Susan Hayes and Craig got to know each other through an online game. When they finally met in person, it felt like a real-life romance novel

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When 2023 rolled around, I was ready for a change. I’d spent the Covid years locked down in Victoria, Canada. I had quit my day job at the end of 2019 to write full-time and travel, only for the world to shut down.

During those long, lonely years, I kept myself distracted by playing an online game. Nothing fancy, just a phone game about surviving a zombie apocalypse. It was a bit of fun and a way to connect with people from around the world. One of those people was a fellow named Craig.

The rules-based global order is rapidly disintegrating. It’s time for middle powers to stand together

The French president Emmanuel Macron borrowed some lines from Hugh Grant about bullies at the World Economic Forum in Davos. His target was Donald Trump, who had leaked a conciliatory text message from Macron who, evidently, was trying to get the US president to the table to shore up the rapidly disintegrating global order.

In the love-it-or-hate-it Christmas film, Love Actually, Grant – playing the foppish British prime minister of the day – confronts the US president, saying: “A friend who bullies us is no longer a friend, and since bullies only respond to strength, from now onward, I will be prepared to be much stronger.”

Zoe Daniel is a three-time ABC foreign correspondent and the former independent member for Goldstein. She is the chair of Mental Health Victoria

• Trump tells New York Post he will skip Super Bowl

• NFL stands by Bad Bunny amid rightwing backlash

Donald Trump said he will not attend next month’s Super Bowl in northern California, citing the distance to the game, amid an ongoing culture-war backlash over the NFL’s choice of half-time and pre-game performers.

Trump told the New York Post he plans to skip the 8 February championship game at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara because the trip is “just too far away”, adding that he would have considered attending if it were a shorter flight. The decision means Trump will not repeat his appearance at last year’s Super Bowl in New Orleans, where he became the first sitting US president to attend the NFL’s showcase event.

Extreme heat wreaked havoc on Saturday’s schedule but tennis has changed its ways of dealing with extreme heat

Even before the first set and first hour of his match elapsed, Tomas Machac had asked the umpire for the tournament doctor, trainer and pickle juice, the drink du jour for tackling cramps. Those preventive measures taken in the intense early stages of his third-round tussle with Lorenzo Musetti proved to be sensible, for the pair would spend a brutal four hours, 25 minutes on court.

Four hours of that took place inside an open John Cain Arena, a furnace in suffocating heat. “We knew today was going to be really, really hot,” Musetti said. “I think I managed well to finish the match without cramping.”

After Pep Guardiola dropped Erling Haaland and Phil Foden, Manchester City enjoyed a first Premier League win in four games. It handed Wolves a first defeat in six and was notable for the referee, Farai Hallam, on his top-flight debut, daring to stick with his decision not to award a penalty after being sent by video assistant referee for a pitchside review.

That was for a Yerson Mosquera handball and it infuriated Guardiola, though after City’s dire recent form a first three points since 27 December is what matters. The manager reiterated a long-held belief that City can receive unfair officiating and pointed to his 11 injured players as being needed to mitigate against this.

Winter storm system brings emergency declarations as snow and ice create unsafe driving conditions and power shortages

The severe cold weather has created unsafe driving conditions on many roads throughout the midwest and southern US today. Sheets of ice are currently coating several streets and highways, causing increasing risk to drivers.

Even after the ice has been cleared away, it often quickly comes back due to precipitation and freezing temperatures. Officials are urging people to stay off the roads. Sgt Ellis from the Tennessee highway patrol posted a video on social media demonstrating the dangerous conditions.

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2 min: Gomez goes long down the line to Salah, who scampers after it but hooks his right-footed cross into the fans behind the goal.

Liverpool get things going in their off-white away kit. The weather is miserable.

Officials plead for calm amid ‘anger and questions around what happened’; shooting comes less than three weeks after ICE officer killed Renee Good

• Man shot by federal agents in Minneapolis has died

• ‘How many more Americans need to die?’: mayor lambastes Trump

In a statement sent to the Guardian, assistant secretary of homeland security Tricia McLaughlin said that at 9.05am local time, “as DHS law enforcement officers were conducting a targeted operation in Minneapolis” against a person they said was in the country illegally, who she said was “wanted for violent assault”, “an individual approached US Border Patrol officers with a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun.”

McLaughlin said that “the officers attempted to disarm the suspect but the armed suspect violently resisted” and that “more details on the armed struggle are forthcoming.”

• Massengo and Chaves strike late in Bavarian derby

• Como put six past Torino to go fifth in Serie A

Strugglers Augsburg scored twice in six minutes late in the second half to come from a goal down and stun hosts Bayern Munich 2-1 in the Bavarian derby on Saturday, the league leaders’ first Bundesliga loss of the season.

The hosts, fresh from securing a Champions League knockout spot with Wednesday’s 2-0 win over Union Saint-Gilloise, took a 23rd-minute lead thanks to Hiroki Ito’s header but lacked any spark upfront as Augsburg struck in the 75th and 81st minutes through Arthur Chaves and Han-Noah Massengo to earn their first win in Munich for 11 years.

This story will be updated

Thomas Frank was brought to Tottenham as the pragmatic choice so will know the logical next steps when supporters are demanding his sacking. An underserved draw, thanks to a last-minute Cristian Romero goal, leaves Spurs with two victories in 14 Premier League matches and chants from the away end of “We want Frank out”.

If the loss to West Ham resulted in crisis talks last Sunday, Frank must fear if Tottenham have their own version of a Cobra meeting, especially with the faithful angry. Micky van de Ven gave them hope of a much-needed win, but Spurs did not capitalise on the opener, allowing Burnley back into the match. Axel Tuanzebe and Lyle Foster made the pressure almost unbearable for Frank until Romero offered the briefest of respite.

Exclusive: German research into responses to health queries raises fresh questions about summaries seen by 2bn people a month

• How the ‘confident authority’ of AI Overviews is putting public health at risk

Google’s search feature AI Overviews cites YouTube more than any medical website when answering queries about health conditions, according to research that raises fresh questions about a tool seen by 2 billion people each month.

The company has said its AI summaries, which appear at the top of search results and use generative AI to answer questions from users, are “reliable” and cite reputable medical sources such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Mayo Clinic.

• 2nd ODI: Sri Lanka 219; England 223-5. Eng win by five wkts

• Root hits 75 but says pitch not ‘great wicket for ODI cricket’

It’s been a rough few years for England’s 50-over side but the glow of their World Cup victory has not completely disappeared. Joe Root and Adil Rashid, both part of the 2019 class, were the headliners of the second one-day international against Sri Lanka, setting up a five-wicket victory to level the series.

Rashid led the England attack on a serious turner, taking two for 34 as Harry Brook used 40.3 overs of spin, limiting Sri Lanka to a total of 219. It was still a proper challenge, particularly in a must-win game for the tourists, their winless run away from home in ODIs having stretched to 11 on Thursday.

Sundance film festival: As a provocative artist using sex to wield power, the actor is electric but the writer-director’s return to his campy, dayglo roots is largely underwhelming

While Sundance is traditionally focused on the importance of looking to the future of American film, a lineup filled with more first-timers than any other major festival, this year has been all about looking back. There are misty eyes over the loss of founder Robert Redford along with host state Utah and also for the many films that have premiered here over the years. Alongside more retrospective screenings than one usually expects, even the new films have a touch of old Sundance to them.

On opening day, Rachel Lambert’s small town drama Carousel conjured up memories of quiet character driven indies of the late 90s and early 00s and then, on a Friday full of packed out premieres, I Want Your Sex took us back to the era’s more in-your-face acts of provocation, made by renegade outsiders who would have otherwise struggled to find a place in the industry. It’s the new film from Gregg Araki, a film-maker who was at the forefront of this particular wave, one of Sundance’s most loved enfants terribles. He’s premiered most of his films here, from “heterosexual movie” The Doom Generation to magnum opus Mysterious Skin to all-time stoner comedy Smiley Face to 2014’s misbegotten drama White Bird in a Blizzard, his last film until now.

I Want Your Sex is screening at the Sundance film festival and is seeking distribution

Amid the tumult of the WEF in Davos this week, some investors are leading the way by ditching US government bonds

There is a way to file for divorce from Donald Trump and Europe needs to grab the opportunity.

To the public it will look as if nothing has changed. But behind the scenes the EU and the UK could close the joint bank account and cut up the credit cards, or at least set in motion a form of financial separation that limits the power of a controlling former partner.

The deadline for Trump’s justice department to release the files came and went, but experts say there are still options

For months, the 2025 news cycle was dominated by the disgraced financier and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

Public outrage over the continued secrecy surrounding Epstein investigative files – which Donald Trump failed to release fully early in his second term, despite campaign promises – was growing.

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Kevin and Alex Iwobi come into the Fulham XI. Brighton bring in Olivier Boscagli, Carlos Baleba and Yasin Ayari. It’s not clear who will start at right-back for them, possibly Pascal Gross.

Fulham (4-2-3-1) Leno; Castagne, Andersen, Cuenca, Robinson; Iwobi, Berge; Wilson, Smith Rowe, Kevin; Jimenez.

President also claimed US refineries will process seized Venezuelan oil, saying ‘we take the oil’

Donald Trump on Saturday said he would impose a 100% tariff on all Canadian imports if the North American country makes a trade deal with China.

Beside that tariff threat, another Trump foreign policy maneuver to make news on Saturday involved the president announcing the US had taken the oil that was on recently seized Venezuelan tankers.

Change being considered amid global glut driven by supplies from China along with a rise in protectionism

The UK is expected to reduce the amount of foreign steel it allows in tariff-free, as the government looks to protect its domestic industry amid a global glut and a rise in protectionism.

Ministers are considering changing the quota system that allows a quantity of the metal to be imported before imposing a 25% levy on anything above that level.

Sundance film festival: The actor is a charming presence in the otherwise overly twee and consistently unfunny tale of isolated siblings dealing with a visitor

Once upon a time, two siblings lived on an abandoned Scottish isle, isolated from the modern world and suspicious of all outsiders. The siblings, a brother and sister, believed themselves to be descended from the gulls that peppered the island’s scenic cliffs; they also believed, on some level, that they too were gulls – or, at least, they acted like it, flapping and squawking about.

Debauched fairytales like these loom large over The Incomer, Scottish writer-director Louis Paxton’s odd and aggressively quaint first feature, which asks a high conceptual buy-in of its audience. From the first shots of Isla (Gayle Rankin) and Sandy (Grant O’Rourke) caw-caw-ing like birds and beating sacks labeled “incomer” with clubs, Paxton commits to an askew, often alienating angle of humor – quirky, at times juvenile, a touch dark, altogether difficult to settle into for anyone with an aversion to twee.

The Incomer is screening at the Sundance film festival and is seeking distribution

• Shiffrin returns to GS podium weeks before Cortina

• Hector wins first giant slalom since January 2025

• Moltzan second, O’Brien fifth and Hurt eighth for US

Mikaela Shiffrin earned a place on the podium of a World Cup giant slalom for the first time in two years Saturday, finishing third in the last GS before the Milan Cortina Olympics.

The race was won by defending Olympic champion Sara Hector, who held on to her opening run lead for her first victory since January 2025.

The unfamiliar sensation coursing through West Ham is hope. Seemingly down and out after their devastating defeat to Nottingham Forest earlier this month, the prospect of Nuno Espírito Santo masterminding the unlikeliest of escapes feels far from outlandish after seeing his side treat the London Stadium to the rare sensation of a performance full of craft, desire and tactical intelligence.

Sunderland were blown away by three goals inside the first 43 minutes. They looked stunned by West Ham’s intensity and quality in attack. Jarrod Bowen was outstanding, Crysencio Summerville scored for the third time in as many games and the brilliance of Mateus Fernandes in midfield suggested that West Ham will be able to cope if they grant Lucas Paquetá his wish to join Flamengo.

The Chelsea head coach, Sonia Bompastor, conceded that the “title race is probably gone” after a Beth Mead goal and a second from Mariona Caldentey earned Arsenal a cathartic win against Chelsea. A first victory for Arsenal at Stamford Bridge, and a first away win against Chelsea in eight years, pulled them within a point of their rivals. The defending champions sit six points behind the leaders, Manchester City, who travel to London City Lionesses on Sunday.

“We know the title race is probably gone, but our mentality is to fight until the very end,” Bompastor told the BBC. “They [City] are in control and if they perform at their best it will be a difficult gap to close. My job is to make sure I lift everyone up and we take the learnings and we go into the next game ready to perform.”

Fire department was responding to report of gas odor in Bronx building when explosion occurred during frigid night

A gas explosion sent fire racing through the top floors of a high-rise apartment building in New York City early on Saturday, killing one person and injuring 14 others as temperatures plunged into the single digits overnight, authorities said.

Firefighters responded shortly before 12.30am to the 17-story New York City housing authority (Nycha) building in the Bronx, where people were seen leaning out of windows calling for help as flames engulfed parts of the top floors, officials said.

Driver was taken into custody after car crashed through airport entrance and struck Delta ticket counter

A car crashed through the entrance of Detroit’s metropolitan Wayne county airport on Friday evening, striking a ticket counter and injuring six people, airport officials said.

The driver was taken into custody, the Wayne county airport authority (WCAA) said in a statement. The cause of the crash was not yet known, and airport police were investigating.