Premier League updates from the 8pm GMT kick-off Aubameyang cut from Euro squadWeekend team news And you can contact Rob here with your thoughts “As a Chelsea fan I must admit to slight embarrassment after the last two transfer windows,” says Brendan Large. “Scattergun is a generous summation I would say. But even after all these signings the thing I am most dreaming about is that we can get the big injured players back and keep them fit. “James, Chilwell and Kantè have been missed hugely both by Tuchel and Potter. If those three stay fit and Joao Felix and Mudryk carry on as they have (bare ..read more

Ukraine’s forces prepare for the war’s most intense phase yet; why Ukraine wants F-16 fighter jets See all our Ukraine war coverage Every week we wrap up the must-reads from our coverage of the Ukraine war, from news and features to analysis, visual guides and opinion ..read more

Substantial proportion would be deeply unhappy if he played Others feel duty of care to player not found guilty of any crime Manchester United staff are split over whether Mason Greenwood should be allowed to resume his career at the club, the Guardian has been told. United are weighing up the striker’s future after prosecutors dropped an attempted rape case against him. Although a substantial proportion of the workforce would be deeply unhappy if Greenwood played for the club again, others feel a duty of care toward a player who joined at seven and has not been found guilty of any crime ..read more

Canadian province argues in court it is not responsible for compensating Indigenous people over broken treaty obligations Ontario has claimed that it does not need to pay billions of dollars owed to First Nations over broken treaty obligations, arguing that it has already spent the sum on the historical costs of resource extraction and the infrastructure of “colonization”. Canada’s federal government and the province have spent the last week in a Sudbury court arguing neither is responsible for compensating Indigenous nations for more than 150 years of lost revenues ..read more

A host of LGBTQ+ authors are finding parallels with mermaids, tropical fish and other creatures of the deep as a way to make sense of their own lives “I’ve always had a very strong connection to the sea,” says author Sabrina Imbler, who grew up in California by the Pacific Ocean. “I remember always being like: ‘If I could live anywhere, this is where I would be: I would be a fish in this place.’ I think about queerness in a similar way– as a space of possibility and radical imagination.” It is with this in mind that Imbler’s essay collection, My Life in Sea Creatures, published at the end of l ..read more

Package of 29 older tanks could be sent to help fight Russia as soon as refurbishments done, reports say Russia-Ukraine war – latest news updates Germany has approved the export of older Leopard 1 battle tanks, which would add to the raft of fighting vehicles Berlin promised last week it would send to Ukraine. A spokesperson said on Friday that Olaf Scholz’s government had granted an export licence for the German-made tanks first produced in the 1960s and replaced within Germany’s own military by Leopard 2 tanks in 2003. Further details would be provided in the coming days and weeks, they sa ..read more

Survivors tell Italian authorities vessel carrying about 50 people lost its way trying to cross from Tunisia A baby was among nine people including his mother and a pregnant woman who died of cold and thirst on a boat carrying about 50 migrants across the central Mediterranean, Italian authorities have said. Survivors who landed on the Italian island of Lampedusa after being rescued late on Thursday told investigators the four-month-old baby slipped out of the boat after his mother, who was holding him, collapsed and died from exposure ..read more

Antony Blinken delays trip, as China claims balloon was for ‘meteorological’ purposes and was blown off course Spy balloons: what are they and why are they still being used? The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has postponed a planned visit to China this weekend after the intrusion of a high-altitude Chinese balloon into US airspace. China had apologised for the incident, claiming it had been a weather balloon which had been blown off course, but US officials made clear they did not believe that explanation and the Pentagon restated its assessment it was a surveillance aircraft, adding ..read more

Striker makes way so three big January signings included New defender Benoît Badiashile also fails to make list Pierre-Emerick Aubemayang’s future has been placed into further doubt after the striker suffered the humiliation of being omitted from Chelsea’s 25-man Champions League squad. Graham Potter was left with a tricky balancing act after the club brought in eight players during the January transfer window. Chelsea were able to register only three signings for the knockout stages of the Champions League – they have included Enzo Fernández, João Félix and Mykhailo Mudryk – and needed to m ..read more

Exclusive: Civil servant who gave anonymous interview to BBC about Afghan withdrawal says service ‘dangerously politicised’ A whistleblower who revealed Britain’s chaotic response to the fall of Kabul has said the civil service has become so dangerously politicised that officials who speak out risk being sidelined or sacked. In an exclusive interview with the Guardian, Josie Stewart said her former colleagues felt their role was to protect ministers, some of whom were only interested in “looking good”, rather than working in the interests of the public ..read more