Chancellor to announce plans to improve infrastructure in region to put it at forefront of science and tech advances

Rachel Reeves is unveiling plans to create “Europe’s Silicon Valley” between Oxford and Cambridge as she stakes the government’s success on kickstarting economic growth and putting more pounds in people’s pockets.

The chancellor will announce a blueprint to improve infrastructure across the region that will add up to £78bn to the UK economy within a decade, according to industry experts, and put it at the forefront of science and technological advances.

Blaze began inside Air Busan Airbus plane as it prepared for departure from Gimhae International airport

An Airbus plane belonging to South Korean carrier Air Busan has caught fire at Gimhae International airport in the country’s south while preparing for departure to Hong Kong, fire authorities said.

All 169 passengers and seven crew members were evacuated, with three having minor injuries, fire authorities in Busan said.

Hot, dry conditions, a lack of rain and a longer fire-risk season are all more likely in today’s hotter climate

A triple whammy of climate impacts boosted the risk of the ferocious fires that recently ravaged Los Angeles, a scientific study has shown.

Firstly, the hot, dry and windy conditions that drove the fires were made 35% more likely by the global heating caused by fossil fuel burning. Secondly, the low rainfall seen from October to December is now about 2.4 times more likely than in the preindustrial past, before the climate crisis. Rains during these months have historically brought an end to the wildfire season around LA.

World’s largest coffee chain in drive to boost sales and win back customers as new CEO urges ‘fundamental change’

Starbucks reassured Wall Street with a smaller-than-expected drop in comparable sales, an early sign that its efforts to revive sluggish demand could be bearing fruit.

The world’s largest coffee chain, which earlier this month announced that people using its cafes cross North America need to buy something , is in the midst of a turnaround bid to win back customers.

• Top seeding position already guaranteed after seven wins
• Opponents PSV have lost one of last 55 games at home

Arne Slot has said finishing top of the group does not matter in the new Champions League format, which will generate at least €55.945m (£47m) in prize money for Liverpool this season.

Slot has taken the opportunity Liverpool’s qualification for the last 16 has presented and omitted several regulars from the final group game at PSV Eindhoven. Virgil van Dijk, Mohamed Salah and Ryan Gravenberch, who have started all seven Champions League wins this season, are among those rested along with Alisson, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Ibrahima Konaté, Alexis Mac Allister, Dominik Szoboszlai and Luis Díaz. Trent Kone-Doherty, an 18-year-old forward, midfielders Isaac Mabaya and Kieran Morrison, and the defender Amara Nallo are among the 21-man travelling squad.

Sundance film festival: Real-life husband and wife Dave Franco and Alison Brie play a couple put to the ultimate test in a slickly and sickly made thriller

We all know couples like Tim and Millie. Never an I, always a we. Never an immediate answer, always an “I should probably check with him/her first.” Never alone, always together.

Your initial view, or more likely judgment, of their relationship is probably going to depend on your own, and in under-the-radar Sundance horror Together, first-time writer-director Michael Shanks invites us into their stifling two-person world to make up our own mind. They’re played by real-life husband and wife Alison Brie and Dave Franco, who also starred together in the far less enjoyable thriller The Rental, a film full of empty recycling with the pretence of something new. There’s far less pretentiousness and far more originality here, despite the plot kicking off with the old “going from the city to the country to start a new life” trope. For Tim and Millie, it’s adding further distance from them and those around and at a going away party, there are already cracks underneath the smugness, tensions that are only slightly masked by the unintentionally cute matching outfits.

Together is screening at the Sundance film festival and is seeking distribution

• Arsenal manager demands change in game’s ‘culture’
• He wants new rules to stop abuse of players or officials

Mikel Arteta has urged football to prioritise changing the culture that surrounds the game and eradicate “hatred”, saying: “We don’t want it, we don’t need it, it can only damage our sport, so let’s get it out.”

Arteta’s plea was made after police opened an investigation regarding the threats directed at the referee Michael Oliver, whose home was placed under police guard after he sent off Myles Lewis-Skelly for a tackle on Matt Doherty at Wolves on Saturday.

Harlequins duo are close friends and can boost the cohesion of Steve Borthwick’s side against Ireland on Saturday

The buildup to a fixture between England and Ireland has not truly begun until someone mentions the C-word, so step forward Steve Borthwick to name his side for England’s daunting Six Nations opener in Dublin two days early and officially set the hare running.

It is getting a little tired now but the narrative goes that Ireland can boast a level of “cohesion” that is the envy of the world while England are a mishmash, thrown together from nine different clubs and trying desperately to get on the same page.

Man found with knife and two molotov cocktails planned to kill Mike Johnson and Seth Hegseth, prosecutors say

A man arrested in Washington DC near the US Capitol building on Monday with a folding knife and two molotov cocktails intended to kill the prominent Republican politicians Mike Johnson , Pete Hegseth and Scott Bessent, federal prosecutors have alleged in court filings.

The man, named as Ryan English in the court documents, turned himself in to police near an entrance to the Capitol. A search of English, prosecutors allege, showed he had two “destructive devices” on him in the form of 50ml bottles containing Absolut brand vodka with torn clothing stuffed into them. He was also carrying a folding knife, they say in filings obtained by the Guardian and first reported on by Politico .