North Korea leader speaks of ‘really meaningful year’ for alliance with Moscow; Zelenskyy accuses Russia of using Belarus apartments to attack Ukraine. What we know on day 1,403 Continue reading...

Royals are reported to plan separate trips, after Donald Trump paused implementation of agreement King Charles III and the Prince of Wales are expected to make separate trips to the US in 2026 as part of a campaign to revitalise a trade deal with Donald Trump, it has been reported. Advanced talks on a visit by the king are said to be under way, the Times reported. The paper suggested that Charles’s visit to the US was likely to take place in April. Continue reading...

Christian Aid annual report’s top 10 disasters amounted to more than $120bn in insured losses Cyclones and floods in south-east Asia this autumn killed more than 1,750 people and caused more than $25bn (£19bn) in damage, while the death toll from California wildfires topped 400 people, with $60bn in damage, according to research on the costliest climate-related disasters of the year. China’s devastating floods, in which thousands of people were displaced, were the third most expensive, causing about $12bn in damage, with at least 30 lives lost. Continue reading...

Australia edge England in frenetic opening to Boxing Day Test Over-by-over updates from Melbourne Cricket Ground Live scorecard | Geoff Lemon on Australia’s bowlers A record 94,199 spectators turned up to the MCG on Boxing Day and none will forget what they witnessed. An extraordinary 20 wickets fell on a pitch offering lavish movement and it left Cricket Australia fearing a second multimillion-dollar loss in this Ashes series. The first of these came in Perth, when a two-day bunfight triggered mass refunds and had visiting fans scrambling to book sightseeing trips. This fourth Test always had the ingredients for a repeat, not just a surface with 10mm of grass but also a touring side in England who, having lost the Ashes and with criticism flying, looked broken before the coin even went up. Continue reading...

Boxing Day’s sole Premier League fixture tingled the senses and was graced by Patrick Dorgu’s killer finish that claimed the points and moved Manchester United up to a season-high fifth. They could – and maybe should – have been limited to a draw because Newcastle United dominated the second period as their hosts’ rhythm went awry. But Newcastle’s problem was a lack of teeth. Towards the end Joelinton pulled the trigger with the goal begging but he drilled into Senne Lammens’ gloves. Later, Joe Willock did the same with a cross. Then Anthony Gordon missed another clear chance. Continue reading...

Starting as a roadie and guitar tech, Bamonte joined the band in 1990 after its breakthrough album Disintegration Perry Archangelo Bamonte, longtime guitarist and keyboardist for the influential goth band the Cure, has died. He was 65. The band made the announcement on their official website on Friday. Continue reading...

Christmas in Kyiv, destruction in the West Bank, the funeral of Mani and the winter solstice at Stonehenge: the past seven days as captured by the world’s leading photojournalists Continue reading...

Long-serving workers say they faced racism as they helped build health service – but it ‘seems things have got worse’ Foreign medics are shunning the NHS because of anti-migrant rhetoric, says top doctor “I am fed up of being called names. I know I am Black. I was born Black. And I love being Black. So tell me something I don’t know.” Those words, uttered 50 years ago as a young nurse facing regular racial abuse from patients on a London hospital ward, were a turning point in Allyson Williams’s life and career. Continue reading...

Exclusive: UK an ‘unwelcoming, racist’ country for overseas health workers, according to medical colleges leader ‘The NHS would collapse within hours’: BME staff say Britain fails to appreciate their roles Foreign doctors and nurses are increasingly shunning the NHS because anti-migrant rhetoric and rising racism have created “a hostile environment”, the leader of Britain’s medics has warned. The health service is being put at risk because overseas health professionals increasingly see the UK as an “unwelcoming, racist” country, in part because of the government’s tough approach to immigration, Jeanette Dickson said. Continue reading...

Sale 43-17 Harlequins Flanker scores two tries to help Sale romp to victory For Sale and Alex Sanderson a bonus-point victory which harvested seven tries was surely beyond their wildest imagination. But for Harlequins the abject misery and humiliation continues after a shocking second-half capitulation as they surrendered a 17-12 interval lead to ship 31 unanswered second-half points. Continue reading...

Emergency services were called to property in Brimscombe Hill in Gloucestershire at about 3am Three people are missing after a house fire in the early hours of the morning on Boxing Day, police have said. Emergency services were called to a report of a fire at a property on Brimscombe Hill, near Stroud, Gloucestershire at about 3am on the 26 December. Continue reading...

⚽ Premier League updates from the 8pm GMT kick-off ⚽ Live scores | Table | Mail Scott The full Boxing Day fixture list for England’s top flight reads as follows: Manchester United v Newcastle United Continue reading...

Scholar of Charles Dickens who wrote a definitive biography and shone a light on the the writer’s more neglected works Michael Slater, who has died aged 88, was an expert on the life and writings of Charles Dickens. He sought to engage the widest possible readership in Dickens’s work, and to bring into the public domain all those writings that still lay in the shadows cast by the canonical novels and popular Christmas books. His biography Charles Dickens: A Life Defined by Writing (2009) gives a detailed account of Dickens’s life and the full range of his work, bringing out the web of connections between the two. He produced a four-volume edition of Dickens’ Journalism (1994-2000, with volume four co-edited with John Drew), and from 1993 was series editor of the multi-volume Everyman Dickens: all the novels, most of the minor works, the travel books, the writings for children, and the mass of hitherto neglected short stories culled from Dickens’s journals. Michael was excited by the range, richness and diversity of Dickens’s writings, and wanted them to excite others. His work significantly advanced Dickens’s reputation and opened new fields for research. Continue reading...

Special rapporteurs say handling of prisoners raises questions over UK’s obligations under human rights laws UN experts have expressed “grave concern” for the wellbeing of Palestine Action-affiliated hunger strikers and warned their treatment raises questions about the UK’s compliance with international human rights laws. Eight prisoners have been on hunger strike while awaiting trial for alleged offences relating to Palestine Action before the group was banned under terrorism legislation. Qesser Zuhrah, 20, and Amu Gib, 30, who are being held at HMP Bronzefield in Surrey, were on hunger strike from 2 November to 23 December. Heba Muraisi, 31, who is at HMP New Hall, joined the pair on 3 November. The group also includes Teuta Hoxha, 29, Kamran Ahmed, 28, and Lewie Chiaramello, 22, who is refusing food every other day because he has diabetes. Continue reading...

Stevenson Charles, Yusuf Minor and Naod Yohannes, all incarcerated for murder, recaptured on Tuesday Three men who escaped from a Georgia jail for three days hijacked a Lyft rideshare as part of a brazen attempt to flee to south Florida, according to newly released federal court documents. Stevenson Charles, 24; Yusuf Minor, 31; and Naod Yohannes, 25, are accused of escaping from the DeKalb county jail, located 15 miles (24km) outside Atlanta, on Sunday before being recaptured in Florida on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Family say campaigner, who has a son in Brighton, will be able to travel freely between UK and Cairo months after his release from Egyptian jail The British-Egyptian dissident Alaa Abd el-Fattah has arrived in London after the Egyptian government lifted a travel ban that it had imposed on him despite releasing him from jail in September. Abd el-Fattah had been held in jail nearly continuously for 10 years, mainly due to expressing his opposition to the treatment of dissidents by the Egyptian government. He had been detained in jail two years beyond his five-year sentence as the Cairo authorities refused to recognise the period he held in pre-trial detention as part of his time served. Continue reading...

Former football manager’s horse wins Kempton thriller Cheltenham Gold Cup up next for the gutsy winner “Today, we’ve gone into the Champions League,” Harry Redknapp, the owner of The Jukebox Man, said after his horse had fought back to win an extraordinary three-way photo-finish in the King George VI Chase here on Friday. “We got into the Premier League, which was fantastic, but today we were taking on the Real Madrids and Barcelonas and he proved he can compete with them and win against them, which was an amazing feeling.” It was, in truth, simply an amazing race from start to finish, with one of the most enthralling passages of action from the home turn to the line that anyone here could recall in a Grade One steeplechase. Kempton is unloved by the Jockey Club, its owners, which has signed over an option to developers that would see it bulldozed for housing, but its speed-favouring, right-handed track is something special and unique in British jumping and here it produced an all-time classic for a sell-out crowd of 17,000 spectators. Continue reading...

Assailant, reportedly from the West Bank, was shot and wounded after running over a man and stabbing a woman A Palestinian assailant ran over a man and stabbed a woman and killed them both in northern Israel on Friday, Israeli emergency services said. The assailant, from the occupied West Bank, was shot and wounded by a civilian at the scene and taken to hospital, the Israeli police said in a statement. Continue reading...

Diplomatic breakthrough comes more than three decades after declaration of independence from Somalia Israel has become the first country in the world to recognise Somaliland as a sovereign state, a breakthrough in its quest for international recognition since it declared independence from Somalia 34 years ago. The Israeli foreign minister, Gideon Sa’ar, announced on Friday that Israel and Somaliland had signed an agreement establishing full diplomatic relations, which would include the opening of embassies and the appointment of ambassadors. Continue reading...

Over the holiday period, the Guardian leader column is looking ahead at the themes of 2026. Today we look at how the struggle to adapt to a dangerously warming world has become a test of global justice The record-breaking 252mph winds of Hurricane Melissa that devastated Caribbean islands at the end of October were made five times more likely by the climate crisis. Scorching wildfire weather in Spain and Portugal during the summer was made 40 times more likely, while June’s heatwave in England was made 100 times more likely. Attribution science has made one thing clear: global heating is behind today’s extreme weather. That greenhouse gas emissions warmed the planet was understood. What can now be shown is that this warming produces record heatwaves and more violent storms with increasing frequency. Continue reading...

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Kim Hellberg’s determination to succeed as Middlesbrough manager runs deep. So deep that he decided it would be best if his wife and two small children spent Christmas in their native Sweden while he continued to put in 12-hour days on Teesside. Given that the Hellberg family will soon be reunited in a new home in North Yorkshire and Blackburn’s visit represented the first of four games in nine days it seemed a sensible sacrifice – even if such pragmatism failed to pay the desired Boxing Day dividends. Continue reading...

Salah penalty gives Egypt second win in two Angola and Zimbabwe battle to 1-1 draw Mohamed Salah scored a first-half penalty as 10-man Egypt defeated South Africa 1-0 in their Africa Cup of Nations Group B clash in Agadir on Friday to become the first team into the knockout stages of the competition. Egypt have six points from their opening two games and cannot finish outside of the top two in the group. South Africa have three points from their two games, while Zimbabwe and Angola have one each after they drew 1-1 earlier in the day. Continue reading...

Despite doing twice as much work daily, I still have no free time at all. How? Plus, canal breaches and multiplying octopuses A canal in Shropshire has disappeared into a giant hole. I paraphrase, but not by much. Continue reading...

If appeal fails, every person in the UK who made App Store purchases between 2015 and 2024 could be entitled to compensation Apple is seeking to overturn a landmark £1.5bn court ruling on behalf of millions of UK customers, which found the company overcharged them for years in its App Store. The iPhone maker has applied to the court of appeal to challenge a verdict that campaigners heralded as the start of a “tidal shift against big tech”. Continue reading...