Gunmen abducted 315 pupils and staff last month from St Mary’s school in Niger state as part of spate of kidnappings Nigerian authorities have secured the release of 100 kidnapped schoolchildren taken by gunmen from a Catholic school last month, a UN source and local media said on Sunday, though the fate of another 165 students and staff thought to remain in captivity remained unclear. In November 315 students and staff were kidnapped from St Mary’s co-educational boarding school in north-central Niger state, as the country buckled under a wave of mass abductions reminiscent of the infamous 2014 Boko Haram abduction of schoolgirls in Chibok. Continue reading...

Third victim survived with injuries as Irish police say home in Edenderry was attacked by ‘person or persons unknown’ A murder investigation has been launched after a 60-year-old woman and a four-year-old boy died in a fire in County Offaly in Ireland. Emergency services extinguished the blaze at a house in Edenderry at about 8pm on Saturday, but were unable to save the woman and child. Continue reading...

Dodgy character names, zero subtlety, a dubious approach to female roles … Russell T Davies’s show about fishfolk is entertaining – but feels like a wasted opportunity to make genuinely great TV The fishmen cometh. Or, to put it another way – The War Between the Land and the Sea, the long-awaited Doctor Who spin-off from Russell T Davies concentrating on the adventures of Unit rather than the double-hearted man from Gallifrey, is finally here. RTD stalwart Russell Tovey stars as Barclay, an everyman figure who soon – two excellent puns incoming – finds himself out of his depth, nay a fish out of water, as he is forced to take the lead in the geopolitical crisis that surrounds him. Barclay is a low-level clerk with Unit who, through the kind of bureaucratic snafu that you may in your salad days have believed was confined to fictional romps aimed largely at children over the festive period until age and experience poured slugs into them, ends up being part of the operation sent to deal with the discovery by a group of Spanish fishers of – well, fishmen. Fishfolk. Continue reading...

Georgia lawmaker says colleagues who made fun of president before 2024 win now support him out of fear Republicans in Congress privately made fun of Donald Trump only to come around to support him when he won their party’s 2024 White House nomination, outgoing GOP House member Marjorie Taylor Greene said on Sunday. “I watched many of my colleagues go from making fun of him, making fun of how he talks, making fun of me constantly for supporting him, to when he won the primary in 2024, they all started – excuse my language, Lesley – kissing his ass,” Greene, a Georgia Republican, said in a clip of an interview that is set to air on Sunday on CBS’s 60 Minutes program. Continue reading...

West African Ecowas forces sent to country after group of soldiers announced dissolution of government on state TV West African troops were deployed to Benin on Sunday following what the country’s president described as an unsuccessful coup attempt. Benin’s president, Patrice Talon, said on Sunday that the situation was “totally under control” after security forces acted to end a coup attempt by a group of soldiers who attacked state institutions. Continue reading...

Trump team faces mounting pressure as members of Congress allege that the deadly attack was unlawful US Democrats on Sunday pushed the Trump administration to release video of a second strike on an alleged drug boat incapacitated in the Caribbean, continuing to escalate pressure on the Pentagon amid accusations the attack was unlawful. Eleven people died in the 2 September attack, including two men killed in a follow-up strike as they reportedly clung to wreckage for an hour. That killing has been met with intense scrutiny and accusations of war crimes after the Washington Post reported defense secretary Pete Hegseth gave an order to “kill them all”. Adm Frank Bradley of the US navy, who oversaw the attack, told lawmakers on Thursday there was no such order – and the Pentagon has defended the legality of the attack. Continue reading...

Norris made changes ‘to unlock more of my ability’ Oscar Piastri: ‘I learned a lot about myself’ in the season Lando Norris said he is proud of the way he went about winning his first Formula One world championship, stating after an emotional celebration with his McLaren team and family that he was glad he “won it my way”. Norris emphasised that he felt he had raced fairly and without being over aggressive, an approach for which he has received criticism in not demonstrating the much eulogised “killer instinct”, which he believes he has proved is not necessary by ­claiming the title. Continue reading...

Jamaican-born US army veteran faces deportation as more non-US citizen military members are swept up by ICE raids The fiancee of a Jamaican-born, decorated US army veteran who is now facing deportation under the Trump administration says she hopes his story might inspire legislative action to restore immigration protections for former military members. “If you served this country, you deserve a chance to stay in this country,” said April Watkins, who is engaged to Godfrey Wade, one of tens of thousands who have been put in immigration detention under Donald Trump’s second presidency. “That is the hope for not only him but for any veteran who sits in a detention center. Look at their service that they gave this country and take that into consideration.” Continue reading...

Reporters and photographers barred from Amex Stadium Guardian says reporting is in public interest The Premier League club Brighton & Hove Albion has banned the Guardian’s reporters and photographers from attending matches at its home ground after it reported on allegations relating to the club’s owner, Tony Bloom. The club notified the Guardian on Sunday to say it felt it “would be inappropriate for journalists and photographers from the Guardian to be accredited to matches at the Amex, starting from Sunday’s game against West Ham”. The move follows reports in the Guardian that have raised questions from MPs about the activities of Bloom, a billionaire who has made his money from gambling. Continue reading...

They may have greeted each other with a giant bear hug before kick-off but Marco Silva must be sick of facing Oliver Glasner. After suffering two defeats to them here in the space of five weeks earlier in the year, the Fulham manager could only watch on in horror as Marc Guéhi’s late header sealed another victory for Crystal Palace that moved them into the top four. Glasner has made no secret of his dissatisfaction with Palace’s business in the summer having beaten Fulham on their way to winning the FA Cup and he was without the influential Daniel Muñoz for this trip to west London. But the Austrian has proven during his 18 months at the helm that he has a habit of defying the odds and this was a typically shrewd performance from his side after Harry Wilson’s wonder goal had cancelled out Eddie Nketiah’s opener on his first Premier League start of the campaign. It was left to Guéhi, who is set to leave the south Londoners at the end of the season when his contract expires, to seal the victory that will have Palace’s supporters dreaming of what might be possible under their remarkable manager. Continue reading...

Open valve in heating system damaged 300-400 works just weeks after a brazen jewel theft raised security concerns A water leak in late November damaged several hundred works in the Louvre’s Egyptian department, the Paris museum said on Sunday, weeks after a brazen jewel theft had raised concerns over its infrastructure. “Between 300 and 400 works” were affected by the leak discovered on 26 November, the museum’s deputy administrator, Francis Steinbock, said, describing them as “Egyptology journals” and “scientific documentation” used by researchers. Continue reading...

Pushing for the release of the jailed leader could prove central to the peace that Donald Trump claims to seek in the Middle East In a sort-of ceasefire, the killings – including of children – have slowed, not stopped. Israeli military operations continue to displace hundreds of families in Gaza. Aid has increased but Israel is still blocking vital supplies. Palestinians desperately require security, humanitarian relief and reconstruction. But they need and expect a political horizon too. Donald Trump’s plans make only the vaguest and most conditional reference to a Palestinian state, and Israelis – as well as their ultra-right government – have entrenched their opposition since the atrocities of 7 October 2023. Yet after two years of annihilation, Palestinian nationhood has won international support that many thought unimaginable. The political fate of Palestinians is bound to the personal fate of Marwan Barghouti. After more than two decades in an Israeli jail for murder, the charismatic 66-year-old is by far the most popular Palestinian leader, widely regarded as the only figure capable of uniting factions riven by ideology and enmity. Though a member of Fatah, Mr Barghouti has criticised abuses by the Palestinian Authority and has won respect within Hamas ranks. He has led Palestinian prisoners, while the PA’s old guard are seen as self-serving, ineffective, unaccountable and essentially as security contractors for Israel in the West Bank. Continue reading...

Pau 27-35 Northampton Wing’s late try gets Saints off to winning start George Hendy’s late try ensured a winning start for last season’s beaten Champions Cup finalists, as Northampton saw off Pau 35-27 at the Stade du Hameau. With the score locked at 27-27 with two minutes remaining, wing Hendy raced in at the corner to edge Saints ahead before Fin Smith’s penalty in the dying moments sealed his side’s thrilling win in their opening pool game. Continue reading...

Appointment marks a rapid political transformation for a former Tory donor and potential candidate for MP The formerly Conservative-supporting boss of the supermarket Iceland is to be made a Labour peer when the party appoints another 25 representatives to parliament’s upper house later this month. Keir Starmer will appoint Richard Walker to the House of Lords, the Guardian understands, the culmination of an unusual and rapid political transformation for someone named as a prospective Tory MP candidate a little over three years ago. Continue reading...

Tech moguls may foolishly hope to stay forever young, but others could benefit too from evidence of the human body’s dynamic and varied journey through life Ageing can feel remarkably sudden. One morning you awake to find new aches, or lapses in strength and memory that you could swear were not present just a few days prior. We do not literally age overnight, but as research is increasingly showing, we may not do so in a steady, linear path either. Over the past decade a multitude of studies have suggested that ageing – at least for certain organs and bodily systems – may actually consist of long periods of stability, punctuated by inflection points or periods of rapid biological change. This shift in thinking has raised hopes for anti-ageing medicines. But it could also make us rethink our attitude to ageing in general, viewing it as a dynamic and varied journey – rather than simply a slow march of attrition and breakdown. Continue reading...

Updates from the 6pm (GMT) kick-offs Get in touch with Graham via email The drama doesn’t stop in Maryland. Over in the AFC South there is another battle for top spot popping off between the Jaguars and Colts. Both are 8-4 so a loss is a touch less damaging to the loser’s wildcard dreams than for their brothers in the north though maybe best to keep rolling and take hold of home-field advantage today. Jacksonville have been a minor revelation after some mid-season wobbles with four wins from their past five while Indianapolis, the NFL’s early season darlings, are struggling with two wins from their past five. (4-8) Atlanta Falcons v Seattle Seahawks (9-3) (6-6) Baltimore Ravens v Pittsburgh Steelers (6-6) (8-4) Buffalo Bills v Cincinnati Bengals (4-8) (3-9) Cleveland Browns v Tennessee Titans (1-11) (8-4) Jacksonville Jaguars v Indianapolis Colts (8-4) (4-8) Minnesota Vikings v Washington Commanders (3-9) (3-9) New York Jets v Miami Dolphins (5-7) (7-5) Tampa Bay Buccaneers v New Orleans Saints (2-10) Continue reading...

Champions’ 1-0 loss first league reverse since May 2024 Manchester United beat West Ham; Spurs see off Villa Chelsea’s record-breaking unbeaten run in the Women’s Super League was brought to an end with a shock result as Everton won away against the defending champions, who had not lost any of the previous 34 league matches. Everton’s 1-0 victory inflicted Sonia Bompastor’s first defeat as a WSL manager after a remarkable 18 months in charge, and was Chelsea’s first loss in the league since going down 4-3 at Liverpool on 1 May 2024 when Emma Hayes was still at the helm. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Healthwatch study discovered 14% of cases are not put on hospital waiting lists for treatment GPs requested for them One in seven people in England who need hospital care are not receiving it because the referral by their GP gets lost, rejected or delayed, the NHS’s own patient watchdog has found. Three-quarters (75%) of these patients trapped in this “referrals black hole” suffer harm to their physical or mental health as a result of not being added to the waiting list for tests or treatment. Continue reading...

At some point in the future, Wilfried Nancy may glance back and laugh at this inauspicious start to his tenure as the Celtic manager. Pouring rain, a revolting support and a rejuvenated Hearts formed the backdrop. In the here and now, this was another alarming spectacle for anybody of Celtic inclination. Kieran Tierney’s stoppage-time goal should do nothing to mask how unimpressive Celtic were in a game of supposedly high stakes. On the previous occasion when Celtic played Hearts, Brendan Rodgers was still in office. A 3-1 success for the hosts in Edinburgh preceded the Irishman’s resignation and a wait of over a month to hire Nancy. The Frenchman has arrived in low key circumstances. Continue reading...

There are raindrops depicted on Manchester City’s third kit, with a deliberate nod to the often unsettled weather. Seeing the strip, what catches the eye first, though, is the fluorescent, neon green socks. You cannot fail to notice them, and that is now also true of Manchester City in this season’s Women’s Super League title race; a team that quietly went under the radar initially, scarcely being spoken about as contenders, are now unmissable as they keep on winning, shining bright with a six-point lead at the top of the table. Their latest victory, their ninth in a row in the league, not unlike the climate their kit honour, was not always particularly pretty. They spent well over an hour being frustrated by a Leicester side who were content to keep 11 players behind the ball with a deep, well-organised back five, but this is the sort of game, on a wet lunchtime in the East Midlands, when teams who go on to win titles manage to find a way through. Eventually, Manchester City did so, and then some, with two goals and an assist from Khadija Shaw delivering a 3-0 victory that more closely reflected their control of the contest than the 0-0 scoreline on the 73-minute mark had suggested. The visitors had 75.5% of the possession and 30 shots at goal compared to Leicester’s two. Continue reading...

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Robert Appleford says in the real world, this tax penalises hard-working families, while Tom Holden feels there is an increasing lack of any sense of privilege. Plus letters from Vicky Mills and Kit Jackson Jonathan Liew’s article (Won’t somebody please think of Britain’s poor £2m homeowners? Oh, wait – everyone already is, 2 November) entirely misses the point that underlies the spate of criticism against the “mansion tax”. While wealth disparity is no doubt an issue that needs to be addressed, this tax is a spiteful assault on hard-working taxpayers who already pay an enormous proportion of their salary to the Treasury to support a woefully mismanaged public sector and welfare state. Those who support the tax seem to be driven by a simple ideology that we need to “bash the rich” to create equality. In the real world, this tax penalises hard-working families who have made difficult choices and made huge sacrifices to get to where they are. I come from a working-class background, I worked hard at school and achieved good grades, I worked part-time jobs, paid my own way through university and chose a profession that pays well, relocating to London and making sacrifices to earn good money – spending 18 hours a day in the office – and I chose to buy property and invest in it. I did not enjoy annual holidays or a defined-benefit pension that others enjoy. Continue reading...

Sister Sophia Rose responds to Emma Beddington’s article on how nuns are having a moment Thank you to Emma Beddington for her thoughtful column (Tired of being a woman in 2025? Why not become a nun?, 1 December). It is always refreshing to see nuns and religious sisters portrayed in a context other than the horror-movie stereotype we seem to have inherited. I was intrigued by her mention of Convent Wisdom: How Sixteenth-Century Nuns Could Save Your Twenty-First-Century Life by Ana Garriga and Carmen Urbita. I look forward to reading it and I may well recommend it in our Franciscan newsletter. Continue reading...

Alex Sobel draws attention to his constituency’s life expectancy gap and calls for a cross-government health inequalities strategy Your report about the deprivation divide in UK communities brings into sharp focus the granularity of inequalities in the country (‘Posh-poor divide’: the rise in areas of England where wealth and deprivation appear side by side, 1 December). These aren’t just socioeconomic – they have a huge impact on our health, wellbeing and how long we live. This harsh truth is nowhere clearer than in my constituency, Leeds Central and Headingley, which has the widest life expectancy gap in England based on data from Health Equals. Residents in the Hyde Park area are expected to live a shocking 14 years less than those in neighbouring Far Headingley and Weetwood. A half-hour walk takes you from one area to the other – equating to more than a decade of life lost. Continue reading...

No more ‘ghost’ trains | Country diary | Patriotic pudding | Fifa peace prize | Inaptly named buildings How disappointing that the rail regulator has caved in to the moaning minnies and reinstated the 7am Manchester to London as a passenger service (‘People had forgotten about it’: onboard the 7am Manchester-London train service saved from axe, 4 December). Here was a brilliant idea being piloted before adoption across the rail network. Gone now is the dream of an efficient rail service unencumbered by the demands of so-called “humans” and their messy ways. Dr David Webster Crewe, Cheshire • There are two serious messages from Nicola Chester’s brilliant writing (Country diary, 3 December). One, I wonder how many people have sustained serious injuries from dogs’ exuberant greetings. The second is that however comforting hot sweet tea is, giving liquids can delay the administration of an anaesthetic. Elaine Steane Oxford Continue reading...