• American looking to retain title she won in Beijing

• Medal table | Live scores and schedule | Results | Briefing

• Winter Olympics: day six – live | And email Beau

Japan’s Sena Tomita is the defending bronze medalist. She also runs into difficulty and will not be counting this run.

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• Villarreal player charged in July with five counts of rape

• Former Arsenal midfielder denies all the charges

The footballer Thomas Partey has been charged with two new counts of rape relating to an additional woman who came forward to police with the allegations in August last year.

Partey will appear at Westminster magistrates court on 13 March in relation to the additional charges issued by the Crown Prosecution Service over allegations that date from 2020.

Exclusive: TSSA general secretary wants Rayner to take over after Gorton byelection which she expects party to lose

• UK politics live – latest updates

The head of a Labour-affiliated union has called for Angela Rayner to replace Keir Starmer, warning that Starmer risks leading the party into a heavy election defeat to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.

Maryam Eslamdoust, the general secretary of the Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association (TSSA), told the Guardian she wanted the former deputy prime minister to take charge after this month’s Gorton and Denton byelection.

Skeleton racer sacrificed his dream of winning a medal and succeeded in putting the horrors of the war in Ukraine back on the agenda

To be a Olympic-class skeleton racer requires extraordinary guts and impeccable nerve, as the corners loom and then whoosh past at frightening speed. So did anybody really believe that Ukraine’s Vladyslav Heraskevych would lose his when the world’s eyes were upon him?

Not the International Olympic Committee, who flipped between threats of expulsion and sweet talk over the last fortnight, without coming close to changing his mind. And certainly not those of us who have spoken and messaged Heraskevych, and found a man utterly prepared to sacrifice his dream of winning a Winter Olympic medal for a higher purpose.

American actor best known for his role in the television drama Dawson’s Creek

For a worldwide generation of young television viewers in the 1990s, James Van Der Beek, who has died aged 48 after suffering from cancer, provided the role model of a sensitive male teenager. As the fresh-faced Dawson Leery in the American drama Dawson’s Creek (1998-2003) – shown in the UK on Channel 4 and then on Channel 5 – he starred in a series portraying friendship, first love and the trials and tribulations of adolescence in the fictional coastal town of Capeside, Massachusetts.

The nerdy Dawson’s idealism and habit of over-analysing often give him unrealistic expectations and a tendency to make long emotional speeches. “It’s not about the kiss – it’s about the journey and creating a sustaining magic,” he reflects in an early episode.

Elbridge Colby tells meeting in Brussels that US plans to reduce conventional forces in Europe but remains committed to Nato alliance

The Pentagon’s policy chief, Elbridge Colby, has told European Nato defence ministers in Brussels that they need to step up their combat capabilities and take the lead in protecting their continent from the Russian threat.

The influential undersecretary for war, sent by the White House in place of his boss, Pete Hegseth, said the US would reduce conventional forces in Europe but insisted Washington remained committed to the military alliance.

Move puts AI firm in opposition to ChatGPT maker OpenAI, which has advocated for less stringent AI regulations

Anthropic will spend $20m to back US political candidates who support regulating the AI industry, according to a company statement released on Thursday. Anthropic’s donation puts it in opposition to the ChatGPT maker OpenAI, which has advocated for less stringent regulation of AI.

The company is donating to Public First Action, a political group that opposes federal efforts to quash state AI regulations like a December executive order issued by Donald Trump. One of the candidates that the group is backing is Republican Marsha Blackburn, who is running for governor in Tennessee and who opposed an effort in Congress to bar states from passing AI laws.

Protesters are enjoying greater freedom of expression since Nicolás Maduro’s downfall despite lack of regime change

Protesters have taken to the streets of cities across Venezuela in the latest sign of an embryonic political shift after Nicolás Maduro’s recent downfall.

Student demonstrators gathered on the campus of the Central University of Venezuela in Caracas on Thursday to demand the release of all of the country’s political prisoners, the return of exiled activists and a full transition to democracy. “Who are we? Venezuela! What do we want? Freedom!” they shouted.

The Bob Coveiro (the Gravedigger) Law ‘recognises the emotional bond between guardians and their pets’

A dog that remained beside his former owner’s grave for 10 years has now given his name to a new state law allowing pets to be buried alongside their loved ones in São Paulo.

The new law – already being informally referred to as the Bob Coveiro (the Gravedigger) Law, in tribute to its inspiration – was signed this week by the governor of Brazil’s most populous state, the conservative Tarcísio de Freitas.

Award was presented as president directed Pentagon to buy billions of dollars’ worth of energy from coal plants

• US politics live – latest updates

Donald Trump was crowned the “undisputed champion of beautiful clean coal” during a White House ceremony on Wednesday, during which the president received a trophy after ordering the US defense department to purchase billions of dollars’ worth of power from coal plants.

The award was reportedly granted by the Washington Coal Club, an advocacy group with financial ties to the coal industry.

• British racer poised for podium after opening rounds

• Sledder turned in back-to-back Cortina track records

This was the race that will always be remembered for the one man who didn’t make the start. Exactly 21 minutes before the men’s skeleton was scheduled to begin the International Olympic Committee put out its press release announcing that it had revoked the Olympic accreditation of the Ukrainian slider Vladyslav Heraskevych after he refused to compete without his helmet decorated with the images of his fellow athletes who have been killed during the Russian invasion of his country. It was so late the two British competitors, Matt Weston and Marcus Wyatt said they didn’t even find out about it until after they had finished.

By then, the news had already spread around the world, and the one Ukrainian journalist present, Stanislav Oroshkevych, from tribuna.com, found he was suddenly surrounded by colleagues from Germany, Britain, Japan, and a dozen other countries, all asking him for public comment on what was going on. Soon, the Ukrainian press attache arrived to save him and announced that Heraskevych would come to give an impromptu press conference himself. The photos of Heraskevych standing behind the barriers near the finish, his helmet tucked under his arm, addressing a crowd of 30 journalists, will be one of the iconic images of these Olympics.

Seamer was set to spend February helping at his father’s restaurant until late World Cup call – now he’s focused on another England upset

It is fair to say that England’s first two games at the T20 World Cup have not inspired much confidence – unless you’re one of their future opponents. For Scotland, last-minute call-ups after the decision to banish Bangladesh from the tournament last month, English travails have put some extra pep in their step ahead of the now-crucial Group C clash in Kolkata on Saturday.

“Definitely,” says the seamer Safyaan Sharif. “They’ll be feeling pressure because they know they have to win if they want to qualify. Obviously that’s the same with us, but I don’t think we have too much to lose. I think they have more to lose than us. Nepal gave them a good run and they were stressed in that game. They were panicking a lot – you could tell, the way they were playing in the final few overs. So it’s how they handle the pressure.

Job losses and programming cancellations expected after Tim Davie tells staff broadcaster is not a ‘protected species’

The BBC is to pursue cuts of up to £600m that will result in job losses and the end of some programming, amid concerns at a decline in the number of households paying the licence fee.

Tim Davie, the outgoing director general, told staff that the broadcaster was not a “protected species” and that 10% of the BBC’s costs would have to be cut over the next three years.

Evangelos Marinakis is close to appointing fourth head coach of season after Sean Dyche’s sacking and it’s a mess of his own making because he should never have fired Nuno

Sacking three head coaches in a season does not reflect well on Nottingham Forest or their owner, Evangelos Marinakis. It is a mess of their own making, which started with the exit of their most successful manager in recent history and has the latest P45 going to the man brought in to sort out the problems created by an ill-judged appointment that lasted eight winless games.

Twelve months ago Forest were battling for a Champions League spot under the stable stewardship of Nuno Espírito Santo. A lot has changed and they will become the first Premier League side to have four permanent managers in a season, which was not a record Forest were aiming for in August, when they were hoping to build on a seventh-place finish, an FA Cup semi-final and qualifying for Europe for the first time in 30 years.

Late-night hosts discussed Pam Bondi’s heated hearing and an embarrassing post-race Winter Olympics interview

Late-night hosts recapped US attorney general Pam Bondi’s contentious congressional hearing as she faced tough questions over the justice department’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files.

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There are a lot of billionaires making global headlines at the moment and even if we were dying of thirst, Football Daily wouldn’t go for a pint with any of them. Big Sir Jim Ratcliffe almost certainly wouldn’t want to come for a pint with us, given our backstreet local’s clientele boasts no end of foreigners of every stripe and shade, all of whom are apparently more hell-bent on annexing the pool table than “colonising the UK”. A man who is so patriotic he would do anything for his country except live or pay taxes in it, Big Sir Jim has plumbed unprecedented depths of unpopularity among Manchester United fans by embarking on a diatribe against immigrants that played fast and loose in its use of far-right rhetoric and was backed up by wildly inaccurate statistics.

Re: yesterday’s Football Daily. I am sure I am in tune with 1,057 others when I suggest that Tottenham Hotspur did a Frank appraisal of their situation and decided to have a frank conversation with Frank to explain that, frankly, his tenure as manager was not good enough and that, as soon as their franking machine could print off the postage, Frank would be getting a frank letter, asking him – frankly – to do one. Which is a great shame, as he seems to be a really good guy and, as his time at Brentford shows, he is a very good manager. As an Arsenal fan, I now wish him well, which I haven’t been able to do since June last year” – Andrew Kluth (and no others).

In yesterday’s Football Daily (full email edition), we have Liam Rosenior making sure his players are ‘switched on for 90 minutes’. Can I be one of 1,057 pedants pointing out that, according to no less an authority than Big Website, games now last an average of 100 minutes, 36 seconds? Demand more, Liam. Demand more” – Simon Riley (and no others).

This may be scant consolation to Rod de Lisle (yesterday’s Football Daily letters) but Leicester’s capitulation against Southampton, while spectacular, is eclipsed by at least one other game. Back in 1957, Huddersfield Town – managed by Bill Shankly, who, were he still around, would surely win letter o’ the day so often you’d probably drop it altogether as a feature, and also featuring future Wolves manager Bill McGarry as a player – somehow contrived to turn a 5-1 lead in the 63rd minute away at Charlton (who had also been down to 10 men since the 17th minute) into a 7-6 defeat” – Simon Gill.

It doubtless won’t be much consolation to interim Leicester boss Andy King, but given that his team weren’t playing against 10 men when they threw away that 3-0 lead to lose 4-3, it probably wasn’t the worst half in the history of football” – Nick Payne.

This is an extract from our daily football email … Football Daily. To get the full version, just visit this page and follow the instructions.

Tom Homan says Trump has backed ‘significant drawdown’ in the state, where two US citizens have been killed

• US politics live – latest updates

The Trump administration has claimed it is drawing down its immigration crackdown in Minnesota that led to the death of two US citizens, mass detentions and widespread protests.

The move was announced by Tom Homan, the US border czar, at a press briefing on Thursday.

Advocate general questions decision, saying reforms needed to unfreeze about €10bn have not been carried out

• Europe live – latest updates

The top adviser to the EU’s highest court has said it should annul a decision by the European Commission to unfreeze billions of euros of payments to Hungary that had been suspended because of serious concerns over corruption and the rule of law.

Tamara Ćapeta, the advocate general of the European court of justice, said on Thursday the commission should not have paid out the funds because Hungary had not actually carried out the judicial reforms that were a condition for their release.

Opéra Royal de Versailles/Angioloni
(Château de Versailles Spectacles)
Doubling as vocalist and conductor, Angiolini is joined by fine singers in this rarely recorded late work. Giacomo Nanni’s sonorous ‘Fra l’ombre e gl’orrori’ is a particular highlight

Premiered in 1732, Sosarme is a bit of a sleeper among Handel’s mature operas, with only Anthony Lewis’s 1954 recording in the current catalogue. That’s a shame, as it possesses emotional depth as well as a swag of memorable arias. Contemporary audiences gave it a warm welcome, though the composer’s last-minute attempt to avoid a diplomatic faux pas by switching settings from medieval Portugal to mythical Lydia hasn’t helped its reputation.

This lightly sprung performance from Opéra Royal de Versailles under conductor Marco Angioloni goes some way to rehabilitating the work, even if the engineered sound and edgy string tone are a little in-your-face. Rémy Brès-Feuillet is honey-toned in the title role, originally a vehicle for the great contralto castrato Senesino, with Sarah Charles suitably soubrettish as his beloved Elmira.

The film-maker and author narrates this vivid account of his wide-eyed adventures as a young music journalist in 70s America, hanging out with heroes from David Bowie to Led Zeppelin

The title of The Uncool refers to rock critic Lester Bangs’s assessment of Cameron Crowe, whose adventures as a music journalist were loosely depicted in his 2000 movie, Almost Famous. Long before he became a film-maker, the teenage Crowe travelled around the US interviewing some of the biggest rocks acts of the era, among them Gram Parsons, Led Zeppelin, David Bowie, the Eagles and the Allman Brothers Band. Crowe’s memoir reveals him as the perennial outsider who, unlike his interviewees, cared little about sex, booze and drugs and who lacked a certain savoir-faire. Yet rock stars liked having him around, enjoying his sincerity and the fact that he was more admiring fan than dispassionate reporter.

Crowe is the reader, delivering a warm and vivacious narration that conveys the wide-eyed astonishment of his youthful self as he is thrust into the orbit of his heroes. He also paints a vivid picture of an era in which bands weren’t protected by gaggles of PR representatives and a writer could spend 18 months with an artist – as Crowe did with Bowie in the mid-1970s – to write a single profile.

From his public persona to a sense that he sold the country a pup, many factors seem to feed a sense of ‘great dislike’

• UK politics live – latest updates

In yet another confusing and chaotic period for British politics there is one thing on which just about everyone can agree: Keir Starmer is unpopular. Very, very unpopular.

His net favourability rating, the difference between those who have a generally positive or negative view of the prime minister has been, depending on the pollster, anything from -50 to -57, a nadir only beaten by Liz Truss. Recent focus group descriptions of Starmer include a “jellyfish” and a “doormat”.

Stuart Vevers wants the luxury brand to keep championing upcycled materials and reduce landfill waste

Stuart Vevers, the British designer of the American mass luxury brand Coach, is working to keep sustainability in the spotlight at New York fashion week. Not an easy task, when environmental concerns are slipping down the global agenda and fashion, perennially a mirror to the world we live in, has reverted to putting profits first.

“I’m an optimist, but it’s not a blind optimism. There’s a lot of tension in optimism, because the world is challenging and I am not ignoring that. My optimism comes from believing that the young people of today are going to make this world better,” he said before Wednesday’s show, held in the historic Cunard building in downtown New York.

Parents of one child say they fear long-term impact of abuse by London nursery worker, who has been jailed for 18 years

Parents of one of the victims of a paedophile nursery worker said they live in “constant fear” of the long-term damage the trauma will have on their child, as he was sentenced to 18 years for sexual crimes that spanned 14 years.

Vincent Chan, 45, abused young children in his care – engaging in physical sexual abuse, taking obscene photos of them and creating others using software – as well as taking obscene images of himself in a classroom. He also set up cameras to watch women changing or going to the toilet, and sexually assaulted a woman while she was asleep.

Actor pens emotional handwritten letter to remember late Dawson’s Creek co-star as show creator also shares his grief

• James Van Der Beek was so much more than just Dawson

• James Van Der Beek: a life in pictures

Katie Holmes has shared a handwritten letter to her late Dawson’s Creek co-star James Van Der Beek.

The actor, who played Joey in the era-defining teen drama series, posted a tribute on Instagram addressed to Van Der Beek, who died this week at the age of 48.