Lindsey Vonn inspected the Olympic downhill course with other racers early this morning as she prepared to take part in the opening training session despite tearing the ACL in her left knee a week ago.
The 41-year-old Vonn is planning to compete at the Milan Cortina Games with a large brace covering her injured knee.
Quiz of the week: I guessed my way to a rather decent 12/16.
Virgil van Dijk has hit out at ex-pro pundits in an interview with, er, Gary Neville, ahead of Sky’s broadcast of Liverpool v Manchester City.
For me personally, I can deal with it, but I’m a bit worried for the next generation. I feel like the ex-top players have a responsibility to the new generation. Criticism is absolutely normal and part of the game, and I think it should stay that way. But sometimes criticism also goes into being clickbait, saying things to provoke things, and without thinking about the repercussions for a mental side of players, and especially the younger generation, who are constantly on social media.
Data show 29 hybrid and 98 diesel cars also sold, while the figure for battery electric vehicles was more than 2,000
Just seven petrol cars were sold in Norway last month, data shows.
The country, which is the frontrunner in terms of the uptake of electric vehicles frontrunner, shifted a record low number of new fossil-fuel cars in January, information from the Norwegian Road Traffic Information Council (OFV) reveals.
Pressure continues to build on Keir Starmer to remove his chief of staff Morgan McSweeney
There will be “soul-searching” in Labour this weekend after a bruising week for the party, an MSP has said, as she called for “accountability” over the decision hire Peter Mandelson.
Speaking on BBC Radio Scotland, Labour MSP Monica Lennon - a leadership contender in 2021 - said just mentioning Mandelson’s name “makes my skin crawl”, accusing him of abusing his position and public trust.
I think there will be a lot of soul-searching over the weekend.
The prime minister clearly is distressed by the events and he is pointing fingers at Peter Mandelson, but there are questions for everyone at the top of government.
Puerto Rican rapper to follow Grammy victory and anti-ICE speech with show on most-watched US TV event of the year
Just a week after receiving the Grammy award for Album of the Year, the Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny will take on the US’s most watched concert of the year when he performs at the Super Bowl this Sunday.
The artist born Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio took home the music academy’s top honor for 2025’s Debí Tirar Más Fotos, a politically minded record infused with Puerto Rican music and culture. The album became the first Spanish-language work to take home the prize, beating out competition from Kendrick Lamar, Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber.
Cubans, once fast-tracked to US residency, now find themselves targets of Trump’s immigration crackdown
When Rosaly Estévez “self-deported” from Miami to Havana last November, US immigration officers bid farewell by removing her ankle monitor. The 32-year-old had been told she was about to be detained, so she left with her three-year-old son, Dylan, a US citizen.
Heidy Sánchez, 43, wasn’t given a choice. She was forcibly removed from Florida last April but, worrying about Cuba’s failing healthcare system, she left her two-year-old daughter, Kaylin, behind with her American husband, Carlos.
Anthony Joshua and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie went through terrible experiences; now a young singer has died. The events are all linked
The death from a snakebite of singer Ifunanya Nwangene in an Abuja hospital last Saturday, allegedly after a frantic and failed search for antivenom, sent a familiar shudder through Nigeria. It was a profoundly personal tragedy, yet it felt grimly systemic. Within days, it became part of a devastating triad of events framing a national crisis. A few weeks before, the country had grappled with the death of novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s young son in a premium private hospital in Lagos, amid allegations of negligence. Just before that, there were the images of boxer Anthony Joshua, after a serious car crash near Lagos, being helped by bystanders with no ambulance or emergency service in sight.
A cobra in an upmarket apartment, a fatal error in a high-end facility, a wrecked car on the roadside. These seem like disconnected misfortunes: in truth, they are interconnected. They represent a diagnostic map of a health system in collapse, a system where survival is determined by a lethal lottery of geography, wealth, and sheer chance.
The window to impress on Mauricio Pochettino is waning, and the pressure is on for the No 9s on the bubble
In past points of his managerial career, Mauricio Pochettino could upgrade his squad via the transfer market. When Tottenham sold striker Roberto Soldado in 2015, his replacement came two weeks later: Son Heung-min. It’s a facet of the job completely absent in his role with the US national team, though he’d be forgiven for wishing a similar market was available ahead of this summer’s World Cup.
With provisional World Cup squads due 11 May and Pochettino wanting to avoid a “cruel” scenario of bringing players over for the final friendlies in May and June only to leave them off of his tournament squad, the window for hopefuls to make an impression is nearly closed. There are positional battles across the pitch; there’s no ironclad starting goalkeeper, a likely opening (or two) at center back beside Chris Richards, and multiple midfield places.
Their ‘pro family’ rhetoric is a cynical and hollow sham
Of the 3,800 children and infants taken into immigration custody between January and October of 2025, a majority – 2,600 – were detained by ICE officers. That means that the children, as young as one or two years old, were not arrested at the border or legal ports of entry, where asylum seekers frequently present themselves to border officers, but from inside the country.
That means that those children were not new arrivals seeking help; they were kids going about their daily lives in the US, often with legal status. They were children like Liam Ramos, aged five, who was snatched from his driveway after school by immigration agents while wearing a blue bunny hat to keep him warm in the Minnesota cold. They are children like one student, a 17-year-old from Liam’s school district in Minnesota, who was taken from their car, or the other child, a 10-year-old girl in the fourth grade, who was taken alongside her mother; or the two other boys, brothers in the second and fifth grades, who were delivered by school officials to an ICE detention center after their mother was arrested and taken there. She had called the school to ask them to bring her boys to her in the prison; there was no one else to take care of them.
The author on taking solace in Joan Didion, discovering Donna Tartt and being cheered up by David Sedaris
My earliest reading memory
The first books I became obsessed with were Enid Blyton’s boarding school stories Malory Towers and St Clare’s. When I was eight, I’d hide them under my pillow and read by the hallway light when I was supposed to be asleep.
My favourite book growing up
Roald Dahl’s Matilda. I felt woefully misunderstood by the world and longed to be adopted by a very pretty teacher with only cardboard for furniture. I spent a lot of time trying to make a pen move by concentration alone. Sometimes I still try.
Deputy director of Russia’s military intelligence agency shot several times in the stairwell of his apartment
A top Russian military official has been taken to hospital after being shot in Moscow, state media reported.
Lt Gen Vladimir Alekseyev was shot several times on the stairwell of his apartment on Friday by an unknown gunman in the north-west of the city and remains in critical condition, according to early reports.
(Far Out) The Brazilian guitarist is joined by the 16-piece ensemble for an album that showcases his dextrous blend of finger-picked melody and percussive strumming
Over the past decade, Brazilian guitarist Fabiano do Nascimento has honed a sound so muscular and expansive it may make you think the prolific soloist and collaborator had four hands playing his instrument’s six strings. His 14 records since 2015’s debut Dança do Tempo include everything from a tender duets album with saxophonist Sam Gendel, The Room, to the electronic-influenced Aquàticos with producer E Ruscha V, and the percussive tabla textures of Cavejaz. On Vila, Nascimento is leaning into orchestral composition, featuring alongside the 16-piece Vittor Santos Orquestra.
Employing his signature combination of finger-picked melodics with percussive strumming, Nascimento’s performance across Vila’s 11 tracks showcases his ability to weave seamlessly through the orchestra’s dynamic range rather than playing a single role. On Spring Theme, he establishes a simple lead melody that guides the ensemble and is anchored through swells of strings and soft shaker rhythm, while on Tema em Harmônicos his fingerpicking mirrors thrumming hand percussion as a muted trumpet takes the lead instead; Plateau’s intricate picking answers the staccato tones of the brass section, simultaneously leading and following. Conductor Vittor Santos’s arrangements reference the luscious, bossa-influenced orchestrations of fellow countryman Arthur Verocai, producing enveloping, overlaid harmonies on Valsa and Floresta Dos Sonhos.
The carmaker Stellantis has said it will take a €22bn (£19.1bn) charge and sell a stake in its battery joint venture after admitting that it “overestimated” the pace of the shift to electric vehicles.
The European-based carmaker, which owns marques including Peugeot, Fiat, Jeep and Citroën, said that the move was part of a reset of its business as it also admitted “poor operational execution”.
The World Anti-Doping Agency is investigating whether ski jumpers were injecting their penises with hyaluronic acid in order to fly further
In the quest for Olympic gold, professional athletes endure hardships that might seem unfathomable to most of us mere mortals. But do those lengths extend to ski jumpers injecting their penises with hyaluronic acid in order to fly further?
That is the question the World Anti-Doping Agency will investigate since such startling allegations emerged first in the German newspaper Bild in what has now been dubbed “Penisgate”.
It is the first time the US and Iran have sat down for face-to-face negotiations since June last year, when Israel launched attacks on Iran that sparked a war marked by tit-for-tat airstrikes, with the US also joining the fray. It effectively ended the US-Iran talks that were held in the weeks prior to the conflict aimed at reaching a nuclear peace agreement.
More recently, Donald Trump has been threatening to strike Iran for more than a month and just last week warned that an “armada” of US warships had reached the Persian Gulf. This recent clash began after Trump said he would strike Iran if it killed protesters during mass antigovernment demonstrations that swept the country last month. Human rights groups say thousands of people were killed during the brutal government crackdown on those protests.
She was raised as part of a prodigy-breeding psychological experiment, took on the chess patriarchy and beat her idol Garry Kasparov. So why isn’t there more depth to this documentary?
Judit Polgár won her first chess tournament in 1981 when, at the age of six, she marmalised a string of middle-aged Hungarians and toddled off with a swanky Boris Diplomat Bd-1 Electronic Chess Computer. “I was a killer,” says the amiable 49-year-old in Netflix documentary Queen of Chess. “I wanted to kill my opponents. I would sacrifice everything to get checkmate.” Archive footage captures the bloody aftermath of Polgár’s inaugural victory; a roomful of solemnly jumpered victims looking on, dazed and ashen-jowled, as the vanquishing Hungarian scowls at photographers from beneath a bowl cut that could confidently be described as “ferocious”. The triumph put paid (at least temporarily) to Polgár’s painful shyness, making her feel “exceptionally powerful. After this, it was so obvious for me that I’m going to be a chess player. And if you want to become the best,” she says with a wry smile, “it’s very important to have the challenges.”
Ah, yes. The challenges. But with which to start? Queen of Chess – a rhapsodic account of the life of the greatest female chess player of all time – is spoiled for choice. There is the punishing chess-training regime, designed as an experiment by Polgár’s educational psychologist father László to prove “geniuses are made, not born”. (School and weekends were banned so “every day was a working day.”) There is the communist regime so threatened by the family’s ambitions to compete in the west that it confiscated their passports.There is the relentless sexism that trailed the tiny trailblazer and older chess-playing sisters Susan and Sofia, outraged at the temerity of their insistence on taking on the male-dominated sport’s grandmasters while delivering pronouncements of the “women lack the pure mental ability needed to understand chess” variety. It’s all here, and Queen of Chess throws its arms wide in an effort to capture the frequently depressing reality of Polgár’s experiences. Not quite wide enough, though. There is throughout the documentary’s 90 minutes the persistent sense that there’s more to Polgár’s story; that if only Emmy-winning director Rory Kennedy had been steadier with her magnifying glass the results might not feel so emotionally underdeveloped. Instead, we get a garish, skittish account of Polgár’s youthful ascent to chess superstardom, with grainy scenes of strategic prowess accompanied by jarring neon graphics and an aggressively irksome soundtrack by various female-fronted post-punk types.
With 13 clubs punished, Chengdu are the only Super League top six side that will start the upcoming new season on zero points, but China’s U23s and provincial sides are lifting spirits
When Keir Starmer met Xi Jinping recently, reporters said the British prime minister was shocked at his Chinese counterpart calling Crystal Palace “Palace”, liking Manchester City and Arsenal and supporting Manchester United. The reasons can be guessed. Fan Zhiyi was popular at Selhurst Park in the late 1990s, Sun Jihai was a cult hero at Maine Road and Manchester United had Dong Fangzhuo. The president of the world’s second most populous country and second biggest economy didn’t, however, mention Everton.
Li Tie spent four seasons at Goodison Park, playing the most in his first, 2002-03, with 29 Premier League appearances. The Chinese international moved into coaching on returning home and managed the national team from 2019 to 2021. Since December 2024, he has been in prison, serving 20 years on charges of taking bribes. Since last Thursday, he has been banned from all football activities for life.
What to look out for as the action continues and the historic home of Milan and Inter hosts Friday’s opening ceremony
As the Olympic torch reached Milan on Thursday, anticipation rippled through the city in waves, both jubilant and uneasy. Pride at hosting the Winter Olympics sits alongside quieter anxieties about rising costs, tightened security and geopolitical tension.
Milan is no stranger to spectacle. Fashion Week routinely transforms the city into a runway for the world. The Salone del Mobile design fair floods hotels each spring. Hosting the Games is meant to be a natural extension of that international identity – proof the city can blend culture, commerce and sport on the grandest stage.
The duo from Tashkent took first and second prizes at the traditional Netherlands New Year tournament, while the favourites from India ended up near the bottom
Nodirbek Abdusattorov added to his growing reputation as one of the world’s top players last weekend when the Uzbek grandmaster, 21, triumphed in the “chess Wimbledon” at Tata Steel Wijk aan Zee, with his compatriot Javokhir Sindarov a close second.
On his previous three attempts Abdusattorov, who has now surged to No 5 in the live ratings, had missed out in the final decisive rounds. This time he led early, had a wobble with three draws and a loss, but was strong in the final two rounds. “It was a long way for me,” he said. “I was very close every time and I failed year after year. I’m extremely happy to finally be able to win this tournament and to win in a very nice style.”
Styles is playing a record 12 nights at Wembley stadium and 30 at Madison Square Garden, as demand for big artists soars – and audience expectation along with it
Selling out a venue such as London’s O2 Arena used to be considered a high point of an artist’s career. Now, selling out just one night there might seem a bit underwhelming. Raye and Olivia Dean will play six nights apiece at the 20,000-capacity hall this year; Dave is playing four, Ariana Grande is playing a whopping 10. Harry Styles, never one to be outdone, last month announced a staggering 30 dates at New York’s Madison Square Garden, with more than 11 million people applying for presale access, as well as a record-breaking 12 nights at Wembley stadium: the most on a single leg of a tour. Taylor Swift managed a mere eight.
Swift’s Eras tour, which made more than $2bn (£1.6bn), doesn’t seem a complete outlier any more: Coldplay’s Music of the Spheres tour has lasted four years and made $1.5bn, and the Weeknd’s After Hours Til Dawn tour is also four years deep and has crossed the $1bn mark. It’s even de rigueur for world leaders to get involved in the fight for tickets, with the Mexican president, Claudia Sheinbaum, asking the South Korean president, Lee Jae Myung, to help book more BTS shows in her country, just as the then Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, publicly asked Swift to come to Canada. Meanwhile, the Singaporean government paid for Swift’s six shows in the country to be a south-east Asia exclusive.
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