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Taty Castellanos edges West Ham past QPR in FA Cup to offer respite for Nuno

11 janvier 2026 à 18:33

Forget the magic of the FA Cup, for West Ham the reality of what is likely to be a Championship fixture next season. An indicator that life in the second tier will be no cakewalk. That QPR took them to extra-time will do little for Nuno Espírito Santo’s standing, despite a first win since 8 November. There were, though, positives to take in the performance of Taty Castellanos, the Argentinian striker who scored the Hammers’ winning goal. Have West Ham at last ended a search for a striker that has lasted almost as long as their London Stadium tenancy? They’ve looked everywhere.

The other goalscorer, Crysencio Summerville, who also supplied the assist for the winner, put in one of his better West Ham performances, too. For one cold afternoon only, the Cup could draw a thin veil over Premier League concerns.

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© Photograph: Bradley Collyer/PA

© Photograph: Bradley Collyer/PA

© Photograph: Bradley Collyer/PA

Buffalo Bills v Jacksonville Jaguars: NFL playoffs wildcard round live

11 janvier 2026 à 18:32

Jaguars travel to Buffalo to play the Bills (6pm GMT KO)
Eagles take on 49ers in Santa Clara (9.30pm GMT KO)
Get in touch: email Graham here

“Be you” has been the message from Jaguars head coach Liam Coen to quarterback Trevor Lawrence this season. The simple mantra appears to have unlocked his potential in running the ball as well as through the air in a career year in the NFL. Lawrence scored nine rushing touchdowns, almost double his previous best of five from 2022, while throwing a career-best 29 scores too, four better than 2022. Buffalo are going to have be pin-sharp on defense to stop him.

So how about those Bears then?! A first playoff win since 2010 featuring the largest comeback in franchise playoff history while inflicting the biggest blown lead in Packers history is really rather impressive, isn’t it?

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© Photograph: Joe Marino/UPI/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Joe Marino/UPI/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Joe Marino/UPI/Shutterstock

The Guardian view on India’s employment guarantee: scrapping a right to work risks a rural revolt | Editorial

11 janvier 2026 à 18:30

A globally unique programme allowed the poor to demand – and get – jobs, empowering rural women. Narendra Modi courts trouble by hollowing it out

Few countries have attempted anything as ambitious as India’s rural jobs guarantee. Under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, any adult in the countryside who demanded work was entitled to a job on local public works within 15 days, failing which the government had to pay an unemployment allowance. Enacted in 2005, MGNREGA created the world’s most far-reaching legal right to employment. It generates 2bn person-days of work a year for about 50m households. Over half of all workers were women, and about 40% came from Dalit and tribal communities.

For a country where vast numbers rely on seasonal farm work, the scheme mattered. It stabilised incomes, raised rural wages, expanded women’s bargaining power and reduced internal migration. Households could demand up to 100 days of paid work at a statutory minimum wage, turning employment into an enforceable right. The World Bank derided it as a “barrier to development” in 2009 – but praised it as “stellar” five years later. India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, has however replaced this rights-based system with a centrally managed welfare scheme, VB-G RAM G, a shift opposed by the Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz and the inequality scholar Thomas Piketty.

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© Photograph: Anil Ghawana/Alamy

© Photograph: Anil Ghawana/Alamy

© Photograph: Anil Ghawana/Alamy

The Guardian view on Europe’s stalling night train revival: don’t let it hit the buffers | Editorial

11 janvier 2026 à 18:25

The most romantic way to traverse the continent is environmentally friendly and popular with the public. But market challenges need addressing

When the European Union made its 2020 commitment to achieving net zero carbon emissions by the middle of the century, there was a wave of excitement about what that might mean for the continent’s most romantic form of travel. The golden era of night trains had, it was previously assumed, gone for good amid the rise of low-cost, short-haul flights. But the new environmental imperatives suggested that they could be a glamorous part of a greener future, delivering a climate impact that was 28 times less than flying. The European Commission enthusiastically identified a plethora of potential new routes that it judged could be economically viable.

Sadly, due to a series of challenges that Brussels and national governments have done too little to address, the renaissance appears to be stalling. Last month, a two-year-old night service linking Paris with Vienna and Berlin was scrapped after state subsidies were removed. The French operator, SNCF, has claimed that without financial assistance, the particular costs associated with running a night train are simply too high. Meanwhile, a petition was vainly launched to save the new Basel-Copenhagen-Malmö route, which was due to open in April but has also been derailed by the withdrawal of state funding.

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© Photograph: Belga News Agency/Alamy

© Photograph: Belga News Agency/Alamy

© Photograph: Belga News Agency/Alamy

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