Reported issues at Amazon Web Services raise questions about firm’s use of artificial intelligence as it cuts staff

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Amazon’s huge cloud computing arm reportedly experienced at least two outages caused by its own artificial intelligence tools, raising questions about the company’s embrace of AI as it lays off human employees.

A 13-hour interruption to Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) operations in December was caused by an AI agent autonomously choosing to “delete and then recreate” a part of its environment, the Financial Times reported.

Winter storm dumps more than 40cm of snow on the capital, while in France, Storm Pedro follows hot of heels of Storm Nils

While the days are lengthening and meteorological spring is just a couple of weeks away, Romania has been firmly in the grip of winter.

A storm brought blizzard conditions and heavy snowfall across much of the south-east of the country, with the capital, Bucharest, receiving 40cm of snow – far above the February average of 11cm.

New Home Office rules causing ‘stress upon stress’ for British woman living in Netherlands trying to enter UK

A British woman living in the Netherlands has told of the “stress upon stress” caused by new Home Office rules that leave her unable to travel to see her 91-year-old dying mother back in England.

Annie, who requested her surname was not published, said her British passport expired last Friday and had been submitted as part of her passport renewal application. She had “reasonably expected” to use her Dutch passport to carry on visiting her mother, as she had done every couple of weeks for the past few months.

Ruling is blow to Trump’s bold assertions of authority and topples key pillar of aggressive economic agenda

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Donald Trump overstepped his authority by imposing most of his steep tariffs on global imports, the US supreme court ruled on Friday, toppling a key pillar of the president’s aggressive economic agenda.

In a 6-3 ruling, the court decided that a 1977 law designed to address national emergencies did not provide the legal justification for most of the Trump administration’s tariffs on countries across the world.

British labels move focus from innovation to style as names drop off show schedule owing to financial pressure

“London fashion has leant too much into being theatrical. Drama is great, but style is a huge piece of why we buy fashion,” said Mario Arena, the creative director of Joseph, at its first catwalk show in eight years.

Arena has a subversive idea to re-energise London fashion week. More polish, less pantomime: clothes that sell, rather than clothes that scream.

From never arguing to knowing exactly what the other thinks, the signs your relationship is in trouble aren’t always obvious. Experts reveal what to watch for – and how to get the spark back

You would think this is a sign of perfect harmony. Not so if you have stopped arguing completely. “Stopping disagreeing isn’t a sign of peace, it points to emotional withdrawal,” explains Simone Bose, a relationship therapist at Relate. It happens, says Bose, because couples are “likely protecting themselves from feeling disappointed or from conflict itself, but are becoming emotionally numb”. Clinical psychologist and Couples Therapy star Dr Orna Guralnik agrees, noting that “some people don’t argue because they’ve come to a state of acceptance of who each other are, but some don’t argue because they’ve given up. It’s a cold, detached form of not arguing – a resignation.” For Oona Metz, a social worker, psychotherapist and the author of Unhitched: The Essential Divorce Guide for Women, “Couples who stop arguing even when they have major disagreements are on a collision course towards either an unhappy marriage or a divorce.” This is because “unresolved issues get swept under the rug and eventually come out in some other way”.

• Olympic freeski star was born in San Francisco

• VP suggested US-born athletes should compete for US

Olympic freeskier Eileen Gu has responded after vice-president JD Vance appeared to criticise her choice to represent China on the international stage instead of the United States.

With five medals, the 22-year-old Gu is the most decorated freeskier in Olympic history. She won two golds and a silver at the 2022 Beijing Games and has claimed two silvers at the Milano Cortina Games, with one more medal event set for Saturday in the halfpipe.

Sunshine Sykes says Trump administration poses threats and is recklessly violating law with its mass deportations

A federal judge has accused the Trump administration of terrorizing immigrants and recklessly violating the law in its efforts to deport millions of people.

The judge said that the White House had also “extended its violence on its own citizens”, citing the killings of Renee Good in January by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer and Alex Pretti in the same month by Border Patrol, both US citizens and both protesting in Minneapolis.

Captured in the back seat of a Range Rover, this image of Mountbatten-Windsor is full of shock, pain and horror, bringing to mind dark works by Munch, Goya and Courbet. Will this be how history remembers the royals?

They say the camera adds 10 pounds. Does it also add a sudden, terrifying understanding of the abject horror of existence? Phil Noble’s apparently does. The Reuters photographer’s shot of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor leaving Aylsham police station in the back of his Range Rover is an image filled with shock, pain and horror. Noble’s harsh, blinding flash paints Andrew in pink, red and white – his skin is sickly, his eyes are hollow and red like a rat’s. His hands are steepled as if in prayer, like he’s pleading with a higher power for absolution.

Much like the eerily similar 2019 picture of his father, Prince Philip, in a car, this photograph’s composition is one of pure luck. Noble took shots as Mountbatten-Windsor rushed past. Two were blank, two were of the police, one was out of focus. Only this one came out right. Only this one gave us a private glimpse of power crumbling and rotting away in real time.

As the Winter Olympic Games enter their final weekend, we would like to hear your favourite moments

As the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics enter their final weekend, we would like to hear about the moment will stay with you. Wherever you are, what was your favourite moment and why?

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Purdue says no ban on Chinese students exists, but reportedly rescinded dozens of offers after warnings from legislators

Several universities have scrapped partnerships with Chinese institutions in recent months as a direct result of pressure from US legislators. But no university appears to have gone as far as Purdue University in Indiana.

Students and faculty at the public university say that an unofficial policy is in effect to automatically reject students from China and a number of other countries altogether.

AI has convinced computer science students to shift majors and white-collar workers to change careers, while some are embracing it

Matthew Ramirez started at Western Governors University as a computer science major in 2025, drawn by the promise of a high-paying, flexible career as a programmer. But as headlines mounted about tech layoffs and AI’s potential to replace entry-level coders, he began to question whether that path would actually lead to a job.

When the 20-year-old interviewed for a datacenter technician role that June and never heard back, his doubts deepened. In December, Ramirez decided on what he thought was a safer bet: turning away from computer science entirely. He dropped his planned major to instead apply to nursing school. He comes from a family of nurses, and sees the field as more stable and harder to automate than coding.

This age is already marked by a departure from the rational. Systemic failures to protect innocents and hold people accountable are adding even more fuel to the fire

Not so long ago, if you said there was a shadowy cabal of elites who were involved in the sex trafficking of young women and girls and that some of the most famous people in the world were allegedly involved, then you would have been dismissed as a conspiracy theorist.

On a certain level, it feels psychologically safe to “other” people who have conspiracy theories – Jon Ronson even wrote a book called Them about extremists and conspiracy theorists.

Exclusive: Nigel Farage understood to have known of grievance against byelection candidate, whose lawyer described it as resolved ‘minor workplace matter’ of miscommunication

Matt Goodwin, Reform UK’s candidate in the Gorton and Denton byelection, was accused by a young woman working at GB News of making inappropriate comments which she viewed as sexually harassing, the Guardian can reveal.

The junior staffer complained to HR last year alleging Goodwin had made inappropriate comments, one regarding her appearance, sources say. Goodwin, 44, volunteered an apology after the complaint had been raised.

Western governments have put elite bargains before civilian lives. If El Fasher is to mean anything, this approach must change

The latest report from the UN independent fact-finding mission on the fall of El Fasher in Sudan reads like a postmortem of a preventable tragedy. The report details what it calls the “hallmarks of genocide”: mass killings, systematic sexual violence and ethnic cleansing targeting non-Arab communities by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The atrocities in El Fasher should have surprised no one in the international community. Western governments were warned repeatedly by civil society, humanitarian organisations, investigative journalists and their own agencies. In Britain, a whistleblower last year accused the Foreign Office of censoring internal warnings about imminent genocide. The US state department and members of the UN security council received continuous reporting from the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab documenting the RSF’s military buildup and preparations to overrun the city. Senior US officials warned the Biden administration that El Fasher was at imminent risk. A security council resolution in 2024 called for an end to the siege. None of this prevented the city from being strangled.

Husam Mahjoub is co-founder of Sudan Bukra, an independent non-profit Sudanese TV channel

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Former Manchester United, Spurs, Everton and Arsenal players are preparing for AS Trencin’s clash with Zemplin Michalovce

“I wish I’d done it a bit younger,” says the former Manchester United midfielder Sean Goss of moving abroad. He is one of six Britons who could do battle when AS Trencin host Zemplin Michalovce on Saturday in a battle of eighth v sixth in the Slovakian top flight.

Trencin have Goss, Roshaun Mathurin, a graduate of Tottenham’s academy, and Cody David, who went through the ranks at Everton. Zemplin’s squad includes two players who started at Arsenal, Kido Taylor-Hart and Ben Cottrell, and Kai Brosnan, who had played non-league football until joining them last summer. There are further British links at Trencin because Markus Poom, the son of the former Estonia goalkeeper Mart, was born in Derby.

Updates from Pallekele International Cricket Stadium
Start time in Kandy is 7pm local/12.30am AEDT/1.30pm GMT
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3rd over: Oman 20-1 (Jatinder 11, Sonavale 8) Bartlett drops short, Jatinder ricks back and carves over point for a one bounce four. Bartlett get some late swing but he wastes it by firing down the leg side. It hoops on Inglis the keeper rather than the batter.

2nd over: Oman 13-1 (Jatinder 6, Sonavale 7) Marcus Stoinis bustles in from the other end. Muscles bulging, chest wider than an American fridge. Bosh! Jatinder sends a length ball over cover for four. Three singles picked off either side of the wicket. Sonavale then attempts a wild heave that goes miles up but somehow lands safe and they scamper a couple.

The Guardian’s picture editors select photographs from around the world

• American halfpipe competitor says he has no regrets

• ‘I’m not going to let controversy like that get in my way’

At the start of these Winter Olympics, Donald Trump called Hunter Hess a “real loser” after the US skiing star admitted he had mixed feelings about representing his country. As he swooped down the halfpipe in Livigno on Friday, Hess delivered his response, flashing an L-sign with his hand after qualifying for Friday night’s final.

“Apparently I am a loser,” Hess said when asked about his gesture. “I am leaning into it.” And asked whether he had any regrets, Hess was just as firm. “I stick with what I said,” he replied.

Class-action suit accused Epstein’s lawyer and accountant of aiding and abetting his sex trafficking, filing says

Jeffrey Epstein’s estate has agreed to pay as much as $35m to resolve a class-action lawsuit that accused two of the disgraced financier’s advisers of aiding and abetting his sex trafficking of young women and teenage girls, according to a court filing.

Boies Schiller Flexner, a law firm representing Epstein victims, announced the settlement in a brief filed in federal court in Manhattan on Thursday.

The increasingly popular shade has appeared on fashion week catwalks and award season red carpets

On the fashion colour wheel, green has long carried a reputation for being “tricky” – a shade that clashes with others and flatters only certain skin tones. Yet this year, a particular apple green has been steadily gaining popularity. It has appeared on catwalks and even on the red carpet, defying the old adage that red and green should never be seen.

Arriving at the Berlin film festival, Pamela Anderson wore an apple-green wrap by Carolina Herrera over a dress in tonal pinks and greens. Amal Clooney chose a green gown by Versace for a Golden Globes afterparty, while Rose Byrne wore green Chanel for the ceremony itself. With award season in full swing, there is speculation the shade could make a strong showing at the Baftas this Sunday.

Taking inspiration from Chile’s traditional borgoña, this red-wine cocktail makes for a great aperitif

A Chilean twist on a wine cocktail: elegant, vibrant and built on the balance between the depth of pinot noir and the bright sweetness of cherries. It takes inspiration from Chile’s traditional borgoña, a drink where red wine meets fruit (usually strawberries), but layers in cherry liqueur and soda for a modern, effervescent edge. I sometimes add a few drops of fresh lime juice to sharpen the sweetness and make the fruit flavours really pop. It’s refreshing yet sophisticated, and a great aperitif.

Nico Einersen, head chef, Mareida, London W1

In a university ecosystem that breeds hunger for status, Epstein made scholars feel like celebrities

The Jeffrey Epstein story is often told as the intersection of two obsessions: sexual abuse and money. The recently released emails certainly contain significant evidence of both. But after more than two decades as a professor at Harvard, Cornell, and Cambridge, I am most struck by the limitation of that frame – in part because it fails to explain why academics show up so consistently in these files.

Certainly, money played a role in Epstein’s university connections. A rich man using donations and access to burnish his ego and legitimacy is a well-worn script, from Andrew Carnegie’s libraries more than a century ago to Bill Gates’s more recent global health philanthropy. As a college drop-out, Epstein clearly craved “respect” from high-profile academics. Universities, meanwhile, are perpetually fundraising and institutions that rely on donations often avoid asking hard questions about where the money came from. As the Bard College president, Leon Botstein, put it when defending his Epstein connections: “Among the very rich is a higher percentage of unpleasant and not very attractive people.” Institutions sometimes learn to stop asking hard questions about where the money came from.

Christopher Marquis is the Sinyi professor of management at the University of Cambridge and author of The Profiteers: How Business Privatizes Profits and Socializes Costs

She might have the same producer as Graham Norton, but will Claudia Winkleman’s new series succeed? Seasoned pros from Esther Rantzen to Kirsty Wark for the tips and tricks of creating interview gold

Claudia Winkleman’s new chatshow will land next month, and its enthusiast army are already excited. Winkleman herself, who doesn’t come off at all breathy, said: “I can’t quite believe it and I’m incredibly grateful to the BBC for this amazing opportunity.” Kalpna Patel-Knight, who commissioned The Claudia Winkleman Show, observed: “Claudia is a true national treasure – warm, witty and endlessly entertaining.” Graham Stuart, long-term producer/buddy of Graham Norton, who runs So Television, which produces both, said of his new venture: “How can you possibly follow [Graham Norton]? By booking a host equally as brilliant. So we have.”

And if anything proves how hard it is to create great chat, it’s those quotes. If anyone was ever that bland and blow-hard on one of their chatshow sofas, most TV people would punch themselves in the head. No wonder so many chatshows struggle when they first come out – it’s not that the expectation is too high, exactly, so much as the fanfare is too boasty. Brilliant as she is, then, the success of Claudia’s new series is far from given. But how exactly do you go about creating chatshow magic?