• Milano Cortina Games: updates from Sunday’s action

• Schedule | Results | Medal table | Briefing | Email Geoff

Alpine skiiing: Breezy Johnson goes top, for USA. Had a twist in the air off one of the early jumps, had to battle to land it, but then comes through with a sizzling run on the rest of the course, improving on her training run time by a second and a half.

Alpine skiing: It’s a gorgeous day out there, blue sky. We’ve had five skiers so far, Ariane Raedler of Austria is leading on 1:37:20, the Italian Brignone and three Swiss skiers following her. Janine Schmitt and Jasmine Flury both almost stacked, but recovered it, terrifying at that speed. Malorie Blanc went first and had a clean run, 1:38:77.

Man in his 60s ‘arrested and handed over to Russia’ after fleeing to UAE, according to media reports

Authorities in Dubai have arrested and handed over to Russia a man suspected of shooting and wounding a senior officer in Russia’s intelligence services, according to Moscow’s security service.

The announcement on Sunday came two days after a gunman shot Lt Gen Vladimir Alekseyev three times on the stairwell of his Moscow apartment, leaving him in a critical condition.

• England make 184-7 in their Group C opener

• India deny USA seismic shock | Email James

2nd over: England 19-1 (Buttler 4, Bethell 14) Jacob Bethell is the new batter. The 23 year old Malla is brought back to earth immediately as Bethell cashes in on some short stuff, a cut for four behind point is followed by a wallop over midwicket for SIX! Malla drops short again and is swivelled away for a third boundary in the over. A mixed bag from the debutant but he’ll remember that first ball for a long time.

Sher Malla strikes with his first ball on international debut! It skids onto Salt who mis-times his pull shot, the ball loops up and is well taken at fine leg. England lose their first and the Nepalese strong crowd at the Wankhede lose their marbles! What a start.

⚽ Latest news and reaction before Sunday’s fixtures
⚽ Live scores | Follow us on Bluesky | Email Daniel

Former Liverpool midfielder Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain signed for Celtic yesterday. Celtic manager Martin O’Neill said:

We are really pleased to bring Alex to Celtic. He still has so much to offer the game, and I am sure he can add another dimension to us with his great ability and wealth of experience in the game.

Exit polls point to public endorsement of new prime minister Sanae Takaichi

Japan’s conservative governing party is on course to dramatically strengthen its grip on power after exit polls predicted a landslide victory in Sunday’s lower house elections.

The Liberal Democratic party (LDP) was projected to win between 274 and 328 seats out of a total of 465, according to an exit poll by the public broadcaster NHK, well above the 233 it needed to regain the majority it lost in 2024. Combined with seats secured by its junior coalition partner, the Japan Innovation party, the parties could win between 302 and 366 seats, NHK added.

Puerto Rican superstar promises ‘the world will dance’ in all-Spanish half-time gig that comes as Trump agents wage deadly crackdown

For 13 minutes on Sunday night, Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara will pulse with reggaeton, Latin trap and Caribbean rhythms as Bad Bunny headlines a historic Super Bowl halftime performance, primarily – or perhaps entirely – in Spanish. The Puerto Rican megastar, whose songs fuse the raw energy of música urbana, Boricua pride and resistance politics, has promised a “huge party”.

At a moment when masked federal agents are sweeping through American cities, rounding up long-settled immigrants, legal residents and even US citizens, Bad Bunny’s presence on the grandest stage in US sports offers a striking contrast – a joyful celebration of pride and solidarity for millions of Latinos.

Amber feared having sex with other women had ruined the best thing in her life, but Todd says exploring together has ultimately strengthened their partnership
• How do you do it? Share the story of your sex life, anonymously

The first time we had sex with a couple, I didn’t anticipate how destabilising it would feel

• Gout opts to focus on world under-20 championships

• Teenage sensation’s absence is blow to Glasgow event

The Australian sprint sensation Gout Gout has decided not to compete at this year’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

The 18-year-old will instead focus on the world under-20 championships in August, where he hopes to emulate the legendary Usain Bolt. The two events are taking place back-to-back, with Gout and his support team deeming it unwise for him to contest both so early in his burgeoning career.

António José Seguro tipped to beat populist André Ventura with support of mainstream politicians on left and right

The centre-left Socialist candidate, António José Seguro, is heavily favoured to defeat the far-right populist André Ventura in Portugal’s runoff presidential election on Sunday, in a vote that will test the depth of support for Ventura’s brash style of politics.

Recent opinion polls suggest Seguro will collect twice as many votes as Ventura in the head to head between the two top candidates in last month’s first round of voting, when none of the 11 runners captured the more than 50% of the vote required for victory.

This master craftsman’s work has lit up everything from Bond to Blade Runner 2049. But as he publishes his memoir, why is he so worried about the future of film-making?

Roger Deakins – cinematographer to the Coen brothers, Martin Scorsese and Sam Mendes, whose work has earned him 14 Oscar nominations and two wins, five Baftas, a knighthood and a reputation for being the greatest practitioner of his craft alive – is struggling to explain just exactly what he does. “Argh!” he exclaims, when confronted by the question: what is cinematography?

“Well, I started off trying to be a still photographer, someone like Don McCullin. And it’s been a whole arc through cinematography. Now what is cinematography? I don’t know. It’s very different from still photography. But the essentials are the same. You’re trying to tell a visual story.” It is “very much a collaboration”, he continues; working with “hundreds of people” on films can be a “wonderful experience … I suppose I’m not answering your question, because actually I’ve got no idea,” he says. “The cliche is visual storytelling, but it’s much more than that.”

It is one of the most powerful involuntary actions the human body can perform. But is a big sneeze a sign of illness, pollution or something else entirely?

How worried should we be about a sneeze? It depends who you ask. In the Odyssey, Telemachus sneezes after Penelope’s prayer that her husband will soon be home to sort out her house-sitting suitors – which she sees as a good omen for team Odysseus, and very bad news for the suitors. In the Anabasis, Xenophon takes a sneeze from a soldier as godly confirmation that his army can fight their way back to their own territory – great news for them – while St Augustine notes, somewhat disapprovingly, that people of his era tend to go back to bed if they sneeze while putting on their slippers. But is a sneeze an omen of anything apart from pathogens, pollen or – possibly – air pollution?

“It’s a physical response to get rid of something that’s irritating your body,” says Sheena Cruickshank, an immunologist and professor at the University of Manchester. “Alongside the obvious nasal hairs that a few people choose to trim, all of us have cilia, or microscopic hairs in our noses that can move and sense things of their own accord. And so if anything gets trapped by the cilia, that triggers a reaction to your nerve endings that says: ‘Right, let’s get rid of this.’ And that triggers a sneeze.”

Fewer under-25s leaving home, and older renters being priced out of ownership or solo renting, is fuelling a change in house-share demographics

When Nicola Whyte first moved into a four-bedroom house share in Balham 16 years ago, she never imagined she would still be living there at 45. But with rents soaring, and ongoing challenges in saving up for a house deposit, she has ended up as a housemate far longer than she anticipated.

“I didn’t think I was going to be here 16 years later, but I’m not unhappy,” she said. “My friends sometimes think I’m a bit weird, they ask me how I can still do it. But I really enjoy it. The rent is really reasonable, it’s close to work and I think it gives you a deeper understanding of people.”

• Doherty removed over incident at golf tournament

• 22-year-old has subscriber count of nearly 30 million

• Source confirms streamer’s ban from future events

A controversial livestreamer has been barred from attending PGA Tour events indefinitely after being removed from the Waste Management Phoenix Open, a person familiar with the matter told the Guardian, though the tour has declined to publicly confirm any specific disciplinary action.

Security and law enforcement removed Jack Doherty from the tournament grounds on Friday after he appeared to pay a spectator to shout during a player’s pre-shot routine, according to videos circulating online and accounts of the incident.

Whistleblower says that Tulsi Gabbard blocked agency from sharing report and delivered it to White House chief of staff

Last spring, the National Security Agency (NSA) flagged an unusual phone call between two members of foreign intelligence, who discussed a person close to Donald Trump, according to a whistleblower’s attorney who was briefed on details of the call.

The highly sensitive communique, which has roiled Washington over the past week, was brought to the attention of the director of national intelligence (DNI), Tulsi Gabbard.

• Haiti Couleurs shortens to 7-1 for Gold Cup after victory

• Lulamba maintains unbeaten record over fences

It did not have the sheer relentlessness of the parading talents at last weekend’s Dublin racing festival in Ireland, but the final afternoon here on Saturday of significant trials for the Cheltenham festival offered further cause for hope that the Irish will not have things all their own way next month.

Haiti Couleurs, the Denman Chase winner, is the latest British-trained contender at single-figure odds for the Gold Cup on 13 March, alongside The Jukebox Man and Jango Baie, first and fourth respectively in the King George VI Chase in December. The unbeaten five-year-old, Lulamba, is the near-certain favourite for the Arkle Trophy, after maintaining his unbeaten record over fences in the Game Spirit Chase.

Deputy PM reportedly warned Starmer not to appoint Mandelson as US ambassador because of his links to Jeffrey Epstein

Speaking to Sky News this morning, Conservative shadow minister Alex Burghart said:

This administration under Keir Starmer has failed. It has U-turned, I think, what, 14 or 15 times now.

It has had two resets in the past five months, and it is now caught up in the worst political scandal of my lifetime.

He was lied to by someone who was known to be a serial liar. There’s no excuse for the fact that he made the wrong judgment.

He was in possession of enough facts to have not made that appointment and he did anyway and I am afraid, Laura, he now has to take responsibility for that …

With the Omnivore’s Dilemma and How to Change Your Mind, Michael Pollan transformed our understanding of food and drugs. Can he do the same for our sense of self?

Several years ago, Michael Pollan had a disturbing encounter. The relentlessly curious journalist and author was at a conference on plant behaviour in Vancouver. There, he’d learned that when plants are damaged, they produce an anaesthetising chemical, ethylene. Was this a form of self-soothing, like the release of endorphins after an injury in humans? He asked František Baluška, a cell biologist, if it meant that plants might feel pain. Baluška paused, before answering: “Yes, they should feel pain. If you don’t feel pain, you ignore danger and you don’t survive.”

I imagine that Pollan gulped at that point. I certainly did when I read his account of the meeting in his latest book, A World Appears. Where does it leave our efforts at ethical consumption, if literally everybody hurts – including vegetables?

Animals, insects, flora and fauna – the world photographed in close-up in the annual competition dedicated to micro and macro photography. Cupoty 7 was won by underwater photographer Ross Gudgeon, triumphing over 12,000 entries from 63 countries

Francesca Lollobrigida brought the house down at the Milano Ice Park and then searched out her son to share her joy

Even before the final pairing of the women’s 3,000m speed skating had finished, two-year-old Tommaso was being hurried towards the middle of the track, where his mother had just broken the Olympic record and was on the verge of winning gold on her 35th birthday. When the final pairing of Joy Beune and Isabelle Weidemann had failed to beat Francesca Lollobrigida’s phenomenal time, the Italian sprinted through the bowels of the stadium to fetch her son.

Still basking in the glow of an excellent opening ceremony and the thrill of two medalists in the men’s downhill skiing earlier in the day, the hosts celebrated a new star. Lollobrigida, the silver medalist from Beijing in 2022, struck gold for the first time in her fourth Olympics. She brought the house down at the Milano Ice Park as she crossed the line in a time of 54.28sec, knocking two and a half seconds off Irene Schouten’s record from 2022.

Small town club’s Serie B adventure captivated football and inspired a famous book. That spirit remains and is being passed to their successors

The WhatsApp group flickers into life at about 6am every day. It is the manager who goes first because, when you are 79, old habits die hard. “Good morning,” Osvaldo Jaconi hails his former players and staff before, little by little, the salutations roll in from across Italy. Maybe it is someone’s birthday or another special occasion; the conversation may be accelerated by an in-joke that recalls why, three decades ago, they were brought together in the first place. Just in case anyone could forget, the group’s title says: “Serie B.”

This is how miracles stay alive. Perhaps it is the point of what Castel di Sangro achieved in 1995-96. A rag-tag bunch from this backwater in mountainous Abruzzo had risen from local amateur leagues and then, in a crowning triumph with little precedent, made it to the second tier. “It’s like 30 years haven’t passed,” says Angelo Petrarca, who was nominally the masseur but often resembled a one-man backroom. “It shows how much love everybody has for each other, and did back then. As if everybody is still right here.”

Art is helping to revitalise Sicily’s ghost towns and deserted urban spaces, with the earthquake-hit town of Gibellina becoming Italy’s first Capital of Contemporary Art

From the ostentatious baroque square of Quattro Canti all the way up to the Teatro Massimo, Palermo’s Via Maqueda is thick with tourists. Pomegranate juice sellers are setting up pyramids of fruit on their carts at gaps in the crowd and waiters are trying to reel in passersby with happy hour prices for Aperol spritzes. Amid the noise and movement, it’s easy to walk straight past number 206, whose arched doorway features a stone cross stained black with dirt – a clue to the building’s former use.

Convento dei Crociferi was abandoned for 30 years, until Sicilian power couple Andrea Bartoli and Florinda Saievi took over and transformed it into Palermo’s newest arts space, the Museum of World Cities, due to open at the end of February. Inside, a cloister with high, scalloped porticoes frames a verdant courtyard filled with palms and banana trees. Bartoli comes to meet me and enthusiastically pumps my hand before leading me up to the grand, marble-floored rooms on the first floor, which have been given over to a rather self-referential exhibition on urban change.

When Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mac became club guardians in 2021 the Premier League was a dream. Now it’s a target

Two Chewbaccas handed out flyers to passersby. No one making their way towards the Turf batted an eyelid, but then again, for five years now, a touch of Hollywood has become pretty much the norm in Wrexham.

Ninety minutes before kick-off the city’s most famous public house was heaving. Lying in the shadow of the Racecourse Ground, it is the watering hole of choice for locals, and, thanks to landlord Wayne Jones’s prominent role in Welcome to Wrexham, the hit documentary following the club’s many fortunes, a tourist attraction.

Whether you want everyday comfort or a special set for Valentine’s Day, our fashion writer rounds up the styles that’ll have you hooked – from skimpy to supportive, recycled to racy

• The best Valentine’s Day gifts for 2026

Lingerie isn’t about dressing for someone else. The best lingerie will feel comfortable, supportive and genuinely good to wear, whether that’s an everyday staple or an investment piece.

The design of lingerie has never been better, with a wide variety of brands focusing on comfortable materials, breathability and support, as well as style. From ultra-soft lace that moves with the body to wireless bras that actually stay up, sometimes the best lingerie is all about subtle design details rather than extra frills.

Greenland and its people were thrust into the global spotlight last year when Trump revived his demand that the US take control of the island for national security and to access its abundant mineral resources. For the Inuit people, who have lived here for centuries, no one owns the Arctic land