Fallout from collision that left 57 dead in 2023 has put pressure on prime minister amid a growing belief of a cover-up by the authorities

Tens of thousands of people are expected to join protests and strikes as Greece marks the second anniversary of a fatal train crash, the fallout of which has put the prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, in the line of fire.

As experts attributed the disaster to oversights and major systemic failures, organisers vowed that Friday’s demonstrations, which coincide with nationwide industrial action, would be on a scale not seen in years.

Syria has a new leader, and for thousands it is a time of celebration and optimism. But old enmities and fears about what comes next haunt the country. Michael Safi reports

After more than a decade of war, and half a century of repressive rule under Bashar al-Assad and his father, Syrians have a new ruler and a new future. Michael Safi spent a week travelling around the country, speaking to people about their surging hopes and joy – but also their fears of how fragile this peace could prove to be.

Driving from Lebanon to Damascus with a family, he heard about the painful toll the years of war and repression had taken on them: a father killed, a brother disappeared, a sister jailed. But they also told him how optimistic they still were for this moment of history.

Democrats warn that cutting jobs at Noaa ‘will cost American lives’ – key US politics stories from Wednesday at a glance

The Trump administration has fired hundreds of workers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa), the US’s pre-eminent climate research agency housed within the Department of Commerce, the Guardian learned on Thursday.

“This will cost American lives,” said Democratic congresswoman and ranking member of the House science, space and technology committee, Zoe Lofgren, in a written statement. Her comments were issued alongside congressman Gabe Amo’s, the ranking member of the subcommittee on environment, after news of the firings broke.

The seven will appear to form a straight line in the night sky in display that won’t be seen again until 2040

Seven planets will appear to align in the night sky on the last day of February in what is known as a planetary parade.

These planetary hangouts happen when several planets appear to line up in the night sky at once.

“A planetary parade is a moment when multiple planets are visible in the sky at the same time,” said Dr Greg Brown, an astronomer at the Royal Observatory Greenwich, told PA Media. “How impressive a parade it is will depend on how many planets are in it and how visible they are.”

From the raw materials required to the machines that make them, every part of the chip supply chain is fiercely contested in the global race for tech supremacy

A small town in the Netherlands hosts the only factory that produces the only chip-making machines that generate a type of light found nowhere naturally on Earth: extreme ultraviolet, a light emitted by young stars in outer space.

This light, known as EUV, is the only way to make one of the world’s most valuable and important technologies at scale: cutting-edge semiconductor chips. The factory is forbidden from selling its EUV machines to China.

As hip-hop’s greatest group announce their final tour, we pick out the best of their LPs – from solo albums to a history-making, gamechanging debut

• No longer ‘forever’? Wu-Tang Clan hint at breakup

Method Man’s second album is preposterously long, hopelessly uneven and features nine skits (one featuring a guest appearance by – uh-oh – Donald Trump). But make a playlist of the best 12 tracks – including Dangerous Grounds, Judgement Day and Break Ups 2 Make Ups – and you’ve got a minor classic.

Percussionist best known for his work with King Crimson and his delight in exploring the boundaries of improvisation

None of the many former art students who enlivened the British rock scene in the 1960s and 70s brought with them a greater sense of anarchic spectacle than the percussionist Jamie Muir, whose stage equipment included not just drums and cymbals but steel chains, blood capsules, a bowl of pistachio shells and a bird whistle.

Muir, who has died aged 79, was introduced to the public in late 1972 as a member of King Crimson. This was the third lineup convened by the group’s leader, the guitarist Robert Fripp, under a name that had first made headlines in 1969 with an appearance at the Rolling Stones’ free concert in Hyde Park, followed by the release of an incendiary and globally successful debut album.

Two new films, Nickel Boys and Presence, offer point-of-view perspectives – but it remains tantalisingly rare in the history of cinema

What if you were watching a haunted house movie – but you were the ghost? Or a racial drama in which you witnessed the horrors of Jim Crow America from a person of colour’s perspective – even if you are white? We can’t actually transcend our lived experience, but the idea of being transported into another person’s shoes has long been central to cinema. This is perhaps most strikingly on display in the very few films that use a first-person perspective – a technique that imbues the camera with a behind-the-eyes quality, allowing us to see what the embodied character is seeing.

Two films released this year deployed this technique with head-turning results: Steven Soderbergh’s horror movie Presence and RaMell Ross’ Oscar-nominated period drama, Nickel Boys, adapted from Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer prize-winning 2019 novel. In the former we assume the perspective of a ghost wandering around a house where a family of four live. In the latter, two young black men (Ethan Herisse and Brandon Wilson) are thrown into a state-run reform school in 1960s Florida. Presence unfolds entirely in the first-person, embracing an intentionally scratchy, rough-hewn look, while Nickel Boys’ more polished approach deploys first-person as part of a suite of aesthetic embellishments.

‘I’m due in the summer, and we’re all so excited,’ Mummy Pig, voiced by actor Morwenna Banks, announces on Good Morning Britain

The animated television character Peppa Pig, famed for her love of jumping up and down in muddy puddles, is to have a new brother or sister, the character’s mother has announced.

Peppa Pig, the phenomenally popular children’s show that has been translated into over 40 languages, tells the story of Peppa and her family – Daddy Pig, Mummy Pig and younger brother George, whose most treasured possession is his toy dinosaur.

Delegates hammer out compromise on delivering billions of dollars to protect species and their habitats

Delegates from across the world have cheered a last-gasp deal to map out funding to protect nature, breaking a deadlock at UN talks seen as a test for international cooperation in the face of geopolitical tensions.

Rich and developing countries on Thursday hammered out a delicate compromise on raising and delivering the billions of dollars needed to protect species, overcoming stark divisions that had scuttled their previous Cop16 meeting in Cali, Colombia last year.

Xiao Qian says exercises in Tasman Sea posed ‘no threat’ to Australia and were ‘a normal kind of practice for many navies in the world’

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China doesn’t even need to “think” about apologising over the way it notified Australia about live-fire naval drills off the Australian coast, the country’s ambassador says.

Xiao Qian told the ABC the drills last Friday and Saturday posed “no threat” to Australia and were “a normal kind of practice for many navies in the world”.

He said the notification of the drills had followed normal international practice, despite Australian authorities first becoming aware of them after they began, from a passing Virgin pilot.

Attorney general had indicated justice department would release files related to Epstein, who died by suicide in 2019

The US justice department has released additional files related to the late disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The justice department gave a statement on Thursday evening, saying the release largely contained documents that had been “previously leaked but never released in a formal capacity by the US government”.

VAR is back (to save us all), Plymouth are plotting another upset and Cardiff’s Anwar El Ghazi returns to Villa Park

The trip to Aston Villa looks tricky for Cardiff City, whose main focus is avoiding relegation to League One. Anwar El Ghazi, at least, was delighted with the draw. The Dutchman spent four years at Villa, clinching promotion at Wembley at the end of a loan season in 2018-19 before a permanent move from Lille. El Ghazi scored Villa’s first goal in a playoff final victory over Derby, with John McGinn and Tyrone Mings the only survivors from that team. Both clubs’ futures hinged on that game under the arch: Derby spiralled and faced administration before dropping into the third tier. El Ghazi can count on a hero’s welcome at Villa Park on Friday. Villa, who will visit Club Brugge for a Champions League last 16 first-leg tie on Tuesday, hope to advance to the FA Cup quarter-finals for the first time since ending as runners-up to Arsenal 10 years ago. Ben Fisher

Aston Villa v Cardiff, Friday 8pm (all times GMT)

Crystal Palace v Millwall, Saturday 12.15pm

Bournemouth v Wolves, Saturday 3pm

Manchester City v Plymouth, Saturday 5.45pm

Judge says office of personnel management lacks power to order firings, including those of probationary employees

A federal judge in California has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from ordering the US defense department and other agencies to carry out the mass firings of some employees.

The US district judge William Alsup said in San Francisco on Thursday that the US office of personnel management (OPM) lacked the power to order federal agencies to fire any workers, including probationary employees who typically have less than a year of experience.

Twenty-two people died in the 2019 New Zealand disaster, mostly US and Australian cruise ship passengers on a walking tour

The owners of an island volcano in New Zealand where 22 tourists and local guides died in an eruption had their criminal conviction for failing to keep visitors safe thrown out by a judge on Friday.

The release of the decision followed a three-day hearing last October for the owners’ company at the high court in the city of Auckland where they appealed against the charges laid by New Zealand’s workplace health and safety regulator after the 2019 eruption of Whakaari, also known as White Island.

This week, Donald Trump continued to dominate the world stage, welcoming a procession of global leaders to Washington, including Keir Starmer. But while the ‘special relationship’ is front and centre in the UK, attention in the US is very much elsewhere. As the president goes full steam ahead with his domestic agenda, there are warning signs for Trump in the polls. So, could he be in trouble at home? And how could the Democrats take advantage?

Jonathan Freedland speaks to Stanley Greenberg, the bestselling author, Democratic pollster and political strategist who played a crucial role in the elections of Bill Clinton and Tony Blair

Dozens of anti-war protesters gathered to demand the reinstatement of two students expelled for disrupting a class on Israel

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Several dozen anti-war student protesters gathered outside Columbia University and Barnard College in New York on Thursday to protest against the expulsion of two students who interrupted a class on Israel last month.

Wearing keffiyehs in solidarity with Palestinians, students chanted a series of anti-war slogans amid a heavy New York police department (NYPD) presence outside the sister schools, where only students and faculty with ID cards are allowed in.

Prisoners, including Rafael Caro Quintero, extradited as Mexico faces pressure to show it’s tackling fentanyl trafficking

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Mexico has extradited 29 high-level organised crime operatives to the US, as it faces intense pressure from the Trump administration to show that it is tackling fentanyl trafficking.

Among the prisoners sent to the US was Rafael Caro Quintero, the drug lord who was convicted of the murder of an undercover US Drug Enforcement Administration agent in 1985.

Employees informed by email that their jobs would be cut off at end of day in move a worker called ‘wrong all around’

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The Trump administration has fired hundreds of workers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa), the US’s pre-eminent climate research agency housed within the Department of Commerce, the Guardian has learned.

On Thursday afternoon, the commerce department sent emails to employees saying their jobs would be cut off at the end of the day. Other government agencies have also seen huge staffing cuts in recent days.

President claims presence of US workers in Ukraine would deter Russian aggression after talks with Keir Starmer

• Starmer visits Trump: latest updates

Donald Trump has insisted that Vladimir Putin would “keep his word” on a peace deal for Ukraine, arguing that US workers extracting critical minerals in the country would act as a security backstop to deter Russia from invading again.

During highly anticipated talks at the White House with the prime minister, Keir Starmer, the US president said that Putin could be trusted not to breach any agreement, which could aim to return as much of the land as possible to Ukraine that was seized by Russia during the brutal three-year conflict.

World champion will be remembered for the ‘match of the century’ against American Bobby Fischer in 1972

Soviet chess grandmaster Boris Spassky, who was famously defeated at the height of the cold war, has died at 88, the Russian Chess Federation has announced.

“The tenth world champion Boris Spassky has died at 88,” the federation said in a statement on its website on Thursday, calling it a “great loss for the country”. The statement did not say when he died or from what cause.

We want to hear about chance encounters and acts of kindness that have restored your faith in community – or humanity

From wise words to good deeds, sometimes an interaction with a total stranger can be exactly what you need.

Guardian Australia is looking for readers willing to share their memorable moments with unfamiliar folk for our series Kindness of strangers.

• Proposal for more teams in new-look top flight
• Championship set to be rebranded as WSL2

The Women’s Super League is considering abolishing relegation as part of a radical proposal to grow the sport that will be discussed by the clubs at a meeting on Friday.

The Guardian has learned that the 23 WSL and Championship clubs have been called to a strategy summit by the newly formed company that runs both competitions, Women’s Professional Leagues Ltd, which will ask them to explore a range of options to increase the profile, sustainability and profitability of women’s football.

The PCC – First Capital Command – formed in a Sāo Paulo prison but is now spreading its tentacles around the world

In September 2020, the Australian Border Force intercepted 552kg of cocaine concealed in 2,000 boxes of frozen banana pulp that had arrived at the port of Sydney on a ship from Brazil.

Two years later, a diver was found floating dead next to 52kg of cocaine near the port of Newcastle, in New South Wales, Australia. Police later discovered that he was a Brazilian national who had been attempting to retrieve drugs from a cargo ship’s hull.

The 1890 National Scholars program gives full rides to HBCU students in fields like botany, forestry and food safety

Dr Marcus Bernard was shocked to learn last week that the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) had suspended the 1890 National Scholars program that funds undergraduate students’ education in agriculture or related fields at about 20 historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs).

Bernard is dean of the college of agriculture, health and natural resources at one of those institutions, Kentucky State University. At Kentucky State, close to 40 of the scholars have enrolled since the project’s inception in 1992. Nationwide, the program has supported more than 800 students, according to the USDA.

It has been a midweek of Premier League certainties being secured at both top and bottom. Place Leicester in the certainty category. Defeat at West Ham extended their doomed, zombified lurch towards relegation to 11 league defeats in 12, 12 of 16 in all since Ruud van Nistelrooy replaced Steve Cooper in November.

If Cooper was the wrong man at the wrong club then so, most probably, is the Dutchman. Perhaps nobody had a chance with the squad Leicester assembled to attempt survival. Their performance at the London Stadium was submissive. “That’s the situation we’re in,” said Van Nistelrooy. “The confidence in the run of form is low and then you end up in a mindset of trying not to lose.”

Hendricks plays a Hollywood producer who returns to her home town to shoot a show in this whimsical comedy drama – and she is not someone you want to cross

How much you enjoy Small Town, Big Story will depend on how you feel first about whimsy and second about genre mashups. If your appetite for both is large, then Chris O’Dowd’s creation (he wrote and directed) has plenty to make you happy. If not, you might find the whole thing a little too underpowered to keep you going.

Christina Hendricks, of Mad Men fame, plays hard-bitten TV producer Wendy Patterson. She is in charge of her first big Hollywood production and returns to her tiny home town of Drumbán in Northern Ireland (after 25 years in Los Angeles surrounded by fat-cat bosses and patronising colleagues) to shoot it there. This follows shenanigans by Drumbán’s more colourful and eccentric characters to keep the location scouts from choosing a more tax-advantageous site across the border; these shenanigans include a pig’s head on a stick and a sign saying “Death to the infidels”, which, you know … well, OK, all right. Not even so much from an offence-giving point of view but from an “Is this remotely credible in this particular world?” position.

Gossip Girl and Buffy the Vampire Slayer actor, 39, died this week after being found unresponsive at her apartment

• Michelle Trachtenberg’s natural talent shone in everything from Harriet the Spy to Buffy

The cause of Gossip Girl and Buffy the Vampire Slayer actor Michelle Trachtenberg’s death will remain undetermined as her family has reportedly declined an autopsy.

According to Deadline, the actor’s family have chosen not to go forward with an autopsy because of religious reasons. As no foul play is suspected, the decision was not overruled by the medical examiner.

• Kansas City star tight end returning to play in 2025
• Kelce confirmed return with tweet to ESPN pundit

Kansas City Chiefs star tight end Travis Kelce is returning to the field next season.

Kelce made his intentions known with a text to ESPN’s Pat McAfee, who promptly shared it on his show Thursday.

• Chelsea co-owner also says league could learn from NFL
• Crystal Palace chair laments independent regulator

Todd Boehly has said the Premier League should consider selling its global TV rights to Netflix, as he shrugged off tensions with supporters and questions over his model of ownership in rare public remarks.

The Chelsea co-owner also called on Premier League executives to agree on priorities for the future of the competition, saying they should “pull together” to maintain its success. “Premier League content is so valuable because it’s so widely demanded,” Boehly said. “How many global platforms are there? Probably just Netflix. If you’re thinking about how do I launch a global product, you do it in partnership with content like this.

‘I think we’ll be inclined to go along with your country,’ president says of plan to hand sovereignty to Mauritius

• Starmer visits Trump – latest updates

Donald Trump has strongly hinted that he will back a deal in which the UK hands sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, including the Diego Garcia military base, which is jointly used by the US.

“I think we’ll be inclined to go along with your country,” the US president told reporters during an impromptu press conference in the Oval Office with Keir Starmer, who is visiting Washington. He added: “I have a feeling it’s going to work out very well.”

Rhianan Rudd, 16, was referred to Prevent by her mother after becoming ‘fixated on Hitler’, inquest told

A teenager who killed herself after becoming the youngest person in the UK to be charged with terror offences had been groomed online by an American “neo-Nazi”, an inquest has been told.

Sixteen-year-old Rhianan Rudd, who was autistic, had been referred to the government’s Prevent counter-radicalisation programme by her mother, Emily Carter, the counsel to the inquest, Edward Pleeth, told the hearing.

Appeal court says there is ‘no basis’ to delay start of hearings next week

The court of appeal has refused Noel Clarke permission to challenge a trial judge’s decision not to throw out the Guardian’s defence in a libel claim.

The 49-year-old actor is suing Guardian News and Media (GNM) over a series of articles in which more than 20 women accused him of sexual misconduct.

A memo from the Trump administration gives federal officials until 13 March to submit plans for additional firings

• US politics live – latest updates

The Trump administration is pushing for federal agencies to carry out a large-scale slashing of the federal workforce, demanding plans for hundreds of thousands of possible cuts within weeks.

A White House memo gave officials until 13 March to submit a plan identifying “agency components and employees performing functions not mandated by statute or regulation who are not typically designated as essential” during government shutdowns.

Geo Group, an Ice partner, is moving at ‘unprecedented speed’ to build out its monitoring, executive chair says

The Geo Group, the largest single private contractor to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice), said it was building out its surveillance business to be able to monitor hundreds of thousands or millions more immigrants than it already does.

The Geo Group, a private prison corporation and parent company of BI Inc, has contracted with Ice for nearly 20 years to manage the agency’s electronic monitoring program. It currently tracks approximately 186,000 immigrants using devices such as ankle monitors, smart watches and a facial recognition app, according to public Ice data. Due to increasing demand from Donald Trump’s administration, which has promised mass deportations, company executives said that they expect that number to grow past its previous peak of 370,000 to 450,000 immigrants within the next year. The remarks were made during the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call on Thursday morning.

Canadian event loses three sponsors who also do business in the US to avoid being seen as supporting LGBTQ+ rights

Pride Toronto, one of the largest celebrations of LGTBQ+ people in North America, is reeling from the loss of three major sponsors who have pulled funding after Donald Trump’s purge of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programmes in the US.

Kojo Modeste, the executive director of the Canadian event said that the sponsors who also do business in the US are seeking to avoidbeing seen as supporting LGBTQ+ rights.

Tourism and local officials in Mexico deny any knowledge of proposed follow-up to disastrous 2017 event

When tickets to the second Fyre festival went on sale this week, there was just one concrete detail: it would take place on Isla Mujeres, a tropical island off Cancún, Mexico.

But the festival seems to be repeating its own history as an improvised disaster after the local government in Isla Mujeres denied knowing anything about it.

• Enron one of the largest bankruptcy cases in US history
• La Liga alleges City distort EU’s internal market

Manchester City have been accused of an Enron-style financial deception by La Liga’s president, Javier Tebas.

Tebas said the Spanish league filed a complaint against City to the European Commission in the summer of 2023, which he says the Commission is investigating. City have not commented on Tebas’s allegations but club sources are aware of them, and strongly refute them.

Amazon Web Services enters emerging race against tech giants days after Microsoft revealed its quantum chip

Amazon Web Services (AWS) on Thursday announced Ocelot, its first-generation quantum computing chip, as it enters the race against fellow tech giants in harnessing the experimental technology.

Developed by the AWS Center for Quantum Computing at the California Institute of Technology, the new chip can reduce the costs of implementing quantum error correction by up to 90%, according to the company.

Users complained of ‘not safe for work’ videos in feeds despite some having enabled setting to filter such content

Meta Platforms said on Thursday it had resolved an error that flooded the personal Reels feeds of Instagram users with violent and graphic videos worldwide.

It was not immediately clear how many people were affected by the glitch. Meta’s comments followed a wave of complaints on social media about violent and “not safe for work” content in Reels feeds, despite some users having enabled the “sensitive content control” setting meant to filter such material.