Unknown gunmen wound 10 others in Bekkersdal with victims ‘randomly shot’ in the street, police say
Unknown gunmen killed 10 people and wounded 10 others in an attack at a township outside Johannesburg, police said on Sunday, in the second mass shooting in South Africa in December.
The motive for the attack at Bekkersdal, 40km (25 miles) south-west of Johannesburg, was not clear, police told Agence France-Presse.
While it took longer than expected on the fifth day in Adelaide, eventually it was done. A series won, the Ashes retained for another year and a half until they next go up for grabs in England. For Pat Cummins, this makes three consecutive Ashes series captained without giving up the urn. The feat leaves him in sparse but fine company: the others to do it are Joe Darling, Don Bradman, Richie Benaud, Mike Brearley, Allan Border and Mark Taylor.
It made things neater that Steve Smith missed this third Test, having captained the first two wins in Cummins’ absence, so that it didn’t feel like the full-time captain was swooping in to hoover up the stand-in’s lunch. Those situations can be odd, like Adam Gilchrist filling in to lead what was very much Ricky Ponting’s team, captaining two wins in India in 2004 before Ponting returned from injury after the series was decided. Who gets credit for the win?
Who was Santa, really? Aged eight, I devised a cunning plan to catch him in the act, involving a booby trap and a camera. Unfortunately, the joke was on me …
It was Christmas Eve, 1987. The cold war was beginning to emit its last frosty guffs, Thatcher had set her sights on gay children, and Michael Fish was keeping his head down. In England’s deep south, my sister and I conspired in our bedroom. We are twins: she got the brains; I, being the eldest by a full six minutes, was to inherit the estates and titles, except there were none because my idealistic pinko parents had spent their working lives in public service.
Earlier in the year, my sister had attempted to prove the existence of God. Worried about the health of her pet rabbit, Wodger, she penned him a letter pleading for help, with a rather clever “Please tick if you have read this” box at the end.
Results of Sunday’s snap election in Extremadura are seen as key test of Pedro Sánchez and his PSOE party
Spain’s beleaguered prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, faces a key test on Sunday when voters in the south-western region of Extremadura cast their ballots in the first major election to be held since a series of corruption and sexual harassment allegations enveloped his inner circle, his party and his administration.
Extremadura, once a stronghold of Sánchez’s Spanish Socialist Workers’ party (PSOE), has been in the hands of the conservative People’s party (PP) since 2023, when the latter managed to form a short-lived coalition government with the far-right Vox party, despite finishing just behind the socialists.
Over our marriage, seasonal rows have focussed on cheese, tinsel, turkey, Aled Jones and even pyjamas. Still, I’m convinced that I am the true spirit of the festive season
Most families have their own unique festive rituals, and my husband and I have spent this December in the manner traditional to us: squabbling. He is fully invested in every possible aspect of the season of goodwill. On the big day itself, he wears his cracker crown until it breaks, like a metaphor; I usually don’t bother unfolding mine, let alone putting it on. We’ve been married for 15 years, and weathered many storms together, but at the moment our relationship is particularly challenging. How do you cope when you’re Christmas incompatible?
In my defence, I’m not bah-humbugging at merely a rational amount of yuletide spirit. My husband is perpetually jolly as standard – it’s always the first word anybody I introduce him to uses to describe him afterwards. He’s relentlessly cheerful, endlessly enthusiastic and can be relied upon to put a positive spin on any situation. If we were trapped in a burning building, the last words I’d hear would be, “At least we’re not cold!”
Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.
England show grit in Adelaide but fall short as hosts wins series 3-0
The England supporters on the hill in front of the heritage-listed scoreboard never gave up and, to their credit, neither did their team. But in the end, despite losing Nathan Lyon to a hamstring injury, it was Australia who prevailed by 82 runs to win this Ashes series with two Tests to spare.
Needing just 11 days of play to claim an unassailable 3-0 lead, Pat Cummins and his men equalled Steve Waugh’s sides in 2001 and 2002/03 for the fastest Ashes wins. This one, sealed after England’s attempt to chase down a record 435 ended at 352 all out, comes with an extra dollop of relish.
Kyiv continues campaign of attacks on Russia-linked maritime targets; latest US idea is three-way peace talks. What we know on day 1,397
Ukrainian drones hit an oil rig at Russia’s Filanovsky field in the Caspian Sea – more than 700km (435 miles) from Ukraine’s nearest border, as well as the military patrol ship Okhotnik and other facilities, Ukraine’s military general staff said in a statement on Saturday. It said the ship was patrolling near the platform. The extent of the damage was being assessed. The attack continues Kyiv’s recent campaign of strikes on Russia-linked maritime targets far from Ukrainian territory.
Ukrainian drones struck a radar system in the Krasnosilske area of Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014. Ukraine’s SBU security service claimed two Russian fighter jets were also destroyed at an airfield in occupied Crimea.
Since Thursday, Russian forces have at least five times hit a bridge on the Dniester River near the village of Mayaky, south-west of Pivdennyi in Ukraine’s Odesa region, according to the deputy prime minister Oleksiy Kuleba. The bridge, which connects parts of the region divided by the river and sea inlets, is the main transport route westward to border crossings with Moldova, and is not operational now. The route accounted for about 40% of fuel supplies to Ukraine, Kuleba said. Ukrainian authorities have set up a pontoon bridge and re-routed logistics through other regions, securing civilian and freight logistics.
The death toll rose to eight from a Russian strike on Pivdennyi port. Geneva-based vegetable oil producer Allseeds said three tanks storing sunflower oil at the site were set ablaze in Pivdennyi, and one of its workers was killed while two were injured.
The Ukrainian military said its forces on Saturday fought back more than 60 attacks on Pokrovsk, which is under heavy Russian siege. Across the combat zones in Ukraine, “the Russian invaders carried out 42 airstrikes, dropping 101 guided bombs. In addition, they used 1,684 kamikaze drones and carried out 2,467 attacks on our military positions and settlements.” In the Kharkiv region city of Izium, two people were killed by guided bomb strikes, said the state emergency service.
Russia reported Ukrainian drone attacks on its Belgorod region as well as an attack on facilities in the Kursk region that left about 5,000 people without electricity.
The White House offered to chair face-to-face talks between officials of the US, Russia and Ukraine, as the Trump administration continued to cast about for a peace deal. “America is now proposing a trilateral meeting with national security advisers – America, Ukraine, Russia,” said Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Ukraine would back the proposal, he said, if it facilitated more exchanges of prisoners and paved the way for meetings of national leaders.
Zelenskyy said Ukraine stood for proposals that would leave the frontline where it is without Ukraine having to give up territory it still controls in the industrial region of Donbas in eastern Ukraine. “For me, the fair version is we stand where we are now standing,” he said. US negotiators met Russian officials in Florida on Saturday, following on from US talks on Friday with Ukrainian and European officials. It was suggested the talks would continue on Sunday.
66th over: England 214-6 (Smith 9, Jacks 11) Smith pushes a single off Lyon. It’s the only run off the over. Oohs and ahhs from the Aussie fielders, I wouldn’t say Marnus is quiet exactly.
65th over: England 213-6 (Smith 8, Jacks 11) Smith drives Cameron Green for three more but it was uppish and not too far away from the bowler’s gargantuan wing span in his follow through. Jacks then nearly nicks off with a loosey goosey drive. Gah. To channel Ray Winstone in The Departed – I’m here to tell you there are ways to get out and ways to not get out, getting out caught and bowled to a loose drive is not a way to get out.
Mbappé makes it 59 goals in a year in win over Sevilla
Juventus stay in Serie A race with 2-1 win over Roma
Kylian Mbappé equalled Cristiano Ronaldo’s record of 59 goals in a calendar year for Real Madrid with a late penalty in his side’s 2-0 home win over Sevilla in La Liga on Saturday, the French forward celebrating his 27th birthday in style.
Mbappé missed several earlier chances before getting his chance from the spot four minutes from time and he made no mistake to net his 59th goal in as many games across all competitions in 2025 to level Ronaldo’s 2013 haul.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin became the first Leeds striker to score in five consecutive Premier League games in 22 years to down a lethargic Crystal Palace, and open up a six-point gap on the relegation zone. Mark Viduka achieved the same feat in 2003, helping secure his side’s top-flight status with his instinctive finishing, another achievement the latest Elland Road No 9 is aiming to replicate.
The former Everton striker cannot have imagined almost 40,000 singing his name at Christmas when he was unemployed for much of the summer, reminding everyone that sometimes the best gifts are free. It took until mid-August for newly promoted Leeds to convince Calvert-Lewin this was the right place to rebuild his career and they are proving one another right, helped by the scorer of the third goal Ethan Ampadu’s long-throws.
Lawmakers voice frustration over heavy redactions and the apparent removal of files from government website
Donald Trump’s justice department was hit with legal threats and scathing outrage after authorities released a limited, heavily redacted trove of Jeffrey Epstein files in an apparent violation of the law mandating the near-complete disclosure of these documents by Friday.
“The justice department’s document dump this afternoon does not comply with Thomas Massie and my Epstein Transparency Act,” Ro Khanna, the California Democratic congressman who co-authored the law requiring full disclosure of all Epstein files by 19 December, said in a video statement.
Mikel Arteta can toast his sixth anniversary as Arsenal manager from the Premier League summit and with the Christmas No 1 spot secured once again. Behind the headline positivity, however, must be a realisation that more convincing performances are required to hold on until the final reckoning.
Viktor Gyökeres’ emphatic first-half penalty sealed a slender yet merited win over an Everton team missing several important components. Arsenal were more efficient than impressive and rarely troubled throughout a scrappy contest. But this was a test of title-winning character as much as quality after three away games without a win in the league and having lost top spot for the first time since mid-October before kick-off. In that respect Arteta can be encouraged by a reaction that ensured Manchester City’s stay in first place would be brief and Arsenal would be top at Christmas for the third time in four years.
3 min: Gyokeres picks up possession on the centre line and tries to round Keane, hoping to instigate a footrace. Clank! No way past. He goes over, demanding a free kick. He’s not getting one. Meanwhile here’s another, slightly less jittery, Arsenal fan in David Penney: “The only thing that gives me a small amount of confidence is that we have done most of the ‘hard’ away games now. I still expect every away game to be hard though.”
2 min: Everton are on the front foot immediately. Alcaraz has a look down the left but is forced to turn tail. Never mind, there’s still one heck of an atmosphere tonight on the banks of the Mersey, pre-festive cheer, Saturday night, da nee na na na, be my baby, etc.
Netflix’s 300 million global subscribers got just what they wanted: to see a former YouTuber knocked out brutally
George Foreman once said boxing is the sport to which all other sports aspire. Putting aside the breathtaking exhibitions of physical and psychological intensity it can produce, the sport has long been a refuge of the underclass, credited with changing the lives of the disenfranchised and impoverished. There are no barriers to entry. In that sense, it has always sold a democratic dream.
But boxing is, and has always been, the red-light district of professional sports, its flimsy guardrails making it a longtime haven for brazen criminals and the kind of grift and corruption that strains credulity. There are no barriers to entry. The idea that a sport which gave the world Don King, Frank “Blinky” Palermo and Park Si-hun v Roy Jones Jr could somehow be further debased is almost laughable.
Vessel does not appear to be on list of US-sanctioned vessels, which would represent escalation in blockade
US forces on Saturday apprehended a second merchant vessel carrying oil off the coast of Venezuela in international waters in the midst of an American blockade against the country’s oil, according to the US homeland security department.
The stoppage follows the seizure by US forces of another oil tanker off Venezuela’s coast on 10 December. Both vessels were headed to Asia.
Who were the big winners here? Certainly not Tottenham, even if they ended the game bellowing, blustering and battering at the door with nine men. The fact they went down fighting in those circumstances, clawing back into contention after controversially going two goals behind, will buoy up the embattled Thomas Frank but that would be to overlook elements of a performance whose discipline deteriorated to their cost.
It may not have been a moment of lift-off for Liverpool, either, although they did eventually wobble to three points. The scales had tipped in their favour when Xavi Simons, with one of those very modern and exasperating video review red cards, was dismissed in the 33rd minute but they looked blunt until the half-time substitute Alexander Isak sent them on their way. As soon as he had done so, the striker departed with a nasty-looking injury. The legacy could be costly regardless of the fact that, almost undetected, Arne Slot’s side have edged themselves back up to fifth, at least until Manchester United visit Aston Villa on Sunday.
Michaela Benthaus from Germany soared 65 miles above the Earth’s surface in 10-minute Blue Origin flight
A paraplegic engineer from Germany blasted off on a dream-come-true rocket ride with five other passengers on Saturday, leaving her wheelchair behind to float in space while beholding Earth from on high.
Severely injured in a mountain bike accident seven years ago, Michaela Benthaus became the first wheelchair user in space, launching from west Texas with Jeff Bezos’s company Blue Origin. She was accompanied by a retired SpaceX executive also born in Germany, Hans Koenigsmann, who helped organize and, along with Blue Origin, sponsored her trip. Their ticket prices were not divulged.
Lawyers also attempting to throw out two federal charges, saying US attorney general has ties to UnitedHealth Group
Lawyers for Luigi Mangione are attempting to avoid the death penalty and throw out two federal charges in the justice department’s case against him, arguing that attorney general Pam Bondi is biased because she used to work at a lobbying firm that represents UnitedHealth Group.
In court documents filed on Friday, Mangione’s lawyers said that Bondi has a “profound conflict of interest” because her former employer, Ballard Partners, a DC-based lobbying firm founded by the Trump donor Brian Ballard, counts UnitedHealth Group as one of its clients.
Writers, activists and politicians on the books they turn to for wisdom and perspective – and to restore their faith in human nature
Australia is mired in grief, anger and division over the horrific act of antisemitic terrorism in Sydney. The attack in Bondi hasreverberated internationally, tragically bookending a year that already challenged humanity, hope and the future of the planet.
Indeed as 2025 ends it is defined by yet more abject and ignoble political, economic, technological and environmental derelictions of dire proportions.
On a grey day in early June, a commercial plane landed at Norfolk Island Airport in the South Pacific. Onboard was precious cargo ferried some 1,700km from Sydney: four blue plastic crates with “LIVE ANIMALS” signs affixed to the outside.
Inside were thumbnail-sized snails, hundreds of them, with delicate, keeled shells. The molluscs’ arrival was the culmination of an ambitious plan five years in the making: to bring a critically endangered species back from the brink.
The Bondi attack was an unutterably cruel event, all the more horrifying for being ours, and we can’t stop ourselves saying so. It is a sword that fell on the necks of two sets of Australians. Yet again, young Australian Jews will be asking parents why they are hated, and that is heartbreaking. In a different sense, so will young Muslims.
During their apparent sojourn in a Campsie B&B, the alleged terrorists could not have been confident of their own survival, but they must have been confident in producing a reaction. It is a matter of civic pride that a Muslim man accosted one of the gunmen and took a weapon from him; a matter of a small yelp of praise and gratitude amid the cruelty.
In 2011 I was in my mid-30s and had just arrived home in Kent after spending two years working and travelling abroad. I had a new teaching contract coming up in the Middle East, but there were delays with the construction of the school and I found myself with three months to spare. I decided to go and hike the Inca trail.
I booked with a tour provider and on the second night, as we all got to know each other, this tall, handsome Aussie with a huge smile caught my eye. Once we hit the road, my attraction to Jarod quickly grew and it didn’t take too long – or too many beers at altitude – before we shared our first kiss.
Suspect killed himself after allegedly killing an MIT professor and two Brown University students
An autopsy report on the suspect in the mass shooting at Brown University and the killing of an MIT professor in Massachusetts has shown that he died from by suicide two days before he was found in a storage locker on Thursday.
The New Hampshire attorney general’s report estimates that Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, 48, a Portuguese national who had been living in the US, died on 16 December, the same day that his fellow countryman, MIT nuclear physics professor Nuno Loureiro died at a hospital in Massachusetts.
Chisnall out despite hitting 11 180s in 3-2 defeat
Dirk van Duijvenbode and Motomu Sakai bow out
Dave Chisnall was dumped out of the PDC world championship by Ricardo Pietreczko despite hitting 11 180s in an Alexandra Palace thriller. Chisnall, the No 21 seed, paid the price for double trouble and missed a match dart in the final set when it seemed the Englishman would complete a remarkable recovery.
Pietreczko capitalised on Chisnall’s poor finishing to win the first two sets, but the 2021 semi-finalist stormed back to level with some extraordinary scoring. Chisnall took a 2-1 lead in the final set with a 113 finish but then missed double 16 for a match-sealing 143 checkout.
Connexion
