Police praise fast actions and bravery of boy’s friends as he faces ‘fight for his life’ in hospital

A 12-year-old boy is in for the “fight of his life” after being attacked by a large shark while swimming in Sydney harbour on Sunday afternoon.

NSW police said the boy was jumping off a popular rock ledge near Nielsen Park in Sydney’s east around 4.20pm on Sunday with friends when the attack from an animal, possibly a bull shark, took place.

• Houston Texans 16-28 New England Patriots

• New England intercept Houston QB four times

• Broncos and Patriots will play for place in Super Bowl

Drake Maye threw three touchdown passes, Marcus Jones returned one of CJ Stroud’s four interceptions for a score and the New England Patriots defeated the Houston Texans 28-16 on Sunday to advance to the AFC championship game for the first time in seven years, where they will play the Denver Broncos.

In Mike Vrabel’s first season as head coach, the Patriots will make their 16th conference championship game appearance and first since their run to their sixth Super Bowl title under Bill Belichick in the 2018 season. New England have won their last nine divisional round games.

Maye finished 16 of 27 for 179 yards, but had an interception and fumbled four times, losing two in cold conditions as snow and rain fell throughout the game. One of Maye’s fumbles set up Houston’s first touchdown.

Fremantle Park, Perth
Returning to Australian stages after nine years, the band delivers a fierce, generous set that draws on four decades of music

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Dragging his hand across the piano keys, Nick Cave leaps into the air and charges towards the crowd like a preacher breaking from the pulpit. “Bring your spirit down!” he cries repeatedly, arms flung wide as the choir roars behind him.

It’s barely 10 minutes into their set at Fremantle Park in Perth, and Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds have the audience in the palm of their hands. Touring their 2024 album Wild God in Australia for the first time, they open with the brooding track Frogs and the eponymous Wild God, an explosive crescendo of high-pitched strings, soaring vocals and pounding percussion.

• World No 2 defeats ‘legend and idol’ 10-6 in final

• ‘I’m trying not to cry because it means so much’

Kyren Wilson collected his first Masters title to thwart John Higgins’s hopes of making more history after a cagey final replete with uncharacteristic errors from both players.

Higgins was seeking a third Masters title at Alexandra Palace – 20 years after he last lifted the trophy – and, at 50, the Scot had become the oldest player to reach the final of a triple crown event.

Two trains derail near Adamuz, Cordóba province, leaving scores injured, state-owned broadcaster reports

At least 21 people have been killed and several injured after two trains collided in southern Spain on Sunday night, authorities said.

A train travelling from Málaga to Madrid derailed near Adamuz, crossing on to the other track where it hit an oncoming train, which also derailed, Spain’s Adif rail body posted on X.

This had been, by general agreement, the most predictable, least dramatic Cup of Nations in living memory. And that was true, until injury time in the final, when a video assistant referee decision contrived to produce perhaps the most ludicrous finale to any major final in history.

Senegal won it, but that is a tiny detail in the denouement that erupted. There was a walk-off in protest, a missed Panenka and a brilliant winning goal from Pape Gueye. When the final whistle went, players from both sides collapsed to the turf. For Morocco, extending the 50-year wait since their last Cup of Nations, this was agony.

Veteran MP says ‘time to put country before party’ citing Conservative position on Chagos Islands

Andrew Rosindell, the Conservative MP for Romford since 2001, has announced his defection to Reform UK, the second such departure to Nigel Farage’s party in four days.

Rosindell, who was a shadow Foreign Office minister under Kemi Badenoch, announced in a statement on X that he was joining Reform, giving as the main reason his opposition to the UK’s handover of sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius.

• Frank under intense pressure after West Ham defeat

• Irate supporters call for his sacking with team 14th

Thomas Frank oversaw training at Tottenham on Sunday and maintained a business-as-usual front before the club’s Champions League tie against Borussia Dortmund on Tuesday night – despite the uncertainty that is raging over this future.

The manager’s continued employment is in the balance after Spurs’ last-gasp 2-1 home defeat against West Ham on Saturday when the club’s supporters called for him to be “sacked in the morning”. The result kept Tottenham 14th in the Premier League and continued their miserable run in the competition. They have won only two of their past 13 games in the league.

• Saracens to play Prem champions after losing to Warriors

• Harlequins defeat La Rochelle to help Leicester progress

Saracens will travel to face Bath in the round of 16 after being beaten 28-3 by Glasgow in their final pool match at Scotstoun. Most of the points came in the first half, with the Warriors scoring three converted tries through Ollie Smith, Kyle Steyn and George Horne while Saracens replied with an Owen Farrell penalty.

Seb Stephen then rumbled over in the closing seconds of the match to secure a fourth successive bonus-point pool-stage victory for Glasgow. Their reward for topping pool 1 is a last-16 tie against the Bulls on the first weekend of April.

• Heckle comes during rendition of Star-Spangled Banner

• US president has threatened tariffs on European nations

Mounting tensions between Europe and the United States moved into the sporting arena on Sunday when a member of the crowd shouted “Leave Greenland alone” as the US national anthem was sung during an NBA game in London.

Actor Vanessa Williams was performing the Star-Spangled Banner before the Memphis Grizzlies faced the Orlando Magic at the O2 Arena when she was interrupted by the heckle. The intervention drew a round of applause and cheers from sections of the crowd.

Trump lawyer Robert Garson told the Telegraph he discussed refuge for those leaving UK over antisemitism

Discussions are reportedly under way within Donald Trump’s administration about the US possibly granting asylum to Jewish people from the UK, according to the Telegraph, citing the US president’s personal lawyer.

Trump lawyer Robert Garson told the newspaper that he has held conversations with the US state department about offering refuge to British Jews who are leaving the UK citing rising antisemitism.

William Brock fatally shot Lo-Letha Toland-Hall in 2024 after wrongly assuming she was involved in plot to rob him

An 83-year-old Ohio man faces sentencing on Tuesday after being convicted of murder in the shooting of an Uber driver who he wrongly thought was trying to rob him.

William J Brock fatally shot the driver after wrongly assuming she was in on a plot involving scam phone calls that deceived them both to get $12,000 in supposed bond money for a relative, authorities said.

Associated Press contributed

Live updates, 8pm GMT, 3pm ET kick-off at Foxborough
Nix out for season after Broncos’ win | And mail Graham

Texans 0-7 Patriots 7:04, 1st quarter

Another chance for an interception goes begging, the ball hangs in the air for an age with three Patriots around it but none react. Stroud picks up the 1st down on the next play with an easy completion and New England gift a few more yards with a facemask penalty on Christian Kirk. 1st and Goal on the way.

Fires blaze through 8,500 hectares, forcing 50,000 people to evacuate as firefighters struggle to extinguish flames

Wildfires raging across central and southern Chile have killed at least 18 people, scorched thousands of hectares of forest and destroyed scores of homes, authorities said, as the South American country swelters under a heatwave.

Chile’s president, Gabriel Boric, declared a state of catastrophe in the country’s central Biobío region and the neighbouring Ñuble region, about 500km (300 miles) south of Santiago, the capital.

Unai Emery did not hold back. In his programme notes the Aston Villa manager turned to caps lock. “THIS MATCH IS CRUCIAL,” he said, spying an opportunity after Arsenal and Manchester City dropped points, with a golden chance to return to second and cut the leaders’ advantage to four oints.

Everton, however, had other ideas and, as the hour mark approached, Thierno Barry pounced on an Emiliano Martínez fumble after a Pau Torres lapse to condemn Villa to a punishing defeat. They are almost unheard of around here, this only a third home league defeat since the start of last season.

Prada says its tailoring opposes US ‘corporate masculine power’, while D&G’s all-white cast causes controversy in Milan

Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons, the two designers behind Prada, are well aware that fashion is about more than clothes. However, backstage after their menswear show in Milan on Sunday, the duo said the volatile present moment was a difficult one to translate to a collection. “You talk about the world now,” said Prada “or you talk about fashion … The two things together, in this moment, are difficult.”

The collection was, therefore, “uncomfortable”. Rather than meaning the clothes were not pleasant to wear – this is luxury fashion, after all – there were disparate elements put together in the same outfit: the top of a red sou’wester over a trenchcoat, for example, or a yellow scoop-neck jumper with cuffs of a shirt falling out the sleeve. (There were also some useful unexpected styling tips, such as wallets stuffed in a back pocket, or brightly coloured shoe laces).

President issues warning amid speculation Donald Trump plans to assassinate or remove supreme leader

Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, warned on Sunday that any attack on the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, would be a declaration of war.

In an apparent response to speculation that Donald Trump is considering an attempt to assassinate or remove Khamenei, Pezeshkian said in a post on X: “An attack on the great leader of our country is tantamount to a full-scale war with the Iranian nation.”

Next few weeks will show if Trump has finally pushed too far with Greenland levies, as calls grow for bloc to take tougher action

As the sun set over the port of Limassol in Cyprus, the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, last Thursday used a tried and tested formula to describe the US – calling it one of “our allies, our partners”. Only 24 hours earlier, Denmark, an EU and Nato member state, had warned that Donald Trump was intent on “conquering” Greenland, but the reflex at the top of the EU executive to describe the US as a friend runs deep.

Trump’s weekend announcement that eight countries that have supported Greenland would face tariffs unless there was a deal to sell the territory to the US was another hammer to the transatlantic alliance, mocking the notion that the US is Europe’s ally. The eight countries include six EU member states, as well as Norway and the UK, the latter unprotected by the much vaunted “special relationship”. It suggests that Europe’s strategy of flattering and appeasing the US president has failed.

Reform UK leader has decried ‘globalist’ event but this year hopes to meet Donald Trump for Greenland talks

For years he has derided the annual gathering at Davos as a smug and conspiratorial meeting of enemies of the nation state. But this week, Nigel Farage will himself be rubbing shoulders with the “globalists” he has so reviled.

Farage’s itinerary at the Swiss ski resort remains unclear, although his Reform UK deputy, Richard Tice, said on Sunday he hoped Farage would get a chance to speak to Donald Trump, who is also attending the event run by the World Economic Forum (WEF).

⚽ Afcon final updates, 7pm GMT (8pm in Rabat) kick-off
⚽ Jonathan Wilson on this Afcon | Follow us on Bluesky

1 min Peep peep! Morocco, in their white change strip (don’t ask), kick off from right to left as we watch.

After a spectacular rendition of the Moroccan anthem, it’s time for the main event: the Afcon 2025 final.

Tariff threats over the Arctic island expose the limits of coercive diplomacy. Europe’s united response and pushback shows fear is fading

For all Donald Trump’s bluster about restoring American strength, his attempt to bully European allies over Greenland reveals a deeper weakness: coercive diplomacy only works if people are afraid to resist. Increasingly, they aren’t. And that is a good thing. Bullies often back down when confronted – their power relies on fear. Mr Trump’s threat to impose sweeping tariffs on Europeans unless they acquiesce to his demand to “purchase” Greenland has stripped his trade policy bare. This is not about economic security, unfair trade or protecting American workers. It is about using tariffs as a weapon to force nations to submit.

The response from Europe has been united and swift. That in itself should send a message. France’s Emmanuel Macron says plainly “no amount of intimidation” will alter Europe’s position. Denmark has anchored the issue firmly inside Nato’s collective security. EU leaders have warned that tariff threats risk a dangerous downward spiral. Even Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, seen as ideologically close to Mr Trump, publicly called the tariff threat a “mistake” – adding that she has told him so.

Errors in measuring microplastic pollution can be corrected. Public trust in science also needs to be shored up

It is true that science is self-correcting. Over the long term this means that we can generally trust its results – but up close, correction can be a messy process. The Guardian reported last week that 20 recent studies measuring the amount of micro- and nanoplastics in the human body have been criticised in the scientific literature for methodological issues, calling their results into question. In one sense this is the usual process playing out as it should. However, the scale of the potential error – one scientist estimates that half the high-impact papers in the field are affected – suggests a systemic problem that should have been prevented.

The risk is that in a febrile political atmosphere in which trust in science is being actively eroded on issues from climate change to vaccinations, even minor scientific conflicts can be used to sow further doubt. Given that there is immense public and media interest in plastic pollution, it is unfortunate that scientists working in this area did not show more caution.

Establishment will give training in AI and other skills, more than a decade after David Cameron axed previous school

Ministers will bring in a new “school of government” for senior civil servants to train them in AI and other skills – more than a decade after David Cameron axed the previous college for Whitehall.

Darren Jones, the chief secretary to the prime minister, will announce the new body in a speech on Tuesday setting out the government’s plans to “rewire” the civil service for modern times.

Proposed change relating to spies was criticised by campaigners and MPs as allowing an opt-out for senior officials

The government has pulled an amendment to its proposed Hillsborough law amid concerns from campaigners and MPs that the legislation was being watered down and had become a “car crash” for the government.

The public office (accountability) bill aims to force public officials and contractors to tell the truth after disasters.