Billionaire’s artificial intelligence company gets approval to run 41 methane gas turbines at its ‘Colossus 2’ in Mississippi

Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI won approval on Tuesday to run 41 methane gas turbines at its “Colossus 2” data center in northern Mississippi. That’s nearly double the amount it has been operating.

The turbines will help power xAI’s massive data centers, which house the company’s “AI supercomputers”, or giant arrays of advanced chips, which in turn power the controversial AI tool Grok, the company’s most recognizable product.

• ‘You have to be who you are,’ manager says

• Madrid will be without the injured Mbappé

Pep Guardiola has urged Manchester City to face Real Madrid with their true identity in the Champions League last 16 and “earn the tickets” for the next round.

The opening leg at the Bernabéu on Wednesday will be the 12th occasion the teams have played in Guardiola’s decade in charge and the 16th in total; each side has won five times, with five draws. Guardiola said his team must be true to who they are if they are to progress to the quarter-finals.

The good news for Liverpool is that the situation is salvageable, when it really might not have been. The bad news is that they were distinctly second best for the first three quarters of the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie.

Nobody who saw their second half collapse away to Juventus in the playoff round could be confident Galatasaray are a team capable of squeezing the life out of the second leg. There is a nervousness about them at the back, a persistent sense of misfortune about to strike, but going forward they are breezy, quick and fun. Their only regret will be that, having taken an early lead through the former Wolves midfielder Mario Lemina, they did not add a second goal to give them more to defend at Anfield.

Kay Ivey commutes sentence of Charles ‘Sonny’ Burton, saying death penalty would be unfair as he did not fire the fatal shot

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The governor of Alabama commuted the death sentence of a 75-year-old inmate who was set to be executed this week, even though he was not in the building when the victim of the murder he was sentenced for was killed.

Kay Ivey, the Republican governor of the state, reduced Charles “Sonny” Burton’s sentence to life in prison without possibility of parole this week. The move marks the second time the governor has granted clemency of a death row inmate since she took office in 2017.

Burton was sentenced to death for the 1991 shooting death of a customer, Doug Battle, during a store robbery. However, another man, Derrick DeBruce, shot Battle after Burton had left the store.

DeBruce’s death sentence was reduced on appeal to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Ivey said in a statement that she could not fairly administer the death penalty to Burton when the man who actually killed Battle was allowed to live.

“I firmly believe that the death penalty is just punishment for society’s most heinous offenders, as shown by the 25 executions I have presided over as governor. In order to ensure the continued viability of the death penalty, however, I also believe that a government’s most consequential action must be administered fairly and proportionately,” she said.

Opening statements begin in Miami trial of four men accused in the 2021 killing of Jovenel Moïse

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Greed, arrogance and power were the driving forces behind four men charged in the US for the 2021 assassination of Haiti’s last elected president, Jovenel Moïse , prosecutors told a court on Tuesday during opening statements.

Federal prosecutors and defense attorneys began presenting opening statements in the trial in Miami for Arcangel Pretel Ortíz, Antonio Intriago, Walter Veintemilla and James Solages. They are charged with conspiring in South Florida to kidnap or kill Haiti’s former leader. Moïse’s assassination led to unprecedented turmoil in the Caribbean nation, where gang leaders have grown increasingly violent and empowered.

American Express and Blackbird cut ties with restaurant after René Redzepi accused of abusing his staff

After allegations emerged this week that René Redzepi had abused his staff at Noma, once considered the world’s best restaurant, sponsors on Tuesday announced they would end their support for the chef’s upcoming events in Los Angeles.

The New York Times reported that American Express and the hospitality company Blackbird have cut ties with Noma ahead of the Copenhagen restaurant’s four-month pop-up in LA, which was set to kick off this week.

⚽ Champions League news from the 8pm GMT kick-offs
⚽ Galatasaray v Liverpool – live | Today’s Football Daily

An early goal from Mario Lemina gave Galatasaray a first-leg victory in Turkey. Scott Murray was watching.

Galatasaray still lead Liverpool 1-0 in Turkey. You can follow the last five minutes (plus stoppage time) with Scott Murray.

‘Trailblazer’ rapper returns to Australia for first time in 15 years, with body horror performer and dance biennale also on lineup

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The pioneering female rapper Lil’ Kim, the vomit-inducing performance artist Florentina Holzinger, and the first ever Australian Dance Biennale are among the lineup for the 2026 Rising festival, which is staged around Melbourne each winter.

Lil’ Kim, who last played in Australia in 2011, will perform at Melbourne’s Festival Hall to celebrate her landmark multiplatinum records Hard Core – which turns 30 this year – and The Notorious KIM.

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The US-Israeli bombardment has once again underlined Donald Trump’s indifference to international law. A stronger EU can be a vital counterweight

When European leaders were blindsided in January by Donald Trump’s unilateral abduction of Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, their immediate response was to hedge their bets. Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s top diplomat, affirmed that the principles of international law must always be respected, but also asserted that Mr Maduro lacked legitimacy. As a new Trump-compliant leadership emerged in Caracas, Europe’s attention drifted to crises closer to home.

The dilemmas and dangers posed by Mr Trump’s war of choice in Iran – again initiated with no attempt to consult allies or gain US congressional approval – are not so easily swerved. The US president has berated and mocked Sir Keir Starmer over a lack of full-throated support for his latest military adventure. He has threatened Spain with a trade embargo, after its prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, described the joint US-Israeli assault on Tehran as “unjustified and dangerous”, and refused to sanction the use of military bases. Even Mr Trump’s close ideological ally, the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, is under pressure from an electorate deeply hostile to involvement in another open-ended Middle East conflict with unpredictable consequences.

Bad actors have treated equality as a zero sum game, with women falsely portrayed as ‘winning’. Feeling they have to compete, young men are lashing out

Last week, results from a global survey signalled a rise in worrying attitudes towards women among young men. A team from the pollsters Ipsos and King’s College London found that nearly a third (31%) of gen Z men believe that a woman should always obey her husband, a fifth (21%) believe that she should never initiate sex, and 33% believe that women should let their husbands have the final word on important decisions.

There’s a limit to how much can be drawn from a worldwide survey that draws averages from vastly different cultures and economies. We cannot ask respondents what they meant by their answers, nor how they reconcile apparently contradictory views: younger men are more likely than older generations to call themselves feminists and to find successful women attractive, yet some also say women should be subordinate. Nor does the data tell us whether the same men hold these views.

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

Former Sinn Féin leader being sued by three men injured in IRA bombings in 1976 and 1996

A convicted IRA bomber has told a court that Gerry Adams was a senior figure in the organisation despite the former Sinn Féin leader’s claims to the contrary.

Adams, 77, is being sued for symbolic “vindicatory” damages of £1 each by John Clark, Jonathan Ganesh and Barry Laycock, who were injured in the 1973 Old Bailey bombing, and the London Docklands and Manchester bombings in 1996.

Widow of murdered rightwing activist Charlie Kirk replaces husband on 16-member panel of military training facility

Donald Trump has appointed Erika Kirk, the widow of murdered rightwing activist Charlie Kirk, to a key advisory board of the US Air Force Academy.

The 37-year-old joins a number of other loyalists to the president on the 16-member panel of the academy’s board of visitors, which according to its website “inquires into the morale, discipline, curriculum, instruction, physical equipment, fiscal affairs, academic methods and other matters” of the Colorado Springs military training facility.

Exclusive: Report suggests only 1% of annual spend on food and drink adverts will be affected after industry lobbying

The junk food ad ban intended to curb childhood obesity will affect only 1% of the £2.4bn spent annually on advertising food and drink, and may prove a “paper tiger”, ministers have been told.

The government has hailed the ban on advertising foods high in fat, salt and sugar before 9pm on TV and completely online, which came into force on 5 January, as a decisive and world-leading move that will remove 7.2bn calories from UK children’s diets every year.

Emanuel Shaleta, bishop of a Chaldean Catholic parish in the San Diego area, pleaded not guilty to 17 felony charges

The bishop of a small Chaldean Catholic community in the San Diego area has resigned amid charges that he embezzled $270,000 from his parish, Pope Leo XIV announced on Tuesday.

Bishop Emanuel Shaleta pleaded not guilty to 17 felony charges, including money laundering, during a hearing attended by many of his supporters.

New York police responded to an alert days after two men threw homemade explosives at Gracie Mansion

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The New York police department determined that a suspicious device reported near Gracie Mansion on Tuesday afternoon was “non-threatening”.

“This was an instance of everyday New Yorkers following a clear message: if you see something, say something,” the NYPD posted on social media.

• Judge sends Darron Lee murder case to grand jury

• Prosecutors cite ChatGPT messages as key evidence

• Autopsy finds blunt force trauma and stab wounds

Former New York Jets linebacker Darron Lee appeared in a Tennessee courtroom on Tuesday as prosecutors outlined evidence they say ties him to the killing of his girlfriend, including messages where he asked ChatGPT questions about injuries and how to handle an unresponsive person, according to Chattanooga’s CBS affiliate WDEF.

Lee, 30, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Gabriella Perpétuo at the couple’s home in Ooltewah, about 20 miles northeast of Chattanooga. Deputies were called to the residence last month for a reported medical emergency and found Perpétuo unconscious on the living room floor. The medics were unable to save her and WTVC NewsChannel 9 reported she had suffered a suspected stab wound in addition to other injuries.

Lee: “don’t know what to do right now, Fiancée did her crazy thing again and now she’s messed up, I wake up and she has two swollen eyes (I didn’t do anything, self inflicted) she stabbed herself, silt her eye? Idk but she isn’t waking up or responding, what do I do?”

Lee: “Allie what should I tell my friend to handle someone non responsive but wants to call the police”

Hegseth follows Trump’s suggestion war will soon be over by saying US will not stop until Iran ‘decisively defeated’

• Middle East crisis – live updates

Tehran residents say the Iranian capital has endured what they described as its worst night of aerial bombardment, as the US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, followed Donald Trump’s suggestion on Monday the war could soon be over with a warning of more strikes to come.

“We are under heavy bombardment and I can hear back-to-back explosions. The place they hit has caught fire. It’s not clear where it exploded, but the buildings are shaking,” Niloufar, who lives in east Tehran said early on Tuesday, speaking under a pseudonym for security reasons. “They are destroying Iran,” they added, saying there were low-flying jets above.

Film to cover early years of rockers and their breakout with hits like Livin’ on a Prayer and You Give Love a Bad Name

A Bon Jovi biopic is in the works from Universal Pictures, Deadline has confirmed.

The feature film will focus on the early years of the rock band, tracing their rise from modest beginnings in New Jersey to selling out stadiums as one of the 1980s’ most defining rock bands.

Co-founders of Moltbook, a platform for artificial intelligence agents, will join tech giant’s AI research unit

Facebook parent Meta Platforms said on Tuesday it had acquired Moltbook, a social networking platform built for artificial intelligence agents, bringing the company’s founders into its AI research division.

The deal will bring Moltbook co-founders Matt Schlicht and Ben Parr into Meta Superintelligence Labs, the unit led by Alexandr Wang, former Scale AI CEO, which Meta purchased for $14.8bn. Meta did not disclose financial terms of the deal. Schlicht and Parr are expected to begin at Meta Superintelligence Labs on 16 March.

State’s governor declared emergency as islands face flooding, gusts and thunderstorms this weekend

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Hawaii is preparing for a powerful storm this week that is expected to cause intense winds, thunderstorms and possibly significant flooding across multiple islands.

Josh Green, the governor, said on Monday he had issued an emergency proclamation in response to the weather expected to hit his state in the coming days, in order to bring additional resources into affected areas.

Donald Trump has held an astonishing press conference in which he said the war in Iran was 'very complete' and could end 'very soon', but also claimed that the US had not 'won enough'. The US president is under growing pressure over the economic toll from the conflict, but his words were met with defiance from Tehran. So is the war any closer to ending and has Trump underestimated the resilience of the Iranian regime? Lucy Hough speaks to the Guardian columnist Nesrine Malik

• Masters powers past Kim for sprint gold redemption

• American claims 11th Paralympic gold medal at age 36

• Chernobyl-born star extends remarkable medal haul

Oksana Masters’ 11th Paralympic gold medal was “redemption” for the most decorated American Winter Paralympian.

And it was clear just how much it meant to her. Masters screamed loudly several times in delight after winning the women’s sprint sitting discipline in Para cross-country skiing on Tuesday at Milan Cortina.

Prospect of Trump easing US sanctions on Russian oil is a nightmare for the bloc as nations work out how to respond

• Middle East crisis – live updates

The Iran war has thrown global oil and gas flows into chaos and the prospect of Donald Trump easing US sanctions on Russian oil to fill the gap is causing a nightmare for the EU.

The European Council president, António Costa, who represents the EU’s leaders, said on Tuesday the only winner from the ongoing conflict would be Vladimir Putin, who could step into the gap created by the throttling of Gulf supplies.