• England attack coach expects both teams to turn corner
• ‘We’re seeing green shoots – we play fast and score tries’

Steve Borthwick’s England squad have been compared to Ruben Amorim’s Manchester United side before this Saturday’s massive Six Nations fixture at home to France. Both teams have been having difficult seasons but inside the red rose camp there remains a firm belief that, given a little patience, the tide will eventually turn for them.

England’s attack coach, Richard Wigglesworth, also happens to be a United fan and sees similarities between the respective situations at Twickenham and Old Trafford. He thinks Amorim will eventually deliver success for United, currently 13th in the Premier League, and is also backing England, who have won just two of their past nine Tests, to turn the corner in the not-too-distant future.

Judge said no US court had endorsed Trump’s reading of the 14th amendment and her court ‘will not be the first’

• US politics live – latest updates

A federal judge on Wednesday ordered a second temporary pause on Donald Trump’s executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship for anyone born in the US to someone in the country illegally.

US district judge Deborah Boardman said no court in the country had endorsed the Trump administration’s interpretation of the 14th amendment.

Takeover of USAid agency by Doge operatives seen as a pilot for a large-scale overhaul of the federal government

USAid security personnel were defending a secure room holding sensitive and classified data in a standoff with “department of government efficiency” employees when a message was said to come directly from Elon Musk: give the Doge kids whatever they want.

Since Donald Trump’s inauguration last month, a posse of cocksure young engineers answering to Musk have stormed through Washington DC, gaining access to government computer systems as part of what Senator Chuck Schumer has called “an unelected shadow government … conducting a hostile takeover of the federal government”.

Some civil servants determined to ‘stick it out’ as president and Elon Musk push for mass resignations: ‘We’re not even sure what is being offered is legal’

• What is USAid and why does Trump dislike it so much?
• US politics live – latest updates

Amy*, a federal US government employee working for homeland security who was hired by the Joe Biden administration’s refugee programme, has not left her phone out of her sight since last Tuesday, when the Elon Musk-led push for mass voluntary redundancies of government workers began.

Since the US office of personnel management (OPM) sent nearly all of the federal government’s 3 million employees an email offering them deferred resignations and warning that, if they choose to stay, they may be laid off or reassigned, US career civil servants have been weighing their options.

New title holder becomes the spiritual leader of the world’s millions of Ismaili Muslims

Rahim Al-Hussaini, 53, has been named the new Aga Khan, spiritual leader of the world’s millions of Ismaili Muslims, after the death of his father, the Ismaeli community has announced.

The Aga Khan V, the 50th hereditary imam of the Shia Ismaili Muslims, was designated in his father’s will “in accordance with historical Shia Imami Ismaili Muslim tradition and practice”, the community said on its website.

His father, his Highness Prince Karim Al-Hussaini, the Aga Khan IV, known for his fabulous wealth and development work around the world, died on Tuesday in Lisbon, the seat of the Ismaili Imamat, at the age of 88.

The Aga Khan is considered by his followers to be a direct descendant of the prophet Muhammad and is treated as a head of state and accorded nearly divine status by the Ismaeli community, whose website says it numbers 12 to 15 million people.

The French government has faced ridicule for its new laundry edicts which include wearing a T-shirt five times before laundering it. But maybe it has a point?

Name: Laundry.

Age: As old as clothes.

Community is billed as the cure-all for isolation, ageing and even climate change. Are we prepared to put the work in?

In the year since I moved into my flat, I’ve received a few notes under the door.

Some were warm welcomes – most notably, a Swiftie-style friendship bracelet from my downstairs neighbour, who’d heard me (“very faintly!”) listening to the new album. Others were Christmas cards, or courtesy notes warning of forthcoming maintenance or outages.

Italian radiologist, who says injured pet was ‘between life and death’, also operated on animal at Aosta facility

An Italian doctor has been placed under investigation after giving his cat a Cat scan at a hospital in Aosta before performing a life-saving operation on the feline.

Gianluca Fanelli took the animal, called Athena, to Umberto Parini hospital in the northern Italian region, where he is a manager of the radiology unit, after she fell from a roof.

• Settlement creates $5 million fund for NWSL players
• Players went public with allegations of abuse in 2021

The NWSL has agreed to create a $5m fund to compensate players who experienced abuse and implement reforms to resolve investigations launched by attorneys general for New York, Illinois and Washington DC after players came forward with allegations of harassment and sexual misconduct.

Players from across the US top-flight National Women’s Soccer League went public in 2021 with allegations of misconduct by coaches and officials dating back over 10 years.

Plane departed Texas and landed in Amritsar as Washington prepares to welcome Indian PM Narendra Modi

A US military plane carrying 104 deported people has landed in India as part of the Trump administration’s policy of deploying the armed forces to enforce its trumpeted mass deportation programme.

The migrants, the first to be flown to India by military aircraft, were sent on a C-17 aircraft from San Antonio in Texas to the northern Indian city of Amritsar.

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Cristiano Ronaldo turns 40 today and celebrated in trademark style, posing for a picture in his time-machine cryo-trousers. Hurrah! Looks like a right laugh. Here are 40 slightly more memorable moments, good and bad (and in no particular order), since his rise to fame as a teenager at Sporting.

There’s a balance. I think we all like to see celebrations. Some of the celebrations have been very funny, entertaining, but there’s a line. Once it crosses over into mockery or criticism, then we would need to deal with it – Tony Scholes, the Premier League’s chief football officer, tells Sky that players could face sanctions for goal celebrations that make fun of opponents in future.

How could anyone possibly confuse Carlos Jonas ‘Charly’ Alcaraz Durán with Carlos Alcaraz Garfia (yesterday’s Bits and Bobs)? Charly is seven centimetres shorter and undoubtedly has an inferior backhand” – Max Maxwell.

Despite its minute font size, the caption beneath your photo of the newly unveiled design for Wrexham’s proposed Kop stand (‘Looks pretty good, to be fair’ ) screamed ‘cognitive dissonance’ to me. It looks neither ‘pretty’ nor ‘good’ nor ‘fair’, even in a year when The Brutalist has been nominated for an Oscar. Perhaps I’ve just spent too little time at the Gedling Inn” – Clinton Macsherry.

It’s kind of Mike Wilner to offer Marcus Rashford’s services to Nottingham Forest, but we already have an attacker who Manchester United didn’t deem good enough and practically gave away. He’s not doing too badly” – Jim Hearson.

Union president tells House committee Trump issuing ‘legally dubious policy to drain departments and agencies of experienced and dedicated professionals’

Donald Trump will sign an executive order to prevent transgender athletes from competing in women’s sports at 3pm today, the White House said.

Dubbed “No Men in Women’s Sports”, the order will change how the administration interprets Title IX, a civil rights law that addresses sex discrimination at schools that receive federal funding, including in athletics.

Player’s brother alleges threat by Jorge Vilda, former coach of national women’s team, in wake of outrage over kiss at Women’s World Cup final

Jenni Hermoso’s brother on Wednesday told the forced kiss trial of Spain’s ex-football federation chief Luis Rubiales his sister was threatened with “consequences” if she did not downplay the affair.

Rubiales sparked worldwide outrage for the kiss on Hermoso after she had just helped Spain beat England in the 2023 Women’s World Cup final in Australia.

• ‘It’s been pushed towards the margins in recent years’
• Joe Root returns for three-match series against India

Jos Buttler is unsure of what the future holds for one-day international cricket with England’s white-ball captain accepting the format has been “pushed a little bit towards the margins”.

England begin an ODI series with India in Nagpur on Thursday, the three matches serving as a starter before the main: this month’s Champions Trophy. The 50-over tournament is back after an eight-year absence, the period in between seeing a proliferation in franchise Twenty20 cricket as well as three men’s T20 World Cups.

The author recorded her thoughts on alcoholism, depression and her complex relationship with her daughter Quintana in the book, Notes to John

A journal found in Joan Didion’s home is to be published in April.

Discovered in a filing cabinet next to the American writer’s desk after her death in 2021, Notes to John is addressed to Didion’s husband, John Gregory Dunne, who died in 2003. Its entries begin in December 1999, and recount sessions Didion was having with a psychiatrist at the time.

People have fought tooth and nail against killings, incarceration and displacement from their homeland. They will not give up

• Yara Hawari is co-director of Al Shabaka, the Palestinian Policy Network

Donald Trump’s first few weeks in office have sent a clear message: that he will support Benjamin Netanyahu’s vision for the permanent expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza.

This was evident even before his incoherent press conference on Tuesday with the Israeli prime minister, the first foreign leader to visit the US since the president’s inauguration. As usual, Trump began his speech by listing all his so-called achievements in the region – many illegal under international law – of his previous term, including the moving of the US embassy to Jerusalem, recognition of Israel’s unlawful annexation of the Syrian Golan, and the Abraham Accords. Once he finished bestowing accolades upon himself, he presented his administration’s future plans for Gaza.

Yara Hawari is co-director of Al Shabaka, the Palestinian Policy Network

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The US president’s idea to take over the territory and his claims Palestinians were keen to move were met with anger – and a determination to stay

• Middle East crisis – live updates

In Gaza, Donald Trump’s plan for the United States to take over the territory was met with anger and disbelief by Palestinians sheltering in the ruins of their houses, or crammed into makeshift camps.

They know better than anyone the terrible impact of 15 months of Israeli attacks that have reduced so much of Gaza to rubble.

‘This is a reproduction of a memory I have from my childhood during the Iran-Iraq war. I went to a wedding and could hear bombs and alarms going off’

I grew up in Ahvaz, a city in Iran that’s close to the border with Iraq, during the Iran-Iraq war of 1980-88. I have a memory of going to a wedding party as a child and hearing bombs and alarms – I didn’t fully understand what was happening, or why the bride looked nervous, but there was a paradoxical feeling of still wanting to spend our time in the happiness of that moment.

This photograph reconstructs that memory. It was shot at a location used for making movies about the war: a huge place in the desert where they have all the necessary props. Getting permission wasn’t easy but I wanted to tell my story there, sketching normal life events – weddings, birthdays, Iranian new year – into a war zone. The series, from 2008, is titled Today’s Life and War, and it reflects my interest in the relationship between war and everyday life. I often explore themes of displacement, survival and human resilience in my work. Creating this series helped me process the emotions and memories of growing up in wartime. Many people who lived through it told me they connected to these images because they show struggle and survival.

I watched a video showing three men kick, hit, then topple the poor humanoid. All I wanted to do was take the poor thing by the hand and lead it to a better life

I saw a clip of a robot being pushed and shoved around by three men. I found it most unsettling. They bully it rather tentatively, without great violence. They find it amusing, until it falls over, at which point it’s the price of the thing that seems to be the worry. This AI humanoid apparently cost $70,000 (£55,800). It’s in the care of one Kai Cenat, an internet-type person – streamer, YouTuber, influencer – you know the kind of thing. Doing the bullying were Cenat and two other gentlemen by the names of Agent and Fanum. I take it they’re in a similar line of business. The incident shown took place in the AMP house. According to Google this is either an office building in east Croydon, or the home of a group of internet celebrities living together in a house in Atlanta, Georgia. I’m plumping for the latter.

I wonder why I find myself caring about this machine. Surely it’s as daft as feeling sorry for the red Austin 1100 Basil Fawlty beat with a bit of tree, which I never did. In fact, on reflection, I might also have felt sorry for the tree, but didn’t. That said, I do have a capacity for strong feelings about inanimate objects. On more than one occasion I upset the children by choosing the most pitiable-looking Christmas tree in the shop. I just couldn’t bear the thought of it lying there on Christmas Eve, cold, unbought, unloved, undecorated, bauble-less. A waste of a life. I’ve had similar feelings for kitchen implements and even an easily replaceable Oyster travelcard which I’d managed not to lose for a long time – until I lost it.

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

​Some games are meant to be played forever, but you have to know when to pull the plug, even if you haven’t finished it

For months now I have been in the thrall of Pokémon Trading Card Pocket. It’s a devilishly slick blend of card-collecting and pared-down battling that has had me obediently opening the app on my phone at least twice a day since it launched. The virtual cards are beautifully done; the rare art cards especially, with their pastoral scenes of Pokémon in their natural habitats. I have spent many hours on the battles, too, honing decks and chasing win streaks to earn myself victory emblems. I got most of my friends into it, anticipating the day when its makers at DeNa would finally enable trading so I could fill the last couple of holes in my collection.

This week, on the day that the trading went live and an expansion full of pretty new cards was introduced, I quit. I made a couple of trades for the Venosaur Ex and Machamp Ex that had evaded my grasp despite opening hundreds of packs, took a screenshot of the “collection complete” screen, and I haven’t opened it since. I’m done.

Kennedy’s hearing signifies how close a man with medically racist beliefs is to becoming the US’s leading health official

During Robert F Kennedy Jr’s Senate confirmation hearing on 30 January, Angela Alsobrooks, a Democratic senator from Maryland, pressed the nominee on his past claims that Black people have a stronger immune system than white people and thereby, should receive vaccines on a different schedule than them. “What different vaccine schedule would you say I should have received?” Alsobrooks, who is Black, asked the health secretary nominee. Kennedy then referenced a “series of studies” showing that “to particular antigens, Blacks have a much stronger reaction”.

The exchange is cause for alarm for many, as it signified how close a man who holds medically racist beliefs was to becoming the country’s leading health official. Dr Richard Kennedy – an author of the study referenced at the hearing, who is not related to Kennedy – told NPR that while it’s true the immune response to vaccination can vary by race, sex and “potentially dozens of other factors”, the data does not support a change in vaccine schedule based on race.

Work and payments at universities, businesses and non-profits disrupted nationwide after executive orders

Scientists around the US have described experiencing distress, disruption to their work and interruption of payments in the chaos following Donald Trump’s executive orders affecting federal grant money.

Among the funds caught in limbo in recent days were millions of dollars of congressionally appropriated research awards and grants across the vast networks of publicly funded scientific departments at universities, businesses and non-profits across the country.

Writing on PHerc. 172 papyrus, found at Roman mansion in Herculaneum, revealed after 3D X-rays and software competition

Researchers have peered inside an ancient scroll that was burned to a crisp in the volcanic eruption that destroyed Pompeii nearly 2,000 years ago.

The scroll is one of hundreds found in the library of a Roman mansion in Herculaneum, a town on the west coast of Italy that was wiped out when Mount Vesuvius erupted in AD79.

Matildas star tells Kingston crown court that a cab journey turned ‘very scary’ after she was sick out of the window

Sam Kerr said she was “terrified” for her life during a taxi ride after the driver locked the doors and windows before speeding and swerving, which led to her partner smashing the car’s window with her boot in an attempt to escape, a court has heard.

Kerr, 31, the captain of the Australian women’s football team and Chelsea’s star striker, is on trial at Kingston crown court accused of racially aggravated harassment after calling a police officer “fucking stupid and white” when he doubted her claim of being “held hostage” by the driver. She denies the charges.

The Guardian’s picture editors select photographs from around the world

Team has produced more than 20 embryos using method used in humans, though there are no plans for live joeys

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Scientists have produced kangaroo embryos through in vitro fertilisation for the first time, in a development they say could help conservation of endangered animals.

Australian researchers at the University of Queensland made the eastern grey kangaroo embryos using intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), a technique widely used in human IVF, in which a sperm is injected into a mature egg.

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After one dominant performance in Galle the tourists cannot rely on Sri Lanka bringing about their own downfall again in the second Test

What to do after an exercise in perfection? Australia’s men ran last week’s Test match in Galle as brutally as their counterpart women did in Melbourne, both teams completing a win by an innings and plenty within 90 seconds of one another last Saturday.

The ticked boxes for the men’s side can fill a page: rack up more than 600 batting first; blazing fifty for your pinch-hit opener who was picked to blaze fifties; huge hundred for your other opener who had been a long time without one; third hundred in four Tests for your resurgent talisman, the same guy who is temporary captain and pulls the reins as well as ever; ton on debut for your No 5 who was a conditions pick ahead of others already capped; comfortable not out for your keeper who might otherwise be threatened by the debutant; bowl the opposition out twice following on in barely 100 overs across the two innings; wickets for your sole quick in a ram-raid at the top; wickets for your veteran spinner conducting the middle; and nine in the match for your left-arm spinner who almost missed with a broken thumb.

Swedish officers working to identify victims and say evidence strongly suggests gunman shot himself

The gun attack that left 11 people dead in the Swedish city of Örebro was “a one-man operation”, police have said, as they worked to identify the victims of the country’s deadliest mass shooting.

The suspected gunman was among the dead and six people were hospitalised after a shooter entered Campus Risbergska, a school specialising in adult education, just after 12.30pm on Tuesday.

US president has already caused trouble abroad and at home with incoherent ideas about Middle East politics

• Middle East crisis – the latest updates

The suggestion by the US president, Donald Trump, that Gaza’s Palestinian population could be “cleaned out” and moved to Egypt and Jordan, repeated on 5 February when he added that the US should ‘take over Gaza’, is an idea that has long been circulated by the Israeli right.

Over the decades since the Six Day war in 1967, when Israeli forces first captured the Gaza Strip, which had been under Egyptian military rule, Israeli officials and commentators have periodically pushed the notion that Palestinians in Gaza could be resettled in Egypt.

This piece was first published on 27 January 2025 and was updated on 5 February 2025 to reflect Trump’s latest comments

Equinor becomes latest fossil fuel firm to backtrack on clean energy pledges with move to halve budget to $5bn

The Norwegian oil company fighting to open a giant new oilfield off Shetland has cut billions of pounds from its green spending plans in favour of producing more fossil fuels.

Equinor set out plans on Wednesday to halve its investments in low-carbon energy while producing more oil and gas, becoming the latest in a line of fossil fuel firms to backtrack on its green promises.

Families say they want accountability for ‘bad decision-making’ relating to Valdo Calocane

The families of the Nottingham attacks victims have called for individual doctors responsible for Valdo Calocane’s treatment to be named and held accountable.

At a press conference on Wednesday, after the publication of a report detailing Calocane’s mental health treatment before his killing spree in June 2023, the families of Grace O’Malley-Kumar, Barnaby Webber and Ian Coates said they wanted accountability for “poor leadership and bad decision-making”.

Company saw ‘strong start to the fiscal year’ according to its CEO, partly due to higher profits from streaming business

Walt Disney sharply outperformed Wall Street’s quarterly earnings estimates on Wednesday, with results buoyed by the strong holiday box office performance of animated sequel Moana 2 and higher profits at the company’s streaming business.

The strength in entertainment helped offset a decline at Disney’s domestic theme parks, which were impacted by hurricanes Helene and Milton in Florida. The parks-led Experiences group also incurred about $75m in expenses associated with the December launch of the Disney Treasure cruise ship.

Epic lineup convenes for farewell to heavy metal icon at Birmingham’s Villa Park stadium in July, with Metallica, Slayer, Pantera and many more in support

Having been the original voice of heavy metal, survived multiple bouts of ill health and relieved various bats and doves of their heads, Ozzy Osbourne is to bring one of the great performing careers to a close with a final gig: a reunion of the original Black Sabbath lineup in their native Birmingham, together for the first time in 20 years.

Titled Back to the Beginning, the charity gig will be held at Villa Park on 5 July, with tickets on sale from 10am on 14 February. The supporting lineup is a Who’s Who of metal greats, including Metallica, Slayer, Pantera and many more, and the concert’s musical director, Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine, promises: “This will be the greatest heavy metal show ever.”

Money stolen falls from record $1.25bn to $813m as more victims refuse to pay off criminal gangs

Ransomware payments fell by more than a third last year to $813m (£650m) as victims refused to pay cybercriminals and law enforcement cracked down on gangs, figures reveal.

The decline in such cyber-attacks – where access to a computer or its data is blocked and money is then demanded to release it – came despite a number of high-profile cases in 2024, with victims including NHS trusts in the UK and the US doughnut firm Krispy Kreme.

Ruling says allegations by actor’s legal team ‘should not have been made’ in open court

A high court judge has criticised lawyers representing Noel Clarke for making “unacceptable” allegations against Guardian journalists which “should not have been made and publicly aired without foundation”.

Mrs Justice Steyn dismissed claims that there had been any fabrication of evidence by them and said any deletion of documents was “not in breach of any rule or duty” to preserve them.

• Lakers sent Anthony Davis to Mavs in return for Dončić
• James admits team’s focus may turn to younger players

LeBron James says he spent two days in disbelief after the Los Angeles Lakers traded away Anthony Davis, his close friend and teammate.

The top scorer in NBA history is finally coming to grips with the idea of forming a new partnership with Luka Dončić, who also holds a special place in James’s esteem.

Europe’s biggest firm, whose sales of Wegovy almost doubled, feels it can ‘meet demands’ of US administration

Europe’s biggest company, Novo Nordisk, has rebuffed fears of a hit to its business from Donald Trump’s threatened tariffs, as it reported better-than-expected revenues after sales of its weight-loss drug Wegovy almost doubled.

Since taking office, the US president has imposed tariffs on Mexico and Canada – since paused for a month – and China, and has said levies of imports from the EU will “definitely happen”.

Combs denies wrongdoing alleged in three new lawsuits filed against rapper and mogul, including claim he ‘effectively imprisoned’ male adult entertainer

A fresh round of lawsuits alleging sexual assault have been filed against Sean “Diddy” Combs, though the rapper and mogul continues to deny wrongdoing.

On Tuesday, a man filing in New York’s Southern District court anonymously as John Doe alleged that Combs coerced him into sex acts over a number of years. The man, who worked as an adult entertainer in Las Vegas, claims he was hired by Combs in 2007 to perform a strip show, and was subsequently booked on other occasions lasting until 2012 at hotel rooms and Combs residences across the US.

Charles is king of 14 Commonwealth realms – but possibly not for much longer. A look at the drive for decolonisation. Plus, Bob Marley at 80

Hello and welcome to The Long Wave. This week, I spoke to Natricia Duncan, our Caribbean correspondent, on the latest moves on behalf of Commonwealth countries to decolonise their national identity. But first, the weekly roundup.