47th over: England 223-3 ( Root 78, Brook 83) Here comes England’s spectre. Brook pulls his first ball, splendidly stopped on the rope by Webster. Pancakes his fifth in a not altogether convincing way, but gets away with it.
46th over: England 217-3 ( Root 77, Brook 79) With Brian Draper’s Jerusalem being sung by men in white T-shirts with a printed MCC tie, Root nicks his first ball from Scott Boland for four.
Russia’s defence ministry said Ukraine had targeted Moscow with drones every day of 2026 so far. What we know on day 1,412
Russia’s defence ministry claimed that Ukraine has targeted Moscow with drones every day of 2026 so far, in what would mark an escalation from earlier, more sporadic attacks on the Russian capital. By midnight on Sunday alone, Russian air defence systems had destroyed 57 drones over the Moscow region out of 437 downed over Russia, the ministry said. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine, but Kyiv has increasingly used long range drones to strike targets deep inside Russia. Ukraine says such attacks aim to disrupt military logistics and energy infrastructure, raise costs for Moscow’s war effort and respond to repeated Russian missile and drone attacks in the war that Russia launched nearly four years ago.
Three out of four of Moscow’s airports shut to air traffic on Sunday after Ukraine launched dozens of drones, authorities said. The attacks led to multiple flight delays, including at Moscow’s second-busiest airport of Vnukovo, Russian media reported. The disruption comes during Russia’s extended New Year and Orthodox Christmas break, when many Russians take vacations and travel domestically and abroad, making it one of the country’s busiest periods for transport and tourism.
Two people were killed in Ukrainian drone strikes in Russian border regions, local officials said on Sunday. Belgorod’s governor said one person died and two others, including a young child, were wounded when a Ukrainian drone struck a car. Another person was killed in a drone strike on a village in the Kursk region, the region’s governor said.
In Ukraine, three people were wounded in the Kharkiv region in drone strikes overnight into Sunday, the country’s state emergency service said. Meanwhile, the death toll from a Russian missile attack on the city of Kharkiv on Friday increased to five when body parts were found under the rubble of a building, Kharkiv mayor Ihor Terekhov said.
A Ukrainian drone attack sparked a fire in an industrial zone in the town of Yelets in Russia’s Lipetsk region, the regional governor said. There were no casualties reported. Yelets is home to the Energiya battery plant, a major producer of batteries and accumulators for Russia’s defence industry, which Ukraine said it has hit in the past.
King tides cause highest floodwaters in decades for area, while people are rescued from trapped cars and roads close
High tides and heavy rains have flooded parts of the Bay Area, prompting road closures and rescues of people trapped in cars.
Five northern counties remained under a flood watch, with up to 3in (7.6cm) of rain possible through Monday night in areas that have been drenched off and on since around Christmas, said the National Weather Service office in Eureka. At least a foot (0.3 meters) of snow was likely in the mountains.
Marvel, Lost and Hobbit actor says ‘almost every area in my brain is functioning at a decreased capacity’ after she fainted and fell face-first into a boulder
Evangeline Lilly has revealed she has brain damage, months after she suffered a concussion when she fainted and fell face-first into a boulder.
The 46-year-old Canadian actor, known for her roles in Lost, The Hobbit films and the Marvel Cinematic Universe, shared the “bad news” video on her Instagram, one of many updates she has shared since she suffered the traumatic brain injury (TBI) in May, when she fainted on a beach and hit her head on a rock.
People who are sent to Manston processing centre will be eligible for searches for electronic devices from Monday
Home Office plans to immediately begin seizing asylum seekers’ mobile phones and sim cards without the need for an arrest have been condemned by a solicitor and anti-torture campaigners.
People who arrive by small boat and are sent to Manston processing centre in Kent will from Monday be eligible for searches for electronic devices, a minister has said, with technology on site to download data.
Panthers win NFC South after Falcons beat Saints 19–17
Jags rout Titans to clinch AFC South, extend hot streak
Garrett gets sack No 23 to set NFL single-season record
Giants beat Cowboys as Vikings finish season on a high
Dee Alford’s red-zone interception stopped a potential go-ahead drive by New Orleans, and the Atlanta Falcons beat the Saints 19-17 on Sunday to give the NFC South title to the Carolina Panthers.
By closing the season with four consecutive wins, the Falcons (8-9) finished in a three-way tie with Carolina and Tampa Bay for first place in the NFC South. The Panthers won the tiebreaker with the best record within the division.
Protests bubbled up in several US cities over the weekend as people demonstrated against the Trump administration’s unilateral military intervention in Venezuela – even as many in the diaspora publicly celebrated the forced removal of president Nicolás Maduro.
Gatherings took place as crowds expressed opposition to a potential war with Venezuela and to declare illegal the US operation to snatch Maduro early on Saturday and bring him to the US to face drug-trafficking charges in court.
“Uncertainty,” said Griselda Guzmán, a 68-year-old pensioner, fighting back tears as she lined up outside a grocery store with her husband to stock up on supplies in case the coming days brought yet more drama.
Cameroon await in last eight after beating South Africa
Brahim Díaz scored his fourth goal for Morocco at the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations to put the hosts into the quarter-finals with a nervous 1-0 victory over Tanzania in Rabat.
Morocco dominated possession but Tanzania had opportunities to cause a huge shock, and it took a fine strike from Brahim to book a place in the last eight.
He could be in place before Wednesday’s game at Fulham
Chelsea are closing in on the appointment of Liam Rosenior after the Strasbourg manager flew to London to hold talks over the role.
The 41-year-old is due to meet with the west London club on Monday and it is expected that discussions will end with him agreeing to replace Enzo Maresca, who left Stamford Bridge in acrimonious circumstances earlier this.
The prospect of the United States seizing direct control of Venezuela appeared to recede on Sunday after the shocking seizure of President Nicolás Maduro – but US officials said Washington was keeping a 15,000-strong force in the Caribbean and might make a fresh military intervention if Venezuela’s interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, did not accommodate their demands.
While Rodríguezkept up a defiant tone in public, the substance of conversations she had had in private with US officials was not clear.
King Charles leads tributes to Holocaust education campaigner, who he met in 2022, saying he and Camilla ‘admired her deeply’
King Charles has paid tribute to Anne Frank’s stepsister, Eva Schloss, who has died at the age of 96.
The king, who danced with Schloss while visiting a Jewish community centre in north London in 2022, said he and Queen Camilla had “admired her deeply” and he was “privileged and proud” to have known her.
Mark Ratcliffe, 67, had been trying to save Sarah Keeling, 45, and her daughter Grace, 15, who remains missing, police say
A man who died trying to save two people from the sea in East Yorkshire on Friday was attempting to rescue a mother and her teenage daughter, Humberside police have said.
The body of Sarah Keeling, 45, was recovered from Withernsea on Friday, while Grace Keeling, 15, remains missing after being washed away.
The operation to capture the Venezuelan president and his wife involved at least 150 aircraft, months of surveillance – and reportedly a spy in the government
It took the US two hours and 28 minutes to snatch President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, in the small hours of Saturday morning, an extraordinary display of imperial power that plunges 30 million Venezuelans into a profound uncertainty. But it was also months in the planning.
Critical to Operation Absolute Resolve was the work of the CIA and other US intelligence agencies. From as early as August, their goal was to establish Maduro’s “pattern of life”, or as Gen Dan Caine, the chair of the US joint chiefs of staff, described it, to “understand how he moved, where he lived, where he travelled, what he ate, what he wore, what were his pets”.
The illegal abduction of Venezuela’s president, and threat to ‘run’ his country, is a dangerous act. Its repercussions will be felt far beyond the region
Amid the immense confusion surrounding the US strikes on Venezuela, the seizure of the president, Nicolás Maduro, and Donald Trump’s announcement that the US will “run” the country and “take back the oil”, one thing is clear – they set a truly chilling precedent. The US has a grim history of interference, invasion and occupation in the region, but the early hours of Saturday saw its first major military attack on South American land. “American dominance in the western hemisphere will never be questioned again,” Mr Trump declared. The decision to unilaterally attack another country and abduct its leader – days after he publicly sought an off-ramp – has still wider repercussions. It should alarm us all.
Venezuelans have endured a repressive, kleptocratic and incompetent regime under Mr Maduro, widely believed to have stolen the last election. They now face profound uncertainty at best. Mr Trump has suggested that Mr Maduro’s deputy, Delcy Rodríguez, would follow US instructions, and dismissed the rightwing opposition leader and Nobel prize-winner María Corina Machado as a plausible replacement. But Ms Rodríguez, now interim president, has so far struck a defiant tone – and other parts of the decapitated regime are more hardline.
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.
New York’s new mayor will face headwinds as he attempts to carry out a programme of civic renewal. But his affordability agenda speaks to the times
The multiple firsts achieved by New York’s new mayor, Zohran Mamdani, have been well chronicled: he is the first Muslim to occupy that role, the first south Asian and the first to be born in Africa. He is also the youngest mayor of the largest city in the United States for over a century, having received more votes in November’s election than any candidate since the 1960s. And politically, he is probably the most leftwing incumbent of the office since Fiorello La Guardia in the 1930s and 40s.
Hardly surprising then, that Mr Mamdani’s extraordinary rise to prominence should be accompanied by high expectations and tense anticipation. At last Thursday’s inauguration ceremony, he promised to “govern expansively and audaciously”. Whether he succeeds in doing so will have considerable ramifications for progressive politics more widely.
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.
Coach believed club would back him in January window
Amorim had cast doubt on long-term future at United
Ruben Amorim’s future at Manchester United is in the balance, with the head coach’s strained relationship with the director of football, Jason Wilcox, a factor in what is viewed as an unpredictable situation at the club.
Amorim believed United were prepared to back him in the January transfer window should a major signing become available but at the moment this has changed, causing him discontent. The 40-year-old is believed to have been informed of this on the authority of Wilcox, who reports to Omar Berrada, the chief executive.
Britcher rallies in Sigulda for second win of season
American leads World Cup singles despite missing race
USA Luge star can capture historic overall crown
USA Luge’s Summer Britcher is flying into the Olympics.
Britcher got her second women’s singles luge win of the season on Sunday, moving her atop the World Cup standings and further cementing her status as a medal contender for the Milan Cortina Olympics next month.
Investigators have identified the last 16 people who died in the New Year’s Eve bar fire at the Swiss mountain resort of Crans-Montana, police said on Sunday.
Officers in Valais canton said they had managed to identify the last of the 40 bodies from the blaze, one of the worst disasters in recent Swiss history, with forensic work particularly slow-going due to the horrific burns sustained by most of the victims.
Perhaps they underestimated Harrison Reed. Certainly there was little reaction when the ball came back to the Fulham substitute with 97 minutes gone. Liverpool simply stood off, almost daring Reed to shoot, and they rued their lack of urgency when one of Fulham’s more unfashionable players rescued a point for Marco Silva’s stubborn side by ripping a stunning shot into Alisson’s top corner.
It was a jawdropping moment – after all, it was only the scurrying 30-year-old midfielder’s fourth goal in six years in west London – and it spoke to some of Liverpool’s issues this season. The champions were vague in attack despite scoring twice and, where once there was the determination to force themselves over the line, here there was only defensive inertia when the task was to hold on after going 2-1 up through Cody Gakpo in the fourth minute of stoppage time.
A peak audience of 2.5m watched the world championship final on Sky as Luke Litter defended his title
If further proof was needed about the burgeoning popularity of Luke Littler and darts, it came with early viewing figures from Barb that showed the 18-year-old’s second world title victory on Saturday night was watched by a peak audience of 2.5m on Sky.
They are huge numbers in a sport that, not so long ago, would have been delighted with anything over a million. That is the Littler effect in action. But after thrashing the Dutch player Gian van Veen 7-1 in the final, he promised that his latest success – and the £1m first prize, a record for his sport – would not change him.
11 min Cherki is fouled 25 yards from goal by James. He and Foden are over the ball…
7 min It’s been a comfortable start for Chelsea, with City playing at a relatively slow pace. Their shape is interesting: it’s ostensibly 4-1-4-1 but Reijnders is playing very narrow, so they almost have three central midfielders, Cherki to the right and Nico O’Reilly, the left-back, taking care of business on the other side.
Connexion
