The Africa Cup of Nations has been a brilliant display for a continent carrying no doubt about quality on the pitch

More than any other continental tournament, there is always a sense with the Africa Cup of Nations that it is a referendum on the continent’s football generally. Perhaps it’s because so many of the players are familiar to those who habitually watch the European leagues or the Champions League, but the question is less about individual quality of players – that is a given – than it is about organisation and structures. Somewhere in the background, perhaps, lurks Pelé’s notorious prediction, made in 1977, that an African team would win the World Cup by the end of the 20th century. Is a World Cup win for Africa any closer than it was half a century ago?

In Morocco at this year’s edition of the tournament, there has been an extra element: the country’s status as World Cup co-hosts with Spain and Portugal in 2030. What are facilities like? Is the infrastructure there? This question is readily answered: in terms of stadiums, pitches and hotels, Morocco is already well on the way to being able to stage the World Cup. All six cities hosting games at this Cup of Nations are candidates for 2030.

Famously serious Oscar-winner gave rare insight into what might be the real Leo with his commercial break antics

The fact that nobody really knows anything about Leonardo DiCaprio is well-established at this point. Indeed, the best joke of Nikki Glaser’s Golden Globes monologue last night revolved around that fact that DiCaprio gives so little of himself away that the only things she could find to joke about him were his notoriously younger girlfriends and an obscure magazine interview he gave when he was 17, where he announced that his favourite food was “pasta, pasta and more pasta”.

However, DiCaprio then went and instantly gave some of himself away. A camera remained on him during a commercial break, and it caught him giving one of the most flamboyant demonstrations of his personality ever seen.

Severe weather, driven by two low-pressure systems merging, is expected to bring power outages and hazardous road conditions

Atlantic Canada is under widespread weather warnings for snow, freezing rain and strong winds as a winter storm moves across the region. In Newfoundland, up to 40cm of snow fell on Sunday, along with wind gusts of about 74mph, creating blizzard-like conditions.

The storm began late on Sunday and is forecast to persist until Tuesday morning. Freezing rain warnings are in place across Nova Scotia, including Annapolis and Kings counties, while parts of New Brunswick could get up to 25cm of snow on Monday.

We would like to hear from Iranians living in Iran or abroad about how the crisis has affected your life and those of your friends and family

Iran foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, has said Iran is “not seeking war, but is fully prepared” for war, as he warned adversaries against any “miscalculation”.

It comes after Donald Trump claimed on Sunday that Iran has reached out and proposed negotiations, as he considers “very strong” military options against the regime over the deadly Iranian crackdown on protestors in the country, which has reportedly killed hundreds.

It was hard for me to quit Elon Musk’s poisoned platform, but I urge others to do the same, especially in light of Grok’s imagery of women and children

Some wars can’t be won. It can be hard to come to terms with this fact when you’re still on the battlefield, but if somehow you manage to step out for a moment, then the truth will become obvious. You have lost, the people on your side have lost, the villains have won and, if anything, you should have run away a long time ago.

My own sad epiphany about Twitter, now known as X, came in the immediate aftermath of the US election in 2024. I’d spent a lot of that year lying to myself, ignoring the increasing volume of abuse I’d been receiving and the fact that no one ever read my linked pieces any more, but that week I realised I had to stop. I had to leave X for good.

Haul represents country’s largest seizure at sea, with officers digging bales out from vast amount of salt

Spanish police have made their largest seizure of cocaine at sea after finding almost 10 tonnes of the drug hidden among a cargo of salt on a merchant ship off the Canary Islands.

Detectives and anti-drug prosecutors investigating a multinational criminal group alleged to be exporting “enormous quantities” of cocaine from South America to Europe had identified a suspect ship that had set off from Brazil, the Policía Nacional said in a statement on Monday.

Emmy-winning actor and director allegedly touched child inappropriately on set of The Cleaning Lady TV series

Authorities in New Mexico issued an arrest warrant recently for the director and Emmy-winning actor Timothy Busfield to face a child sexual abuse charge.

An investigator with the Albuquerque police department filed a criminal complaint in support of the charge, which says a child reported that Busfield touched him inappropriately. The acts cited in the warrant – issued on Friday – allegedly occurred on the set of The Cleaning Lady, a TV series Busfield directed and acted in.

Timothée Chalamet celebrated his 30th birthday by embracing his unc status – and Sabrina Carpenter has used the word to describe her record producer. Why is it suddenly everywhere?

Name: Unc.

Age: Younger than you might think.

The Guardian’s picture editors select photographs from around the world

Lawyers for Adichie and her husband serve Euracare hospital with legal notice after death of 21-month-old

The Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has accused a Lagos hospital of negligence after the death of one of her 21-month-old twin boys.

Nkanu Nnamdi died on 6 January after a brief illness. He was one of twin boys born to Adichie and Ivara Esege, a doctor, in 2024 by surrogacy, eight years after the birth of their first child, a girl.

• Katie Uhlaender misses sixth trip to Olympics

• Athlete says she was deliberately deprived of points

Sporting tensions between the USA and Canada have erupted once again, this time in skeleton as next month’s Winter Olympics approach.

The USA’s Katie Uhlaender, a five-time Winter Olympian in skeleton, has accused the Canadian team of depriving her of a place at the Milan-Cortina Games by manipulating a qualifying event over the weekend.

There’s a quiet magic in shared spaces where stories drift across cultures and generations – and no one checks their phone

It was my first week in the freezing German city of Bonn, on my first-ever international trip – shivering from the cold and bewildered by culture shock. At my hostel reception, a woman tried her best to help me settle in. “Die Sauna is free after 6pm,” she said cheerfully in a mix of German and English, adding that all I needed was a towel.

From that day on, sweating in the steaming sauna became my nightly ritual. I couldn’t quite join the occasional conversations that bubbled up around me – my German was very basic and my confidence level was hitting rock bottom. So mostly I sat quietly, listening, nodding, absorbing the rhythm of strangers unwinding at the end of their day.

After the state’s bathroom ban went into effect in December amid a slew of new anti-trans policies, I couldn’t keep trying to hide my identity at work

Until recently, I was a music teacher in north Texas. I also happen to be trans. I have never, ever told a student about my identity. At work, I was “stealth” – a term that means that I passed as a cisgender man. Only my administrators knew I was trans, because I was not yet taking gender-affirming hormones when I started this job in my early 20s. I’m now in my late 20s.

My decision to stay stealth was affected by the political climate. Texas has been trying to pass a bathroom ban for 10 years, and in December, they finally implemented the rule. It applies to restrooms and changing rooms in public buildings, schools and universities.

Exclusive: Collection includes workbooks and index cards, and papers that show his research for bestseller Akenfield

One hundred years of a unique literary rural life will be made available to readers and researchers after the British Library acquired the archive of Ronald Blythe.

The author of Akenfield, a globally bestselling account of a Suffolk village in the throes of the agricultural and social revolution at the end of the 1960s, lived and wrote in East Anglia until his death in 2023 at the age of 100.

Short courses on permaculture can be really expensive, so when I found out there was a way I could study for free, I was really excited

• More summer essentials

We had a family veggie patch growing up, and even in share houses I’ve gardened. I’ve always been interested in what you can grow – fruit, vegetables, flowers. All good gardeners know you need good dirt, but understanding why is a different thing, and I’d been thinking about learning more for a long time.

I researched short courses on permaculture, but found they were really expensive. Studying at a university can cost even more, and you can only learn so much from reading gardening blogs. When I found out I could do a free Tafe (technical and further education) course, I was really excited. I was worried my existing qualifications would exclude me because I have a diploma in writing and editing, but it’s something that’s offered free to anyone willing to invest the time.

Academics say the villa, found in Welsh deer park, shows the area was not on fringes of Roman empire

Over the last 100 years or so, a characterful but tough corner of south Wales has become best known for its steelworks and coalmines. But the discovery of the footprint of a large Roman villa in a country park on the outskirts of Port Talbot gives an intriguing fresh insight into life here centuries before heavy industry took hold.

Found below the surface of Margam country park and close to the M4, the presence of the villa – which has been labelled “Port Talbot’s Pompeii” – suggests the area was not on the fringes of the Roman empire but very much part of it and may have been an important agricultural centre.

Scott McTominay has a long way to go to top his wild 2025. But his double at Inter was a very solid start

Scott McTominay said recently that he hopes to carry on playing top-level football for another decade. And, if he does, will he ever have another year better than the last one? In 2025, he won Serie A and helped deliver Scotland to their first World Cup this century – scoring sensational goals in the games that sealed both achievements. He has described himself as “obsessive” when it comes to self-improvement, but some feats are hard to top.

Still, if he was looking to set some intentions for 2026, there are worse places to do it than San Siro. On Sunday night, Napoli’s title defence would be severely tested away to Inter. But every time they strayed into danger, McTominay led them back out.

The most senior former Conservative to join Nigel Farage’s party claims Britain is on brink of ‘civil unrest’

• UK politics live – latest updates

The former Conservative chancellor Nadhim Zahawi has defected to Reform UK, claiming Britain is on the brink of “civil unrest” and only a government led by Nigel Farage could prevent it.

Zahawi, who stood down as the MP for Stratford-on-Avon at the last election, is the most senior former Conservative to join Farage’s party and his new leader said his government experience would address one of Reform’s weaknesses.

• US Figure Skating names team for Milan-Cortina

• Naumov’s parents were also Olympians

US Figure Skating has confirmed the 16 athletes who will represent Team USA at the Milan-Cortina Games next month in Italy, including Maxim Naumov, who fulfilled the hopes of his late parents by making the Olympic team.

Vadim Naumov and Evgenia Shishkova, who were world champions in pairs figure skating in 1994 for Russia, became coaches at the Skating Club of Boston. Last January, they were returning from Wichita, Kansas, host of the 2025 US championships, along with 26 others connected to figure skating, when their plane collided with a military helicopter, killing everyone onboard both aircraft.

Internet blackout hampering efforts to verify if violent crackdown has blunted movement’s momentum

• Iran crisis live – latest updates

Iran’s foreign minister has claimed the situation in the country has “come under total control” as authorities carry out a brutal crackdown against the nationwide protest movement.

Abbas Araghchi made the comments to foreign diplomats in Tehran, without supplying evidence.

Police ask Paramjeet Singh Pamma to install security cameras and reinforce door locks at his home

Police have advised a high-profile Sikh activist in the UK to install security cameras at his home and reinforce door locks because of threats from Hindu nationalist elements.

Paramjeet Singh Pamma, 52, said he had been visited by police and received verbal advice to increase his security due to intelligence suggesting threats to his safety.

A homegrown favourite with an Italian twist: choose whichever antipasti vegetables you like, and definitely use the oil from the jar

Perhaps you still have some cheeseboard odds and sods in the fridge from Christmas? I know I still have a few to get through, but, other than that, my fridge and cupboards are looking pretty bare. Beans on toast has always been my go-to meal in times such as these, and when I need comfort, familiarity and ease. What used to involve opening a tin and reheating the contents, however, has now become something slightly more elaborate. But only slightly: these beans are incredibly simple and quick to make, with store-bought antipasti adding real depth.

The journalist Paulo Antonio Paranaguá uses images from the turbulent continent to weave a history of the region, covering colonisation, slavery and dictatorship

Its tumultuous past, marked by massacres, slavery, violent domination, coups d’état, revolutions and uprisings, often overshadows another narrative of Latin America: that of a vibrant, culturally rich region where art, creativity and solidarity hold a central place in society.

Throughout its post-Columbian history – the period after Christopher Columbus’s arrival in the Americas in 1492 – Latin America has grappled with the tension between subjugation to colonial and imperial powers, resistance and the pursuit of independence.

Kristi Noem says that more officers are being deployed amid protests in several cities

In response to the news overnight that Donald Trump’s justice department has launched a criminal investigation into Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell, the Senate banking committee’s top Democrat – Elizabeth Warren – has warned that her colleagues should not move forward with the president’s nominee for the role when Powell’s term expires at in May of this year.

Warren accused the president of wanting to “install another sock puppet to complete his corrupt takeover of America’s central bank”.

Trump is abusing the authorities of the Department of Justice like a wannabe dictator so the Fed serves his interests, along with his billionaire friends.

This Committee and the Senate should not move forward with any Trump nominee for the Fed, including Fed Chair.