33-1 shot repels challenge of Jagwar and Vincenzo Race capped a week of events for Hunt Family Fund This was an afternoon at the track when the big-race result was secondary to the cause it was supporting. For Faye Bramley it also marked a huge step forward in her training career as Glengouly, a 33-1 outsider, made all the running to win the Support the Hunt Family Fund December Gold Cup. The Hunt Family Fund was set up by the BBC racing commentator, John Hunt, and his daughter, Amy, after the murder of his wife, Carol, and daughters, Hannah and Louise, to raise awareness of violence against women and support causes relating to young women. Continue reading...

Cuban foreign ministry called US military action ‘maritime terrorism’ under a policy of ‘economic suffocation’ Cuban officials have denounced the US seizure of the Skipper oil tanker off Venezuela’s coast on Wednesday, calling it an “act of piracy and maritime terrorism” as well as a “serious violation of international law” that hurts the Caribbean island nation and its people. “This action is part of the US escalation aimed at hampering Venezuela’s legitimate right to freely use and trade its natural resources with other nations, including the supplies of hydrocarbons to Cuba,” the Cuban foreign ministry statement said. Continue reading...

Nobel prize winner Ales Bialiatski and opposition figure Maria Kalesnikava among those freed after US talks with Alexander Lukashenko The Belarusian president, Alexander Lukashenko, freed 123 prisoners on Saturday, including Nobel peace prize winner Ales Bialiatski and leading opposition figure Maria Kalesnikava, after the US lifted sanctions on Belarusian potash, a key export. The announcement came after two days of talks with an envoy of the US president, Donald Trump, the latest diplomatic push since the Trump administration started talks with the autocratic leader. Continue reading...

Psychiatry professor theorizes that the difference is related to how the substances interact with areas of the brain A recent review of alternative treatments for obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) indicates that psychedelic treatments show promise for the disorder while cannabis does not. Dr Michael Van Ameringen, a psychiatry professor at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada and lead author of the review published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research, said that 40-60 % of OCD patients get either partial or no relief with available treatments, including SSRIs and exposure and response prevention therapy. Continue reading...

New business rates regime that is poised to hit pubs and hotels is latest example of hasty decision-making There is a heavy cloud hanging over Labour’s Christmas celebrations. The most recent figures show the economy is going backwards and worse, the slide is prompting recession talk in the corridors of City banks. Continue reading...

Ball will be replaced by Emma Willis but will continue to host special programmes for the station Zoe Ball has announced she is leaving her role as presenter of her BBC Radio 2 show. Speaking on the show, the 55-year-old said she would be replaced by the broadcaster Emma Willis. Ball will present her last programme next Saturday and will continue to host special programmes on the station. Continue reading...

Substitute scores late in 2-1 win over Valencia Simeone’s side had lost last two in the league Atlético Madrid’s Antoine Griezmann came off the bench to guide them to a 2-1 victory over struggling Valencia, helping snap their losing run in La Liga and stay in touch with the frontrunners. Koke opened the scoring in the 17th minute, his first league goal in nearly two years, but Lucas Beltrán provided the equaliser for the visitors in the 63rd minute with a stunning strike from the edge of the box. This story will be updated Continue reading...

Duchess of Sussex says journalistic ethics breached as dad turns to journalist first to break news of leg amputation When Thomas Markle received bad news about his health earlier this month, he immediately texted someone close to him to let them know. The 81-year-old had been admitted to hospital after one leg swelled up and turned black. “Going to lose the leg today,” he wrote. The message was not sent to his son, Thomas, who lives with him in Cebu in the Philippines, nor to his older daughter, Samantha, who is based in Florida. Instead, Markle contacted Caroline Graham, the US editor of the Mail on Sunday, who is based in Los Angeles. It was she who called Markle’s two older children to let them know the news. She wrote later that they were “flabbergasted”. Continue reading...

Preston up into third after 2-1 victory at Oxford Stoke battle past Swansea to boost playoff hopes Jovon Makama scored a second-half brace as Norwich boosted their bid to pull out of the Championship relegation zone with a battling 2-1 victory over Southampton at Carrow Road. Leading the line in the absence of Josh Sargent, who was missing due to concussion protocols, Makama struck in the 48th and 61st minutes to sink a Saints side who had won five out of six going into the lunchtime kick-off. Continue reading...

Arabella McCormack, 11, died after being tortured and starved by adoptive family and police and church failed to intervene A lawsuit over the death of an 11-year-old California girl who was allegedly tortured and starved by her adoptive family reached a settlement on Friday totaling $31.5m from the city and county of San Diego as well as other groups. The suit was brought on behalf of the two younger sisters of Arabella McCormack, who died in August 2022. The girls were ages six and seven at the time. Their adoptive mother, Leticia McCormack, and McCormack’s parents, Adella and Stanley Tom, are facing charges of murder, conspiracy, child abuse and torture. They pleaded not guilty to all charges, and their criminal case is ongoing. Continue reading...

A 26-year-old man is being remanded into custody and is in the process of being charged with criminal damage Two men have been arrested in relation to a “disgusting act of mindless vandalism” after a Christmas tree which had stood in a village for more than 10 years was cut down. On Wednesday, the tree in Shotton Colliery, County Durham, was felled sometime between 10pm and 11pm, just hours after the Christmas lights were switched on. Continue reading...

Scotland Yard says there will not be a criminal investigation into claims about Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor The Metropolitan police will not be launching a criminal investigation into reports that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor asked his personal bodyguard to investigate Virginia Giuffre, the force has said. More details soon … Continue reading...

Health secretary wrote to Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, urging her to ‘take heat and ideology’ out of debate Health secretary Wes Streeting has called on the Conservatives to maintain the “cross party consensus” on gender identity services built before the last election in a letter to Kemi Badenoch. Streeting wrote to opposition leader on Friday urging her to “take the heat and the ideology” out of debate amid controversy over a puberty blocker trial for children. Continue reading...

Arsenal climbed up to second in the Women’s Super League table as magnificent half-volleys from Katie McCabe and Olivia Smith helped them on their way to a valuable victory. It will have felt all the more satisfying for Arsenal in light of their rivals Chelsea having dropped valuable points against Everton last week. The north Londoners were momentarily given a scare when Honoka Hayashi’s superbly struck effort levelled the scores in a frenetic first-half spell, but that proved to be a rare Everton attack in a contest that was otherwise managed well by Arsenal’s midfield. Continue reading...

The OpenAI CEO gushed about the bot’s parental-assistance abilities. Is it really his best child-rearing hack? Just how does he do it all? Every time I look at the news, Sam Altman’s face seems to be staring back at me. The CEO of OpenAI, a well-known workaholic, is constantly in the public eye explaining how AI will probably cure cancer and transform the social contract and generally change the world. While doing all that he’s reportedly gearing up for OpenAI to file for a stock market listing valuing the company at $1tn, as soon as next year. And he’s also a new dad: Altman and his husband, Oliver Mulherin, welcomed their first child into the world in February. So he’s got a lot on his plate. Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Dense, 450-mile-long fog bank lingering over central valley as experts blames unusual combination of weather factors New Nasa satellite images reveal the scope of central California’s dreary December, caused by an enormous fog formation that has been haunting the Central Valley for weeks, trapping residents in colder-than-usual temperatures. The low cloud formation, known as tule fog, first formed over central California in November and persisted into early December. The Central Valley typically sees this type of fog during the colder months of the year, when the air near the ground is cold and moist, and the winds are calmer, allowing moisture in the air to transform into a thick layer of fog. Continue reading...

Ex-special forces colonel, who is sounding alarm on Russia, has risen swiftly to role of armed forces minister A former special forces colonel, government minister Al Carns was this week on manouevres warning that the UK needs to be preparing for war with Russia. “The shadow of war is knocking on Europe’s door once more. That’s the reality. We’ve got to be prepared to deter it,” he said, in comments that go beyond previous warnings by his boss, the defence secretary, John Healey. Continue reading...

Vonn denied second straight downhill win at St Moritz Aicher edges ageless American star by 0.24sec Vonn remains atop downhill standings after two races At 41, Lindsey Vonn is no longer defying expectations so much as resetting them. One day after becoming the oldest woman to win a World Cup race, the American came within a quarter-second of doing it again, finishing second in Saturday’s downhill at St Moritz behind Germany’s Emma Aicher. Less than 24 hours after rewriting the World Cup age record, Vonn briefly looked on course for another victory as she surged ahead of Italy’s Sofia Goggia on the sunlit Corviglia course. But Aicher, skiing immediately after her, attacked the increasingly rutted track and edged Vonn by 0.24 seconds to deny her a rare opening-weekend double. Continue reading...

Ince says he resigned after fallout with executives because some of his views had been considered ‘problematic’ The comedian and author Robin Ince has resigned from his role as co-host of the long-running BBC Radio 4 podcast The Infinite Monkey Cage after a fallout with BBC executives over “problematic” opinions and what he described as a lack of “obedience”. Ince, who has co-presented the popular science show alongside Prof Brian Cox for 16 years, posted on social media that his personal views, aired outside the BBC, “have been considered problematic for some time” and he “felt he had no choice but to resign”. Continue reading...

Teenager who first scrawled messages on pavement in protest at rightwing government did not expect so many others to follow suit Scrawled in chalk on the pavement near a secondary school in eastern Slovakia, the messages were short and to the point: “Enough Fico,” read one, echoing a popular anti-government slogan, while the other joked about the Slovakian prime minister providing sexual favours to Vladimir Putin. Appearing hours before the prime minister, Robert Fico, was due to speak at the school, the messages struck a nerve. Similar comments swiftly began sprouting up across Slovakian pavements in what was labelled the “Chalk Revolution” by some and “November Chalk Wave” by others. Continue reading...

The wife of the Trump adviser aims to entice conservative women into Maga – but like much of the rest of the movement, her sales pitch is fundamentally lacking When Katie Miller, the wife of Donald Trump’s powerful adviser Stephen Miller, interviewed Pete Hegseth on her podcast last week, she didn’t ask him about whether the war secretary had ordered the US military to kill the shipwrecked survivors of an airstrike. She didn’t ask him about the settlement he paid a woman who accused him of sexually assaulting her. Nor did she ask about allegations of alcohol abuse, or the accusation that he had made his ex-wife so terrified that she hid in a closet. Instead, when Hegseth and his wife, Jennifer Rauchet, appeared on the Katie Miller Podcast, the titular host asked questions like: “If you could write one Hegseth family rule on that whiteboard, what is that?” Continue reading...

Our resident Sweet Spotter had the (mis)fortune of eating a selection of widely available chocolate truffles to save you one more Christmas chore …. • The best supermarket mince pies, tasted and rated A perfect chocolate truffle, for me, has a fine, tempered shell that, with a soft, satisfying snap, gives way to a ganache that melts luxuriantly on the tongue (and, failing that delicate snap, then give me a classic bitter dusting of cocoa). Truffles may come in endless variations, but at their core, they are simply chocolate and cream, which makes the quality of both non-negotiable. A good dark chocolate, about 60-70% cocoa, brings complexity and depth without bitterness, while the right cream-to-chocolate ratio creates a ganache that’s smooth, rich and just soft enough to dissolve in the mouth. Any further additions such as salt, liqueur, citrus, coffee or spices should never be dominant. And, whatever the finish, be it cocoa powder, toasted nuts, coconut or a glossy shell, it should complement rather than compete with the chocolate ganache inside. Continue reading...

⚽ Premier League 3pm GMT kick-off updates and beyond ⚽ Live scores | Table | Follow us on Bluesky | Email John Good afternoon from London, where the sun is actually shining, though by the time we’re at half-time, darkness will be descending. Talking of which, can there be a happy send-off for Mohamed Salah? And that doesn’t have to one forever, of course. He, like many players will be heading to the Africa Cup of Nations, whatever happens. We await the team news from Liverpool’s game with Brighton. Just one other match at that time, though a significant one at the top of the table. Here are today’s 3pm UK time kick-offs. Chelsea v. Everton Liverpool v. Brighton Continue reading...

Veja doesn’t do surveys or freebies, hates greenwashing and Black Friday, and as demand for trainers wanes, it continues to go its own way In the grand hierarchy of Paris fashion, it’s tricky for a brand to stand out. Especially one whose coup de maître is a goes-with-everything white sneaker. Yet 20 years after Veja first began selling sustainable footwear, it has become the ultimate affordable It brand for scooter-wielding mums, sustainably minded millennials and A-list bigwigs who want to wear their values on their ethical leather-clad feet. Veja’s co-founder Sébastien Kopp says he doesn’t know if people buy his trainers because of how they are made or because of how they look. The company is fastidious about social and fairtrade practices, “but because we don’t do surveys, we don’t do marketing, we simply don’t know this information”, he says, speaking from Veja’s Paris headquarters. Continue reading...

Trump’s racist remarks on Ilhan Omar and Somali immigrants reveals his vision for the US as a white Christian nation A rally on affordability in Pennsylvania on 9 December devolved into a racist tirade when Donald Trump said to the crowd: “We only take people from shithole countries. Why can’t we have some people from Norway, Sweden, just a few? … From Denmark. Do you mind sending us a few people? Send us some nice people. But we always take people from Somalia, places that are a disaster, right? Filthy, dirty, disgusting, ridden with crime.” Referring to the US representative Ilhan Omar’s hijab as a “little turban”, Trump continued: “She should get the hell out. Throw her the hell out.” His supporters erupted in chants of: “Send her back.” Continue reading...