All three major stock indexes moved decisively lower, extending sell-off in wake of dour economic reports

US stocks tumbled on Friday, extending a sell-off in the wake of dour economic reports and closing the book on a holiday-shortened week fraught with new tariff threats and worries of softening consumer demand.

All three major US stock indexes moved decisively lower on the heels of the data, and continued their slide into afternoon trading.

It never rains but it pours. After Brentford breezed into a winning position with three goals inside a 15-minute first-half spell, the Leicester City fans who braved a second-half downpour were left with the hope of celebrating the meagre consolation of a first goal in this dispiriting run of six consecutive home defeats.

It didn’t happen. So Leicester, in addition to the increasing possibility of a return to the Championship a decade on from winning the Premier League title, have now become the first team in top-flight history to lose six successive home league games without scoring.

In Buriticupu, about 1,200 people risk losing their homes, and residents have seen the problem escalate in 30 years

Authorities in a city in the Brazilian Amazon have declared a state of emergency after huge sinkholes opened up, threatening hundreds of homes.

Several buildings in Buriticupu, in Maranhão state, have already been destroyed, and about 1,200 people of a population of 55,000 risk losing their homes into a widening abyss.

New year, new look England, same lack of consistency. Sarina Wiegman’s Lionesses began their Nations League campaign with a profligate and frustrating 1-1 draw against Portugal in Portimão.

Prior to the introduction of the Nations League last season, England had dominated between major competitions under Wiegman, sweeping aside significantly lower-ranked opposition with ease. The new Uefa competition has upped the competitive level, providing more of a challenge and ensuring results such as the 20-0 defeat of Latvia in 2021 are less common. Wiegman had said prior to the game against Portugal that England could no longer take results for granted under the new system. In a group with the World Cup holders and the world’s number two side, Spain, and Belgium and Portugal, ranked 19th and 22nd in the world respectively, Kika Nazareth’s goal to cancel out Alessia Russo’s first-half effort will be a frustrating and potentially dangerous one.

• British No 1 recovers to beat Jiri Lehecka 3-6, 7-6 (2), 6-3
• Russian teenager will face Clara Tauson in Dubai final

The British No 1, Jack Draper, produced another gutsy display to defeat Jiri Lehecka in three sets at the Qatar Open and reach the fifth ATP Tour final of his career. Lehecka had stunned Carlos Alcaraz in the quarter-finals in Doha and looked on course to claim another scalp when he won the first set.

Draper required a tie-break to get the match back on level terms before he showed his class in the decider to take victory by a 3-6, 7-6 (2), 6-3 score.

Caleb Vitello reassigned as administration reportedly unhappy at slow rate of arrests and deportations

Donald Trump’s presidential administration has reassigned its top official at US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) after the agency’s arrests and deportations have been slower than expected, Reuters reported, citing a senior administration official and two other sources familiar with the matter.

The official, Caleb Vitello, was in the role in an acting capacity and had been grappling with pressure to step up enforcement after other top Ice officials were reassigned days earlier.

Megafans fear tech company’s deal could mean an end to the films’ unique characteristics

The announcement that Amazon paid more than $1bn for creative control of the James Bond franchise has sent shock waves across the film world and fans fear it could mean the end of Bond as they know and love it.

David Lowbridge-Ellis, the founder of Licence to Queer, a community of queer Bond fans, expressed concerns that the move could mean an end to the unique characteristics that make Bond appeal to different audiences.

Kristen Crowley removed after blaming city for budget cuts, while mayor claimed firefighters weren’t properly deployed

Six weeks after the most destructive wildfire in city history, Los Angeles’s mayor, Karen Bass, ousted the city’s fire chief on Friday following a public rift over preparations for a potential fire and finger-pointing between the chief and city hall over responsibility for the devastation.

Bass said in a statement that she was removing Chief Kristin Crowley immediately.

• Austria 1-0 Scotland; Italy 1-0 Wales
• Hayley Ladd makes 100th appearance for Wales

Interim Scotland manager, Michael McArdle, began his tenure with a 1-0 Nations League defeat to Austria at the Josko Arena.

Lilli Purtscheller fired the home side ahead in the opening League A Group 1 fixture after 14 minutes and the home side deserved their interval lead, despite the visitors passing up a couple of chances.

Telling Núñez off in public feels unnecessary at this late stage, like shoehorning a needless car chase into a film’s third act

Stop getting Darwin Núñez wrong! At the very least, can we please stop comparing him unfavourably with Andy Carroll. This should be taken as a general cease-and-desist plea from those of us with an interest in preserving the Carroll legacy. But it also feels like an important note of distinction in a week when Arne Slot has unexpectedly made Núñez into a person of interest in the Premier League title race by dwelling on his now-famous miss against Aston Villa.

There may be sound internal reasons for this. Slot is very shrewd. The season has so far been an exercise in control and smart judgment. But from the outside, telling Núñez off in public feels unnecessary at this late stage, like shoehorning jeopardy into the third act of a generic Hollywood movie, the needless car chase four-fifths of the way through Paddington 5: Paddington Harder.

German police have arrested a suspect after attack on Spanish tourist and say they have not yet found a motive

German police have arrested a man suspected in a stabbing attack at Berlin’s Holocaust memorial that left a Spanish tourist seriously injured.

There was no immediate indication of a motive for the attack late on Friday, two days before Germans vote in a national election.

UK prime minister aiming to cool escalating transatlantic row over war in Ukraine

Keir Starmer will not risk riling Donald Trump by challenging him over his attack on Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, when the pair finally meet next week, as the prime minister seeks to cool an escalating transatlantic row.

Starmer will fly to the US in the coming days for what could be a defining moment for his leadership, as Europe and the US trade accusations and insults about the origins of the war in Ukraine and the best way to end it.

Keith Kellogg takes different tone from Trump, who contrasted ‘very good talks’ with Putin with cooler relationship with Ukraine’s leader

The US envoy to Ukraine, Gen Keith Kellogg, has praised Volodymyr Zelenskyy as “the embattled and courageous leader of a nation at war”, striking a dramatically different tone from Donald Trump, who has called Ukraine’s president a “dictator”.

Kellogg left Kyiv on Friday after a three-day visit. Posting on social media, he said he had engaged in “extensive and positive discussions” with Zelenskyy and his “talented national security team”. “A long and intense day with the senior leadership of Ukraine,” he said.

Eric Adams, mayor of the US’s largest city, is caught up in a swirl of indictments, immigrants, Rikers and Donald Trump

This Valentine’s Day, a new political power couple said their vows on the plush white couches of Fox & Friends in midtown Manhattan: Donald Trump’s “border czar”, Tom Homan, and the New York City mayor, Eric Adams.

The pair appeared on the conservative TV show to discuss an agreement they had reached the day before. Their deal reversed longstanding New York City policy by letting federal immigration agents back onto Rikers Island, the city’s jail complex that largely holds people who have been charged but not yet convicted of crimes. The surprise agreement came as the newly installed leaders of Trump’s Department of Justice were making an extraordinary push to dismiss criminal corruption charges that the agency had been pursuing against Adams.

Weeks after the election, the mayor, who had once declared that the city would ‘ALWAYS stand up to’ Trump and that immigrants fleeing oppression should remember they were ‘ALWAYS welcome here’, sounded like a different man

Tall buildings fare poorly in derechos, say experts, raising questions over their resilience as climate crisis worsens

Skyscrapers built to withstand major hurricanes fare much more poorly in less powerful windstorms known as derechos, researchers have found, raising questions for cities worldwide over the resilience of tall buildings as the climate emergency worsens.

A team from Florida International University’s (FIU) civil and environmental engineering department studied the unexpectedly severe damage caused to buildings in Houston, a city with 50 skyscrapers of 492ft (150 metres) or more, during the 16 May 2024 derecho.

• Updates from King Power Stadium, 8pm GMT kick-off
• Get in touch with Dominic here | Read Football Daily

An email agreeing with me? Yes! It’s from Jeremy Boyce:

As you say, bit of a bonkers match to predict. Can’t win at home v Can’t win away. 0-0 then? Or maybe not, given the way Ruud’s boys ship goals, as well as having a redoubtable and brilliant former carpet-fitter still banging them in when they can give him the ball. I’m betting on an Mbeumo/Wissa inside 2 mins, a late Vardy shouldered equaliser in added time, and lots of huff’n’puff without purpose in between. Should I get down the bookies’ now? Obviously we do not condone gambling and would never put THAT on our shirts. Would we?

Jury convicts Hadi Matar, 27, charged with trying to kill author at literary gathering in New York state in 2022

A jury on Friday afternoon convicted the man who was charged with stabbing and trying to kill the author Salman Rushdie as he delivered a lecture at a literary gathering in western New York state in 2022.

Hadi Matar, 27, of Fairview, New Jersey, was quickly declared guilty of attempted murder in the second degree. He could receive up to 25 years in prison at a sentencing hearing tentatively set for 23 April.

One person was dead at the scene and two others died at the hospital; no reported arrests nor information on the shooter

Three people were shot and killed at a motor vehicle office in Louisville, Kentucky, on Friday, police said.

Maj Donald Boeckman of Louisville metro police department told reporters that officers found one person dead at the scene and another two wounded. The two wounded were taken to hospitals and died there. He said there was no ongoing threat to public.

Outside lawyer appointed to present arguments against prosecutors seeking to drop case against New York mayor

A New York judge on Friday said he would not immediately dismiss Eric Adams’s corruption case, but ordered the Democratic New York City mayor’s trial delayed indefinitely after the justice department asked for the charges to be dismissed.

In a written ruling, the US district judge Dale Ho in Manhattan said he would appoint an outside lawyer, Paul Clement of the law firm Clement & Murphy PLLC, to present arguments against the federal prosecutors’ bid to dismiss, in order to help the judge make his decision.

• Lionesses begin League A campaign in Algarve
• Email John here | Moving the Goalposts sign-up

Earps over Hannah Hampton in goal is a big call. Reminder: Alex Greenwood, Lauren Hemp, Beth Mead, Georgia Stanway and Lotte Wubben-Moy are all injured.

Changes afoot from the preceding friendly against Switzerland. Eight changes, with Millie Bright, Jessica Park and Grace Clinton the three survivors.

The rapper’s mother, who had been guarding his legacy, died of natural causes after a stint in hospice care

Voletta Wallace, the dedicated mother of the late rapper the Notorious BIG, died on Friday morning aged 78.

The Monroe county coroner, Thomas Yanac, confirmed her death on Friday to the Associated Press, saying she died at her home in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, after a stint in hospice care. She died of natural causes.

Red Rose have lost four in row against Scots, but if they can back up Les Bleus win there will be talk of top-two finish

In recent times the Calcutta Cup has morphed into the “Scottish play” the English would rather not mention by name. One Red Rose win in seven attempts and four consecutive victories for Gregor Townsend’s side has certainly been an uncomfortable sequence for those who, for decades, regarded death and taxes as only marginally more inevitable than Scotland losing down south.

So much for the supposed dead weight of history. “What’s done cannot be undone,” murmured Lady Macbeth but she wasn’t privy to the skill and daring of Finn Russell or the killer finishing of Duhan van der Merwe. The last time England lost three or more consecutive home games in this fixture was in the early 1900s before Twickenham became their spiritual home.

Running for just four days, and with its influencer coverage dwarfed by New York and Paris, LFW needs British soft power and its prized creatives to bring some buzz

Beneath the glitter and sequins and extra-long false eyelashes, the bald truth at London fashion week is of an industry overshadowed by the luxury might of Europe and the US. Many designers have closed their doors, or cannot afford to splash out on a show. At just four days long, London fashion week has shrunk to half the duration of the Paris shows.

Cash is in short supply, but ambition and creativity are not. At SS Daley, the Harry Styles-backed brand whose trench coats are now sold at John Lewis, the show opened with the sound of Big Ben, included “Stay Faithfull to Marianne” sweaters in tribute to the late British style icon, and closed with a general clamour for selfies with front row guest of honour, the Amandaland actor Lucy Punch. Actor Debi Mazar took the stage for jewellery brand Completedworks, playing a television shopping channel hostess on the verge of a nervous breakdown, hawking the “mermaid realness” of pearl earrings while sipping a martini. At the Tate Modern, Florence Pugh opened Harris Reed’s show with a monologue in praise of “the art of dressing up”.

A plane crash-lands in Toronto, a hostage release in Gaza, London fashion week, and A$AP Rocky leaves court with Rihanna: the past seven days as captured by the world’s leading photojournalists

• Warning: this gallery contains images that some readers may find distressing

Chronic illness remains but pontiff, 88, is stable and in good humour, doctor says

Pope Francis, who is in hospital undergoing treatment for double pneumonia, is “not yet out of danger” and will remain in hospital for at least the whole of next week, one of his doctors has said.

Francis, 88, was stable but “the chronic illness remains”, Sergio Alfieri, a general surgeon at Rome’s Gemelli university hospital, told reporters on Friday.

Germany is experiencing a political shift that is alarming many citizens. The photographer Fabian Ritter has spent years documenting the rise of the far-right AfD party and more extreme groups. Recent events illustrate the growing tension

In the run-up to Sunday’s election in Germany the political climate has become more heated. There have been attacks on politicians and campaign workers, and election posters have been destroyed. Many felt unsettled or even threatened after Friedrich Merz, the leader of the centre-right CDU, proposed a bill to tighten immigration control that had the backing of the far-right Alternative für Deutschland.

Björn Höcke, the AfD’s leader in Thuringia and head of its nationalist wing, speaks at the Domplatz in Erfurt during the party’s final campaign event before state elections, 31 August 2024.

Case brought during Biden presidency accused space company of refusing, unlawfully, to hire certain immigrants

The US Department of Justice on Thursday said it would drop a case accusing Elon Musk’s space technology company SpaceX of refusing to hire certain immigrants.

The justice department last month signaled it could back away from the case, brought during Joe Biden’s term. Musk, a top adviser and donor to Donald Trump, is leading a commission tasked with identifying waste in the federal government, dubbed the “department of government efficiency”, or Doge.

Community grapples with fear over ‘proliferation and normalisation of anti-queer and anti-trans sentiment in politics and the media’

They poured on to streets across Germany by the thousands, waving rainbow flags and signs that read “Choose Love”. Days before an election in which the far right is expected to catapult into second place in Germany’s parliament, the simultaneous rallies in 50 municipalities were billed as a show of strength by an LGBTQ+ community as people braced for what might lie ahead.

“Many queer people are unsettled by the social and political situation,” the organisers of the mid-February, cross-country initiative wrote on their website. “The tone against us is getting harsher, and liberal democracy is under pressure.”

Singer and songwriter who had a longstanding partnership with Curtis Mayfield earned the nickname ‘Iceman’ for his cool demeanour

Jerry Butler, the US singer and songwriter who had a string of 1960s pop and soul hits before a long career in Illinois politics, has died aged 85.

According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Butler died at home on Thursday. He had been living with Parkinson’s disease.

Aston Villa and Arsenal will fancy their chances of progress, while Liverpool will face a challenge to oust in-form PSG

Villa produced probably their worst performance of the season in losing the meeting of the sides in the group stage, Brugge winning 1-0 with a penalty awarded after Tyrone Mings, not realising a goal-kick had been taken, picked up the ball. Villa may be grateful for that: had they taken a point from that game they would have been facing Bayern in the last 16. That said, as domestic form has stagnated, the victory over Bayern, a repeat of the scoreline from the 1982 European Cup final, probably represents the high point of their season so far. Domestically this hasn’t been a great campaign for Brugge either. They lie eight points behind Racing Genk but for them too the Champions League has provided salvation. They sneaked into the playoffs with three wins but then were much the better side against Atalanta, winning home and away.

• Chief executive reflects on the three years since invasion
• ‘Fifa forgot about us … their door is always closed’

Shakhtar Donetsk’s chief executive, Serhii Palkin, has accused Fifa of failing to support Ukrainian football in the three years since Russia undertook its full-scale invasion of the country.

Ukraine’s domestic league has managed to play on after an initial six-month pause but resources are scarce and the long-term outlook remains uncertain. Palkin claimed the world governing body had kept its doors “closed to us” and he repeated previous entreaties for the creation of a fund to help maintain a sport that has endured severe physical and financial damage. He also urged Fifa and Uefa to hold firm on their commitment to bar Russian teams from international competitions amid an increasingly precarious geopolitical climate.

Brad Sigmon, 67, chooses to be shot dead amid concerns that lethal injections have caused ‘excruciating’ pain

A South Carolina man on death row has chosen to be killed by firing squad, and if his execution goes forward next month, it would be the first time in 15 years that capital punishment in the US is carried out by gunfire.

Brad Sigmon, 67, is scheduled to be shot to death on 7 March, part of a spate of rapid killings the state has pursued in the last six months as it revives executions after a 13-year pause. South Carolina now directs those on death row to choose how they will be killed – electric chair, lethal injection or shooting. If they decline to make a selection, the state electrocutes them.

Apple says removal of tool after government asked for right to see data will make iCloud users more vulnerable

• Business live – latest updates

Apple has taken the unprecedented step of removing its strongest data security tool from customers in the UK, after the government demanded “backdoor” access to user data.

UK users will no longer have access to the advanced data protection (ADP) tool, which uses end-to-end encryption to allow only account holders to view items such as photos or documents they have stored online in the iCloud storage service.

PM to claim if US rejects Mauritius’s claim to own the islands, Beijing will be drawn into the regional dispute

Keir Starmer is to urge Donald Trump to recognise that a US rejection of Mauritius’s legal claim to own the Chagos Islands, including the strategic US military base at Diego Garcia, may stoke tensions similar to those in the South China Sea.

Starmer is due to meet Trump next Friday mainly to discuss the future of Ukraine, but also a UK plan for Gaza’s reconstruction under international protection with no need for Palestinians to be required to quit the Gaza Strip. The paper is similar but not identical to proposals being discussed by Arab foreign ministers in Riyadh, which has a strong international component and would prevent Hamas ruling in Gaza.

Ceasefire deal still on track amid uproar over fate of two Israeli boys and false return of their mother’s body

Israelis and Palestinians are bracing for another tense exchange of hostages, prisoners and detainees on Saturday after uproar in Israel over allegations that two child hostages were “brutally murdered” by Hamas, and the group’s failure to deliver the body of their mother, instead returning the corpse of an unidentified woman.

The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement on Friday afternoon that autopsy results and military intelligence concluded that members of Hamas “used their bare hands” to kill Ariel Bibas, four, and his 10-month-old brother, Kfir, when they were seized in October 2023.

My ‘achievable’ self-development goal of trying not to be angry was difficult. It’s what you do with that feeling that matters

A couple of years ago, I decided to go for more “achievable” new year resolutions: challenging and life-enhancing but also small to the point of near-stupidity. For example, near the end of last year, I decided I would stop using my car’s horn in non-life-threatening situations.

If you’re wondering what kind of asshole uses the horn in non-life-threatening situations, I know it’s noise pollution, and childish, and rude.

Exclusive: Analysis by the Guardian shows a third of major arts leaders were educated privately

• Analysis: Who is ‘working class’ and why does it matter in the arts?
• Interviews: Nine working-class creatives on class in the arts – and how they made it

Artists, directors and actors have raised the alarm about what they describe as a rigged system preventing working-class talent thriving in their industries after analysis showed almost a third of major arts leaders were educated privately.

The creator of Peaky Blinders, Steven Knight, the director Shane Meadows and the Turner prize winner Jesse Darling were among those who spoke to the Guardian about what was described as a crisis facing the sector.

Jordan Bardella calls off US address after former Trump aide makes controversial gesture with outstretched arm onstage

The French far-right leader Jordan Bardella on Friday morning cancelled a scheduled speech at the US Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Maryland, after Donald Trump’s former aide Steve Bannon flashed an apparent fascist-style salute there hours before.

Bannon, who helped Trump win office in 2016 and is now a popular rightwing podcast show host, finished his CPAC speech on Thursday with an outstretched arm, fingers pointed and palm down – a sign that echoed both the Nazi salute and a controversial gesture made by the tech billionaire Elon Musk at the US president’s second inauguration in January.

The conviction of the former Spanish FA president for sexual assault sends a powerful message not just about consent, but about how seriously women are taken

The verdict delivered to the disgraced former president of the Spanish football federation Luis Rubiales is a victory, but one that leaves a bitter aftertaste.

The 47-year-old was found guilty of sexual assault on Thursday for a non-consensual kiss planted on the Spain forward Jenni Hermoso during the 2023 World Cup final medal ceremony. The result is a fine of more than €10,000, a ban from going within 200 metres of Hermoso or communicating with her and €3,000 in compensation to the striker.

National security adviser Mike Waltz tells CPAC agreement is expected imminently as part of ceasefire negotiations

The White House national security adviser Mike Waltz said on Friday that the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, was expected to sign a minerals agreement with the United States imminently, as part of broader negotiations to end the war with Russia.

“Here’s the bottom line, President Zelenskyy is going to sign that deal, and you will see that in the very short term,” Waltz said during remarks at CPAC.