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Here come the teams …

Sunderland are still unbeaten at home in the Premier League this season. They might be missing Granit Xhaka but you must think they will fancy their chances tonight.

Ruling clears Denmark’s Ørsted to resume construction on its Sunrise Wind project off the coast of New York

All five offshore wind projects halted by the Trump administration in December can resume construction after a federal judge’s ruling on Monday that cleared Denmark’s Ørsted to proceed with its Sunrise Wind project off the coast of New York.

Ørsted’s request for an injunction blocking the interior department order was the fifth brought by an offshore wind developer since the 22 December pause on five leases. The agency stopped work on the multibillion-dollar facilities due to national security concerns around radar interference.

The full House is headed towards potential votes on criminal contempt of Congress charges against Clintons

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The Republican congressman James Comer has rejected an offer from former president Bill Clinton to conduct a transcribed interview for a House committee’s investigation into the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, pushing the threat to hold both Clintons in contempt of Congress closer towards a vote.

The full House is headed towards potential votes this week on criminal contempt of Congress charges against the Clintons. If passed, the charges threaten both Bill Clinton and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton with substantial fines and even incarceration if they are convicted.

Action could begin next week in some of state’s largest districts including San Diego, San Francisco and LA

California is facing the prospect of massive teacher strikes across the state as conflicts over working conditions, pay and special education staffing reach a boiling point.

The strikes, which could begin as soon as next week, have been approved by thousands of educators – affecting schools in some of the state’s largest districts including San Francisco, San Diego and Los Angeles.

PM Sébastien Lecornu pushes budget through using constitutional powers that avoided vote in parliament

France has finally passed a budget for this year after the minority government survived a series of no-confidence votes in a long-running political saga that has unsettled debt markets and alarmed the country’s European partners.

The prime minister, Sébastien Lecornu, told parliament on Monday, after months of wrangling, that French people “refuse this disorder and want our institutions to function”.

Leaking crisis policy to financiers demands investigation, not evasion. Gordon Brown understands this. Credibility can’t be pursued at the expense of trust

Finally, a Labour prime minister has taken a necessary step. Ordering the cabinet secretary to investigate Peter Mandelson’s contacts with Jeffrey Epstein recognises an elementary truth: if a cabinet minister discusses private government business with financial interests during a crisis, the state must act. Gordon Brown understood this instinctively. Sir Keir Starmer has moved later, and under pressure, but movement alone is not enough. Sir Keir said that Lord Mandelson should be stripped of his peerage while stopping short of legislating to make that happen. That is a choice. And it’s the wrong one to make.

The Epstein files make it hard to dismiss the question of misconduct in public office as frivolous. In 2003/04 it appears that as a Labour MP he received $75,000 from Jeffrey Epstein. Lord Mandelson says he has no recollection of these payments. Six years later, Lord Mandelson leaked sensitive government information during the banking crunch in 2009 to Epstein, a convicted sex offender, while serving in the cabinet. Emails suggest he advised US bank JP Morgan to “threaten” the UK chancellor, which by all accounts it did, over a proposed tax on bankers’ bonuses. The peer’s lobbying firm Global Counsel later had JP Morgan as a client.

Savannah Guthrie’s mother, Nancy, 84, was last seen on Saturday evening and signs indicate she did not leave alone

Authorities in Arizona searching for the 84-year-old mother of the Today show presenter Savannah Guthrie said on Monday they were treating the missing woman’s home as a crime scene, and expressed “grave concern” for her safety.

Nancy Guthrie was last seen by her family at her house near Tucson on Saturday night, and was reported missing on Sunday at lunchtime, sparking a search using a helicopter, drones and dogs, officials said.

A second-half cameo from 41-year-old talisman helped end strugglers’ long wait for win against Girona

First there was applause and then they started singing, the sound coming from the narrow street outside. In the bars and terraces where Real Oviedo’s fans were still picking over the game – in La Patatina, La Pepica, La Competencia and the rest – some put down their drinks and came to see what was going on. Somewhere among all the people filling Calle Juan Ramón Jiménez, a short walk from the Carlos Tartiere stadium, was a 5ft 5in footballer trying to make his way home, which was going to take a while. Santi Cazorla signed autographs, took pictures and shook a hundred hands, going from the crowds of kids to the little old lady as his son Enzo, who can play a bit too, kicked a Coke bottle across the square it opens on to.

On Plaza Pedro Miñor they have seen him many a day but this wasn’t any day and they couldn’t love him more. The son of an ambulance driver from Fonciello, 15 minutes away, Cazorla is something like their son too: an Oviedo fan who joined at eight and finally made his debut 32 years later. Forced to leave at 18, door closing just as it might have opened and his club collapsing into crisis, twice on the verge of disappearing entirely, he returned a man two decades on. He came on the minimum wage – “I would play for free but you’re not allowed,” he said – and helped take Oviedo back to the first division a quarter of a century later, a lifetime since the last time. Then this Saturday, at 41, he led them to the World Cup.

Awards host alluded to president’s association with late sex offender in awards ceremony remarks

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Grammys host Trevor Noah has been threatened with legal action by Donald Trump for a joke during Sunday’s awards ceremony about the president’s connection to the disgraced late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Trump fired off an angry post on his Truth Social platform shortly after the comedian said the song of the year award was “a Grammy that every artist wants – almost as much as Trump wants Greenland, which makes sense because Epstein’s island is gone, he needs a new one to hang out with Bill Clinton”.

Over 16 weeks of weekly classes, my glutes are stronger, my calves shapelier and – to my surprise – I have a growing sense of rhythm

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There are just over 20 of us lined up against the walls of a large, square room and I am offended by how many people’s hands are raised. Our ballet teacher has just asked the class who has prior dance experience. This is an absolute beginners course on the foundations of classical ballet and, a single catastrophic line dance lesson aside, it is also the first dance class I have ever attended. I am in the minority.

As we take the barre, it quickly becomes apparent that not being able to tell my left from my right will be a significant deficit over the next 16 weeks. This, however, is a tertiary concern. For now my two biggest worries are my feet. After a series of flexes and points I will later come to learn are tendu, they are cramping so badly it feels as if they have been stomped on.

Scores of live music fans in New York’s hip borough report having their phones stolen during live music shows

During a December visit to see family in his home state of New York, Zander Cammarata, who now lives in Berlin, purchased a new iPhone because they cost less in the United States. He then went to see one of his favorite bands, Silverstein, a post-hardcore emo group, in Brooklyn.

By the time he flew back to Germany, he was again using his old phone.

Abbas Araghchi suggests nuclear programme negotiations could begin imminently, as American forces amass in region

Iran’s top diplomat has said the government is ready for negotiations with the US as the two countries reportedly prepared to send top envoys to Istanbul for high-stakes talks on the Iranian nuclear programme later this week.

As US warships and aircraft have amassed in the region for a potential strike on Iran, the country’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, suggested that talks could take place imminently. Donald Trump on Saturday said Iranians were “seriously talking to us” as he hinted at a deal to avert military strikes against Tehran.

A 2007 FBI memo said further investigation was needed to determine if they ‘engaged in referring possible victims to each other’. Copperfield has never been charged with illegal conduct and has denied any wrongdoing

FBI agents investigating David Copperfield in 2007 said that “a clear connection” existed between the famous illusionist and Jeffrey Epstein, according to documents released by the Department of Justice last week in the latest tranche of the Epstein files.

A 2007 FBI memo by agents in Seattle said further investigation of this “connection” was needed to “to determine if they [Copperfield and Epstein] both shared a predilection for minors” and “if they engaged in referring possible victims to each other”.

Latest row to hit T20 World Cup raises difficult questions for the sport’s governing body, with lucrative TV deal to protect

The announcement on Sunday, fittingly, was made by Pakistan’s government, a reminder that this episode goes well beyond a game of cricket. In a post on X, the government approved the national side’s participation at this month’s T20 World Cup, but with a significant caveat.

“The Pakistan cricket team shall not take the field in the match scheduled on 15 February 2026 against India,” read the statement. The disintegration of this global tournament continues, that one line prompting serious concern for the sport’s economy. No further explanation was provided.

Couple say they love their daughter immeasurably but have a moral obligation to try to find child’s biological parents

A couple is suing a Florida fertility clinic after learning that they were implanted with the wrong embryo, and are going public with their attempts to find their child’s biological parents.

Tiffany Score and Steven Mills have filed a lawsuit against IVF Life Inc, which operates as the Fertility Center of Orlando, and its lead physician, Dr Milton McNichol. The suit, which was initially filed under pseudonyms to protect their family’s privacy, states that three viable embryos were created with Score’s eggs and Mills’s sperm, and an embryo was successfully implanted in April 2025.

Donald Trump claims that the release of millions more files related to Jeffrey Epstein 'absolve' him of wrongdoing, even though his name appears hundreds of times. The latest documents also indicate high-profile figures , including the former prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Labour peer Peter Mandelson, continued friendships with the disgraced financier after his child sex abuse convictions. So what have we learned from the newly released files and what happens next? Lucy Hough speaks to columnist and host of Politics Weekly America Jonathan Freedland

• Grand slams proposed setting up a player council

• Australian Open not involved in the pay dispute

The tennis pay row has escalated further with the world’s top 10 male and female players rejecting an offer from the grand slams to set up a player council that would give them a greater say in the running of the major championships.

In correspondence sent to Wimbledon, the French Open and US Open last week, the players turned down the offer of a meeting with representatives of the three grand slams at the Indian Wells Masters in March and accused the tournament organisers of ignoring their concerns about pay and player welfare.

US president made announcement on Truth Social after a Monday call with India’s prime minister

Donald Trump claimed India has agreed to stop buying Russian oil as he announced plans to cut US tariffs on Indian exports.

The US president announced that he and the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, whom he proclaimed to be “one of my greatest friends”, had agreed to strike a trade deal.

• Fifa president sorry for comment about arrests

• Infantino says it is time to look at readmitting Russia

The Fifa president, Gianni Infantino, has apologised over remarks he made about British fans and defended the decision to award a peace prize to the US president, Donald Trump.

Infantino said at last month’s World Economic Forum in Davos that the World Cup in Qatar in 2022 had been special because “for the first time in history no Brit was arrested”.

The only question now is how it took this long for Labour’s greedy, reckless Prince of Darkness to meet his reckoning

This is the end, beautiful friend, the end. There have been many Peter Mandelson resignations. Twice from the cabinet, once as the UK ambassador to Washington. But the announcement late on Sunday night that Mandelson was resigning from the Labour party somehow felt more final.

In the past, there had always been get-out clauses. Unexpected routes back to the centre of power. Not this time. Somewhat late in the day, the establishment had closed every door. For the first time in decades, Mandy was truly on his own. You might ask what had taken everyone so long. Mandelson hadn’t exactly made much effort to hide his tracks.

The answers to today’s problems

Earlier today I set you these three problems about the number 11. Here they are again with solutions.

1. Funny formation

odd positions: 9,7,5,3,1 sum to 25;

even positions: 8,6,4,2,0 sum to 20.

Bomb cyclone contributed to snow and wind chills in the south with Florida iguanas freezing and falling from trees

The US continues to be at the mercy of freezing temperatures across much of the country, stretching from the north-east all the way into the south and putting approximately 150 million people under cold weather advisories and extreme cold warnings.

Florida’s uncharacteristic cold snap has led to some rare sightings: snowflakes and falling iguanas. In Miami and Orlando, the lows dropped to 35F (1.7C) and 24F (-4.4C), respectively, undoubtedly disappointing the vacationers who sought to go to the Sunshine state to escape the freezing temperature on the east coast.

Pep Guardiola’s side would be on top of the league had they not consistently struggled to hold leads

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The focus had been on Arsenal. They had not won in three Premier League games before this weekend and it was reasonable to ask how secure their position at the top of the table was. But the impact of their wobble was not that their lead was eaten into, but that they missed opportunities to extend it, because those in the chasing pack were also dropping points.

In their six league games since the New Year fixtures, Arsenal have dropped seven points. But City in the same period have dropped 11, as have Aston Villa and Liverpool. Fulham have dropped 10, Everton have dropped nine, Brentford and Newcastle have dropped eight, Chelsea seven and Manchester United six; hardly anyone in the top half of the table has closed the gap on Arsenal at all, which is why, after Saturday’s comfortable win at Leeds, their lead remains at six points.

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For a man who is raging against the dying of the light, Cristiano Ronaldo is doing a good job of throwing a blanket over the fire. And by throwing a blanket, what Football Daily really means to say is throwing a hissy fit, a wobbly, a tantrum. The legendary footballer, reduced to something of a tap-in artist these days in a league of – at best – questionable quality, seemingly threw his toys out of his Bugatti on Sunday after deciding that not enough investment has been made in his club, Al-Nassr, in comparison to the other Saudi ones.

Timo Werner is still only 29! Was he born on a leap day or something? To borrow from football cliches, when we talk of Peter Pan footballers, it is usually because they are 35 or something like that, and still full of running. A James Milner type. Timo seems like he should be 37 and in Saudi Arabia or the USA USA USA, not still 29 and at his theoretical peak … oh, he is in the USA USA USA. Someone check his birth certificate!” – Matt Atkinson.

Although Arsène Wenger certainly does not lack creativity when it comes to proposing changes to the rules of the game (see ‘daylight’ for example), I’d like to pose an idea to him: let’s reduce the game time of every match to one half of 45 minutes. This solves the whole problem of injuries due to fixture congestion, probably maximises effective playing time, and – most importantly – gives my favourite team Spurs a chance at actually winning games” – Yannick Woudstra.

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