From accessible urban strolls to multi-day treks through world heritage-listed sites, walkers are spoiled for choice

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There has never been a better time to be a hiker in Australia. Once solely the province of experienced backcountry bushwalkers, the country’s ever-expanding network of hiking trails now offers something for walkers of all abilities.

According to Ausplay, almost 4 million Australians go bushwalking each year, making it the third-most popular form of physical activity in the country, and in 2025 the AllTrails app saw an almost 300% year-on-year increase in distance walked by Australian users. The largest growth has been in long-distance hikes, and it’s no surprise the boom in trail construction is continuing across the country, with multiple big-ticket walks slated to break ground this year.

• Pakistan 198-5; Australia 108 (15.4 overs) | Pakistan win by 90 runs

• Australia lose series with 11 days to go before T20 World Cup begins

World Cup-bound Australia have been given a hiding in Lahore, bamboozled by Pakistan’s spinners as they crumbled to a 90-run defeat and a T20I series capitulation.

Just hours after their squad for the World Cup in India and Sri Lanka was announced, Mitch Marsh’s side, featuring nine World Cup players and looking desperately in need of their absent big guns, simply could not cope with the hosts’ five-pronged spin attack on Saturday.

US president says Iran ‘negotiating’ as US naval battle group approaches, and says regional allies cannot be told plan

Donald Trump has said Iran is “talking to” the US and hinted at a deal to avoid the use of military strikes.

“[Iran is] talking to us, and we’ll see if we can do something, otherwise we’ll see what happens … We have a big fleet heading out there,” he told Fox News. “They are negotiating.”

You could say Hugo Ekitiké was the one who got away from Newcastle last summer, except there were so many. But with a certain inevitability and a devastating, gamechanging performance, the Liverpool striker haunted Eddie Howe and the club who coveted him all the same.

Pain came in various forms for Newcastle. Superior for 40 minutes and deservedly ahead through Anthony Gordon, the visitors trailed at the interval thanks to a quick-fire brace from the player they tried to sign from Eintracht Frankfurt. Liverpool swept in for Ekitiké instead and their initial £69m outlay, rising to £79m, is proving money very well spent.

One person taken into custody after a mass shooting in Clinton leaves six injured, including a child

Six people – including a child – were shot during a carnival parade in Louisiana on Saturday, leading authorities to take one person into custody, according to multiple reports.

The mass shooting occurred near a courthouse in Clinton, Louisiana, during the town’s “Mardi Gras in the Country” event, local news outlet WBRZ reported. The local sheriff told the local news outlet that the parade was immediately shut down.

• Tisch denies visiting Epstein island after file release

• Giants co-owner says he regrets ties with Epstein

• US justice department files name Tisch over times

New York Giants co-owner Steve Tisch said he knew Jeffrey Epstein but denied going to his island after his name was mentioned more than 400 times in files released Friday by the US justice department.

“We had a brief association where we exchanged emails about adult women, and in addition, we discussed movies, philanthropy and investments,” Tisch said in a statement provided by the NFL team. “I did not take him up on any of his invitations and never went to his island. As we all know now, he was a terrible person and someone I deeply regret associating with.”

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, who was stripped of his royal titles last year, features heavily in the latest tranche of the Epstein files

Keir Starmer has said Andrew Mounbatten-Windsor should testify before the US Congress about his links to the late child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The prime minister, who is in Japan for a meeting with its premier, Sanae Takaichi, was asked by journalists if the former prince should apologise to the disgraced financier’s victims and give evidence about what he knew about his crimes.

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The race for the golden boot

It feels very strange to scan this page and not see the letters S-A-L-A-H. For a variety of reasons he’s scored only four league goals in 2025-26; his lowest total at in a full season at Liverpool is 18.

There are times when trying to make sense of Chelsea is a futile task. Lurching between extremes is their speciality. They were shambolic against struggling West Ham for 45 minutes, had Stamford Bridge ready to turn on Liam Rosenior at half-time and still found a way to mount a comeback so wild it left their opponents in a state of utter, uncontrollable rage at the end of an incomprehensible London derby.

Where to begin? With the end, perhaps, and Enzo Fernández running on to a cutback from João Pedro to make it 3-2 to Chelsea in the 92nd minute. It was some turnaround. João Pedro had made the difference after coming on at the start of the second half. The forward scored Chelsea’s first, heading home just before the hour, and was cool when he broke into the West Ham area when the game ran into added time. João Pedro had options. He could have shot and he could have crossed. Instead he threw West Ham by pulling the ball back to Fernández, who is beginning to resemble Frank Lampard with his knack of deciding games with late unnoticed runs from midfield.

An estimated 80% of the population will suffer from lower back pain at some point. The good news is that preventing it is a lot easier than treating it

• Read more in The way you move series

Getting out of bed. Picking up a coffee mug. Waving at a friend. Bending down to pat a dog. Turning to flush the toilet.

Many who have experienced “doing their back in” have been baffled by the discrepancy between the mildness of the precipitating action and the severity of the resulting pain. How could such a small, innocent movement trigger such paralysing pain that lasts for weeks, months, years or, in some cases, decades?

The 19-year-old says touring England in 2027 is a dream but as the hype around him builds the classy batter is keeping his feet on the ground

After five-year-old Ollie Peake had gone to bed in his family home in Geelong, his mother, Sarah, entered his bedroom to check on him. He was fast asleep in his cricket gear. She removed his helmet and gloves before tucking him in for the night.

The next morning she asked her son why he was sleeping in his kit.

When Dion Padan met Ben Graetz and his drag queen persona, there was an undeniable energy. A weekend away deepened their connection

• Find more stories from the moment I knew series

In 2015, I moved to Sydney from north Wales in the UK. Sydney had always been my dream destination, but then the Australian immigration rules changed, meaning that to get permanent residency with my skillset as a barber, I’d have to move to Tasmania or the Northern Territory. I decided on Darwin because I feared the weather in Tasmania was too much like British weather. So in 2018, I packed my bags and moved to Darwin without knowing anything about the city.

Ben and I first chatted on Grindr and he was very welcoming, offering to show me around town. He was also very interested in my story – how did this Welsh boy end up living here? He asked if I was going to Darwin Pride.

Federal immigration operation has resulted in government agents killing two people, sparking weeks of protests

A federal judge has denied a request by Minnesota’s state government to end the federal immigration operation in Minneapolis that has resulted in government agents killing two people, sparking weeks of protests.

The state, along with the cities of Minneapolis and St Paul, had lodged a lawsuit after the death of Renee Good, who was shot and killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent this month, demanding an end to the Trump administration’s Operation Metro Surge in the city.

US president reportedly eyes plot near Memorial Bridge for a large-scale structure named the Independence Arch

Donald Trump reportedly wants the arch he is planning to build in Washington DC to dwarf the Lincoln Memorial.

The US president envision the planned arch to be a height of 250ft, or significantly taller than the 100ft-tall Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Post reported on Saturday. It would also be significantly taller than Paris’s 164ft-tall Arc de Triomphe – but less than half the height than the Gateway Arch in St Louis, Missouri, the world’s tallest arch.

It would be a touch too hyperbolic to suggest this was a season-defining afternoon for Arsenal’s title ambitions, but given the opposition and the pre-match drama surrounding this game, there was no doubting that come full time this was a significant one in the Premier League title picture.

Two points from three games is hardly compelling enough evidence to prompt full-blown crisis talks, but given the lofty standards Arsenal have set in the first half of this season, we would learn plenty about them here. This against a team who have lost once since the start of December and with a ferocious home crowd behind them.

Two clubs in the process of a reset. While Wolves’ fate is all but sealed, they seek to carry good vibes into the Championship. Bournemouth’s objective was to make last Saturday’s defeat of Liverpool the staging post for one of those streaks of good results that have made Andoni Iraola’s reputation.

Mission accomplished for the Cherries, who could celebrate their second away win of a troubled season, a first since August. In the performance of the debutant Rayan, a second-half sub, who supplied Alex Scott’s late clincher, there is much to look forward to.

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Brighton 1-1 Everton

Leeds 0-4 Arsenal

Wolves 0-2 Bournemouth

• Former team principal was dismissed last September

• ‘I feel like I have unfinished business in Formula One’
  

Christian Horner said he misses Formula One and has unfinished business in the sport as he spoke publicly for the first time since he was ousted by Red Bull but is prepared to wait for an opportunity to “win something”, adding: “I am not in a rush.”

The 52-year-old was dismissed as Red Bull team principal following July’s British Grand Prix before his official exit was agreed in September. He oversaw a period of extraordinary success during his 20-year career with Red Bull, winning eight drivers’ and six constructors’ titles.

Federal prosecutors had identified 6 million files that were ‘potentially responsive’ to the law, but only released 3.5. Why?

The justice department released a trove of 3.5m files related to the dead financier and pedophile sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein on Friday, with deputy attorney general Todd Blanche declaring that the release would likely be the last major declassification of files relating to Epstein. Federal prosecutors had identified 6 million files that were “potentially responsive” to the law, meaning that there are millions of files that have still not been released.

The release marked a belated and partial compliance with a bill passed by Congress late last year, which had mandated that all government documents pertaining to Epstein and the various law enforcement investigations into his sexual abuse of girls be made public by 19 December 2025.

The veteran activist called his arrest at Palestine solidarity rally in London an ‘attack on free speech’

Peter Tatchell, the activist and campaigner, has been arrested for holding a placard which displayed the phrase “globalise the intifada” at a pro-Palestine march in London.

Tatchell, who attended a Palestine solidarity march in London on Saturday afternoon, held a sign that read: “Globalise the intifada: Non-violent resistance. End Israel’s occupation of Gaza & West Bank.”

Honduras is one of the most dangerous countries for environmentalists – and the release of Juan Orlando Hernández has reinforced its ‘crisis of impunity’, say critics

When Donald Trump announced that he would pardon the former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández, only the second world leader to be convicted of drug trafficking, Anna*, an environmental defender, was shocked.

In 2022, Hernández, also known as JOH, was extradited to the US and later convicted, along with his brother, on drug trafficking and weapons charges. He was sentenced to 45 years in prison for conspiring to smuggle more than 400 tonnes of cocaine into the US, becoming the first Honduran head of state to be tried and sentenced abroad for running a narco state. He was also accused of grave human rights violations.

• Apollonio-Socrepes lift unfinished a week from Games

• State-backed infrastructure agency says work on course

A cable car being built to carry spectators to the women’s Olympic Alpine skiing events in Cortina is in serious doubt of not being completed in time, prompting Games organisers to request school closures to ease the pressure on the Dolomite resort’s transport system.

The Apollonio-Socrepes lift is one of the most contentious pieces of Olympic infrastructure for the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics. Work on the system, designed to take spectators from the centre of Cortina d’Ampezzo directly to the slopes, began behind schedule, and some residents raised safety concerns about its location in an area prone to landslides.

Canadian prime minister Mark Carney and Schitt’s Creek co-creator Dan Levy lead tributes to award winning actor

• Catherine O’Hara, actor known for Home Alone and Schitt’s Creek, dies aged 71

Tributes have poured in from the world of showbiz and politics for Catherine O’Hara, with the Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney, and Schitt’s Creek’s co-creator Dan Levy mourning the loss of a “legend” after the actor died at the age of 71.

O’Hara, who won an Emmy and a Golden Globe for her role in the TV comedy series, died on Friday at her home in Los Angeles after a brief illness, according to her agency, CAA.

• Champion plays down significance of trophy for coach

• Aryna Sabalenka frustrated after latest major final loss

Elena Rybakina never stopped believing she would collect a second grand slam title after holding her nerve to defeat Aryna Sabalenka, the world No 1 and two-time champion, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 and win the Australian Open.

Rybakina, the fifth seed, arrived here as the in-form player after her triumph at the WTA Finals last November. It is her second major title after her win at Wimbledon in 2022.