Draw to be made at 6.40pm GMT at St James Park FA Cup roundup: Weston-super-Mare into third round Email Will with any thoughts, hopes or dreams Fabio Borini scored on Friday night in Salford’s 4-0 win over Leyton Orient, which means I can shoehorn this interview I did with him earlier this season. Who will Macclesfield fancy? One of the big Manchester clubs? They did get to play against City back in the 1998-99 season in the old Second Division. Shaun Goater scored the winner at Moss Rose that season. Continue reading...

Leader John Swinney says independence could cut household energy bills by a third in the long term The future of Scottish renewables will underpin the Scottish National party’s Holyrood election campaign, the party leader, John Swinney, has said, as he claimed independence could cut household energy bills by a third in the long term. At what was billed as the first campaign event before next May’s elections to the Scottish parliament, Swinney declared: “It’s Scotland’s energy” – mirroring the famous 1970s slogan “It’s Scotland’s oil”, which bolstered the SNP’s first Westminster breakthrough. Continue reading...

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Nicolas Sarkozy’s new book, The Diary of a Prisoner, is being released this week – and also details the time he spent in jail Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy has said Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally (RN) party is “not a danger” to France, and he would not support a united front of parties against Le Pen at the next election. In his new book, written at a “small plywood table” in prison where he recently served 20 days of a sentence for criminal conspiracy, Sarkozy said many of his former supporters were now potential Le Pen voters, and he appeared to include the RN in his vision of a broad French right. Continue reading...

Linklater is missing from the best director list despite having two nominated films, and actors including Sydney Sweeney and Josh O’Connor are nowhere to be seen. It looks like Paul Thomas Anderson’s year Golden Globe nominations: One Battle After Another leads the charge Golden Globes 2026: full list of nominations It’s become traditional to look for the snubs in any award list – and heaven help anyone whose job it is to curate the “in memoriam” montage on the night and then the next morning apologise for the inevitable hurtful omissions. Snubs have become a cliche of awards season commentary, but you have to wonder about the best director list of this year’s Golden Globes nominations. No Richard Linklater? This amazing director actually has two films in the “best musical or comedy” section (so I guess he can’t really be that depressed). There’s his amazingly witty and poignant chamber piece Blue Moon, with Globe-nominated Ethan Hawke playing depressed Broadway lyricist Lorenz Hart, and his eerily accomplished pastiche-homage Nouvelle Vague, about the making of Godard’s classic Breathless, shot not in the boring old colour in which these events happened but in a beautifully realised monochrome – a little reverential for my tastes but still a marvellously accomplished picture. Two films in one year, and such different films. Quite a feat. Continue reading...

Actor, who starred in The Passion of the Christ, will play the disgraced ex-Brazilian president in film written by his one-time secretary of culture Jair Bolsonaro, the former Brazilian president now in prison for plotting a coup, is getting the biopic treatment. Jim Caviezel, who played Jesus in Mel Gibson’s 2004 film The Passion of the Christ, is reportedly filming a “heroic” portrait of the rightwing ex-politician in secret. Dark Horse, directed by Cyrus Nowrasteh and written by Mário Frias, who served as secretary of culture under Bolsonaro, started shooting three months ago in Brazil, where Bolsonaro served as president from 2019 until 2023. He was sentenced to 27 years and 3 months in prison in September 2025 for leading a criminal conspiracy to stop his leftwing rival, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, taking power, though his supporters deny the allegations and have compared the prosecution to the “lawfare” faced by Donald Trump before he was re-elected. Continue reading...

Charity worker had joined 40 demonstrators ‘bearing witness’ to the loss of three lime trees in Falmouth A charity worker suffered a head injury when police tried to remove her from a protest against trees being felled in a Cornish seaside town. Debs Newman, 60, was “bearing witness” to the loss of three mature lime trees in Falmouth when she was seized by officers. Continue reading...

Miner will have to do things by the book after ditching plan to pay bosses millions in bonuses after Teck deal Anglo American drops plan to pay bosses millions in bonuses Shareholder rebellions over executive pay aren’t what the used to be. In the past 18 months, bumper incentive arrangements for the bosses have been approved at AstraZeneca, the London Stock Exchange Group and Smith & Nephew. All those companies have managed to argue successfully that, since the bulk of their revenues are made on the other side of the Atlantic, the executives should be paid like Americans. Perhaps it was such favourable votes (for the executives) that persuaded the remuneration committee of FTSE 100 miner Anglo American that its cheeky “resolution 2” within the proposed $50bn all-share merger with the Canadian group Teck Resources wouldn’t cause a fuss. Continue reading...

Sagal Hassan and Dr Lisa Williams respond to the news that Wes Streeting has asked experts to investigate whether normal feelings have become ‘over-pathologised’ As a psychotherapist with child and adolescent mental health services, I welcome Wes Streeting’s change of heart on his comments about the “overdiagnosis” of mental health conditions, ADHD and autism (I realise now that my view on mental health overdiagnosis was divisive. We all need better evidence, 4 December). Political point-scoring has no place in public health. By setting up this taskforce, Streeting acknowledges the complexity of the picture and that conversations must be led by research, where science and suffering can be held together. Continue reading...

Readers respond after another former Dulwich college pupil spoke out with allegations of racist behaviour by the Reform UK leader Regarding Nigel Farage’s difficulty believing that people can remember schoolboy “banter” of more than four decades ago (Former Dulwich pupil says Farage told him: ‘That’s the way back to Africa’, 5 December), perhaps I can helpfully direct him to an African proverb: “The axe forgets, the tree never does.” This succinctly summarises the disparity in recollections of interactions between victims and perpetrators. Juliet Winstone Dorking, Surrey • “Farage has suggested that it is simply inconceivable that anyone could recall such events of over four decades ago,” says Yinka Bankole in your article. Such events that hurt children or young people, whether words or actions, are remembered for the whole of a lifetime. I remember a similarly unpleasant event that happened to me at the age of 13 on 14 February 1964. I could go to the exact spot. That was more than six decades ago, not four. Name and address supplied Continue reading...

Lindsay Patience says small tweaks to lighten teachers’ workloads are easy to implement and don’t cost much It is great to hear of school leaders considering innovative changes to working patterns to alleviate the workload on overburdened and underpaid teachers (Editorial, 3 December). However, there are many forms of flexible working that schools could offer that don’t require such significant changes to the weekly timetable and that are either cost-neutral or very low cost. Most teachers work in schools where they aren’t allowed to leave the site during their protected planning and assessment time. Many aren’t allowed time off to attend their own children’s school nativity services or class assemblies. We see large numbers of women returning from maternity leave and having their request to work part-time, or finish early a couple of days a week, turned down. Teachers are having their pay docked when they have to leave school early to attend to a poorly family member or when a hospital appointment runs late . Continue reading...

Readers respond to an article by John Harris on how the budget has left middle-income families anxious and angry John Harris’s stimulating article on the “squeezed middle” missed one area of concern for those of us trapped in it (The ‘squeezed middle’ is back – and this time it could be Labour’s undoing, 30 November). We knew that even if we’d paid our cheap mortgages off (lucky us), we would either have to downsize or have taken out our own pensions. We knew the state pension would never be enough. So we did. And if we were lucky, it covered the cracks. Except that when we retired, we were taxed again on our pensions, having already been taxed on the funds we used to take them out in the first place. Continue reading...

A photographer’s legacy | Getting in the Christmas spirit | Crossword cat | New dictionary entry | Peace prize for Putin Martin Parr’s photographs are full of wry humour and an affection for the quirkiness of life (Martin Parr, photographer acclaimed for observations of British life, dies aged 73, 7 December). He encouraged ordinary people to observe and celebrate the world around us. A few years ago, I had two photographs published on the Guardian’s letters pages, something that would never have happened to me in a million years had I not been inspired by Martin. Toby Wood Peterborough • I enjoyed the article on getting into the Christmas spirit (2 December). Please can Joel Snape provide a list of the 31 festive films he watches in December? For me, the festive feeling starts when I add the first house to my Marks & Spencer advent village bought in 1998 – and getting out my festive tea towels. Cathy I’Anson London Continue reading...

The answer to today’s engineering challenge Earlier today I asked you to reinvent a component of the sixteenth century Dutch sawmill, which – according to a new book – was the world’s first industrial machine. You can read that post here, along with some great BTL discussion about the world’s greatest inventions. (Spoon or spear? Plough or spectacles? Transistor or trousers?) Round and up Continue reading...

The minimum bet rule model is there in Australia for all to see and the Gambling Commission should act now Racing enjoyed its biggest win for many years in last month’s budget. The threatened harmonisation of duty rates for betting and gaming was not simply seen off, but routed, with the differential between the two rates significantly increased. As an added bonus, meanwhile, racing was excluded from the small rise in the duty rate for bets on football and other sporting events. Having celebrated the win, though, the next step is to ensure that the benefits are maximised. And since, in relative terms, racing has just become a more attractive product for bookmakers, what better moment could there be to address one of the major obstacles that many punters face when they want to bet on the horses? Continue reading...

The proposed acquisition would see yet more of Hollywood controlled by a tech company and one that doesn’t seem to care about the theatrical experience Did Netflix just exacerbate a bunch of seasonal affective disorders in cinephiles? Timed to ruin holidays like a round of end-of-year layoffs, the streaming giant announced plans to buy Warner Bros, a movie and television studio with a full-century legacy. It’s possible that the acquisition won’t actually go through – and if it does, it won’t be for at least a year. But the news still looms over year-end awards and list-making, and it’s going to take more than a jingle-bell heist to steal back any holiday cheer for the entertainment industry, much less halt the march of corporate consolidation and monopolization. Even more depressing: the entity that seems most able to take action against this is … another attempted consolidation. Paramount has launched a bid for a hostile takeover of Warner Bros Discovery, which would bring two big studios under one extremely Trump-friendly umbrella. This would almost certainly further cull the number of wide-release movies released each year. Depression might not seem like a rational response, especially for anyone who doesn’t actually work in said industry. (There are plenty of reasons that various unions are making their opposition to either sale known.) Yet the news last week had hundreds of film fans posting eulogies and defenses not just of Warner Bros as a studio – which on its own includes a vast history encompassing classics like Casablanca, The Adventures of Robin Hood, The Departed, Bonnie and Clyde, The Searchers, and The Matrix, among hundreds – but the very fabric of theatrical moviegoing. Continue reading...

Receiver of wrecks says finds of perishables do not have to be flagged, but council asks for space for clean-up operation It isn’t quite Whisky Galore! – the classic British film in which residents of a Scottish island attempt to pilfer 50,000 cases of spirit from a shipwreck. Rather than the prospect of finding a warming dram or two, people on the south coast of England have been coming across bunches of bananas after containers fell off the back of a ship and washed up on beaches in West Sussex. Continue reading...

Settlement also includes major changes to how church identifies and discloses past claims of abuse by clergy After more than five years of litigation, a federal bankruptcy judge has approved the Roman Catholic archdiocese of New Orleans’ proposal to pay $230m to roughly 600 survivors of sexual abuse by the church’s priests, deacons and other personnel. Judge Meredith Grabill on Monday confirmed the settlement, which also includes major changes to how the church identifies and discloses past claims of sexual abuse by clergy and protects children and vulnerable adults going forward. Continue reading...

Fly-half labels change a ‘backward step’ for sport ‘Unfortunately I think it’s changed how everybody plays’ The Gloucester fly-half Ross Byrne believes international head coaches could convert second-rows into wings for the next men’s Rugby World Cup in 2027 to capitalise on the crackdown on escort defenders. Last OctoberWorld Rugby instructed referees to scrutinise and punish defending teams obstructing opponents chasing high contestable kicks, a move that has had a profound tactical impact on the elite game. Continue reading...

Defense secretary’s comments recirculating amid dispute over US strikes on alleged drug boats in Caribbean The US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, stated repeatedly in 2016 on Fox News that US service members should refuse “unlawful” orders from a potential president Trump – exactly the position he called “despicable” when Democratic lawmakers said it last month. The debate about whether US soldiers should refuse illegal orders is now at the center of a fiery political dispute over the US killings of alleged drug traffickers in boats off the coast of Venezuela and Columbia. Continue reading...

A mindblowing new show reveals the human cost when the political system turns against the people, putting stories and faces to the hundreds of thousands of citizens thought to have died due to austerity The Museum of Austerity, which has just arrived in London having toured Manchester, Newcastle and Bristol, is such a simple idea: you put on a headset, and walk into an empty room. As you walk around, holograms appear; a man about to collapse, clinging to a wall with one hand; a woman leaning on a desk, such a plain image it could be any desk, but you know it’s a benefits office by her look of beseeching desperation; a man who has died in the street, his dog waiting for him to wake up. Approach any scene from the right angle, and the testimony of one of their relatives will start playing through the headset In 2022, a study in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health estimated that there had been over 330,000 excess deaths caused by austerity, one way or another, between 2012 and 2019. It was public knowledge and yet it was somehow too large to wrap your mind around: did it mean the coalition and then Conservative governments knowingly let people die? Or was it more a case of, modern life was different, and governments no longer took responsibility for whether or not people died? That seemed like a narrative everyone was more comfortable with, that these were straitened times, and the state no longer made health and life its core business. But how is that different to letting people die? And how is it comfortable? Continue reading...

Forget sprawling mansions or quirky architecture, Zoopla’s most-viewed listing in 2025 was notable for being relatively affordable and surrounded by countryside … Name: Britain’s most desirable home. Age: Newly crowned. Continue reading...

President hits out at false claims promoted by Donald Trump and Elon Musk that Afrikaner minority is being racially persecuted White supremacist ideology and false claims that South Africa’s Afrikaner minority is being racially persecuted pose a threat to South Africa’s sovereignty and national security, the country’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, has warned. Since taking office for his second US presidential term in January, Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed without evidence that South Africa’s government is seizing land and encouraging violence against white farmers. Continue reading...

From Franz Ferdinand fusing a basement pub’s lights to notorious high-rise flats just days before their demolition, a new show captures the changing city. Its photographers talk us through their shots In the mid-1960s, with a shot called Beatle Girl, Joseph McKenzie made one of the most enduring images of Glasgow. His photograph showed a youngster in the slums of the Gorbals wearing a dirtied dress. Smiling and holding a cane, she stands next to a young woman who is wearing a dress patterned with the faces of the Fab Four. Images like McKenzie’s, and the street photography of Oscar Marzaroli, came to define Glasgow’s distinctive character – its Victorian tenements, grit and hardiness – charting industrial boom and subsequent bust, cycles of dereliction, regeneration and demolition. But what happened next? Featuring 80 photographs by artists of different generations, Still Glasgow, at the city’s Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA), captures its changes and complexities through the eyes of people who have been there since the 1940s. Continue reading...

Virus caught by person who travelled to Asia combines more severe form of mpox with less virulent type Health officials have identified a new strain of mpox in England after a person who recently travelled to Asia was tested for the virus. Genome sequencing showed that the virus was a “recombinant” form containing elements of two types of mpox currently in circulation: the more severe clade 1, and the less virulent clade 2, which sparked the 2022 global mpox outbreak. Continue reading...