses end-to-end encryption to allow only account holders to view items such as photos or documents they have stored online in the iCloud storage service.

PM to claim if US rejects Mauritius’s claim to own the islands, Beijing will be drawn into the regional dispute

Keir Starmer is to urge Donald Trump to recognise that a US rejection of Mauritius’s legal claim to own the Chagos Islands including the strategic US military base at Diego Garcia may stoke tensions similar to those in the South China Sea.

Starmer is due to meet Trump next Friday mainly to discuss the future of Ukraine, but also a UK plan for Gaza’s reconstruction under international protection with no need for Palestinians to be required to quit the Gaza Strip. The paper is similar but not identical to proposals being discussed by Arab foreign ministers in Riyadh, which has a strong international component and would prevent Hamas ruling in Gaza.

My ‘achievable’ self-development goal of trying not to be angry was difficult. It’s what you do with that feeling that matters

A couple of years ago, I decided to go for more “achievable” new year resolutions: challenging and life-enhancing but also small to the point of near-stupidity. For example, near the end of last year, I decided I would stop using my car’s horn in non-life-threatening situations.

If you’re wondering what kind of asshole uses the horn in non-life-threatening situations, I know it’s noise pollution, and childish, and rude.

Exclusive: Analysis by the Guardian shows a third of major arts leaders were educated privately

• Analysis: Who is ‘working class’ and why does it matter in the arts?
• Interviews: Nine working-class creatives on class in the arts – and how they made it

Artists, directors and actors have raised the alarm about what they describe as a rigged system preventing working-class talent thriving in their industries after analysis showed almost a third of major arts leaders were educated privately.

The creator of Peaky Blinders, Steven Knight, the director Shane Meadows and the Turner prize winner Jesse Darling were among those who spoke to the Guardian about what was described as a crisis facing the sector.

Jordan Bardella calls off US address after former Trump aide makes controversial gesture with outstretched arm onstage

The French far-right leader Jordan Bardella on Friday morning cancelled a scheduled speech at the US Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Maryland, after Donald Trump’s former aide Steve Bannon flashed an apparent fascist-style salute there hours before.

Bannon, who helped Trump win office in 2016 and is now a popular rightwing podcast show host, finished his CPAC speech on Thursday with an outstretched arm, fingers pointed and palm down – a sign that echoed both the Nazi salute and a controversial gesture made by the tech billionaire Elon Musk at the US president’s second inauguration in January.

The conviction of the former Spanish FA president for sexual assault sends a powerful message not just about consent, but about how seriously women are taken

The verdict delivered to the disgraced former president of the Spanish football federation Luis Rubiales is a victory, but one that leaves a bitter aftertaste.

The 47-year-old was found guilty of sexual assault on Thursday for a non-consensual kiss planted on the Spain forward Jenni Hermoso during the 2023 World Cup final medal ceremony. The result is a fine of more than €10,000, a ban from going within 200 metres of Hermoso or communicating with her and €3,000 in compensation to the striker.

Bill approving $175bn for border security and extra $150bn for Pentagon faces tough challenge in House

• US politics live – latest updates

The US Senate has passed a budget resolution that paves the way for funding Donald Trump’s mass deportation plan after his “border czar” said there were insufficient funds for the operation.

A 10-hour marathon session – dubbed a “vote-a-rama” – concluded in the early hours of Friday morning with a 52-48 vote almost entirely on party lines in favor of a spending structure that would see $175bn reserved for border security, including Trump’s prized border wall with Mexico, and a $150bn boost to the Pentagon budget.

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A Bigger Cup needs a Bigger Draw. Last year Uefa set out the tournament brackets from the quarter-final onwards, showing Real Madrid which particular jails they might need to escape to win the competition for the 15th time. This year Uefa have gone one better by doing the draw for the rest of the tournament at the last-16 stage. It’s a punch up the bracket for Manchester City, who can now empathise with every failed Bullseye contestant. Look what they could have won: Atlético Madrid in the last 16, then Arsenal or PSV Eindhoven in the quarter-finals, then maybe Liverpool in the semis.

Big hitter from DR Congo has flown out to replace ill Briton against Joseph Parker for Saturday’s showdown in Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia’s attempts to seize control of boxing have been relentless but not even its massive wealth and swaggering certainty can overrule the harsh vagaries of life. Boxing is an extreme and unhinged version of real life and it is always subject to bedlam and disruption. And so, on Thursday afternoon, there was a familiarly knotty twist in the sleek Saudi plan to stage “the greatest fight card in the history of boxing” in Riyadh on Saturday night.

Daniel Dubois, fresh from his destruction of Anthony Joshua, was meant to defend his IBF world heavyweight title against Joseph Parker as the main undercard bout in a seven-fight extravaganza. It carried the promise of an intriguing and dangerous contest for both men – only for Dubois to fall ill with a virus.

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The AI chatbot market has grown exponentially in recent years, with more than 1.4 billion people worldwide estimated to be using them.

While tools such as ChatGPT and customer service assistants are most prevalent, millions of people are turning to personified AI chatbots, such as Replika and My AI (Snapchat), which look to imitate human interactions. Some are using these personified chatbots for platonic or romantic companionship, while others are using them for support with managing their wellbeing and mental health.

Principles First has become a venue for anti-Maga conservatives and hopes to be a rightwing ‘exit ramp’

While Donald Trump and his acolytes take a victory lap at the Conservative Political Action Conference this week, some of the president’s staunchest right-leaning critics will convene for their own event just 10 miles away.

The Principles First summit, which will be held in Washington from Friday to Sunday, has become a venue for anti-Trump conservatives to voice their deep-seated concerns about the “Make America great again” faction of the Republican party, and the gathering has now grown in size and scope. As its organizers confront another four years of Trump’s leadership, they are stretching beyond party lines with speakers such as the billionaire Mark Cuban and Jared Polis, the Democratic governor of Colorado, to craft their vision for a new approach to US politics.

Experts warn young people should have limited use of devices and spend more time outdoors

Every hour young people spend in front of screens increases their chance of being shortsighted, researchers have found, with experts warning young children should have limited use of devices and spend more time outdoors.

Myopia is caused by having an over elongated eyeball and is a growing problem, with research suggesting about 40% of children and adolescents worldwide could have the condition by 2050.

A smooth and chocolatey take on an old fashioned, with a hit of white port and smidgeon of blueberry for good measure

This is a riff on the Rob Roy, the 19th-century cocktail consisting of scotch, sweet vermouth and bitters. To bring a more approachable edge to the drink, we’ve added blueberry and chocolate flavours, which bring out the dried fruit, citrus and vanilla notes in the whisky.

Michelangelo Marino, bar manager, Cahoots Postal Office, London SE1

M23 rebels have made gains in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, seizing the cities of Goma and Bukavu, stoking fears of a regional conflagration

• Chief executive Omar Berrada’s warning email leaked
• Club to talk to staff about changes in meeting on Monday

Manchester United employees have been warned that they are committing “gross misconduct” if they leak confidential information by the chief executive, Omar Berrada, with staff potentially losing their jobs if found guilty of doing so.

Berrada sent an email, which has been seen by the Guardian, to all staff on Monday and indicated the club has launched an investigation into leaks.

His capitulation to Putin over Ukraine reveals a pattern. He’s the patsy: giving everything away, getting little in return

He parades as a strongman, but in fact he’s weak, weak, weak. In the face of America’s adversaries Donald Trump is, as he might put it, a patsy, a sucker, a pushover. He folds like a pack of cards. He’s a human doormat. A loser.

Just consider the gifts he has handed Vladimir Putin this week. He has brought Russia in from the diplomatic cold after three years of ostracism following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, whose anniversary is nearly upon us. Sergei Lavrov, Putin’s foreign minister, was meant to be persona non grata; he remains under international sanctions. Nevertheless, this week in Riyadh he met Trump’s secretary of state, Marco Rubio, in so-called peace talks.

Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist

A toffeeish, caramel cream delight all wrapped up in buttery flaky pastry

Whenever I think of sweet galettes, my mind usually goes towards something fruity and jammy. However, I’ve decided to break the rules and go in a different direction with a nutty, buttery filling that feels reminiscent of a florentine. I think these fit the bill for a good Sunday lunch pudding, too. Serve warm and still a little gooey with some cold cream.

The singer castigated record labels in her Grammys speech – but, as music industry insiders explain, issues around artist health and support run even deeper

At this year’s Grammys, as she accepted the award for best new artist, Chappell Roan made an appeal to the labels and industry reps in the audience to “offer a liveable wage and healthcare, especially to developing artists” – and in so doing, heated up long-simmering tensions in the music industry over artists’ wellbeing and remuneration.

Roan said that after she was dropped by Atlantic Records, a subsidiary of Warner, in the 2010s, she had little real-world job experience and “could not afford health insurance”. She added that “it was devastating to … feel so betrayed by the system”. She is now signed to Island, a subsidiary of Universal Music Group (UMG), and her speech seemed to be addressed specifically to major labels, whose profits have soared in recent years even as revenue for artists has gone down.

After the Austalian soap’s previous false ending, it’s almost impossible to imagine it getting a second starry finale – or it finding a new home. This time, its farewell needs to stick

It’s always sad to write an obituary, especially so when it’s for the second time. Neighbours, the Australian soap opera that made stars of everyone from Kylie Minogue to a man who will forever be known as Toadfish, is five months away from death. Again.

Yesterday, the show announced that Amazon, the company that resuscitated Neighbours two years ago after its dramatic 2022 finale, would be bringing production to an end. In July, filming will cease. In December, the final episode will be shown. True, there is the possibility that another buyer will leap in and save it, but that is looking more and more unlikely. After all, as the saying goes, you can’t make a zombie out of a zombie.

It’s very rare that one individual is wholly responsible for the difficulties in a relationship. Perhaps you should go to counselling alone, where you can be heard

• Every week Annalisa Barbieri addresses a problem sent in by a reader

I am 60 and I’ve been in a long-term relationship with my partner for more than 20 years. We have been extremely unhappy for a number of years.

Our relationship has frequent conflicts over small things. When we disagree on something, I am blamed for my stubbornness or lack of empathy. Innocuous exchanges can turn into confrontations that end frequently with my partner blaming my behaviour. I have been described as moody, insensitive, immature and condescending.

007 stars offer mixed reactions to deal with the British-American heirs to the film producer Albert ‘Cubby’ Broccoli

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Amazon has paid more than $1bn for “creative control” of the James Bond franchise, the Guardian understands, in a deal that has met with a mixed response from stars of the films.

Amazon MGM Studios said on Thursday that it had struck a deal with Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson, the British-American heirs to the film producer Albert “Cubby” Broccoli and longtime stewards of the Bond films.

Ministry of Defence says lessons learned from death will make military safer, but victims and families say they have heard it all before

A soldier left suicidal after complaints about a senior officer were ignored. Two women told they needed to grow up or their heads would be banged together after they complained about sexual harassment by their major. A servicewoman raped and left with post-traumatic stress disorder while her attacker was given a slap on the wrist.

Online army forums have been flooded this week with testimonies of abuse – and the military’s failure to tackle it – sparked by the inquest into the death of 19-year-old gunner Jaysley Beck. The head of the army, Gen Sir Roly Walker, has expressed his disgust and suggested senior ranks may even be “actively complicit” in abusive behaviour. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has promised that lessons will be learned.

With one of the film industry’s most lucrative franchises signed over to Amazon MGM, 007 could be facing down the barrel of spin-offs, quasi-crowdsourcing and a cinematic universe to rival Marvel

The ink could hardly have dried on the contract between Amazon MGM and Eon Productions, the legendary Bond film company run by Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson, before Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos put up a social media post that went to the heart of the conundrum faced by one of the film industry’s most lucrative franchises: “Who’d you pick as the next Bond?”

The reality underlying Broccoli and Wilson’s decision to cede control to Amazon, the company that has since 2021 been responsible for co-producing Bond films after its purchase of MGM, is that since it became apparent that Daniel Craig wanted to leave the role, the franchise has been struck by a kind of creative paralysis. We are used to increasingly long gaps between their release, but with no new lead actor in sight, Bond 26 has still not even reached the starting gate. Eon kept the quest for a new Bond behind completely closed doors, like a sort of state secret, but Bezos’s first act has been to throw the gates open, with an Elon Musk-esque act of quasi-crowdsourcing. It may be just a PR-grabbing gesture, but it demonstrates that Amazon is planning to do things differently from now on.

Launched in an era when voyeurism reigned supreme, The Sims was both a curious pleasure and a Lynchian oddity. A new program in Melbourne celebrates its legacy

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“Who would you put in your pool these days?” asks my friend while we stand in a giant lime-green dollhouse. We’re at Acmi’s celebration of The Sims’ 25th birthday, inside a Y2K-inspired pop-up styled by the interior designer influencers and diehard Simmers Josh and Matt. There are a couple of blocky PCs where people can play the original Sims. There is also a grim reaper and a llama wandering around.

The pool question makes a lot of sense to anyone who has ever spent hours on the blockbuster game. Any dedicated player knows the terrifying death by drowning that awaits their Sim if they take away the pool ladder.

Israel, seemingly with the US president’s blessing, has kept troops inside Lebanon. Renewed conflict with Hezbollah is looming

As global attention remains focused on the hostage-prisoner swaps between Hamas and Israel, another ceasefire in the region hangs in the balance.

The 14-month war between Israel and Hezbollah, a Shia Muslim militia which has been the most dominant political faction in Lebanon for the past two decades, was paused by a US-brokered ceasefire in late November. The agreement also paved the way to end years of political deadlock in Beirut. Lebanon has formed a new government, and finally has leaders chosen for their promises to carry out reforms, rather than their sectarian affiliations – but the future of the ceasefire deal has left them facing an immediate crisis.

Mohamad Bazzi is director of the Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies, and a journalism professor at New York University

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Six players with minimal international experience are at the tournament in Pakistan and can expect to play a role

Fewer than three months have passed since Australia’s Test team was seen to be in crisis as an ageing side that had shoehorned in a first debutant in almost two years was dismantled by India in Perth. A dramatic turnaround for a 3-1 series victory, followed by a clean sweep in Sri Lanka, went a long way to justifying selectors’ steadfast faith in the proven performers. Presenting baggy greens to five debutants across seven matches was an added bonus while suggesting the selectors might have had a much grander plan in mind all along.

Planning around Australia’s white-ball sides has been much more haphazard. Opportunities have been handed out to emerging talents and second-stringers while frontliners have been on personal or parental leave, injured, or simply rested with eyes on bigger, more lucrative prizes. In the past 18 months alone, Australia blooded enough ODI players to fill a full XI. The hope seemed to be that a handful of them would not only stick to the international white-ball squads, but eventually push their Test credentials too. The broad brush approach now looks like a masterstroke, after Australia’s initial Champions Trophy squad was decimated by a raft of withdrawals and injuries, leaving six of the debutants during that recent period to take the reins on a global stage.

Exclusive: Mustafa Hajj-Obeid, who left Australia in 2015, is being held in Panorama prison, a detention centre for accused IS members run by the SDF

An Australian member of Islamic State who was wounded in the extremist group’s final battle and whose fate was not publicly known has been discovered alive and in custody in a prison in north-eastern Syria.

Mustafa Hajj-Obeid, 41, who is one of a cohort of accused IS members whose Australian citizenship was stripped and then restored in 2022 after a legal challenge, has been reported as missing for the past six years since the military defeat of IS.

Winnings as yet unclaimed by thieves in Toulouse who bought scratchcard amid legal debate over who gets payout

Two homeless men who bought a winning lottery scratchcard with a stolen credit card have been offered a potentially lifechanging deal by their victim: a share of the €500,000 jackpot if they can produce the ticket.

The situation has left legal experts scratching their heads over who is the rightful owner of the so far unclaimed winnings: the person who bought the scratchcard, or the person who paid for it? And will the lottery operator pay out?

• Arsenal get PSV and Aston Villa play Club Brugge
• Europa League: Spurs v AZ, Man Utd v Real Sociedad
• Rangers face Fenerbahce; Chelsea draw Copenhagen

Liverpool will face Paris Saint-­Germain in a Champions League last-16 tie that provides a significant hurdle in their attempt to lift the trophy for the first time since 2019.

It is the toughest-looking assignment of those given to the ­Premier League’s three representatives. Arsenal will fancy their chances of overcoming PSV Eindhoven over two legs, while Aston Villa will be favoured to navigate a rematch with the surprise package in Club Brugge for a place in the quarter-finals. The standout tie by some distance, though, is a Madrid derby between age-old rivals Real and Atlético.

Fears that cuts will ‘decimate’ ability to react to crises as sector loses expertise and skills at every level, report finds

Some of the world’s largest aid organisations are axing thousands of jobs as a result of US president Donald Trump’s freeze on overseas aid, potentially “decimating” the sector’s ability to react to future crises.

Those that have already announced job cuts include the International Rescue Committee, Danish Refugee Council, Norwegian Refugee Council and war zone-focused Norwegian People’s Aid.

Trump can try to co-opt hockey. But Thursday showed that wherever where you’re from, when you step onto the ice, something about you will always be Canadian

• Canada beat US 3-2 on McDavid’s winner in overtime
• Canadian anthem singer alters lyric in Trump protest
• In pictures: Canada top US amid geopolitical tensions

In a clip from ESPN sports talkshow Get Up that went viral last week, former National Hockey League player PK Subban weighed in on the differences between the culture in the NHL and NBA. Usually, comparing the two is a game of numbers: revenue, viewers, salaries, that kind of thing. But over the past 10 days, passion has emerged as a differentiator. “You can step on to an NBA floor and go through the motions,” Subban said on ESPN. “You can’t do that in hockey – you can’t. Like, the culture of our sport, you have to play it with passion. You have to be willing to fight. You have to be willing to leave it on the ice. That’s what fans are investing in.”

That investment has paid off most recently with the 4 Nations Face-off tournament, which wrapped up on Thursday night in Boston. The thrilling final between Canada and the US was a rematch of last Saturday’s marquee round-robin clash, a contest marked by three fights in the opening nine seconds. The rest of the game was pretty good, too, ending with a US win. On Thursday, the tables turned. It was Canada that scored first – again – and last. Canada won the game narrowly 3-2, after the US left Connor McDavid, the best player on the planet, open in the slot in sudden-death overtime. He made no mistake.

US president also accuses Kyiv of talking ‘tough’ but having few bargaining chips in latest remarks in feud with Ukrainian president Zelenskyy

National security adviser Mike Waltz told a crowd of Donald Trump loyalists that he believes the president will receive the Nobel peace prize.

“This is the presidency of peace. He’s going to end the war in Europe. He is going to end the wars in the Middle East. He is going to reinvest the United States and our leadership in our own hemisphere, from the Arctic to the border to Panama all the way down to our good friends in Argentina,” Waltz told the Conservative Political Action Conference.

The pause comes after CNN reported on Wednesday that the mass terminations, which could affect over 50,000 civilian employees across the Pentagon, could run afoul of Title 10 section 129a of the US code. Following that report, Pentagon lawyers began reviewing the legality of the planned terminations more closely, the officials said.

That law says that the secretary of defense “may not reduce the civilian workforce programmed full-time equivalent levels unless the Secretary conducts an appropriate analysis” of how those firings could impact the US military’s lethality and readiness. The law also says that mitigating risk to US military readiness takes precedence over cost.

From being told she couldn’t act to winning an Oscar, the Hollywood star has had a wild life. She talks old flames, being tucked up in bed for her new Agatha Christie mystery, and why she’s happiest when surrounded by donkeys

Given that Lady Tressilian rarely leaves her boudoir, it was an enjoyable role. “I was very happily in bed, one of my favourite places, generally,” says Anjelica Huston, of the regal aristo she plays in the new BBC adaptation of the 1944 Agatha Christie mystery Towards Zero. Despite the fact she is mostly horizontal, occasionally at a chair by the window and peering through a telescope at the Devon bay beyond, Tressilian is a domineering character, presiding over the younger relations she has assembled at her seaside home and making her displeasure known at their various life choices. There will, of course, be murders.

Huston was reminded of the older women she had known from her childhood in Ireland, “mostly on the hunting field, but occasionally in their bedrooms. They were very dignified and gracious, and they ran life with a rod of steel. They were very brave and had big reputations. The men were always a bit in the background.” Tressilian’s bell rings, and everyone from servants to her relations and lawyer (he’s there on the thorny matter of her will), is commanded to attention. “It’s a great way to presage a character, an inbuilt warning,” says Huston.

Ukrainians inside the country and abroad express their hopelessness, anger and defiance at negotiations between Washington and Moscow

• Europe live – latest updates

“I don’t think that this ‘peace process’ is for Ukrainians’ sake. It is laughable that they pretend it is,” said Iryna, 26, a lawyer from Kyiv.

Iryna was among thousands of Ukrainians who got in touch with the Guardian to share how they felt about the Trump administration-led peace talks with Russia, which exclude Ukraine.

Emilli Beck says army failed to protect her sibling and she would not advise other young women to enlist

The older sister of Gnr Jaysley Beck, the 19-year-old soldier who killed herself after allegedly being sexually assaulted and harassed, has said the army has “blood on its hands” and claimed her sibling would still be alive if the abuse she suffered had been properly investigated.

Speaking to the Guardian, Emilli Beck, 25, said the army had swept Jaysley’s case under the carpet rather than protecting her, and said she would not advise any young woman to join the service.

Julia Wandel allegedly sent letters, calls, WhatsApps and visited family of missing girl

A woman who claimed to be Madeleine McCann has been remanded in custody after being charged with stalking the missing girl’s family by allegedly turning up at their home and contacting them repeatedly.

Julia Wandel, also known as Julia Wandelt, was arrested at Bristol airport on Wednesday and appeared in Leicester magistrates court on Friday.

A 30-acre construction lab is helping reshape Colombia’s architecture with ancestral knowledge and direct ecological action. We head inside their smoking doughnut

A curious doughnut-shaped structure rises from an overgrown field on the outskirts of Tenjo, a rural town in central Colombia. It looks like a thatched UFO. Bamboo lattice walls curve up from the ground to form its bulging shell, tapering to a central chimney where wisps of smoke waft into the sky. Through the mesh walls, it is possible to make out bodies dancing in a circle around a fire, to the sound of drumming and chanting.

“As architects, we need to unlearn everything we have been taught,” says Ana María Gutiérrez, standing outside this momentous structure in muddy overalls, boots and a broad-brimmed black hat. “Our idea of progress is completely based on colonialist, extractivist practices. People talk about sustainability, but what exactly are we sustaining?”

The woven doughnut, Gutiérrez explains, is The House of Thought – an “intercultural temple” at the heart of her Centre for Regeneration. This is a 30-acre outdoor laboratory for indigenous construction techniques that she’s been building for 16 years. It is a place scattered with experiments, from structures that look like coil pots, to little domed houses built from sandbags. Some of the cavorting bodies inside the thatched temple belong to architects, who have come here for the day to cleanse themselves of their desk jobs, and get their hands dirty in workshops focusing on earth construction, ecological restoration, biodynamic agriculture and the healing properties of medicinal plants. Some are busy making bricks from troughs of mud.