• Match at Emirates Stadium kicks off at 4.30pm (GMT)
• 10 things to look out for this weekend in the top flight
• Share your thoughts with Rob via email

Here’s the Premier League table going into this afternoon’s game

Today’s Premier League results

Brentford 0-2 Tottenham

Man Utd 0-2 Crystal Palace

Hadi Matar, 26, accused of stabbing author 10 times in case likely to draw world’s media to tiny upstate New York town

A man accused of attacking Salman Rushdie as he was being introduced at a literary lecture in New York state in 2022 is going on trial this week in a case likely to create global headlines.

The trial could upend life in the tiny upstate New York village of Mayville, whose population of less than 1,500 is not accustomed to finding itself at the center of a media circus covering the attempted assassination of one of the world’s most famous writers.

A North Yorkshire couple’s home celebrates their creative individuality

If a house can change your mood, I just don’t know why you wouldn’t want to concentrate on the joy.” Neil Bedford has been asked about his thoughts on beige homes and he’s trying his hardest to be diplomatic. “A house like this makes coming home a little more exciting,” agrees partner Daisy Fry, gesturing to their Selfridges-yellow staircase. “It cheers you up.”

The couple moved into this early Edwardian terrace in the North Yorkshire coastal town of Saltburn-by-the-Sea in 2021. Neil is a photographer, while Daisy, who has a masters’ degree in creative practices and has dotted the house with her “soft sculptures” – is now taking time out to be at home with the couple’s young son, Solo.

The Guardian’s picture editors select photographs from around the world

Our increasingly noisy world has been linked to cardiovascular disease, anxiety and depression, as well as hearing loss. But that’s not the only reason we need more peace and quiet in our lives

No dogs barking. No lawnmowers. No revving engines. No sirens or car alarms. No planes. No construction work. No delivery lorries. Just pure, blissful silence. My ears could barely believe what they weren’t hearing when I opened the door, stepped into the garden and listened. It was autumn last year and I had just moved 600 miles north, from south-east England to Abernethy Forest in the Scottish Highlands. Occasionally, the wind shushed through the tree tops, like a slow wave breaking on the shore. Then it was quiet again. I lay in bed that night, letting my ears explore the faint thrum of silence, and for the first time in ages I didn’t reach for my earplugs.

In the ensuing months, my ears let go, by degrees, of a tension that I hadn’t been aware I was holding. I almost expected to look in the mirror and find them drooping, like those of a drowsy puppy. “Isn’t it a bit quiet for you there?” people asked – either mystified by our move, or concerned that we wouldn’t hack it. But I can’t get enough of it.

Starbucks wants people to stop hanging out in its US branches without buying anything. But sometimes we all need somewhere to sit that isn’t home

There has been a kerfuffle about cafes recently. In the US, Starbucks’ new “Coffeehouse Code of Conduct” is making people buy something or leave, reversing its previous laid-back attitude. Meanwhile, in Paris, cultural barricades are being raised between trad cafes and the kind that sell €5 almond milk cortados. The New York Times last month set out the “zinc bar v barista” philosophical divide between classic community hubs and hipster roasteries in the city, while a Parisienne on TikTok has posted a video pointing out three new-gen coffee shops within 50 metres of each other in the Marais, explaining that French people “take our time to have a coffee … we sit on a terrace”, but now “les Américains” are demanding takeaway americanos.

This is about what cafes are for – and the answer has always been more than coffee. Seventeenth-century coffee houses offered a democratic meeting space (well, unless you were a woman). Revolution brewed in US and French ones in the 18th century. They were also, historically, a refuge. In one of her memoirs, Simone de Beauvoir described spending whole days in the Café de Flore through the freezing winter of 1942-43, arriving early to get the hottest spot, next to the stovepipe. “We always had a shock of pleasure, emerging from the cold darkness, coming into this warm, bright den,” she wrote. She and others who did the same became a “family” of regulars. “We felt at home, safe.”

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical concepts

How do some people manage to wear shorts all through the winter? Jane Shaw, France

Send new questions to nq@theguardian.com.

• Game at Gtech Community Stadium starts at 2pm (GMT)
• 10 things to look out for this weekend in the top flight
• Share your thoughts with Daniel via email

And another transfer line:

Postecoglou advises that Van de Ven is OK, they’re just trying to manage his minutes, while explaining that 17-year-old Moore has earned his go.

• Play at Wankhede Stadium set to begin at 1.30pm (GMT)
• England lose series amid substitution controversy
• Share your thoughts with James via email

3rd over: India 39-1 (Abishek 23, Varma 0) Archer is flashed over cover for four by Abishek and then plooped for two over mid off, the fielder not quite able to scrabble back and get under the catch. SIX! What a shot that is – an uppercut outside off stump, the ball wasn’t even that wide – but was flayed away. SIX more! Abishek follows up with a majestic launch over cover! Eighteen off the over and Jofra Archer has been clobbered for 34 runs off two overs. Gulp.

2nd over: India 21-1 (Abishek 5, Varma 0) Tilak Varma is the new batter. England move a leg slip in place for the flick in the air. Wood goes outside off stump and the new batter leaves it alone. A lesser spotted leave.

Spanish football federation’s former president is accused of sexual assault and coercion over incident in 2023

Spain’s former football chief Luis Rubiales will go on trial in Madrid on Monday over the unsolicited kiss he planted on the World Cup winner Jenni Hermoso, a gesture that stunned millions of TV viewers and unleashed a backlash against sexism in sport.

Rubiales, 47, is accused of sexual assault as well as coercion after allegations that he tried to force Hermoso, 34, into publicly declaring that the kiss, which occurred as she celebrated her team’s victory in the 2023 World Cup in Australia, was consensual.

Employees condemn ‘unprecedented and scary’ effort to push out those who had worked on diversity programs

Jeremy Wood thought he was safe from the shuttering of federal government diversity initiatives that he expected to start as soon as Donald Trump was sworn in.

A Raleigh, North Carolina-based career civil servant in the US agriculture department, Wood had been among those tasked with implementing policies ordered by Joe Biden to curtail discrimination on the basis of race, sexual orientation and gender identity in the federal government.

The UK is likely to make a cut this week; Trump has made it very clear he wants his central bank to follow suit

The Bank of England is preparing to announce a cut in UK interest rates on Thursday, with central banks around the world facing increased scrutiny as Donald Trump ramps up his attacks on the US Federal Reserve.

Trump wants lower borrowing costs to boost the economy, even though the US has maintained the highest rate of growth in the G7 richest nations for several years and has every prospect of topping the G7 poll in 2025.

Silver W196 R Stromlinienwagen sold at Stuttgart auction for highest amount ever made by a grand prix car

A streamlined Mercedes raced by the Formula One greats Stirling Moss and Juan Manuel Fangio in 1955 set a record for a grand prix car on Saturday, selling at auction for €51.15m (£42.7m).

The sleek, silver W196 R Stromlinienwagen, one of only four complete examples in existence, was sold by RM Sotheby’s at the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart, Germany, on behalf of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS).

Belgium leads calls for suspension of agreement after Rwanda-backed rebels captured city of Goma

The EU is under mounting pressure to suspend a controversial minerals deal with Rwanda that has been blamed for fuelling the conflict in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Calls to freeze the agreement have grown after fighters from the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group captured the city of Goma in the eastern DRC, escalating a decades-old conflict and raising fears of a regional war.

Critics decry ‘politically motivated’ decision to revisit civil war-era charges against leaders of anti-mining campaign

Five Salvadorian environmental defenders who were exonerated of bogus civil war charges will face retrial this week amid growing evidence of political interference.

Miguel Ángel Gámez, Alejandro Laínez García, Pedro Antonio Rivas Laínez, Antonio Pacheco and Saúl Agustín Rivas Ortega, were acquitted in October over the alleged killing of an army informant in 1989. The court in Cabañas in northern El Salvador ruled that the state had failed to prove a crime had taken place, or that the defendants, former leftwing guerrilla fighters, were linked to any wrongdoing.

I saw them killed by sniper fire and drones. Why doesn’t Labour condemn it? Why do arms keep flowing in Israel’s direction?

I had never imagined, when working as a professor of transplant surgery at a large teaching hospital in London, that one day I would find myself operating on an eight-year-old child who was bleeding to death, only to be told by the scrub nurse that there were no more gauze swabs available. But I found myself in that situation last August while operating at Nasser hospital in Gaza as a volunteer with Medical Aid for Palestinians (Map). Reduced to scooping out the blood with my hands, I felt an overwhelming wave of nausea – I was anxious that the child would not survive. Luckily she did, although many others did not.

Having retired from the NHS, I decided to go to Gaza because it had become clear that there was a desperate need for surgical help, and I had the skills to contribute. Life as a transplant surgeon in London had been tough but hugely rewarding, and as a senior member of the transplant community I had enjoyed a certain status. This was going to be a different experience – but nothing prepared me for what I found when I arrived.

Nizam Mamode is a humanitarian surgeon and retired professor of transplant surgery. He was a volunteer surgeon in an emergency medical team in Gaza, which was organised by Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) in August/September 2024

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• Versatile attacker keen to leave Bayern Munich
• Tel rejected permanent move to Tottenham last week

Arsenal are exploring a loan deal for Mathys Tel but face competition from Manchester United for the Bayern Munich forward.

Tel, who rejected a permanent move to Tottenham after they had agreed a £50m fee with Bayern last week, has expressed his desire to leave in this window having played only 252 minutes in the Bundesliga this season.

• England were ‘outperformed in every facet’ by Australia
• Director refuses to comment on Knight and Lewis futures

Clare Connor, the managing director of women’s cricket at the England and Wales Cricket Board, has admitted that England are way behind Australia in terms of fitness and ability to perform under pressure.

Connor also revealed she is considering bringing in voices from outside the current ECB setup to ensure a “thorough and honest” review in the following England’s embarrassing 16-0 Ashes whitewash.

The paranormal has hit prime time, with scary stories on podcasts and TV shows more popular than ever. We head to UncannyCon to meet fans and creators to understand the thrill of the chill

A Sunday afternoon in early December and London’s Southbank Centre draws its usual eclectic crowd: tourists, young families, culture lovers, out-of-towners. But as I move through the people, a pattern starts to emerge. The cavernous space is dotted with people wearing the same black T-shirts printed with bold white lettering. Many read “Team Sceptic”, even more say “Team Believer”. Some, curiously, bear the phrase “Bloody Hell, Ken!”

If you’re into the paranormal – ghosts, UFOs, demons, witchcraft, Bigfoot, etc – you’ll recognise them as slogans from the lexicon of Uncanny, a hit BBC podcast that first aired in late 2021 and has since snowballed into a many-pronged behemoth of ghoulish entertainment, replete with a TV show, a mammoth live tour and a bestselling book. (Ken, by the way, was the protagonist of the first ever episode, recounting his experience at the hands of a poltergeist in his student halls of residence.)

Harriet Walter’s acclaimed portrayal is the latest of many screen versions. So how do you create the Thatcher persona?

Harriet Walter has become the ­latest in a line of actors, from Meryl Streep and Gillian Anderson to Fenella Woolgar and Jennifer Saunders, to accept the challenge of becoming Margaret Thatcher on screen. How do you play a woman who, 45 years on from her ascension, exists almost as a national caricature?

Walter plays the part in Brian and Maggie, Channel 4’s two-part drama tracing Thatcher’s relationship with Labour MP turned journalist Brian Walden, which culminated in a fraught TV interview in October 1989, as Thatcher’s fortune began to fail. The series, written by Sherwood creator James Graham, directed by Stephen Frears and co-starring Steve Coogan, digs into the former prime minister’s private persona.

Two weddings, one double booking and a series of cliches are the order of the day in Nicholas Stoller’s Bride Wars-lite comedy

Any film combining the comedy talents of Will Ferrell and Reese Witherspoon is unlikely to be entirely terrible. That said, the wildly uneven wedding clash comedy You’re Cordially Invited is certainly in the vicinity of terrible on numerous occasions. Ferrell plays Jim, the smothering, widowed dad of Jenni (Geraldine Viswanathan); Witherspoon is Margot, the overprotective older sister of Neve, played by Meredith Hagner. When, due to an administrative snafu, Jenni’s and Neve’s weddings are double booked at the same venue, Jim and Margot are determined that their loved ones will still get their day to remember, no matter the cost to the rival party or to personal dignity. Wedding catastrophe cliches abound (cakes, hair and frocks take the brunt of the physical comedy). Ferrell’s crocodile wrestling scene notwithstanding, this just feels like a Bride Wars rip-off without the bite.

On Amazon Prime Video

US president says measures against Mexico, Canada and China will ‘all be worth the price’

After Donald Trump’s return to the White House, Volkswagen, Germany’s largest carmaker, said that tariffs would have a “harmful economic impact” on American consumers, as well as the international automotive industry.

German automakers say the tariffs will cause inflation for consumers.

President’s ‘culture war’ crusade targets DEI and LGBTQ+ rights in bid to spread rightwing agenda, experts say

Donald Trump didn’t need to wait for the black box flight recorder. He knew what caused the mid-air collision of a passenger plane and army helicopter that killed 67 people. Or he thought he did.

“They actually came out with a directive – ‘too white’,” the US president told reporters on Thursday, seeking to blame former presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden for including Black and Latino people in the federal workforce. “We want the people that are competent.”

For the artist and film director acts of protest were as much a part of growing up as playing in the local park. Here he recalls his first encounters with activism

My first encounter with resistance was unbeknownst to me, and I was annoyed by it. At nine years old, I found myself attending Saturday school, missing Football Focus and not being with my friends playing in the local park. First my sister and I went to the Marcus Garvey Saturday school in Hammersmith. Later we went to the Saturday school in Acton, organised by Mr Carter. He was a light-skinned Black man with slightly ginger hair and freckles, bearing a strange resemblance to Jimmy Carter, who was the president of the United States.

The sole purpose of the Saturday school was to help Black children who were underachieving or being failed by the education system. At that time, I didn’t know that these facilities were organised throughout the United Kingdom by Black parents, teachers and academics. In 1971, a London schoolteacher, Bernard Coard, wrote a pamphlet called How the West Indian Child is Made Educationally Subnormal in the British School System: The Scandal of the Black Child in Schools in Britain. Although there had been efforts to support Black children prior to this, this was the launching pad for a nationwide and organised act of self-determination.