MILAN (AP) — Falling behind for a second consecutive game at the Olympics, after never trailing throughout group play, Canada dug itself an even deeper hole in the semifinals against Finland.

Down two goals against an opponent also full of NHL players, the tournament favorite did not look the slightest bit shook.

“There wasn’t really any panic,” center Nick Suzuki said. “We were going to get our chances eventually.”

Then, the most talented roster in Milan buried those chances. Sam Reinhart deflected Cale Makar’s shot in to start the comeback, Shea Theodore tied it on a blast through traffic and Nathan MacKinnon scored the go-ahead goal with 35.2 seconds left to advance to the gold medal game with a 3-2 victory Friday night.

“You could definitely feel the sense of calm, having been through that before,” McDavid said. “We understood we were in a tough spot, and we had to find a way to get out of it. And we did.”

Makar thought he and his teammates were more comfortable down 2-0 against Finland than when they fell behind against Czechia twice in the quarterfinals, including with seven minutes left.

It showed. After Erik Haula scored shorthanded to make it a two-goal deficit early in the second period, Canada outshot Finland 31-8 the rest of the way.

Juuse Saros was terrific in net for Finland, and Canada coach Jon Cooper was worried only about getting shut out by a hot goaltender. Reinhart’s goal with 4:40 left in the second cut some of the tension, and it was clear the game was turning.

“We definitely felt the momentum shift a little bit,” forward Sam Bennett said. “We thought our pressure was good. It was just a relentless pressure that we knew eventually we’d be able to crack them.”

Cooper was also glad his players didn’t want until three minutes left to tie it like in the quarterfinals. Theodore’s goal came with 9:26 left in regulation after Brad Marchand was on top of Saros following a shove from Haula.

“Brad’s being Brad, and I like to have Brad,” Cooper said of Marchand, who got pushed but didn’t do much to stop falling into the opposing goalie.

Nathan MacKinnon took over late, looking like a man on a mission and drawing a second high-sticking penalty on Niko Mikkola. On the ensuing power play, McDavid sent a perfect cross-ice saucer pass over penalty killer Roope Hintz’s stick to MacKinnon, who sneaked the puck short side through a miniscule hole with Macklin Celebrini setting a screen by jumping.

It held up on video review after Finland challenged that the play was offside.

“It was a five-man effort,” MacKinnon said. “Connor made an amazing play, Cale was doing his thing, Reino same thing. Obviously happy one squeaked in. Yeah, great pass.”

Canada came back again without injured captain Sidney Crosby, who left the quarterfinal game Wednesday night with an apparent right knee injury. McDavid wore the “C” in Crosby’s absence and had two assists to break the record for the most points by an NHL player at a single Olympics with 13.

“We’re a deep team with leaders all up and down the lineup,” McDavid said. “It doesn’t matter who’s wearing the ‘C,’ who’s in the lineup, who’s out of the lineup. Everybody can play a big role and lead, and you saw that again.”

Cooper said there’s still time to decide if Crosby can play in the final on Sunday.

Canada’s stacked lineup, even missing Crosby, eventually broke through the Finnish trap that slows players down and intercepts the puck before an opponent can go deep into the offensive zone. Instead of getting frustrated, some of the best players on the roster led the way, with Celebrini shooting just about every chance he had.

Celebrini, Canada’s youngest player at 19, put eight pucks on net himself. That’s almost as many shots on goal Finland had as a team in the second and third periods combined, with nine.

“I’ve seen him play enough for a while,” winger Mitch Marner said. “He’s got a lot of skill and a lot of confidence. He’s not afraid of the big moments.”

The comeback kept alive the possibility of an all-North America gold-medal game a year after Canada and the U.S. met in the final of the 4 Nations Face-Off following their epic matchup earlier in that NHL and NHLPA-run tournament.

The U.S. still has to hold up its end of the bargain to make that happen. The unbeaten Americans faced Slovakia in the second semifinal on Friday night.

___

AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

The 14-year-old is missing from the Bangor area but has links to other locations

PSNI have appealed for the public’s help locating missing 14-year-old girl Megan Peters.

Police said Megan has gone missing from the Bangor area and is known to have previously travelled to Belfast, and Carrickfergus.

A police spokesman said: “We are currently trying to locate missing person Megan Peters aged 14.

READ MORE: ‘It was a cash grab’: Mother speaks out after K-Pop tribute show leaves children in tearsREAD MORE: Rain continues to hang around in Met Office NI weekend forecast

“She is described as a white female, approximately 5ft, slim build wearing a black coat, black crop top, black jogging bottoms with white and black trainers.

“If anyone has any information about her whereabouts please contact us quoting reference number CC2026022001181..”

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Kobbie Mainoo struggled for game time at Manchester United under Ruben Amorim, but Diogo Dalot has told the England midfielder the experience will make him stronger

Diogo Dalot has told Kobbie Mainoo that being sidelined at Manchester United will ultimately make him better footballer. Mainoo came within touching distance of leaving United in a loan spell with Napoli during last month’s transfer window.

The England midfielder had grown increasingly frustrated with how former manager Ruben Amorim had handled him. Amorim consistently overlooked Mainoo for months, leaving him stranded on the sidelines and giving him plenty of time to contemplate his future.

However, Amorim’s dismissal in January provided Mainoo with a fresh start at Old Trafford. Speaking on the Rio Ferdinand Presents podcast, Dalot believes the ordeal will benefit him in the long run.

He said: “That just shows that in football, no matter the manager that you have, you have to work the same way. For Kobbie, he could have gone the other way.

“Because it’s really hard for you, when you’re 20 years old, you played almost 80 games for the Manchester United first team, you played for England’s national team. You’ve been there at the top, and all of a sudden you don’t play.

“How can you explain to a 20-year-old guy that you need to go back to what you did before – train hard, be humble, just wait for your opportunity? I don’t think that’s bad for him to pass through this experience.

“You might say he should have played a little bit more, or not, that might be your opinion, or not. But for him to go through that experience, I think it will benefit him for the future.

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“And I think he feels that now, because he enjoys (football) more now. He will not take for granted playing week in, week out. If you ask me about that situation, I think you will benefit a lot from going through that in his career.”

While Mainoo was deemed surplus to requirements by Amorim, Dalot demanded a constant presence in the head coach’s plans, despite often being on the receiving end of criticism from fans. And the full-back has admitted that such scrutiny has been increasingly tough to overlook.

He added: “I think it became a little bit more difficult because of, obviously, what is happening online nowadays. Everybody can say whatever they want.

“And unless you live in a cave, you’re going to be aware of what is being said or what is happening. But to be honest, because my football career, professional career, was all the time here, so I had to learn how to balance that. I had to deal with it.”

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Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc ended the test with the single fastest lap time in an emphatic way – 0.811 seconds quicker than the next best time, set by Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli.

Headline times in testing are usually not the place to look to gauge the competitive order, but this did reflect the picture in one important way – Mercedes and Ferrari look like they are going into the new season in the best shape.

Andrea Stella, team principal of world champions McLaren, said on Friday evening: “This test has confirmed that Ferrari and Mercedes look like the teams to beat. McLaren and Red Bull [are] probably very similar, Ferrari and Mercedes a step ahead.”

This picture, an impression reflected by many other senior figures up and down the pit lane, comes less from the headline lap times – even if they did show the teams in the order Ferrari, Mercedes, McLaren, Red Bull – than the so-called race-simulation runs.

Because the teams fill up their cars with fuel and run a grand prix distance, these have far fewer variables to muddy the picture than single laps.

On Friday evening, Leclerc did the best race simulation of the week, slightly quicker than Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and McLaren’s Oscar Piastri the day before, when they set more or less exactly the same time.

Mercedes did not do any race simulations in the second week, only in the first, when track conditions were up to a second slower.

Antonelli set comfortably the fastest race simulation of the first week – a lot faster than Piastri, who was running at the same time.

And his team-mate George Russell – the bookies’ pre-season championship favourite – was also impressively quick when running in the hotter, slower conditions earlier in the day.

This is not an exact science, but the cumulation of data is what led to the conclusion reached by Stella and many others.

A complication was that McLaren were not running the latest specification of Mercedes power-unit, which Mercedes were proving out, so can expect an uplift when they switch in Australia to the latest spec.

Another is Red Bull’s new engine is said by Russell to have the best deployment of energy, which is such an important facet this season.

Mercedes’ biggest concern is reliability. This hit Antonelli much more than Russell, but it’s probably fair to say that Mercedes suffered more problems than their major rivals, although Red Bull’s new recruit Isack Hadjar did lose a fair bit of his running to issues of one kind or another.

Satellite images analysed by Sky News’ Data and Forensics team show Iran has fortified its nuclear and defence facilities, alongside conducting live drills with Russian forces amid rising tensions with the US military.

What we know about activity at Iran’s nuclear facilities

Iran appears to be fortifying defences at its nuclear plants and military facilities since strikes by Israel and the US in June 2025 damaged infrastructure at three key sites. Core enrichment activity remains constrained and under close international scrutiny.

The main sites affected by last year’s strikes were Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant, Natanz enrichment facility and Isfahan Nuclear Fuel Complex. They are key to Iran’s core nuclear infrastructure.

The Isfahan Complex is in central Iran, 135 miles south of Tehran, near the city of Natanz. It is central to the nuclear fuel cycle, converting uranium into forms suitable for enrichment.

Isfahan includes an underground area where diplomats say much of Iran’s enriched uranium has been stored. Iran’s authorities have always said they are not trying to develop nuclear weapons.

Satellite images from 6 December 2025 to 24 January 2026 show structural repair and new efforts to bury tunnel entrances to the site.

Satellite images show “efforts to prepare for an attack” from the US, said David Albright, founder and president of the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) nonprofit.

He told Sky News: “At nuclear weaponisation sites, we see cleaning up and then, in some cases, rebuilding the facilities.”

He added: “You have this clear preparation in anticipation for attack, trying to minimise potential weak points.”

The ISIS institute reported on February 9 that “backfilling the tunnel entrances would help dampen any potential airstrike and also make ground access in a special force raid to seize or destroy any highly enriched uranium that may be housed inside difficult”.

At the Natanz nuclear facility, a site built for uranium enrichment, satellite images appear to indicate signs of construction at the Pilot Fuel Enrichment Plant, which was damaged by both US and Israeli air strikes in June.

Just over a mile from Natanz, there is a new site, Pickaxe Mountain, also known as Kolang Gaz La. Images show the construction and hardening of tunnel shafts.

Albright told Sky News: “At Pickaxe now, we can clearly see that they’ve taken steps to strengthen the tunnel entrances, which are a major vulnerability of these underground facilities.”

Deep inside a mountain near the city of Qom, around 90 miles south of Tehran, the Fordow fuel enrichment plant was also largely destroyed by the US, said Albright, with the entrance sealed up shortly after the 2025 strikes.

There has been “very little activity” there since, he said.

“From our point of view, some of these protection measures, particularly at Isfahan, indicates there’s something valuable still inside,” said Albright. “Whether it’s recoverable or not we don’t know.”

Other key military sites

Satellite imagery also shows Tehran repairing and fortifying other complexes essential to Iran’s operations.

Parchin military complex is one of Iran’s most sensitive military sites. It has been covered in concrete, as shown by satellite images from 24 January.

Reports suggest that 20 years ago, Tehran conducted tests linked to nuclear bomb detonation methods at the site. Tehran has consistently rejected this. Israel reportedly struck Parchin in October 2024.

On 22 January, an analysis by the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) pointed to progress in the construction of a “concrete sarcophagus” around a newly built facility at Parchin.

ISIS reported in November that imagery showed “ongoing construction and the presence of what appears to resemble a long, cylindrical chamber, maybe a high-explosives containment vessel, likely measuring approximately 36 meters long and 12 meters in diameter, placed inside a building”. It added that high-explosive containment vessels are critical for nuclear weapons.

It is not the only roof. Iran also built a roof over a destroyed facility at the Pilot plant to cover it and “hide activities”, said Albright.

Another site being repaired is Tabriz Missile Base in northwest Iran. The site is one of Iran’s principal missile launch and storage bases. Satellite images show buildings at the base have been fully repaired since the Israeli strikes in June 2025.

Iran’s military activity

On 19 January, Russian and Iranian forces conducted joint live drills in the Gulf of Oman and the Indian Ocean. Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency said the goal was “upgrading operational coordination as well as exchange of military experiences”.

Sky News has confirmed these drills were launched from Larak Island and Shahid Bahonar Port, both key strategic locations that control the Strait of Hormuz and Iran’s main naval hub. This highlights both Iran’s military readiness and influence over vital shipping routes.

Rear Admiral Hassan Maghsoodloo of the Iranian Navy told Iran International the drills were aimed at promoting security and sustainable maritime cooperation.

Mark Cancian, Senior Adviser from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), suggested “Russia is trying to help its partner, but its capabilities are extremely limited because it is totally consumed with the war in Ukraine”.

The drills mirrored recent Iranian exercises on 16 and 17 February; the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps carried out naval and live-fire operations, including missile launches, across key shipping lanes such as the Strait of Hormuz.

Read more:
Is the US preparing for military intervention in Iran?
Middle East seemingly edging closer to war

They occurred amid renewed negotiations between the United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran over Iran’s disputed nuclear program.

As talks opened, Iranian state media reported live missile fire toward the Strait, prompting its closure for several hours.

Iran often carries out military drills in the Strait of Hormuz, but the announced closure went a step further. Cancian said: “Closing the straits is hard, even impossible, without a lot more military capability. Iran could harass shipping with missiles and mines, though that would bring a response from many nations.”

Among all of this, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei posted a statement on X.

Iran’s naval assets

Sky News, using data from TankerTrackers, tracked several Iranian Navy vessels off the coast of Bandar Abbas on 16 January, including the drone carrier IRIS Shahid Bagheri, confirmed by satellite imagery about 10 km from shore. Frequently seen in this part of the Strait of Hormuz, the ship can deploy around 60 drones in addition to helicopters.

Mark Cancian, senior advisor at CSIS, stated that Shahid Bagheri was a “clever innovation” and the drone carrier is “part of that threat against the strait”.

Adding that Iran has been threatening the US by aiming the drone carrier directly at the USS Abraham Lincoln, a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier in the US Navy, capable of carrying dozens of aircraft, launching precision strikes, defending itself with advanced weapons, and coordinating naval and joint operations worldwide.

When asked if Iran’s naval assets were positioned to warn off the US, Cancian said: “Yes, the Iranian government is being aggressive rhetorically, and the naval movements, along with the joint exercise with the Russians, are meant to reinforce that.”

The Data x Forensics team is a multi-skilled unit dedicated to providing transparent journalism from Sky News. We gather, analyse and visualise data to tell data-driven stories. We combine traditional reporting skills with advanced analysis of satellite images, social media and other open source information. Through multimedia storytelling we aim to better explain the world while also showing how our journalism is done.

Barcelona’s soaring Sagrada Familia basilica reached its maximum height on Friday, as a crane placed the upper arm of a cross atop the Tower of Jesus Christ.

The unfinished monument is already the world’s tallest church, though Catalan architect Antoni Gaudi’s magnum opus remains years away from completion.

The church’s central piece now towers 566ft above the city, the church said.

Topping the central tower has been a priority ahead of celebrations this June, marking the centenary of Gaudi’s death.

The scaffolding surrounding the central tower is expected to be removed by June, in time for the inauguration of the Tower of Jesus Christ, the church said.

The first stone of the Sagrada Familia was placed in 1882, but Gaudi never expected it to be finished in his lifetime.

Only one of its multiple towers was completed when he died in 1926 at the age of 73, after being struck by a tram.

In recent decades, more work was carried out on the basilica as it became a major international tourist attraction.

The inside of the Tower of Jesus Christ is still being worked on, and its exterior is flanked by scaffolding and construction cranes.

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In line with Gaudi’s plans, the cross has four arms so its shape can be recognised from any direction, said Sagrada Familia’s rector, the Rev Josep Turull.

If Barcelona’s city government allow it, the original plan also includes a light beam shining from each of the cross’s arms, signifying the church’s role as a spiritual lighthouse, he added.

Millions of tourists visit the Sagrada Familia every year, enthralled by Gaudi’s radical aesthetic, combining Catholic symbolism and organic forms, with entrance fees largely funding the ongoing construction.

This year, the Sagrada Familia will hold several events to celebrate the Catalan Modernist’s legacy, which includes other beautiful buildings in Barcelona and elsewhere in Spain.

The Sagrada Familia became the world’s tallest church last October, when it rose above the spire of Germany’s Ulmer Munster, a Gothic Lutheran church built over 500 years starting in 1377, which stands at 530ft.

A prayer verse from the Gloria that Catholics recite at mass is at the base of the cross installed on Friday at Sagrada Familia, the church’s rector said.

It reads: “You alone are the Holy One, you alone are the Lord, you alone are the Most High.”

Discussions of migration in Britain often portray immigrants as “invaders”. This is evident in from the narrative around migrants arriving on small boats, to recent comments by Jim Ratcliffe, the billionaire co-owner of Manchester United.

Ratcliffe, who relocated to the tax haven of Monaco in 2020, blamed immigrants for the country’s economic challenges and claimed the UK had been “colonised”. After a public backlash, he apologised “that his choice of language has offended some people”.

A look at the history of immigration policy and rhetoric shows how this narrative came to play such a big role – and why it is so harmful.

Britain’s history is intertwined with empire and colonialism. The UK was forged as a nation-state alongside, and partly to facilitate, the growth of a global empire sustained through violence, brutality and war. It also led to immigration from Britain’s current and former colonies.

Although empire-related immigration began hundreds of years earlier, it accelerated after the second world war. Thousands of workers were recruited from the Caribbean and south Asia, as well as from Ireland and continental Europe, to relieve labour shortages and help staff the newly-formed National Health Service.

The 1948 British Nationality Act essentially allowed the entry of all subjects of the British empire. However, this did not reflect widespread acceptance of mass immigration. Rather, it was an attempt to maintain control over Britain’s colonial territories by formalising a specifically imperial identity for them.

Groups such as those onboard the ship Empire Windrush arrived under these conditions. However, increased immigration fuelled local anxieties, and controls were gradually tightened. Britain’s colonial and Commonwealth citizens were now recast as “immigrants”. This did not stop people from wanting to move to the UK, drawn by family or cultural ties – forged by a history of empire.

Themes of invasion

Immigration in the following decades was greater in scale and different than previous migration movements. Alongside this, a rhetoric of invasion began to solidify, one that is still politically influential today.

This narrative developed off the back of national myths that emerged during the second world war. The war was seen as a “people’s war” for Britain – a small, isolated island overcoming foreign enemies. Historians like Paul Ward argue that such national myths shaped ideas of a socially and ethnically homogenous British national identity, one that apparently needed “defending against foreign invasion”.

We can see this theme in key historical moments, such as Enoch Powell’s 1968 “Rivers of Blood”, one of modern Britain’s most notorious speeches. Powell recounted supposed conversations with white Britons fearful of being ruled by immigrants and their descendants.

A similar message was created in response to the so-called Kenyan Asian crisis (1968) and Uganda Asian crisis (1972).
These newly-independent countries were attempting to remove Britain’s imperial influences, including by expelling people of Asian descent whose families had been brought there by colonial governments.

The panic in Britain of a possible “invasion” of African Asian immigrants led to the 1968 Commonwealth Immigrants Act passing in just three days. This act restricted the rights of Commonwealth citizens to migrate to the UK.

The mood around immigration was hardening. Shortly before becoming prime minister, Margaret Thatcher appeared on television in 1978 sympathising with voters afraid of being “rather swamped by people with a different culture”. Immediately afterwards, Thatcher’s Conservatives gained a 11-point poll lead over Labour.

Thatcher’s governments overhauled the UK immigration system. The 1981 British Nationality Act removed citizenship for Commonwealth citizens, formally ending the link between British nationality and a shared history of empire.

Views today

In the last two decades, immigration from within and outside of the European Union has been a key response to the economic and demographic challenges of Britain’s ageing population. Workers from overseas have been recruited to fill gaps in areas such as hospitality, health and social care.

Similarly, Britain’s involvement in conflict zones, such as Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya led to increased applications from people seeking asylum in the UK. In response, anti-immigration sentiment has only grown. Ukip’s infamous “breaking point” poster portrayed refugees fleeing the Syrian conflict as a mass of people headed towards British shores, setting the tone for a debate that ultimately led to Brexit.

Such attitudes have continued as immigration from non-EU countries has grown since Brexit. Many contemporary anxieties around immigration stem from beliefs that a traditional British way of life is under threat. But these views are often based on information that is inaccurate or distorts general demographic change.

The suggestion that immigration is acting like a form of colonisation risks legitimising the “great replacement” far-right conspiracy theory. A recent study found that nearly a third of people in the UK believe this view, which contends that white populations are being deliberately replaced by people of colour.

Immigrants, meanwhile, have experienced not the privileges of colonisers, but discrimination. Immigration benefits Britain in various ways. Most migrants to the UK make a net positive contribution to the economy over their lifetime, paying more in taxes than they consume in public services. Yet they have faced increasing levels of hostility, policies designed to make their life in the UK harder, violence and other systemic disadvantages.

Recent years have seen the consequences of these views, in the form of more overt racism, and violent protests. The “invasion” or “coloniser” narrative is not just rhetoric – it can have harmful, physical consequences.

Polish athlete Kamila Sellier required immediate medical treatment after a skate blade caught her face during a collision in the women’s 1500m short track speed skating at the Winter Olympics on Friday

Kamila Sellier needed immediate medical attention on the ice after a terrifying incident at the Winter Olympics on Friday resulted in a cut to her face. The Polish competitor was participating in the quarter-finals of the women’s 1500 metres when she, Italy’s Ariana Fontana and USA’s Kristen Santos-Griswold collided and fell.

As they tumbled, Santos-Griswold’s skate blade struck Sellier in the face, instantly causing an injury as Sellier slid across the ice and crashed into the rink wall. The race was promptly halted whilst rink-side medics attended to the athlete.

A large white sheet was erected to provide her with privacy before she was stretchered off for further treatment, giving the crowd a thumbs-up as she left.

Sellier, 25, departed the ice skating arena in Milan on Friday night after receiving stitches, according to Polish officials. The skater has since gone to the hospital for more tests.

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Konrad Niedźwiedzki, press attache for the Polish speed skating team and a 2014 Olympian, told media that Sellier had suffered a cut on her cheek and eyelid that required stitches. “We are waiting for what the hospital tests will show,” Niedźwiedzki said.

Sellier’s teammate, Natalia Maliszewska, appeared shaken as she spoke with reporters. “My thoughts are with her,” Maliszewska said. “I can’t think of anything else.”

“These aren’t common accidents, but they do happen,” another of Sellier’s teammates, Gabriela Topolska, said. “Kamila already has one of them, from a skate on her face. Kamila has a cut in her skin, with stitches.”

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American skater Santos-Griswold was ultimately disqualified from the race, which proceeded following an injury timeout. Santos-Griswold was penalised for an illegal lane pass that appeared to contribute to the accident.

Italian star Fontana saw her skinsuit damaged and received assistance from her physiotherapist for her left hip during the pause in action. The reigning Olympic silver medalist in the 1500m ultimately finished second to Hanne Desmet of Belgium, qualifying for the semi-final round.

Fontana later advanced into the finals and edged Zhang Chutong at the finishing line. The skater was bidding to become the most decorated Winter Olympian, tying Norwegian cross-country skier Marit Bjørgen.

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Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina upset world number four Coco Gauff to set up a final against Jessica Pegula at the Dubai Tennis Championships.

American Pegula was the first to win her semi-final, fighting back from a disastrous opening set and early break of serve in the second set to defeat compatriot Amanda Anisimova 1-6 6-4 6-3.

Gauff, 21, had a chance to make it an all-American final on Saturday, but Svitolina recorded a 6-4 6-7 (13-15) 6-4 in an epic encounter that lasted three hours and three minutes.

The 31-year-old Svitolina had four match points in the second-set tie-break and could not take them, but still managed to win the decider.

In the men’s Qatar Open, world number one Carlos Alcaraz maintained his perfect start to 2026 with a 7-6 (7-3) 6-4 victory over Russia’s Andrey Rublev to move into the final.

North Yorkshire Police said officers were called to an address in Micklegate at around 3.20pm yesterday (February 19) after a violent incident had taken place.

They said that a man in his 40s had received wounds consistent with a stabbing and was taken to hospital, where he remains in a critical condition.

As reported by The Press, a cordon was originally put up in the street overnight but was reduced to two properties in Trinity Lane by this morning (Friday).

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The one-way entrance to the street from Micklegate was still closed off with police tape and no entry signs at 7am, however the entrance from Bishophill Junior up to the no entry signs was accessible.

A police spokesperson said: “Detectives are leading an investigation, which continues today. There is a police presence in the area as officers carry out enquiries and support the community.”

Two men and three women, aged between 28 and 58, have been arrested in connection with the incident and remain in custody, police said.

Anyone who has information that they have yet to share can contact North Yorkshire Police on 101. Please quote reference NYP-19022026-0285.