⚽ All the latest in the buildup to Saturday’s action
⚽ Ten things to look out for | Tables | Mail us here

Continental corner: There are some eye-catching games around the European leagues today, no less than Real Madrid v Sevilla (8pm GMT) which rounds off the day in La Liga. Dortmund went second in the Bundesliga last night but RB Leipzig can reclaim the position if they beat fourth-placed Leverkusen at 5.30pm. In Serie A, Juventus v Roma (7.45pm) is fifth v fourth but both sides will have designs on the top three.

The Coupe de France takes centre stage in, well, France, with PSG, Lille, Lorient and Toulouse among the top flight sides in action, going away to lower league opponents.

• Batter accepts ‘uphill battle’ to keep Ashes series alive

• Crawley backs Ollie Pope after dismissal for 17 in Adelaide

Zak Crawley has promised England will still be hunting for victory on the fifth day of the third Test in Adelaide, despite slipping to 207 for six in pursuit of a record fourth-innings run chase target of 435.

“It’s an uphill battle from here,” Crawley said at close of play on Saturday. “But the boys are going to give it a good crack tomorrow. Obviously we’re staring down the barrel, so it’s disappointing. But we’ll never give up.”

A knighthood, a lifetime achievement award and a hit theatre production of The Line of Beauty… the author on a year of personal success and political change

If there can be a downside to receiving a lifetime achievement award, it can surely only be the hint of closure it evokes. I put this as tactfully as I can to Alan Hollinghurst, this year’s winner of the David Cohen prize, which has previously recognised the contribution to literature of, among others, VS Naipaul, Doris Lessing and Edna O’Brien. It does have “a certain hint of the obituary about it”, he concedes, laughing. “So I’m very much doing what I can to take it as an incentive rather than a reward.”

But there have been plenty of rewards recently. Hollinghurst was knighted in this year’s New Year honours list, a couple of months after the publication of his novel Our Evenings, the story of actor Dave Win’s journey from boarding school to the end of his life, which received rave reviews. In the Guardian, critic Alexandra Harris announced it his finest novel to date, noting that it “forms a deep pattern of connection with its predecessors, while being an entirely distinct and brimming whole”.

• Alabama overturn 17-point deficit in CFP opener

• Freshman Lotzeir Brooks scores twice in rally

• Crimson Tide set Rose Bowl clash with Indiana

Ty Simpson passed for 232 yards and two touchdowns, and No 9 seed Alabama rallied from a 17-point deficit to beat No 8 Oklahoma 34-24 on Friday night in the first round of the College Football Playoff.

“I just couldn’t be more proud of these guys,” Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer said. “Resiliency. It’s been kind of a theme all season long, but it showed up tonight on the road. Down 17, coming back the way we did just one score at a time – just really stayed the course.”

The Frenchman, who has been named the best male footballer in the world by the Guardian, has benefitted from PSG’s focus on the team rather than individuals

What makes a good player great, and a great player the best? This question has been occupying me since 2014, when the Guardian first asked me to contribute to its inaugural Next Generation feature. My job was to look for a France-based talent born in 1997 who could go on to have a stellar career.

After a great deal of research, I narrowed it down from my shortlist of five by asking questions not about the players’ football ability, but about other attributes: resilience, adaptability, decision-making, creativity, work ethic, response to feedback and willingness to learn. Qualities we cannot see, and are harder to measure.

The Celtic manager wants to focus on the things that matter but after starting with four defeats he may not have the chance

Years ago when sport was good, you didn’t have optics. You just had what happened. And what happened was what you had seen happen.

Things are different now. If you haven’t lent into optics when discussing your underperforming team, then you’re missing out. One dictionary definition for you: Optics (1) “The way in which an event or course of action is perceived by the public.”

Funding to tackle misinformation and cyber-attacks, and boost democracy, cut from £40m to £24m

Keir Starmer’s raid on overseas aid has led to a 40% cut in funds for countering Russian aggression and misinformation in a region of Europe described by the prime minister as vital to the UK’s national security.

British funding committed to bolstering the western Balkans, where Russia has been accused of sowing division and creating destabilisation, has been cut from £40m last year to £24m for 2025-26.

Cyclist and road safety groups argue proposed alternative route away from traffic-free Le Piétonnier is unsafe

On an unseasonably mild winter’s day, people are gathering at Le Piétonnier, the pedestrian zone in the heart of Brussels. Tourists buy mulled wine and churros at the Christmas market outside the Bourse, the old stock exchange, now repurposed as a beer museum. A few people drink coffee on cafe terraces. Up and down the length of the 650-metre-long space, people come and go, bikes and scooters weaving in and out of the crowds.

Next year, this scene will look somewhat different: bikes and scooters will be banned from this 18,000-sq-metre pedestrian zone for most of the day. People on two wheels will be allowed to ride only between 4am and 11am. At all other times, they must dismount and push their vehicle up the street, or face a fine.

• Third Test, D4: Australia 371 & 349; England 286 & 207-6

• Lyon strikes after tourists briefly threaten record chase

There was a time when England players threw around phrases like “the more runs, the better” such was their confidence in the chase. But tasked with knocking off a world record 435 runs to stop Australia winning this Ashes series at the earliest opportunity, one suspects it was not said on Saturday.

Instead, having picked up six cheap wickets first thing to set up this unlikely five-session challenge, it was about seeing where they could get to by stumps on day four. The upshot was 207 for six from 63 overs which, while progress of sorts on this malfunctioning tour, means Australia will go into the final day of this third Test on the verge of an unassailable 3-0 lead.

• Joshua stops Paul in sixth and calls out Fury

• Paul drives himself to hospital with broken jaw

• Netflix spectacle ends with hierarchy restored

• Dubois prevails as women’s champions shine

Anthony Joshua wasted little time early Saturday morning in Miami turning the page from spectacle to ambition, calling out Tyson Fury moments after stopping Jake Paul in a bout that ended with the YouTuber-turned-boxer driving himself to hospital with a suspected broken jaw.

Joshua halted Paul in the sixth round of Friday night’s heavyweight contest at the Kaseya Center, dropping him four times in a one-sided fight that had been built as a Netflix-backed global event. Afterwards, the former two-time unified champion was blunt in his assessment of both his performance and what should come next.

In the Jordan valley, teenage settlers drive herds of goats into a Palestinian community in a bid to force families out – volunteers are trying to hold the line

It is a daily onslaught. Every morning, teenage Israeli settlers drive a herd of goats from their outpost in the hills down into the valley towards the Palestinian village of Ras Ein al-Auja.

The local men, women and children retreat inside their huts and tents. Any hint of resistance from a Palestinian is likely to bring in the Israeli army or the border police, confiscation of property and disappearance into the maw of “administrative” detention without trial, for months or years.

Emma Thompson’s quiet suffering in the hit Christmas movie helped me to realise that I didn’t need to stay with someone who had betrayed me

I was 12 when Love Actually came out. In the eyes of my younger self it was a great film – vignettes of love I could only imagine one day feeling, all coloured by the fairy lights of Christmas. And there was even a cameo from Mr Bean himself, Rowan Atkinson. The film captured the romance I craved as a preteen, the idea that maybe a kid I fancied in my class would learn the drums for me and run through airport security to ask me out.

I was young enough to think it was sweet for Keira Knightley’s husband’s best friend to turn up on her doorstep declaring his quite obviously unrequited love. I even thought it was adorable that he ruined their wedding video by filming only closeups of her face. Of course, I feel differently now about problematic moments like these – even if I do have the film to thank for introducing me to Joni Mitchell.

In this week’s newsletter: Not exhaustive, not definitive and unapologetically subjective: our annual tour of the best TV, music, films, podcasts, games and books of the last year

• Don’t get The Guide delivered to your inbox? Sign up here

It’s time to look back on a year of Traitors and Sinners, of Bad Bunnies and Such Brave Girls, with the Guide’s now annual roundup of the year’s best culture. As ever, the Guardian is already knee-deep in lists – of films (UK and US), albums (across rock and pop, and classical), TV shows, books and games, and theatre, comedy and dance. Some of those have already counted down to No 1, others will reach their respective summits in the coming days, so keep an eye on the homepage.

Our list meanwhile is entirely, unapologetically partial, and definitely not as comprehensive as The Guardian’s many top 50s: there are numerous albums we never got around to hearing, and TV shows we’re still only halfway through. (Pluribus, Dope Thief and Blue Lights, I will return to you, I promise!) But hopefully it should give a flavour of a year that, despite so many headwinds, was a pretty strong one for culture. On with the show!

From the Yule Cat and Madame Berthe’s mouse lemur to Taylor Swift and John Everett Millais, test your knowledge with the Saturday quiz

1 Where does the Yule Cat devour people who don’t have new clothes?
2 Who successfully answered the radio advert: “Astronauts wanted, no experience required”?
3 Which story popularised the eating of turkey at Christmas?
4 Who signed his letters to Queen Elizabeth I as “007”?
5 What is the most abundant metal in the Earth’s crust?
6 Which Olympic athletics record is still standing from 1968?
7 Madame Berthe’s mouse lemur is the smallest of which order of mammals?
8 Where do the Rockettes dance each Christmas?
What links:
9 Alps in Slovenia; dates after 45BC; month of Quintilis; 42% of English births?
10 Taylor Swift; Friedrich Heyser; John Everett Millais?
11 Killed Baldr in Norse myth; Harry Potter’s wand; annual commemoration of Parnell?
12 MLA; MP; MS; MSP?
13 Stan Laurel; Mick McCarthy; Paul Raymond; Martin Sixsmith; Tony Wilson?
14 M (3); V (6); E (8); M (13); J (43); S (80); U (160); N (240)?
15 Ballgames; carpet tiles; gold chains; David Bowie LPs; Trevor Francis tracksuits?

• YouTuber stopped in sixth after four knockdowns

• Trump weighs in on fight from Air Force One

• Victor eyes Fury after hospitalizing Paul with broken jaw

• Women’s boxing shines on Miami undercard

• Jake Paul v Anthony Joshua – as it happened

Anthony Joshua did what he was meant to do on Friday night in Miami: he lay waste to Jake Paul’s bravest and most controversial experiment in boxing with a destructive victory that felt less like a sporting result than the restoration of sanity.

In their scheduled eight-round heavyweight bout at the Kaseya Center, streamed globally to Netflix’s roughly 300 million subscribers, the former twice unified heavyweight champion scored four knockdowns before stopping the YouTuber-turned-boxer in the sixth round of a mismatch that had prompted weeks of safety fears and moral hand-wringing. Joshua’s triumph, on a night purpose-built as much for memes as for punches, served as a reminder that boxing still adheres to its elemental laws and that power and pedigree eventually reassert themselves.

Lawyers for victims say they have been ‘repeatedly denied justice’ while deputy attorney general says more files will be released

• Analysis: Trump over-promises and under-delivers

Representatives for victims of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein condemned the US Department of Justice on Friday for only partially releasing investigative documents while at least one survivor said she felt “redeemed” by the documents.

The documents were released under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which mandated the disclosures by 19 December. The law allows for records to be withheld if they threaten current investigations, disrupt national security or identify Epstein’s victims.

If meeting Santa is on your family wishlist, this trip on a festive sleeper train from Helsinki to Rovaniemi, with reindeer and huskies thrown in, is Christmas with jingle bells on

Christmas was only a few days away and the Finnish capital of Helsinki was ringing with festive cheer as we explored the Tuomaan Markkinat in Senate Square, sipping from mugs of hot, spicy glögi (mulled wine), and biting into joulutorttu (jam-filled puff pastries shaped like catherine wheels). A cold front had brought abundant snow and inhaling was rather painful at -8C, but nothing could still the tremble of excitement.

Along with my husband and two young daughters, I was here to take the Santa Claus Express to the northern city of Rovaniemi, the heart of Finnish Lapland – and the “official” home of Father Christmas. A regular commuter train for the rest of the year, come late November the Santa Claus Express is Finnish Railways’ flagship service, offering the ultimate sleeper-train adventure. As I checked my watch and announced it was finally time to make our way to Helsinki central station, the girls were pink in the cheeks, eyes sparkling from all the surrounding golden lights.

European legislators may ban plant-based products from using the name to prevent ‘confusion’. Just don’t mention beef tomatoes or buffalo wings

Most of what you eat is sausages. I mean, if we’re going to get literal about it. Sausage derives from the Latin salsicus, which means “seasoned with salt”. You might think of a sausage as a simple thing, but on this reading it is everything and nothing, a Borgesian meta-concept that retreats as you approach it.

From another perspective, a sausage is an offal-filled intestine, or the macerated parts of an electrocuted or asphyxiated pig or other animal – generally parts that you wouldn’t knowingly eat – mixed with other ingredients that, in isolation, you might consider inedible. For some reason, it is seldom marketed as such.

Eight years ago, after yet another disastrous festive get-together, my mother decided we needed professional help. Which is how a new festive tradition began

It is early December, and I am sitting in a psychoanalyst’s office in central London, about to do 60 minutes of pre-Christmas family therapy. Outside, the Christmas lights are twinkling. I can hear a drunk person literally shouting for joy on the street beneath the window. But inside the consulting room, it is eerily silent. My mother, my sister and I sit in squishy armchairs and pretend to admire the art, but really we are eyeballing one another like prizefighters, looking for weak spots. My father is just a tiny, flickering face on an iPhone, propped up next to my mother on a cushion. My father doesn’t really believe in therapy, but he’s compromised by dialling in via Zoom. He keeps falling off his cushion and on to the floor.

Our therapist peers benevolently at us over her spectacles. She is in her 80s and has a world-weary look about her. Like she has seen all manner of dysfunction before. She lets the silence hang for a moment, and then she clears her throat: “Shall we begin with presents? Or the meal?”

Aaron, 28, a digital producer, meets Tara, 30, who works in marketing

What were you hoping for?
Someone to split a mortgage with. If not that, a nice night with someone new.

The dog used to be dependent on us for everything. But since graduating from dog school the tables have started to turn

It’s a cold winter night, and my wife and I are alone in the house, binge-watching some new series. I was transfixed by episode one, and gripped by episode two, but midway through episode three I have started to look at my phone, and as a consequence I’ve lost track of the plot. I have an idea what’s going on, but it’s not the right idea.

“So hang on,” my wife says. “Was that just the dead guy? Meaning he’s not dead?”

A cross-cultural jamboree of a festive meal, mixing Middle Eastern, west African and French cuisine: peppered smoked mackerel pies, crab gratin, slow-cooked lamb, jewelled rice, and a rum and pineapple cake to round things off

I was born in west Africa, and brought up between there, France and the UK in a French-Lebanese-British family. Unsurprisingly, then, our Christmas lunch was more than a bit diverse: my father always insisted on some British and Lebanese elements, while my mother contributed French dishes and technique; west African produce was also a must, because the house would be full of all nationalities, including our African family. Not only that, but our Christmas would invariably start with a guest list of about 20, and another 20 or so waifs and strays would always then turn up in need of feeding and watering. Today’s dishes were part of our regular seasonal festivities, as good in the sunshine as they are robust enough for a chilly British winter.

From pop to politics, it’s been quite the year. Were you paying attention? Let’s find out …

1-5 Please pay more attention.
6-14 Very good. But spend less time looking up from your phone in 2026.
15-20 Please write this next year.

Country is facing epidemic of diabetes and obesity, but experts say widespread and unregulated use of weight loss drugs could put patients at risk

India’s leading doctors have warned of the dangers of an unregulated boom in weight loss injections, and emphasised they are not a magic pill to solve the country’s growing epidemic of diabetes and obesity.

Demand for appetite-suppressing drugs such as Mounjaro, Wegovy and Ozempic has surged since they were introduced into the Indian market this year.