Mandelson tried to explain as everyone from Harriet Harman to Robert Jenrick lined up to condemn him

Last week, Peter Mandelson was giving his comeback interview to the Times, scheduled to be published later this month. He posed for cosy pics with the dog as he explained how hard done by he had been and how much the country could benefit from his largesse and expertise.

Late on Sunday night, that interview was crowbarred into a hastily rearranged one to take in Mandy’s sudden resignation from the Labour party after seemingly more revelations of Peter taking money in the recently released Epstein files. Mandelson appeared to take it in his stride.

In case brought by Prince Harry and others, Daniel Portley-Hanks says he received about $1m for work for Associated Newspapers Ltd

A US-based private detective bought a large house in California and had $150,000 in savings “almost entirely” from work he did for the publisher of the Daily Mail, the high court has heard.

Daniel Portley-Hanks, also known as “Detective Danno”, said he received about $1m for work carried out for the Mail on Sunday, another title published by Associated Newspapers Ltd (ANL).

Apparent tip-off by Peter Mandelson gave advance notice of instability that would ripple through global markets

On a brisk Monday evening in May 2010, Gordon Brown stood on the steps of Downing Street and delivered one of the most dramatic announcements of the New Labour era: his resignation as UK prime minister.

The decision came days after a nail-biting general election that left no single party with a clear run at No 10. Brown kept his decision, which followed days of political wrangling, to a tight inner circle. Nick Clegg, who would go on to serve as deputy prime minister of the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition, was formally told of Brown’s resignation only 10 minutes before the announcement.

• Kirsty Coventry: ‘Keep sport a neutral ground’

• Ukraine sports minister hits out at Fifa president

The International Olympic Committee president, Kirsty Coventry, has given her clearest signal yet that Russia could be back for the 2028 Los Angeles Games.

A day after the Fifa president, Gianni Infantino, said he wanted Russia reinstated to international football, Coventry used her opening address to the 145th IOC congress in Milan to argue that all athletes should be allowed to compete in sport – regardless of their government’s behaviour.

Epstein files appear to show then business secretary passing market sensitive information to child sex offender

• UK politics live – latest updates

The Metropolitan police are to formally launch a criminal investigation into allegations that Peter Mandelson leaked Downing Street emails and market sensitive information to the child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the Guardian understands.

Documents from the Epstein files released in recent days appeared to show the then business secretary sent confidential information in a string of emails to the late financier in the aftermath of the financial crash.

The final Utah edition of the hub for American independent film saw slow sales and a mixed bag of movies but a future in Colorado could bring a refresh

Sundance is over. Well, not quite. The Sundance we all know, with Robert Redford as its head and Park City, Utah, as its location, is over. The festival’s beloved founder died last year months after the festival also opted for a move to Boulder, Colorado.

But on the alarmingly snow-light ground, there was also chatter about what would become of Sundance as a whole, once the shining beacon of American independent cinema, after it entered a new phase. There were standout films as ever but again not quite enough to override concerns over what the festival now represents in a harsh new world where it’s arguably easier to make an indie (or whatever cobbling together bits of AI slop might be called) but harder to get it sold.

Scheduling and financial impasses at Vancouver’s World Cup stadium are leading down a road the league hasn’t traveled in over a decade

On the surface, Vancouver Whitecaps CEO Axel Schuster’s press conference last week would have felt familiar to almost any North American sports fan. Once again, a team was agitating for more money or a better stadium. Once again, local governments were at least partially to blame.

Some of his comments, though, felt more alien, and raised a question that seemed unfathomable just a couple of months ago: are the Vancouver Whitecaps about to die?

David Lammy also tells MPs he will draw up legislation to stop prisoners using human rights laws to challenge tougher conditions

The most dangerous extremist prisoners in England and Wales will be held in “supermax-style units” similar to those used in US jails, David Lammy has told MPs.

The deputy prime minister also said he would consider drawing up legislation to stop prisoners from using human rights laws to challenge tougher conditions in jail.

AIs are not sentient – but tweaks to their ethical codes can have far-reaching consequences for users

Do you want an AI assistant that gushes about how it “loves humanity” or spews sarcasm? How about a political propagandist ready to lie? If so, ChatGPT, Grok and Qwen are at your disposal.

Companies that create AI assistants from the US to China are increasingly wrestling with how to mould their characters, and it is no abstract debate. This month Elon Musk’s “maximally truth-seeking” Grok AI caused international outrage when it pumped out millions of sexualised images. In October OpenAI retrained ChatGPT to de-escalate conversations with people in mental health distress after it appeared to encourage a 16-year-old to take his own life.

A raft of online videos show parents serving up dinner without a single plate in sight, to the amazement of their families

Name: Dump dinners.

Age: Horribly new.

• 3rd T20i: England, 128-9, bt Sri Lanka, 116, by 12 runs

• Bethell takes four wickets to help seal 3-0 series win

It was a thriller on a Pallekele turner, the triumph going England’s way. Jacob Bethell’s part-timers turned lethal, his three-wicket over dismantling Sri Lanka’s tail to secure a 12-run win in the third and final Twenty20 international.

The tourists defended just 128, their total mainly built by Sam Curran’s 48-ball 58. It proved enough on a worn surface as England’s raft of spinners went to work. And while Adil Rashid and Liam Dawson are the veteran frontliners, this night belonged to Bethell and Will Jacks. The left-armer finished with four for 11, the offie with three for 14 off a full allotment.

League’s star said to be unhappy over his club’s transfer dealings and Karim Benzema’s move. Now he could face his first backlash

Jurassic Park sounded great given the spectacular beasts on display, but there was chaos after they started to do their own thing. When Cristiano Ronaldo, surely the T rex, and Karim Benzema, perhaps a velociraptor, are scoring in spectacular fashion there are headlines around the world, but the Saudi Pro League is finding out that when they start to flex their muscles off the pitch, there is even more interest and, it turns out, a real problem for the competition.

What happened on a manic Monday in the SPL should have been about what unfolded on the pitch. Al-Hilal, in first, drew with third-placed Al-Ahli. Al-Nassr won, to stay second, closing to within a point of the leaders. If Brendan Rodgers, having a whale of a time with Al-Qadsiah, wins his game in hand then four points will separate the top four with just over a third of the season remaining. It is the kind of title race most leagues would love.

• Successful shot would have made $1m for charities

• Social media users say event was ‘dystopian’

The NHL has received backlash after slashing a donation to cancer research by $800,000 after a missed shot during a charity promotion.

The incident came during Sunday’s game between the Tampa Bay Lightning and Boston Bruins. Rob Higgins, the athletics CEO of the University of South Florida, was brought on to the ice to attempt a shot through a very small opening in an empty goal. If Higgins, who is a cancer survivor, made the shot the NHL said it would donate $500,000 to cancer charities; if he missed the donation would be $100,000. The event was broadcast live on Sportsnet in Canada and ESPN in the US. Higgins missed what was a very tough shot. He was then given another chance, with a guaranteed donation of $200,000 if he missed, which would increase to $1m if he scored. Higgins missed again.

• Winger suffers online racism on return to France

• Abuse of Frenchman’s family led him to leave Mexico

Lens have condemned the racist abuse aimed at new signing Allan Saint-Maximin after a previous racist incident involving the former Newcastle winger’s children ended his career in Mexico’s top flight.

Saint-Maximin joined Lens on a six-month deal during the winter transfer window. He left Mexican side Club América, saying his children were the victims of racist abuse there.

The Oscar-winning actor will star in the Cameron Crowe-directed feature about the singer-songwriter’s life

Meryl Streep is to play Joni Mitchell in a forthcoming biopic of the singer-songwriter directed by Cameron Crowe, according to record executive Clive Davis.

Davis confirmed the rumours surrounding the casting at his pre-Grammys party on Saturday, reports Rolling Stone. Last year, Anya Taylor-Joy was linked to the project in the role of the younger Mitchell, as was Streep’s Mamma Mia! co-star Amanda Seyfried.

Cartoon lump of coal with giant eyes was spotlighted by US interior secretary in X post saying: ‘Mine, Baby, Mine!’

The Trump administration has turned to an unusual weapon in its attempt to resurrect coal mining – a cartoon lump of coal, complete with giant eyes and yellow mining garb, called “Coalie”.

The administration’s new mascot, kitted out with a helmet, boots and gloves, was introduced in a seemingly artificial intelligence-generated picture posted online by Doug Burgum, Donald Trump’s interior secretary. “Mine, Baby, Mine!” Burgum wrote on X, adding that Coalie will act as a “spokesperson” for Trump’s “American Energy Dominance Agenda”.

In the Marvel films he was unassailable, but in real life the actor says he’s more like the anxious thief he plays in Crime 101. He and its writer/director Bart Layton talk midlife angst, imposter syndrome – and Alzheimer’s

‘It’s like a therapy couch,” says Chris Hemsworth, as he takes a seat on a chaise longue in the London hotel room where we’re meeting. He laughs, but it quickly becomes clear the Australian actor is more than ready to examine his life and the image he has long presented to the world.

As Thor, the God of Thunder, Hemsworth has come to embody a certain idea of masculinity: invulnerable, assured, unshakeable. The role, which spanned nine films, put him up among the world’s highest paid actors and made him a global pin-up. Yet the confidence was, in part, a construction. “The character you see in interviews,” he says, easing into the chaise longue, “and the presentation of myself over the last two decades working in Hollywood, it’s me – but it’s a creation too. It’s what I thought people wanted to see.”

The organization claims the report, which finds Israel’s denial of the right of return is a crime against humanity, is ‘paused pending further analysis and research’

Two Human Rights Watch (HRW) employees who make up the organization’s entire Israel and Palestine team are stepping down from their positions after leadership blocked a report that deems Israel’s denial of Palestinian refugees the right of return a “crime against humanity”.

In separate resignation letters obtained by Jewish Currents and the Guardian, Omar Shakir, who has headed the team for nearly the last decade, and Milena Ansari, the team’s assistant researcher, said leadership’s decision to pull the report broke from HRW’s customary approval processes and was evidence that the organization was putting fear of political backlash over a commitment to international law.

President claims idea to ‘nationalize’ elections in 15 states ahead of midterms is to prevent rare noncitizen voting

Donald Trump suggested on a conservative podcast released on Monday that Republican state officials “take over” and “nationalize” elections in 15 states to protect the party from being voted out of office.

Trump framed the issue as a means to prevent undocumented immigrants from voting. Claims that noncitizens are voting in numbers that can affect an election are a lie. But it raises concerns about potential efforts by the president to rig the November midterm elections.

Suffering from a connective tissue disorder and enduring endless calls to try and get benefits, the poet and novelist turned to painting – resulting in work that could change perceptions of disabled people

Daisy Lafarge was lying on the floor in excruciating pain when she started her latest paintings. A severe injury, coupled with a sudden worsening of her health, had left her unable to sit upright, while brain fog and fatigue made reading and writing impossible. So the award-winning novelist and poet fell back on her art school training, using the energy and materials she had to hand to create impressionistic paintings of her surroundings – her cat Uisce, her boyfriend’s PlayStation controller – alongside unsettling imagery of enclosed gardens and flowers decaying.

“Making the paintings was a way of coexisting with pain,” says the 34-year-old. “I was on my living room floor in agony for a few hours, but I wanted to get something out of that time. I’ve always been fascinated by artists and writers who turn limitations into formal constraints. I see the paintings as my attempt at that.”

Editor of groundbreaking Channel 4 show says he was shocked not to be invited to participate in new season

The editor of a groundbreaking Channel 4 show claims the BFI has frozen him out of an upcoming season on multicultural television and is presenting a skewed vision of the programme.

Tariq Ali was part of the creative team that produced the global current affairs Bandung File for Channel 4 in the 1980s. The current affairs programme spotlighted everything from the realities of apartheid South Africa to the fallout from the publication of Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses.

Conservationists find dunlin chicks thriving in boggy habitat created in collaboration with landowners

Deep in the Cumbrian Pennines, walkers might be lucky enough to spot small birds with spindly legs, long beaks and bodies like feathered balls hopping through the peat bogs.

These are endangered dunlins – at risk in England because their favoured soggy landscapes are drained and burned for farming and grouse shooting.

• Vonn confident despite ACL rupture before Olympics

• Will decide after testing knee at race speeds soon

• Olympic downhill scheduled for Sunday at Cortina

Lindsey Vonn said she is “confident” she can compete at the Milano Cortina Winter Games despite revealing she has been managing a ruptured ACL, maintaining that her Olympic comeback remains on track after a crash last week raised fresh doubts over her participation.

Speaking on Tuesday, the 41-year-old American said she was approaching the final decision cautiously but remained focused on lining up for the downhill at the Tofane Alpine Skiing Centre in Cortina d’Ampezzo, where the Olympic women’s alpine programme opens Sunday.