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Long Before Bondi Massacre, Australian Jews Lived With a Sense of Peril

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A Neighborhood in India Fears Being Blamed for a Distant Atrocity

© Saumya Khandelwal for The New York Times
The A.I. Models Are Competing for Your Affection
At least nine killed in mass shooting in South Africa
Manhunt for the suspects launched
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Brendon McCullum admits England’s Ashes preparation ‘didn’t work’

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Saudi Arabia quietly expands access to its only alcohol store for non-Muslim residents

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Minor miracles of travel 2025, from Melbourne to Chandigarh
The Man Who Pays His Way: Not everything goes right, but sometimes journeys deliver unexpected wonders

© Charlotte Hindle
Have Christmas stockings become embarassing now?
Christmas stockings have been a tradition in the UK since the Victorian era. While this festive fun was originally reserved for children, Lydia Spencer-Elliott finds that adults in their thirties show no signs of giving up the extra gifts – even if it’s a total cringe

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How ‘Amadeus’ turns a wild rumour about Mozart and Salieri into unmissable Christmas TV
As Sky’s five-part drama hits our screens, stars Will Sharpe and Gabrielle Creevy plus writer Joe Barton talk to Patrick Smith about fiction straying from fact, risk-taking television, and whether the musical genius was neurodivergent

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SNL mocks Trump over Epstein file redactions, cognitive tests and renaming Kennedy Center in scathing Christmas episode cold open
James Austin Johnson continued his streak as the president and ridiculed the Trump administration over its claim to be the ‘most transparent in history’

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‘Hidden crisis’ of 40,000 women and girls going missing every year due to violence
Women open up about abuse that led to disappearance, after government VAWG strategy is silent on missing people, as The Independent hopes to launch national lifeline SafeCall

© Missing People
Jim Beam shutting down bourbon production at Kentucky distillery for a year as Trump’s trade wars hit sales
Trade war with Canada has contributed to a significant decline in U.S. liquor sales

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Australia win Ashes as England fall short in record chase

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Jordan Love ruled out with concussion after scary hit in Packers injury nightmare




Bears, Caleb Williams stun Packers in OT with long TD throw to extend NFC North lead



Providence mayor, police chief honored at college basketball game after Brown shooter investigation





Yankees re-sign Paul Blackburn to one year, $2M deal in latest low-cost move


Gunmen kill 10 in Johannesburg township in South Africa’s second mass shooting within weeks
Unknown gunmen wound 10 others in Bekkersdal with victims ‘randomly shot’ in the street, police say
Unknown gunmen killed 10 people and wounded 10 others in an attack at a township outside Johannesburg, police said on Sunday, in the second mass shooting in South Africa in December.
The motive for the attack at Bekkersdal, 40km (25 miles) south-west of Johannesburg, was not clear, police told Agence France-Presse.
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© Photograph: dts News Agency Germany/Shutterstock

© Photograph: dts News Agency Germany/Shutterstock

© Photograph: dts News Agency Germany/Shutterstock
Powerball jackpot jumps up to $1.6B — fourth-largest prize in game’s history


Captain Pat Cummins is in rare air. Can his Ashes champions go around again? | Geoff Lemon
He’s achieved an Ashes feat that few others have. But he’s still missing an outright win in England
While it took longer than expected on the fifth day in Adelaide, eventually it was done. A series won, the Ashes retained for another year and a half until they next go up for grabs in England. For Pat Cummins, this makes three consecutive Ashes series captained without giving up the urn. The feat leaves him in sparse but fine company: the others to do it are Joe Darling, Don Bradman, Richie Benaud, Mike Brearley, Allan Border and Mark Taylor.
It made things neater that Steve Smith missed this third Test, having captained the first two wins in Cummins’ absence, so that it didn’t feel like the full-time captain was swooping in to hoover up the stand-in’s lunch. Those situations can be odd, like Adam Gilchrist filling in to lead what was very much Ricky Ponting’s team, captaining two wins in India in 2004 before Ponting returned from injury after the series was decided. Who gets credit for the win?
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© Photograph: Asanka Brendon Ratnayake/Reuters

© Photograph: Asanka Brendon Ratnayake/Reuters

© Photograph: Asanka Brendon Ratnayake/Reuters
St. John’s struggles on the glass continue in loss to Kentucky


Dante Moore’s five touchdowns power Oregon to College Football Playoff rout of James Madison



My weirdest Christmas: I tried to catch out Santa with a whoopee cushion – but the Big Man outwitted me
Who was Santa, really? Aged eight, I devised a cunning plan to catch him in the act, involving a booby trap and a camera. Unfortunately, the joke was on me …
It was Christmas Eve, 1987. The cold war was beginning to emit its last frosty guffs, Thatcher had set her sights on gay children, and Michael Fish was keeping his head down. In England’s deep south, my sister and I conspired in our bedroom. We are twins: she got the brains; I, being the eldest by a full six minutes, was to inherit the estates and titles, except there were none because my idealistic pinko parents had spent their working lives in public service.
Earlier in the year, my sister had attempted to prove the existence of God. Worried about the health of her pet rabbit, Wodger, she penned him a letter pleading for help, with a rather clever “Please tick if you have read this” box at the end.
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© Composite: Guardian Design; handout; Getty Images

© Composite: Guardian Design; handout; Getty Images

© Composite: Guardian Design; handout; Getty Images