NBA trade deadline: the Knicks get stronger and everyone loses in the Giannis sweepstakes

After weeks of breakup talk, the Bucks and their superstar stayed together. The Knicks and Timberwolves, meanwhile, made smart additions

It’s hard to match the absolute insanity that was the 2024-25 NBA trade deadline, and to the majority of the league’s credit, teams didn’t really try. But there was still some notable movement ahead of Thursday’s 3pm EST deadline – to varying degrees of success. Let’s do the early assessment of who came out on top, and who left us scratching our heads.

Published: February 6, 2026, 2:31 pm

The factors that will decide the Super Bowl: a brilliant receiver, pass protection and explosive plays

The Seahawks and Patriots are the last teams standing this season. The championship is likely to be decided by the smallest margins

The Seattle Seahawks’ run game came alive during the second half of the season and postseason. But it’s still the passing game that makes the offense sing. Almost all of that flows through Smith-Njigba.

Published: February 6, 2026, 11:00 am

Quad God and the Blade Angels: is the new USA Dream Team a group of figure skaters?

The US enter the team event as hot favorites: powered by world champions, rising stars and a generation determined to push figure skating beyond its traditional audience

On Friday morning inside the Milano Ice Skating Arena, the United States will launch their defense of the Olympic figure skating team title carrying something rare in a sport usually defined by individual brilliance: overwhelming depth. Which raises a question that, until recently, would have sounded almost absurd in figure skating.

Is the new USA Dream Team a group of figure skaters?

Published: February 6, 2026, 8:15 am

The race to be the USMNT’s top striker is – once again – an open competition

The window to impress on Mauricio Pochettino is waning, and the pressure is on for the No 9s on the bubble

In past points of his managerial career, Mauricio Pochettino could upgrade his squad via the transfer market. When Tottenham sold striker Roberto Soldado in 2015, his replacement came two weeks later: Son Heung-min. It’s a facet of the job completely absent in his role with the US national team, though he’d be forgiven for wishing a similar market was available ahead of this summer’s World Cup.

With provisional World Cup squads due 11 May and Pochettino wanting to avoid a “cruel” scenario of bringing players over for the final friendlies in May and June only to leave them off of his tournament squad, the window for hopefuls to make an impression is nearly closed. There are positional battles across the pitch; there’s no ironclad starting goalkeeper, a likely opening (or two) at center back beside Chris Richards, and multiple midfield places.

Published: February 6, 2026, 10:00 am

USA’s downhill threat Breezy Johnson has learned to live with doubt and fear

While much of the attention has been placed on Lindsey Vonn in the run-up to the Winter Olympics, her teammate has an extraordinary story of her own

In December 2024, Breezy Johnson glided into the starting gate on the Stifel Birds of Prey downhill course atop Colorado’s Beaver Creek, a sight for sore eyes and a bundle of nerves. “The anxiety will always be there until I’m in the downhill gate,” the 30-year-old said at Team USA’s pre-Olympics media summit in October. “Like, at no point can [I tell myself], I’ve got this thing.”

Out of World Cup action for 14 months after whereabouts failures, she dropped on to Birds of Prey as bib No 32 in the 45-racer field – all women for the first time in the history of the legendary venue. With a few bends of her reconstructed knees, she snapped through the timing wand, charged through the Abyss (one of Birds of Prey’s steepest pitches) and kept carving her way through the 1.7-mile (2.7km) drop’s icy chop. Altogether, it was a solid run for Johnson, a 13th-place finish on home snow to restart her World Cup scoring streak. And just like that, America’s would-be standard bearer of the slopes was at it again.

Published: February 6, 2026, 8:00 pm

Winter Olympics 2026: opening ceremony at Milan’s San Siro and beyond – live

• Milano Cortina Games to be opened on Friday evening
• Schedule | Results | Medal table | Briefing | Email Tanya

Lindsey Vonn inspected the Olympic downhill course with other racers early this morning as she prepared to take part in the opening training session despite tearing the ACL in her left knee a week ago.

The 41-year-old Vonn is planning to compete at the Milan Cortina Games with a large brace covering her injured knee.

Published: February 6, 2026, 9:59 pm

Lindsey Vonn, skiing with ruptured ACL, takes crucial step in downhill medal bid

• US star clocks successful practice run a week after injury

• Olympic medal race is set for Sunday at Cortina

Lindsey Vonn moved a step closer to one of the most improbable Olympic starts in Alpine skiing history on Friday, producing an aggressive and largely clean downhill training run on the Olimpia delle Tofane course less than a week after fully rupturing the ACL in her left knee and being airlifted off a mountain in Switzerland.

The 41-year-old American clocked 1min 40.33sec in a fog-delayed session, but the time itself was secondary to what the run represented: proof that she can still attack a course at speed – and survive it – as she targets Sunday’s medal race.

Published: February 6, 2026, 2:50 pm

Winter Olympics Team GB skier targets ICE with graphic message written in snow

• Gus Kenworthy says ‘enough is enough’ over ICE in US

• ICE agents are in Milan with US vice-president JD Vance

Team GB skier Gus Kenworthy has launched a blistering attack on US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers by urinating the words “Fuck Ice” on the snow just before the start of the Winter Olympics.

In a post on Instagram the 34-year-old, who will compete for Team GB in the free-ski half-pipe in Milano Cortina, also urged Americans to write to their senators to “rein in” ICE and border patrol.

Published: February 6, 2026, 2:30 pm

House of ice on a warming planet: Italy’s turn for the Olympics winter mirage

There will be twists, flips and turns to savour in a Games whose financial and environmental costs nonetheless continue to spiral out of control

Pierre de Coubertin never wanted a Winter Olympics. He spent the best part of two decades lobbying, politicking and organising before he finally got the first summer Games up and running in Athens in 1896. Its winter sibling though, well, “the great inferiority of these snow sports …” De Coubertin once wrote, “is that they are completely useless, with no useful application whatsoever.” He allowed ice skating and ice hockey, the two stadium sports, to be part of the roster for the early summer Games, but it was another two decades before he was persuaded to hold a separate winter event.

That was in 1924, in Chamonix. The 100th anniversary fell midway between the last winter Games in Beijing and this one in Milano Cortina. It’s an interesting event to look back on. It was described at the time as a 10-day “winter sports week”, an “appendage” De Coubertin called it, to that year’s summer Games in Paris. There were 16 countries competing in five sports, with four more, including “military patrol”, added as demonstration events. It was only later, after the International Olympic Committee had become more interested in burnishing its own history, that this knockabout event was officially designated as the very first Winter Olympic Games.

Published: February 6, 2026, 3:04 pm

‘An experience you can’t buy’: Louis Rees-Zammit on his NFL adventure and fresh hope for Wales

Lightning-fast attacker lines up at full-back against England insisting that his gridiron tilt will only help his rugby

The late, great Tom Petty wrote the song that, ultimately, defined Louis Rees-Zammit’s American football adventure. “Runnin’ down a dream, that never would come to me …” Twelve months ago Rees-Zammit was in New Orleans watching the Superbowl and still hoping to carve out a multimillion dollar NFL career. Now here he is, back in a Welsh rugby shirt and eager to make up for lost time.

Sliding doors and all that. This weekend in America all roads lead to this year’s Superbowl in California: the Seattle Seahawks v the New England Patriots . But as Wales’s 25-year-old prodigal son prepares for the contrasting vibes and smells of a sodden Twickenham in February, he insists he still has no regrets about the gridiron flirtation that removed him from Six Nations circulation for two years.

Published: February 6, 2026, 7:00 pm

Chock and Bates power US team to open Olympic figure skating

• Ice dance duo give US early lead in the team event

• Alysa Liu places second in women’s short program

• Vance and Rubio in attendance for opening session

The United States seized early control of the Olympic figure skating team event after Friday’s opening day on the southern outskirts of Milan, powered by a world’s best score this season from Madison Chock and Evan Bates.

The three-time world champions, together on skates since 2011 and married since 2024, set the marker with 91.06 points for their program to music by The Guess Who and Lenny Kravitz, earning the maximum 10 points for an American team entering the Winter Games on a tailwind of hype.
Chock and Bates, nearly unbeatable since finishing fourth in the individual ice dance event at the Beijing Games four years ago, skated with the precision and polish that have defined their rise to the top of the sport.

Published: February 6, 2026, 3:56 pm

Matthew Stafford wins NFL MVP and vows to return to Rams next season

• 37-year-old pips New England’s Drake Maye to award

• Myles Garrett is unanimous Defensive Player of Year

• Jaxon Smith-Njigba wins Offensive Player of Year

Matthew Stafford walked away with the NFL’s Most Valuable Player award and a declaration that he will return to the Los Angeles Rams for another season.

Stafford edged Drake Maye for the MVP award on Thursday night in the closest race since Peyton Manning and Steve McNair were co-winners in 2003.

Stafford received 24 of 50 first-place votes while Maye got 23. But Maye has a chance to go home this week with a Vince Lombardi Trophy: he leads the New England Patriots against the Seattle Seahawks in the Super Bowl on Sunday.

Published: February 6, 2026, 5:24 am

Leeds v Nottingham Forest: Premier League – live

⚽ Premier League updates from the 8pm GMT kick-off
⚽ Table | Follow us on Bluesky | Email Dominic

I’m not sure Peter Oh has high hopes for this evening’s footballing fare judging from this email.

He says: “Given the various endearing nicknames that have garlanded these two clubs, could tonight be the Nasty/Dirty/Tricky derby?”

Published: February 6, 2026, 9:59 pm

Sonia Bompastor agrees Chelsea contract extension with club off WSL title pace

• The head coach’s new deal will run until 2030

• Bompastor says she is ‘delighted to extend my stay’

Sonia Bompastor has agreed a contract extension as Chelsea’s head coach until 2030 as the club issue a strong signal of trust and confidence in the Frenchwoman.

Bompastor has been in charge at Chelsea since the summer of 2024, when she succeeded Emma Hayes on a deal to 2028. The 45-year-old completed a domestic season unbeaten during her first year and won a treble, as well as reaching the Women’s Champions League semi-finals.

Published: February 6, 2026, 7:47 pm

Premier League news: Guardiola refuses to be silenced; Arteta apologises to Rosenior

News from Friday’s pre-match press conferences, including Arsenal, Newcastle, Aston Villa and Bournemouth

Published: February 6, 2026, 3:39 pm

Three years on: what is the latest with Premier League charges against Manchester City? | Paul MacInnes

In February 2023 more than 100 charges were laid against the serial champions but we are still waiting for the verdict

Exactly three years ago, 10 paragraphs on the Premier League website set the cat among the pigeons. Under the nondescript heading “Premier League statement”, football’s richest and most popular domestic competition announced unprecedented disciplinary charges against Manchester City, champions of the two previous seasons (and the two to come). We are still waiting for the outcome.

The estimated 134 charges covered years of alleged wrongdoing but broke down into a couple of key chunks: accusations that City had failed to provide “accurate financial information” to the league and to properly “cooperate … and assist” with the subsequent investigation. Precious little new information has followed.

Published: February 6, 2026, 10:28 am

Premier League team news: predicted lineups for the weekend action

Manchester United face Tottenham on Saturday while Liverpool host Manchester City at Anfield on Sunday

Saturday 12.30pm TNT Sports 1 Venue Old Trafford

Published: February 6, 2026, 5:30 pm

‘I enjoy the Championship’: Burnley fans stay positive as relegation looms

Clarets host must-win game with West Ham on Saturday but face a third demotion in three Premier League seasons

“I still enjoy the day out, I just don’t let the results affect me any more,” says the Burnley season-ticket holder Mark Bentley. Fifteen games without a Premier League win and 11 points adrift of safety, the Clarets are facing relegation the season after promotion for a second time in two years. Sparring with the best should bring glorious enjoyment at Turf Moor but instead they have three victories from 24 games, beating the two other promoted sides and rock-bottom Wolves, with survival chances looking worse than slim.

Relegation rivals West Ham visit on Saturday, and another defeat would remove any faint hope that Burnley could turn it around and leave their record over recent seasons reading: down, up, down, up, down. Beating Sunderland in their first home game brought optimism after a summer where money was spent, notably bringing in the 96-cap Kyle Walker after eight years of success at Manchester City, but that feelgood factor has dwindled.

Published: February 6, 2026, 12:19 pm

Settled Xavi Simons finds his groove at Spurs after time spent in the shadows

Dutch midfielder has rubbed shoulders with Messi, Neymar and Mbappé but is now making his own name

For Xavi Simons, it felt like a point of no return. He and his Tottenham teammates had nothing more to lose. The FA Cup tie at home to Aston Villa on 10 January was going badly. Played off the park by Unai Emery’s team, they were booed off by their own fans at half-time. They were losing 2-0.

Simons takes it personally when things are not going well and that had been the case, pretty much, since his £51.8m move from RB Leipzig last August. The 22-year-old knows his levels. These were not them.

Published: February 6, 2026, 12:06 pm

Premier League: 10 things to look out for this weekend

Arsenal need energy from home crowd, Florian Wirtz has found his groove and Liam Rosenior deserves respect

Daniel Farke is understood to have wanted a new goalkeeper during the January transfer window but the Leeds board failed to oblige. Might that decision ultimately cost the club their Premier League status? It will be interesting to see whether Farke recalls the recently dropped former Lyon goalkeeper, Lucas Perri, or keeps faith with Karl Darlow against Nottingham Forest at Elland Road on Friday night. Darlow, formerly second choice at Newcastle, struggled with crosses when Arsenal won 4-0 in West Yorkshire last Saturday and may approach a quintessential relegation six-pointer against Forest with dented confidence. What about Illan Meslier? Previously a star under Marcelo Bielsa, a keeper once hyped as France’s future No 1 has been demoted to third choice and has been discussing a potential move to Besiktas before Friday’s transfer deadline in Turkey. Talks only began after Leeds rejected a bid for Perri from Besiktas last week. Time will tell if that was that the right decision. Louise Taylor

Published: February 6, 2026, 12:01 am

Football Daily | Villa, Al-Nassr, Fenerbahce, Zenit: does Jhon Durán have football’s itchiest feet?

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Despite Aston Villa’s twin-engine strike force being linked with moves elsewhere just over a year ago, Unai Emery was dreaming of a dynasty. “Hopefully we can be together with Ollie Watkins and Jhon Durán for 10 years,” he told reporters with the optimistic tone of a man who hadn’t yet checked the young Colombian’s WhatsApp status. “Maybe 12 years, maybe 15!” Despite interest at the time from Arsenal, Watkins remains at Villa but his considerably younger former teammate has just forced a move to his third club in three different time zones since leaving Birmingham. Of course, it’s no secret that he has form in the itchy feet department, as Villa fans who remember his ill-advised crossed-arms ‘Irons’ pose on a live Social Media Disgrace feed before a move to West Ham that never materialised will attest.

Football Daily gave me a great idea (imagine that!) in yesterday’s Quote of the Day. In every article and letter that you publish, let’s declare the main participant’s age, as of James Milner’s top-flight debut in 2002. I feel like I could learn a lot about Noble Francis and the other regulars like this” – Mike Wilner (Milner +36).

I was at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco last weekend for the Manet & Morisot exhibition when I saw a fellow museum-goer wearing a Manchester City scarf, but looking distinguished otherwise. I was tempted to ask him what he was doing there because the Monet exhibition isn’t until next month” – Peter Oh.

From ‘Leicester is like my son, so I have to do it right’ to ‘Leicester in relegation danger after six-point deduction for financial rules breach’. Well, ‘a week is a long time in politics football’, as former UK prime minister Harold Wilson would have said, if he were still alive and interested in East Midlands-based football (which he wasn’t, he was a Huddersfield fan)” – Noble Francis.

This is an extract from our daily football email … Football Daily. To get the full version, just visit this page and follow the instructions.

Published: February 6, 2026, 4:32 pm

Emma Raducanu into first final since 2021 US Open at Transylvania Open

• Briton beats Oleksandra Oliynykova in three tough sets

• British No 4 Katie Boulter also makes final in Ostrava

Emma Raducanu has reached her first final since the 2021 US Open. The ­British No 1 beat Oleksandra ­Oliynykova 7-5, 3-6, 6-3 in a tough semi-final to take her place in Saturday’s Transylvania Open final in Cluj.

She now has a shot at winning her first title since her incredible success at Flushing Meadows in 2021 when she announced herself as a real force on the WTA Tour.

Published: February 6, 2026, 7:40 pm

Oxlade-Chamberlain set to join Celtic, Slot praises Wirtz, Milner eyes record – as it happened

Our writers had the latest news on a day when Mikel Arteta apologised, Pep Guardiola vowed to keep speaking out and Ian Holloway admitted watching The Terminator gave him a fear of computers

Quiz of the week: I guessed my way to a rather decent 12/16.

Virgil van Dijk has hit out at ex-pro pundits in an interview with, er, Gary Neville, ahead of Sky’s broadcast of Liverpool v Manchester City.

For me personally, I can deal with it, but I’m a bit worried for the next generation. I feel like the ex-top players have a responsibility to the new generation. Criticism is absolutely normal and part of the game, and I think it should stay that way. But sometimes criticism also goes into being clickbait, saying things to provoke things, and without thinking about the repercussions for a mental side of players, and especially the younger generation, who are constantly on social media.

Published: February 6, 2026, 4:58 pm

England suffer big Six Nations blow with Feyi-Waboso ruled out of Wales clash

• Key player suffered hamstring injury in training

• Tom Roebuck makes surprise return as replacement

England have suffered a major setback on the eve of their Six Nations opener against Wales on Saturday with Immanuel Feyi-Waboso ruled out with a hamstring injury, prompting a surprise recall for Tom Roebuck.

Roebuck is the beneficiary of Feyi-Waboso’s injury, called into the side to make a first appearance since picking up a toe injury in England’s November victory over the All Blacks. England are still investigating the extent of Feyi-Waboso’s knock – sustained in training on Thursday – and it remains to be seen if he will feature at all in the Six Nations.

Published: February 6, 2026, 12:42 pm

ICC braced for major financial hit if Pakistan v India World T20 game off

• Intensive negotiations going on behind scenes

• Game could be worth up to £367m in media rights

The Pakistan v India T20 World Cup fixture remains in doubt on the eve of the tournament with International Cricket Council sources telling the Guardian they expect the dispute to go down to the wire before their scheduled meeting in Colombo next weekend.

Intensive negotiations are continuing behind the scenes after the Pakistan government triggered a crisis last weekend by announcing their national team would not take the field against India on 15 February – a boycott that could cost the ICC a huge rebate in a fixture worth around $500m (£367m) in media rights.

Published: February 6, 2026, 12:31 pm

Farrell to carry out review after Ireland humbled by France in Six Nations

• Head coach insists Ireland can close gap on top sides

• Champions France triumphed 36-14 in Paris

Andy Farrell is confident Ireland can keep pace with Test rugby’s leading sides as he prepares to conduct a frank post-mortem into a resounding 36-14 Six Nations loss to reigning champions France.

Farrell’s side were outclassed during Thursday evening’s one-sided tournament opener in Paris on the back of comprehensive autumn defeats by New Zealand and world champions South Africa. Ireland, who are hindered by a substantial injury list amid a period of transition, also suffered an emphatic 42-27 loss to Les Bleus last year in Dublin en route to surrendering the championship title.

Published: February 6, 2026, 10:47 am

Austin Butler to play Lance Armstrong in big-screen biopic

Project, following disgraced cyclist, reportedly sparked bidding war, with Conclave’s Edward Berger set to direct

The Oscar-nominated actor Austin Butler is scheduled to take on the role of the disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong in a buzzy new biopic.

According to Deadline, the package has caused a “frenzied” bidding war in Hollywood with the Conclave director Edward Berger at the helm and King Richard’s Zach Baylin set to write the script.

Published: February 6, 2026, 8:39 pm

‘We stole the Super Bowl audience’: how In Living Color pulled off the greatest heist in US TV history

Turning Point USA is plotting its own half-time show in defiance of Bad Bunny – but one of TV’s Blackest programs already perfected the alt-cast in 1992

When the NFL announced Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny as this year’s Super Bowl half-time show headliner, it walked right into a culture war. Right-wing critics raged over the musician’s gender-nonconforming style, Spanish-language music and anti-Maga politics. Donald Trump, after saying he had never heard of Bad Bunny, called the headlining choice “absolutely ridiculous”.

In response, Erika Kirk and her Turning Point USA conservative advocacy group turned the controversy into its own counter-programming event: the All-American Halftime Show. After its Nashville-heavy lineup, led by Kid Rock, was announced on Monday, vice-president JD Vance was first among conservatives to enthusiastically spread the word.

Published: February 6, 2026, 1:00 pm

Despite assurances, residents and officials prepare for possible ICE operations during Super Bowl

In Santa Clara, California, where nearly half of residents were born outside the US, fear builds as game approaches

This weekend, tens of thousands of people will make their way to the Bay Area city of Santa Clara, ready to celebrate a weekend at the Super Bowl.

Beneath the jubilant mood, some residents and officials have been grappling with the possibility of ICE enforcement operations during the game, and taking steps to prepare.

Published: February 6, 2026, 12:00 pm

‘It’s gonna be a huge party’: Bad Bunny set for Super Bowl stage as Trump skips event

Puerto Rican rapper to follow Grammy victory and anti-ICE speech with show on most-watched US TV event of the year

Just a week after receiving the Grammy award for Album of the Year, the Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny will take on the US’s most watched concert of the year when he performs at the Super Bowl this Sunday.

The artist born Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio took home the music academy’s top honor for 2025’s Debí Tirar Más Fotos, a politically minded record infused with Puerto Rican music and culture. The album became the first Spanish-language work to take home the prize, beating out competition from Kendrick Lamar, Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber.

Published: February 6, 2026, 10:04 am