President expected to sign order, dubbed ‘No Men in Women’s Sports, today at 3pm ET
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.
‘It’s been pushed towards the margins in recent years’
Joe Root returns for England’s 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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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.
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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.
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.
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 but say there is strong evidence to suggest 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.
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.
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.
Aprilia rider hit the track face first as his helmet shattered
Spaniard has three weeks to recover before season starts
Reigning MotoGP champion Jorge Martín fractured his hand and his foot which will both require surgeries after a nasty crash in pre-season testing in Sepang, Malaysia, on Wednesday, casting doubts on his title defence this season.
Martín, who made the switch from Pramac Racing to Aprilia after winning the 2024 MotoGP championship, lost control of his bike on turn two where a highside launched the 27-year-old into the air before he landed hard on the tarmac.
The president’s appalling threat to seize Gaza and drive out its people imperils global stability, even if he never deploys a single US soldier
The comments were brazen, swaggering, jaw-dropping, audacious, and, to many, simply outrageous. “Stupéfaction mondiale” was how the French paper Libération responded on Wednesday morning. The sober-sided New York Times contented itself with “improbable”. A US senator gave voice to what will surely become a drumbeat charge across the Middle East and beyond in the hours and days to come, that what Donald Trump had said about Gaza amounted to “ethnic cleansing by another name”.
On Tuesday, at the end of his White House meeting with Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, President Trump declared that the US should seize control of the Gaza Strip and permanently remove its 2.2 million Palestinian inhabitants to resettlement in places such as Egypt and Jordan. The US would “own it and be responsible”, said Trump. “We’ll take it over and develop it,” he added. There would be “unlimited numbers of jobs and housing” for “the people of the area” – though which people they would be was not specified. Gaza would be turned into “the Riviera of the Middle East”.
Trump’s attacks on civil rights don’t just affect people of color, they reach other citizens as well
I found myself cheating on CNN, where I’m a political commentator, with MSNBC last weekend. I just had to watch my friend, Nikole Hannah-Jones, articulate a great point that many have missed: Donald Trump is pursuing a racial agenda, not an economic one.
This isn’t historically novel. Most progress is met by this kind of backlash – from the “Red Shirts” and Klansmen who used brutal violence against Black citizens following the gains of the Reconstruction era, to the voting restrictions that followed the election of Barack Obama. But this time is different.
A superbly rich bean stew laced with duck fat, sausages and pork belly
Being French, this rich, leguminous casserole passes as “a voluptuous monument to rustic tradition”, rather than being relegated, like our own pease pudding and ham, to the faintly dismissive category of “comfort food”. In truth, however, it is both: soothingly starchy and deliciously savoury. My take on this classic dish makes no claim to be the one true Carcassone, Castelnaudary or Toulouse cassoulet, but it is worth your time.
Soak 8 hr+ Prep 15 min Cook 4 hr 15 min
Serves 6-8
Saints attorney maintains disclosure of messages showing team execs’ aid in softening media coverage was ‘violation’
An attorney whose lawsuit discovered the existence of emails showing how top executives at the NFL’s Saints and NBA’s Pelicans tried to help New Orleans’ Roman Catholic archdiocese soften critical news coverage about the church’s management of a clergy-abuse scandal has challenged the sports teams’ assertions that the communications were protected by a court order.
Nonetheless, an attorney for the Saints on Tuesday issued a statement doubling down on his position that the material’s disclosure to the press was “a violation of [a] court order protecting them”.
The easiest Derby winner ever was his greatest triumph but the horse’s fate at the hands of the IRA haunted him
Aga Khan IV, who has died at the age of 88, bred and owned the magnificent, ill-starred Derby winner, Shergar, among dozens of champions to carry his famous green and red colours over the course of six decades in the sport.
Shergar was the most emphatic Derby winner in the Classic’s 202-year history when he romped to a 10-length success under Walter Swinburn at Epsom in June 1981, but it was his subsequent kidnapping from the Aga’s Ballymany Stud in County Kildare by an armed gang in February 1983, barely a year after his retirement from the track, that projected Shergar onto the front pages of newspapers around the globe.
Belgian club has its own name, unique brand and the freedom to develop a philosophy away from just winning
Club YLA are fourth in the top division of the Belgian Women’s Super League, which is exactly where they finished in 2023-24. Catching current leaders Leuven and multiple time champions Anderlecht is a long-term goal but this is a club doing things a bit differently.
The club is the women’s team of Club Brugge, led by CEO Guillian Preud’homme, with its own unique brand created in cooperation with the Dutch company Studio Dumbar in order to attract new supporters, boasting its own merchandise range with different colours to the men.
When a frazzled couple asked me and my friend to witness their wedding, I forgot my training in suspicion and began reconsidering my instincts
Growing up in a family of refugees, I was raised to approach strangers with caution. After experiencing displacement, my parents instilled in me the idea that trust had to be earned; they had seen the risks that come with being vulnerable in a new environment. Being wary of the unfamiliar was their way of ensuring we stayed safe in a world that wasn’t always welcoming.
As I got older, their anxieties became my own. I would automatically assume, for example, that someone asking for directions might run off with my phone, or that someone asking for money might scam me.
From Roxie and Velma in Chicago to Mrs Robinson in The Graduate, discover the designs of the Broadway great Patricia Zipprodt (1925-99), whose illustrated memoirs have been published
Online retailers face controls as part of crackdown on ‘dangerous products’ flooding bloc’s market
Online retailers such as China’s Shein and Temu will face strict new customs controls as part of a crackdown by the European Commission on “dangerous products” flooding the EU market.
The commission said many of the billions of low-value products that enter the EU each year were not compliant with the bloc’s laws and that European firms that respected the rules were losing out to competitors selling unsafe or counterfeit products.
Gang swindled victims out of €150,000 by posting fraudulent adverts for pets on secondhand shopping sites
Spanish police investigating an online gang, which swindled prospective puppy-buyers out of more than €150,000 (£125,000) by duping them into paying for nonexistent dogs and fictitious vets’ bills, have arrested six people and frozen 14 bank accounts.
Officers from the Policía Nacional began looking into the gang – which was based in the Basque province of Biscay but operated across Spain – and discovered it was fraudulently advertising mobile phones as well as pets.
Global Fighters Association looks to football as model
Former middleweight Paul Smith says aftercare is needed
Paul Smith says the lack of care and protection for boxers “is not surprising anymore” and that the Global Fighters Association (GFA) will bring support to fighters.
Much like the Professional Footballers’ Association, the GFA aims to introduce a framework where financial support and adequate aftercare is offered to athletes. Retired middleweight Smith – brother to active British fighters Liam and Callum Smith – is one of the group’s founding members alongside the likes of Amir Khan.
Connexion
