After a slow start, when the hosts began to pick up medals in the second week the public’s imagination was captured

With the atmosphere in Rome subdued as the Winter Olympics unfolded across northern Italy, travelling to the Games was not on Amity Neumeister’s radar.

That was until the event entered its second week and, inspired by images of the Dolomites on TV, Italy racking up the medals and friends in Milan describing an energetic vibe, Neumeister, originally from the US, decided she wanted to join the action. “It was a late-night, last-minute crazy decision, completely unplanned,” she said. “I hadn’t even considered going before, but it felt like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see the Games and celebrate people coming together from around the world.”

Will Paul Thomas Anderson’s ICE age conspiracy thriller sweep the board, or will Sinners and Hamnet share some glory? Our critic places his bets
Full list of Bafta 2026 nominations

Will win One Battle After Another
Should win Hamnet
Shoulda been a contender The Secret Agent

Norwegian cross-country skier achieved unprecedented feat with victory in the 50km mass start

“I’m starting to believe maybe he is a machine.” Martin Løwstrøm Nyenget was not alone in his assumption on the final weekend of an Olympics that has belonged to Johannes Høsflot Klæbo. Nyenget had as good a view as anyone of his fellow Norwegian’s sixth gold medal of the Games in the 50km mass start.

It was not until the final uphill slope that Klæbo landed the killer blow. Nyenget had stayed with him until then and admirably fended off a couple of attacks on the final lap of the 7.2km course. It was inevitable, though, that when push came to shove, Klæbo would find another gear. “It’s close to impossible to beat him in the finish,” said Nyenget, who could only laugh as crossed the line for silver and Emil Iversen completed a Norway one-two-three.

Rivers drained dry to create artificial snow, a forest cut down for the bobsleigh track – IOC’s claims to prioritise sustainability at Milano Cortina exposed

On the foothills of the mountains, by the banks of the river in Cortina, there was a forest. It was full of tall larch trees. Arborists said the oldest of them had been there for 150 years and dendrologists that it was unique because it was unusual to find a monocultural forest growing at such a low altitude in the southern Alps.

The locals knew mostly it was the place where the old wooden bobsleigh run was, where you went on your walks in summer or autumn, or when you wanted to play tennis on the small courts built near the bottom. They called it the Bosco di Ronco and it isn’t there any more.

As the fourth anniversary looms of Russia’s war on Ukraine, those close to the Kremlin prosper while others merely strive to escape the worst repression

Four years into the full-scale war in Ukraine, Russia’s elite has shown no sign of resisting the very difficult spot that Vladimir Putin placed them in by acting without their consultation. Instead, it has largely adapted, reshaping itself in ways that ensure its survival in what increasingly looks like a state of permanent conflict.

In the atmosphere of repression, Russian top-level officials and public intellectuals, who are tasked with ruling the country and shaping what society thinks and discusses, remain reluctant to express directly what they really think. The narratives they offer through culture are therefore some of the clearest expressions of how they see their role in a wartime country.

Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan are Russian journalists in exile in London and authors of Our Dear Friends in Moscow: The Inside Story of a Broken Generation

CBI and Energy UK report finds 40% of firms have cut investment as electricity costs remain far above pre-Ukraine levels

The UK is at risk of losing its status as a major manufacturing centre after a sharp rise in energy prices that has forced about 40% of businesses to cut back investment, according to a report by the CBI and Energy UK.

In a stinging message to ministers, the report said British businesses – from chemical producers to pubs and restaurants – were being undermined by a failure to cap prices and upgrade the UK’s ageing gas and electricity networks.

Indoor growers warn April price jump will hinder sector’s competitiveness and drive up costs for consumers

Outside, it’s an overcast and blustery February day in Kent – hardly the ideal conditions for growing tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers. Yet inside the enormous glasshouses run by grower Thanet Earth, the climate has been optimised to a humid 20C, perfect for the regimented rows of small pepper plants poking out of raised trays.

Growing fresh produce indoors in the south of England year-round requires plenty of energy to provide light, warmth and carbon dioxide. But the site’s energy bills are about to grow too, when a significant increase in electricity standing charges comes into force on 1 April.

Animal rights activists disagree with authorities on how best to handle boom in primate population near Table Mountain

At the edge of Da Gama Park, where the Cape Town suburb meets the mountain, baboons jumped from the road to garden walls to roofs and back again. Children from South African navy families living in the area’s modest houses played in the street. Some were delighted; some wary; most were unfazed by the animals.

A few miles away, overlooking a soaring peak and sweeping bay, Nicola de Chaud showed photos of food strewn across her kitchen by a baboon. In another incident, a baboon threw one of her dogs across the veranda. In January, a male baboon lunged at her and refused to leave the house for 10 minutes.

Insurers say cases of scammers manipulating people into staging crashes and filing bogus claims are under-reported

Romance fraud typically evokes images of people being tricked out of their life savings by partners they meet on dating sites, but some scammers use a different tactic: recruiting unsuspecting victims into fake insurance claims.

The scam involves a fraudster convincing their partner, or a person they are dating, either to say they have witnessed a car accident, or to take out an insurance policy and file a bogus claim in order to secure a payout.

Dolls that look like real babies – complete with tiny veins and folds of skin – can be endearing yet deeply unsettling. In the Netherlands, however, there are tens of thousands of ‘reborn’ doll enthusiasts

“It’s a doll,” Ineke Schmelter, 71, often says as she walks down the street with a pram and someone peers fondly under the hood, asking: “How old is the baby?” Then she pulls back the blanket and reveals the doll. She points out the craftsmanship – the little veins, the creases in the skin – and explains that it can take as many as 20 layers of paint to achieve such a lifelike finish. Sometimes, though, she can’t be bothered with the long version – the explanations, the strange looks. “As if I’m not quite right in the head.” Then she just says: “Two months,” and keeps walking.

Ineke Schmelter in the kitchen with her reborn baby Ronin

With pine-fringed beaches, crystal waters and affordable seafood restaurants, L’Étang de Thau is a hidden gem worth visiting at any time of year

When I asked Nordine Nid Hsain, the owner of my favourite Parisian bistro, why he sold up and left the capital to join the arty diaspora living in the Mediterranean port of Sète, he said: “What really drew me here was not Sète itself, but the natural paradise of the adjoining Thau lagoon. I love cycling and, after 10 years here, I am still excited to go out every day to explore the bike paths that run around the lagoon.”

He added: “There’s always something new to discover – beaches; wetland landscapes; enjoying a plate of freshly harvested oysters at the water’s edge; riding through the vineyards then tasting the wine in the vigneron’s cellar.”

Democrats accuse DHS of ‘kneecapping’ programs that help speed registered travelers through security lines

The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is suspending the TSA PreCheck and Global Entry airport security programs as a partial government shutdown continues.

The programs are designed to help speed registered travelers through security lines. Suspending them could cause headaches for passengers.

Nigel Farage’s man in Gorton and Denton has a huge public platform, and a taste for culture war. What happens when he concerns himself with bin collections?

On a bracingly cold February night in Levenshulme, a black Volkswagen people-carrier draws up outside a little parish church, around which a small crowd has begun to gather. From behind the car’s darkened windows steps the Reform candidate for the Gorton and Denton byelection, dressed in the trademark gilet that makes him look less like a politician and more like a man who has come straight from a grouse shoot. As he enters the church where the electoral hustings will take place, a leaflet is thrust into his hand, which as he will later discover with a horrified grimace, is a flyer for the local branch of the Communist League, bearing policies such as “amnesty for all immigrants” and “defend Cuba’s socialist revolution”.

But then, when you are trying to attract the attention of someone as elusive as Prof Matt Goodwin, you have to seize your opportunities whenever they arise. Over recent weeks the former academic and rightwing firebrand has been a curiously intangible presence in the constituency whose representation he is seeking: perpetually detectable but not remotely approachable, always visible without ever really being seen.

Birthrates have fallen since Russia’s invasion but some have held on to hope and are bringing up children despite risks

Four years ago Russian troops were a few kilometres away from Leleka maternity hospital, beyond a pine forest and a lake. Vladimir Putin’s plan to conquer Ukraine – wrapping it into a new Russian empire – began just down the road. They were meant to seize Kyiv and topple Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s pro-western government.

To the Kremlin’s surprise, Ukraine fought back. A Russian armoured column was destroyed in nearby Bucha. For five weeks a battle raged. Maternity staff treated wounded Ukrainian soldiers. Then, in March 2022, Russian troops pulled out of the Kyiv region. They left behind the bodies of hundreds of civilians they had killed, including fleeing families gunned down in their cars.

The politician was 18 when she and her mum were hauled off to a police station for the killing of the man she’d considered an uncle. What happened next would shape her future. She talks Labour’s woes, making mistakes, and why it’s finally time to share her own traumatic story

• Read an extract from Naz Shah’s memoir here

Naz Shah found it thrilling when she was arrested on suspicion of murder. “I’ll be honest with you, I had fun. It was the most excitement I’d ever had in my flipping life. I’d never been to a police station before. I was 18 and wet behind the ears. I was this really sheltered kid who’d been arrested. And I was like, they’ve got it wrong, so in my head it was all going to be over soon,” the MP for Bradford West says. “They took my clothes and gave me this white suit to wear, and I was saying, ‘Ooh, I look foxy in this, don’t I? Can you imagine taking me on a date in this?’ I was having a right laugh with the police officers. Honestly, I was so naive.”

Shah’s beloved “Uncle” Azam had died unexpectedly in April 1992. An autopsy revealed that he had been poisoned with arsenic. Shah and her mother, Zoora, who spoke little English, had cooked the previous night’s supper. They were arrested and taken to different police stations. Shah was released. Zoora admitted that she had made the dessert that contained the arsenic. After a month-long trial, she was convicted of Azam’s murder in December 1993 and sentenced to 20 years in jail.

Overdependence on chatbots is a growing problem, and though your boyfriend’s ADHD may be a factor, he needs to find the root of his anxiety

My boyfriend of eight years, who is 44, has ADHD and runs his own business. He’s always struggled with admin and mundane tasks, but AI has revolutionised how he works. Now I’m worried he can’t seem to do anything without AI. He is a heavy ChatGPT user and uses it even when there’s a better non-AI alternative (eg he’ll ask it for train times rather than using Trainline, even though it’s less accurate). He just got his ChatGPT Wrapped and he’s in the top 0.3% of users worldwide.

I worry about his ability to think independently, as well as the environmental impact. I know it’s a useful tool for him at work, but he uses it for everything in life.

This is one of those places where I say: use it or lose it.

Some hot dining spots seem to expand almost the moment they open, but east London’s Vietnamese stalwart Sông Quê has waited almost 25 years to spawn a little sister, Sông Quê Phở Bar. The new offshoot sits on Commercial Street, a mile or so down the road, and serves a tiny menu focusing on phở, as well as a smattering of the original cafe’s small plates in the form of summer rolls, green papaya salad, grilled lamb chops and savoury banh khot cupcakes.

Quite why Sông Quê, with its regular weekend queues and well-known name, took so long to branch out, however, is unknown. Still, why rush things? After all, the road to restaurant ruin is paved with premature brand roll-outs, and even if managers think they’re superhuman, they cannot be in two – or three or four – sites all at the same time. Plus, the big question with an institution such as the OG Sông Quê is: can you really recreate the magic elsewhere?

• Manchester City beat Newcastle to cut Arsenal’s lead to two

• Team given three days off before facing Leeds

Pep Guardiola told his players to “take a lot of caipirinhas, daiquiris” to handle the pressure of the title chase after Manchester City beat Newcastle 2-1 to close to within two points of Arsenal.

Two goals from Nico O’Reilly on 14 and 27 minutes at the Etihad Stadium were answered only by Lewis Hall’s strike in between as City moved to 56 points and a goal difference of 31, one fewer than Arsenal’s.

A whole haberdasher’s worth of experience, led by the peerless Gibson-Park, fairly tormented their younger and more hopeful hosts

So it looks as if it might have been a bubble. England’s 12-match winning run came to a shuddering halt last week, but it was possible to believe that flop might prove a one-off – a chastened Scotland at home, after all, has been the downfall of many an England team.

Well, there are scattered strips of latex all over Twickenham now, England’s balloon more than spectacularly popped by an Ireland side who are hardly afraid of inspirational rugby against this lot themselves.

• Long-time rivals play for gold on Sunday at 2026 Games

• Tensions are high between two teams

• Status of Canada’s Sidney Crosby still uncertain

The US and Canada are prepared for a stormy men’s ice hockey final on Sunday as the long-time rivals face off for Winter Olympic gold.

This year’s Olympics mark the first time NHL players have competed at the Winter Games since 2014, meaning many of the best players in the world will face each other on Sunday. While Canada are the betting favourites – and have won the most ice hockey golds in Olympic history – the US players say they have motivation to upset their northern neighbours.

With construction overwhelmingly male, Refuge says tradeswomen help survivors of abuse feel safer

One of the main challenges in maintaining the 64 homes for domestic abuse survivors run by Refuge is the reliance on a male-dominated workforce of electricians, plumbers and decorators.

“The presence of men can be distressing and could trigger past traumas for our survivors,” said Lisa Cantwell-Hope, the head of property services at the charity. “Male contractors need an escort to make our survivors feel more comfortable, and we always put a notice out to all our residents saying there will be a male presence in the building today. So it can be challenging and takes up more time.”

Major chains agree to halve default sweetness, but street vendors and cafes remain outside sugar tax rules

A crowd of customers, holding phones aloft, watch intently as Auntie Nid mixes up her bestseller: an iced Thai tea.

Condensed milk is poured into a glass, followed by three heaped tablespoons of sugar, and then freshly strained tea. The end product – a deep orange, creamy treat – is poured into a plastic bag filled with ice.

• Former coach says player was ‘complete joy’

• Teammates pay tribute after Moore’s death

NFL wide receiver Rondale Moore died on Saturday at the age of 25, his former college coach, Jeff Brohm, has confirmed.

“Rondale Moore was a complete joy to coach,” Brohm, who worked with Moore at Purdue, said in a statement. “The ultimate competitor that wouldn’t back down from any challenge. Rondale had a work ethic unmatched by anyone. A great teammate that would come through in any situation. We all loved Rondale, we loved his smile and competitive edge that always wanted to please everyone he came in contact with. We offer all of our thoughts and prayers to Rondale and his family, we love him very much.”

In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org

Ukraine foreign ministry says ultimatums should be sent to the Kremlin, not Kyiv; explosions in the capital and western Ukrainian city of Lviv: What we know on day 1,460