President refers jokingly to renamed ‘Trump-Kennedy Center’ at celebration of stars from music and film

Donald Trump added another job title – awards host – to his presidential portfolio on Sunday when he took charge of the Kennedy Center Honors in Washington, claiming his show was getting “rave reviews” even before it ended.

The US president stayed away from the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts during his first term. But since returning to office in January, he has made the complex a lightning rod in a broader attack against what he has branded “woke” anti-American culture.

Trade data shows China’s exports topped forecasts in November, driven by a surge in shipments to non-US markets

There’s a very calm start to trading in London this morning.

The FTSE 100 index of blue-chip shares has gained just one point, or 0.01%, to 9,668 points.

The separation makes TMICC the largest ice cream business in the world, with iconic brands like Magnum, Ben & Jerry’s, Wall’s and Cornetto in its portfolio.

It’s already scooped up a 21% share of global ice cream sales, nearly double that of its largest competitor, Froneri. The global ice cream market is forecast to grow by 3-4% annually until at least 2029. TMICC is targeting growth slightly ahead of this pace, up to 5% annually, driven by increased marketing investment, improved distribution channels and market share gains.

Whilst Shareholders with whom we consulted strongly supported the objectives of Resolution 2 and appreciated the very specific context for the Proposals, they nonetheless raised a number of concerns when considering more general remuneration principles.

Anglo American strongly believes that the proposed amendment represents the most practical way to support the Merger process and the principles and objectives set out in the Circular but, having reflected carefully on Shareholders’ concerns, has therefore decided to withdraw Resolution 2 from the agenda of the General Meeting.

Concerns over recording of meetings at coordination centre excluding Palestinians that was set up to provide support for Trump’s Gaza plan

Israeli operatives are conducting widespread surveillance of US forces and allies stationed at a new US base in the country’s south, according to sources briefed on disputes about open and covert recordings of meetings and discussions.

The scale of intelligence gathering at the Civil-Military Coordination Center (CMCC) prompted the US commander of the base, Lt Gen Patrick Frank, to summon an Israeli counterpart for a meeting to tell him that “recording has to stop here”.

Arsenal feel effects of defensive injuries, Liverpool rue Konaté’s mistakes and Brentford struggle on the road

• Latest Premier League table | Top scorers

When the team sheets landed at Villa Park, Arsenal’s matchday squad again appeared imperious. Their bench included a £64m striker in Viktor Gyökeres, a trio of tricky wingers in Leandro Trossard, Noni Madueke and Gabriel Martinelli and arguably England’s most exciting teenagers in Myles Lewis-Skelly and Ethan Nwaneri. But Arsenal arrived top-heavy, the only centre-back among the substitutes the 16-year-old Marli Salmon. By the time Emiliano Buendía clinched victory for Aston Villa with almost the final kick, it was clear Arsenal lacked the defensive solidity behind their pace-setting start; this defeat was only the fourth time since the start of 2022-23 that Mikel Arteta’s side began a league game without Gabriel Magalhães or William Saliba – and it showed. Cristhian Mosquera, potentially sidelined until the new year, was also absent. The good news for all parties – which probably extends to second-placed Manchester City – is that Arsenal and Villa will duke it out again on 30 December in the reverse fixture. Ben Fisher

The vitamin has many benefits, but research shows that people who take it are just as likely to get the sniffles as those who don’t

‘Vitamin C is important for your health in lots of ways,” says Daniel M Davis, the head of life sciences at Imperial College London. It is a strong antioxidant, helping protect cells from harmful unstable compounds that arise from toxins and pollution. It helps the body absorb iron, and is also used in the production of collagen. “But the idea that taking high doses of vitamin C – or drinking lots of orange juice – will stop you catching a cold, or help you recover faster, is a myth.”

Davis, the author of Self Defence: A Myth-Busting Guide to Immune Health, explains that the popular belief in vitamin C’s cold-fighting powers has persisted for more than 50 years, “pretty much solely because of the evangelical view of one man: Linus Pauling”.

While those who defend the status quo and those who say ‘simply rejoin’ the EU are both wrong, there is a new mood and a clear opportunity

Being right that Brexit was a bad idea is no substitute for knowing what to do next. Our chance of salvaging something from the mess it created is being undermined by those selling false hope – either that Brexit can work, or that it can be easily undone. For the 16,000 businesses that have now given up trading with Europe because of paperwork, prospects remain bleak unless the government stops offering a sticking plaster and starts major surgery on our future with Europe.

Forgive pro-Europeans for thinking the momentum is now with us. Labour has been slow to say what it wants from the EU reset, and slower still to acknowledge the inevitable tradeoffs required. Until the summer, ministers promised to “make Brexit work” and endlessly repeated “red lines”. Yet in recent weeks, a major study has found that leaving the EU cost the UK 6-8% of GDP per capita; now the chancellor calls the damage of Brexit “severe and long lasting”; the prime minister condemns the “wild promises” of the Leave campaign. Belatedly, a window of opportunity to change course may be opening.

Stella Creasy is the chair of the Labour Movement for Europe and MP for Walthamstow

Home Office has reportedly ordered threat assessment amid long-running row into Duke of Sussex’s safety

Prince Harry’s security arrangements while in the UK are being reviewed by the government, according to reports.

Harry wrote to the home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, shortly after her appointment and submitted a formal request for a risk assessment to the Executive Committee for the Protection of Royalty and Public Figures (Ravec), which is overseen by the Home Office, a source close to the prince said in October.

You saw it here first

There are many contenders for “world’s greatest invention.” The wheel. The printing press. The steam engine.

According to a new book, however, that title should go to the mechanised sawmill invented by Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.

Juan Orlando Hernández thanked the Lord for being ‘a free man’ and then Trump for ‘changing my life’

Former Honduras president Juan Orlando Hernández recently thanked God and Donald Trump – in that order – for being pardoned by the latter of a drug trafficking conviction won by federal US prosecutors less than two years earlier.

Speaking in a video posted to social media and referring to the US president, Hernández eventually said Trump “changed my life, and I’ll never forget that”. But first he praised God, saying in Spanish, “You saw the injustice and suffering, and in your infinite mercy you helped us.”

STC troops now control all eight governorates, a major setback for Emirates’ regional rival Saudi Arabia

The United Arab Emirates-backed military leadership in South Yemen has seized power across the whole of the south of the country, a move that opens up the possibility that the South will declare independence and revert Yemen to being two states for the first time since 1960.

As many as 10,000 troops from the Southern Transitional Council (STC) poured into the oil-rich Hadramaut governorate last week and later into Marah, the less-populated governorate bordering Oman, which had not previously been under its control.

A meticulously researched account of the controversial businessman’s rise and shocking demise

At least two terrible ironies surround the death of Mike Lynch. One lies in the name of his superyacht, which sank off the coast of Sicily in the early hours of 19 August 2024. He had named the boat Bayesian to honour Bayes’s theorem, a mathematical rule that helps you weigh up the probability of something given the available evidence, which served as Lynch’s guiding light over the course of a tempestuous career. The theorem was “a beautiful key to our minds”, Lynch believed. But it was entirely incapable of predicting the outcome that morning, when the yacht capsized during a storm, killing seven people, including Lynch, his 18-year-old daughter Hannah and his US lawyer, Chris Morvillo.

A second irony lies in the fact that Lynch had just come through the trial of his life, one he felt was bound to end in jail, where he thought he could die. Somehow, to everyone’s astonishment, an American jury had acquitted him and his co-defendant on all 15 counts of fraud.

Collateral comedy spins out from underneath the repression and violence charted in this sobering documentary that follows three indefatigable women

There are many symptoms of totalitarian sickness gripping Alexander Lukashenko’s Belarus. You risk being arrested for wearing red and white together, the colours of the outlawed flag of the country’s opposition movement. Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four has been banned, which seems rather on the nose. But these are just some of the more farcical elements, the collateral comedy spinning from the deep repression, violence and psychological wounds charted in this sobering film that follows a trio of Belarusian activists, starting from the pandemic through to the invasion of Ukraine.

Director Juliane Tutein fashions a melancholic mood-piece which chronicles ineffectualness in the face of impregnable state machinery, and the meaning of resistance under such circumstances. Nina, who is 74, is a kind of Belarusian Batman; an indefatigable symbol of protest who is immune to repression because of her fame. Human rights activist Darya runs her organisation in exile in Vilnius after student activism landed her in hot water. Tanya has stuck it out near Minsk while her husband and son have fled to Kyiv, but her human-rights NGO and film festival are in the authorities’ crosshairs.

The big-name US talkshow host goes all Fab Four superfan in this historical take on the lives of John, Paul, George and Ringo. Plus, Naomi Fry delivers a rich deep dive into The Doors’ legacy

The popular show’s two-part special on the Fab Four has, bizarrely, prompted its Beatles sceptic co-host Dominic Sandbrook to refuse to appear. But his mega-starry replacement is Conan O’Brien, in for an engaging chat with Tom Holland through the career of John, Paul, George and Ringo. Their USP? Says Holland: “We’re a history podcast rather than a music podcast so we need to make the case that the Beatles are significant historically.” Alexi Duggins
Widely available

A cultural initiative in Piedmont is unlocking a trove of priceless medieval frescoes in rural churches

The Santa Maria di Missione chapel in Villafranca Piemonte, northern Italy, stands at the end of a long cornfield. Behind it, the mountains rise gently, their outlines caressed by the sun. The colours of autumn frame the 15th-century frescoes that embellish the structure’s interior, painted by Italian artist Aimone Duce, of the Lombard school. The chapel is the municipality’s oldest religious building, serving about 4,000 inhabitants, and stands on the site of a pre-existing building dating back to 1037.

Inside the small chapel, my footsteps echo softly against the walls, breaking the stillness of the surrounding countryside. The sharp scent of plaster mingles with the earthy smell of the fields outside, carried in on the wind along with the sweetness of wheat. Light filters through the narrow windows, catching the vivid hues of a fresco that depicts the seven deadly sins – a theme often revisited in medieval iconography.

After a lifetime of working for others, Rich Baker threw caution to the wind. The result was a national award for his pizza and a surprising surge in confidence

When his kimchi fiorentina pizza won a national award, Rich Baker knew he was turning a corner. It was 2023. Baker was 60. He and his wife, Sarah, had made the kimchi themselves and their win put Flat Earth Pizzas, the east London restaurant they had launched the previous year, on the map.

“My life has changed so much,” Baker says. “A lightbulb has lit up inside and given me energy, and that energy has given me something that is quite amazing: a sense of confidence and a sense of fulfilment.”

Sunday’s ‘patriots only’ Legislative Council elections took place in the shadow of the Tai Po fire that killed at least 159 people

Hong Kong saw a near-record low turnout in Sunday’s “patriots only” Legislative Council elections, with fewer than 32% of voters turning out, as the number of registered voters fell for the fourth consecutive year.

At 31.9%, Sunday’s turnout is marginally higher than 2021’s record low of 30.2%. But fewer people overall voted this year: 1.3 million compared to 1.4 million in 2021. Hong Kong’s population is about 7.5 million.

Photographer Jill Mead joined the Traveller community’s London Christmas drive on Saturday – a 14-mile trip by 200 or so horse-drawn carts and carriages through the capital, stopping at Buckingham Palace, Soho and Borough Market

Fifteen organisations sign letter expressing deep concern over EHRC guidance being considered by ministers

New rules on access to single-sex spaces could pose a significant risk to the mental health of trans and non-binary people, according to 15 of the UK’s most respected mental charities.

Organisations including Samaritans, Mind, Centre for Mental Health and the Royal College of Psychiatrists have written to the equalities minister, Bridget Phillipson, to express their “deep concern” about guidance from the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) that is awaiting approval from the government.

The Australian gloveman redefined the craft of keeping with a game-changing masterclass in the second Ashes Test

Just after lunch on the fourth day of the Centenary Test at the MCG in 1977, the classroom speaker at my Perth primary school crackled into life with the muffled voices of the ABC radio.

Our teacher demanded we stop what we were doing because history was about to be made. Perhaps Queen Elizabeth, who was in Australia on her Silver Jubilee tour of the Commonwealth, was about to address her colonial subjects with a momentous announcement?

• Norris made changes ‘to unlock more of my ability’

• Oscar Piastri: ‘I learned a lot about myself’ in the season

Lando Norris said he is proud of the way he went about winning his first Formula One world championship, stating after an emotional celebration with his McLaren team and family that he was glad he “won it my way”.

Norris emphasised that he felt he had raced fairly and without being overly aggressive, an approach for which he has received criticism in not demonstrating the much eulogised “killer instinct”, which he believes he has proved is not necessary by claiming the title.

A brilliantly human photographer, he celebrated the overlooked, finding beauty in cheese sandwiches at a church fete or people queuing for ice cream at the beach – all while poking fun at Britishness

• Martin Parr dies aged 73
• Martin Parr: the photographer’s career in pictures

Martin Parr looked like “a naff birdwatcher”, according to his editor Wendy Jones. His appearance was so unassuming that he told me during a recent public talk, that while he was taking pictures during a recent seaside trip, some passersby remarked that he was “a bit like Martin Parr”. Unbothered by glitz and glamour, for more than five decades Parr purposefully pursued the most boring things he could find – he was unapologetic about the excitement he saw in a perfect cup of tea, a plate of beans on toast, or a woman filling up her car at a petrol station. He also knew that, with time, these supposedly dull things would become interesting.

Parr took delight in looking, without flattery, at the things you thought you already knew. In a Parr picture, beauty is not always graceful – the overflowing rubbish at New Brighton beach, the cucumber and cheese sandwiches wrapped in clingfilm at Shalfleet church fete (with the sign, please do take ONE cherry tomato). He made the mundane magnificent with his panache for saturated colours and surprising compositions. He was masterful at capturing the unexpected and unchoreographed interruptions that reveal the unpolished truth of the ordinary moment. He understood that the fluorescent glow of a chip shop could be as revealing as a cathedral; that the colour of a plastic beach bucket could anchor the entire mood of a nation; that the way a stranger holds a sandwich or an ice-cream speaks of class, of longing, of place, of the small stories that batter or buoy us daily. This radical attentiveness – this celebration of the overlooked – is what made Parr one of the most human photographers of our time.

• Texan billionaire also owned NHL’s Dallas Stars

• Hicks was unpopular co-owner of Liverpool

Texas billionaire Tom Hicks, who owned an Premier League football club and two Dallas-based professional sports teams, has died aged 79, his company said.

Hicks died surrounded by family in Dallas on Saturday, according to a statement released by Hicks Holdings LLC.

Officials say the Birch nightclub had contravened multiple safety regulations and that the basement had no fire safety exit

Four members of the same family on their first holiday to Goa were among the 25 killed in a deadly fire at a nightclub in the popular Indian tourist state on Saturday night.

The massive blaze broke out at just before midnight at Birch by Romeo Lane, a buzzing bar, restaurant and nightclub in north Goa’s Aporna district.

Exclusive: Guardian investigation finds fake agencies using the social media platform to dupe Kenyans into paying for nonexistent jobs in Europe

Lilian, a 35-year-old Kenyan living in Qatar, was scrolling on TikTok in April when she saw posts from a recruitment agency offering jobs overseas. The Kenya-based WorldPath House of Travel, with more than 20,000 followers on the social media platform, promised hassle-free work visas for jobs across Europe.

“They were showing work permits they’d received, envelopes, like: ‘We have Europe visas already,’” Lilian recalls.