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Wissa needs more time to get over knee injury
Yoane Wissa is still not ready to make regular starts for Newcastle but Eddie Howe is keen to find the Congolese striker more opportunities in the coming weeks.
I think with Yoane, we’ve got to look after him, he’s still relatively early in his return. He did really well in his one start against Fulham, I was really pleased with him that day and there’ll be other opportunities.
The problem for us is with our schedule playing every three, four days, I don’t think he’s in a condition where he could start regularly at the moment. Hopefully we can manage him to that point at some stage.
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© Photograph: Carl Recine/Reuters
© Photograph: Carl Recine/Reuters
© Photograph: Carl Recine/Reuters
© Herbert Dorfman/Corbis, via Getty Images
Ukrainian president will meet US president at his Mar-a-Lago home later today for their first in person meeting since October
Ukraine’s anti-corruption agencies Nabu and Sapo raided national parliament offices in Kyiv on Saturday as investigators alleged some MPs were implicated in a new graft probe.
A statement from Nabu, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau, accused State Security Department guards of “resisting Nabu officers during investigative actions in committees of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine”. The anti-corruption agency did not reveal details of the investigation, but said suspects took bribes for votes.
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© Photograph: Andrew Leyden/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock
© Photograph: Andrew Leyden/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock
© Photograph: Andrew Leyden/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock
© Robert Walker/The New York Times
Volunteers and neighbours are restoring the century-old homes as an act of defiance against Russia’s assault
Lesia Danylenko proudly showed off her new front door. Volunteers had nicknamed its elegant transom window the “croissant”, a nod to its curved shape. “I think it’s more of a peacock,” she said, admiring its branch-like details. The restoration project at one of Kyiv’s early 20th-century art nouveau houses was supported by residents, who celebrated with two pavement parties.
It was also an act of resistance against Russia, she explained: “We are trying to live like normal people despite the war. It’s about arranging our life in the best possible way. We’re not afraid of staying in Ukraine. I could have left the country and moved away to Italy or Germany. Instead, I’m here. The new entrance shows our commitment to our homeland.”
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© Photograph: Alessio Mamo/The Guardian
© Photograph: Alessio Mamo/The Guardian
© Photograph: Alessio Mamo/The Guardian
Currently on stage in a play that provoked riots, the rising Irish actor is also stepping into Keane’s boots to replay a notorious footballing feud. But, he says, his country feels more empowered than ever before
Éanna Hardwicke cannot really remember Saipan. Not Saipan the place, a small Pacific Island 200km north-east of Guam. Nor, thankfully, Saipan the film, in which he stars, and which I’m hoping to discuss with him at length this afternoon. No, he means Saipan the incident, Saipan the event, Saipan the crisis that has baffled and incensed Ireland’s population for a quarter of a century.
We are sitting in a pleasantly boxy meeting room deep within the lungs of the National Theatre, a space so starkly concrete that the current king of England once described it as a clever way of building a nuclear power plant in the middle of London without anyone objecting. Hardwicke himself sports the quiet, thoughtful presence of a literature student, at times speaking like a particularly articulate MA who’s popped round to deliver a treatise on some dramatic works he just happens to be starring in. He’s here rehearsing a play that forms another contentious landmark in Ireland’s cultural history, but we’ll get to that once we move past the summer he turned five.
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© Photograph: Pip
© Photograph: Pip
© Photograph: Pip
Take this hopeful thought into 2026: the tyrants we endure always falter, and their ‘seismic’ upheavals are usually false dawns
For those who lived through the cold war, the fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989, was an unforgettable moment. The sinister watch towers with their searchlights and armed guards, the minefields in no-man’s land, the notorious Checkpoint Charlie border post, and the Wall itself – all were swept aside in an extraordinary, popular lunge for freedom.
Less than a month later, on 3 December 1989, at a summit in Malta, US president George HW Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev declared that after more than 40 years, the cold war was over. All agreed it was a historic turning point.
Simon Tisdall is a Guardian foreign affairs commentator
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© Illustration: Nate Kitch/The Guardian
© Illustration: Nate Kitch/The Guardian
© Illustration: Nate Kitch/The Guardian
Bardot titillated the world for five decades, but the controversy and voyeurism surrounding her shouldn’t overshadow an intriguing film career
Bardot … there was a time when it couldn’t be pronounced without a knowing pout on the second syllable. French headline-writers loved calling the world’s most desirable film star by her initials: “BB”, that is: bébé, a bit of weirdly infantilised tabloid pillow-talk. When Brigitte Bardot retired from the movies in the mid-70s, taking up the cause of animal rights and a ban on the import of baby seals, the French press took to calling her BB-phoque, a homophone of the French for “baby seal” with a nasty hint of an Anglo pun. But France’s love affair with Bardot was to curdle, despite her fierce patriotism and admiration for Charles de Gaulle (the feeling was reciprocated). As her animal rights campaigning morphed in the 21st century into an attack on halal meat, and then into shrill attacks on the alleged “Islamicisation” of France, her relations with the modern world curdled even more.
In the 1950s, before the sexual revolution, before the New Wave, before feminism, there was Bardot: she was sex, she was youth, and, more to the point, Bardot was modernity. She was the unacknowledged zeitgeist force that stirred cinema’s young lions such as François Truffaut against the old order. Bardot was the country’s most sensational cultural export; she was in effect the French Beatles, a liberated, deliciously shameless screen siren who made male American moviegoers gulp and goggle with desire in that puritan land where sex on screen was still not commonplace, and in which sexiness had to be presented in a demure solvent of comedy. Bardot may not have had the comedy skills of a Marilyn Monroe, but she had ingenuous charm and real charisma, a gentleness and sweetness, largely overlooked in the avalanche of prurience and sexist condescension.
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© Photograph: Alamy
© Photograph: Alamy
© Photograph: Alamy
Bardot became a celebrated sex symbol in 1950s and 60s, but later embraced animal rights activism and an increasingly controversial political stance
• Brigitte Bardot: a life in pictures
• Peter Bradshaw on Brigitte Bardot – a zeitgeist-force and France’s most sensational export
Brigitte Bardot, the French actor and singer who became an international sex symbol before turning her back on the film industry to become an animal rights activist, has died aged 91.
“The Brigitte Bardot foundation announces with immense sadness the death of its founder and president, Madame Brigitte Bardot, a world-renowned actress and singer, who chose to abandon her prestigious career to dedicate her life and energy to animal welfare and her foundation,” it said in a statement sent to Agence France-Presse on Sunday, without specifying the time or place of death.
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© Photograph: NANA PRODUCTIONS/REX/Rex Features
© Photograph: NANA PRODUCTIONS/REX/Rex Features
© Photograph: NANA PRODUCTIONS/REX/Rex Features
PM Albin Kurti’s Self-Determination party may struggle to win majority after rival parties refused alliance
Voters in Kosovo are casting ballots in an early parliamentary election in the hope of breaking a political deadlock that has gripped the small Balkan nation for much of this year.
The snap vote was scheduled after the prime minister Albin Kurti’s governing Vetëvendosje, or Self-Determination, party failed to form a government despite winning the most votes in a 9 February election.
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© Photograph: Valdrin Xhemaj/Reuters
© Photograph: Valdrin Xhemaj/Reuters
© Photograph: Valdrin Xhemaj/Reuters
A sell-out crowd for the final helped deliver a once-in-a-lifetime experience as England’s captain Zoe Aldcroft raised the trophy after defeating Canada
Recalling the moment that England’s captain, Zoe Aldcroft, lifted the Rugby World Cup still brings goosebumps. Twickenham was bathed in September sunshine, there was not one empty green seat and when the Gloucester-Hartpury star raised the silverware with gold streamers and fire pyrotechnics, the roar from the crowd was a sound unmatched at any other women’s rugby game I have attended.
England had rewarded the home fans as they executed the perfect gameplan against Canada, the in-form team who were the underdogs despite knocking out the six-time champions New Zealand in the semi-final. The stadium was sold out with a women’s rugby record of 81,885 creating an electric atmosphere. Future World Cup finals will be sell-outs with a party-feel celebration but I am unsure if anything will be able to replicate the feeling on 2025 final day for everyone invested in women’s rugby. There was a sense of overwhelming emotion of what the sport has grown into over the past few years. Now, the women’s game can not only sell-out the biggest venues but also provide box office action and deliver an unforgettable experience.
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© Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian
© Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian
© Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian
Curator was in a ‘state of shock’ watching match unfold
‘We’re very, very disappointed it’s only gone two days’
The MCG’s head curator has conceded staff went “too far” in preparing a pitch that favoured the bowlers too heavily in the Boxing Day Test, saying he was in a “state of shock” while watching the match unfold.
But the stadium’s chief executive is standing by the under-fire curator after the Test match between Australia and England finished within two days.
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© Photograph: James Ross/AAP
© Photograph: James Ross/AAP
© Photograph: James Ross/AAP
Derrick Henry rushes for 216 yards, four TDs for Ravens
Texans clinch third straight playoff berth with win in LA
Chargers loss hands AFC West title to idle Broncos
Derrick Henry rushed for a season-high 216 yards and matched a career high with four touchdown runs as the Baltimore Ravens kept their playoff hopes alive by defeating the Green Bay Packers 41-24 on Saturday night.
Henry had three touchdown runs in the first half and then scored again on a 25-yard run with 1:56 left in the game. His seventh career 200-yard rushing performance moved him ahead of Adrian Peterson and OJ Simpson for the most in NFL history.
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© Photograph: Matt Ludtke/AP
© Photograph: Matt Ludtke/AP
© Photograph: Matt Ludtke/AP
Chelsea intend to cooperate with the investigation
Emery plays down title talk after 11th consecutive win
Aston Villa lodged a complaint to Chelsea after a bottle of water was thrown at their bench at the end of their 2-1 victory at Stamford Bridge.
There were jubilant scenes at full time after a stunning comeback moved Villa three points off Arsenal at the top of the Premier League. However, the celebrations also featured the away dugout being showered with water when the final whistle was blown. It was not clear if the bottle was thrown by someone from the Chelsea bench or whether it came from the crowd. Chelsea intend to cooperate with the investigation.
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© Photograph: David Cliff/EPA
© Photograph: David Cliff/EPA
© Photograph: David Cliff/EPA
Jota’s two young sons were mascots for 2-1 home win
Slot: ‘The football world again showed how to behave’
Arne Slot praised Liverpool and Wolves fans for “showing the football world how to behave” as Diogo Jota’s two English clubs came together to pay tribute to the late striker at Anfield.
Jota’s two young sons, Dinis and Duarte, were mascots for the first game between the clubs since the Portugal international died in July. Liverpool supporters applauded when Wolves’ fans sang their song for Jota in the 18th minute and vice versa when Anfield acclaimed the late striker in the 20th minute, based on his squad numbers at the two clubs. The entire Wolves squad had visited the memorial to Jota outside Anfield to pay their respects the night before Liverpool’s 2-1 win.
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© Photograph: Robbie Jay Barratt/AMA/Getty Images
© Photograph: Robbie Jay Barratt/AMA/Getty Images
© Photograph: Robbie Jay Barratt/AMA/Getty Images
‘It’s the one thing it seems to be fine to take the mickey out of,’ Gervais said ahead of new Netflix standup
© BBC
Jamie Laing and Sophie Habboo have shared a glimpse of their first Christmas with baby Ziggy.
© Jamie Laing
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