Barred from work and school in Bangladesh, thousands of refugees are making the perilous voyage to Malaysia by boat – with some beaten en route to extort even more money

Majuma Begum stayed awake until 3am waiting for her son to return from the market before accepting he was not coming home. The next day he phoned to say he was on the Bangladeshi coast, waiting to begin a boat journey to Malaysia that she had desperately tried to stop him taking.

It was the start of weeks of worry for the 58-year-old, whose fears deepened when a boat carrying Rohingya refugees capsized near Malaysia in early November, killing dozens. She felt as though she could finally breathe again when he finally reached his destination.

• ‘It’s going to be the club’s and his decision,’ midfielder says

• Curtis Jones insists squad firmly behind Arne Slot

Dominik Szoboszlai has said the Liverpool dressing room will have no influence over Mohamed Salah’s next move because only the player and the club can decide how their standoff ends.

Salah missed Liverpool’s valuable Champions League win at Inter on Tuesday having been left out of Arne Slot’s squad in response to his highly critical interview at Leeds. The 33-year-old could also be absent when Liverpool host Brighton on Saturday. He is due to report for Africa Cup of Nations duty with Egypt on Monday.

About 56,000 people control three times as much wealth as half of humanity. Here’s one way to illustrate that

Cruising around on private jets, the ultra-rich are the world’s financial elite – but how many people actually occupy this exclusive wealth club? Could they all fit into a floating mega-yacht, or is the group much bigger, possibly the size of a dazzling mega-rich city?

Thanks to an inequality report out on Wednesday, we now have a snapshot of the size of the topmost layer floating above everyone else – the 0.001%.

Peace prize winner Machado has been seen only once in public since going into hiding in August last year

The Oslo ceremony is about to get under way in the next few minutes.

You can follow it on our live stream here:

“First of all, on behalf of the Venezuelan people, once again, I want to thank the Norwegian Nobel committee for this immense recognition to the fight of our people for democracy and freedom.

We feel very emotional and very honoured, and that’s why I’m very sad and very sorry to tell you that I won’t be able to arrive in time for the ceremony, but I will be in Oslo and on my way to Oslo right now.

The two European Nato countries clash in the third cod war over fishing rights in the Atlantic

After the second world war Iceland began to gradually extend the fishing zone around its coastline. The first cod war began in 1958 when it proclaimed a 12-mile fishing zone, followed by the second cod war in 1972, which extended the limit to 50 miles. In October 1975 Reykjavik decided to further increase its protected waters to a 200-mile zone, effectively cutting off British and German fishers from their best catch. This led to the third cod war which saw violent clashes and rammings. The dispute ended in June 1976 when Britain recognised the 200-mile limit.

The actor has criticised the creative team behind the sequel to Ridley Scott’s 2000 epic, saying it lacked the moral core that defined the original Oscar-winning film

Russell Crowe has said that the makers of Gladiator II did not “understand … what made that first one special”.

In interview excerpts posted on social media by Australian radio station Triple J, Crowe said that the Gladiator sequel, which starred Paul Mescal and was released in 2024, was let down by “the people in that engine room not actually understanding what made that first one special”.

• World No 1 says ‘biological men’ have a ‘huge advantage’

• ‘She hit the nail on the head’, says battle of sexes rival Kyrgios

Aryna Sabalenka has weighed into the participation of transgender athletes in women’s sport, the world No 1 saying it would be unfair for women to face “biological men” in professional tennis.

The WTA Tour gender participation policy permits transgender women to participate if they have declared their gender as female for a minimum of four years, have lowered testosterone levels and agree to testing procedures. These conditions may be further varied by the WTA medical manager on a case-by-case basis.

RootsAction report finds Harris courted moderates instead of working-class Democrats – and Gaza stance did not help

Kamala Harris lost last year’s US presidential election because she chased the wrong voters with the wrong message, ultimately demobilising the very base that she needed to win, according to an autopsy by a progressive grassroots advocacy group.

The vice-president focused on courting moderate Republicans over motivating core Democratic working-class, young and progressive voters, a misstep compounded by her failure to break from Joe Biden on Gaza, says the report by RootsAction.

The song contest continues with its mission of ‘unity and cultural exchange’ by rolling out the red carpet for Israel, even though at least four countries have pulled out in protest

A new acronym emerged a couple of months into Israel’s bombardment of Gaza: WCNSF. “Wounded child, no surviving family”. That acronym is unique to Gaza, experts like paediatrician Dr Tanya Haj-Hasan with Médecins Sans Frontières have said. Normally it’s rare for doctors to treat a child who has lost their entire family. But there has been nothing “normal” about the genocide in Gaza, where whole bloodlines have been wiped out and there are more child amputees than anywhere else in the world. Nothing normal about scores of doctors coming back from a landscape of rubble with reports of kids being deliberately targeted by Israeli snipers.

Despite a supposed ceasefire being in place, Gaza remains hell on earth. Essential medical supplies are not getting in and Amnesty International has said Israel is still committing genocide. (Israel has denied this, of course, just as it denies everything it is accused of.) But while traumatised orphans are now freezing in makeshift tent camps, there is a little heartwarming news: nothing is going to stop the Eurovision song contest from continuing with its mission of “unity and cultural exchange.” Eurovision will continue to roll out a blood-red carpet for Israel, even though at least four European countries (Netherlands, Spain, Ireland, Slovenia) have now pulled out in protest. Because this is what unity looks like, folks!

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Thousands of social media posts were traced to deliberate attempts to misrepresent the singer – and showed ‘significant user overlap’ with the campaign to attack actor Blake Lively

Analysis has found that a coordinated online attack sought to align Taylor Swift and her latest album, The Life of a Showgirl, with Nazi and rightwing imagery and values, from accounts feigning leftist critique and designed to encourage outrage.

The AI-driven behavioural intelligence platform Gudea produced a report examining more than 24,000 posts and 18,000 accounts across 14 social media platforms between 4 October, the day of the album’s release, and 18 October. These posts accused Swift of sowing dogwhistle references in her lyrics and alleged that a lightning bolt-style necklace from her merchandise line – a reference to the album track Opalite – resembled SS insignia.

Australian psych-rockers, who removed their music from Spotify in protest against the streaming service, lament the appearance of AI band King Lizard Wizard

Spotify has removed an AI impersonator of popular Australian rockers King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard from the streaming service, with the band’s frontman voicing despair at the situation.

King Gizzard removed their music from Spotify in July in a protest against the company’s chief executive Daniel Ek, who is the chair of military technology company Helsing as well as a major investor.

The act of bowling is simple, the vocabulary used to describe it reflects the difficulty in pinning down its artistry and craft

Every act in cricket’s history has begun with a bowler delivering a ball to a batter 22 yards away. Delivering. Like a postman delivers a council tax bill. Like a waiter delivers a round of drinks. Of all the verbs used to describe the bowling of a ball, this one speaks to the deep-seated cultural inequity that has plagued this sport since its inception.

“If there was ever a word that proves we live in a batter’s world, this is it,” says Steve Harmison, the fearsome fast bowler turned commentator who delivered 16,313 balls for England across eight years. “But not every delivery is the same. Some come gift-wrapped like a present at Christmas. Some can jump up and smack you in the face.”

Parents of Madeleine McCann among dozens to sign letter to PM urging him to revive second part of Leveson inquiry

Madeleine McCann’s father has called for greater scrutiny of the UK media as he told how “monstering” by sections of the press had made him feel as if he was being “suffocated and buried”.

Gerry McCann said his family was tormented by press “abuses” and that the media had “repeatedly interfered” with the investigation into his daughter’s disappearance in 2007.

This season calls for a tartan bow the size of a dinner plate, traditional baubles on the tree and a host of wooden nutcracker soldiers. ‘Ralph Lauren Christmas’ has gone viral, and gen Z has fallen hard for nostalgia and the 1990s

It is December, which everyone knows is the time to get your Christmas on. So what is it to be this year? An ironic wreath made from brussel sprouts? Oh-so-zeitgeist decorations in the shape of Perelló olive tins or Torres crisp packets? Or are we thinking a minimalist all-white theme?

Wrong, wrong and wrong again. My front door wreath – it went up two weeks ago because I’m a Christmas superfan – is huge and trad, with a tartan bow the size of a dinner plate. There are wooden nutcracker soldiers the size of toddlers by the fireplace. When I put my tree up this weekend, it may well collapse under the weight of old-fashioned round baubles.

Howlingly funny comedy, jaw-dropping documentaries and astonishing drama … it’s been another fantastic year of TV. Our countdown of the very best kicks off here
• More on the best culture of 2025

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Modi voiced words of respect, but he is resisting an anti-western, anti-Ukraine stance, despite the foreign policy contradictions

• Dr Chietigj Bajpaee is senior fellow for south Asia at the thinktank Chatham House

The rhetoric and optics of the Russian president Vladimir Putin’s visit to India last week allude to the strength of the bilateral relationship: Narendra Modi greeted Putin at the airport with a hug, and the leaders shared a car journey (echoing the “limo diplomacy” when Putin and Donald Trump met in Alaska earlier this year). In his remarks, Modi referred to Putin as “my friend” and the India-Russia relationship as a “guiding star”, built on “mutual respect and deep trust” that had “stood the test of time”. This was Putin’s 10th visit to India since he assumed power 25 years ago, and his 20th meeting with Modi since the latter became prime minister in 2014.

However, there is a gap between the symbolism and the substance of this relationship. While Putin pledged “uninterrupted fuel supplies” to India, the country’a companies are buying less Russian oil in the face of US tariffs and sanctions. Russia and India concluded a string of memorandums of understanding in areas from migration and mobility to health and food security, maritime cooperation, fertilisers, customs, and academic and media collaboration. But the anticipated announcements on major defence deals did not happen. India has not concluded any major defence deals with Russia since its invasion of Ukraine in 2022. This has been fuelled by delays in the delivery of several platforms and spare parts as Moscow has prioritised its own defence needs. This is a trend that predates the war in Ukraine as New Delhi has sought to diversify its defence imports and strengthen its domestic production.

• Manager stresses transitional phase of reshaped squad

• Madrid defeat could spell end of Xabi Alonso’s tenure

Pep Guardiola has challenged his reshaped Manchester City team to prove they can thrive against Real Madrid at the Bernabéu.

The City manager goes back to one of Europe’s grandest venues for the Champions League game on Wednesday night without many of the stalwarts who have been at the heart of the numerous battles between the clubs in recent years.

This sharp, bleak debut satirises the current cultural moment through the life and loves of a cynical young writer

There is a long tradition of stories about artists that are also about the question of how to represent life in art; novels about artists with toxic female friendships are more unusual.

Enter Anika Jade Levy’s slim and sharp debut Flat Earth, which shares its title with a film made by a woman whom Avery, the narrator, identifies as her best friend. Frances is a rich and beautiful twentysomething who becomes a “reluctant celebrity in certain circles” after her film, “an experimental documentary about rural isolation and rightwing conspiracy theories” in the modern-day United States, premieres to critical acclaim at a gallery in New York. Avery, meanwhile, is struggling to write what she describes as “a book of cultural reports”.

Reports say space exploration company has begun talks about stock market listing that could raise more than $25bn

• Business live – latest updates

Elon Musk’s space exploration company SpaceX is preparing to list on the stock market next year in a move that could raise more than $25bn (£19bn) and value the business at more than $1tn, according to reports.

SpaceX, which designs, builds and launches rockets, is said to have started discussions with banks about an initial public offering (IPO). It could join the stock market in about June or July, according Reuters, which cited an unnamed source familiar with the matter.

Opposition leader María Corina Machado’s daughter to receive award on her behalf in Oslo, says Nobel Institute

The Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado will not attend the Nobel peace prize ceremony and the award will be accepted by her daughter, organisers have said.

Machado has been seen only once in public since going into hiding in August last year amid a tense showdown with the president, Nicolás Maduro. Venezuela’s attorney general has said Machado, 58, would be considered a “fugitive” if she left the country to accept the award.

This Netflix show starts off feeling like a documentary, and winds up as another attempt to recreate The X-Factor. It really cannot be overstated how much of a rehash this boyband contest is

Ladies and gentlemen, the most cynical bait and switch of the year has finally arrived. To the casual viewer, Netflix’s new series Simon Cowell: The Next Act may appear to be yet another quasi-unvarnished authorised documentary series.

And that would make sense, because those things are everywhere at the moment. Everyone from David Beckham to Robbie Williams to Charlie Sheen has made one, allowing a film crew into their lives to offer just enough grit to fool people into thinking they are watching anything other than a heavily sanitised publicity project. And, really, who deserves one of these more than Simon Cowell?

Glitzy draws, OJ-era chaos, grass laid over AstroTurf and a host nation that barely cared – the 1994 World Cup arrived amid suspicion and slapstick. Yet it became a watershed that would alter US sport and global football politics alike

“The United States was chosen,” the columnist George Vecsey wrote in the New York Times in 1994, “because of all the money to be made here, not because of any soccer prowess. Our country has been rented as a giant stadium and hotel and television studio.” Nobody could seriously doubt that. The USA had played in only two World Cups since the second world war and hadn’t had a national professional league for a decade. And that meant there was a great deal of skepticism from outsiders, even after Fifa made it clear there would be no wacky law changes to try to appeal to the domestic audience: Would anybody actually turn up to watch?

But there was also hostility in the United States. A piece in USA Today on the day of the draw told Americans they were right not to care about the World Cup, what it sneeringly described as the biggest sport in “Cameroon, Uruguay and Madagascar”. “Hating soccer,” wrote the columnist Tom Weir, “is more American than mom’s apple pie, driving a pickup or spending Saturday afternoon channel surfing with the remote control.”

Excerpted from The Power And The Glory by Jonathan Wilson, copyright © 2025 by Jonathan Wilson. Used with permission of Bold Type Books, an imprint of Basic Books Group, a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc.

Olya Kuryshchuk’s publication is a rare – and increasingly powerful – voice advocating for the people behind the scenes in an industry that loves a star. Its new awards celebrate the ‘teams who never get to walk a red carpet’

At the Fashion awards – a lavish event at the Royal Albert Hall this month – Jonathan Anderson was named designer of the year for a third time for his work at his own namesake brand and Dior, Anok Yai was named model of the year and Delphine Arnault, the CEO of Dior and scion of fashion’s wealthiest family, gained a special recognition award for her work supporting new talent through the LVMH prize. Think of it as fashion paying tribute to its biggest stars.

Since the night, there has been praise for the British Fashion Council’s new CEO Laura Weir but also criticism. The anonymous Instagram account boringnotcom, which often shares strong opinions on the industry, wrote: “As predicted, the same names got rotated and won the fashion awards … how utterly boring.”

The extremist, who is said to have converted in prison, is now planning a mass carol service. But look at his words and deeds: hardly Saint Tommy, is it?

Here’s a thought for the day: what kind of Christian am I, and what kind of Christian is Tommy Robinson? It needs addressing, and so it’s good, given the far-righter’s recent religiously contentious pronouncements – and ahead of his planned carol service this weekend – that my church is addressing it. That’s not to say the matter is simple.

Scroll back. When I told someone from the Pentecostal church, which I had attended in my 20s, that I was going to be ordained in the Church of England, she very graciously conceded that while, on the whole, it was a “dead church”, there might be one or two “real Christians” within it. More disturbingly, a senior Anglican cleric of the evangelical persuasion recently said something similar to me – and I was unclear whether he regarded me as being one of the chosen few.

Ravi Holy is rector of The United Wye Benefice in Canterbury, Kent, and a standup comedian

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