England due to play in South Africa in January 2027ODI and T20 dates clash with SA20 tournamentEngland’s two white-ball series in South Africa next year are in doubt amid the latest scheduling clash that pits franchise cricket against the international game.As it stands, England’s men are due to play three Tests, three one-day internationals and three Twenty20s in South Africa next winter. The white-ball leg of this rare “full tour” to the country represents an important scouting mission for the World Cup that South Africa are co-hosting in late 2027. Continue reading...

11 Feb 2026 12:54 ✍️ RSS THE GUARDIAN

Judges’ verdict on embezzlement challenge will determine whether far-right leader can stand in 2027 electionDefence lawyers for Marine Le Pen have told a Paris appeals court she did not orchestrate a system to misuse European parliament funds, at the close of an embezzlement trial that will determine whether the far-right leader can run in the 2027 French presidential election.Le Pen’s lawyer, Sandra Chirac Kollarik, told the court on Wednesday: “At no moment did Marine Le Pen imagine that she broke the rules.” She added: “Never in her life would she have deliberately accepted making a false contract.” Continue reading...

11 Feb 2026 16:41 ✍️ RSS THE GUARDIAN

Head of Crown Prosecution Service for England and Wales says he is working with Thames Valley and Met forces Prosecutors are “in close contact” with police over investigations into Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Peter Mandelson’s links with Jeffrey Epstein, England and Wales’s most senior criminal prosecutor has said.Thames Valley police has said it is reviewing allegations that the child sex offender Epstein provided Mountbatten-Windsor with a woman to have sex with at Royal Lodge in 2010, as well as that the former prince shared confidential reports from his role as a government trade envoy with the disgraced financier. Continue reading...

11 Feb 2026 17:01 ✍️ RSS THE GUARDIAN

The archdiocese agreed to pay 600 abuse survivors a $305m settlement before the Vatican confirmed Aymond’s exitPope Leo XIV accepted the resignation of the Roman Catholic archbishop of New Orleans, Gregory Aymond, on Wednesday – one day after the archbishop concluded a series of meetings with survivors of a clergy molestation scandal that has embroiled the city’s church leadership for years.Aymond had submitted his resignation to global Catholic church leaders at the Vatican, as he was required when he turned 75 in November 2024. But the Vatican didn’t immediately accept it, plotting for Aymond to remain in position until the New Orleans archdiocese settled a federal bankruptcy protection case that it filed in the spring of 2020 amid the continuing fallout of the decades-old worldwide clerical abuse crisis. Continue reading...

11 Feb 2026 14:32 ✍️ RSS THE GUARDIAN

Jewish activists interrupt speech at synagogue and accuse party of paving way for persecution of other minoritiesJewish activists have heckled Nigel Farage at the launch of a Jewish members’ organisation for Reform UK and accused the party of planning to use the new group as cover for persecuting other minorities.Farage spoke at the inaugural event on Tuesday night of the Reform Jewish Alliance (RJA), which he said would help the party target up to 15 parliamentary seats. Continue reading...

11 Feb 2026 15:11 ✍️ RSS THE GUARDIAN

Kwok Yin-sang arrested after he tried to end pro-democracy daughter’s insurance policy and withdraw fundsA Hong Kong court has found the father of a wanted activist guilty of a national security violation, after he tried to end her insurance policy and withdraw the funds, drawing international criticism for the targeting of relatives of pro-democracy campaigners.Kwok Yin-sang, 68, is the first person to be charged under a homegrown national security law, also known as Article 23, for “attempting to deal with, directly or indirectly, any funds or other financial assets or economic resources” belonging to an absconder. Continue reading...

11 Feb 2026 15:02 ✍️ RSS THE GUARDIAN

Emissions have plunged 75% since communist times in the birthplace of big oil – but for some the transition has been brutal Once the frozen fields outside Bucharest have thawed, workers will assemble the largest solar farm in Europe: one million photovoltaic panels backed by batteries to power homes after sunset. But the 760MW project in southern Romania will not hold the title for long. In the north-west, authorities have approved a bigger plant that will boast a capacity of 1GW.The sun-lit plots of silicon and glass will join a slew of projects that have rendered the Romanian economy unrecognisable from its polluted state when communism ended. They include an onshore windfarm near the Black Sea that for several years was Europe’s biggest, a nuclear power plant by the Danube whose lifetime is being extended by 30 years, and a fast-spreading patchwork of solar panels topping homes and shops across the country. Continue reading...

11 Feb 2026 06:00 ✍️ RSS THE GUARDIAN