Former culture minister Jack Lang resigns from Arab World Institute in Paris and is also subject of tax investigation

Jack Lang, a former French culture minister, has resigned as head of Paris’s prestigious Arab World Institute after revelations of his past contacts with the disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and the launch of a financial investigation by French prosecutors.

Lang, 86, resigned on Saturday night before he was due to attend an urgent meeting called by the French foreign ministry to discuss his links to Epstein.

The well-dressed alpine town, all art deco and Prada, is watching Mouat and Dodds dominate before the focus turns to Vonn’s daredevil act

The sun rises late in Cortina d’Ampezzo, like everything else in this little alpine town. It’s gone eight o’clock in the morning by the time the daylight has made it over the high peaks to the east, and it’s another two hours from that before the Olympic day gets under way.

It’s slow out, as if everyone’s still sleeping off the night before, when the town was out cheering for the athletes as they made their parade around the square. The police are still packing away all the railings, and the street sweeps are brushing up the confetti. Non c’è fretta. No one’s in a rush. Maybe your bus will turn up, but no one’s making any promises.

After a slow start, the Sweden striker is now appearing regularly on the scoresheet with six goals in eight games

At times during that difficult start to his first season at Arsenal Viktor Gyökeres looked more likely to fall over than score a Premier League goal. But why compromise? Why choose one over the other? Against Sunderland Gyökeres found a third way. He fell over while scoring. Maybe you can have it all.

It made for a deeply wholesome moment. Gyökeres couldn’t help smiling ruefully behind his peekaboo celebration, even as he was mobbed fondly by his teammates. The goal was also his first touch seven minutes after coming on, a goal to kill a game Arsenal had eased through in low gear, and which always felt like a matter of housekeeping, a question of exactly how and how many, from the moment they took the lead just before half-time.

• Cas ruling deems helmets illegal due to protruding rear

• Setback for Team GB’s Matt Weston and Marcus Wyatt

Great Britain’s skeleton team have been banned from wearing its new aerodynamic helmets at the Winter Olympics after the court of arbitration for sport ruled they were illegal because its “rear significantly protrudes”.

The news is a big blow to Team GB’s Matt Weston and Marcus Wyatt, who have dominated skeleton all season, winning all seven of the World Cup races between them.

• British No 1 beaten 6-0, 6-2 by Sorana Cirstea

• Boulter wins Ostrava Open for first title since 2024

Emma Raducanu missed the chance to win her first title since her US Open triumph in 2021 after losing in straight sets to home favourite Sorana Cirstea in the Transylvania Open final.

Raducanu, the top seed, appeared to be feeling the effects of her marathon semi-final win against Ukraine’s Oleksandra Oliynykova on Friday, falling to Cirstea 6-0, 6-2 in little over an hour in Cluj.

Eight children including two infants among dead in vehicle carrying displaced people, says Sudan Doctors Network

A drone attack by a paramilitary group has hit a vehicle carrying displaced families in central Sudan, killing at least 24 people, including eight children, a doctors’ group said on Saturday.

The attack by the Rapid Support Forces took place close to the city of Er Rahad in North Kordofan province, according to the Sudan Doctors Network, which tracks the country’s war. The vehicle was transporting displaced people who fled fighting in the Dubeiker area, the group said in a statement. Among the dead children were two infants.

What price Keith Andrews for manager of the season? Thomas Frank’s surprise successor certainly added to his fanclub as he choreographed Brentford’s fourth win in six Premier League games to leave Eddie Howe even gloomier than the unremittingly wet Tyneside weather.

While outstanding performances from Dango Ouattara and Keane Lewis-Potter left Andrews’s seventh-placed side appearing genuine European contenders, Howe’s Newcastle have won only one of their last eight matches in all competitions and lost four of their past five.

Liam Conejo Ramos and his father were seized by ICE in Minneapolis last month before a judge ordered their release

Attorneys for the Trump administration are aiming to deport Liam Conejo Ramos, the five-year-old boy whose photograph in a bunny hat in snowy Minneapolis circulated globally after his detention last month by federal officials during the aggressive anti-immigration crackdown there.

The child, Liam, returned home to Minnesota earlier this week after being taken into custody alongside his father last month and transferred to a notorious family detention facility in Texas.

About 90% of vision loss can be prevented or treated. So what can you to do avoid eye damage, and what are just the inevitable ravages of age?

• Read more in The way you move series

The eyes are “the lamp of the body” according to the Bible; if they are healthy, the body is full of light, and if they are not, there is darkness.

Literally and metaphorically, it’s on the money. Our eyesight is one of the most important ways with which we interact with the world, and it interacts with us. We take our eyesight for granted, which is why it comes as such a shock when it starts to let us down.

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Best friends at school, Gabby Amadio and Russell lost touch for 40 years – but a message on Facebook brought them back into each other’s lives

• Find more stories from the moment I knew series

I’m not sure when Russell and I became close friends, but in years 9, 10 and 11 at Turramurra high in Sydney in the mid-1980s we were inseparable. It was platonic, though, to be honest, I was probably in love with him at some point!

My mum, Nadine, was an author and arts editor for the Financial Review, so we have lovely memories of going to the opera, ballet and theatre together: me, mum, Russell. She adored him. Mum and I lived in a converted church and he was always offering to work around the house. We’d listen to music, hang out – he tried to teach me about football, and I watched it because he liked it, even though I found it tedious.

Australian middle-distance runner is building on a 1500m silver medal at Paris 2024 after a bold move to return to being coached by her dad

When Jessica Hull races, she knows exactly when to make her move. And in 2023, Hull made a move that would become career-defining: returning to Australia to be coached by her dad. Now, she is one of the world’s fastest middle-distance runners.

It was a full-circle moment for the 29-year-old. Simon Hull first coached his daughter in her early teens, the difference now being that they write the training together. “He’s like, ‘you’re driving this, and I’m supporting it in every way I can. But these are your goals, these are your dreams,’” Hull says.

• England 48-7 Wales

• Earl, Roebuck and Freeman also score tries for hosts

No surprises here, not even a hint of one. England have had tougher training sessions in preparation for this Six Nations and by the end the scoreboard spoke for itself. Wales were not so much beaten as buried beneath an avalanche of seven white tries including a first-half hat-trick for the pacy Bath wing Henry Arundell on his first England start since the 2023 World Cup.

If not quite as big a rout as England’s 68-14 win in Cardiff 11 months ago, the flashing red warning lights were visible from the moment the visitors had two players sent to the sin bin in the first quarter. They never looked like recovering and, in its own way, this disappointment will sting as much as the 73-0 defeat by South Africa in November.

⚽ Premier League updates from the 5.30pm GMT kick-off
⚽ Live scores | Tables | Follow us on Bluesky | Mail Dominic

The players are out and we’re almost ready to go. Chris Paraskevas emails in, presumably from Australia/somewhere far away where it’s currently very early in the morning:

This might seem a little pessimistic but at the end of the day, anyone forced to wake up for Kieran Trippier’s ‘set pieces’ (loose definition) at 4:30 in the morning isn’t/couldn’t possibly be concerned with staying positive.

• India, 161-9, bt USA, 132-8, by 29 runs

• Suryakumar’s 84 from 49 balls proves the difference

There was, in the end, no shock – but there was not a lot of awe either. India’s form over the last two years has made them the most feared side in world cricket but for a while as they got their World Cup campaign under way the only dread was being experienced by their own fans as the USA threatened a humiliating upset. But for some missed chances, a hugely unfortunate injury and the brilliance of Suryakumar Yadav it might well have happened.

As it was, Suryakumar’s late acceleration took him to 84 off 49 balls and his team to 161 for nine, while the USA reply started with three early wickets – the absence of Jasprit Bumrah, ruled out by illness, doing little to dull India’s cutting edge – and the margin in the end was 29.

Clive Foster says action needed now to deliver justice to UK residents who had been wrongly classified as illegal immigrants

The Windrush commissioner has warned of a “hurry for justice” as more victims of the scandal die without redress, while stakeholders call for a public inquiry and legislative changes amid fears that a Reform government could stall progress toward justice.

Speaking on the sidelines of a people’s inquiry symposium for those affected by the Windrush scandal, Rev Clive Foster said action was needed “now” to deliver justice for those British residents whose lives were upended after being wrongly classified as illegal immigrants.

• 18-year-old’s strike helps Barça to 3-0 win over Mallorca

• Lens return to top of Ligue 1 after win over Rennes

Barcelona outclassed Mallorca 3-0 at home on Saturday to increase their lead at the top of the LaLiga standings.

Hansi Flick’s side controlled possession from the start and Marcus Rashford fired narrowly wide before playing a key role in the opener, as Dani Olmo headed his blocked effort into the path of Robert Lewandowski, who finished calmly in the 29th minute.

A few minutes after the final whistle, victory boxed off, most of Chelsea’s players had headed for the tunnel but Cole Palmer was wandering around the halfway line in search of lost property. Enveloped by his space-grey puffer coat, making a circle with his hands, bemused staff and teammates soon caught his drift: Palmer wanted evidence of his handiwork, a 25-minute first-half hat-trick that put this game beyond Wolves, even if Liam Rosenior’s side eased off in the second.

After retrieving the match ball from a pitchside attendant, Palmer juggled it halfway across the pitch, embarking on a warm-down of keepie-uppies. It would be easy to paint this as a Palmer masterclass, the England midfielder completing his hat-trick on 38 minutes, but it is fair to say by the time he was substituted on the hour, his work was done. At that point it was 3-1 to the visitors, Wolves pulling a goal back nine minutes into the second half when Tolu Arokodare spun in the box to convert at a corner.

There are times when the best thing for a side is an uneventful win. Titles are won less in the big set-piece games than against mid-table teams in the easily forgotten circumstances of a Saturday afternoon. Arsenal weren’t brilliant against Sunderland, but they were good enough to win comfortably, and that increases their lead at the top of the table to nine points, adding a degree of extra pressure to Manchester City’s Sunday visit to Liverpool.

“They’re really tough opponents, really good at what they do,” said Mikel Arteta. “It’s very difficult to get sequences with threat and momentum, so I’m delighted with the performance.”

Exclusive: Site takes a cut of subscriptions to content that promotes far-right ideology, white supremacy and antisemitism

The global publishing platform Substack is generating revenue from newsletters that promote virulent Nazi ideology, white supremacy and antisemitism, a Guardian investigation has found.

The platform, which says it has about 50 million users worldwide, allows members of the public to self-publish articles and charge for premium content. Substack takes about 10% of the revenue the newsletters make. About 5 million people pay for access to newsletters on its platform.

• Former QB initially said he had no ‘dog in the fight’

• Comments had angered fans and former teammates

As the New England Patriots prepare for Sunday’s Super Bowl, Tom Brady has decided he is backing his former team after all.

Brady, who won six Super Bowls with the Patriots, came under heavy criticism this week after saying he won’t have a “dog in the fight … may the best team win” when New England take on the Seattle Seahawks in Santa Clara, California, on Sunday.

• Head coach says defender apologised to him and his team

• ‘There is not any regret in making him captain’

Thomas Frank will not consider stripping Cristian Romero of the Tottenham captaincy despite the defender invoking a four-game ban after he was sent off in the 2–0 defeat by Manchester United at Old Trafford on Saturday. It was Romero’s second red card in 10 matches following his two yellows in the 2-1 defeat at Liverpool on 20 December and the ban is his fourth this season.

Romero’s off-field conduct has also been a source of concern for the Spurs manager. Following last Sunday’s 2-2 draw with Manchester City, Romero described the depth of Spurs’ squad as “disgraceful”. The outburst on social media called into question his status as captain after the Argentinian was critical of the club’s ownership following the 3-2 defeat at Bournemouth in early January. “They only show up when things are going well, to tell a few lies,” Romero posted on social media, but later deleted the reference to lies.

• Italy 18-15 Scotland

• Azzurri resist fightback in appalling conditions

They say the Six Nations is all about momentum and Scotland, again, find themselves sliding rapidly downhill. Passion and effort are guaranteed from any Italy team, but they were clinical and defended magnificently in Rome. Gonzalo Quesada’s side ruthlessly capitalised on Scotland’s often rank inaccuracy and this richly deserved win – a second in three years against Scotland – sets them up beautifully for the tournament.

The fly-half Paolo Garbisi played the appallingly wet conditions superbly to celebrate his 50th Test, testing the visitors’ defence with spiralling contestable kicks and striking the ball sweetly off the tee. The centres Tommaso Menoncello and Juan Ignacio Brex, also marking his 50th cap, were sensational again while the energy and skill of the wing Louis Lynagh significantly softened the blow of Ange Capuozzo’s injury absence.

• Six Nations updates from the 4.40pm GMT kick-off

• France 36-14 Ireland | Follow us on Bluesky | Mail Sarah

Are we about to watch the tournament winners? And no I’m not talking about Wales. There are a lot of whispers about England being the favourites to list the silverware but what do you think? Get in touch and let me know. As always do let me know what snacks you are digging into.

Here is Ugo Monye’s column on today’s game:

• Show director hails singer’s ‘extraordinary’ performance

• IOC plays down booing of US vice president JD Vance

The organisers of the Winter Olympics opening ceremony have refused to deny speculation that the US pop diva Mariah Carey lip-synced her part in the show. Carey took to the stage to sing Domenico Modugno’s Nel Blu, dipinto di Blu in Italian, followed by one of her own songs, Nothing Is Impossible, but many social media users quickly claimed that there were several times where her lip movements were out of time with the music.

When asked directly whether Carey was lip-synching, the director of the show, Maria Laura Iascone, confirmed that there had been a pre-recording – but refused to say whether it had been used or the American had sung live.