• Kazakh rebounds from 3-0 down in final set for glory

• 2023 runner-up turns tables with 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 win

Elena Rybakina had plenty of reasons to lose faith in her latest pursuit of a second grand slam title. She had played well for so much of the Australian Open final, but just as was the case in their final here three years ago, as the world No 1 Aryna Sabalenka began to impose herself in the match, Rybakina lost all control. Trailing 0-3 and 30-30 on her serve in the final set, Rybakina’s chances were fading quickly.

Although Rybakina is one of the least expressive tennis players to ever reach these stages, her reserved persona belies the grit at the heart of her success. The fifth seed brilliantly drew on her inner fire to produce the one of the great recoveries of her career, finding a way through from a break down in the final set to clinch her first Australian Open title with a brilliant 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 win over.

Elon Musk and former UK ambassador to US Peter Mandelson among those named in newly released documents

The documents released by the US justice department provides further insight into how Epstein’s ex-girlfriend and co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell, kept victims in check.

Maxwell, a British socialite who once rubbed shoulders with royals, billionaires and presidents, is serving a 20-year sentence for her role in trafficking girls abused by Epstein.

Researchers tell ‘human story’ about crisis during plague of Justinian, which killed millions in Byzantine empire

A US-led research team has verified the first Mediterranean mass grave of the world’s earliest recorded pandemic, providing stark new details about the plague of Justinian that killed millions of people in the Byzantine empire between the sixth and eighth centuries.

The findings, published in February’s Journal of Archaeological Science, offer what researchers say is a rare empirical window into the mobility, urban life and vulnerability of citizens affected by the pestilence.

Accusers’ accounts say Maxwell, convicted in 2021 of sex-trafficking, ‘acted sweet’ but displayed ‘dark side’

• Epstein files latest: updates as more files released

Documents included in the disclosure of Jeffrey Epstein investigative files have further lifted the veil on how his ex-girlfriend and co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell, kept victims in check.

Maxwell, who was convicted of luring teen girls into Epstein’s abusive world, deployed a powerful mix of jocular familiarity and cutting iciness in dealings with his victims and others in her orbit, according to accusers’ accounts that were included in this document tranche.

After undergoing emergency surgery following an accident, the photographer discovered a newfound appreciation for the human body

Three years ago, Jorge Perez Ortiz was on a small wooden boat travelling from Cartagena in Colombia to a group of nearby islands when the sea became unexpectedly rough. As a strong wave hit, Ortiz, sitting at the bow, felt his body lift and come down sharply on his seat. The sudden impact fractured a vertebra. He was taken to hospital and underwent emergency surgery.

“I’ve always been captivated by the power of water and the sense of freedom and escape one feels when diving into it,” Ortiz says, “but until that point, I’d never considered the other side of this freedom and the risks it carries.”

• American still preparing for Milano Cortina Games

• ‘Thank you for the love and support I have received’

Lindsey Vonn sat out a World Cup super-G race Saturday after crashing and injuring her left knee a day earlier, but remains on track for the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics, her coach revealed.

“No, she is not racing today but preparing for Cortina as usual,” Chris Knight, Vonn’s personal head coach, said in a text message. Vonn then posted on Instagram: “Unfortunately, I won’t be able to race today. Thank you for all of the love and support I have received. Means the world to me. Doing my best right now …”

First lady’s big-screen documentary premieres with criticisms over $28m payday and questions over relevancy

Donald and Melania Trump were walking a charcoal-coloured carpet beneath a stark black-and-white “MELANIA” backdrop. “Do you believe you’d be the man you are today if you hadn’t met your wife?” a reporter asked the US president.

Trump smiled and said: “He’s asking me a very dangerous question!” He went on to praise his wife without answering. When the reporter put the same question to Melania, she ventured: “Well, we will all be in different places, I guess.” With a nervous laugh, she turned to look at Trump and asked, “Right?”

Gabrielle Goliath says Gayton McKenzie violating freedom of expression after ‘highly divisive’ artwork Elergy banned from SA pavilion

A South African artist is suing the arts minister after he blocked her from representing the country at the Venice Biennale, having called her work addressing Israel’s killing of Palestinians in Gaza “highly divisive”.

Gabrielle Goliath filed the lawsuit last week, with Ingrid Masondo, who would have curated the pavilion, and the studio manager, James Macdonald. It accuses Gayton McKenzie of acting unlawfully and violating the right to freedom of expression and demands the high court reinstates her participation by 18 February, the deadline for confirming installations with biennale organisers.

Hundreds of parents, teens and school districts have claimed social media is intentionally addictive and harmful

Social media companies will have to answer to a jury – for the first time – for allegations that their products are intentionally addictive and harmful to young users’ mental health. Hundreds of parents, teens and school districts sued Meta, Snap, TikTok and YouTube, leading to a series of landmark trials that began this week. Jury selection in the first case started on Tuesday in Los Angeles court.

Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg is among the big tech CEOs who are expected to testify. Both sides are likely to bring in experts to hash out the science behind alleged addiction to social media.

Sanae Takaichi may seemingly have old-fashioned values, but it’s her economic offering that has captured young people’s imaginations

Japan has rarely seen a prime minister as bold or as social media-savvy as Sanae Takaichi, the country’s first female leader.

Where previous prime ministers have gone viral for unflattering moments, such as the spectacle of one scoffing an onigiri in one messy gulp or another caught dozing off in the parliament during a key vote, Takaichi is being read by supporters as a symbol of a different era of leadership – one they feel Japan has lacked in recent years.

Karin Kaneko is a freelance journalist and a former reporter for the Japan Times

The comedian on getting sacked from TK Maxx, looking permanently hungover, and his 90s crush

Born in London, Seann Walsh, 40, began doing standup in 2006. He was on Strictly Come Dancing in 2018 and I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here! in 2022. His podcast is Class Clown and he co-hosts Oh My Dog! (with Jack Dee) and What’s Upset You Now? His tour, This Is Torture, starts on 13 February. He lives in London with his partner and two children.

What is your earliest memory?
My dad had loads of friends round, all smoking heroin and singing me Happy Birthday. I was three or four.

The 38-year-old master perfectly understands the measure of the challenge against the young pretender

Novak Djokovic had barely even begun to digest the madness of one of his great late-career victories, still fighting back tears on Rod Laver Arena, when he was asked by his on-court interviewer to cast his mind ahead to the final.

After his monumental five-set Australian Open semi-final win over Jannik Sinner, where he matched the quality, intensity and athleticism of one of the two commanding players in men’s tennis, he was immediately reminded that Carlos Alcaraz, the other dominant player, was next: “I just hope that I’ll have enough gas to stay toe to toe with him,” said Djokovic. “That’s my desire, then let the gods decide the winner.”

⚽ All the latest pre-match news and analysis
⚽ Fixtures | Tables | Read Football Daily | Mail Emillia

Tomorrow … February (bad enough), but also 10 years precisely from the day Manchester City named Pep Guardiola as their incoming manager.

Please address any and all complaints re: the passage of time to your creator of choice where relevant.

Inspired by YouTube creators, some people are limiting beef to a handful of ‘feast days’ a year to cut their climate impact

“I love beef,” says Vlad Luca, 25. But unlike most other self-proclaimed steak lovers, Vlad eats it only four times a year, on designated “beef days”.

The “beef days” phenomenon has been popularised by the brothers John and Hank Green, known collectively as vlogbrothers on YouTube. John, 48, is better known for his YA fiction, including The Fault in Our Stars, while Hank, 45, is a self-described science communicator and entrepreneur.

Fifteen years after her explosive memoir of growing up in Pakistan’s ruling political dynasty, the author has written a devastating account of the abuse she has since endured. She talks about a life on the run and finally settling down

Had Fatima Bhutto been left to her own devices, her devastating forthcoming memoir would have been almost entirely about her relationship with her dog, Coco. “I know it sounds nuts,” she laughs. And it’s true that being dog-crazy doesn’t quite track with the public perception of Bhutto as a writer, journalist, activist and member of Pakistan’s most famous political dynasty. But the pandemic had forced something of a creative unravelling and when Bhutto took stock, she found herself only really able to write about Coco. Her agent politely suggested her memoir might need something more. A second draft was written, then abandoned.

“Until I thought, what if I just tell the truth? And then it fell out of me – it didn’t even pour, it fell.” In around three weeks Bhutto had reworked her draft and, in the process, revealed a shocking chapter of her life that she’d kept secret from everyone around her.

Thousands set to gather in Budapest after János Lázár’s remarks captured on video

Thousands of people are set to gather in Budapest to demand the resignation of a senior Hungarian politician, for making a racist remark against Roma people earlier this month.

János Lázár told attendees at a political forum that migration was not the solution to the country’s labour shortage. “Since there are no migrants, and someone has to clean the bathrooms on the InterCity trains,” Lázár said Roma people would do the job, using an offensive slur in his speech.

In the second part of our series on digital politics, we look at how online provocateurs have advanced extreme political ideas – and watched them seep into the mainstream

• Robert Topinka is a reader in digital media and rhetoric at Birkbeck, University of London

• Part one: How liberals lost the internet

The internet has totally changed the way in which politics is conducted. As established in the first piece in our series, liberals have totally failed to grasp this fact. The right, however, are thriving in this new world. Future historians studying the role that fringe online ideas played in the US republic’s demise will be spoiled for choice. One episode in particular comes to mind: Tucker Carlson, a former primetime speaker at a Republican convention, inviting a white supremacist livestreamer, Nick Fuentes, on to his YouTube show in 2025 for a chat in which he talked about the influence of “organised Jewry” in the US.

Carlson spent years echoing white nationalist talking points on his Fox News show, but Fuentes’ style – combining Nazi salutes with cheeky grins – places him beyond the pale for broadcast television. However, under the logic of YouTube, the meeting of these two major influencers is almost inevitable. Platforms incentivise audience cross-pollination, which is why Fuentes routinely livestreams with figures such as Adin Ross and Andrew Tate, who are known more for their homophobia and misogyny than their thoughts on ethnostates.

Robert Topinka is a reader in digital media and rhetoric at Birkbeck, University of London

Trump nominated Kevin Warsh, an ex-Fed governor, for the role as the White House continues to attack Jerome Powell

The US Federal Reserve requires “strong, sound and steady leadership”, according to Donald Trump. The president found a man to lead the central bank who would “provide exactly that type of leadership”, he declared.“He’s strong, he’s committed and he’s smart.”

This is not how Trump described Kevin Warsh, the former Fed governor whom he unveiled as his new nominee to chair the central bank on Friday – but how he hailed Jerome Powell, the current Fed chair, when nominating him for the job about eight years ago.

Campaigners criticise use of ‘vulnerable’ devices at Salisbury Cathedral and Parthenon despite their removal from sensitive UK government sites

Security cameras guarding Magna Carta are provided by a Chinese CCTV company whose technology has allegedly aided the Uyghur “genocide” and been exploited by Russia during the invasion of Ukraine, it has emerged.

In letters seen by the Guardian, campaigners called on Salisbury Cathedral, which houses one of four surviving copies of the “powerful symbol of social justice”, to rip out cameras made by Dahua Technology, based in the Chinese city of Hangzhou.

Keir Starmer says he wants to ‘go further’ in relations with Brussels as ministers look to restart stalled negotiations

The UK and the EU are exploring the prospect of new talks on closer defence cooperation, as Keir Starmer stressed on Friday that he wanted to “go further” in the UK’s relationship with Brussels.

Maroš Šefčovič, the EU’s trade commissioner, is due in London for talks next week, with trade, energy and fisheries on the agenda. But diplomatic sources said the UK is keen to discuss restarting negotiations on defence as soon as it can.

Talks for the UK to join the EU’s €150bn (£130bn) Security Action for Europe (Safe) defence fund collapsed in November 2025 amid claims that the EU had set too high a price on entry to the programme.

As rivers swell and homes are cut off, scientists say UK winter rainfall is already 20 years ahead of predictions

When flooding hit the low-lying Somerset Levels in 2014, it took two months for the waters to rise. This week it took two days, said Rebecca Horsington, chair of the Flooding on the Levels Action Group and a born-and-bred resident. A fierce barrage of storms from the Atlantic has drenched south-west England in January, saturating soils and supercharging rivers.

From the person who scrolls on the toilet to the one without any social media, what do their digital habits tell us?

• Will Storr: we have lost so much of ourselves to smartphones – can we get it back?

Dayeon, 16: the teenager who spends less than an hour a day on screens

Democratic senators refuse to vote for bill authorizing continued DHS spending after killings of two US citizens

Funding lapsed for several US government departments on Saturday, the result of a standoff in Congress over new restrictions on federal agents involved in Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign following the killings of two US citizens in Minneapolis.

The partial government shutdown is the result of Democratic senators refusing to vote for a bill authorizing continued spending by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), after federal agents killed Alex Pretti in Minnesota’s largest city last week, and Renee Good earlier in January. The minority party’s blockade imperiled a push by Republicans for approval of larger package of legislation funding other departments, which needed to pass the Senate before the government’s spending authorization expired Friday.