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Incarcerated activist and media owner has been on trial for more than two years on national security charges

• Jimmy Lai verdict: Hong Kong judges set to rule on national security charges

As has become usual with these national security cases, there is a large police presence outside the West Kowloon district court.

It’s about two hours from the verdict hearing beginning, and there are officers in plain clothes and uniform everywhere, as well as a massive press pack. Smaller than I have seen before, however, is the queue for the general public.

They want to put him in prison.

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© Photograph: Anthony Wallace/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Anthony Wallace/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Anthony Wallace/AFP/Getty Images

Many of us probably dream of a white Christmas but how often have you actually seen one? Simon King takes a look at new analysis.

Eleven people were killed in the shooting at Australia's Bondi Beach, as crowds attended an event to celebrate Hanukkah.

James Vernon said "adrenaline kicked in" allowing him to help the stricken victims of Paul Doyle.

What impact is my email etiquette having on how I'm perceived, evaluated and promoted at work?

As peace talks continue in Berlin, what - if anything - could potentially change Putin's mind? And could Europe do anything differently?

Lithuania has declared an emergency after the balloons started to cross the border.

Blaise Metreweli will say the threat is posed by "an aggressive, expansionist and revisionist Russia".

Many believe Kast will be the most right-wing president since Augusto Pinochet, who oversaw a 17-year dictatorship in Chile from 1973.

Correspondent Joe Inwood pieces together what verified footage reveals about how Australia's worst mass shooting in nearly three decades unfolded.

Two Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor gags make top 10 of public vote, along with jokes about Oasis and Nigel Farage

It’s safe to say it’s been a very bad year for the former Prince Andrew. Already stripped of his title and privileges, he is rounding off the year by becoming the punchline of the year’s most popular Christmas cracker joke.

The annual competition is commissioned by the comedy channel U&Gold (formerly Comedy Gold) and decided by the British public. It usually produces a topical winner that sends up one of the biggest stories of the year.

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© Photograph: Steve Parsons/AP

© Photograph: Steve Parsons/AP

© Photograph: Steve Parsons/AP

Rachel Reeves wants to protect consumers by bringing digital money and assets into the ‘regulatory perimeter’

Cryptocurrencies will be regulated in a similar way to other financial products under legislation coming into force in 2027.

The Treasury is drawing up rules that will require crypto companies to meet a set of standards overseen by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

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© Photograph: Dimitris Aspiotis/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Dimitris Aspiotis/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Dimitris Aspiotis/Shutterstock

Blaise Metreweli expected to say UK faces new ‘age of uncertainty’ in speech identifying Kremlin as key threat

Assassination plots, sabotage, cyber-attacks and the manipulation of information by Russia and other hostile states mean that “the frontline is everywhere”, the new head of MI6 will warn on Monday.

Blaise Metreweli, giving her first speech in the job, is expected to say the UK faces a new “age of uncertainty” where the rules of conflict are being rewritten, particularly in light of wider Kremlin aggression after the invasion of Ukraine.

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© Photograph: MI6

© Photograph: MI6

© Photograph: MI6

People able to buy homes previously beyond budget, aided by rising wages and looser affordability tests

First-time buyers are taking out larger mortgages than ever before as rising wages and looser affordability tests allow them to buy properties that were previously beyond their budget.

The average first-time buyer borrowed £210,800 in the year to September, a record high, according to analysis by Savills, the property agent.

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© Photograph: BMD Images/Alamy

© Photograph: BMD Images/Alamy

© Photograph: BMD Images/Alamy

The son of a Nazi party member and an admirer of Pinochet, Kast built his campaign on a promise to expel tens of thousands of undocumented migrants

The ultra-conservative former congressman José Antonio Kast has been elected as Chile’s next president.

With more than 99% of polling stations counted, Kast took 58.17% of the vote, against 41.83% for the leftist Jeannette Jara, a former labour minister under the current president, Gabriel Boric.

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© Photograph: Esteban Félix/AP

© Photograph: Esteban Félix/AP

© Photograph: Esteban Félix/AP

• World No 4 edges out Sebastian Bialecki 3-2 in first round

• Kumar becomes first Indian to win at the tournament

Stephen Bunting survived a scare before the No 4 seed progressed into the second round of the world championship on Sunday.

Bunting, a semi-finalist last year, was taken to a tie-breaker by Poland’s Sebastian Bialecki before edging through 3-2 at Alexandra Palace.

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© Photograph: John Walton/PA

© Photograph: John Walton/PA

© Photograph: John Walton/PA

Three-time Super Bowl winner Patrick Mahomes will not play in the NFL post-season for the first time in his career as the Kansas City Chiefs are eliminated from play-off contention.

Trump praises Vince Haley, his ex-speechwriter tasked with creating Arc de Triomphe knockoff amid affordability crisis

Amid concerns that he has failed to address a worsening affordability crisis, with health insurance premiums about to spike dramatically for over 20 million Americans, Donald Trump revealed on Sunday that his domestic policy chief’s main priority is building a triumphal arch for Washington DC.

Speaking at a White House holiday party, the president praised Vince Haley, his former speechwriter and a longtime aide to Newt Gingrich who now leads the White House Domestic Policy Council.

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© Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

© Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

© Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

Manchester United head coach Ruben Amorim says criticism from legendary former players is to be expected because the club is "underachieving".

There are now more guns in the community per capita than in the aftermath of the Port Arthur massacre, with at least 2,000 new firearms lawfully entering the community every week

For almost three decades, Australia’s gun laws have been recognised as among the most stringent – and effective – in the world.

After the horror of the 1996 Port Arthur massacre that killed 35 people in Tasmania, Australia’s then conservative government stared down the gun lobby to introduce restrictions that led to a dramatic decrease in the number of guns.

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© Photograph: David Gray/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: David Gray/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: David Gray/AFP/Getty Images

• ‘I will be pleased … I just want my players happy’

• United host Bournemouth in league on Monday

Ruben Amorim has said he would be “really pleased” if Kobbie Mainoo decided to speak to him about a loan move away from Manchester United.

Amorim has not started Mainoo in any of United’s 15 Premier League games, with the midfielder’s only start coming in the Carabao Cup defeat at Grimsby. In light of that, Amorim was asked in the buildup to Monday’s visit of Bournemouth if the 20-year-old had spoken to him regarding a temporary move.

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© Photograph: Martin Rickett/PA

© Photograph: Martin Rickett/PA

© Photograph: Martin Rickett/PA

As federal agents target families, teens are left to care for siblings – from accessing bank accounts to medical records

Vilma Cruz, a mother of two, had just arrived at her newly leased Louisiana home when federal agents surrounded her vehicle in the driveway. She had just enough time to call her oldest son before they smashed the passenger window and detained her.

The 38-year-old Honduran house painter was swept up in an immigration crackdown that has largely targeted Kenner, a New Orleans suburb with a large Hispanic population, where some parents at risk of deportation had rushed to arrange emergency custody plans for their children in case they were arrested.

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© Photograph: Adam Gray/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Adam Gray/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Adam Gray/AFP/Getty Images

After the humiliation of clients leaking her intimate images, Madelaine decided to take action.

Party would also abolish zero-emission vehicle mandate, cutting legal requirement on carmakers to sell EVs

The Conservatives have announced proposals to end the 2030 ban on new petrol and diesel cars and cut the legal requirement on car manufacturers to sell electric vehicles.

A Conservative government would abolish the zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate, ending the legal requirement for manufacturers to sell a fixed rising percentage of zero-emission vehicles each year – 80% of new cars and 70% of new vans by 2030, increasing to 100% by 2035. It would also completely end the 2030 ban on new petrol and diesel cars.

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© Photograph: Darunrat Wongsuvan/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Darunrat Wongsuvan/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Darunrat Wongsuvan/Shutterstock

He’s so anxious that it took the presenter 47 years to even try ham. This travelogue, in which Ant and Dec send him to South Korea to overcome phobias – including nudity – is strangely charming

What can I tell you about Stephen Mulhern? He’s an ITV presenter (Dancing on Ice, Deal or No Deal, You Bet), magician, longtime friend of Ant and Dec, he’s never had hummus or tasted a prawn, and he’s only recently been introduced to ham. “I like what I like,” he says simply, when Ant (or Dec – I never did have them straight in my mind and it’s honestly too late to start now) asks him how it is possible to have avoided ham for 47 years.

“He’s odd,” says Dec (maybe – see above) fondly. “He’s an odd man.” “Sheltered,” supplements Ant. “Set in his ways.”

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© Photograph: ITV

© Photograph: ITV

© Photograph: ITV

Israeli prime minister claims the Australian government ‘let the disease’ of antisemitism spread ‘and the result is the horrific attacks on Jews we saw today’

• Follow live updates

• Bondi beach terrorist attack: full report

• What we know about the Bondi beach attack

Leaders around the world expressed their horror at Sunday’s terrorist attack on Bondi beach, in which at least 16 people died, mixed in some cases with harsh words for the Australian government for alleged shortcomings in tackling antisemitism over the past two years.

The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said he had written to his Australian counterpart, Anthony Albanese, in August, warning that the government’s decision to recognise a Palestinian state “pours fuel on the antisemitic fire … emboldens those who menace Australian Jews and encourages the Jew hatred now stalking your streets”. He claimed Albanese had “replaced weakness with weakness and appeasement with more appeasement”.

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© Composite: AAP / AP

© Composite: AAP / AP

© Composite: AAP / AP

Surrey Police received reports of a stabbing near the Wheatsheaf pub, on Kingston Road.

Move marks big shift for Ukraine, which has fought to join Nato as safeguard against Russian attacks

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has offered to drop Ukraine’s aspirations to join the Nato military alliance, as he held five hours of talks with US envoys in Berlin on Sunday to end the war with Russia.

Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff said “a lot of progress was made” as he and the US president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, met Zelenskyy in the latest push to end Europe’s bloodiest conflict since the second world war – though full details were not divulged.

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© Photograph: APAImages/Shutterstock

© Photograph: APAImages/Shutterstock

© Photograph: APAImages/Shutterstock

Phil Foden and Cole Palmer both scored this weekend - but Morgan Rogers showed why he remains England's first-choice number 10.

Mia Tretta was shot in the 2019 mass shooting at Saugus High School in California.

St Ann’s Warehouse, New York

Oscar-nominated actor struggles to convince in an emotionally inert attempt to resurrect one of the playwright’s lesser-known works

Though it won a Pulitzer prize in 1922, Eugene O’Neill’s social melodrama Anna Christie is not among the venerated playwright’s most famous works. For the better part of a century, ambitious theater artists have endeavored to climb the mountains of Long Day’s Journey Into Night and The Iceman Cometh. Less so for Anna Christie, a strange piece about a supposedly ruined woman trying to get her life back in order.

It’s an interesting choice of vehicle for star Michelle Williams, making her return to the stage after a nine-year hiatus. Anna Christie is an erratic and now quite dated play, one whose moral outlook is hard to parse, its shifts in tone sudden and varied. There’s also the matter that at 45, Williams is about a quarter-century older than O’Neill’s heroine, who is meant to be a hardened and battered young woman trying to start her adult life on new footing.

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© Photograph: Julieta Cervantes

© Photograph: Julieta Cervantes

© Photograph: Julieta Cervantes

Having lost the League Cup final to St Mirren, Celtic are "a diminished team with an uncertain manager, a furious support and a haunted board", writes Tom English.

JetBlue pilot calls incident ‘outrageous’ and says US military refueling tanker didn’t have transponder turned on

A JetBlue flight from the small Caribbean nation of Curaçao halted its ascent to avoid colliding with a US air force refueling tanker on Friday, and the pilot blamed the military plane for crossing his path.

“We almost had a midair collision up here,” the JetBlue pilot said, according to a recording of his conversation with air traffic control. “They passed directly in our flight path ... They don’t have their transponder turned on, it’s outrageous.”

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© Photograph: Mike Segar/Reuters

© Photograph: Mike Segar/Reuters

© Photograph: Mike Segar/Reuters

The three remaining couples will compete for the glitterball trophy in the final next weekend.

Brentford midfielder Jordan Henderson pays tribute to former Liverpool team-mate Diogo Jota after scoring in Sunday's draw against Leeds - his first Premier League goal since 2021.

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© Illustration: Ella Baron/The Guardian

© Illustration: Ella Baron/The Guardian

© Illustration: Ella Baron/The Guardian

Nick Woltemade's own goal was enough to give Sunderland a win over Newcastle in the first Premier League Tyne-Wear derby since 2016.

German striker was given a sarcastic ovation by the Sunderland fans after his inadvertent match winner

On numerous occasions during the 75 minutes he spent on the pitch during the Wear-Tyne derby, Nick Woltemade cut an extremely isolated, peripheral and forlorn figure in the opposition box. A bad afternoon for Newcastle’s German striker got significantly worse shortly after half-time when he cut an even more isolated, peripheral and forlorn figure in his own team’s box after inadvertently heading a Nordi Mukiele cross past Aaron Ramsdale from six yards out.

Woltemade’s embarrassing own goal proved to be the unwitting match-winner in a contest that had until that point been high on full-blooded aggression but low on moments of real quality. As he made way for Yoane Wissa, it was no surprise the Sunderland fans granted the visibly deflated 23-year-old a sarcastic ovation. A fan favourite on Tyneside until the 46th minute of this match, Woltemade has now pulled off the unlikely feat of winning a permanent, bitterly ironic place in mackem hearts.

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© Photograph: Phil Duncan/Every Second Media/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Phil Duncan/Every Second Media/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Phil Duncan/Every Second Media/Shutterstock

"It's a feeling of incredible happiness," says political prisoner Maria Kolesnikova, freed after more than five years.

• Manager says it will take time to turn club around

• Spence reaction to substitution will be investigated

Thomas Frank said Tottenham’s 3-0 defeat at Nottingham Forest offered a sobering reminder his side remain a “work in progress” and amid increasing scrutiny the head coach reiterated improving Spurs’s fortunes is “not a quick fix”, saying: “If no one gets the time, no one can turn this around.”

Spurs have been hit and miss since Frank took charge in June and are in mid-table in the Premier League after a run of one win in seven top-flight matches, though still only six points off fourth-placed Chelsea. Spurs registered a single shot on target at the City Ground, where Callum Hudson-Odoi scored twice and Ibrahim Sangaré sealed victory with a stunning first-time strike.

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© Photograph: Andrew Boyers/Action Images/Reuters

© Photograph: Andrew Boyers/Action Images/Reuters

© Photograph: Andrew Boyers/Action Images/Reuters

The Spey Viaduct forms part of the Speyside Way trail and is popular with both walkers and cyclists.

Communities express shock and solidarity after at least 12 people killed in Sydney at event marking start of Hanukah

• Bondi beach shooting: live updates

• What we know so far about the attack

Jewish communities across the world have reacted with shock, sadness and solidarity after what Australia’s prime minister described as a “targeted attack on Jewish Australians” at Bondi beach in Sydney.

On Sunday, as hundreds of people were gathered to celebrate the first day of Hanukah, the Jewish festival of lights, at least two individuals armed with guns began firing on crowds on the beach. At least 11 people were killed and 29 injured in what police designated as a terrorist attack. One of the alleged gunman was also killed, bringing the total number of dead to 12.

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© Photograph: Jessica Hromas/The Guardian

© Photograph: Jessica Hromas/The Guardian

© Photograph: Jessica Hromas/The Guardian

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical concepts

The dramatic chipmunk, distracted boyfriend, the raccoon with the candy floss or “success kid”, what is – or was – the absolute top, world-beating, best-ever internet meme? Antony Scacchi, Los Angeles, US

Post your answers (and new questions) below or send them to nq@theguardian.com. A selection will be published next Sunday.

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© Photograph: Posed by models; Daniel de la Hoz/Getty Images

© Photograph: Posed by models; Daniel de la Hoz/Getty Images

© Photograph: Posed by models; Daniel de la Hoz/Getty Images

Specialist rape and sexual offence investigation teams will be introduced to every police force in England and Wales by 2029.

Local media says one of the suspects is an imam at a mosque, and police allege he "called for a vehicle attack".

Jordan Henderson’s first goal for Brentford was cancelled out by a towering header from Dominic Calvert-Lewin

13 min It’s all fairly cagey. Leeds, who look very comfortable for a side who only recently switched to a back three, are having plenty of possession in the middle third.

9 min Almost a chance for Leeds, who have settled nicely on the ball. Bogle slides a pass down the side to Calvert-Lewin, who slips Van den Berg cleverly and guides a low ball into the six-yard box. Okafor is slightly on his heels and Brentford are able to clear.

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© Photograph: John Sibley/Action Images/Reuters

© Photograph: John Sibley/Action Images/Reuters

© Photograph: John Sibley/Action Images/Reuters

• Updates from big weekend of divisional matchups

• Get in touch: mail Graham about the games

TOUCHDOWN! Jaguars 7-0 Jets 10:18, 1st quarter

T Lawrence to B Thomas for 4 yards

D Maye 8-yard rush

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© Photograph: Katie Chin/AP

© Photograph: Katie Chin/AP

© Photograph: Katie Chin/AP

Alleged shooters in terror attack named as father and son as NSW health minister says death toll may rise

• Full report

• Victims named so far

• What we know about the Bondi terror attack

Amid the horror of the shooting, one video has emerged showing incredible bravery – a bystander rushing one of the gunmen from behind to wrestle the firearm off him.

Praised a hero, he is being identified by some media as a 43-year-old fruit shop owner from the Sutherland Shire.

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© Photograph: Steven Markham/AAP

© Photograph: Steven Markham/AAP

© Photograph: Steven Markham/AAP

Australia recorded 1,654 anti-Jewish incidents in year to September – three times higher than any annual total before Gaza war

• Bondi beach shooting – live updates

• What we know so far about the Bondi beach attack

Shortly after the mass shooting targeting Australia’s Jewish community on Sunday, Rabbi Levi Wolff of Central Sydney Synagogue told reporters that “the inevitable has happened now”.

Wolff was speaking in Bondi, close to where two men armed with powerful rifles or shotguns had just attacked an event celebrating Hanukah, the Jewish religious festival. At least 12 people were killed, including one alleged gunman, and dozens were injured in Australia’s deadliest mass shooting in almost three decades.

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© Photograph: David Gray/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: David Gray/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: David Gray/AFP/Getty Images