Kremlin critics fear move is part of Russia’s efforts to whitewash Soviet past and shut independent cultural institutions

Moscow’s award-winning Gulag History Museum announced its surprise closure on Thursday, a move critics attribute to the Kremlin’s ongoing efforts to whitewash Russia’s Soviet past.

The closure was officially put down to alleged violations of fire safety regulations but comes amid an intense campaign by Russian officials against independent civil society and those who question the state’s interpretation of history.

Where once British football coaches brought revolution to other countries, they are now playing catch-up

Rúben Amorim is the latest coach to head from Portugal to England on a well-travelled route in recent years but, for a long time, it was popular going the other way. Sporting have had eight Englishmen, a Scot and a Welshman in the dugout over their history but the last of those was Bobby Robson in 1992.

Vic Buckingham, Fred Pentland and John Toshack ticked off most of Spain between them but now British coaches abroad are a rarity. The England men’s national team have recently appointed Thomas Tuchel, causing much consternation among certain factions who wonder why a homegrown solution could not be sought. One of the key issues is that no domestic manager can boast the experience of working and winning in different countries like the German, who has a willingness to travel.

Deller says culture war has ‘maybe made some people a bit fearful’, as he donates to charity auction in support of MSF

The culture war has made artists wary of discussing the Israel-Palestine conflict, according to Jeremy Deller, who has donated work to a charity auction to support Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).

Deller is one of more than 260 artists, including Yinka Shonibare, Wolfgang Tillmans, Mark Wallinger, Mona Hatoum, Sir John Akomfrah, Jesse Darling and Dame Sonia Boyce, who have contributed work that will be sold at the exhibition and auction , which is in aid of the medical charity’s work in Palestine.

The chancellor has announced plans to merge local government retirement schemes into eight Canada-style ‘megafunds’

• Reeves to announce ‘megafunds’ shake-up

Rachel Reeves has announced plans to merge local government retirement schemes into eight Canada-style “megafunds” in what the Treasury claims will be part of the biggest reform of the UK pension market in decades.

So what will the changes, announced as part of the UK chancellor’s inaugural Mansion House speech on Thursday, actually mean for pensions and what can they achieve?

Group says it has identified the Galix defence system on armoured vehicles imported from the UAE and calls for government to investigate

France must investigate the use of its military systems by Sudan’s paramilitary forces, which could be in breach of an arms embargo, Amnesty International has said .

The group said it had identified the French-made Galix defence system being used in Sudan on armoured vehicles manufactured in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) – considered a key supplier of weapons to the Rapid Support Force (RSF).

Melting snow and ice has revealed footprints of reptiles and amphibians, dating back 280 million years

A hiker in the northern Italian Alps has stumbled across the first trace of what scientists believe to be an entire prehistoric ecosystem, including the well-preserved footprints of reptiles and amphibians, brought to light by the melting of snow and ice induced by the climate crisis.

The discovery in the Valtellina Orobie mountain range in Lombardy dates back 280 million years to the Permian period, the age immediately prior to dinosaurs, scientists say.

Exclusive: Malkinson, who spent 17 years in jail, told he must wait months to learn if he is even eligible for compensation

Andrew Malkinson, who spent 17 years in jail for a crime he did not commit, says the Ministry of Justice has left him “to rot” after telling him he is likely to have to wait months before learning if he is even eligible for compensation.

Malkinson was freed last year after being treated by the state as a sex offender after he was wrongly convicted of a 2003 rape in Greater Manchester.

Police analysis of disaster in which 216 people are known to have died also shows 15 victims were over 90

Almost half of the 216 people known to have died in the catastrophic floods that hit the eastern Spanish region of Valencia at the end of October were 70 or above, according to a police analysis.

Figures from the data integration centre set up in after the disaster show that 131 of the victims were male, 85 were female and that 104 of them were aged over 70, among them 15 people aged over 90.

• South Africa coach predicts hosts’ Steward selection
• Boks make 12 changes from team that defeated Scotland

Whatever else South Africa are expecting from England, it’s not a surprise. The Springboks head coach Rassie Erasmus says they picked the team three weeks ago, during a training camp in Jersey. Nothing he’s seen in the way England played against New Zealand and Australia seems to have changed his mind. If anything, the two defeats only confirmed what he already suspected.

“You know, when you lose two games, even if it’s by a point or last-minute try, the pressure does start to build,” Erasmus said, “I’ve been there. I certainly know how quickly it can get to you. And when that happens you normally fall back on to what works for you.”