Our players are ready to come out. This is going to be special.
I keep saying it, but it bears repetition: we’re at the start of a golden age in women’s tennis. Sabalenka, Rybakina, Gauff, Swiatek and Osaka at their peaks, Anisimova coming, Andreeva getting there, then Mboko, Baptiste and Jovic on the match; ooooh yeah.
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Good morning and welcome to Sunday’s matchday live. Decent day in the Barclays yesterday wasn’t it? Goals aplenty. Let’s hope for more of the same today. We’ll be building up to four fixtures in the Premier League, five in the WSL and a Women’s Champions Cup double-header at Emirates Stadium, where Arsenal will be going for the inaugural title in the final.
Before we get to that, let’s have a quick look back at yesterday’s headlines…
Saturday’s home defeat leaves Rovers in relegation trouble amid pitch problems and fan anger with Venky’s
For Blackburn managers of the recent past, this has been the cruellest month. Jon Dahl Tomasson and John Eustace left the club in February 2024 and 2025 respectively when they became disconnected from the club’s unpopular owners, Venky’s. The problem for the current manager, Valérien Ismaël, is that fans are growing increasingly anxious for another change in the dugout as the cycle repeats itself. It has been another winter of discontent at Ewood Park.
After finishing seventh last season thanks to a late season surge under Ismaël, there will be no push for the top six this time. A scrappy defeat by Hull via Lewis Koumas’s 81st-minute winner made it one win in 15 games in all competitions, Rovers now mired in the relegation zone and the prospect of dropping to League One is alarmingly real with a three-point gap to West Brom in the last safe position.
About 20 countries including G7 states in talks on rare earths including calls for US to guarantee minimum price
Ministers from the US, EU, UK, Japan, Australia and New Zealand will meet in Washington this week to discuss a strategic alliance over critical minerals.
The summit is being seen as a step to repair transatlantic ties fractured by a year of conflict with Donald Trump and pave the way for other alliances to help countries de-risk from China, including one centred on steel.
In the final part of this series, we look at how infighting has ripped the left apart online while the right has flourished – and how some progressives are turning the tide
Robert Topinka is a reader in digital media and rhetoric at Birkbeck, University of London
There is politics before the internet, and politics after the internet. Liberals are floundering, the right are flourishing, and what of the left? Well, it’s in a dire state. This is despite the fact that the key political problems of the last decade – rising inequality and a cost of living crisis – are problems leftists claim they can solve. The trouble is, reactionaries and rightwingers steal their thunder online, quickly spreading messaging that blames scapegoats for structural problems. One reason for this is that platforms originally built to connect us with friends and followers now funnel us content designed to provoke emotional engagement.
Back when Twitter was still the “town square” and Facebook a humble “social network”, progressives had an advantage: from the Arab spring to Occupy Wall Street, voices excluded from mainstream media and politics could leverage online social networks and turn them into real-life ones, which at their most potent became street-level protests that toppled regimes and held capitalism to account. It seemed as though the scattered masses would become a networked collective empowered to rise up against the powerful.
Robert Topinka is a reader in digital media and rhetoric at Birkbeck, University of London
Five years after the junta’s coup, the civil war devastating Myanmar has reached a turning point. The military is carrying out large-scale counter-offensives across the country to reclaim territory seized by pro-democracy rebels of various ethnic and religious backgrounds
In Tanintharyi, the southernmost region of Myanmar, the local resistance has managed to contain the military. After five years of guerrilla warfare, the revolutionary youth there remain determined to restore democracy through armed struggle.
A long, narrow stretch of land at the southern tip of Myanmar, between the Andaman Sea to the west and Thailand to the east, Tanintharyi region is one of the areas where the resistance challenges the military’s authority. For decades, the region has been home to an armed rebellion led by the Karen ethnic minority, which operated mainly in the peripheral mountains.
Soldiers from the Karen National Union (KNU) inspect the ruins of a Buddhist monastery destroyed by a junta airstrike in Myeik district, Tanintharyi region
Pressure mounts after government said it would publish names of those killed during recent unrest
Calls are growing inside Iran for an independent inquiry into the number of people killed during recent protests after the government said it would oversee the publication of the names of the deceased.
The highly unusual government move, announced on Thursday, is designed to head off claims that crimes against humanity have been committed and that as many as 30,000 Iranians have been killed. Iran’s official death toll released by the Martyr’s Foundation is 3,117, including members of the security services.
Late singer said kids loved his personality and wanted to touch and hug him, and ‘sometimes it got me into trouble’
As Michael Jackson saw it, children would become enamored with his personality as well as want to touch and hug him – and “sometimes it [got] me into trouble,” the late US pop superstar says in previously unheard audio recordings contained in a new documentary.
The UK’s Wonderhood Studios included the recordings of Jackson voicing those thoughts for a new four-episode documentary series beginning on Wednesday that explores his acquittal on child sexual abuse charges after a 14-week criminal trial near Los Angeles in 2005.
From a bioluminescent nightime sea to rare wildlife, natural wonders are on tap in the Gothenburg archipelago
Out on the water, paddling across the straits between two small rocky islands, the dusk fades and the stars appear. Jennie has done her best to coach me in local geography before darkness, showing me the map with its patchwork of islands and bays, and describing the shape of each landmark. All to no avail. I’m more than happy to be lost at sea, leaning back in my kayak to gaze at the constellations, occasionally checking that the red light on the stern of her kayak is still visible ahead. We stop in the sheltered lee of an island and hear a hoot. “Eurasian eagle owl,” says Jennie. “They nest here.” Then she switches off all the lights. “Let’s paddle slowly close to shore. Watch what happens.”
As soon as we move, the sea flickers into life, every paddle stroke triggering thrilling trails of cold, blue sparkles. When we stop, I slap my hand on the surface and the sea is momentarily electrified into a nebulous neural network of light, like some great salty brain figuring out this alien intrusion. Below that, squadrons of jellyfish pulse their own spectral contribution.
Stevenson beats López to become four-weight champion
Unanimous 119-109 cards underline one-sided bout result
Newark southpaw controls tempo, distance all night long
Shakur Stevenson delivered the most complete performance of his career on Saturday night, outmaneuvering, outthinking and ultimately outclassing Teófimo López over 12 rounds to claim the WBO and lineal junior welterweight titles at Madison Square Garden and further cement his standing among boxing’s elite.
Stevenson won a unanimous decision by identical scores of 119-109, 119-109 and 119-109, numbers that reflected a fight largely contested on his terms from the opening bell. (The Guardian had it 118-110.)
Brandon Johnson gives police ‘clear procedure’ to follow if they witness or get reports of agents involved in illegal activity
Chicago’s mayor Brandon Johnson has ordered Chicago police to investigate and document alleged illegal activity by federal immigration (ICE) agents in the city, a move that will escalate tensions over jurisdiction between local and federal authorities.
The executive order, titled ICE on Notice, gives Chicago police “clear procedure” to follow if they witness or receive reports of ICE agents involved in illegal activity and refer evidence of potential violations to city prosecutors.
Whether in streets draped in anti-drone nets or deep in urban basements, Kherson residents go about their everyday activities with the constant threat of Russian bombing
Galyna Lutsenko, a crisis psychologist, is moving busily among a small group of children seated around a table in a basement in Kherson, unique in being Ukraine’s only leading city almost directly on the frontline with Russian forces – and one where people live with the daily threat of attack.
She dangles a plasticine butterfly on a thread over a playhouse on the table. Her own house in the city, she says, was hit by Russian shelling in 2024, injuring her in the leg and stomach.
She’s gone from ‘queen of the soaps’ to Loose Woman known for her outspoken opinions and rockstar son Matty Healy. Now sober, she is enjoying another reinvention
Denise Welch doesn’t seem the kind of woman who would turn up with an entourage. But here she is having her hair primped in a makeshift changing room by two people. One tickling her fringe, the other tweaking her tufts. Blimey, I say, have you got two assistants? She grins. “No. There are three.” And now it turns out she’s got a fourth. I offer to make her a cup of coffee. She warns me she’s fussy. “Three teaspoons of Coffee-Mate, please.”
Welch is having a moment. She calls it, with a fabulously camp flourish, her renaissance. The actor and Loose Women regular has hardly been invisible in recent years. But this is on another level. For most of the 2000s, she has been best known for dishing out blithe opinions about anything and everything, and being the mother of the 1975’s frontman, Matty Healy. Now, though, it’s the acting that’s getting the attention. Earlier this month, she returned to the drama series Waterloo Road as the hopeless French teacher Steph Haydock after a 15‑year absence. This time around, she’s a supply teacher and is even more hopeless. Welch has also got parts in the new Russell T Davies drama series Tip Toe, the Josh Pugh sitcom Stepping Up, both on Channel 4, and the adaptation of Graham Norton’s novel Forever Home.
You’re already doing all the right things for your premenstrual dysphoric disorder, but perhaps it’s time to ask others for more help
I’m 32, andwas recently diagnosed with premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD), though I suspect I have had it for around five years.It severely affects every area of my life.
For 10 days every monthI become irritable and impatient, and have debilitating brain fog. At my worst, I am depressed, with uncontrollable crying and suicidal ideation. I go to weekly therapy sessions, take a variety of supplements, and live a healthy lifestyle – exercise, minimal alcohol, eating well, etc, but all these habits become almost impossible during my luteal phase after ovulation and I feel as though I am completely stuck.
The Doomsday Clock is ticking ever more loudly as arms-control mechanisms fail and leaders become more reckless. The time to be alarmed is now
Keir Starmer’s tentative pivot to the Dragon Throne has played well in Beijing, though not in Trumpland. That’s partly because, like other needy western leaders, Britain’s prime minister did not dwell on awkward subjects such as human rights abuses, the Jimmy Lai travesty, spying and Taiwan. But in talks with President Xi Jinping, one vital issue was avoided altogether and should not have been: China’s dangerous, unexplained, secretive and rapid buildup of nuclear weapons.
More than the climate crisis, global hunger, Kaiser Trump’s Prussian militarism and the ever prevalent threat of pandemic disease, the uncontrolled proliferation of weapons of mass destruction is the most immediate, existential threat to humanity. Last week, the Doomsday Clock advanced to 85 seconds to midnight – closer to Armageddon than ever before. “Nuclear and other global risks are escalating fast and in unprecedented ways,” warned the clock-watchers, via the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.
Plaintiffs in case say they were lured from Japan, exploited for labour and cut off from families for generations
It has been more than six decades since Eiko Kawasaki left Japan to begin a new life in North Korea. Then 17, she was among tens of thousands of people with Korean heritage who had been lured to the communist state by the promise of a “paradise on Earth”.
Instead, they encountered something closer to a living hell. They were denied basic human rights and forced to endure extreme hardship. Official promises of free education and healthcare plus guaranteed jobs and housing had been a cruel mirage. And to their horror, they were prevented from travelling to Japan to visit the families they had left behind.
Same judge previously ordered pair not removed from US, after preschooler detained with father on 20 January
A US judge has ordered the release of a five-year-old boy and his father from a Texas detention center by Tuesday after they were taken into custody by immigration agents in Minneapolis earlier this month.
Liam Conejo Ramos, an Ecuadorian boy, was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in Minneapolis on 20 January after returning from school with his father. Images of the Minnesota preschooler wearing a bunny hat and a plaid coat went viral online, sparking outrage across the country after claims that the child, who was on the driveway of his home during the arrest, was used as bait to try to arrest his mother inside the house.
Alfredo Mancillas was reportedly slumped in vehicle and ‘covered in vomit’ when state troopers found him in St Paul
A US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) employee was recently arrested amid the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota after state troopers reportedly found him “covered in vomit” and unconscious in a car.
Alfredo Mancillas Jr, 31, faces charges of drunken driving after his arrest early Tuesday morning, jail records show.
Jarrell “Big Baby” Miller was involved in one of the more unusual moments in recent boxing history on Saturday night when his hairpiece was dislodged during his heavyweight victory over Kingsley Ibeh on the undercard of the Teófimo López–Shakur Stevenson card at Madison Square Garden.
The incident occurred late in the second round as Ibeh landed a flurry of punches along the ropes. One shot snapped Miller’s head backward and caused his hairpiece to lift from the front, briefly exposing a large bald patch before the wig folded backward. The sequence drew gasps and laughter from the crowd.
Steve Witkoff encouraged ‘that Russia is working toward securing peace’ as Ukraine president looks to meetings ‘next week’. What we know on day 1,439
The US envoy Steve Witkoff has said he held constructive talks with a Russian envoy in Florida as part of Washington’s drive to end the war in Ukraine. The meeting on Saturday came just a day before Ukrainian and Russian negotiators were scheduled to meet in Abu Dhabi to discuss a US-backed plan to halt the conflict.
“Today in Florida, the Russian Special Envoy Kirill Dmitriev held productive and constructive meetings as part of the US mediation effort toward advancing a peaceful resolution of the Ukrainian conflict,” Witkoff posted on X. “We are encouraged by this meeting that Russia is working toward securing peace in Ukraine.” He said the US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and White House senior adviser Josh Gruenbaum also attended the talks. Neither side released details of what was discussed.
The second round of peace talks in Abu Dhabi were set to start on Sunday, even if the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, suggested earlier this week that it might be postponed because of the US-Iran crisis. Zelensky said in his evening address on Saturday his negotiators were also waiting to hear from the US on further meetings. “Ukraine is ready to work in all working formats,” Zelenskyy said. “It is important that there are results and that the meetings take place. We are counting on meetings next week and are preparing for them.”
Teams from Ukraine and Russia met last week in Abu Dhabi in their first in-person negotiations on a plan being pushed by Trump. The US says both sides are close to a deal, but they have so far been unable to find a compromise on the key issue of territory in a postwar settlement, according to Kyiv.
An overnight Russian strike in the central Ukrainian region of Dnipropetrovsk killed two people, authorities said on Sunday. A man and a woman in the city of Dnipro “died due to an enemy UAV strike”, Oleksandr Ganzha, the head of the regional military administration, said in a statement posted on Telegram. Ganzha said the drone caused a fire, destroyed a house and caused damage to two more residences and a car.
Emergency power cuts swept across several Ukrainian cities and neighbouring Moldova on Saturday, officials said, amid a commitment from Russia to pause strikes on Kyiv as Ukraine battles one of its bleakest winters in years. Donald Trump on Thursday claimed Vladimir Putin had agreed to halt strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure for a week. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov confirmed that Trump “made a personal request” to Putin to stop targeting Kyiv until Sunday “in order to create favourable conditions for negotiations”. In a post on social media, Zelenskyy noted Russia has turned its attention to targeting Ukrainian logistics networks.
Ukraine’s energy minister, Denys Shmyhal, said that the outages on Saturday had been caused by a technical malfunction affecting power lines linking Ukraine and Moldova. The failure “caused a cascading outage in Ukraine’s power grid”, triggering automatic protection systems, he said. Blackouts were reported in Kyiv, as well as Zhytomyr and Kharkiv regions, in the centre and north-east of the country respectively.
The outage cut water supplies to the Ukrainian capital, officials said, while the city’s subway system was temporarily suspended because of low voltage on the network. The state emergency service said its teams led 500 stranded passengers out of metro stations.
Moldova also experienced major power outages, including in the capital Chisinau, officials said. “Due to the loss of power lines on the territory of Ukraine, the automatic protection system was triggered, which disconnected the electricity supply,” Moldova’s energy minister Dorin Junghietu said in a post on Facebook. “I encourage the population to stay calm until electricity is restored.”
The large-scale outage followed weeks of Russian strikes against Ukraine’s already struggling energy grid, which have triggered long stretches of severe power shortages. Moscow has sought to deny Ukrainian civilians heat, light and running water over the course of the war, in a strategy that Ukrainian officials describe as “weaponising winter”.
Forecasters say Ukraine will experience a brutally cold period stretching into next week. Temperatures in some areas will drop to -30C, authorities said.
Premiering his new Loop tour in Australia, the crowd-pleasing British singer-songwriter navigates a few teething issues in an otherwise assured stadium outing
Before Ed Sheeran sets foot on stage, his origin story is already rolling. A pre-recorded video looms across the giant screen, as he narrates his own ascent: “I just pushed and pushed. I was so focused on seeing how far I could take being an acoustic singer-songwriter from Suffolk.”
Then the screen cuts. A hidden platform rises from the centre of the audience and Sheeran appears, charging into his 2011 track You Need Me, I Don’t Need You.
Military says ‘terrorists’ carried out attacks in Balochistan province in what analysts described it as the deadliest day for militants in decades
Pakistan’s military said on Saturday that multiple suicide and gun attacks by “terrorists” across the restive south-western province of Balochistan killed 33 people, including civilians, while security forces responding to the violence killed 92 assailants.
Analysts described it as the deadliest single day for militants in decades.
Less than two weeks before convicted abuser was found dead, lawyers met with Manhattan federal prosecutors
Less than two weeks before Jeffrey Epstein’s death in jail, his lawyers and Manhattan federal prosecutors met and discussed his potential cooperation, several documents within a cache of newly released investigative files state.
“On July 29, 2019, FBI and [prosecutors] met with Epstein’s attorneys, who, in very general terms, discussed the possibility of a resolution of the case, and the possibility of the defendant’s cooperation,” an FBI document titled “Epstein Investigation Summary & Timeline” statement.
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