• Australia 198-7; England 141 all out
• Hosts retain urn for fourth series in row

Australia have retained the Women’s Ashes after winning the first T20 at the Sydney Cricket Ground by 57 runs, taking an unassailable 8-0 lead on points.

It means England’s failure to win back the Ashes at the earliest opportunity came despite Australia being rocked by the injury of captain Alyssa Healy, who was ruled unfit to play just hours before the first T20, due to a recurrence of the foot injury she sustained during the World Cup.

More details soon …

Rudakubana, 18, pleads guilty to murders of Alice da Silva Aguiar, Bebe King and Elsie Dot Stancombe and 10 charges of attempted murder

Axel Rudakubana has pleaded guilty to murdering three young girls and attempting to murder 10 others at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class, in what was the worst targeted attack on children in Britain since the Dunblane massacre.

Rudakubana, who was 17 at the time of the stabbings in Southport this summer, also pleaded guilty to possessing terrorist material and producing the toxin ricin.

Court in Murcia region says woman should get 32 weeks of leave – the amount given to a couple – rather than 16 weeks

A court in Spain has ruled that a single mother is entitled to the parental leave that would have been due her partner – if she had one – on the grounds that all babies should be treated the same, regardless of the composition of their families.

The woman, a part-time worker known by the initials SPM, gave birth to a daughter in the south-eastern region of Murcia in January 2022. SPM requested additional parental leave, arguing that her daughter was entitled to the same amount of parental care as any other newborn. After her request was turned down by social services and the courts, she appealed to the regional high court.

Advocates warn that Trump’s promised deportations will flood Mexico with migrants and spur organized crime

It is cold and quiet in Casa del Migrante, a shelter in Ciudad Juárez, on the US-Mexico border. A group of men play dominoes, another shoots hoops alone, and a young couple watch their kids play with superhero toys.

“Some people get here and don’t want to go back outside,” said Ivonne López, a social worker. “They’re afraid.”

Judge rejects death penalty for Sanjay Roy as victim’s parents suspect more were involved in killing, which sparked strikes

An Indian police volunteer has been sentenced to life in prison for the rape and murder of a junior doctor at the hospital where she worked in Kolkata, a crime that sparked nationwide protests and widespread hospital strikes last year.

The court rejected demands for the death penalty, saying it was not a “rarest-of-rare” crime.

Exclusive: William Blake-inspired watercolour to feature alongside new paintings in artist’s biggest exhibition

A previously unseen painting by David Hockney has been revealed for the first time ahead of its unveiling in the biggest exhibition to be devoted to one of Britain’s foremost living artists.

Titled After Blake: Less is Known than People Think, the work will be among hundreds of previously unknown Hockneys that are to be displayed alongside his famous masterpieces at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris from April.

High court in London to hear that 26 will support allegations of serious misconduct against him

Thirty-two people are set to give evidence in support of the Guardian’s defence of legal action brought against it by the actor and producer Noel Clarke.

The details are due to be set out on Monday at the high court in London in a pre-trial review hearing ahead of a defamation and data protection trial, which is scheduled to start at the beginning of March.

When a demobbed British marine goes after his daughter’s killers, his old comrades pile in to beef up the relentless gunfights

This is a boorish, blokey film, the cinematic equivalent of a man sitting on the tube with his legs spread wide apart. It’s a violent British revenge thriller starring ex-Marine (and Jeff Bridges lookalike) Tip Cullen as a veteran getting payback for the death of his teenage daughter from drugs. Everyone involved has clearly worked extremely hard with what looks like a very low budget, but the cracks do show; it’s impossible to take a gangland crime boss seriously when he’s wearing such a nasty cheap suit. To be fair, most of the funding looks like it’s been chucked at SUVs and imitation assault rifles for the relentless gunfights.

As it happens, veteran marine Andy (Cullen) carries out his first kills using bits and bobs borrowed from work; he’s the manager of a hardware shop so he picks off the bad guys in a seedy drug den with a staple gun and hammer, hunting down his daughter’s dealer boyfriend Cassius (Daniel Davids).

Buy a bargain panettone and a month’s supply of chocolates – and consider developing a historical ailment such as bilious humour. It will all be over soon

I don’t want to alarm anyone on this, the 95th day of January, but I have just realised that there are still almost two weeks before February starts. I don’t know about you, but the January 2025 time loop has broken me: my blood has become toxic ectoplasm and my bones are jelly worms. I don’t so much live the 43 minutes of daylight we get in North Yorkshire as sullenly, listlessly exist through them. This morning, putting on leggings to go to the gym defeated me, so I just lay on the bathroom floor instead.

This is not our first January rodeo – we have survived before; we will survive again. Last year, some idiot even tried to claim January was “sort of great” (yes, that idiot was me ). But the coping strategies I have found online all seem rather worthy, rather preachy, rather “hello birds, hello sky”. So to expiate for last year’s idiocy, I have devised some better survival tips, none of which involve “spending time in nature”, “gentle stretching” or “nourishing soup”.