2 min United win a throw-in on the right, and then a free kick, which comes to nothing.
We have a minor celebrity in the tunnel! Kelly Osbourne, daughter of the late lamented Ozzy, is there and she’s wearing a Villa shirt. Is she playing? No, her son Sid is a mascot today. He’s not holding hands with John McGinn in the traditional fashion – he’s in his arms.
Exclusive: Thinktank’s findings undermine successive home secretaries’ statements about misuse of system in England and Wales
Asylum seekers are not abusing the modern slavery system in a widespread manner, according to a report from a centre-right thinktank that undermines statements from successive home secretaries.
The report from Bright Blue finds limited evidence that asylum seekers are falsely claiming to have been the victims of modern slavery to stay in the country, despite several home secretaries blaming the system for stopping them deporting more people.
Rangers arrived in Edinburgh with a view to reminding onlookers they can be a key component in this season’s Scottish title race. They departed as the latest victims of the Hearts juggernaut. Back to back wins against Celtic had already been secured before Hearts repeated the trick against Rangers. Dreams of a first Hearts title since 1960 are not merely alive. They are growing. Rangers are a dozen points adrift of Derek McInnes’s team after this, a first away league defeat of 2025. Hearts are 18 games and halfway towards the promised land.
Rangers had arguably been the better side before Hearts whacked them with two, decisive first-half goals. Stuart Findlay claimed the first of them, the centre back rising highest after Alexandros Kyziridis combined with Claudio Braga for a short corner. Kyziridis’s cross was pinpoint. The Greek winger had earlier threatened the Rangers goal twice, the visitors having a potential opener ruled out for an offside against Bojan Miovski.
New Africa Hub confronts colonial-era silences by asking visitors to share insights on 40,000 objects
It’s a rare thing for a museum to talk about what it doesn’t know. But unanswered questions and archival silences are at the heart of the new Africa Hub at Manchester Museum, north-west England, which is inviting people around the world to help fill the gaps.
The museum holds more than 40,000 items from across Africa, many of which were traded, collected, looted or preserved during the era of the British empire.
The Irish singer-songwriter does what the best musicians do: perfectly crystallising their time while inspirationally taking a stand against it
What has it felt like to be alive in 2025? The basic answer probably touches on a few aspects of the 21st-century experience. One is the horror and conflict that seem to define the news almost every day. Another centres around the material pressures that increasingly grip supposedly peaceful countries: the never-ending cost of living crisis, and the impossibility for millions of people of a secure job, a dependable home and some halfway viable idea of the future.
Something else demands a mention: the all-pervading mixture of absurdity, nastiness and anger fostered by the internet. Bigotry runs rampant. What we still rather laughably call social media now seem to operate on the basis that the ideal story mixes wildly improbable elements with the kicking-up of moral outrage (witness that ghoulish “online content creator” Bonnie Blue, who, having claimed to have had sex with 1,057 men in 12 hours, ended the year by announcing her support for Nigel Farage). You can check your feed in a mood of mild curiosity, but find yourself instantly pulled into what this results in: great storms of mockery, loathing and polarised shouting.
John Harris is a Guardian columnist. His book Maybe I’m Amazed: A Story of Love and Connection in Ten Songs is available from the Guardian bookshop
Schab was a 21-year-old navy musician aboard USS Dobbin when Japan carried out surprise attack in 1941
A second world war veteran who was among the last survivors of the 1941 Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor died on Saturday.
Ira “Ike” Schab, who served in the US navy at the time of the bombing, was 105, according to a statement from the USS Arizona Memorial, which pays tribute to military members who were killed at Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941.
Silver steward is one of three people arrested in connection with alleged theft from presidential residence
A silver steward employed at the Élysée Palace in Paris has been arrested for stealing silverware and porcelain, amid a wave of thefts from high-profile French institutions.
Investigators arrested the man and two alleged accomplices last week. They are accused of taking the objects from the official Paris residence of the French president and trying to sell them on online auction websites such as Vinted.
I was heavily pregnant with twins and doing the weekly grocery shop for our already-large family. Doing much of anything when you’re that big isn’t fun, especially as I was battling issues including constant, intermittent contractions. Bending over to load groceries into the boot was sure to set the contractions off, so I was already dreading getting everything into the car.
I wheeled my shopping trolley out to the car park, then got my keys out to open the car and put my handbag on the passenger seat. I’d turned around for a second but that was all it took for my trolley to start rolling away. Before I could react, it had shot away from me and tipped over, spilling its contents across the ground.
The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical concepts
The dramatic chipmunk, distracted boyfriend, the raccoon with the candy floss or “success kid”, what is – or was – the absolute top, world-beating, best-ever internet meme? Antony Scacchi, Los Angeles, US
And where transgender advocates and healthcare providers view puberty blockers, hormones and (in rare cases) surgical interventions as suicide prevention measures, the health secretary claimed that these “procedures” will do the opposite: “rob children of their futures.”
Judith Levine is a Brooklyn-based journalist, essayist and author of five books. Her Substack is Today in Fascism
The health and fitness coach on his difficult childhood, why he’s never been single – and doing his first YouTube workout with a broken hand
Born in Epsom in 1985, Joe Wicks is a health and fitness coach and author. He studied sports science at St Mary’s University and started posting recipes and workouts on social media in 2014, while working as a personal trainer. His Lean in 15 videos went viral, leading to a bestselling publishing career. During the pandemic, Wicks hosted daily livestreamed PE lessons, raised more than £1m for charity and earned an MBE. His 13th book, Protein In 15, is out now.
I was always covered in food as a kid – a real messy eater. This was probably readymade spaghetti from a tin. Our family didn’t have the greatest diet – we were on benefits, a lot of our money went on Dad’s heroin addiction, and Mum was young and didn’t know much about nutrition.
Since just 3% of Americans use platform Trump owns, public may be unaware of his mental state and performance
When Donald Trump has something to say, he takes to Truth Social.
Trump has used the platform to announce policies on everything from the economy to travel bans, making declarations that are key for Americans seeking information about his government.
Why would the Trump administration choose to set aside consequences from criminals whose actions threaten the stability of the broader American economy?
When Islamic State needed to move and disguise its money, it turned, US prosecutors said in 2023, to the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange: Binance. So too did al-Qaida, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas, which used the platform to help bankroll its operations in the years leading up to the 7 October attack in Israel. Binance was not accused of directly financing these groups, but prosecutors found that it knowingly allowed its exchange to function as a conduit – enabling extremist organisations to shift funds, evade scrutiny and frustrate investigations.
At the centre of it all was Binance’s founder and chief executive, Changpeng Zhao. By 2024, the self-styled “king” of crypto had fallen from grace, pleading guilty to money laundering charges and entering prison, while Binance agreed to pay a record $4.3bn penalty for its role in facilitating terrorist financing. The case was hailed as a rare victory for regulators willing to take on the industry’s biggest players – and for victims of the violence linked to those financial flows. Among them were the families of US citizens killed on 7 October, who are now suing Binance in a class-action lawsuit accusing the company of “pitching itself to terrorist organisations”.
Crustaceans are a festive season staple for many families, particularly in Australia where an estimated 18.5m kilograms of prawns and more than 150,000 lobsters are eaten over Christmas and New Year.
Globally, trillions are caught and consumed each year. Australia is a major producer, with prawn, lobster and crab industries valued at more than $1bn.
The first ever mass deployment of mother reef bricks aims to rebuild habitats – and could reshape the North Sea
Allie Wharf’s career unfolded amid conflict. As a senior foreign producer for Newsnight, she reported on Iraq and Afghanistan. Just two years ago, she was filming mass graves in Ukraine.
But burnt out by wars, and after a detour farming ducks in Tanzania, Wharf has now settled on the quiet north Norfolk coast. Here, alongside her life and business partner, Willie Athill, she has embarked on a different kind of mission: the creation of Europe’s largest natural oyster reef.
Researchers warn generative tools are helping militant groups from neo-Nazis to the Islamic State spread ideology
While the artificial intelligence boom is upending sections of the music industry, voice generating bots are also becoming a boon to another unlikely corner of the internet: extremist movements that are using them to recreate the voices and speeches of major figures in their milieu, and experts say it is helping them grow.
“The adoption of AI-enabled translation by terrorists and extremists marks a significant evolution in digital propaganda strategies,” said Lucas Webber, a senior threat intelligence analyst at Tech Against Terrorism and a research fellow at the Soufan Center. Webber specializes in monitoring the online tools of terrorist groups and extremists around the world.
Milan-Cortina Olympics firmly in sight for US star
Sofia Goggia finally got the win her fast skiing this season deserved in a World Cup super-G on Sunday and Lindsey Vonn was third for the second straight day.
The two former Olympic downhill champions were split on a high-class podium by runner-up Alice Robinson, who is already a two-time winner this season on the World Cup circuit.
While many use our phones predominantly to doomscroll, smartphones have a range of little-known functions that could make life better and easier – from heart monitoring to even developing camera film
Our smartphones are magical things – far more than dopamine drip providers and a way to keep in touch with friends and family. Using the built-in features and easily available additional apps, there are plenty of clever things you can do with your smartphone.
Doctors have warned that the lives of these prisoners are now in danger. Pretending this is not happening is not good enough
In 1981, IRA and other republican prisoners went on hunger strike in Northern Ireland, demanding the restoration of their political status. Ten would die; extraordinarily, their leader, Bobby Sands, had been elected as an MP by the time of his death. Margaret Thatcher took a hardline public stance. But by the end, behind the scenes, the government was looking for an exit, and public opinion had shifted significantly.
The lives of the Palestine Action-affiliated remand prisoners now on hunger strike are at growing risk. On Friday, two reached day 48 without food. (In 1981, one IRA prisoner – 29-year-old Martin Hurson – died on the 46th day.) Twenty-year-old Qesser Zuhrah is being treated in hospital after she reportedly collapsed at HMP Bronzefield in Surrey. Amu Gib, 30, has also been treated. Three more have refused food for more than 40 days and another, who has diabetes, is eating only every other day. Two others have now ended their protest, one after hospitalisation.
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Attackers wound 10 others in Bekkersdal after opening fire at people in a bar and ‘randomly’ shooting in the street, police say
Nine people have been killed after gunmen opened fire at a bar near Johannesburg in the second mass shooting in South Africa this month.
Ten more were wounded in the early morning attack at the tavern in the impoverished Bekkersdal township in a gold mining area about 25 miles (40km) south-west of Johannesburg.
Group of 120 experts including Joseph Stiglitz urge fresh debt restructuring plan given scale of destruction
A group of the world’s top economists – including the Nobel prize winner Joseph Stiglitz – have called for Sri Lanka’s debt payments to be suspended as it tackles the devastation caused by Cyclone Ditwah.
More than 600 people were killed and hundreds of thousands of homes destroyed across the island, in what Sri Lanka’s president, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, called the “largest and most challenging natural disaster in our history”.
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