Elena Rybakina blows away Iga Swiatek to reach Australian Open semi-final against Jessica Pegula

Elena Rybakina took a significant step towards her second grand slam title as she overpowered and outplayed the second seed Iga Swiatek in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open, advancing 7-5, 6-1 to end Swiatek’s hopes of completing the career grand slam this year.This immense victory sends Rybakina, the fifth seed and 2023 Australian Open finalist, into her fourth grand slam semi-final. It has been nearly four years since the 26-year-old made her first breakthrough by winning Wimbledon in 2022. Although she has won numerous big titles and established herself as one of the best players in the world, she has as yet failed to drag herself over the line at the grand slams for a second time.However, Rybakina arrived in Melbourne playing some of the best tennis of her career after dismantling the field at the WTA Finals last November

With Burnham blocked, Labour’s attention turns back to Angela Rayner

The political world abhors a vacuum of intrigue and gossip. The scuppering of Andy Burnham’s return to Westminster has therefore brought renewed attention to other potential successors to Keir Starmer. That is in turn likely to involve renewed scrutiny of Angela Rayner.Starmer’s former number two and housing secretary has been quietly loyal since she resigned as a minister nearly five months ago after what she said was the inadvertent underpayment of stamp duty on a flat in Hove.Rayner has resurfaced on occasions to try to nudge policy in areas she views as her legacies, notably by holding ministerial feet to the fire on workers’ rights legislation, and through some lobbying on the just-announced changes to the leasehold system

‘We get a lot of requests for it to be used in sex scenes’: how Goldfrapp made Ooh La La

‘I couldn’t think of a line for the chorus – but we had just been to France. I got Baudelaire into the lyrics somewhere, too’This song was an ode to glam rock. My older sister was really into Marc Bolan and her passion for him and his sound really rubbed off on me. I love the vocal effects and drum sounds on those old records.I couldn’t think of a lyric for the chorus, though, and I thought to myself: “What do I need?” We’d just been to France, hence the “Ooh la la”, but we wondered if it was sufficient

Blurry rats and coyotes with mange: the oddly thrilling subreddit dedicated to identifying wildlife

I spent the first decade of my life in Vancouver Island, Canada, in an area rich with parks, lakes and forests. Deer would occasionally wander into our neighbourhood and nibble on the blossoms in our front yard. In that neck of the (literal) woods, mountains and deer also mean cougars.My sister and I would play at a local park, then walk home along a track parallel to a dense forest. My older sister, being three and a half years ahead of me in life and therefore lightyears ahead of me in wisdom, would helpfully declare that if we encountered a cougar it would attack me, not her, as I’m the smaller prey

Government row breaks out over plan to cut spending for PE in England’s schools

A row between government departments has broken out after the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) proposed cutting all its funding for physical education in schools.The DHSC is now intending to restore the funding despite insisting privately for weeks that it would end its contribution. Ministers are understood to have overruled the cuts, it emerged after the Guardian contacted the department.The Department for Education (DfE) is also planning cuts to PE from its own budget before changes in the next curriculum review. It is hoped that the changes – which will guarantee at least two hours of PE – will involve partnerships with sports bodies that will deliver some efficiencies

Senedd passes budget after Welsh Labour makes deal with Plaid Cymru

Cardiff Bay’s Labour administration has managed to pass the Welsh budget after striking a deal with Plaid Cymru, releasing a real-terms funding increase for all government departments and local authorities before May’s Senedd elections.With 100 days to go before the contest, in which polls suggest the pro-independence Plaid Cymru will end more than 100 years of Labour hegemony in Wales, the government has allocated £27.5bn in spending for 2026-2027, up £1.2bn on the previous fiscal year.As a result of the deal, which the Senedd passed on Tuesday evening after Plaid Cymru agreed to abstain, the health and social care budget has risen by £180m, or 3