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A groundsman is called on to perform some crochet on one of the goal nets, which appears to be torn. As those repairs are carried out, a plane flies over the ground trailing a protest banner telling David Sullivan and Karren Brady to get out of West Ham.

Not long now: It’s a nice sunny Valentine’s Day in Staffordshire and the teams are out on the pitch in the compact Pirelli Stadium. West Ham are hoping to get the job done, Burton are hoping to make it to the fifth round for the first time in their history and kick-off is just a few minutes away.

Senior policing source says ‘tsunami’ of claims expected after US release of papers relating to disgraced financier

British police have set up a new national group to deal with allegations that Jeffrey Epstein’s trafficking of women had ties to Britain, as well as claims against his associates, such as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.

At least three British police forces are dealing with allegations triggered by the revelations about Epstein and his associates in documents released in the US, with more claims of wrongdoing expected by police chiefs.

Queens-born Joe Macken’s hyperrealistic model, made with wood, cardboard and glue, is now on view at the Museum of the City of New York

In 2003, Joe Macken built a miniature model of a bridge out of popsicle sticks. He wanted it to look like a “hybrid” of the Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Williamsburg bridges. Soon after, Macken, who grew up in Middle Village, Queens, moved his family to a small town upstate, more than 160 miles from the city. Macken loaded his bridge on the moving truck. It did not make the trip.

“It got destroyed, and I was kind of bummed,” said Macken, who is now 63. “So I figured, let me build something better.”

Declarations of undying affection, comparisons to a summer’s day? Who needs ‘em! Our writers recall the offbeat songs that capture their hearts

By Easter 2004, I’d been in a relationship with my partner, Maria, for four months and I was just realising how deeply in love I was. We had become inseparable. A magazine sent me to the ATP festival at Pontins in Camber Sands to interview “the Beastie Boys of noise”, Wolf Eyes. The interview fell to pieces when the band, in a state of great psychic refreshment, all wearing Manowar T-shirts, refused to stop watching a Manowar DVD and signalled they would only answer questions if they related to Manowar.

• Former Juventus head coach replaces Thomas Frank

• Croatian’s priority to ‘improve our results quickly’

Igor Tudor has been announced as Tottenham’s interim head coach on a deal until the end of the season.

Spurs dismissed Thomas Frank on Wednesday after a dismal display in a 2-1 defeat at home to Newcastle a day earlier left the club in 16th position and only five points above the Premier League relegation zone.

Huda Ammori calls for proscription to be lifted after high court finds it to be very serious interference with protest rights

The co-founder of Palestine Action has said the ban on the group “massively backfired” and called for its proscription to be suspended after the high court found it to be unlawful.

Three senior judges ruled on Friday that the ban was disproportionate and constituted very serious interference with the rights to protest and free speech.

Luis Muñoz Pinto, 27, who was sent to notoriously brutal prison in El Salvador would like to clear his name after US judge’s ruling

A US federal judge’s order that some of the Venezuelan men sent by the Trump administration to a notorious prison in El Salvador must be allowed to return to the United States to fight their cases has been greeted with hope and a sense of vindication – but also fear – by one of the deportees.

US district judge James Boasberg ruled on Thursday in Washington DC that the Trump administration should facilitate the return of deportees who are currently in countries outside Venezuela, saying they must be given the opportunity to seek the due process they were denied after being illegally expelled from the US last March.

Boasberg added that the US government should cover the travel costs of those who wish to come to the US to argue their immigration cases.

Five women on both sides of the Atlantic reveal what it’s like trying to find a partner in your 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s

Stella Ralfini, 78-year-old beauty writer, London (pictured above)

Claims that agreement is unconstitutional could pose problems in talks with Washington over Greenland

Denmark could face legal action over an agreement that gives the US sweeping powers on Danish soil, over claims it is “unconstitutional” and could pose problems in talks with Washington over Greenland.

The agreement, which was signed under the Biden administration in 2023 and was passed by the Danish parliament last year, gives the US “unhindered access” to its airbases and powers over its civilians.

While there is no one recipe for a successful relationship, we can learn from each other to build one that lasts

What is the key to a good relationship?

For some couples, it’s important to share hobbies. Others say having individual interests is imperative. I’ve read that couples who sleep in separate beds are the happiest and I’ve also read that sleeping in separate beds is the death knell of romance. When I got engaged, I asked my parents – who have been married for 40 years – what advice they had for me, and my mother offered: “Contribute as much as you can to your retirement accounts.” OK!

• Victorian makes history with second career gold medal

• Fourth medal is nation’s biggest haul at a Winter Games

Jakara Anthony has won her second career gold medal and Australia’s third of the Milano Cortina Games, clinching the first ever dual moguls Olympics title.

The 27-year-old Anthony entered the new event to the Olympic program with steely determination after failing to defend her Beijing title in the regular event when she lost her footing in the medals round.

Pelicot says she wants to look Dominique Pelicot ‘straight in the eye’ over potential abuse of daughter and case of estate agent who was raped and murdered in 1991

Gisèle Pelicot has said she needs to visit prison to look her abusive ex-husband “straight in the eye” after his conviction for drugging her and inviting dozens of men to rape her in a case that shocked France and the rest of the world.

Pelicot, 73, said she needed “answers” from Dominique Pelicot over the potential abuse of their daughter and the case of an estate agent who was raped and murdered in 1991, which he is under investigation for.

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Women’s dual moguls: It’s all very civilised out on the snow, the athletes have a hug when they reach the bottom. I was thinking the snow looked a bit grubby but it turns out the authorities put out pine needles – I think to help skiers find their way.

Anyway, they’ve zipped through very quickly and have already sorted the quarter finals, with four Americans in the final eight.

Environmental groups say ‘cynical and devastating’ reversal of endangerment finding has grave implications

The Trump administration has dismantled the basis for all US climate regulations, in its most confrontational anti-environment move yet.

The 2009 endangerment finding determined that greenhouse gases threaten public health and welfare and should therefore be controlled by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). By revoking it on Thursday, officials eliminated the legal foundation enabling the government to control planet-heating pollution.

Capturing things that mix the strange with the beautiful helped the Spanish graphic designer recover from a blue period

Iñigo Jerez Quintana uses the French term objet trouvé to describe this abandoned bear. Quintana, a Spanish graphic designer, was walking from his studio to a work meeting in Poblenou, a district of Barcelona, when he spotted it.

“I take photos based on visual impulses; anything that catches my eye,” he says. “The colour match of the bear’s fur and wall paint anchors a childish stereotype in a place where it doesn’t really belong.”

Antoine Massey was convicted on charges of rape and kidnapping before New Orleans jailbreak

A man who joined nine others in fleeing a New Orleans jail – then publicly pleaded for help from Donald Trump, a rapper whom the president pardoned and reality TV star Kim Kardashian while on the run – recently got a 60-year prison sentence for kidnapping and raping his ex-girlfriend.

Antoine Massey, 32, received his punishment on Thursday at a suburban New Orleans state courthouse, months after his jailbreak-related capture and subsequent conviction at trial of prior charges.

Guardian reporting partner WWL Louisiana contributed

Universities, builders and health trusts are feeling the squeeze, as thinktank says effect of zero net migration could be similar to Brexit

• ‘It’s been life-changing’: young Britons on why they left the UK

When Greenwich and Kent universities said this month they would merge to save money, the heart of their financial difficulties could be found in the UK government’s crackdown on immigration.

Tough restrictions on foreign students have sent the number of university applications from abroad plummeting, cutting lucrative tuition fees and leaving all universities facing the same squeeze.

Skilled workers facing a tough jobs market and high rents at home reveal how they have built new lives elsewhere, from Vancouver to Dubai

• UK migration could be negative this year – how will that hit the economy?

As young people bear the brunt of a downturn in the jobs market, figures show a significant number are leaving the UK.

Although statisticians caution against comparing annual figures after a recent change in methodology and stress younger people are traditionally more drawn to emigration, a net 111,000 people aged 16 to 34 emigrated from the UK in the year to March 2025, according to the Office for National Statistics.

The disappearance in Arizona of the Today show host Savannah Guthrie’s mother has captivated the nation

Nancy Guthrie disappeared from her Tucson, Arizona, home two weeks ago, setting off a potent chain reaction of federal and local criminal investigation, amateur sleuthing and public obsession that – so far – has resulted in neither the 84-year-old grandmother being located or anyone named as a suspect or, indeed, arrested.

It is a case that is both enthralling and baffling the American public, casting doubts on the ability of investigators to get to the bottom of the mystery that each day generates a fresh 24-hour news cycle – but seemingly little in the way of solid fresh leads likely to solve the case.

Secretary of state calls the US ‘a child of Europe’ and urges continent to back a new world order

• Munich security conference live: Europe must be ready to fight Russia as ‘warning signs are there’, says Starmer

The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, has described America as “a child of Europe” and made an emotional but highly conditional offer of a new partnership, insisting the two continents belong together.

In a much-anticipated speech at the annual Munich Security Conference, he said the US was intent on building a new world order, adding “while we are prepared, if necessary, to do this alone, it is our preference and it is our hope to do this together with you, our friends here in Europe”. The US and Europe, he said “belong together”.

The brilliant American was expected to glide to a gold medal on Friday. It was tough to watch such a gifted athlete discover the ruthlessness of his sport

By the time Ilia Malinin reached the closing stretch of his Olympic free skate, the outcome was no longer really the story. The story was the expression on his face – not panic, not shock, but the dawning realization that a destiny he had controlled for nearly three years had slipped beyond his reach in the blinding span of four and a half catastrophic minutes.

For the rising generation of men’s skaters, the 21-year-old Malinin has existed less as a rival than as a moving technical horizon. The Quad God. The skater who built programs around jumps others still treated as theory, who pushed the sport into something closer to applied physics. Much like Simone Biles, who took in Friday’s contest from the arena’s VIP seats, his only competition was himself.

The US flag bearer and first Black woman to win Winter Olympic individual gold carries the lessons of Special Forces into Sunday’s 500m speed skating final

On the ice, Erin Jackson is the picture of control – metronomic in her balance, rhythmic in her stride, a woman whose margins for error are blade thin. But all that control melted away when the speed skater glided on to Fox’s Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test reality TV series in fall 2023 for a taste of the grueling training that elite US troops endure.

She was part of a motley cast that included former Dallas Cowboys star Dez Bryant, NBA clutch shooter Robert Horry and skier Bode Miller, a fellow Winter Olympic champion. But Jackson was less concerned with outshining her athletic peers than with confronting her own fears. To test her anxiety around swimming, Jackson was strapped into a mock helicopter, submerged in icy water and told to hold her breath for at least 15 seconds before freeing herself, grabbing a lifejacket, and paddling to safety.

The actor on a massive scam, the guilty pleasure of Judge Judy and why he’s never done a day’s work in his life

Born in Lancashire, Matthew Kelly, 75, studied drama at Manchester Polytechnic and acted at the Liverpool Everyman. He moved into TV, presenting Game for a Laugh in the 80s, You Bet! in the 90s and Stars in their Eyes from 1993 to 2004. Having returned to the stage, he received an Olivier award in 2004 for his role in Of Mice and Men in London’s West End. He stars in Waiting for Godot at Glasgow’s Citizens theatre from 20 February to 14 March, then takes the play to Liverpool and Bolton. He has two children and lives in London.

What is your greatest fear?
Not being able to work.