Allies hope aide’s departure can quell anger over Mandelson scandal but others say it leaves PM dangerously exposed

• Profile: Labour election guru undone by poor judgment

• ‘Only honourable course’: resignation statement in full

Keir Starmer is fighting to reassert control over his party after accepting the resignation of his closest adviser, Morgan McSweeney, amid anger over the appointment of Peter Mandelson as US ambassador.

After days of pressure over the scandal, his departing chief of staff said on Sunday he took “full responsibility” for his advice to send Mandelson to Washington despite his ongoing relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, which McSweeney conceded had undermined trust in Labour and in politics itself.

Those pushing to oust the prime minister are unlikely to be deterred by his right-hand man’s departure

For some Labour MPs, the sight of Keir Starmer accepting the resignation of his long-term consigliere, Morgan McSweeney, encapsulated everything they think is going wrong with the prime minister’s leadership.

After days of mounting criticism over McSweeney’s role in advocating for the appointment of Peter Mandelson as Washington ambassador, the prime minister’s chief of staff left Downing Street on Sunday.

Pep Guardiola threw himself back into his seat in the dugout. The Manchester City manager had just witnessed a moment of sheer brilliance and, like everyone connected to his club, he had to fear the worst. Because bad things tend to happen to him at Anfield.

The blow had been administered by Dominik Szoboszlai, the stand‑in Liverpool right-back, and it is worth dwelling on it for a moment – if only a moment as it was overtaken rapidly by a bonkers finale. When the Hungarian addressed a free-kick 30 yards out, City did not look overly concerned: they put two men in their wall. Perhaps they had not remembered what Szoboszlai did to Arsenal from a similar position at the start of the season.

• Walsh and Thompson seal 2-0 success at Tottenham

• Liverpool and West Ham win to boost survival hopes

Chelsea defeated Tottenham 2-0 to boost their faint hopes of retaining the Women’s Super League title, as Madonna watched from the stands at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Goals from Keira Walsh and Alyssa Thompson either side of half-time ended Chelsea’s run of back-to-back defeats and left Sonia Bompastor’s team nine points off the leaders Manchester City, who lost 1-0 against Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium earlier on Sunday.

• ‘You can’t underestimate these guys any more’

• Curran’s final-over heroics sealed four-run win

England flirted with one of the great T20 World Cup upsets in Mumbai before getting their campaign under way with victory against Nepal by four runs and, although they did not lose the game, Sam Curran insisted they had lost any sense of complacency.

“We take those two points and take great confidence, because it wouldn’t have been a nice dressing room this evening,” said Curran, who conceded just five runs in the final over to decide the game.

The gruesome finish to the US star’s comeback, at age 41 and with a ruptured ACL, is a reminder of skiing’s unforgiving nature

There was always a version of this story that ended in a single, violent instant. Lindsey Vonn was 13th to push out of the start gate on Sunday in Cortina d’Ampezzo knowing exactly what she was racing with: a fully ruptured anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee, a heavy brace wrapped around the joint, and the accumulated wear of a career spent flirting with speed and consequence.

Vonn barely made it out of the opening phase of the run.

Pressure grows on Keir Starmer as Labour peer reported to have received payment worth three months’ salary when he quit in September

• UK politics live – latest updates

A cabinet minister has called for Peter Mandelson to hand back the payout he received after quitting as ambassador to the US last year, as pressure increased on the prime minister to quit for having appointed him in the first place.

Pat McFadden, the welfare secretary, said on Sunday he thought the Labour peer should give back his Foreign Office payout, which is reported to be as much as £55,000. The Foreign Office is understood to be reviewing the payment.

Looking for Valentine’s Day gift ideas? Creative gift ideas for him and sentimental gifts for her

• This story was originally published in the Filter US newsletter on buying fewer, better things. Sign up here to get early access to it

Each week we cut through the noise to bring you smart, practical recommendations on how to live better – from what is worth buying to the tools, habits and ideas that actually last.

When it comes to Valentine’s Day, I’m nostalgic for candy hearts and childhood crushes. But like many facets of adulthood, the holiday becomes more complicated as I grow older.

26 sentimental and practical US Valentine’s Day gifts for her in 2026

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The 28 best fashion gifts in the US – curated by our favorite stylists and creators

The 20 best US beauty gifts for makeup and skincare lovers – curated by dewy-skinned content creators

Exclusive: Childnet, a UK charity part-funded by US tech firms, edited out warnings by two young speakers at its 2024 Safer Internet Day event

An internet safety campaign backed by US tech companies has been accused of censoring two teenagers they invited to speak out about the biggest issues facing children online.

Childnet, a UK charity part-funded by companies including Snap, Roblox and Meta, edited out warnings from Lewis Swire and Saamya Ghai that social media addiction was an “imminent threat to our future” and obsessive scrolling was making people “sick”, according to a record of edits seen by the Guardian.

If he and his philosophy were to blame for the government’s ills, now it can change tack. There can be no more excuses

Here is something they can’t take away from him: Morgan McSweeney is often credited for Labour’s remarkable turnaround from the abyss of the 2019 election to the astounding landslide of 2024. Few thought it could be done. The Tories did all they could to help, but it took clever strategy and ruthless tactics to pull off what no pollsters predicted in the immediate wake of Boris Johnson’s 80-seat majority. But it turned out that the skills that win election campaigns are not those that run a government.

His resignation today will do little to shore up Keir Stamer’s precarious position. “Man or woman overboard!” has been the frequent cry from the decks of No 10. After just 18 months, here’s a roll call of the drowned, all from senior posts selected by Starmer with fanfare, only to make them walk the plank: Sue Gray, Steph Driver, Liz Lloyd, James Lyons, Matthew Doyle, Nin Pandit, Paul Ovenden and probably more I’ve forgotten. It’s not a good look: in a company, shareholders would ask what was wrong with their CEO.

Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist

Top House Democrat says president’s suggestion for Republicans to ‘take over’ elections really means ‘steal it’

Democrats will stop Donald Trump from trying to steal this year’s midterm elections, Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic leader in the US House of Representatives said on Sunday.

Jeffries’ comments come amid widespread concern after Trump said Republicans should “take over the voting”. The US constitution gives states the power to set election rules and says Congress can pass laws to set requirements for federal elections. The constitution gives the president no authority over how elections are run.

A mining disaster in the Democratic Republic of Congo underscores the human cost of extraction. Intensified competition for resources isn’t helping

When Donald Trump boasted recently that he had stopped the conflict between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo – though fighting persists in the DRC, at appalling human cost – he made clear that his goals went beyond a long-sought Nobel Peace prize.

“They said to me, ‘Please, please, we would love you to come and take our minerals.’ Which we’ll do,” the US president added. Now he is following through. Last Monday he launched a new strategic reserve plan, “Project Vault”, worth almost $12bn. Two days later, JD Vance hosted a summit seeking to create a trade zone for critical minerals.

Women’s and human rights activist, arrested at a demonstration in December, is said to be on hunger strike

Iran has sentenced the Nobel peace prize laureate Narges Mohammadi to more than seven more years in prison after she began a hunger strike, her supporters said Sunday, as Tehran cracks down on all dissent following nationwide protests and the deaths of thousands at the hands of security forces.

The new convictions against Mohammadi come as Iran tries to negotiate with the US over its nuclear programme to avert a military strike threatened by Donald Trump. Iran’s top diplomat said on Sunday that Tehran’s strength came from its ability to “say no to the great powers”, striking a maximalist position just after negotiations in Oman with the US.

Mathematician whose work at the US Naval Weapons Laboratory was pivotal to the development of GPS

It was only late in life that the mathematician Gladys West, who has died aged 95, was recognised for her role in the development of today’s global positioning system, or GPS. She came to be thought of as another “hidden figure” – a reference to the 2016 book and subsequent film about three black women who worked at Nasa during the space race.

While West’s story may have been less dramatic – it took decades of painstaking work at the US Naval Weapons Laboratory for her to come up with the geodesic systems that would allow the precise measurements and mapping needed for the technology – her work nevertheless transformed modern life.

Environmental groups said dicamba drift has damaged vegetable farms, trees and other critical plants

The Environmental Protection Agency on Friday reapproved the weedkiller dicamba for use on genetically modified soybeans and cotton, a pesticide that has raised widespread concern over its tendency to drift and destroy nearby crops.

The agency said dicamba was critical for farmers who would otherwise have their crops threatened by fast growing weeds. To ensure the pesticide is used safely, the agency said it imposed strong protections and limits on its use.

• Exeter winger injured hamstring in training

• Furbank and Genge also doubts for Scotland match

Immanuel Feyi-Waboso has been ruled out of England’s forthcoming pursuit of the triple crown and is a major doubt for the rest of the Six Nations tournament, while Steve Borthwick has fitness concerns over George Furbank and Ellis Genge as his team seek to end their Murrayfield hoodoo on Saturday.

Feyi-Waboso pulled out of the 48‑7 victory against Wales 24 hours before kick-off after sustaining a hamstring injury and was replaced by Tom Roebuck. The Exeter winger will be out for “a number of weeks”, ensuring he misses the trip to Murrayfield and the visit of Ireland to Twickenham a week later. He has not yet been ruled out of England’s entire campaign but the chances of him appearing seem remote and he has been left out of the 36‑man squad called into camp on Sunday night.

Valeria Chomsky says Epstein had deceived them and they were ‘careless’ not to thoroughly research his background

Noam Chomsky and his wife, Valeria, made a “grave mistake” and were “careless” not to thoroughly research the background of Jeffrey Epstein, Valeria Chomsky said in a lengthy statement on Saturday, adding also that Epstein had deceived them.

The relationship between Noam Chomsky, the 97-year-old linguist and philosopher, and Epstein has been under scrutiny after documents released by the justice department shed light on their friendship. As Epstein came under scrutiny for sex trafficking allegations in 2019, he asked Chomsky for advice on how to respond. “I’ve watched the horrible way you are being treated in the press and public. It’s painful to say, but I think the best way to proceed is to ignore it,” Chomsky wrote in a message signed “Noam” that Epstein shared in email with an associate.

While AI is having an impact on the workplace, experts suggest tariffs, overhiring during the pandemic and simply maximising profits may be bigger factors

Over the last year, US corporate leaders have often explained layoffs by saying the positions were no longer needed because artificial intelligence had made their companies more efficient, replacing humans with computers.

But some economists and technology analysts have expressed skepticism about such justifications and instead think that such workforce cuts are driven by factors like the impact of tariffs, overhiring during the Covid-19 pandemic and perhaps simple maximising of profits.

Several men appear in photos on the nearly 10,000-acre Zorro ranch, which included a 26,700 sq ft mansion

For years, Jeffrey Epstein took respite at a sprawling ranch in the desert scrub outside Santa Fe, New Mexico. Epstein’s nearly 10,000-acre (4,000-hectare) property – known as Zorro ranch – was dotted with cholla cactus and Angus cattle, and came to include a 26,700 sq ft mansion, as well as a private runway and hangar.

For years, Epstein abused teenage girls and young women on this ranch with impunity, according to testimony from several women. In court proceedings, survivors detailed horror after horror they say unfolded on this isolated expanse of land.

The series in which readers answer other readers’ questions explores the sounds and music that play on repeat mentally – and how to escape their aural clutches

• This week’s question: can you acquire courage?

I know a song that’ll get on your nerves, get on your nerves, get on your nerves. I know a so … you get the gist! Why does a song sometimes get stuck in our heads? (And good luck stopping this one now!) Laura Ashton, Haslemere, Surrey

Send new questions to nq@theguardian.com.

Since a presidential post on Truth Social the Washington DC arts hub has lost its leadership, had its name changed and will now be closed for years

The Brentano String Quartet had finished their performance when a special guest dropped in backstage: the US supreme court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. “We thanked her for everything she had done for our country,” recalls violinist Mark Steinberg. “It was a nice moment.”

The year was 2016 and the place was the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington. Fast forward a decade and old certainties have been shaken: Ginsburg is dead, Donald Trump is president and the Kennedy Center has become a case study in how a seemingly solid American institution can quickly unravel.

The Bucks star has become a shareholder in one of the world’s largest prediction markets. It only ushers the NBA further into the fetid swamp of sports betting

Couldn’t he have just started a podcast? “The Internet is full of opinions. I decided it was time to make some of my own,” Giannis Antetokounmpo, one of the four best basketball players in the world, posted in a statement announcing that he was joining the prediction market Kalshi as a shareholder. “We all on Kalshi now.”

We are not, but doesn’t the tone sum it up? The universe’s ineffable forces have clearly decided that the ubiquity of sports betting companies is insufficient. There must be new companies, with which you can bet on any outcome – Kalshi competitor Polymarket has hosted markets tied to geopolitical outcomes, including scenarios related to Israel and Gaza, for instance – that incentivize people to treat life’s most important avenues as trivially as a sports game. Kalshi and Polymarket are prediction platforms rather than traditional betting companies. Users effectively bet (or “trade”) against others on the platform about the outcome of events, from familiar wagers such as the result of a sporting event, to the obscure, such as the color of a politician’s suit at an election appearance. Kalshi has enjoyed plenty of freedom under the second Donald Trump administration, and Donald Trump Jr is a “strategic advisor” for them and Polymarket. A Kalshi outcome taking bets until recently was “Giannis Antetokounmpo’s next team?” as rumors swirled that the two-time NBA MVP was about to leave the Milwaukee Bucks. Antetokounmpo will be involved in marketing and publicity for Kalshi, and is forbidden from trading on markets related to the NBA. The move is also in step with the NBA’s rules – players are allowed to endorse betting companies as long as they don’t gamble on the league itself. But that hasn’t prevented scores of fans across Instagram and Reddit, and media members on Twitter, from expressing their displeasure at the move and insisting there is a conflict of interest.

Arrests follow discovery on Friday of magistrate and her mother in a garage in south-east of country

French authorities have arrested six suspects, including a child, after a magistrate and her mother were held captive last week for about 30 hours in a cryptocurrency ransom plot.

Four men and one woman were detained, three overnight and two on Sunday morning, the Lyon prosecutor Thierry Dran told Agence France-Presse. He later confirmed a child had been arrested on Sunday afternoon.