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.
One gunman was also killed and another wounded; two police officers among the injured taken to hospital
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.
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.
The beachside attack on Australia’s Jews, targeting a Hanukah gathering, reflects growing bigotry and political violence
The shock and horror that have rippled out from Bondi Beach across the world are immense. At least 11 people died at a place packed with families. A further 29 individuals suffered serious injuries. For Sunday evening’s shootings to occur in one of the most idyllic and quintessentially Australian of locations, at one of the most joyous times in the Jewish calendar, only deepens the fear and anguish felt throughout the Jewish community, across Australia and more broadly.
Authorities were quick to identify the attack as terrorism, targeting Jews as they gathered to celebrate the beginning of Hanukah on the beach. The two gunmen – one now dead, another critically injured as of Sunday night – fired on the crowds from a bridge. Parents ran with their children in their arms; elderly people struggled to flee. A car containing improvised explosive devices was found nearby and late on Sunday police were still searching for a possible third offender. Without the extraordinary courage of the man who single-handedly wrestled a gun from one attacker at the beach, and the swift response of others, this violence would probably have been still more devastating.
The US president’s claims to have ended eight conflicts look shakier than ever as conflict reignites in south-east Asia and the Democratic Republic of Congo
When the hastily confected Fifa world peace prize was bestowed on Donald Trump last week, the ceasefire in the Thai-Cambodian border dispute was among the achievements cited. Mr Trump also boasted of having ended war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He brags of having brought eight conflicts to a close and has just had the US Institute of Peace renamed in his honour.
Yet the truce between Thailand and Cambodia has already fallen apart. Half a million residents along the border have fled renewed fighting and civilians are among at least 27 people killed. Meanwhile, in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, at least 200,000 people have fled the advance of Rwanda-backed M23 rebels – days after a peace deal was signed in Washington.
Players and coaches need to realise they will not be immune if fortunes do not change in the third Test in Adelaide
There’s always a lot of white noise around an Ashes series but at the moment for England it must be overwhelming, not just given their performances in the first two Tests but because of the mid-tour break they’ve just been on, with assorted media and attention-seekers following them around the beaches of Noosa.
I absolutely understand that Brendon McCullum’s priority is to do what he believes is right for the team, but the optics around that trip were not great and many England fans, who have spent their hard-earned money travelling to Australia with little reward so far, will be quick to bring it up if they produce another poor display.
Former senator’s comments echo recent call from Erika Kirk that ‘everyone has responsibility’ to tone down hatred
Politicians should “calm down” and stop approaching one another in “attack mode” amid the US’s climate of political violence, former US senator Joe Manchin said on Sunday.
The West Virginia independent who generally caucused with Senate Democrats echoed similar comments made at a town hall Saturday by Erika Kirk, the widow of conservative political activist Charlie Kirk, who was shot to death in September.
Literary critic, essayist and academic known for his erudite and pugnacious judgments on writers and his fellow dons
John Carey, who has died aged 91, bestrode the ever-narrowing bridge that connects the academic teaching of English literature to the world of literary journalism like a colossus. An Oxford don for more than 40 years – 25 of them as Merton professor – he combined his professional duties with a half-century-long stint on the books pages of the Sunday Times. All this gained him a formidable reputation as the most erudite and possibly the most pugnacious critic of his generation.
Carey’s take-no-prisoners approach to the business of literary journalism was the distinguishing mark of his early descents on Grub Street. He was anti-elitist, anti-Bloomsbury, anti-anything that, as he saw it, patronised the tastes of ordinary readers or hindered their enjoyment of literature, and capable of wielding his pen like a scythe.
Celtic now find themselves firmly in a mid-season crisis. Three games for Wilfried Nancy as the manager have resulted in the same number of defeats. The paucity of Celtic’s display in this League Cup final was so striking and so alarming that it is already fair to ask questions about Nancy’s suitability for this role. Celtic look a mess.
How St Mirren capitalised. This will rank among the finest days in the Paisley club’s history. St Mirren’s second-half showing in particular was excellent. They were fully deserving winners. Celtic had no reply to St Mirren’s tactical discipline.
On the face of it Northampton are flying in the Champions Cup courtesy of two consecutive bonus points wins. The more pedantic-minded might also point out that both their opponents to date have fielded below-strength sides but when the qualifying sums are completed next month that will not be the top line statistic as far as the Saints’ management are concerned.
Because regardless of the depth of the resistance in front of them, Northampton are once again underlining their ability to pick apart sides who give them too much space and time. On this occasion they rattled up a total of eight tries, including a hat-trick for George Hendy, two for the fit-again Ollie Sleightholme and one for the roaming Henry Pollock who once again showed a glimpse or two of his rare talent.
Your obituary records how Tom Stoppard’s Jewish family, the Sträusslers – Eugen, a doctor working for Bata shoes, his wife, Marta, and their two small boys, Petr and Tomáš – were helped to escape from Czechoslovakia early in 1939, when Adolf Hitler was poised to invade the country.
My doctor in Nairobi, Dr Gellert, also Jewish, told me a story about this. He had been a friend and colleague of Sträussler in Czechoslovakia. The chief executive of Bata shoes, Jan Antonín Bat’a, gave Gellert a ticket for his family to go to the Bata factory in Singapore, and he gave Sträussler a ticket for his family to go to Nairobi, to another Bata factory. Thinking that Singapore sounded more interesting, Sträussler offered to swap tickets with his friend. Gellert agreed and the fatal exchange took place.
Exclusive: Analysis of NHS data shows rise in patients ‘stranded’ in beds as flu crisis hits and resident doctors’ strikes loom
Hospitals in England face dangerous overcrowding this winter because even more patients than last year are “stranded” in a bed, according to an analysis of NHS figures.
The findings come as the health service struggles to cope with the early onset of its usual winter crisis driven by a crippling “flu-nami” and the NHS in England is bracing itself for a five-day strike by resident doctors starting on Wednesday.
The percentage of bed days used by patients whose discharge was delayed rose from 10.1% in 2024 to 11% this year, an increase of 9% or 19,000 bed days.
That rise was driven by an 8% year-on-year rise in the number of discharges, equivalent to about 3,800 patients a month.
The number of the NHS’s overall stock of about 100,000 general and acute beds occupied last winter by delayed discharge patients hit a peak of 14%, but it is likely to be even higher this winter.
Dr Richard Hassall, Allen Frances and Natasha Fairbairn respond to a column by John Harris which argued that the health secretary should not jump on a rightwing bandwagon about mental health
John Harris is misguided in his criticism of Wes Streeting’s review of UK mental health services (The right’s callous overdiagnosis bandwagon is rolling. Wes Streeting should not be on it, 7 December). While this review will inevitably examine questions of overdiagnosis, Harris is wrong to imply that Streeting’s main motivation is political. There is nothing unusual, of course, about ministers making decisions based on political considerations, but there is rather more to the review than Harris indicates.
It hardly needs restating that mental health services are grossly overstretched and underresourced, and an inquiry is necessary. This is a particular problem in child and adolescent mental health services (Camhs). When I was working as a clinical psychologist and involved in a Camhs autism diagnosis team 15 years ago, the waiting time for an autism assessment was around four to six months. Nowadays a waiting time of up to two years is common.
They are not ‘bureaucrats’ who must be culled, writes Michael Joffe
The finding that one in seven GP referrals are getting lost, with harm to most of the patients involved (Thousands of patients in England at risk as GP referrals vanish into NHS ‘black hole’, 7 December), is no surprise to me. But it is not confined to GP referrals. Hospital patients are constantly in a similar position. I have experienced this myself many times, with investigations and/or outpatient appointments promised but never happening. Sometimes this follows an appointment being cancelled, with a “we will be in contact soon” message that turns out not to be true. Sometimes one just falls off the system, presumably included on a waiting list to be dealt with, that is then not dealt with. My experience is shared by large numbers of patients.
The administrators are, in my experience, competent and dedicated people – but the system is not working. The commonly heard complaint that “there’s too much bureaucracy in the NHS” is wrong. What is needed is a well-managed administrative system, where the chief priority is that somebody is responsible for ensuring coordination, and that gaps are filled, eg when an administrator is on leave, ill, or moves to a different job. The present dire situation also means that nurses and doctors have to add administrative tasks to their already-heavy workload, adding to their stress and burnout.
Australia is showing what is possible by not succumbing to the pressures of big tech. The UK needs to follow its lead, says Daniel Kebede
Lisa Nandy’s suggestion that an Australian-style restriction on social media for under-16s would lead to prosecuting children is a distraction (Young people have faced ‘violent indifference’ for decades, Lisa Nandy says, 9 December). No one is calling for teenagers to be criminalised for using platforms designed to keep them hooked. The responsibility lies squarely with the tech companies that profit from exposing children to harm. Why does the government still allow systems that erode childhood for commercial gain?
Teachers and parents witness the fallout daily: pupils too anxious and distracted to learn, children awake into the night because notifications demand constant attention, bullying that never ends, and content that pushes young people to extremes. This is not poor parenting or teaching – it is caused by the exploitative business models at the core of these addictive platforms.
DanceEast, Ipswich This colourful quest story is stylishly simplified for a young audience and an energetic cast of just four, choreographed by Luca Silvestrini to a melodious Frank Moon score
One of the things that’s so successful about this all-ages version of The Magic Flute is the way it effortlessly synthesises all of its ingredients – dance, text, operatic arias and a dreamy-folky reinterpretation of Mozart’s score – in service to the story. And that famously fantastically convoluted narrative is presented clearly enough for everyone to understand (recommended age is five-plus, and it’s delightful for grownups too).
Papageno the bird catcher is played with bags of personality by the brilliant Nathan Bartman, he’s cheeky and big-hearted with more than enough warm energy to fill the stage. Prince Tamino (Jacob Lang) is his more earnest foil, and the choreography sends them both in easy arcs, lilting and circling across the stage as they set off to find Princess Pamina (Faith Prendergast). Multitalented soprano Donna Lennard, meanwhile, swaps between roles, as comfortable landing the leaping notes of the Queen of the Night’s famous Der Hölle Rache aria, as she is dancing or making winking asides to the audience.
Long before the shocking killings in Sydney, the threat of antisemitic violence was often left unchallenged. That must change
Like all Australians, Bondi isn’t just a place to me, it lives in my heart as a symbol of who we are. As a child I spent many Sundays on the beach at North Bondi life-savers as a “nipper”, and as a former mayor of Waverley council and a local councillor for more than a decade, I have walked its concrete ramparts thousands of times, in all its seasons.
In a few weeks, visitors from every corner of the globe will gather there to celebrate Christmas. For locals, it is a place of peace and play. For the small Jewish community, it is also a place where festivals are marked openly and proudly.
Details of financing structure to be reviewed by culture secretary and regulators before deal can proceed
The owner of the Daily Mail has secured funding for a £500m takeover of the Telegraph, in a crucial development that paves the way for the group to announce the terms of its acquisition on Monday.
Lord Rothermere’s Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT) has agreed to pay the sum in two instalments, according to weekend reports. An initial payment of £400m will be funded by an increase in the group’s debt with its longstanding lender NatWest and existing company cash.
Eddie Howe is not the first, and is unlikely to be the last, manager outwitted by Régis Le Bris this season but few are likely to find the experience quite as painful.
Losing this most febrile of local derbies is a big deal and in past seasons has prompted Ruud Gullit and, later, Alan Pardew to swiftly relinquish their posts as Newcastle manager. Howe has far too much credit in the bank to contemplate such a notion, but a reverse sealed by Nick Woltemade’s spectacular headed own goal was still intensely chastening for a coach whose side never really got going.
When can Aston Villa dare to dream? When will Unai Emery accept that talk of a title challenge is far from fanciful?
Villa’s standards dropped and their legs looked heavy but their hunger knows no bounds at the moment. They were stretched by West Ham, who led twice before squandering a vital win in their battle against relegation, and still Emery’s indefatigable side dug deep for a response before emerging victorious for the 15th time in 17 games thanks to a virtuoso display from Morgan Rogers inspiring a second-half turnaround.
Just as Tottenham appeared to be generating some momentum, they put on a limp display and suffer an embarrassing defeat at Nottingham Forest. Ibrahim Sangaré leathered in a sensational first-time strike in off an upright that pinballed around Guglielmo Vicario’s net to cap the 3-0 victory and a deeply satisfying week for Sean Dyche, whose side established some welcome daylight between them and the relegation zone, moving five points clear of West Ham.
An unedifying defeat for Spurs was underpinned by another erratic performance by their goalkeeper, who was at fault for Forest’s first two goals, both scored by Callum Hudson-Odoi; Vicario’s hospital pass led to the opener and his positioning was exposed for a freakish second. By the end, the olés were out in force on a truly miserable afternoon for Thomas Frank.
Even in a week when they have beaten the mighty Real Madrid in the Santiago Bernabéu, this ranked as one of Pep Guardiola’s most satisfying victories of the season.
It was Oliver Glasner who condemned the Manchester City manager to his first season without a major trophy since his first year in English football, when Crystal Palace enjoyed the greatest day in their history at the FA Cup final in May. So outsmarting one of the Premier League’s shrewdest operators gave Guardiola extra contentment, not to mention helping City to move back to within two points of Arsenal.
Campaigners call for quarterly data to be published in line with other departments instead of FoI route
Human rights and refugee campaigners are calling on the Home Office to be transparent about the numbers of asylum seekers who die in its care by publishing quarterly data as other government departments do.
The only way to obtain data about asylum seeker deaths is via freedom of information (FoI) requests to the Home Office, which officials do not always comply with. However, the NHS produces regular figures about deaths in hospitals and the Ministry of Justice does so with deaths in custody.
In an economy that rewards confession and self-labeling, pain is no longer something to survive – but something to brand, sell, and curate
In March 2023, Dr Gabor Maté, a retired family physician and among the most respected trauma experts in the world, boldly diagnosed Prince Harry with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), during a live interview.
Having read the Duke of Sussex’s ghost-written memoir, Spare, Maté said that he had arrived upon “several diagnoses” that also included depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder. These were not evidence of disease per se, Maté went on to elaborate. Rather, he said: “I see it as a normal response to abnormal stress.”
With cheap drinks and friendly locals, Jimmy’s Corner is a New York institution. But a real-estate developer has ordered its closure – can it survive?
Founded by Jimmy Glenn, a former boxer turned trainer, in 1971, Jimmy’s Corner has stood, defiantly unchanged, as Times Square has boomed around it.
The neighborhood bar, a New York City institution which attracts locals and tourists alike, has had the same pictures on the walls for decades – some of the bar’s regulars have been coming almost as long – kept the same furniture, and maintained remarkably low pricing. In a perhaps unintentional nod to its history, there is also several years’ accumulation of dust in some areas.
In his joyous new comedy Finding Father Christmas, the star is on a mission to prove Santa really exists – and he’s got Stephen Fry to help him! He talks magic, trampoline mayhem and finally getting behind the wheel of a car
It’s time for a father to have an awkward conversation with his teenage son. No, not that one. This is far worse – Chris is 16 and still believes in Father Christmas. He needs to know the truth: all the presents, the fake snow on the roof, the soot in the grate, it was all his dad. “You’re Father Christmas?” says Chris, astonished. “You bring joy and happiness to billions of children all over the world?”
In Finding Father Christmas, Channel 4’s funny and moving comedy, Chris, played by Lenny Rush, bunks off school and sets out on a mission with his older cousin Holly (Ele McKenzie) to prove to his sceptic dad that Santa is real. Poring over a photograph taken at a celebrity party, Chris thinks he has identified four people who may have secret links to Santa – Stephen Fry, mathematician Prof Hannah Fry, the space scientist Maggie Aderin-Pocock and SAS: Who Dares Wins star Jason Fox. Finally, he follows clues to a secret secure facility in Milton Keynes and breaks in with the help of a mini trampoline and the magic of television (a bungee cord). “It was terrifying, but so much fun,” says Rush of the stunt. “I feel like if I was offered [to do it] and I said no, I’d kick myself on the way home. I wanted to give it a go and I’m happy I did. But there was an element of fear.”
Khadija Shaw’s phenomenal scoring record for Manchester City was extended to 103 goals in all competitions, with a stunning four goals in the league leaders’ 6-1 defeat of Aston Villa.
It was Shaw’s 120th appearance for City in all competitions and the Jamaica forward struck twice in the first half at the Joie Stadium to give City a commanding lead before Aoba Fujino and Vivianne Miedema scored either side of Lucy Parker’s goal for Villa.
Agency added Mary Carole McDonnell to Most Wanted list for loan fraud tied to phony heiress story
When Nigel Bellis went to work as a show runner for Bellum Entertainment in 2017, a friend gave him a warning: “They have a habit of not paying on time.”
Bellis spent the next several months in New Orleans, helping churn out more than 50 episodes of a true-crime TV show called Murderous Affairs. Though his payments came late, they always arrived. So when the company’s owner, Mary Carole McDonnell, offered him a new role in Los Angeles, he took it.
Howard Assembly Room, Leeds A TV cookery star becomes the main course, while doomed vegetables and a depressive egg create havoc, in this darkly comic show by the Scottish artist and composer David Fennessy at Opera North
Spare a thought for Amy J Payne, the gutsy mezzo-soprano who plays the title role in Opera North’s Pass the Spoon. Divas, of course, are used to leaping from castle walls or being swept away in avalanches but seldom is a singer required to be swallowed whole by a monstrous gourmand. Payne plays June Spoon, the vociferous host of a TV cookery programme, and whether or not she will be “passed” or, alas, be turned into excrement is the 11th-hour dilemma in this frankly bonkers show.
The idea was cooked up (pardon the pun) back in 2008 when Irish composer David Fennessy and director Nicholas Bone hooked up with David Shrigley, the visual artist famous for his distinctive, darkly humorous line drawings and witty captions. Described as “a sort-of opera,” it premiered at Glasgow’s Tramway in 2011.
British police forces are stepping up security in Jewish communities after the antisemitic terror attack that left 12 people dead on Bondi beach in Australia.
The Metropolitan police said they were increasing their presence around synagogues and other venues in London, where tens of thousands of Jews are celebrating Hanukah.
Talking of Brobbey, it’s an absolute crime if he doesn’t get a song to this, no 1 on this day on in 1993.
If I was a rich club looking for a midfielder, I’d be very interested in Noah Sadiki, who has a bit of everything. My guess is Sunderland look to run Newcastle off the pitch in midfield – not easily done – and to play off Brobbey, with Enzo Le Fee their wildcard. If they can get him on the ball, they’ll hope he can pick runs in behind with balls slid down the sides of defenders, and I’d also expect plenty of crosses and box-crashing from the midfielders.
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, just released a statement. He said:
The scenes in Bondi are shocking and distressing. Police and emergency responders are on the ground working to save lives. My thoughts are with every person affected.
I just have spoken to the AFP Commissioner and the NSW Premier. We are working with NSW Police and will provide further updates as more information is confirmed.
I urge people in the vicinity to follow information from the NSW Police.
Laurienté equalises for visitors after defender’s two goals
Real Sociedad sack Sergio Francisco after Girona defeat
Milan had to settle for a 2-2 draw against Sassuolo at San Siro after Armand Lauriente’s late strike for the visitors ensured the Serie A title race remains finely poised. Milan are top by one point with 32 points from 15 matches but can be overtaken by Napoli, the defending champions, who visit 12th-placed Udinese later on Sunday. Sassuolo sit ninth on 21 points.
The visitors stunned Milan in the 13th minute when Andrea Pinamonti’s clever layoff set up the midfielder Ismaël Koné, who expertly chipped Mike Maignan to open the scoring.
Hundreds of sausage dogs gather for annual festive parade that organiser started to help her puppy socialise
The pitter-patter of tiny paws has brought joy – and more than a little chaos – to Hyde Park in London as hundreds of dachshunds and their owners gathered for the annual sausage dog Christmas walk.
Now in its eighth year, the event was started by Ana Rodriguez as a way to help her dachshund, Winston, socialise as a puppy. Meeting at noon by the Physical Energy statue in the centre of the park, the dogs – well, the owners really – competed in a best-dressed competition before enjoying an hour of play and socialising before the parade. Rodriguez said previous years’ events had ended up attracting as many as a thousand people and dogs.
The president announces non-existent emergencies to invoke extraordinary powers – and neutralizes the opposition
This month, we learned that, in the course of bombing a boat of suspected drug smugglers, the US military intentionally killed two survivors clinging to the wreckage after its initial air assault. In addition, Donald Trump said it was seditious for Democratic members of Congress to inform members of the military that they can, and indeed, must, resist patently illegal orders, and the FBI and Pentagon are reportedly investigating the members’ speech. Those related developments – the murder of civilians and an attack on free speech – exemplify two of Trump’s principal tactics in his second term. The first involves the assertion of extraordinary emergency powers in the absence of any actual emergency. The second seeks to suppress dissent by punishing those who dare to raise their voices. Both moves have been replicated time and time again since January 2025. How courts and the public respond will determine the future of constitutional democracy in the United States.
Nothing is more essential to a liberal democracy than the rule of law – that is, the notion that a democratic government is guided by laws, not discretionary whims; that the laws respect basic liberties for all; and that independent courts have the authority to hold political officials accountable when they violate those laws. These principles, forged in the United Kingdom, adopted and revised by the United States, are the bedrock of constitutional democracy. But they depend on courts being willing and able to check government abuse, and citizens exercising their rights to speak out in defense of the fundamental values when those values are under attack.
David Cole is the Honorable George J Mitchell professor in law and public policy at Georgetown University and former national legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union. This essay is adapted from his international rule of law lecture sponsored by the Bar Council.
For years it’s been predicted that the market for male ‘support garments’ will take off … but it hasn’t quite happened. Now M&S is trying again
There is a moment – just seconds into getting dressed – when I think I might panic. The hem of my stretchy top has got rolled up round my ribs before my head has popped out of the neck hole, and with my hands still stuck in the sleeves, I cannot reach round to pull it down. I wriggle helplessly for a minute, but the situation doesn’t improve; the band of rolled-up fabric is taut across my chest, immovable. That’s when I feel the first tingle of rising alarm – so familiar from early childhood – that comes of being trapped in your clothes.
I am trying, for the first time, to put on an item of shapewear for men – an ordinary-looking, highly elasticated long-sleeved workout top that will, I hope, give me the instant slim profile of someone who goes to the gym regularly, instead of not since the pandemic started.
When I was 19, I commuted to work every morning on an express bus. It was perpetually crowded and would always be standing room only by the time I got on.
One particular morning, I was feeling quite nauseous as the bus swayed around each corner. I kept telling myself to hold on another few kilometres until the bus got to my stop, and then I could make a mad dash for the nearest public toilet to throw up.
Australian researchers think the skeleton found in South Africa is not the same species as two found in the same South Africa cave system
Little Foot, one of the world’s most complete hominin fossils, may be a new species of human ancestor, according to research that raises questions about our evolutionary past.
Publicly unveiled in 2017, Little Foot is the most complete Australopithecus skeleton ever found. The foot bones that lend the fossil its name were first discovered in South Africa 1994, leading to a painstaking excavation over 20 years in the Sterkfontein cave system.
I see in Christmas an invitation to see differently: God in the social outcast, life on the margins reimagined as the centre of gravity
Do you want to be influential?
So do 57% of Gen Zs in the US who aspire to be influencers, presumably lured by money and fame. But say you also want to make the world a better place. In that case, maybe the spiritual instruction you need emerges in the famous final lines of George Eliot’s 1871 novel Middlemarch:
Justine Toh is senior research fellow at the Centre for Public Christianity.
The Nip/Tuck and Downton Abbey star on losing her sister, growing up in a theatrical dynasty, and how she feels about ageing
Born in London in 1965, Joely Richardson is an actor and campaigner. The daughter of actor Vanessa Redgrave and director and producer Tony Richardson, she trained at Rada, and rose to prominence with roles in 101 Dalmatians, Nip/Tuck and The Tudors, as well as in theatre and on Broadway. More recently, she appeared in Guy Ritchie’s The Gentlemen, and Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale. Richardson is working for Save the Children’s annual festive fundraiser, Christmas Jumper Day, and also backing the charity’s new Christmas campaign.
I remember this as a happy day, but my eyes tell a different story. They look a little mistrustful. In my arms is my brother Carlo – we have different fathers; his is Italian actor Franco Nero. That day was Carlo’s christening, and it was obvious from my hand position that I’m not used to standing like that. Someone’s gone: “Put your arms out! We’re taking a picture of you holding the baby!” The whole thing looks awkward.
The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions takes a quizzical look at human nature. Why hasn’t it advanced along with other forms of progress? Or has it?
Over the course of human evolution, our brains, our knowledge, technology, healthcare and longevity have advanced hugely. Why has human nature not evolved at the same rate? It seems to me that every country has criminals and every age in history had warfare. We seem to be as morally primitive as our distant ancestors. Why are we not better people? John Gorrill, Cumberland
The potential demand that visitors to the US hand over their social media records, or even their phones, opens up a world of embarrassment
As someone with a child in the US, this new Trump threat to scrutinise tourists’ social media is concerning. Providing my user name would be OK – the authorities would get sick of scrolling through chicken pics before they found anything critical of their Glorious Leader – but what if I have to hand over my phone at the border, as has happened to some travellers already? I would rather get deported.
There’s nothing criminal or egregiously immoral on there; I don’t foment revolution or indulge in Trump trolling, tempting as that would be. But my phone does not paint a flattering picture of me. Does anyone’s? Those shiny black rectangles have become contemporary confessionals, and we would like to believe they abide by the same kind of confidentiality rules.
“Nobody is expecting a toilet police” but people should follow the rules when guidance is finally issued on single-sex spaces, the chair of the equalities watchdog has said.
Mary-Ann Stephenson said that “generally speaking, we expect people to follow the rules and make sure that there is adequate provision”.
A bystander tackled and wrestled a gun from one of the two alleged gunman during the Bondi beach mass shooting in which at least 12 people were killed, footage shows.
Video of the scene shows the alleged gunman standing on a footpath between a grassy area and parking lot holding a long-barrelled weapon and firing into the distance.
The former health minister Andrew Gwynne has dismissed as “idle speculation” reports he could resign his seat as part of an Andy Burnham “coup” against Keir Starmer.
Allies of Burnham were reported on Sunday to have identified a shortlist of seats to allow the Greater Manchester mayor to return to Westminster in the new year.
Black and brown former employees from CBS, NBC and Teen Vogue talk about the effects of being let go
Trey Sherman was traveling to work on the New York subway when he received an email from David Reiter, a CBS News executive, about an imminent meeting on 29 October. Sherman, an associate producer of CBS Evening News Plus at the time, suspected that he would be laid off. CBS News’s parent company, Paramount, had closed a merger with the Hollywood studio Skydance in August, and planned to slash more than 2,000 jobs as part of corporate restructuring.
Sherman, who is Black, and Reiter, who is white, had an amicable conversation, according to Sherman. Reiter told Sherman that he was being laid off because his show was being eliminated, Sherman said, and that Reiter was unable to assign the team to other positions. Sherman accepted the news and the two men wished each other good luck.
Whether it’s nightclubs banning phones or a drop in online dating, there are signs that we’re rediscovering the joy of being in the moment
It’s only a small rectangular sticker, but it symbolises a joyous sense of resistance. Some of Berlin’s most renowned clubs have long insisted that the camera lenses on their clientele’s phones must be covered up using this simple method, to ensure that everyone is present in the moment and people can let go without fear of their image suddenly appearing on some online platform. As one DJ puts it, “Do you really want to be in someone’s picture in your jockstrap?”
Venues in London, Manchester and New York now enforce the same rules. Last week brought news of the return of Sankeys, the famous Mancunian club that closed nearly a decade ago, and is reopening in a 500-capacity space in the heart of the city. The aim, it seems, is to fly in the face of the massed closures of such venues, and revive the idea that our metropolises should host the kind of nights that stretch into the following morning. But there is another basic principle at work: phones will reportedly either be stickered or forbidden. “People need to stop taking pictures and start dancing to the beat,” said one of the club’s original founders.
John Harris is a Guardian columnist. His book Maybe I’m Amazed: A Story of Love and Connection in Ten Songs is available from the Guardian bookshop
From athletes such as Tristan Thompson to artists such as Iggy Azalea, celebrities have returned to hawking crypto
Following the numbers suggests Tristan Thompson is nearing the end of his basketball career. While the 6ft 9in center once regularly played more than 80 games in a regular season, he’s hit new career lows, appearing just 40 times on court during the 2024-2025 season. Following the money, however, suggests Thompson is pivoting into a new career. He’s rebranded as a crypto investor, consultant and brand ambassador, bringing his relative cultural cache to the blockchain. Now the host of his own podcast, Courtside Crypto, he has made frequent appearances with other crypto celebrities, such as at the Nasdaq in September, when he celebrated the IPO of an explicitly nationalist Bitcoin mining operation alongside Eric Trump; Thompson has also developed a crypto startup slated to launch in 2026.
In 2025, crypto is back in style in Washington and among a growing set in Hollywood, where Thompson lives adjacent to the Kardashian clan, some of whom have been crypto spokespeople. Donald Trump has reversed Joe Biden’s legal offensive against crypto, debuting his own token, $Trump, before his inauguration, and rolling back government actions against the industry, which heavily supported him during his bid for the presidency. Celebrities have likewise returned to hawking cryptocurrency projects or launching tokens of their own.
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