President refers jokingly to renamed ‘Trump-Kennedy Center’ at celebration of stars from music and film

Donald Trump added another job title – awards host – to his presidential portfolio on Sunday when he took charge of the Kennedy Center Honors in Washington, claiming his show was getting “rave reviews” even before it ended.

The US president stayed away from the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts during his first term. But since returning to office in January, he has made the complex a lightning rod in a broader attack against what he has branded “woke” anti-American culture.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Jeenah Moon/Reuters

© Photograph: Jeenah Moon/Reuters

© Photograph: Jeenah Moon/Reuters

Trade data shows China’s exports topped forecasts in November, driven by a surge in shipments to non-US markets

There’s a very calm start to trading in London this morning.

The FTSE 100 index of blue-chip shares has gained just one point, or 0.01%, to 9,668 points.

The separation makes TMICC the largest ice cream business in the world, with iconic brands like Magnum, Ben & Jerry’s, Wall’s and Cornetto in its portfolio.

It’s already scooped up a 21% share of global ice cream sales, nearly double that of its largest competitor, Froneri. The global ice cream market is forecast to grow by 3-4% annually until at least 2029. TMICC is targeting growth slightly ahead of this pace, up to 5% annually, driven by increased marketing investment, improved distribution channels and market share gains.

Whilst Shareholders with whom we consulted strongly supported the objectives of Resolution 2 and appreciated the very specific context for the Proposals, they nonetheless raised a number of concerns when considering more general remuneration principles.

Anglo American strongly believes that the proposed amendment represents the most practical way to support the Merger process and the principles and objectives set out in the Circular but, having reflected carefully on Shareholders’ concerns, has therefore decided to withdraw Resolution 2 from the agenda of the General Meeting.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: AP

© Photograph: AP

© Photograph: AP

'Dazed and Confused' star Matthew McConaughey said he hyperextended his leg filming 'Reign of Fire.'

Former member of team that contested seat in Clacton, Essex alleges breach of rules on spending

Concerns over recording of meetings at coordination centre excluding Palestinians that was set up to provide support for Trump’s Gaza plan

Israeli operatives are conducting widespread surveillance of US forces and allies stationed at a new US base in the country’s south, according to sources briefed on disputes about open and covert recordings of meetings and discussions.

The scale of intelligence gathering at the Civil-Military Coordination Center (CMCC) prompted the US commander of the base, Lt Gen Patrick Frank, to summon an Israeli counterpart for a meeting to tell him that “recording has to stop here”.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Amir Levy/Getty Images

© Photograph: Amir Levy/Getty Images

© Photograph: Amir Levy/Getty Images

Arsenal feel effects of defensive injuries, Liverpool rue Konaté’s mistakes and Brentford struggle on the road

• Latest Premier League table | Top scorers

When the team sheets landed at Villa Park, Arsenal’s matchday squad again appeared imperious. Their bench included a £64m striker in Viktor Gyökeres, a trio of tricky wingers in Leandro Trossard, Noni Madueke and Gabriel Martinelli and arguably England’s most exciting teenagers in Myles Lewis-Skelly and Ethan Nwaneri. But Arsenal arrived top-heavy, the only centre-back among the substitutes the 16-year-old Marli Salmon. By the time Emiliano Buendía clinched victory for Aston Villa with almost the final kick, it was clear Arsenal lacked the defensive solidity behind their pace-setting start; this defeat was only the fourth time since the start of 2022-23 that Mikel Arteta’s side began a league game without Gabriel Magalhães or William Saliba – and it showed. Cristhian Mosquera, potentially sidelined until the new year, was also absent. The good news for all parties – which probably extends to second-placed Manchester City – is that Arsenal and Villa will duke it out again on 30 December in the reverse fixture. Ben Fisher

Continue reading...

© Composite: Guardian Picture Desk

© Composite: Guardian Picture Desk

© Composite: Guardian Picture Desk

The vitamin has many benefits, but research shows that people who take it are just as likely to get the sniffles as those who don’t

‘Vitamin C is important for your health in lots of ways,” says Daniel M Davis, the head of life sciences at Imperial College London. It is a strong antioxidant, helping protect cells from harmful unstable compounds that arise from toxins and pollution. It helps the body absorb iron, and is also used in the production of collagen. “But the idea that taking high doses of vitamin C – or drinking lots of orange juice – will stop you catching a cold, or help you recover faster, is a myth.”

Davis, the author of Self Defence: A Myth-Busting Guide to Immune Health, explains that the popular belief in vitamin C’s cold-fighting powers has persisted for more than 50 years, “pretty much solely because of the evangelical view of one man: Linus Pauling”.

Continue reading...

© Illustration: Becky Barnicoat/The Guardian

© Illustration: Becky Barnicoat/The Guardian

© Illustration: Becky Barnicoat/The Guardian

While those who defend the status quo and those who say ‘simply rejoin’ the EU are both wrong, there is a new mood and a clear opportunity

Being right that Brexit was a bad idea is no substitute for knowing what to do next. Our chance of salvaging something from the mess it created is being undermined by those selling false hope – either that Brexit can work, or that it can be easily undone. For the 16,000 businesses that have now given up trading with Europe because of paperwork, prospects remain bleak unless the government stops offering a sticking plaster and starts major surgery on our future with Europe.

Forgive pro-Europeans for thinking the momentum is now with us. Labour has been slow to say what it wants from the EU reset, and slower still to acknowledge the inevitable tradeoffs required. Until the summer, ministers promised to “make Brexit work” and endlessly repeated “red lines”. Yet in recent weeks, a major study has found that leaving the EU cost the UK 6-8% of GDP per capita; now the chancellor calls the damage of Brexit “severe and long lasting”; the prime minister condemns the “wild promises” of the Leave campaign. Belatedly, a window of opportunity to change course may be opening.

Stella Creasy is the chair of the Labour Movement for Europe and MP for Walthamstow

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Gary E Perkin/Alamy

© Photograph: Gary E Perkin/Alamy

© Photograph: Gary E Perkin/Alamy

Dear Abby advises a grandmother on how to handle her relationship with her daughter and grandchild.

An Australian woman is fighting for her life in Vietnam after a cosmetic procedure went horribly wrong.

Home Office has reportedly ordered threat assessment amid long-running row into Duke of Sussex’s safety

Prince Harry’s security arrangements while in the UK are being reviewed by the government, according to reports.

Harry wrote to the home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, shortly after her appointment and submitted a formal request for a risk assessment to the Executive Committee for the Protection of Royalty and Public Figures (Ravec), which is overseen by the Home Office, a source close to the prince said in October.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Gregory Pace/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Gregory Pace/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Gregory Pace/Shutterstock

A 44-year-old man was slashed in the wrist, and a 32-year-old man was slashed in his face and had his cell phone stolen during the attack.

“She was such a fierce advocate for nonviolence. For her to go in such a violent way is just so striking for all of us. Like, what could have happened?” one of her students said.

You saw it here first

There are many contenders for “world’s greatest invention.” The wheel. The printing press. The steam engine.

According to a new book, however, that title should go to the mechanised sawmill invented by Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Alamy

© Photograph: Alamy

© Photograph: Alamy

Juan Orlando Hernández thanked the Lord for being ‘a free man’ and then Trump for ‘changing my life’

Former Honduras president Juan Orlando Hernández recently thanked God and Donald Trump – in that order – for being pardoned by the latter of a drug trafficking conviction won by federal US prosecutors less than two years earlier.

Speaking in a video posted to social media and referring to the US president, Hernández eventually said Trump “changed my life, and I’ll never forget that”. But first he praised God, saying in Spanish, “You saw the injustice and suffering, and in your infinite mercy you helped us.”

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Juan Orlando Hernandez/Reuters

© Photograph: Juan Orlando Hernandez/Reuters

© Photograph: Juan Orlando Hernandez/Reuters

STC troops now control all eight governorates, a major setback for Emirates’ regional rival Saudi Arabia

The United Arab Emirates-backed military leadership in South Yemen has seized power across the whole of the south of the country, a move that opens up the possibility that the South will declare independence and revert Yemen to being two states for the first time since 1960.

As many as 10,000 troops from the Southern Transitional Council (STC) poured into the oil-rich Hadramaut governorate last week and later into Marah, the less-populated governorate bordering Oman, which had not previously been under its control.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Saleh Al-Obeidi/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Saleh Al-Obeidi/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Saleh Al-Obeidi/AFP/Getty Images

A meticulously researched account of the controversial businessman’s rise and shocking demise

At least two terrible ironies surround the death of Mike Lynch. One lies in the name of his superyacht, which sank off the coast of Sicily in the early hours of 19 August 2024. He had named the boat Bayesian to honour Bayes’s theorem, a mathematical rule that helps you weigh up the probability of something given the available evidence, which served as Lynch’s guiding light over the course of a tempestuous career. The theorem was “a beautiful key to our minds”, Lynch believed. But it was entirely incapable of predicting the outcome that morning, when the yacht capsized during a storm, killing seven people, including Lynch, his 18-year-old daughter Hannah and his US lawyer, Chris Morvillo.

A second irony lies in the fact that Lynch had just come through the trial of his life, one he felt was bound to end in jail, where he thought he could die. Somehow, to everyone’s astonishment, an American jury had acquitted him and his co-defendant on all 15 counts of fraud.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Baia di Santa Nicolicchia

© Photograph: Baia di Santa Nicolicchia

© Photograph: Baia di Santa Nicolicchia

Collateral comedy spins out from underneath the repression and violence charted in this sobering documentary that follows three indefatigable women

There are many symptoms of totalitarian sickness gripping Alexander Lukashenko’s Belarus. You risk being arrested for wearing red and white together, the colours of the outlawed flag of the country’s opposition movement. Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four has been banned, which seems rather on the nose. But these are just some of the more farcical elements, the collateral comedy spinning from the deep repression, violence and psychological wounds charted in this sobering film that follows a trio of Belarusian activists, starting from the pandemic through to the invasion of Ukraine.

Director Juliane Tutein fashions a melancholic mood-piece which chronicles ineffectualness in the face of impregnable state machinery, and the meaning of resistance under such circumstances. Nina, who is 74, is a kind of Belarusian Batman; an indefatigable symbol of protest who is immune to repression because of her fame. Human rights activist Darya runs her organisation in exile in Vilnius after student activism landed her in hot water. Tanya has stuck it out near Minsk while her husband and son have fled to Kyiv, but her human-rights NGO and film festival are in the authorities’ crosshairs.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: True Story

© Photograph: True Story

© Photograph: True Story

The big-name US talkshow host goes all Fab Four superfan in this historical take on the lives of John, Paul, George and Ringo. Plus, Naomi Fry delivers a rich deep dive into The Doors’ legacy

The popular show’s two-part special on the Fab Four has, bizarrely, prompted its Beatles sceptic co-host Dominic Sandbrook to refuse to appear. But his mega-starry replacement is Conan O’Brien, in for an engaging chat with Tom Holland through the career of John, Paul, George and Ringo. Their USP? Says Holland: “We’re a history podcast rather than a music podcast so we need to make the case that the Beatles are significant historically.” Alexi Duggins
Widely available

Continue reading...

© Photograph: PR

© Photograph: PR

© Photograph: PR

A cultural initiative in Piedmont is unlocking a trove of priceless medieval frescoes in rural churches

The Santa Maria di Missione chapel in Villafranca Piemonte, northern Italy, stands at the end of a long cornfield. Behind it, the mountains rise gently, their outlines caressed by the sun. The colours of autumn frame the 15th-century frescoes that embellish the structure’s interior, painted by Italian artist Aimone Duce, of the Lombard school. The chapel is the municipality’s oldest religious building, serving about 4,000 inhabitants, and stands on the site of a pre-existing building dating back to 1037.

Inside the small chapel, my footsteps echo softly against the walls, breaking the stillness of the surrounding countryside. The sharp scent of plaster mingles with the earthy smell of the fields outside, carried in on the wind along with the sweetness of wheat. Light filters through the narrow windows, catching the vivid hues of a fresco that depicts the seven deadly sins – a theme often revisited in medieval iconography.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: LAVINIA NOCELLI

© Photograph: LAVINIA NOCELLI

© Photograph: LAVINIA NOCELLI

After a lifetime of working for others, Rich Baker threw caution to the wind. The result was a national award for his pizza and a surprising surge in confidence

When his kimchi fiorentina pizza won a national award, Rich Baker knew he was turning a corner. It was 2023. Baker was 60. He and his wife, Sarah, had made the kimchi themselves and their win put Flat Earth Pizzas, the east London restaurant they had launched the previous year, on the map.

“My life has changed so much,” Baker says. “A lightbulb has lit up inside and given me energy, and that energy has given me something that is quite amazing: a sense of confidence and a sense of fulfilment.”

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Awaiting credit info

© Photograph: Awaiting credit info

© Photograph: Awaiting credit info

Kansas State and Iowa State decided bowling is best left to Pete Weber, kids birthday parties and recreational beer leagues.

Sunday’s ‘patriots only’ Legislative Council elections took place in the shadow of the Tai Po fire that killed at least 159 people

Hong Kong saw a near-record low turnout in Sunday’s “patriots only” Legislative Council elections, with fewer than 32% of voters turning out, as the number of registered voters fell for the fourth consecutive year.

At 31.9%, Sunday’s turnout is marginally higher than 2021’s record low of 30.2%. But fewer people overall voted this year: 1.3 million compared to 1.4 million in 2021. Hong Kong’s population is about 7.5 million.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Leung Man Hei/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Leung Man Hei/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Leung Man Hei/AFP/Getty Images

Photographer Jill Mead joined the Traveller community’s London Christmas drive on Saturday – a 14-mile trip by 200 or so horse-drawn carts and carriages through the capital, stopping at Buckingham Palace, Soho and Borough Market

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Jill Mead/The Guardian

© Photograph: Jill Mead/The Guardian

© Photograph: Jill Mead/The Guardian