And we’re underway in south London. Palace in their red and blue home kit, United in their white away kit.
“Will Manchester United manage a draw today?” asks Jeremy Boyce. “Looking at their sweet and sour form, possibly not. Especially now that Palace have become a decent benchmark for being solid and consistent and playing above their level. They have Glasner to thank for that and, depending on the outcome of today/this season, we might be witnessing the next lines of Glasner’s CV to be handed to Sir Jim if it all goes pear-shaped (no silverware) for Amorim.”
Understanding the surprising mechanism behind apathy can help unlock scientific ways to boost your motivation
We all know people with very different levels of motivation. Some will go the extra mile in any endeavour. Others just can’t be bothered to put the effort in. We might think of them as lazy – happiest on the sofa, rather than planning their latest project. What’s behind this variation? Most of us would probably attribute it to a mixture of temperament, circumstances, upbringing or even values.
But research in neuroscience and in patients with brain disorders is challenging these assumptions by revealing the brain mechanisms that underlie motivation. When these systems become dysfunctional, people who were once highly motivated can become pathologically apathetic. Whereas previously they might have been curious, highly engaged and productive – at work, in their social lives and in their creative thinking – they can suddenly seem like the opposite.
As the first part of his acclaimed Blinding trilogy is released in the UK, the novelist talks about communism, Vladimir Nabokov – and those Nobel rumours
In 2014, when he was travelling around the US on a book tour, Mircea Cărtărescu was able to fulfil the dream of a lifetime: a tour of Vladimir Nabokov’s butterfly collection. Cărtărescu is a great admirer of the Russian-American author, and shares with him a literary career that bridges the western and eastern cultural spheres – as well as a history of being mooted as the next Nobel literature laureate but never having won it.
Above all, the Romanian poet and novelist shares Nabokov’s fascination with butterflies. As a child, he harboured dreams of becoming a lepidopterist. On a visit to Harvard, Cărtărescu was allowed access to Nabokov’s former office and marvelled at specimens the St Petersburg-born author had collected. “His most important scientific work was about butterflies’ sexual organs, and I saw these very tiny vials with them in,” he whispers in awe. “It’s like an image from a poem or a story. It was absolutely fantastic.”
There is growing understanding that our country is witnessing evil in our public life. Here is a path to confronting it
Across the country, organizers are carrying something heavier, clearer and more spiritually charged than anything I have seen in over 30 years of this work. From veteran freedom fighters to young activists, there is a growing alignment around the unmistakable presence of evil in our public life. The horrors unfolding before us have sharpened our collective sight and deepened the understanding that our resistance must be morally unwavering and spiritually grounded.
The spiritual framework for this argument begins with a simple conviction. Our movements need to reclaim a moral vocabulary that names evil plainly. Dr King understood this. When he named the pain of poverty, the sickness of racism and the excess of materialism, he called them the “triple evils”, speaking with unflinching clarity about the devastation that this collective evil was inflicting on the country, on our conscience and on our very souls. We are living in such a moment again. The evil is fully out, and anyone with spiritual integrity can see it. Among the forces driving that clarity are Gaza, empire and ICE.
Dr Rami Nashashibi is a MacArthur fellow and the founding executive director of the Inner-City Muslim Action Network (IMAN)
Marco Rubio, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner expected to meet Kyiv delegation, after another weekend of deadly Russian attacks in Ukraine
Ukrainian negotiators are preparing to meet US officials in Florida to thrash out details of Washington’s proposed framework to end Russia’s war in Ukraine, as Kyiv faces pressure on military and political fronts.
The secretary of state, Marco Rubio, special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law, are expected to sit down with a Ukrainian delegation on Sunday before planned US talks this week in Moscow with Vladimir Putin.
Exclusive: Guardian investigation finds unlicensed jabs offered as experts call for more online regulation
Companies selling illegal weight-loss drugs are amassing positive Trustpilot reviews as critics say regulatory gaps allow high-risk operators to appear credible.
A Guardian investigation found that Retatrutide UK had a score of 4.4 on the global review site, despite purporting to offer a drug that is unlicensed and illegal to sell or buy. Its website sells a 20mg retatrutide pen for £132.
Former oversight officials alarmed by dismantling of DHS system that oversees complaints about civil rights harms
The federal watchdog system at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that oversees complaints about civil rights violations, including in immigration detention, has been gutted so thoroughly that it could be laying the groundwork for the Trump administration to “abuse people with impunity”, experts warn.
Former federal oversight officials have sounded the alarm at the rapid dismantling of guardrails against human rights failures – at the same time as the government pushes aggressive immigration enforcement operations.
Border Patrol agents in Arizona forcibly removed a detained man from a cell, handcuffed him and then injected him with ketamine to sedate him in 2023, according to a CRCL document confirming the watchdog’s investigation into the allegation. A Guardian reporter had saved that document just weeks before it was scrubbed from the DHS’s website.
Guards at a privately owned Louisiana detention center systematically mistreated detained immigrants, according to a CRCL document.This included an investigation into a 2024 incident during which correctional staff pepper sprayed around 200 detained immigrants who were staging a hunger strike in protest of detention conditions. Guards then allegedly locked the men in the unit and cut the power and water for hours. A majority of the men were allegedly denied medical care, the original complaint, submitted to the CRCL by RFK Human Rights, said.
In a Florida jail, a 33-year-old immigrant woman with mental health problems was forcibly stripped naked, strapped to a restraint chair and mocked by male guards, according to a CRCL complaint submitted by the ACLU of Florida and RFK Human Rights. The woman was allegedly left with “contusions and marks on her body” after hours in the restraint chair. The whistleblower declaration said the CRCL had launched an investigation into the case.
Agents violated due process during the arrest and detention of Palestinian student and Columbia University activist Mahmoud Khalil, according to the whistleblower complaint.
Rescue teams find more bodies in burnt-out buildings of Wang Fuk Court complex after Wednesday’s fire
The death toll in Hong Kong’s apartment complex fire has risen to 146 after investigators discovered more bodies in the burnt-out buildings. A steady stream of people placed bouquets of flowers at an ever-growing makeshift memorial at the scene of the disaster, among the worst in the city’s history.
The Hong Kong police’s disaster victim identification unit has been going through the buildings of the Wang Fuk Court complex meticulously and has found bodies both in apartment units and on the roofs, the officer in charge, Cheng Ka-chun, said on Sunday.
Before she was a TV mainstay, Judi Love was a single mum juggling standup with care work. Now she’s back on stage for a show that finds humour in past trauma: ‘It’s laughter that helped me’, she says.
Judi Love was 17 when she was kidnapped, though she adds a couple of years on when reliving it on stage. It was only the anecdote’s second to-audience outing when I watched her recite it, peppered with punchlines, at a late-October work-in-progress gig. The bones of her new show – All About the Love, embarking on a 23-date tour next year – are very much still evolving, but this Wednesday night in Bedford is a sell out, such is the pull of Love’s telly star power.
She starts by twerking her way into the spotlight, before riffing on her career as a social worker and trading “chicken and chips for champagne and ceviche”. Interspersed are opening bouts of sharp crowd work – Love at her free-wheeling best. Next, she’s at college, studying IT, but mostly “going into the games room looking for boys”. It’s here that Love meets this unnamed lad.
‘A series like this, does it need it? I don’t think so’
Root’s head-to-head with Starc may be decisive battle
It rarely takes much for an Englishman to be accused of whinging in Australia but when Joe Root was asked a simple question on Sunday – whether a series such as the Ashes actually needs day-night Test cricket – he simply gave an honest answer.
“I personally don’t think so,” replied Root, before England began netting at the Gabba before Thursday’s second Test. “It’s obviously very successful and popular here, and obviously Australia have got a very good record [played 14, won 13]. You can see why we’re playing one of those games.
As we prepare to launch our eighth edition of our global list we present the members of this year’s voting panel, our biggest ever
After another gripping year of women’s football we are ready to launch our list of the best 100 female footballers in the world in 2025.
Our biggest ever panel includes familiar faces such as the outgoing Kansas City Current head coach Vlatko Andonovski, the new OL Lyonnes head coach, Jonatan Giráldez, and Australia’s Joe Montemurro.
Thomas Frank criticised a section of Tottenham’s fans for turning their anger on Guglielmo Vicario after the goalkeeper was at fault in their 2-1 Premier League home defeat by Fulham.
The Italian, dashing yards from his penalty area to the left touchline, made the mistake that presented Harry Wilson with the chance to put Fulham’s second goal into an empty net in Spurs’ latest home defeat. Fulham were leading 2-0 by the sixth minute, with Kenny Tete having scored a deflected opener. Tottenham have not won at home in the league since beating Burnley on the opening weekend.
Krishna gets in touch: “Isn’t the match involving Manchester United no longer about the result but how many minutes before the first misplaced pass, when will Ruben disintegrate looking like a cook who forgot his recipe AND missing a key ingredient and which comic event will lead to the first red card?”
Ruben Amorim has been doing his usual Mr Motivator act.
Things do not get any easier for Wolves and Rob Edwards. After being outclassed by Crystal Palace last weekend, on Sunday they face a trip to their in-form Midlands rivals Aston Villa. Then it is Nottingham Forest, Manchester United, Arsenal and Brentford before Christmas. Wolves lost to each of the promoted clubs this season and surely even the most optimistic Wolves supporter can be forgiven for wondering: where are the points coming from? A section of Wolves supporters tempered their anger at Molineux last time out but any grace period afforded to Edwards, a personable former player and coach, will soon fade. Even so he has to maintain belief. “When we take these jobs we all back ourselves – there’s a belief and ego we all have: ‘I can be the one who can stick around for a while,’” he said. “I haven’t joined this club to be gone within a few months.”
Hundreds of people still missing after heavy rain and mudslides in country’s deadliest natural disaster for years
Entire areas of Sri Lanka’s capital are flooded after a powerful cyclone triggered heavy rains and mudslides across the island, with authorities reporting nearly 200 dead and dozens more missing.
Officials said the extent of the damage in the country’s worst-affected central region was slowly becoming clear on Sunday as relief workers cleared roads blocked by fallen trees and mudslides.
Exclusive: French artist planning to cover bridge over Seine in tribute to Christo and Jeanne-Claude
The enigmatic French artist JR will undertake what he says is his biggest ever challenge next year when he “wraps” Pont Neuf, the oldest standing bridge across the Seine River in Paris, in a tribute to a monumental art project by Christo and Jeanne-Claude.
For three weeks next June, the 232-metre (761ft) long bridge will be wrapped in fabric, 40 years after the married artists known for their large-scale, site-specific environmental installations did the same thing.
The musical prodigy discovered Stevie Wonder aged two and danced to Brazilian jazz at a Grammys afterparty. But what song does he think is the best in the world?
The first song I fell in love with So many songs hit me as a child, they were like windows opening up new worlds. But the first I truly loved was Did I Hear You Say You Love Me, by Stevie Wonder, which I remember clearly when I was around two years old.
The first single I bought I bought an iTunes single by Take 6 when I was 13. They are a six-part a cappella, gospel, jazz group, and they completely exploded my creative imagination. The song, He Never Sleeps, has the most unbelievable harmonic journey.
Australian opener ‘preparing for anything’ in Brisbane
Agrees with Pat Cummins that batting order ‘overrated’
Having swushbuckled Australia to victory after vaulting to the top of the order in the first Ashes Test, Travis Head arrived in Brisbane on Sunday to begin his preparations for the second, saying that the future of Test cricket lies in the hands of batters who can flex into a variety of positions. Head described pliable positions as “where the game’s going to”, proposing that Australia could already “use these players in a range of different ways to win games of cricket”.
Last month Pat Cummins, Australia’s currently-injured captain, described the concept of batting orders as “pretty overrated”, insisting quality players “can bat wherever” – an opinion Head echoed.
Not long ago the Norwegian giants were relegated and almost bankrupt – now a first title in 34 years is in reach
There were moments last weekend when Viking’s latest must-win game at Fredrikstad seemed to turn on a coin toss. The chances came thick and fast; both goalkeepers were forced into acrobatic saves; on the stroke of half-time, the Fredrikstad forward Henrik Skogvold unleashed a shot that cracked the underside of the bar and seemed to defy the laws of physics by spinning away.
Viking knew anything other than a win would allow Bodø/Glimt, Norwegian champions in four of the past five seasons, to dethrone them at the top. In the 71st minute, as the massed ranks of away fans in dark blue held their breath, the odds finally went in their favour: Zlatko Tripic, the captain, arced an inch-perfect cross to the back post, where Henrik Falchener, Viking’s towering centre-back, nodded in to set off an explosion of noise and send thousands of fists into the air in unison.
The US hasn’t just left Ukraine vulnerable; it is also provoking Xi’s intensifying attitude towards what he considers a renegade province
Sheer ignorance, fed by malign intent, historical prejudice and mutual misunderstanding, is often the crucial spark that ignites simmering international conflicts. If Adolf Hitler, remarkably ignorant of the US, had grasped the true extent of American industrial might, would he still have fatefully declared war on Washington in 1941?
When the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979, it evidently had no idea what it was getting into. Humiliating defeat contributed greatly to its subsequent disintegration. In 1990, Iraq’s Saddam Hussein attacked Kuwait, convinced he had a green light from the White House. In all these cases, stupidity produced disastrous misjudgments that proved fatal.
Simon Tisdall is a Guardian foreign affairs commentator
Midfielder’s three goals illustrate the different attributes that have made her the player she is today
England laid down a marker at Wembley on Saturday evening as they waltzed to victory over China with a scintillating show of attacking force. Among the many eye-catching performances, Georgia Stanway stood out, joining Beth Mead and Aggie Beever-Jones by becoming the third Lioness to score a hat-trick at Wembley. Her three goals and assist formed part of a midfield display that was right up there with the best the national stadium has witnessed over the years.
The 26-year-old has been one of the first names on Sarina Wiegman’s team sheet since the Dutchwoman took over as manager in 2021. Famous for her long-range finishing and tenacious tackling, she is emblematic of the fight and quality that this England team possess. When in top form, she and Keira Walsh form one of the best midfield partnerships out there, complementing each other’s attributes. She is one of the leaders of this team, unafraid to stand up and be counted on and off the pitch when things go wrong and at the core of their success when they go right.
Top-four seeding shows Fifa prioritising marketing over sporting integrity once again but even best-laid plans can flop
The plastic balls rumble around the glass bowls of destiny. Portentous music plays. There is a sense of possibility, as though the inner workings of the universe have suddenly been laid bare, a door opening to reveal the three Fates sitting by their spinning wheel, measuring rod and shears in hand.
A World Cup draw is a moment of perfection, a platonic vision before reality has had time to intervene. Everybody is fit and in form. Every nation is playing as an ideal version of itself – no injuries, no disputes over bonuses, no concerns about fatigue or the temperature or whether a player might be distracted by a possible transfer; it’s the World Cup as pure potential. With Friday’s draw, next summer will suddenly feel a lot closer.
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