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Jimmy Lai verdict: Hong Kong court to decide on national security charges against pro-democracy figure – live

Incarcerated activist and media owner has been on trial for more than two years on national security charges

Our correspondent Helen Davidson has posted video footage on Bluesy of scenes outside the West Kowloon law courts ahead of the verdicts being handed down on Jimmy Lai.

As has become usual with these national security cases, there is a large police presence outside the West Kowloon district court.

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© Photograph: Anthony Wallace/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Anthony Wallace/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Anthony Wallace/AFP/Getty Images

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UK Treasury drawing up new rules to police cryptocurrency markets

Rachel Reeves wants to protect consumers by bringing digital money and assets into the ‘regulatory perimeter’

Cryptocurrencies will be regulated in a similar way to other financial products under legislation coming into force in 2027.

The Treasury is drawing up rules that will require crypto companies to meet a set of standards overseen by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

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© Photograph: Dimitris Aspiotis/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Dimitris Aspiotis/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Dimitris Aspiotis/Shutterstock

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Former Prince Andrew is butt of the year’s best Christmas cracker joke

Two Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor gags make top 10 of public vote, along with jokes about Oasis and Nigel Farage

It’s safe to say it’s been a very bad year for the former Prince Andrew. Already stripped of his title and privileges, he is rounding off the year by becoming the punchline of the year’s most popular Christmas cracker joke.

The annual competition is commissioned by the comedy channel U&Gold (formerly Comedy Gold) and decided by the British public. It usually produces a topical winner that sends up one of the biggest stories of the year.

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© Photograph: Steve Parsons/AP

© Photograph: Steve Parsons/AP

© Photograph: Steve Parsons/AP

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Average mortgage for UK first-time buyer hits record high of £210,800

People able to buy homes previously beyond budget, aided by rising wages and looser affordability tests

First-time buyers are taking out larger mortgages than ever before as rising wages and looser affordability tests allow them to buy properties that were previously beyond their budget.

The average first-time buyer borrowed £210,800 in the year to September, a record high, according to analysis by Savills, the property agent.

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© Photograph: BMD Images/Alamy

© Photograph: BMD Images/Alamy

© Photograph: BMD Images/Alamy

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Ultra-conservative José Antonio Kast elected Chile’s next president

The son of a Nazi party member and an admirer of Pinochet, Kast built his campaign on a promise to expel tens of thousands of undocumented migrants

The ultra-conservative former congressman José Antonio Kast has been elected as Chile’s next president.

With more than 99% of polling stations counted, Kast took 58.17% of the vote, against 41.83% for the leftist Jeannette Jara, a former labour minister under the current president, Gabriel Boric.

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© Photograph: Esteban Félix/AP

© Photograph: Esteban Félix/AP

© Photograph: Esteban Félix/AP

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Title hopeful Bunting survives huge scare at PDC World Championship

  • World No 4 edges out Sebastian Bialecki 3-2 in first round

  • Kumar becomes first Indian to win at the tournament

Stephen Bunting survived a scare before the No 4 seed progressed into the second round of the world championship on Sunday.

Bunting, a semi-finalist last year, was taken to a tie-breaker by Poland’s Sebastian Bialecki before edging through 3-2 at Alexandra Palace.

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© Photograph: John Walton/PA

© Photograph: John Walton/PA

© Photograph: John Walton/PA

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Trump says building DC triumphal arch is domestic policy chief’s ‘primary thing’

Trump praises Vince Haley, his ex-speechwriter tasked with creating Arc de Triomphe knockoff amid affordability crisis

Amid concerns that he has failed to address a worsening affordability crisis, with health insurance premiums about to spike dramatically for over 20 million Americans, Donald Trump revealed on Sunday that his domestic policy chief’s main priority is building a triumphal arch for Washington DC.

Speaking at a White House holiday party, the president praised Vince Haley, his former speechwriter and a longtime aide to Newt Gingrich who now leads the White House Domestic Policy Council.

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© Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

© Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

© Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

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NFL roundup: Mahomes tears ACL as Chiefs miss playoff for first time since 2014

  • Bills overcome 21-0 deficit to beat Patriots

  • Myles Garrett closes in on sack record

The Los Angeles Chargers eliminated the Kansas City Chiefs from playoff contention when Derwin James picked off a pass by Gardner Minshew – who had just taken over for the injured Patrick Mahomes – in the closing seconds to preserve victory over the reigning AFC champions.

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© Photograph: David Eulitt/Getty Images

© Photograph: David Eulitt/Getty Images

© Photograph: David Eulitt/Getty Images

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US immigration crackdown forces teens to caretake after parents are detained

As federal agents target families, teens are left to care for siblings – from accessing bank accounts to medical records

Vilma Cruz, a mother of two, had just arrived at her newly leased Louisiana home when federal agents surrounded her vehicle in the driveway. She had just enough time to call her oldest son before they smashed the passenger window and detained her.

The 38-year-old Honduran house painter was swept up in an immigration crackdown that has largely targeted Kenner, a New Orleans suburb with a large Hispanic population, where some parents at risk of deportation had rushed to arrange emergency custody plans for their children in case they were arrested.

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© Photograph: Adam Gray/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Adam Gray/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Adam Gray/AFP/Getty Images

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Benjamin Netanyahu blames Anthony Albanese for Bondi beach terror attack, as world leaders express horror

Israeli prime minister claims the Australian government ‘let the disease’ of antisemitism spread ‘and the result is the horrific attacks on Jews we saw today’

Leaders around the world expressed their horror at Sunday’s terrorist attack on Bondi beach, in which at least 16 people died, mixed in some cases with harsh words for the Australian government for alleged shortcomings in tackling antisemitism over the past two years.

The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said he had written to his Australian counterpart, Anthony Albanese, in August, warning that the government’s decision to recognise a Palestinian state “pours fuel on the antisemitic fire … emboldens those who menace Australian Jews and encourages the Jew hatred now stalking your streets”. He claimed Albanese had “replaced weakness with weakness and appeasement with more appeasement”.

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© Composite: AAP / AP

© Composite: AAP / AP

© Composite: AAP / AP

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Ukraine willing to drop ambitions to join Nato, Zelenskyy says

Move marks big shift for Ukraine, which has fought to join Nato as safeguard against Russian attacks

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has offered to drop Ukraine’s aspirations to join the Nato military alliance, as he held five hours of talks with US envoys in Berlin on Sunday to end the war with Russia.

Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff said “a lot of progress was made” as he and the US president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, met Zelenskyy in the latest push to end Europe’s bloodiest conflict since the second world war – though full details were not divulged.

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© Photograph: APAImages/Shutterstock

© Photograph: APAImages/Shutterstock

© Photograph: APAImages/Shutterstock

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Anna Christie review – Michelle Williams is miscast in Eugene O’Neill misfire

St Ann’s Warehouse, New York

Oscar-nominated actor struggles to convince in an emotionally inert attempt to resurrect one of the playwright’s lesser-known works

Though it won a Pulitzer prize in 1922, Eugene O’Neill’s social melodrama Anna Christie is not among the venerated playwright’s most famous works. For the better part of a century, ambitious theater artists have endeavored to climb the mountains of Long Day’s Journey Into Night and The Iceman Cometh. Less so for Anna Christie, a strange piece about a supposedly ruined woman trying to get her life back in order.

It’s an interesting choice of vehicle for star Michelle Williams, making her return to the stage after a nine-year hiatus. Anna Christie is an erratic and now quite dated play, one whose moral outlook is hard to parse, its shifts in tone sudden and varied. There’s also the matter that at 45, Williams is about a quarter-century older than O’Neill’s heroine, who is meant to be a hardened and battered young woman trying to start her adult life on new footing.

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© Photograph: Julieta Cervantes

© Photograph: Julieta Cervantes

© Photograph: Julieta Cervantes

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Pilot narrowly avoids ‘midair collision’ with US air force plane near Venezuela

JetBlue pilot calls incident ‘outrageous’ and says US military refueling tanker didn’t have transponder turned on

A JetBlue flight from the small Caribbean nation of Curaçao halted its ascent to avoid colliding with a US air force refueling tanker on Friday, and the pilot blamed the military plane for crossing his path.

“We almost had a midair collision up here,” the JetBlue pilot said, according to a recording of his conversation with air traffic control. “They passed directly in our flight path ... They don’t have their transponder turned on, it’s outrageous.”

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© Photograph: Mike Segar/Reuters

© Photograph: Mike Segar/Reuters

© Photograph: Mike Segar/Reuters

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Guardiola impressed with fighting spirit as City’s title push gathers momentum

  • Head coach praises ‘real leader’ Dias as defence holds firm

  • Win at Selhurst Park extends Manchester City’s run to five

Pep Guardiola has warned that Manchester City are growing in resilience after Erling Haaland and Phil Foden secured the side’s fifth win in succession and maintained pressure on the Premier League leaders Arsenal.

City gained revenge for their FA Cup final defeat by Crystal Palace in May with a ruthless 3-0 win at Selhurst Park after they saw off Real Madrid in the Champions League in midweek. It means they have won all five matches since enduring successive defeats against Newcastle and Bayer Leverkusen at the end of November and are back to within two points of Arsenal.

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© Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian

© Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian

© Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian

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Nick Woltemade own goal ushers in pantomime season on Wearside | Barry Glendenning

German striker was given a sarcastic ovation by the Sunderland fans after his inadvertent match winner

On numerous occasions during the 75 minutes he spent on the pitch during the Wear-Tyne derby, Nick Woltemade cut an extremely isolated, peripheral and forlorn figure in the opposition box. A bad afternoon for Newcastle’s German striker got significantly worse shortly after half-time when he cut an even more isolated, peripheral and forlorn figure in his own team’s box after inadvertently heading a Nordi Mukiele cross past Aaron Ramsdale from six yards out.

Woltemade’s embarrassing own goal proved to be the unwitting match-winner in a contest that had until that point been high on full-blooded aggression but low on moments of real quality. As he made way for Yoane Wissa, it was no surprise the Sunderland fans granted the visibly deflated 23-year-old a sarcastic ovation. A fan favourite on Tyneside until the 46th minute of this match, Woltemade has now pulled off the unlikely feat of winning a permanent, bitterly ironic place in mackem hearts.

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© Photograph: Phil Duncan/Every Second Media/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Phil Duncan/Every Second Media/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Phil Duncan/Every Second Media/Shutterstock

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Obamacare expiration will have ‘death spiral’ effect on US healthcare – experts

End of subsidies after failed legislation will have serious and damaging impact on entire sector, policy experts say

With subsidies for Affordable Care Act (ACA) health insurance set to expire, Americans who rely on them will probably switch to plans with lower monthly premiums and high deductibles or decide not to purchase any coverage, which will have a serious and damaging impact on the entire sector, according to healthcare policy experts.

The average amount ACA plan enrollees pay annually for premiums is estimated to more than double, from an average of $888 this year to $1,904 in 2026, according to a KFF analysis.

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© Photograph: Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images

© Photograph: Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images

© Photograph: Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images

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Calvert-Lewin header earns Leeds point after Henderson strikes for Brentford

This was a game to reflect the tyranny of analytics-based football, where thought and expression are abandoned for the playbook, set pieces rule, and long throws become key events. For Brentford’s Michael Kayode, read Leeds’s Ethan Ampadu, both taking an age before hurling the ball into a mass of bodies, before the ball was bundled away. How long can this tactic stay in vogue, now that every Premier League side is so well prepared?

Scoring a goal from open play remains a valid tactic and from such a situation Rico Henry set up Jordan Henderson to score his first goal in English football since 2021, via a deflection off the Leeds defender Jaka Bijol. In turn, Leeds found their deserved equaliser from open play, Dominic Calvert-Lewin heading home Wilfried Gnonto’s cross. Henry and Gnonto, both substitutes, had added dabs of quality to a previously constipated contest.

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© Photograph: John Sibley/Action Images/Reuters

© Photograph: John Sibley/Action Images/Reuters

© Photograph: John Sibley/Action Images/Reuters

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‘The inevitable has happened’: Bondi beach attack follows rise in antisemitic incidents

Australia recorded 1,654 anti-Jewish incidents in year to September – three times higher than any annual total before Gaza war

Shortly after the mass shooting targeting Australia’s Jewish community on Sunday, Rabbi Levi Wolff of Central Sydney Synagogue told reporters that “the inevitable has happened now”.

Wolff was speaking in Bondi, close to where two men armed with powerful rifles or shotguns had just attacked an event celebrating Hanukah, the Jewish religious festival. At least 12 people were killed, including one alleged gunman, and dozens were injured in Australia’s deadliest mass shooting in almost three decades.

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© Photograph: David Gray/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: David Gray/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: David Gray/AFP/Getty Images

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Eddie Howe vows Sunderland defeat will not define Newcastle’s season

  • Woltemade own goal settles Wear-Tyne derby

  • ‘Our performance was not what it needed to be’

Eddie Howe vowed that he would not allow Newcastle’s defeat in the Wear‑Tyne derby at Sunderland on Sunday to define his side’s season.

“It’s a horrible feeling, it’s very painful,” said Howe, whose inconsistent team were sunk by Nick Woltemade’s spectacular second-half headed own goal. By way of exacerbating his distress, Sunderland’s players rubbed salt in visiting wounds by posing for a celebratory group picture on the pitch at the end. That was a riposte to the events of January 2024 when Howe’s assistant, Jason Tindall, ordered Newcastle’s players to pose for a similar photograph after a 3-0 FA Cup win at the Stadium of Light.

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© Photograph: Carl Recine/Getty Images

© Photograph: Carl Recine/Getty Images

© Photograph: Carl Recine/Getty Images

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Frank warns Tottenham ‘not a quick fix’ after ‘very bad performance’ at Forest

  • Manager says it will take time to turn club around

  • Spence reaction to substitution will be investigated

Thomas Frank said Tottenham’s 3-0 defeat at Nottingham Forest offered a sobering reminder his side remain a “work in progress” and amid increasing scrutiny the head coach reiterated improving Spurs’s fortunes is “not a quick fix”, saying: “If no one gets the time, no one can turn this around.”

Spurs have been hit and miss since Frank took charge in June and are in mid-table in the Premier League after a run of one win in seven top-flight matches, though still only six points off fourth-placed Chelsea. Spurs registered a single shot on target at the City Ground, where Callum Hudson-Odoi scored twice and Ibrahim Sangaré sealed victory with a stunning first-time strike.

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© Photograph: Andrew Boyers/Action Images/Reuters

© Photograph: Andrew Boyers/Action Images/Reuters

© Photograph: Andrew Boyers/Action Images/Reuters

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‘We stand with you’: Jewish leaders around world respond to Bondi beach attack

Communities express shock and solidarity after at least 12 people killed in Sydney at event marking start of Hanukah

Jewish communities across the world have reacted with shock, sadness and solidarity after what Australia’s prime minister described as a “targeted attack on Jewish Australians” at Bondi beach in Sydney.

On Sunday, as hundreds of people were gathered to celebrate the first day of Hanukah, the Jewish festival of lights, at least two individuals armed with guns began firing on crowds on the beach. At least 11 people were killed and 29 injured in what police designated as a terrorist attack. One of the alleged gunman was also killed, bringing the total number of dead to 12.

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© Photograph: Jessica Hromas/The Guardian

© Photograph: Jessica Hromas/The Guardian

© Photograph: Jessica Hromas/The Guardian

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Brown University shooting: person of interest in custody is in his 20s, police chief confirms – latest updates

Officials refuse to share name of person or details of arrest; Donald Trump says ‘Things can happen’ in comments shared by White House

Brown University students were told that all remaining classes and exams for the semester would be delayed after the shooting that killed two people and left several others injured.

In a note to students, the university’s provost, Francis J Doyle III, said the decision was made “out of our profound concern for all students, faculty and staff on our campus”. He encouraged students and staff to focus on their safety and wellbeing.

In the immediate aftermath of these devastating events, we recognize that learning and assessment are significantly hindered in the short term and that many students and others will wish to depart campus. Students are free to leave if they are able. Students who remain will have access to on-campus services and support.

At this time, it is essential that we focus our efforts on providing care and support to the members of our community as we grapple with the sorrow, fear and anxiety that is impacting all of us right now. University leaders are committed to providing care and mobilizing resources to assist our community members through this difficult time.

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© Photograph: Bing Guan/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Bing Guan/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Bing Guan/AFP/Getty Images

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