‘I have sacked Robert Jenrick from the shadow cabinet, removed the whip and suspended his party membership with immediate effect,’ Tory leader says

• Full report: Badenoch sacks Jenrick

Nigel Farage, speaking at his press conference in Scotland, has said that “of course” he has had conversations with Robert Jenrick, who was sacked by Kemi Badenoch this morning for planning to defect.

UPDATE: Farage said:

I have had conversations with a number of very senior conservatives over the course of the last week, the last month. A lot of them realise that for all the talk on 8 May the Conservative Party will cease to be a national party. They will be obliterated in Scotland, Wales, the red wall councils.

As far as Mr Jenrick is concerned, of course I have talked to Robert Jenrick. Was I on the verge of signing him up? No. But we have had conversations.

This morning I removed the Conservative whip from Robert Jenrick after dismissing him from the shadow cabinet.

I was very sorry to be presented with clear, irrefutable evidence, not just that he was preparing to defect, but he was planning to so in the most damaging way to the Conservative party and shadow cabinet colleagues.

Conservative leader says she had ‘irrefutable evidence’ shadow justice secretary was plotting to defect in most damaging way

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Robert Jenrick has been sacked from the shadow cabinet and suspended from the Conservative party after Kemi Badenoch said she was presented with “irrefutable evidence” that he was planning to defect from the party.

The shadow justice secretary was Badenoch’s leadership rival and had long been said to be prepared do a deal with Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.

• Executive meeting moved to meet with interim manager

• Martínez ‘didn’t want to play any more’ after knee injury

Sir Jim Ratcliffe and at least one of the Glazer family are at Manchester United’s training base on Thursday to support the interim manager, Michael Carrick, before Saturday’s derby with Manchester City.

United were due to hold an executive committee meeting of senior management at a different location but this was moved to Carrington so that they could speak to Carrick before the first game of his second caretaker tenure.

Trump and his top advisers have previously hinted at their willingness to work with acting president Delcy Rodríguez

A year after Donald Trump’s return to the White House, a global survey suggests much of the world believes his nation-first, “Make America Great Again” approach is instead helping to make China great again.

The 21-country survey for the influential European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) thinktank also found that under Trump, the US is less feared by its traditional adversaries, while its allies – particularly in Europe – feel ever more distant.

Accounts removed or restricted on Twitch, Kick, YouTube, Threads, Facebook, Instagram, Snap, X, TikTok and Reddit in world-leading ban

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More than 4.7m social media accounts held by Australians who platforms have judged to be under 16 years of age were deactivated, removed or restricted in the first days after the ban came into effect in December, the prime minister has said.

After the social media ban came into effect on 10 December, the eSafety commissioner sent questions to each of the platforms covered by the ban asking how many accounts had been removed in order to comply with the law.

Amid grumbles, a winless run and negative banners, there are signs of life for Köln after a narrow loss to the champions

We didn’t see this coming, and not only because of the fog of pyro lingering over the RheinEnergieSTADION field that furnished us with 11 minutes of first-half stoppage time. In October’s equivalent fixture in the DFB Pokal, Köln had really rattled Bayern Munich in the first half and even taken the lead through Ragnar Ache – and still ended up on the wrong end of a 4-1 scoreline.

The world around Geißbockheim has not been a particularly happy place since. Effzeh came into this Englische Woche on a run of seven games without a win, which was even harder to swallow after an extremely promising start. Worse still, head coach Lukas Kwasniok – who started this season embracing the city and the club’s spirit with his wearing of replica shirts on the touchline – was recently targeted by Köln fans in Saturday’s draw at Heidenheim, with a banner reading “Kwasni Yok” (“yok” being no in Turkish), credited to the Wilde Horde ultras group.

As Tehran’s internet blackout means names of those killed in the uprising are only starting to emerge, the diaspora is reacting with shock, sadness and anger

The families of Iranians killed by the regime in its crackdown on anti-government protests over the past week have told the Guardian of their devastation on learning of their relatives’ deaths.

More than 2,500 people have been killed so far, according to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, but the death toll is expected to rise substantially as the regime eases a communications blackout imposed since 8 January.

It may well be safer, easier and cheaper for US companies to procure whatever oil the US economy needs at home

There are a few reasons that Donald Trump – now self-anointed acting President of Venezuela, as well as the United States – might be so excited about appropriating Venezuela’s oil.

Trump may be counting on some boost from cheap oil to the US economy: he is obsessed with the price of gas. As the midterm elections approach, he has become concerned about unemployment. Deeply imprinted memories of scarcity during the oil crises of the 1970s may prime his belief that cheap oil cures it all.

There are no salary caps and no luxury taxes, yet the world’s most-watched soccer league is only getting more balanced

David Stern used to tell a joke. In his early years as NBA commissioner, he liked to say, his job was essentially to travel back and forth between Boston and Los Angeles to hand out the championship trophy. In the first five NBA Finals after he took the helm in early 1984, the Celtics and Lakers won all five titles, each missing the decisive series just once.

Current commissioner Adam Silver recalled the anecdote last June, ahead of the 2025 NBA Finals, by which time the league was guaranteed a seventh different champion in seven years. “We set out to create a system that allowed for more competition around the league,” Silver said then in his annual news conference. “The goal being to have 30 teams all in the position, if well managed, to compete for championships. And that’s what we’re seeing here.”

The Lincoln in the Bardo author is back with another metaphysical tale. He discusses Buddhism, partisan politics and the terrifying flight that changed his life

Like his first novel, Lincoln in the Bardo, which won the Booker prize in 2017, George Saunders’s new novel is a ghost story. In Vigil, an oil tycoon who spent a lifetime covering up the scientific evidence for climate change is visited on his deathbed by a host of spirits, who force him to grapple with his legacy. What draws Saunders to ghost stories? “If I had us talking here in a story and I allowed a ghost in from the 1940s, I might be more interested in it. It might be because they are in fact here,” he says, gesturing to the hotel lobby around us. “Or even if it’s not ghosts, we both have memories of people we love who have passed. They are here, in a neurologically very active way.” A ghost story can feel more “truthful”, he adds: “If you were really trying to tell the truth about this moment, would you so confidently narrow it to just today?”

Ghosts also invite us to confront our mortality and, in so doing, force a new perspective on life: what remains once you strip away the meaningless, day-to-day distractions in which we tend to lose ourselves? “Death, to me, has always been a hot topic,” Saunders says. “It’s so unbelievable that it will happen to us, too. And I suppose as you get older it becomes more …” he puts on a goofy voice: “interesting”. He is 67, grizzled and avuncular, surprisingly softly spoken for a writer who talks so loudly – and with such freewheeling, wisecracking energy – on the page. He says death is close to becoming a “preoccupation” for him and he worries that he is not prepared for it.

To me and my friends from a Battersea council estate, the Dome seemed the very height of Thatcherite hedonism – and seeing ‘successful’ people up close was an eye-opener

In the mid-1980s, as a Black kid from a Battersea council estate, pubs were not part of my life. To my mind, they were where white blokes got lagered-up before rolling out on to the streets to abuse people who looked like me. None of my mates were big drinkers; we were much more interested in music (rare groove and hip-hop) and trying to meet girls. Rooms full of aggressive-looking men held no attraction for any of us.

When I was a boy, glasses were a source of shame that ruined my self-esteem. Now that contact lenses have failed me too, all that’s left is to embrace the blurriness

I hate my glasses. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. Not just these I’m wearing now, but whichever spectacles I’ve been cursed to wear since, to my horror, I was first told to at the age of 14. At that point, my hatred of them was general, unspecific. They were a source of shame as well as inconvenience. The football field was a blur. Girls, who admittedly had never been much attracted to me in the first place, now lost interest completely.

I developed more specific dislikes, for example the way they steamed up (the glasses, not the girls) when I walked into pubs in winter, still further diminishing my chances of getting served underage. They were always getting bent out of shape, and this bugged me tremendously. The left side was higher than the right, or the right higher than the left, and I could never figure out why this was. I pulled and bent and stretched them this way and that, and only ever made matters worse. Were the arms not straight? Or was the problem the ear thingies? Don’t start me on the nose thingies, which have never, for me anyway, successfully discharged their primary task of stopping the bastards from slipping down my nose.

Showing the value of great design over visual impact, this faithfully resurrected home computer seamlessly integrates modern tech with some wonderful additional touches

The emotional hit was something I didn’t expect, although perhaps I should have. The Commodore 64 Ultimate, a new version of the legendary 8-bit computer, comes in a box designed to resemble the original packaging – a photo of the machine itself on a background of deep blue fading into a series of white stripes. Then when you open it, you find an uncannily accurate replica of what fans lovingly referred to as the breadbox – the chunky, sloped Commodore 64, in hues of brown and beige, the red LED in one corner above the row of fawn-coloured function keys. It’s like 1982 all over again.

My dad bought us a C64 in late 1983. It was our second computer after the ZX81 and it felt like an enormous leap into the future with its detailed colour graphics, advanced sound chip and proper grown-up keyboard. We unpacked it on our dinner table, plugging it into a small portable TV and loading the one game we had, a very basic Donkey Kong clone named Crazy Kong. My life would never be the same again. This contraption was my obsession for the next four years – my friendships and free-time would revolve around games such as Bruce Lee, Paradroid and Hyper Sports. To this day, I treasure the memories of playing golf sim Leaderboard with my dad. The sound effects, speech samples and graphics conjured by that computer have lived rent free in my head for, god, almost 40 years.

A new exhibition at the New York Historical museum looks at the immigrant experience in New York City through a range of revealing and diverse viewpoints, with more than 100 photographs and objects showing how the city has been shaped by people from across the globe. The exhibition runs to 29 March

Just more than a year after the new luxury behemoth was formed, it announced it had filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy

Every year, the stores down Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue dress up their windows at Christmastime. Tourists from all over the world come to gawk at all the glitter, lace, ruffles and bows.

Saks’s Fifth Avenue location, so iconic that it’s embedded in the brand’s name, is usually dressed top to bottom during the holidays. In 2023, the store partnered with Christian Dior to display a giant zodiac calendar. As part of the light show, fireworks were released from the top of the store to the oohs and aahs of spectators.

The eight remaining teams all have elements of brilliance. But they also have weaknesses that could send them crashing out of the postseason

Defending the run has long been a sore spot for the Bills – they finished the season 25th in defensive rush success rate. Inside, they lack mass, and are too easily pushed around by teams committed to a smashmouth approach. Outside, they struggle with discipline and technique. Against Jacksonville last weekend, both fell apart. The Jaguars rushed for 154 yards, with 119 of those yards coming on outside runs. It was the Jags’ highest total on outside runs this season. This weekend, against a Broncos offense that is happy to punch anyone in the mouth, that could put the Bills in a lot of trouble.

Third of councils affected by overhaul from two-tier to unitary authorities ask for postponement

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About a third of eligible councils in England have asked to postpone their elections in May, saying they are unable to deliver them effectively during an overhaul of local government.

The requested postponements have sparked unrest and fierce criticism in some councils, with police being called to a council meeting in Redditch this week after insults were traded and members of the public decried a delay as “arrogant”.

Failure to foresee shah’s fall in 1979 was diplomatic disaster, but experts see little indication of mass defections now

When asked to predict whether fissures are appearing at the top of the Iranian state that may imply Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s days as supreme leader are numbered, western diplomats adopt a haunted demeanour, perhaps recalling one of western diplomacy’s greatest collective disasters.

Before the fall of the Shah of Iran in January 1979, insouciant diplomats based in Tehran were sending cables to their capitals offering total reassurance that Mohammad Reza Pahlavi’s hold on power was utterly secure. In September 1978, the US Defence Intelligence Agency, for instance, reported that “the shah is expected to remain actively in power over the next 10 years”. A state department report suggested “the shah would not have to stand down until 1985 at the earliest”.

Múte B. Egede, Greenland’s deputy prime minister, said more soldiers were expected in the coming days

Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen has responded to last night’s “not easy” meeting with US representatives in Washington, warning that “there is a fundamental disagreement” over “the American ambition to take over Greenland.”

In a post on Facebook, Frederiksen stressed the Danish government would “continue our efforts to prevent this scenario from becoming a reality.”

The defence and protection of Greenland is a common concern for the entire Nato alliance.

• Australian Taylah Preston, world No 204, wins 6-2, 6-4

• Raducanu could face Sabalenka early in Melbourne

Emma Raducanu ended her preparations for the Australian Open with a miserable 6-2, 6-4 defeat by Taylah Preston, a 20-year-old Australian wildcard, in the quarter-finals of the Hobart international.

As the top seed in Hobart, a small WTA 250 tournament, Raducanu had entered the tournament with a real opportunity to compete for an elusive second career WTA title since her win at the US Open more than four years ago. Instead, the challenging rainy conditions were seemingly all it took to unsettle the Briton, who put in a dismal performance on Thursday evening. Her defeat against Preston, the WTA No 204, is her fourth-worst defeat by ranking since 2021.

Moscow’s allegation that unnamed diplomat is affiliated with UK secret service comes ‘out of desperation’, Foreign Office says

A British diplomat has been expelled from Russia over what the UK Foreign Office described as “malicious and baseless accusations” of being a spy.

The diplomat, who was not named, had two weeks to leave the country, the Russian foreign ministry said after it received information “regarding the affiliation of a diplomatic employee at the embassy with the British secret service”.

Martin Freeman does his best to lift this three-parter, but it feels like Enid Blyton – made for an international market that thinks Paddington Bear is holding the queen’s hand in heaven

‘Tis the season, just, for your annual Agatha Christie. In recent years, the adaptations have been infused with the grief and instability of the postwar backdrop against which they all exist, and been given rich, dark, adult inflections by Sarah Phelps for the BBC.

The latest, however, is for Netflix by Chris Chibnall and we are back in the world of period costume, clipped vowels and dialogue infused with nothing but plot, designed to get the puzzle pieces recited into the right position for the next bit then the next bit then the solve – this time at the end of three very hour-long episodes.

Margaret says her daughter didn’t pay the airport charge, so it’s on her. Georgie says this cock up is all her mum’s doing. You decide who got them into this fine mess
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We dropped Georgia off in her own car and she didn’t pay the drop-off fee, so the fine is hers

I didn’t know you had to pay for drop-off. Mum knew and didn’t tell me, so she should help pay

Critics and curators are reframing great artists, from Gentileschi to Soutine, to fit with modern ethical narratives. But this ignores the glorious ambivalence of their creations

One rainy afternoon last winter, sitting under a blanket with a cup of tea, I found myself Googling paintings by Chaïm Soutine. It’s a pastime I’ve indulged ever since visiting an exhibition of his portraits of hotel staff on the French Riviera during the 1920s – paintings that combine such a mixture of tenderness and debasement that it’s as if his brush is kissing and beating his subjects at the same time.

I flicked through images of hopelessly innocent cooks and bellboys, with complexions the colour of raw sausage and ears that look as if they have been brutally yanked. And as I did, I came across a review of the very show where I had first encountered Soutine’s works. Ah, I thought, looking forward to luxuriating in literature about his particular genius for kindly sadism.