Fifteen emergency warnings remain in place across Victoria with state premier warning ‘we are not through the worst of this by a long way’ Australian authorities are assessing the damage after one of the worst heatwaves in years resulted in bushfires igniting across the country’s south-east, with hundreds of homes and structures lost, thousands of hectares burned and entire towns evacuated. A state of disaster remained in place across much of Victoria on Sunday, as thousands of firefighters and emergency service workers continued to battle blazes that were expected to rage for “weeks”. Continue reading...

Residents battle bitter winter cold inside unheated apartments; Ukraine confirms UN to hold emergency meeting Monday on Russian ballistic missile attack. What we know on day 1,418 Engineers in Kyiv scrambled on Saturday to stabilise a power grid brought to the brink by a campaign of Russian strikes, including one two nights ago. The city’s residents huddled against bitter winter cold inside their unheated apartments on Saturday as engineers worked to restore power, water and heat. Prime minister Yulia Svyrydenko said that the power situation in the capital was still difficult, as the grid was badly damaged and people were using more electric heaters because of the cold. Ukraine’s foreign minister Andrii Sybiha confirmed Saturday the UN security council would hold an emergency meeting on Monday to discuss Russia’s latest large-scale attack on Ukraine, which used an Oreshnik intermediate-range ballistic missile. “The meeting will address Russia’s flagrant breaches of the UN Charter,” Sybiha wrote on X. Stéphane Dujarric, spokesperson for the UN secretary-general, said major attacks by Russia on Friday “have resulted in significant civilian casualties and deprived millions of Ukrainians of essential services, including electricity, heating and water at a time of acute humanitarian need.” Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine’s lead negotiator Rustem Umerov spoke with representatives of the United States on Saturday as Kyiv and Washington seek to agree on a framework to end Russia’s war in Ukraine. “We continue to communicate with the American side on practically a daily basis,” Zelenskyy wrote on the Telegram app. The governor of Russia’s Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine, said on Saturday that 600,000 residents were without electricity, heating and water after a Ukrainian missile strike. In a statement posted on Telegram, Vyacheslav Gladkov said that work was under way to restore supplies, but that the situation was “extremely challenging”. A Ukrainian drone strike sparked a fire at an oil depot in Russia’s southern Volgograd region, officials said Saturday. Ukraine’s General Staff said Saturday it had struck the Zhutovskaya oil depot overnight. In a statement on Telegram, it said the depot is supplying fuel to Russian forces, adding that damage was being assessed. Ukraine’s military said that besides the oil depot in Volgograd, it had struck a drone storage facility belonging to a unit of Russia’s 19th Motor Rifle Division in Zaporizhzhia, southern Ukraine, as well as a drone command and control point near the eastern city of Pokrovsk. An overnight Ukrainian drone attack injured at least four people and damaged several buildings in Russia’s southern city of Voronezh, the governor of the Voronezh region said on Sunday. An emergency service facility, seven apartment buildings and six houses were damaged as a result of the attack, the governor, Alexander Gusev, said on the Telegram messaging app. Russia’s defence ministry said Saturday that its forces used aviation, drones, missiles and artillery to strike Ukrainian energy facilities and fuel-storage depots on Friday and overnight. It did not immediately specify the targets or damage. Continue reading...

UN and many western countries as well as human rights groups say that in the absence of a meaningful opposition the election is neither free, fair nor credible Voters in war-torn Myanmar queued up on Sunday to cast their ballots in the second stage of a military-run election, following low turnout in the initial round of polls that have been widely criticised as a tool to formalise junta rule. Myanmar has been ravaged by conflict since the military ousted a civilian government in a 2021 coup and detained its leader, Nobel peace prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, sparking a civil war that has engulfed large parts of the impoverished nation of 51 million people. Continue reading...

Rhythm guitarist helped guide the legendary jam band through decades of change and success Veteran rock musician Bob Weir, the Grateful Dead’s rhythm guitarist who helped guide the legendary jam band through decades of change and success, has died at age 78, according to a statement posted to his verified Instagram account on Friday. He was diagnosed with cancer in July and “succumbed to underlying lung issues” surrounded by loved ones, the statement said. It did not mention when or where he died. Continue reading...

In Philadelphia, protesters demanded ICE leave US communities and Trump end warmongering in Venezuela On a rainy Saturday in Philadelphia, two separate protests, both with a few hundred people, marched from city hall to the federal detention center. They differed slightly in solutions as well as crowd makeup – white older adults dominated the morning’s march organized by the groups behind the No Kings protests, while a more racially diverse crowd swathed in keffiyehs and N95 face masks led the afternoon’s, planned by the local Democratic Socialists of America chapter. However, both groups shared a goal: for ICE to get out of American communities and to put an end to Donald Trump’s warmongering in Venezuela. “From Venezuela to Minneapolis, all we’re seeing is a regime that is scrambling, willing to kill its own citizens, willing to kill foreign citizens, to maintain its power,” said Deborah Rose Hinchey, co-chair of the city’s Democratic Socialists of America chapter. Continue reading...

Award-winning screenwriter tells Desert Island Discs that success has not silenced self-doubt The award-winning screenwriter Jesse Armstrong has said a writers’ room can feel like “walking on the moon” when it is working well, but has admitted to experiencing impostor syndrome during his career. Armstrong was behind the hit HBO drama Succession, starring Brian Cox as the global media tycoon and family patriarch Logan Roy, who sets off a power struggle among his four children. Continue reading...

NASUWT says evidence growing that unregulated access affects behaviour in school and harms mental health One of the UK’s biggest teaching unions has called on the government to ban social media for under-16s over concerns about mental health and concentration. The Teachers’ Union (NASUWT) wants legislation to be tightened so big tech firms would face penalties for allowing children to access their platforms. Continue reading...

State department says armed ‘colectivos’ appear to be setting up roadblocks and searching vehicles for Americans The United States has urged its citizens to leave Venezuela immediately amid reports that armed paramilitaries are trying to track down US citizens, one week after the capture of the South American country’s president, Nicolás Maduro. In a security alert sent out on Saturday, the state department said there were reports of armed members of pro-regime militias, known as colectivos, setting up roadblocks and searching vehicles for evidence that the occupants were US citizens or supporters of the country. Continue reading...

This steamy queer romance between ice hockey rivals is packed with constant shots of muscular bottoms in fancy hotel rooms. But a bit more character development or emotional investment wouldn’t go amiss I suspect that Chala Hunter is still on a recuperative retreat somewhere. Until about May, I would think. For she was the intimacy coordinator on Heated Rivalry and she has earned a break. For those not aware: intimacy coordinators gained prominence in the aftermath of the #MeToo movement, when assorted testimonies from actors (largely female) made public and unignorable the shocking fact that actors (largely male) and directors (largely male) will often (largely always) try to get away with more than has been contracted for once they are naked with A N Other person. An intimacy coordinator is there to help arrange scenes and advocate for actors. Think of them as somewhere between a bureaucrat and a contraceptive. Continue reading...

Officials expect charge against Daricka Moore, 24, to be elevated to capital murder, with death penalty considered Authorities in Clay county, Mississippi, say a man has been taken into custody and charged with first-degree murder following the fatal shootings of six people, including a child, on Friday night. Daricka Moore, 24, is accused of killing multiple relatives as well as a local pastor before his arrest, according to Clay county sheriff Eddie Scott, who addressed the case during a Saturday news conference. Officials said the charge against Moore, who lives in the county, is expected to be elevated to capital murder, and prosecutors could seek the death penalty if he is determined to be mentally competent. Continue reading...

Military says it targeted the jihadist group throughout Syria in response to attack on US and Syrian troops in Palmyra US and allied forces carried out “large-scale” strikes against the Islamic State jihadist group in Syria on Saturday, the US military said, in the latest response to an attack last month that left three Americans dead. Washington said a lone gunman from the militant group carried out the 13 December attack in Palmyra, which killed two US soldiers and a US civilian interpreter. The area is home to Unesco-listed ancient ruins and was once controlled by jihadist fighters. Continue reading...

It sums up the uneasy state of affairs at Chelsea that the new head coach winning his first match in charge was not enough to stop the mutiny. This was a controlled, clinical performance from Liam Rosenior’s second string, who strolled into the fourth round of the FA Cup after a 5-1 win over a game but limited Charlton Athletic, but once again the big talking point was the travelling support spewing venom in the direction of their unpopular owners. Dissatisfaction with the project is not going away. It did not even matter when Rosenior looked at his bench with Chelsea 3-1 up in the second half and decided to give Estevão Willian a runout against tired, lowly Championship opposition. The Brazilian winger is one of the best young players in the world and his runs were soon making Charlton’s defenders dizzy, but even signings like Estevão have done little to sway the view of a fanbase united in opposition to an ownership almost four years in and still to convince naysayers that their unique project is going to work. Continue reading...

Jacques Moretti, who is in custody, told Swiss prosecutor’s office he forced door open and found people lying behind it The French owner of the Swiss bar where 40 people died in a fire during new year celebrations has told investigators a service door had been locked from the inside. Jacques Moretti, co-owner of the Constellation bar in the Swiss resort of Crans-Montana was taken into custody Friday, as prosecutors investigate the tragedy. Continue reading...

This was Tottenham’s second defeat to Aston Villa this season and it is becoming increasingly hard to imagine Thomas Frank being in charge when the teams come together a third time in May. A performance that put an end to any realistic chance of a trophy this season, it fell well below the expectations of a furious crowd. That their opponents offer the diametric opposite of Tottenham’s dysfunction can only have heightened the sting. Goals from Emi Buendía and Morgan Rogers put this tie to bed for Villa in the first half, Wilson Odobert’s strike after half-time bringing a closeness to the scoreline that was not reflected in the general play. A scuffle on the field at the final whistle involving Rogers, João Palhinha and a host of Tottenham players only added further sourness to the occasion. Continue reading...

The magic of the FA Cup in Cleethorpes, ultimately, was limited to a good old-fashioned away following of about 571 hardy yet boisterous souls from Weston-super-Mare. The Seagull Army twice wildly celebrated second-half equalisers through Luke Coulson and their predatory striker Louis Britton before Grimsby substitute Kieran Green’s looping header settled the match and ended Weston’s stirring six-game run in the competition. Continue reading...

Why is the film of Ireland’s 2002 World Cup falling-out not a documentary but a drama that takes liberties with events? All history is to some extent narrative. You cannot tell a story without in some way editing it, reducing it, compressing it. Which means that anybody telling a story about a historical event, particularly one from the relatively recent past, risks outraging those who have studied it or who remember it. Often those complaints are pedantic, trivial, but sometimes they are not. It’s one thing to elide two minor characters or to tweak the timeline to simplify a story, quite another to imply misleading motivations. Saipan, Glenn Leyburn’s and Lisa Barros D’Sa’s film about the cataclysmic row between Roy Keane and Mick McCarthy shortly before the 2002 World Cup, came out in Ireland on Boxing Day and will be released in the UK on 23 January. It is obsessed by detail: the tracksuits, the sweatshirts, the kits are all right. It’s startling when the film cuts between reproductions of interviews and press conferences and actual footage to realise just how accurately these scenes have been recreated. Which raises two questions. What is the point? And how can such care have been taken over the look of the film when there are such grotesque inventions and inaccuracies in the plotting and motivation? Continue reading...

The comedian and actor on her favourite Bond film, revisiting the Death Star canteen and escaping the red carpet with Brad Pitt When you started performing your one-woman Hamlet, how much did you labour over your delivery of the play’s most iconic lines, such as “To be or not to be”? The first thing I found when I was rehearsing Hamlet was that I felt very at home. I thought, “That’s unusual – I should be quaking in my boots!” I just felt very at ease and happy to be there. But the first time I performed “to be or not to be” on stage, there was a sense of – aren’t bells supposed to ring here? Isn’t there supposed to be a klaxon? Continue reading...

At first, Alyssa Moore and Jacob Randell kept their romance a secret from their circus troupe; but as the world shut down, they took a leap together Find more stories from the moment I knew series The first time Jake and I crossed paths was at a circus festival in Bathurst. It was 2010 and I was in my last year of high school. Aspiring circus troupes from across the country had gathered to showcase their acts. It felt like all eyes were on Jake’s group from Adelaide, they were incredibly talented. I definitely remember him – I even took one of his workshops – but didn’t think much more of it. I left my home town, Ulladulla, not long after, trained at the National Institute of Circus Arts and launched a freelance acrobatic career in Melbourne. Meanwhile Jake’s troupe had become a company. Gravity & Other Myths was on the ascent, touring internationally, so when a position came up for a flyer I didn’t hesitate to apply. Continue reading...

Making a star of Murphy the labrador seemed like a harmless and plausible quest. But I hadn’t reckoned with all kinds of costs Read more summer essentials Eddie sits at a cafe dressed in a turtleneck and blue beret. “On a scale of 10-10, rate how good I look,” the caption to his post reads. The socialite’s page is full of candid content: enjoying a doughnut at a popular Melbourne brunch spot, relaxing in a chic robe and celebrating a paid “staycation” at the Hyatt House in Melbourne, adorned in a leopard print outfit. Continue reading...

From the best exercise moves to how many steps you really need to aim for a day, experts weigh in on how to maintain hip health throughout your life When Elvis the pelvis gyrated and thrust his way across national television screens, audiences were delighted and censors were scandalised. But physiotherapists were probably standing up in their seats cheering at the display of such healthy and limber hip movements. Hips are a key weight-bearing joint, yet we rarely give them the amount of love and attention they deserve. Continue reading...

Kiran was left with her in-laws in a Indian village thousands of kilometres from her husband in Brisbane – but the CCTV was always watching her Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Kiran’s* husband was more than 10,000km away from the home she shared with her in-laws in a village in northern India. But despite the vast distance, he watched her constantly through cameras which beamed into a screen in his Brisbane home. “He would say: ‘I can always see what you do’,” she recalls through an interpreter. Continue reading...

Rob Smethurst’s resurrection of a troubled but proud club is timely reminder that football can still be the people’s game From extinction to the impossible dream of becoming the greatest FA Cup giantkillers of all, Macclesfield’s story reminds that community will forever be football’s greatest asset. As fans celebrated victory over the holders, Crystal Palace, many took their time to peel away from the stadium. Not too long ago, many feared they may never return to Moss Rose. Macclesfield Town FC, 1874-2020 was the etching on the gravestone of the club that died, mourned quietly by a town that had slowly lost touch with events at the shambling football ground on its southern tip, pretty much the last stop before the long drive to London begins. Continue reading...

⚽ Updates from the 8pm GMT kick-off at The Valley ⚽ Latest scores | Read Football Daily | Mail Rob Evening. The last time Chelsea appointed a new manager in January, they win the Champions League four months later. Liam Rosenior would love to emulate Thomas Tuchel, but for now his aim is to create as few headlines as possible. The only way Chelsea can steal tomorrow’s back pages is if they are beaten by Charlton, a team who sit 19th in the Championship. That’s highly unlikely given the resources of each club, and tonight should be a nice soft landing for Rosenior ahead of tougher tasks in the Premier and Champions League. Continue reading...

Aaron Ramsdale was Newcastle’s hero as they edged past Bournemouth into the FA Cup fourth round on penalties. The on-loan Southampton keeper saved from Evanilson, Álex Jiménez and Bafodé Diakité to seal a 7-6 shootout win after a pulsating encounter had ended 3-3 after 120 minutes on a bitterly cold afternoon. Marcus Tavernier had taken the tie to penalties with an equaliser in the second minute of stoppage time at the end of extra time seconds after Harvey Barnes thought he had won it for the much-changed Magpies. The hosts had led through a Barnes goal, but trailed 2-1 after Alex Scott and David Brooks scored in quick succession before Anthony Gordon’s late spot-kick. Continue reading...

Algeria 0-2 Nigeria Nigeria to face hosts Morocco in last four Strikers Victor Osimhen and Akor Adams grabbed second-half goals as Nigeria powered to a deserved 2-0 victory against Algeria in Saturday’s Africa Cup of Nations quarter-final to set up a meeting with the hosts Morocco in the last four. Osimhen steered home a long cross from the left by Bruno Onyemaechi two minutes into the second half as Algeria’s goalkeeper Luca Zidane made a bizarre jump to try to stop the effort but ended up getting his angles wrong and conceding an easy goal. This story will be updated Continue reading...