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The Gallerist review – Natalie Portman flounders in tiring art world caper

Sundance film festival: the Oscar winner can’t find the right tone for this grating comedy which also wastes Jenna Ortega, Da’Vine Joy Randolph and Catherine Zeta-Jones

There’s a mildly amusing on-paper joke at the centre of manic art world comedy The Gallerist: what if someone was accidentally impaled on an exhibit but rather than report it, the corpse became part of the artwork?

Sure, poking fun at the absurdity of modern art might seem a little dated and definitely a little too easy but maybe with a packed cast including Oscar winners Natalie Portman, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Da’Vine Joy Randolph, there could be a fun, fast-paced caper here? The answer is a depressing nope, the film a pained and grating misfire played like Weekend at Bernie’s for MoMA members that’s not funny or smart enough to work as farce or satire.

The Gallerist is screening at the Sundance film festival and is seeking distribution

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© Photograph: MRC II Distribution Company LP

© Photograph: MRC II Distribution Company LP

© Photograph: MRC II Distribution Company LP

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‘We got punished’: Arteta rues errors as Arsenal’s title tilt stalls with United loss

  • Zubimendi mistake led to Mbeumo equaliser

  • ‘We were dominant … after we gave them the goal’

Mikel Arteta blamed individual errors for Arsenal’s 3-2 defeat against Manchester United, on a weekend when their lead in the Premier League title race was cut to four points.

Arsenal were 1-0 up when the game was transformed by Martín Zubimendi’s mis‑hit back-pass, which presented Bryan Mbeumo with an equaliser. United scored with outstanding strikes from distance by Patrick Dorgu and Matheus Cunha in the second half to stun the leaders.

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© Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian

© Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian

© Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian

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Mission to Space with Francis Bourgeois review – did we really need to see him be sick in zero gravity?

Can a social media-famous trainspotter become an astronaut? Erm, no. And it’s far from the best use of this hugely genuine, witty personality

Mission to Space with Francis Bourgeois is a tricksy little beast. Unlike, it must be made quite clear, its presenter himself. Bourgeois, for those who have not had the absolute pleasure, is a 25-year-old engineering graduate who came to prominence on social media by making TikTok videos about his great passion: trains. The unforced joy on his face when a locomotive goes by (any locomotive, though his favourite classes are the 37 and 158 and his least favourite the 170), and his ease with his geekiness, quickly made him a star.

His other love, we are told, is space. The animating feature of this overgenerously apportioned documentary (two parts of 45 minutes each) is the question: can a trainspotter become an astronaut?

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© Photograph: Shine TV

© Photograph: Shine TV

© Photograph: Shine TV

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AFC Championship game in the NFL: New England Patriots v Denver Broncos – live

  • Winner earns Super Bowl LX spot | Message Graham

  • Updates from 3pm ET/8pm GMT kickoff

Patriots 0-0 Broncos 12:00, 1st quarter

Denver’s defense come up big and force a three and out of their own. Two failed runs put the ball in Drake Maye’s hands and he almost throws a pick to Talanoa Hufanga. The punt puts the Broncos on their own 40-yard line. Decent position.

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© Photograph: John Locher/AP

© Photograph: John Locher/AP

© Photograph: John Locher/AP

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European football: Lamine Yamal’s stunning strike caps Barcelona win over Real Oviedo

  • Three second-half goals put Barça back on top

  • Juventus beat Napoli to leave title challenge in tatters

Barcelona capitalised on two defensive mistakes by bottom-of-the-table Real Oviedo to seal a 3-0 victory at a rain-drenched Camp Nou, regaining top spot in La Liga. Goals from Dani Olmo, Raphinha and, acrobatically, Lamine Yamal powered the Catalan club to 52 points, one ahead of Real Madrid, while Atlético Madrid trail in third on 44.

Barça struggled to break the deadlock against a spirited Oviedo until they finally found the breakthrough in the 52nd minute, with Olmo striking home following a defensive lapse. Five minutes later, Oviedo’s struggles deepened, with the defender David Costas under-hitting a back-pass, which Raphinha intercepted before calmly chipping the onrushing Aaron Escandell in Oviedo’s goal to double Barcelona’s lead. Lamine Yamal wrapped up Barça’s win by scoring in the 73rd minute with a brilliant acrobatic volley from an Olmo cross.

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© Photograph: Albert Gea/Reuters

© Photograph: Albert Gea/Reuters

© Photograph: Albert Gea/Reuters

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The Invite review – A-list ensemble electrify hilarious couples night gone wrong comedy

Sundance film festival: Olivia Wilde, Seth Rogen, Penelope Cruz and Edward Norton are exceptional in a smart and funny winner about sex, marriage and partner-swapping

Not enough people managed to see last year’s self-billed “unromantic comedy” Splitsville, a shame for how tremendously entertaining it was and for what it represents at this given moment. A rigorously well-directed, genuinely funny, relatably messy look at two couples dealing with the maelstrom of non-monogamy, it was the kind of smart, well-crafted film for adults we are constantly complaining we don’t get enough of.

I had a similar thrill watching The Invite at its sold-out Sundance premiere on Saturday night. Like that film, it is also about two adult couples negotiating anxieties surrounding sex with other people – and also like that film, it’s really, consistently funny and stylishly directed, made with the kind of care and rigidity that comedies just aren’t afforded now. It doesn’t have the same absurdist slapstick streak – it’s much more of this world – but it made me feel equally energised, a reminder that maybe that mid-sized movie gap is finally being filled. I just hope more people see this one.

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© Photograph: The Invite

© Photograph: The Invite

© Photograph: The Invite

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Cunha’s stunner earns Manchester United thrilling late win at Arsenal

The Emirates Stadium was a sea of anxiety. Arsenal fans are acutely aware that a first Premier League title since 2004 is within their grasp and when it is so tantalising, it will be fraught. Especially when matches such as this become a grind. When the attacking patterns do not work. When the team look vulnerable.

Arsenal could feel their nearest rivals, Manchester City and Aston Villa, on their backs. Both had won to cut their lead at the top to four points. Mikel Arteta’s team had drawn their previous two league matches 0-0 – against Liverpool and Nottingham Forest. They were desperate for something here and when Patrick Dorgu put Manchester United 2-1 up with a scorching drive early in the second half, they would have taken anything. They would end with nothing – apart from a thumping headache.

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© Photograph: Mike Egerton/PA

© Photograph: Mike Egerton/PA

© Photograph: Mike Egerton/PA

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Canada has no intention of pursuing free trade with China, says Carney

PM says recent agreement just cuts tariffs on a few sectors, as Trump threatens 100% tariffs on Canadian imports

Canada’s prime minister, Mark Carney, said on Sunday his country had no intention of pursuing a free trade deal with China, responding to Donald Trump’s threat to impose a 100% tariff on goods imported from Canada if the US’s northern neighbour went ahead with a trade deal with Beijing.

Carney said his recent agreement with China merely cut tariffs on a few sectors that were recently hit with them.

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© Photograph: Sean Kilpatrick/AP

© Photograph: Sean Kilpatrick/AP

© Photograph: Sean Kilpatrick/AP

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Almost a quarter of UK GPs are seeing obese children aged four and under

Exclusive: Almost half of GPs have seen children up to the age of seven who have obesity, research finds

Almost a quarter of GPs are seeing children aged four or under who are obese, according to a survey of UK family doctors.

The “alarming” research also found that almost half (49%) of GPs have seen boys and girls up to the age of seven who have obesity, including a handful younger than a year old.

Almost one in four (23%) said they had seen children aged zero to four where obesity was a clinical concern.

Among the doctors, 81% have seen obesity in those between their first 12 months and the age of 11.

Four in five (80%) find it somewhat or very challenging to talk to the parents of an obese child under the age of 16 about their weight and health, with only 10% saying that is easy to do.

Nearly two thirds (65%) find it hard to talk to obese young people themselves, with just 20% saying that is easy.

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© Photograph: TM O Pictures/Alamy

© Photograph: TM O Pictures/Alamy

© Photograph: TM O Pictures/Alamy

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The Friend’s House is Here review – timely, secretly made tale of creativity in Iran

Sundance film festival: an underground scene of creatives in Tehran is threatened in this lived-in hangout movie that bravely chooses optimism over negativity

It’s a summer evening in Tehran, and the streets of the Iranian capital are lively. A young creative couple, an actor and a dancer, coolly take in a performance from a band of street musicians. “This country is so full of artists,” the man, Ali (Farzad Karen), says to Hanna (Hana Mana). She replies warily: “Let’s see if they stay like this.”

The remark is delivered casually in Maryam Ataei and Hossein Keshavarz’s stirring new film The Friend’s House Is Here, sprinkled in between airy banter and snippets of various rehearsals, but it’s no trivial matter. Under Iran’s theocratic regime, creative expression is a risky and unstable endeavor. The government tightly polices the contents of all art – visual works, theater, music, film, literature – for strict adherence to state ideology. Failure to receive a permit could result in fines, imprisonment or banishment. The colorful characters amiably populating this loose, organic film, played by a collective of real-life underground artists and improv actors, are liable to be harassed, fined, arrested or disappeared at any moment.

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© Photograph: Sundance Institute

© Photograph: Sundance Institute

© Photograph: Sundance Institute

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The Guardian view on Europe’s payments problem: sovereignty starts at the till | Editorial

Donald Trump’s leverage over Visa and Mastercard highlights a blind spot in Europe’s ‘independence’ strategy. Emulating India’s response might help

When the centre-left French politician Aurore Lalucq posted a warning last Wednesday that Donald Trump could cut off Europe from international payment systems, the clip went viral. To many, her message made sense. After all, if Mr Trump was prepared to test allies’ boundaries over Greenland, it is not far-fetched to imagine Visa and Mastercard becoming used against a recalcitrant Europe.

The US can turn off payment systems it controls. Russia learned this first-hand after sanctions were rightly applied for its invasion of Ukraine. As up to 60% of Russian retail transactions depended on Visa and Mastercard for authorisation, the ban left many ordinary people stranded without access to funds and unable to buy goods. Under Mr Trump, America’s goal is to “help Europe correct its current trajectory”. Given such talk, Ms Lalucq, who chairs the European parliament’s economic and monetary affairs committee, is not wrong in calling for an “Airbus of European payments” to protect the EU.

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© Photograph: Bertrand Guay/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Bertrand Guay/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Bertrand Guay/AFP/Getty Images

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FBI supervisor resigns after trying to investigate agent who shot Renee Good

News of Tracee Mergen’s decision came before agents fatally shot Alex Pretti, another US citizen in Minneapolis

A supervisor in the FBI’s Minneapolis field office who unsuccessfully attempted to investigate the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent who fatally shot Renee Nicole Good in the city on 7 January has resigned, according to multiple reports.

News of agent Tracee Mergen’s resignation surfaced shortly before federal agents fatally shot Alex Pretti in Minneapolis on Saturday. Pretti and Good were both 37-year-old US citizens.

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© Photograph: Olga Fedorova/EPA

© Photograph: Olga Fedorova/EPA

© Photograph: Olga Fedorova/EPA

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The Guardian view on the future of cinema: gen Z is falling in love with the big screen | Editorial

Film is in a state of existential crisis. But a new generation of cinephiles might save it from the streaming giants

“It was from a weekly visit to the cinema that you learned (or tried to learn) how to walk, to smoke, to kiss, to fight, to grieve,” Susan Sontag wrote 30 years ago, in an essay to mark 100 years of film entitled The Decay of Cinema. For Sontag, the onset of the “ignominious, irreversible decline” of the 20th century’s greatest art form was the arrival of television. Today it is the advent of streaming.

Cinema is in a state of existential crisis. Netflix is bidding to take over Warner Bros, as the industry is still recovering from lockdown and the 2023 Hollywood writers’ and actors’ strikes. Leonardo DiCaprio, whose One Battle After Another received 13 Oscar nominations last week, having failed to break even at the box office, asked if people still have “the appetite” for movies, and if cinemas are in danger of becoming “silos – like jazz bars”. Matt Damon has suggested that films are being dumbed-down to cater for changing watching habits. And the director Mary Sweeney said that her ex-husband David Lynch, who died in January last year, would struggle in Hollywood now because of “the dissipation of our concentration and the way the digital world has permeated people’s lives”.

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© Photograph: Sophia Evans/The Observer

© Photograph: Sophia Evans/The Observer

© Photograph: Sophia Evans/The Observer

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Patrick Reed wins LIV duel with David Puig to secure Dubai Desert Classic title

  • Reed seals four-shot victory after final round 72

  • Puig tied-seventh following two-stroke penalty

A penny for the thoughts of the PGA Tour hierarchy, who awoke in Ponte Vedra Beach to news of a LIV duel in Dubai. A penny for the thoughts of LIV’s office bearers, who had information they would presumably rather remain private put into the public domain by the new Desert Classic champion.

Patrick Reed emerged from the joust, thereby delivering a reminder that he remains among the finest golfers in the world. David Puig did not even receive the consolation of second place, his slow finish and a strong one from Andy Sullivan elbowing the Spaniard into third.

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© Photograph: Ali Haider/EPA

© Photograph: Ali Haider/EPA

© Photograph: Ali Haider/EPA

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Snowstorms strike the US: in pictures

A massive winter storm on 24 January dumped snow and freezing rain from New Mexico to North Carolina as it swept across the US towards the north-east, threatening tens of millions of Americans with blackouts, transportation chaos and bone-chilling cold. After battering the country’s south-west and central areas, the storm system began to hit the heavily populated mid-Atlantic and north-eastern states as a frigid air mass settled in across the nation

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© Photograph: Amid Farahi/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Amid Farahi/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Amid Farahi/AFP/Getty Images

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LPO/Jurowski review – Mahler’s 10th is full of colour, and the composer’s pain, in Barshai’s completion

Royal Festival Hall, London
Rudolf Barshai’s audacious completion of Marhler’s final unfinished symphony slathers on the colour, and its diverse timbral details came over loud and clear thanks to the LPO’s playing and Vladimir Jurowski’s textural lucidity

For decades following his premature death at the age of 50, it was believed that the fragments of Gustav Mahler’s 10th symphony were just that: skeletal ideas impossible to flesh out into anything worth hearing. It was British musicologist Deryck Cooke who first took a proper look, discovering that crucial melodic lines were intact throughout the entire work. His subsequent lithe-limbed “performing version” has been embraced by many – but some have adopted a more interventionist approach, the most popular being Russian conductor Rudolf Barshai, whose audacious completion Vladimir Jurowski presented here.

As Jurowski admits, Barshai’s orchestrations bring the music closer to Shostakovich and perhaps Britten – both huge fans of Mahler. On its own terms it succeeds, though for those familiar with Cooke’s version it’s a bit of a culture shock. Where the Englishman deployed restraint and a scrupulously Mahlerian palette, in the movements the composer left most incomplete – the second, fourth and fifth – Barshai slathers on the colour. There’s a clattering xylophone, a guitar (miraculously audible amid the orchestral melee), a Wagner tuba, a cornet, a second tuba to beef up the most terrifying passages, a second harp, celesta, woodblocks, tubular bells and a trio of tiny gongs. That these diverse timbral details came over loud and clear was a testament to Jurowski’s textural lucidity and the outstanding playing of the LPO.

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© Photograph: Mark Allan

© Photograph: Mark Allan

© Photograph: Mark Allan

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Saturday Night Live: Teyana Taylor’s so-so episode is saved by one standout sketch

The Oscar nominee doesn’t get many chances to shine in an episode with a genius One Battle After Another toy commercial

Saturday Night Live recognizes the first year of Donald Trump’s second term with the 1st Annual Trumps – “the awards honoring the best in being or succumbing to President Trump.” Trump (James Austin Johnson) acts as host for the ceremony, which he hopes will distract from “what all my little freaks and psychos in ICE are doing” and “my dead purple hands”.

He joins vice-president (“for now”) JD Vance (Jeremy Culhane) to give himself the first award. This is followed by horrifying monsters Aunt Gladys (Sarah Sherman) from the movie Weapons and White House adviser Stephen Miller (Andrew Dismukes) handing out the award for best ass kisser to Kristi Noem (Ashley Padilla), only for Trump to interrupt her, Kanye-style, and take that one too. Then, Trump’s “close ex-friend” Elon Musk (Mike Myers) accepts an honorary award for Lifetime Achievement in Comedy (“even if he doesn’t always intend it”), glitching out while also paying tribute to some of the things we lost over the last year: the East Wing of the White House, Nato, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and more. A solid skewering of Trump’s insatiable lust for recognition, as seen by his pathetic acceptance of a re-gifted Nobel Prize from “that woman whose name I already forgot.”

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© Photograph: NBC/Rosalind O'Connor

© Photograph: NBC/Rosalind O'Connor

© Photograph: NBC/Rosalind O'Connor

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Iva Jovic walking in Venus Williams’ footsteps with Melbourne quarter-final date

  • US 18-year-old dismantles Putintseva in dazzling win

  • Alcaraz to face De Minaur in men’s quarter-finals

Iva Jovic became the youngest American woman to reach the quarter-finals of the Australian Open since Venus Williams in 1998, by dismantling the Kazakhstani veteran Yulia Putintseva 6-0, 6-1 on Sunday.

At 18, Jovic arrived in Melbourne as the youngest player inside the top 100 and the 27th seed has dominated all opposition, rolling through her four matches without dropping a set. Jovic’s third-round win against the No 7 seed, Jasmine Paolini, was the first top-20 win of her career. Still, Jovic rejected the notion that she is swinging freely with nothing to lose.

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© Photograph: Aaron Favila/AP

© Photograph: Aaron Favila/AP

© Photograph: Aaron Favila/AP

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Arsenal v Manchester United: Premier League – live

⚽ Updates from 4.30pm GMT fixture at Emirates Stadium
Jonathan Wilson: is Carrick more than the new Solskjær?
Scores | Tables | Premier League top scorers

This, from my MBM colleague Tim de Lisle, is a terrific read on what Michael Carrick’s Manchester United did so well last weekend.

United showed more intensity than usual, as you’d expect in a derby, but they also showed more composure. Carrick had called for it beforehand, and as possibly the calmest player ever seen in a United shirt, he speaks with some authority on the subject. When Amad broke away in the 33rd minute, he coolly rounded Donnarumma and rolled the ball into an empty net. When Fernandes broke away eight minutes later, he went one better, landing a defender on his backside after rounding the keeper. Both goals were disallowed, but they stood as statements of intent.

It’s never the same again! Every game is different but we’ve had a good week and we’re in good shape. We understand this has been a tough place to come for many teams. But we’re going into the game in a good spirit and that’s the most important thing.

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© Photograph: Ash Donelon/Manchester United/Getty Images

© Photograph: Ash Donelon/Manchester United/Getty Images

© Photograph: Ash Donelon/Manchester United/Getty Images

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Obama says Alex Pretti killing a ‘tragedy’ as calls mount for full investigation

Former president says killing should be ‘wake-up call’ and that federal agents are not operating in a lawful way

Pressure mounted on Donald Trump’s administration on Sunday to fully investigate the previous day’s killing by federal immigration officers of 37-year-old nurse Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.

Calls for an investigation have come from all sides of the political divide after video analysis showed officers had removed from Pretti a handgun he was reportedly permitted to carry – and which he was not handling – before fatally shooting him.

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© Photograph: Jack Brook/AP

© Photograph: Jack Brook/AP

© Photograph: Jack Brook/AP

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‘You don’t want to live inside his head’: diplomats’ dilemma in the age of Trump

Flood of boasts, broadsides and conspiracy theories leaves envoys sifting for the signal within the Trumpian noise

How does one keep tabs on, and then interpret, a president who in a single year sent out more than 6,000 social media posts, conducted more than 433 open press events and held free-associating press conferences lasting close to two hours? The White House Stenographer’s Office calculates it has transcribed 2.4 million of Trump’s words, four times the length of Tolstoy’s epic War and Peace.

Tracking Trump is not just a problem for exhausted reporters – but also exhausted diplomats, who are tasked with searching for the signal in the ceaseless Trumpian noise.

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© Photograph: Brendan McDermid/Reuters

© Photograph: Brendan McDermid/Reuters

© Photograph: Brendan McDermid/Reuters

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Iran president’s son urges authorities to restore internet after protests blackout

Yousef Pezeshkian says nothing will be solved by trying to postpone moment images of violent crackdown circulate

The son of Iran’s president has called for the internet restrictions in the country to be lifted, saying nothing will be solved by trying to postpone the moment when pictures and video circulate of the protests that were violently crushed by the regime.

With a battle under way at the top of the regime about the political risks of continuing to block Iran from the internet, Yousef Pezeshkian, whose father, Masoud, was elected in the summer of 2024, said keeping the digital shutdown would create dissatisfaction and widen the gap between the people and the government.

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© Photograph: Abedin Taherkenareh/EPA

© Photograph: Abedin Taherkenareh/EPA

© Photograph: Abedin Taherkenareh/EPA

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Estêvão and Fernández power Chelsea past Crystal Palace as Wharton sees red

If this was a taste of what life on the road under Liam Rosenior might be like for Chelsea fans, then anyone who doubted his appointment may have to think again.

A brilliant performance from Estêvão, who scored the first after a mistake from his fellow teenager Jaydee Canvot before setting up João Pedro for the second, inspired Chelsea to end a run of five Premier League games without an away win at their new head coach’s first attempt, as they piled on the misery for Crystal Palace, who also had Adam Wharton sent off.

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© Photograph: Adrian Dennis/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Adrian Dennis/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Adrian Dennis/AFP/Getty Images

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