Move brings total number of people killed in US strikes on suspected boats since September to at least 148

The US military launched a strike on an alleged drug smuggling boat in the eastern Pacific on Friday, killing three men in its second strike this week.

“Intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations,” US Southern Command, which oversees operations in Latin America and the Caribbean, said on Twitter/X.

Shooting death of Ruben Ray Martinez, 23, in Texas was not publicly disclosed by Department of Homeland Security

Newly released records show a US citizen was shot and killed in Texas by a federal immigration agent last year during a late-night traffic encounter that was not publicly disclosed by the Department of Homeland Security.

The death of Ruben Ray Martinez, 23, would mark the earliest of at least six deadly shootings by federal officers since the start of a nationwide immigration crackdown in Donald Trump’s second term. On Friday, DHS said the shooting on South Padre Island last March occurred after the driver intentionally struck an agent.

Aid workers say the camp where 34 women and children are being held are ‘dire’ and present more risk than if they were repatriated

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Conditions in the north-eastern Syrian camp where 34 Australians have been forcibly returned are deteriorating dramatically, with reports of near-nightly raids, and increasingly violent beatings, amid worsening uncertainty over their futures.

The 11 women and 23 Australian children forced back to Roj camp on Monday returned to find their tents – formerly huddled collectively in a row known as Australia Street – demolished and their possessions seized.

Nevada county sheriff said investigation includes learning why the ski trip was not cancelled by the guide company

Authorities are investigating whether any criminal negligence was involved in the deadly avalanche that swept California’s Lake Tahoe this week, which killed at least eight skiers and their guides while returning from a three-day backcountry skiing trip.

The Nevada county sheriff’s office said on Friday said that they notified the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Osha), which regulates workplace safety, of the active investigation.

The former president was found guilty of leading an insurrection and sentenced to life imprisonment with labour, a punishment that some have called a ‘failure’

On Thursday, former president Yoon Suk Yeol was found guilty of leading an insurrection and sentenced to life imprisonment with labour over his failed martial law declaration in December 2024.

When he received his sentence, hundreds of his opponents cheered outside the court. But the mood quickly shifted to disappointment and anger.

Philanthropist and mother of Elisabeth, James and Lachlan Murdoch died at home in Palm Beach, Florida

The author and philanthropist Anna Murdoch-Mann, the ex-wife of the Australian media tycoon Rupert Murdoch, died at her home in Palm Beach, Florida, on Tuesday. She was 81.

Murdoch-Mann’s death was reported Friday by the New York Post, one of her ex-husband’s media properties.

A man, 23, drove a car full of weapons through gate of power facility before shooting himself in the head, officials said

A 23-year-old man drove from New York to a Las Vegas suburb and crashed a rented Nissan Sentra through a gate and into a pile of heavy wire reels at a power substation before shooting himself in the head, local police said on Friday, describing the incident as a suspected act of terrorism.

The suspect, Dawson Noah Maloney, died of the self-inflicted shotgun wound, the Las Vegas sheriff, Kevin McMahill, said at a press conference on Friday. He was wearing soft body armor when police discovered him.

• Hughes and Eichel spark US rout of Slovakia

• MacKinnon scores late to send Canada through

• Border rivals to meet for men’s hockey gold

The United States and Canada men’s ice hockey teams will play for the gold medal on Sunday’s final day of the Milano Cortina Games after both teams came through semi-final contests of varying difficulty on Friday evening, setting up a blockbuster final in the first Olympic tournament to feature National Hockey League players in 12 years.

Canada left things late in the first game, fighting back from two goals down to win 3-2 over Finland on Nathan MacKinnon’s winner with 35.2 seconds remaining. The US made far lighter work of Slovakia in the nightcap to set up the heavyweight clash, strolling to a 6-2 win after Jack Hughes and Jack Eichel scored in a 19-second span during the second period to blow things open, ensuring the Americans no worse than silver and their first men’s hockey medal in 16 years.

• Rooney claimed coach lacked ‘aura’ to manage club

• ‘Jürgen Klopp and me both won the league’

Arne Slot has responded to Wayne Rooney’s claim that the Liverpool head coach does not have the “aura” to manage the club by pointing to his Premier League title success last season.

Rooney questioned Slot’s suitability for the job, telling The Overlap: “I have met him a few times. He was a nice fella but I just don’t think, for Liverpool, he’s got that aura about him. Maybe this is because you have just come off the back of Jürgen Klopp and it’s going to be difficult for anyone to have that, but I just don’t think there’s that aura about him.”

• New coach starts tenure against Arsenal on Sunday

• Tudor insists ‘we have enormous quality in the squad’

Igor Tudor has said Tottenham are in “an emergency situation” but issued a guarantee that his new team would escape relegation.

Tudor is a veteran of short-term appointments and has performed rescue jobs at Udinese, Verona and Juventus. He offered a curt “100%” in response to questions on his confidence in Spurs’s survival. The Croat’s tenure begins on Sunday with a north London derby at home to the wobbling Premier League leaders, though a lengthy injury list leaves him with only 13 fit senior players.

Rightwing Trump ally tells Tucker Carlson Israel has biblical right to land from ‘wadi of Egypt to the great river’

The US’s ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, has contended to the podcaster Tucker Carlson that Israel has a biblical right to take over the entire Middle East – or at least the lion’s share of it.

“It would be fine if they took it all,” Huckabee said to Carlson during an interview posted on Friday. The Trump administration appointee and former Arkansas governor discussed with Carlson interpretations of Old Testament scripture within the US Christian nationalist movement.

Federal judge said reporter Hannah Natanson ‘has basically been deprived of her life’s work’ after January raid

A federal judge in Virginia on Friday declined to immediately rule on the Washington Post’s request for the government to return devices seized from reporter Hannah Natanson in a January raid of her home.

But the judge, William B Porter of the eastern district of Virginia, acknowledged the enormity and significance of the seizure during the afternoon hearing. “Ms Natanson has basically been deprived of her life’s work,” he said.

Legislation responds to concerns that immigration officers could interfere with voting during November midterms

A bill introduced this week by California lawmakers would ban federal immigration agents from being stationed outside polling places, responding to concerns that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers could interfere with voting during the November midterm elections.

The legislation was introduced on Thursday by state senator Tom Umberg and co-authored by state senator Sabrina Cervantes. Umberg said the measure aimed to safeguard voters from “ruthless intimidation” near polling locations.

Recruitment of children for study delayed after MHRA warns that participants should be no younger than 14

A clinical trial into puberty blockers for children has been paused after the medicines regulator warned it should have a minimum age limit of 14 because of the “unquantified risk” of “long-term biological harms”.

Discussions between the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and the trial sponsor, King’s College London, will begin next week to discuss the wellbeing concerns, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said on Friday evening.

• Opponent’s blade slices above Kamila Sellier’s eye

• Polish skater was given stitches at arena

• Collision occurred during 1500m quarter-finals

Short-track speed skater Kamila Sellier of Poland was immobilized on a stretcher and wheeled out of the Milano Ice Skating Arena on Friday night after a competitor’s blade sliced her above her left eye during the women’s 1500m at the Milano Cortina Olympics.

Sellier went down along with 14-time Olympic medalist Arianna Fontana of Italy and American skater Kristen Santos-Griswold, who was penalized for an illegal lane pass that contributed to the accident. That kept Santos-Griswold from advancing through the quarter-final round.

Subspecies driven to extinction by hungry whalers returns after ‘back breeding’ programme using partial descendants

Giant tortoises, the life-giving engineers of remote small island ecosystems, are plodding over the Galápagos island of Floreana for the first time in more than 180 years.

The Floreana giant tortoise (Chelonoidis niger niger), a subspecies of the giant tortoise once found across the Galápagos, was driven to extinction in the 1840s by whalers who removed thousands from the volcanic island to provide a living larder during their hunting voyages.

• Trainer Nicky Henderson shocked by Southwell victory

• ‘We will have to think long and hard about his future’

The mercurial career of Constitution Hill took a dramatic upward turn on Friday as the 2023 Champion Hurdle winner turned his belated Flat debut into a procession up the Southwell straight, coming home nine and a half lengths clear of the runner-up, with Oisin Murphy, the champion jockey, motionless in his saddle.

Even those closest to Constitution Hill were left astonished by his performance, which may make it increasingly likely that the champion jumping horse who had famously forgotten how to jump will now switch to racing on the Flat full-time.

• 31-year-old adds to his 2018 silver and 2022 bronze

• Estonia’s Sildaru, Canada’s Mackay round out podium

American freeskier Alex Ferreira won the men’s halfpipe final at the Milano Cortina Winter Games on Friday to complete his collection of Olympic medals.

The 31-year-old Ferreira won with a third and final run worth 93.75 points, adding the gold medal to his silver from Pyeongchang in 2018 and bronze from Beijing in 2022.

Steve Borthwick needs a charge of electricity after the power cut in Scotland and team’s 21-year-old forward could fire up title challenge

The third weekend of the Six Nations used to be a time for contemplation and reflection. After the fury of the first two rounds, everything would stop for a much-needed fallow week in which to restore energy levels. And now? The battle-scarred gladiators are about to “go again”, putting their bodies on the line out on the pitch or, in the case of travelling supporters, in the pub.

Player welfare rules OK? That debate still rumbles on but certain other areas – fitness, mental resilience, squad depth – traditionally reserved for the tournament’s closing fortnight are increasingly front and centre. The rhythm of this year’s championship is subtly different, particularly for sides such as England with only two home fixtures. Slip up for a second successive Saturday and that’s it, folks, until November in terms of high-profile Twickenham opportunities.

Playmaker, out of favour under Mikel Arteta, has scored 18 of his 38 Premier League goals at business end of the season

Eberechi Eze was asked in an interview this week if there is a motto that he lives by and his answer was most revealing given how things have been going for him at Arsenal recently. “It’s not about now. It’s the long game,” he told the Men in Blazers podcast before Sunday’s north London derby.

Remaining patient has been a recurring theme throughout Eze’s career ever since he was released by Arsenal at 13 and then rejected by several other clubs before finding a home at Queens Park Rangers. Yet having made an immediate impression after a £67.5m dream move back to his boyhood club from Crystal Palace that peaked with a memorable hat-trick against Tottenham at the end of November, the goals have dried up completely as Mikel Arteta has seemingly lost faith in the England forward.

President called justices who blocked his tariffs a ‘disgrace to the nation’ while praising three justices who dissented

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Donald Trump on Friday railed against the supreme court justices who blocked his use of tariffs, calling the decision a “disgrace to the nation” and claiming he planned to impose even more tariffs under other statutory authorities.

“It’s my opinion that the court has been swayed by foreign interests and a political movement that is far smaller than people would ever think,” the president said during remarks from the White House. He cast that influence as social and cultural. “I’m ashamed of certain members of the court. Absolutely ashamed for not having the courage to do what’s right for our country.”

First lady is first in more than 100 years to have two inaugural gowns in museum’s popular collection

Her husband has described it as “OUT OF CONTROL”, a place where “everything discussed is how horrible our Country is, how bad Slavery was, and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been”.

But Melania Trump, the wife of US president Donald Trump, declared a temporary ceasefire in hostilities with the Smithsonian Institution in Washington on Friday – with the help of a silk gown, diamond brooch and headless mannequin.

Bravery on display has been inspirational, but behind the glamour and the glory it’s the humanity that captivates us

Milano Cortina has been the first Games where I’ve been around town, not just being whisked from the sliding centre to the athletes’ village. It has given me the chance to really be present and feel the excitement and anticipation that sport brings, not to mention the importance it has in giving us something else to focus on in difficult times.

As a TV pundit, it was hard to keep my emotions in check watching Great Britain’s skeleton success because I knew what it meant to Matt Weston and Tabby Stoecker to become Olympic champions – Matt twice, of course. Their achievements are not only historic but the day-to-day impact will be so meaningful to both of them. I remember seeing kids’ drawings of me and people dressing up as “Lizzy” and now I’m seeing it from a different perspective. I’m incredibly proud of them.

Administrator Jared Isaacman cites ‘major progress’ since earlier discovery of liquid hydrogen leaking from rocket

Nasa said on Friday it was planning to launch its delayed Artemis II moon mission on 6 March after successfully completing a fueling test that had caused it to stand down earlier this month.

Jared Isaacman, the space agency’s newly confirmed administrator, cited “major progress” since the original so-called wet dress rehearsal in which engineers discovered liquid hydrogen leaking from the space launch system (SLS) rocket on its Florida launchpad at Cape Canaveral.