WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration announced Wednesday that it wants to create a critical minerals trading bloc with its allies and partners, using tariffs to maintain minimum prices and defend against China’s stranglehold on the key elements needed for everything from fighter jets to smartphones.

Vice President JD Vance said the U.S.-China trade war over the past year exposed how dependent most countries are on the critical minerals that Beijing largely dominates, so collective action is needed now to give the West self-reliance.

“We want members to form a trading bloc among allies and partners, one that guarantees American access to American industrial might while also expanding production across the entire zone,” Vance said at the opening of a meeting that Secretary of State Marco Rubio hosted with officials from several dozen European, Asian and African nations.

The Republican administration is making bold moves to shore up supplies of critical minerals needed for electric vehicles, missiles and other high-tech products after China choked off their flow in response to President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs last year. While the two global powers reached a truce to pull back on the high import taxes and stepped-up rare earth restrictions, China’s limits remain tighter than they were before Trump took office.

The critical minerals meeting comes at a time of significant tensions between Washington and major allies over President Donald Trump’s territorial ambitions, including Greenland, and his moves to exert control over Venezuela and other nations. His bellicose and insulting rhetoric directed at U.S. partners has led to frustration and anger.

The conference, however, is an indication that the United States is seeking to build relationships when it comes to issues it deems key national security priorities.

While major allies like France and the United Kingdom attended the meeting in Washington, Greenland and Denmark, the NATO ally with oversight of the mineral-rich Arctic island, did not.

A new approach to countering China on critical minerals

Vance said some countries have signed on to the trading bloc, which is designed to ensure stable prices and will provide members access to financing and the critical minerals. Administration officials said the plan will help the West move beyond complaining about the problem of access to critical minerals to actually solving it.

“Everyone here has a role to play, and that’s why we’re so grateful for you coming and being a part of this gathering that I hope will lead to not just more gatherings, but action,” Rubio said.

Vance said that for too long, China has used the tactic of unloading materials at cheap prices to undermine potential competitors, then ratcheting up prices later after keeping new mines from being built in other countries.

Prices within the preferential trade zone will remain consistent over time, the vice president said.

“Our goal within that zone is to create diverse centers of production, stable investment conditions and supply chains that are immune to the kind of external disruptions that we’ve already talked about,” he said.

To make the new trading group work, it will be important to have ways to keep countries from buying cheap Chinese materials on the side and to encourage companies from getting the critical minerals they need from China, said Ian Lange, an economics professor who focuses on rare earths at the Colorado School of Mines.

“Let’s just say it’s standard economics or standard behavior. If I can cheat and get away with it, I will,” he said.

At least for defense contractors, Lange said the Pentagon can enforce where those companies get their critical minerals, but it may be harder with electric vehicle makers and other manufacturers.

US turns to a strategic stockpile and investments

Trump this week also announced Project Vault, a plan for a strategic U.S. stockpile of rare earth elements to be funded with a $10 billion loan from the U.S. Export-Import Bank and nearly $1.67 billion in private capital.

In addition, the government recently made its fourth direct investment in an American critical minerals producer, extending $1.6 billion to USA Rare Earth in exchange for stock and a repayment deal. The Pentagon has shelled out nearly $5 billion over the past year to spur mining.

The administration has prioritized the moves because China controls 70% of the world’s rare earths mining and 90% of the processing. Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke by phone Wednesday, including about trade. A social media post from Trump did not specifically mention critical minerals.

Heidi Crebo-Rediker, a senior fellow in the Center for Geoeconomic Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, said the meeting was “the most ambitious multilateral gathering of the Trump administration.”

“The rocks are where the rocks are, so when it comes to securing supply chains for both defense and commercial industries, we need trusted partners,” she said.

Japan’s minister of state for foreign affairs, Iwao Horii, said Tokyo was fully on board with the U.S. initiative and would work with as many countries as possible to ensure its success.

“Critical minerals and (their) stable supply is indispensable to the sustainable development of the global economy,” he said.

Agreements and legislation move forward

The European Union and Japan together as well as Mexico announced agreements to work with the United States to develop coordinated trade policies and price floors to support the development of a critical minerals supply chain outside of China. The countries said they would develop an agreement about what steps they will take and explore ways to expand the effort to include additional like-minded nations.

Also Wednesday, the Republican-controlled House approved a bill to accelerate mining on federal land despite objections from Democrats and conservation groups that it amounted to a blank check to foreign-owned mining corporations.

The bill, which next heads to the Senate, would codify Trump’s executive orders to boost domestic mining and processing of minerals important to energy, defense and other applications.

___

Associated Press writer Matthew Daly contributed to this report.

Arsenal XI: Kepa; White, Mosquera, Calafiori, Lewis-Skelly; Norgaard, Eze, Havertz; Madueke, Gyokeres, Martinelli

Subs: Setford, Porter, Gabriel, Salmon, Hincapie, Zubimendi, Ibrahim, Ødegaard, Bailey-Joseph, Saka, Trossard, Jesus

Mikel Arteta makes 11 changes from the defeat against Manchester United, with Kai Havertz making his first start for a year. He will be playing in a more withdrawn role with Gyokeres up front.

ATLANTA (AP) — Officials in Georgia’s Fulton County said Wednesday they have asked a federal court to order the FBI to return ballots and other documents from the 2020 election that it seized last week, escalating a voting battle as President Donald Trump says he wants to “take over” elections from Democratic-run areas with the November midterms on the horizon.

The FBI had searched a warehouse near Atlanta where those records were stored, a move taken after Trump’s persistent demands for retribution over claims, without evidence, that fraud cost him victory in Georgia. Trump’s election comment came in an interview Monday with a conservative podcaster and the Republican president reaffirmed his position in Oval Office remarks the next day, citing f raud allegations that numerous audits, investigations and courts have debunked.

Officials in heavily Democratic Fulton County referenced those statements in announcing their legal action at a time of increasing anxiety over Trump’s plans for the fall elections that will determine control of Congress.

“This case is not only about Fulton County,” said the county chairman, Robb Pitts. “This is about elections across Georgia and across the nation.”

In a sign of that broader concern, U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., said this week that he once doubted Trump would intervene in the midterms but now “the notional idea that he will ask his loyalists to do something inappropriate, beyond the Constitution, scares the heck out of me.”

The White House has scoffed at such fears, noting that Trump did not intervene in the 2025 off-year elections despite some Democratic predictions he would. But the president’s party usually loses ground in midterm elections and Trump has already tried to tilt the fall races in his direction.

During an interview with NBC News that aired Wednesday, the president said he will trust Republican losses in the midterms “if the results are honest.” It’s a strategy Trump has regularly used ahead of elections, suggesting that a loss would only be due to some type of fraud.

Democratic election officials plan for interference in the midterms

Democratic state election officials have reacted to Trump’s statements, the seizure of the Georgia election materials and his aggressive deployment of federal officers into Democratic-leaning cities by planning for a wide range of possible scenarios this fall. That includes how they would respond if Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers were stationed outside polling places.

They also have raised concerns about U.S. Department of Justice lawsuits, mostly targeting Democratic states, seeking detailed voter data that includes dates of birth and partial Social Security numbers. Secretaries of state have raised concerns that the administration is building a database it can use to potentially disenfranchise voters in future elections.

Trump and his allies have long fixated on Fulton County, Georgia’s most populous, since he narrowly lost the state to Democrat Joe Biden in 2020. In the weeks after that election, Trump called Georgia’s secretary of state, Republican Brad Raffensperger, urged him to help “find” the 11,780 ballots that would enable Trump to be declared the Georgia winner of the state and raised the prospect of a “criminal offense” if the official failed to comply.

Raffensperger did not change the vote tally, and Biden won Georgia’s 16 electoral votes. Days later, rioters swarmed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and tried to prevent the official certification of Biden’s victory. When Trump returned to the presidency in January 2025, he pardoned more than 1,000 charged in that siege.

“The president himself and his allies, they refuse to accept the fact that they lost,” Pitts said. “And even if he had won Georgia, he would still have lost the presidency.”

Pitts defended the county’s election practices and said Fulton has conducted 17 elections since 2020 without any issues.

‘The results will be the same,’ says Georgia election official

A warrant cover sheet provided to the county includes a list of items that the agents were seeking related to the 2020 general election: all ballots, tabulator tapes from the scanners that tally the votes, electronic ballot images created when the ballots were counted and then recounted, and all voter rolls.

The FBI drove away with hundreds of boxes of ballots and other documents. County officials say they were not told why the federal government wanted the documents.

The county is also asking the court to unseal the sworn statement from a law enforcement agent that was presented to the judge who approved the search warrant.

The Justice Department declined to comment on the county’s motion.

“What they’re doing with the ballots that they have now, we don’t know, but if they’re counted fairly and honestly, the results will be the same,” Pitts said.

Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s director of national intelligence, was at the Fulton search last week, and Democrats in Congress have questioned the propriety of her presence because the search was a law enforcement, not intelligence, action.

In a letter to top Democrats on the House and Senate Intelligence committees Monday, Gabbard said Trump asked her to be there “under my broad statutory authority to coordinate, integrate, and analyze intelligence related to election security.”

During the NBC News interview, Trump said he didn’t know why Gabbard was in Fulton County, but suggested without providing evidence that other countries were meddling in elections: “A lot of the cheating, it’s international cheating.”

Trump pushes for federal control of elections

White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday that the president’s “take over” remarks, which included a vague reference to “15 places” that should be targeted, were a reference to the SAVE Act, legislation that would tighten proof of citizenship requirements. Republicans want to bring it up for a vote in Congress.

But in his remarks that day, Trump did not cite the proposal. Instead, he claimed that Democratic-controlled places such as Atlanta, which falls mainly in Fulton County, have “horrible corruption on elections. And the federal government should not allow that.”

The Constitution vests states with the ability to administer elections. Congress can add rules for federal races. One of Trump’s earliest second-term actions was an executive order that tried to rewrite voting rules nationwide. Judges have largely blocked it because it violates the Constitution.

Trump contended that states were “agents of the federal government to count the votes. If they can’t count the votes legally and honestly, then somebody else should take over.”

Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said Wednesday said he supported the SAVE Act but not Trump’s desire for a federal takeover. “Nationalizing elections and picking 15 states seems a little off strategy,” Tillis told reporters.

___

Associated Press video journalist Nathan Ellgren in Washington contributed to this report.

___

Riccardi reported from Denver.

The Thursday letters page tries to predict the contents of today’s Nintendo Partner Showcase, as one reader thinks the next gen Xbox console is doomed.

Games Inbox is a collection of our readers’ letters, comments, and opinions. To join in with the discussions yourself email gamecentral@metro.co.uk

Worrying times
We’ve had a lot of talk back and forth about Nintendo recently and, to be honest, I felt people were being a bit silly claiming they’d made serious mistakes. But to hear Nintendo themselves say the Switch 2 has underperformed in the West is a bit of a shock. They seem to be talking about profit more than sales, but their whole business has been based on relatively low budget hardware and software that is hugely profitable.

You change that and suddenly the whole foundation of the company is at risk. I’m surprised they didn’t realise this, but then obviously they couldn’t have predicted the RAM shortages and tariffs. Even so, they’ve stuck their neck out further than they usually do and they’re in danger of having it cut off.

Well, maybe not that much danger but I’m more worried about them now than I was during the Wii U era, even though the Switch 2 has sold tons and the Wii U was a disaster right out the gate. It was recoverable though, which is exactly what happened. I really don’t see what Nintendo does next to get back to its old position, especially when they refuse to announce any decently exciting games.
Acheron

Improper Direct
It’s hard to know what to say when you realise that when there is finally a ‘proper’ Nintendo Direct it’s going to be the fifth one of the year. Maybe even the sixth if they slip an Indie World one in before it. Are they trolling or is their line-up for the year just really behind? As usual with Nintendo, we’ll never know for sure.

So what’s going to be announced on Thursday’s Partner Showcase? I have a nasty feeling it’s not going to be much we haven’t heard of before. There’s an awful lot of third party games, like Elden Ring, that have been announced but haven’t got a release date yet, or we haven’t seen running on Switch 2.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t need to sit through 15 minutes of Elden Ring with its unique Master Sword item, or whatever they add to it. Nor do I need to see any more of 007 First Light or whatever else they have. Here’s hoping there’ll be some welcome surprises but the golden rule with these showcase is to expect nothing and never be disappointed.
Corden

Console-esque
Whatever the next gen Xbox is next year, or whenever, I’ll bet it’s not really a console as we’ve come to think of them. It’s not going to be a new format, that only runs the games made for it, because nobody but Microsoft is ever going to want to make them.

It’s just going to be a PC, with as much AI nonsense installed on it as Microsoft can cram onto the hard drive, or in the cloud or however they pitch it. They’ve already said it’s going to be hyper expensive and that combined with it not actually being a console is going to be a disaster, I believe.

They would’ve been better off sticking with their portable idea because at least in that case there’s not really a clear leader for PC handhelds. Steam Deck is number one but it could easily be improved on it’s not that much more successful than its rivals.
Zeiss

Email your comments to: gamecentral@metro.co.uk

Phoning it in
RE: Lurgie. The Fallout TV show has been fine. Entertaining enough to me, at least. I’ve seen some diehards moaning about aspects of the show, but it hasn’t affected me. I’m not a lore buff, so I don’t care about any changes brought in by the showrunners. Only thing is, I hope they have an ending planned and not, like Westworld, it just limps along until it’s cancelled.
Bobwallett
PS: Whilst I appreciate Walton Goggins making an appearance in Fallout 76, his performance kinda reminds me of Krusty’s recording session.

Inflation problems
I see they have the new Monster Hunter Stories 3 amiibo in stock to pre-order on Nintendo Store UK. They look amazing and very colourful, but very expensive compared to the price of amiibo which came out during the Switch 1’s lifetime. They also have the Super Mario Bros. Wonder amiibo available to pre-order.

I particularly like the Mario elephant character going down a green pipe! I will be picking up some of them in future to add to my collection.
Andrew J.
PS: On a different subject what is GameCentral’s opinion on the game The Stone of Madness for PlayStation 5? as I am thinking of picking it up on physical.

GC: We haven’t played it, we’re afraid. You’re right about the amiibo though. Those Ratha ones look great, but the price is well outside the impulse purchase range they used to be.

Customer service
Even in the early 2000s, as a 21-year-old gamer, I remember being trolled for liking Nintendo/Pokémon by a certain member of staff (if anyone’s from Wolverhampton).

Years later, I had an issue with ‘Dave’ in 2020, regarding returning a still-sealed GAME in the Merry Hill store.

Besides those idiots, GAME’s trade-in/cash was always lower than GameStation’s. All GAME had was the Reward Points and once I spent those, I never really went back.

GAME got jealous of GameStation, bought them and then shut them down.

Then they never have any new releases in store on launch day, which meant a wasted journey so I’m personally glad they’re going/gone.

As regards the high street, it’ll be Smyths or Argos for me, regarding brand new, or CeX or eBay for second-hand.
LeeDappa

GTApocalypse
I’d like to echo a reader’s concern from last month, where he worried what will happen to the rest of the games industry once GTA 6 comes out. Whether you’re interested in the game or not, it’s fascinating to see how massive the hype is for it, but it’s going to leave such a crater I don’t think many people are going to be buying or playing else for months.

That’s a bigger problem when it comes out at Christmas than in May and it’s particularly bad news for Call Of Duty, which has had a really bad couple of years. But how long will GTA 6 be the only game in town? Months and months into 2027 I’m sure. And what will be the first big game to dare go up against it and break the chain? Whatever it is, good luck to the developer.
Crumpton

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It’s a mad, mad, mad, mad world
As some people have kind of touched on already, I think a lot of the problems with the games industry at the moment don’t have anything much to do with publishers but the wider business world which is, not to put too finer point on it, nuts right now.

The reason RAM is expensive isn’t because it’s hard to get the raw materials or even because of Trump’s tariffs, it’s because it’s all being used for AI. And when that bubble bursts – and I believe it will this year – suddenly it’s all going to become dirt cheap. Which may sound a good thing but the wider effects on the economy, of companies finally admitting AI is almost worthless, is going to be horrendous. So that’s something to look forward to.

We’re in a situation where the Switch 2 has become the fast-selling console ever and yet it’s still seen as underperforming. What was it supposed to do? Become the fast-selling console in multiple dimensions at once?

Nothing has made sense since Covid, as far as I’m concerned, but the last couple of years, with the rise of AI, has been full on lunacy. The reason stocks are down for video game companies? Because investors think Google’s Project Gemini is going to make video game development redundant. As if you’re going to type in a prompt and get God Of War out the other end.

For a sensible, financially conservative company like Nintendo all of this must be especially infuriating, but they’ve just got to ride out like the rest of us, and hope that sanity returns at some point soon.
Ashton Marley

Inbox also-rans
I have to admit, even I thought that Fallout website reveal was going to be the Fallout 3 remaster. Kind of funny that it wasn’t. Maybe they’ll go for an April launch, so that it’s exactly the same as Oblivion?
Ken

Was that another case of Inbox magic, with the reader talking about GTA 6 Trailer 3 being around the time of Summer Game Fest and then the next day we get Take-Two talking about just that! Didn’t realise the magic works even on Rockstar.
Whaler9

Email your comments to: gamecentral@metro.co.uk

The small print
New Inbox updates appear every weekday morning, with special Hot Topic Inboxes at the weekend. Readers’ letters are used on merit and may be edited for length and content.

You can also submit your own 500 to 600-word Reader’s Feature at any time via email or our Submit Stuff page, which if used will be shown in the next available weekend slot.

You can also leave your comments below and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter.

MORE: Games Inbox: When will GTA 6 Trailer 3 be released?

MORE: Games Inbox: Are you sad to see the end of GAME stores?

MORE: Games Inbox: What will a post-GTA 6 video games industry be like?

The police were called to a sudden death in Peterborough on Wednesday (February 4).

Cambridgeshire Police were called to a street in Peterborough after reports of a “sudden death”. The police attended to Gladstone Street in Peterborough just before 11am on Wednesday (February 4).

The street had been closed off near Russell Street to allow emergency services to attend to the area. The East of England Ambulance Service also attended.

The police have confirmed an investigation into the incident is ongoing. Further details have not been released.

A spokesperson for Cambridgeshire Police said: “This is a sudden death, we are at the scene and investigations are ongoing. We don’t have anything further at this time.”

To get more breaking news and top stories delivered directly to your phone, join our new WhatsApp community. Click this link to receive your daily dose of CambridgeshireLive content.

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OUR much-loved astrologer Meg sadly died in 2023 but her column will be kept alive by her friend and protégée Maggie Innes.

Read on to see what’s written in the stars for you today. 

♈ ARIES

March 21 to April 20

A path you feel you’ve been left to walk alone, at home or work, can change into something shared.

But it’s important to carry your pride lightly and be ready to meet someone else halfway.

MYSTIC MEG

The Saturn/moon mix in your ambitions sector keeps you moving forward

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MYSTIC MEG

The more you learn, the more invaluable you become

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If you’re in love, don’t compare your bond to others, as it is unique.

Single? Look again at an old friend who’s got back in touch.

Get all the latest Aries horoscope news including your weekly and monthly predictions

♉ TAURUS

April 21 to May 21

As the moon and Saturn spar, it sets the scene for a day of dealing with big emotions – in ways that focus on the future rather than the past.

A time of assuming certain situations can’t be changed is over, as you start to realise how much power you do have.

If you’re single, this can be a day of foxy “F” flirtation.

Get all the latest Taurus horoscope news including your weekly and monthly predictions

♊ GEMINI

May 22 to June 21

A dream home can appear back on your horizon when you are not looking.

But straight away you will sense what is right about a certain new address, or way of altering the one you have.

This time you should be able to decide your own timeline.

Later, the way you help others be creative can wake up something special.

Get all the latest Gemini horoscope news including your weekly and monthly predictions

♋ CANCER

June 22 to July 22

Pluto’s ability to muddle up words and make mischief may be strong – but your own natural sense of right and wrong is stronger.

So you can steer any conversation through, and really connect with someone who has felt so out of reach lately.

The luck factor enhances your eye for bargains and big potential prize pots.

Get all the latest Cancer horoscope news including your weekly and monthly predictions

♌ LEO

July 23 to August 23

Holding firm on a spending promise can reap rewards later.

So even though temptation is all around, do stay strong.

There are love words you are longing to share, too, but it is important to choose the right time rather than rush in.

A work team that looks so unconventional can still be very successful.

Get all the latest Leo horoscope news including your weekly and monthly predictions

♍ VIRGO

August 24 to September 22

First thing today is a great time to put together thoughts about your talents and skills – because later there may be an unexpected chance to share these.

Instead of modesty, be honest about what you do well, because the perfect match, in love or work, can be waiting.

The luck factor calls at a black door.

Get all the latest Virgo horoscope news including your weekly and monthly predictions

♎ LIBRA

September 23 to October 23

You have a sixth sense about who thinks and feels the way you do underneath, even if on the surface they show no sign.

This is something to trust if you are putting together a team, or considering your place in a couple.

Already in love? Pluto adds passion that’s deep and a little dangerous, and you will adore it.

Get all the latest Libra horoscope news including your weekly and monthly predictions

♏ SCORPIO

October 24 to November 22

The fastest-thinking and most outrageous planets in the zodiac connect across your chart and you are ready to make waves, home and away.

A writing-rich role at work can be part of this, or a move in your own time to take your wildest ideas seriously.

In love, nothing and no one is out of reach when you try.

Get all the latest Scorpio horoscope news including your weekly and monthly predictions

♐ SAGITTARIUS

November 23 to December 21

So many emotions may flow to the surface and surprise your happy-go-lucky self.

This can be a signal you do not feel the same way inside as you show on the surface about certain people or situations.

It is a positive thing because now you get the chance to find new balance.

A career wild card can be a winner

Get all the latest Sagittarius horoscope news including your weekly and monthly predictions

♑ CAPRICORN

December 22 to January 20

If family plans clash, this can be positive by helping all sides find a future that works for everyone.

But keep talking in the middle, do not retreat to two distant sides.

If you are in love, your day may start predictably, but there’s passion mischief later, so enjoy it.

Single? A chat about a bill can start something.

Get all the latest Capricorn horoscope news including your weekly and monthly predictions

♒ AQUARIUS

January 21 to February 18

Transforming power is very strong early in the day.

If you have delayed some changes, set them in motion as soon as you can, even if you do not feel ready.

Later, your learning ability is in the spotlight, and this time you can retain facts and figures you need.

But also remember a face that could rewrite your destiny.

Get all the latest Aquarius horoscope news including your weekly and monthly predictions

♓ PISCES

February 19 to March 20

If you sense a team will not work the way it is, you have the ability to change yourself, but not anyone else.

So think carefully before you action this.

Money-wise, you may have stepped back so others could take control – but if you now see a smart solution, say so.

Luck and love can both lead you towards “N”.

Get all the latest Pisces horoscope news including your weekly and monthly predictions

A six-point deficit to Arsenal in the Premier League is not quite a state of affairs that calls for Manchester City to throw everything at the cups, but we might be approaching that scenario.

City are certainly strong favourites to reach the League Cup final, taking a 2-0 lead into tonight’s home second leg against holders Newcastle United.

Pep Guardiola’s team will play Arsenal at Wembley on March 22 if they progress, around a month before the teams play at the Etihad in the league. There is also a chance that they could play in the Champions League quarter-finals.

This weekend looks like another significant one in the title race, with Arsenal hosting Sunderland and City travelling to Anfield where they have a grim record. Perhaps the danger to City tonight is Guardiola rotating his team with an eye on that game and being caught out.

Newcastle certainly have the speed and attacking menace to trouble an unstable City defence, but they will have to improve on a dreadful away record. Across the league and the Champions League this season, Newcastle have won just three of 16 matches on the road. They need to win by two goals just to send the tie to extra time.

Eddie Howe lined up with a roving front three of Harvey Barnes, Anthony Gordon and Anthony Elanga against Liverpool at the weekend, and against a City team who like to play the offside trap, prioritising pace could be wise. Alternatively, he could take the view that Yoanne Wissa and Nick Woltemade are fresh as they go in search of goals.

Newcastle hope to have Bruno Guimaraes back in their midfield, but they remain without Tino Livramento and Joelinton.

Will Guardiola take this opportunity to rest Erling Haaland now Omar Marmoush is available again? Haaland has scored just twice in 10 appearances since the turn of the year.

Full team news on the way shortly.

Even without coming to the Winter Olympics in Italy, Donald Trump and his polarising policies and provocations are dominating, even distracting.

Of all the security agents chosen to protect the official US delegation, ICE is in Milan for the expected opening ceremony visits by vice president JD Vance and secretary of state Marco Rubio.

They are the Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel called a “militia that kills” by Milan mayor Beppe Sala following the deaths of two Americans last month in Minneapolis.

There have been attempts by the Italian government to allay fears about their deployment, insisting they won’t have powers to conduct policing in the streets.

But just their presence here has been a concern for protesting locals in Milan.

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Add in how tensions have been stoked in recent weeks between Mr Trump and Europe over his threats to capture Greenland, and it all raises the potential for a hostile atmosphere greeting American officials and athletes in the opening ceremony at the San Siro home of AC and Inter Milan on Friday night.

So, I asked International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Kirsty Coventry: would jeering be freedom of expression, or is there a need for spectators to show respect?

“I hope that the opening ceremony is seen by everyone ⁠as an opportunity ‍to be respectful of each other,” Ms Coventry said, reflecting on seeing athletes from different countries mixing in the official Olympic village in Milan.

“It was a real opportunity to put into perspective how we could be.

“And so I hope that the opening ceremony will do that and will be a reminder for everyone how we could be.”

US Games on the horizon

Ms Coventry is yet to meet Mr Trump despite the Los Angeles Olympics being just two years away.

But Olympic chiefs are facing pressure from IOC members in Africa to tackle concerns about the impact of Mr Trump’s travel bans on delegations.

Officials from Ethiopia and Djibouti challenged LA 2028 chiefs during meetings in Milan about the need for equal access for all countries to the games – beyond athletes.

Ms Coventry’s own Zimbabwe is subject to restrictions for some citizens for entry to the US.

Her lack of contact with Mr Trump after a year leading the IOC contrasts with the US leaders’ regular meetings with FIFA president Gianni Infantino, although his World Cup is sooner – coming this summer.

Read more from Sky News:
Trump orders 700 immigration officers to leave Minnesota
All you need to know about the Winter Olympics 2026

For now, the IOC moving towards a ban on transgender women competing in women’s sport is a policy that will placate Mr Trump.

And Ms Coventry has said: “As we get closer to the Olympics you will see the relations continue… and only get stronger.”

But first she has to get through a Winter Olympics that could be a tricky and challenging environment for American athletes in Milan-Cortina.

Moore’s team-mates created just seven chances between them at Hibs on Sunday.

He registered five alone on Wednesday, while his seven dribbles were also higher than any other player.

Game state has to come into that, of course. At the weekend, Rangers were playing against 11 men, away to a top-six side. Struggling Kilmarnock were a man and a goal down after a few minutes on Wednesday.

A goal-scoring performance from the England youth international in the Old Firm derby win at Celtic last month looked set to ignite his Ibrox career, but seven games without a goal contribution followed.

Despite that, the Ibrox side just appear a livelier and more unpredictable proposition with Moore in the line-up.

A mid-season injury and squad rotation has meant Moore has failed to feature in 12 of Rangers’ 25 league matches, but Rohl is now demanding consistency as his side attempt to reel Hearts in.

“We know Mikey, that should be the level for him again and again,” the Rangers head coach told BBC Scotland.

“This is the next step for him, consistency. But I will not speak about individual performances, it’s about the team.”