US president to hold news conference after 6-3 ruling against his tariffs; conservative justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Brett Kavanaugh dissented
Actor who set pulses racing as Mark Sloan – nicknamed McSteamy – in the TV medical drama Grey’s Anatomy
The American actor Eric Dane, who has died of motor neurone disease aged 53, found fame and sex-symbol status as the brilliant plastic surgeon Mark Sloan in the medical drama Grey’s Anatomy, which went to the top of the TV ratings in the US and attracted big audiences worldwide.
The character first appeared in 2006, in the second series of the show, as a one-off visitor to the fictional Seattle Grace hospital, to which his former best friend, the neurosurgeon Derek Shepherd (played by Patrick Dempsey), had moved following Mark’s affair with his wife. Mark’s flirting with Derek’s new girlfriend, Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo), leads his old pal to punch him in the face.
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has been released under investigation after police questioned the former prince in relation to allegations he shared confidential material with Jeffrey Epstein. Officers searched Mountbatten-Windsor’s Sandringham residence as well as his former home at the Royal Lodge in Great Windsor Park after arresting him on Thursday. The former prince has denied any wrongdoing. But what were the police searching for and what could happen next? Lucy Hough speaks to the Guardian’s police and crime correspondent, Vikram Dodd
Narendra Modi’s thirst to supercharge economic growth is matched by US desire to inject AI into world’s biggest democracy
India celebrates 80 years of independence from the UK in August 2027. At about that same moment, “early versions of true super intelligence” could emerge, said Sam Altman, the co-founder of OpenAI, this week.
It’s a looming coincidence that raised a charged question at the AI Impact summit in Delhi, hosted by India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi: can India avoid returning to the status of a vassal state when it imports AI to raise the prospects of its 1.4 billion people?
Aston Martin completed just six laps after problems
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc took the bragging rights with the quickest time at the final Formula One pre-season test before the season proper begins in Australia in just two weeks, while Aston Martin endured a horror show.
At the end of the final day of the third test some of the cars were let off the leash to put in some runs on soft tyres with lower fuel loads and Leclerc looked very much at home as he hurled his Ferrari around the circuit in Bahrain. He set a time of 1min 31.992sec, eight-tenths clear of the second-placed McLaren of Lando Norris and a second up on Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Mercedes’s George Russell.
Dozens of the animals in Chiang Mai region first began to show signs of illness earlier this month
A highly contagious virus is believed to have caused the deaths of 72 captive tigers in northern Thailand this month, with officials racing to contain the outbreak.
Teams are urgently disinfecting enclosures and preparing to vaccinate surviving animals.
Environmental groups warn that weakening air toxics and mercury standards will lead to higher health-related costs
The Trump administration announced on Friday it will roll back air regulations for power plants limiting mercury and hazardous air toxics at an event in Kentucky, a move it says will boost baseload energy but that public health groups say will harm public health for the most vulnerable groups in the US.
Donald Trump’s EPA has said that easing the pollution standards for coal plants would alleviate costs for utilities that run older coal plants at a time when demand for power is soaring amid the expansion of datacenters used for artificial intelligence.
Fans celebrate unmatched talent on screen, while those who met the actor in person remember his kindness
Another one of the greats has passed. What a career. I sincerely believe Duvall was the best actor in a generation of best actors: De Niro, Pacino, Hoffman, Nicholson and more. What made Robert stand above these other figures was how he disappeared into a part. There was no Duvall persona. He was invisible. There were just the characters he played. He could do loud and angry – see his sublime turns in The Great Santini or his seminal Colonel Kilgore in Apocalypse Now. Yet I loved his quieter performances more, which would slowly sneak up on you, pull you close and then blow you away with the brilliance of his choices and the risks he took.
The writer of Seven commits the sin of boring us with this bland horror which should have stayed in development hell where it belongs
When a script has passed through multiple hands over an almost 20-year period, one assumes it must have something magnetic enough to keep it within the Hollywood ecosystem and out of the trash. Of course, it’s also assumed that there’s probably something a little cursed about it too but when it finally does get made, the curiosity factor is sky high. Psycho Killer, written in the mid-2000s by Seven’s Andrew Kevin Walker, has had its share of almosts over the years. In 2009, Fred Durst was set to direct. In 2010, Eli Roth was set to produce. In 2011, production was set to begin. In 2015, it was supposed to get German funding. But each iteration found a snag, and it took until 2023 for the film to finally get made.
Three years later, it’s now finally getting released by 20th, AKA Disney, with long-time producer Gavin Polone making his directorial debut, an answer to the question of “Why this?’ quietly arriving in 1,000-plus cinemas.
Officers being asked to ‘consider carefully whether anything they saw or heard’ may be relevant to review of Epstein files
Detectives have urged Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s former close protection officers to “consider carefully whether anything they saw or heard” may be relevant to their investigation into the convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his associates.
The Metropolitan police said they were working with counterparts in the US to establish whether London airports had been used to “facilitate human trafficking and sexual exploitation”.
Oman 104; Australia 108-1. Australia won by nine wickets
Victory completed with more than 10 overs to spare
Australia demolished Oman by nine wickets to win the final Twenty20 World Cup group encounter in Pallekele on Friday in emphatic style, . Both teams were already eliminated from the tournament.
Chasing a modest target of 105, Mitchell Marsh was in no mood to hang around and ruthlessly dispatched Oman’s bowlers, bringing up his half-century off 26 balls inside the first powerplay.
The decision of an Austrian court to convict an amateur climber of manslaughter after he had left his girlfriend behind to die on an Alpine peak in winter is certain to be examined closely throughout Europe.
In his decision in Innsbruck, the judge, Norbert Hofer – a climber, and an expert in Austrian law relating to the mountains – ruled that the “galaxies-wide” disparity in experience and skills between Thomas P and his late girlfriend Kerstin G meant he had been de facto acting as her mountain guide “as a favour” despite no financial arrangement having been involved.
Werder Bremen scrap plans to play in Minnesota, Detroit
Club cites unrest after ICE killings, US visa restrictions
German soccer club Werder Bremen have canceled a trip to the United States due to concerns over unrest in Minnesota after the actions of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as well as economic risks, a club spokesperson told Reuters on Friday.
The top-flight team were planning to visit Minnesota and Detroit in May and play two friendly matches, according to media reports in the US and Germany. No opponents for the matches had been confirmed.
From the dire Hathaway and Franco double act to the charming Fey and Poehler combo, the choice of MC is vital to a show’s success. With Alan Cumming set to helm the Baftas on Sunday, here’s what he needs to know
In December, the Baftas announced that Scottish actor Alan Cumming was to host of the 79th edition of the event, which takes place on Sunday; he takes over from fellow actor and Scot David Tennant, who occupied the berth in 2024 and 2025. Tennant was given a middling review for his efforts last year by the Guardian’s Gwilym Mumford, who called him “a game host, a willing song and dance man, but he definitely needs more help from whoever’s writing his gags” – but that was glowing compared with the notices that arrived for Absolutely Fabulous star Joanna Lumley after her turn in 2019; in an article headlined “Is Joanna Lumley the worst Baftas host of all time?” the Guardian said: “Watching it on TV was excruciating. Not only were the jokes bad, but the Bafta audience responded with a total, ominous silence.” Following the Lumley debacle, Bafta managed to claw back some credibility by hiring Graham Norton in 2020 (“a safe pair of hands”) and a well-reviewed Rebel Wilson in 2022 (“rescues Baftas”).
Completion of glass cross brings Antoni Gaudí’s church to maximum final height of 172.5m, 144 years after work began
The final piece of the central tower of Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia has been laid in place, bringing the church to its maximum final height 144 years after work began.
After several days when it has been too windy to work, the upper section of the 17 metre-high four-sided steel and glass cross was winched into position at 11am on Friday, completing the tower dedicated to Jesus Christ. At 172.5 metres, the Sagrada Familia, to which the Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí devoted the later part of his life, is Barcelona’s tallest building and the world’s tallest church.
German Doner Kebab aims to open at 25 new sites this year with self-service screens and healthy options aimed at gen Z
They are already packing our groceries and delivering shopping. Now robots are coming to the kebab shop, alongside self-service screens and loyalty apps, as takeaways look for ways to tackle rising costs.
German Doner Kebab (GDK), a perhaps surprisingly British-owned chain that has been springing up across the country, has turned to technology to keep its fast food business buzzing in the face of rising costs and tough times on the high street.
Royals have always prized their images as ways to assert their lineage and authority. Now this pathetic photograph will define the former prince
You will have seen the photograph by now: Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly a prince, slumped in the back of a car outside Aylsham police station in Norfolk. His face is corpse-like – his lips tight, stare fixed, eyes turned red by the camera flash. It’s a far cry from Randy Andy, the handsome prince with the big teeth and the easy grin, whose face was once plastered on china cups and plates and commemorative tins, pressed into the soft metal of national affection.
Never the heir, but less of a spare than Harry somehow, Andrew’s face was once memorialised in the way that only royalty, Jesus and the saints were: endlessly reproduced as public property. Andrew’s face was part of his – and the royal family’s – brand; he was the warrior prince, the helicopter pilot, the man who had served. He had sweated for us, so much in fact, that he could never sweat again.
Dr Fay Bound-Alberti is a writer and professor of modern history at King’s College London. Her book The Face: A Cultural History is published by Allen Lane on 26 February
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Demonstrators were outside hotel in Washington demanding the release of political prisoners in Azerbaijan
Bodyguards traveling with the Azerbaijani president, who was visiting Washington for the inaugural meeting of Donald Trump’s Board of Peace, punched, kicked and chased protesters outside a Washington hotel on Thursday, video footage shows.
Demonstrators calling for the release of political prisoners were driven from the street near the motorcade of Ilham Aliyev, the Azerbaijani leader.
Andrew Alty thought O2 bill was a mistake, but daughter’s TikTok use allowed massive uncapped charges to accrue
A small business owner was left facing a £42,000 bill that he said nearly bankrupted him after his daughter racked up data roaming charges while the family were on holiday in Morocco.
Andrew Alty, who owns a curtains business, was in Marrakech when he received a bill for £22,000 from network provider O2, but at first he assumed it was a mistake.
After stepping away from figure skating, the US star climbed back on her own terms. Her journey culminated in a medal, but it was about much more than that
Alysa Liu made her way through a mixed zone teeming with hundreds of reporters at a quarter past midnight early Friday morning, an Olympic gold medal draped around her neck, the sequins in her color-coordinated dress glimmering beneath the klieg lights and crush of television cameras. The 20-year-old from West Oakland had just become the first American woman to win figure skating’s biggest prize in 24 years, drilling seven clean triples to leapfrog a pair of Japanese rivals from third place after Tuesday’s short program and gatecrash her sport’s most rarefied air. But to hear Liu tell it, her second gold in 12 days was merely a passing footnote in a Milan fortnight she doesn’t want to end.
Liu’s carefree mindset should and will be studied in the weeks, months and years after these Olympics – especially these Olympics – as a counterpoint to the results-obsessed mindsets that have shattered the mental wellbeing of so many athletes thrust into the pressure-cooker of the world’s biggest sporting event. She spoke candidly and insightfully on how her unique journey from child prodigy to burnout case to second-act skater gave rise to an indifference to scores or placements. All she wanted in the end was a chance to make the US team and share her artistry on the world stage.
Assistant Paddy MacCarthy in line to step up if needed
Crystal Palace are considering sacking Oliver Glasner after his latest public outburst in which the manager said he was “just not good enough” to turn around the club’s fortunes.
Glasner has announced he will leave Palace at the end of the season but it is understood the chair, Steve Parish, could bring forward the Austrian’s departure after supporters turned on the manager during Thursday’s 1-1 draw at Zrinjski Mostar in the Conference League. It is unclear whether Glasner will remain in charge beyond Sunday’s game at home to Wolves, with his assistant Paddy McCarthy in line to step in as a caretaker if needed.
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