Live updates from the evening session at Melbourne Park
Tennis civil war erupts | Follow on Bluesky | Mail Daniel

On telly, Mac’s talking about Anisimova, whose time is surely coming. She was close to a major last year and if she continues improving – perhaps even if she doesn’t – one will surely be hers soon. Her backhand is one of the best shots in the game, she’s working out how to win big matches, and her easy power is an absolute joy.

I guess I’m going to watch Fearnley, who’s been broken back in set three but leads Majchrzak 4-3, while trailing 2-1; then, when Yuan v Swiatek and Vekic v Andreeva start in 10 minutes or so, them; and, perhaps Lehecka v Gea.

Former Newcastle goalkeeper opens up on the abuse he has received and using the platform footballers have to support an anti-racism charity

It was a chance encounter that would ultimately help change countless lives for the better but, at the time, all Shaka Hislop wanted to do was escape.

As the then Newcastle goalkeeper stood on a petrol station forecourt, filling his car on a dark November night in 1995 his overriding emotions were outrage and fear. Hislop was heading home after an evening out with his wife and young daughter when, with the fuel gauge edging towards the red zone, he pulled into a garage just across the road from St James’ Park.

Manchester United jog memories, Nick Woltemade comes up short and there’s a tough crowd for Chelsea’s owners

• Top scorers: check out the latest top-flight standings

Sir Jim Ratcliffe was present to see the best victory and performance of his two years of minority ownership. When Ratcliffe bought in, the public impression given was of a billionaire signing up to taste the magic for himself. Saturday, and beating Manchester City, was an undoubted revival act where Michael Carrick’s team played the football of yore. That will almost certainly be unsustainable in the medium term, since most opposition will not play City’s high-line, high-wire act. But in engaging their supporters with determination and aggression, United jogged memories. There was a time when just about every big game had Old Trafford rocking like this, when the opposition could not hear themselves think. Surely that was the myth and legend Ratcliffe wanted to be part of? Would that be possible in the new stadium the Ineos chief has plans for instead of Old Trafford? Tottenham’s recent experiences suggest otherwise. Would Liverpool’s owners cash out the Anfield experience? Surely not. John Brewin

Match report: Manchester United 2-0 Manchester City

Match report: Aston Villa 0-1 Everton

Match report: Wolves 0-0 Newcastle

Match report: Nottingham Forest 0-0 Arsenal

Match report: Tottenham 1-2 West Ham

Match report: Sunderland 2-1 Crystal Palace

Match report: Chelsea 2-0 Brentford

Memoir merges with fiction as the author reflects on failed love, ageing and the end of life in this last instalment to his writing career

Julian Barnes tells us that this is his final book, so that’s one departure accounted for – the last instalment of a writing career spanning 45 years, encompassing novels and short stories, memoirs and essays, biography, travel writing, translation and even a little pseudonymous detective fiction. Many of these works turn up here, whether obliquely or overtly, referred to through subject matter, style, tone or connotation; in the contemporary cultural argot, which Barnes is fond of examining, these writerly winks might be known as Easter eggs.

The other form of leave taking is the “departure without subsequent arrival”: death. It is, as Larkin had it, “no different whined at than withstood”, and the truth is that most of us are both whiners and withstanders, querulous until there’s nothing left to complain at, stoic until pushed too far. Barnes is perhaps the great interpreter of mundane grandiosity, or grandiose mundanity – understanding that even as we attempt to inhabit the heroic mode, or to reach an intellectual accommodation with both mortality and morality, we will slip on a banana skin (or in Barnes’s case, he tells us here, a wooden staircase approached with bath-damp feet in a rush to answer the doorbell).

As a boy, Tom Stoltman was diagnosed with autism and bullied at school. When he became depressed in his teens, his older brother, a bodybuilder, suggested a trip to the gym

Tom Stoltman was a skinny kid: 90kg, 6ft 8in, with glasses and sticking‑out teeth. Diagnosed with autism as a young child, he felt he didn’t fit in. “I was really shy,” he says. “I got bullied in school for being different.” Back then, the boy from Invergordon didn’t like what he saw in the mirror. He lived in baggy hoodies. “Hood up. That was my comfort.” He loved football but “I used to look at people on the pitch and think, ‘He’s tinier than me, but he’s pushing me off the ball.’”

By 16 he’d hit a “crashing point”. He went from football-obsessed to playing Xbox all day. He’d skip meals in favour of sweets. “Sometimes it was four or five, six bags.”

Charente-Maritime is a more affordable, less manicured family destination than nearby Île de Ré

Dinner comes with a spectacle in La Tremblade. Before I sit down to a platter of oysters at La Cabane des Bons Vivants, one of the village’s canal-side restaurants, I stand and watch orange flames bellow up from a tangle of long, skinny pine needles inside a large, open oven. They are piled on top of a board of carefully arranged mussels and, by setting fire to the pine needles, the shellfish cook in their own juices.

This is the curious tradition of moules à l’éclade, a novel way of cooking mussels developed by Marennes-Oléron oyster farmers along the River Seudre in the Charente-Maritime, halfway down France’s west coast. The short-lived flaming spectacle is a prelude to sliding apart the charred shells and finding juicy orange molluscs inside – and just one highlight of our evening along La Grève. The avenue that cuts between the oyster beds, lined by colourful, ramshackle huts and rustic pontoons is an alluring venue for a sunset meal by the canal, the atmosphere all the more lively and fascinating for it being in a working oyster-farming village.

Shot in black-and-white over seven years, Brittany Shyne’s film is poetic and political in its portrayal of families fighting to maintain a vanishing way of life

Brittany Shyne’s stunning documentary observes Black farmers in the American south over the course of seven years, and portrays the beauty and the hardships of working with the land. The black-and-white cinematography lends a visual sumptuousness to the rituals of harvest: we see giant machines extracting cotton buds from open bolls, leaving behind a whirl of white fluffs fluttering in the air. The painful legacy of slavery in the country means that the choreography of farm work is rich with poetic and political meaning. Owning land is more than an economic matter; it also allows for autonomy of labour and preservation of heritage, to be passed on to future generations.

Hardworking as the farmers are, however, systematic discrimination continues to hinder their financial security. While their white neighbours have easy access to federal support, Black farmers are faced with near-insurmountable red tape, resulting in much longer waiting times for funding. With the landslide effect of operational costs and taxes, many have had their land taken away from them. One particularly poignant sequence follows 89-year-old Carlie Williams, who has farmed since his teens, as he struggles to negotiate the price of prescription glasses. Most of the subjects in the documentary also hail from older generations; the implication is that, with all its precariousness, this line of work is no longer viable for younger people.

This unbelievable, Alice Levine-narrated true story sees governments fooled by a fake bomb detector. Plus, Peter Bradshaw’s darkly comic thriller about a charming nurse

Alice Levine narrates this scam story in customary wry fashion. We meet Steve, an ex-copper who helps his childhood best pal sell his cutting-edge bomb detector, only to end up with detectives arresting him. It’s a slickly produced tale of a con that fooled governments and militaries, with action flitting from questionable Hong Kong banks to the Iraqi airports in which it’s installed as a security measure – with potentially lethal consequences. Alexi Duggins
Widely available, episodes weekly

Economy weathered a fraught geopolitical landscape to reach 5% target but structural challenges at home ‘are not going away’, say experts

Chinese authorities can say they hit their growth goals last year, but Donald Trump’s ongoing trade aggression, a slow-motion housing market collapse and unhappy consumers remain major challenges for the world’s second-largest economy.

Data released on Monday showed the Chinese economy grew by 5% in 2025, steady on the year before and hitting the official target of “around” that pace.

This shocking moment is the outcome of a political, institutional and media environment that is not far off Britain’s

There is not much that can still shock about Donald Trump’s second administration. But the killing of Renee Good earlier this month by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer, as well as the regular, often violent confrontations that ICE stages on US streets, show so much that is unravelling in plain sight. The rule of law, the freedom to protest, and even the right to walk or drive in the streets safely without being assaulted by the state, seems to exist no longer in the towns and cities where ICE has made its presence felt. The most disturbing aspect of all this is how quickly it has happened. But for a government agency such as ICE to become the powerful paramilitary force that it is, several factors need to be in play first. Only one of them is Donald Trump.

ICE may look as if it came out of nowhere, but the sort of authoritarianism that results in these crackdowns never does. It takes shape slowly, in plain sight, in a way that is clearly traceable over time. First, there needs to be a merging of immigration and security concerns, both institutionally and in the political culture. Established in the wake of 9/11, ICE was part of a government restructuring under President George W Bush. It was granted a large budget, wide investigative powers and a partnership with the FBI’s joint terrorism taskforce. The work of enforcing immigration law became inextricably linked to the business of keeping Americans safe after the largest attack on US soil. That then extended into a wider emphasis, under Barack Obama, beyond those who posed national security threats, and on to immigrants apprehended at the border, gang members and non-citizens convicted of felonies or misdemeanours.

Nesrine Malik is a Guardian columnist

Aid groups say rise of far-right rhetoric in politics has fed into intimidation, vandalism and hate graffiti around migrant camps

Not far from a camp in Dunkirk where hundreds of asylum seekers sleep, hoping to cross the Channel to the UK, are some chilling pieces of graffiti. There is a hangman’s noose with a figure dangling next to the word “migrant” and, close by, another daubing: a Jewish Star of David painted in black surrounded by red swastikas.

Utopia 56, a French group supporting migrants in northern France, posted the image on X on Christmas Day with the comment: “This is what comes from normalising the extreme right’s rhetoric, a visible, unapologetic, unabashed hatred.”

A hearty seafood stew of haddock, leeks and barley, and an almost indecently rich and comforting cheesy rarebit

For me, the best winter cooking is about comfort, warmth and connection – food that feels familiar, yet still tells a story. I’ve always been drawn to dishes that celebrate simple, honest ingredients and local tradition, and these two recipes are inspired by that spirit, and by a childhood spent doing lots of fishing in Wales. The seafood cawl is a lighter, coastal take on the Welsh classic, while the rarebit is rich and nostalgic. Both are designed to be cooked slowly and shared generously, and an ode to home kitchens, good produce and quiet moments around the table.

After lengthy delays, the $836m market has opened its doors with dozens of new venders seeking to lure visitors with everything from bánh mì to artisan cheese

When the new Sydney Fish Market flung open its doors for the first time on Monday morning, one regular clientele was notably absent.

There were no seagulls. And, by extension, no poo.

Two people detained in Kermanshah, including 16-year-old, tell group they were subjected to sexual abuse during arrest

A 16-year-old was among protesters sexually assaulted in custody by the security forces in Iran during the nationwide uprising that has left thousands dead, according to a human rights group.

Two people, one of them a child, detained in the city of Kermanshah in western Iran told the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) that they were subjected to sexual abuse by riot police during their arrest.

His blunt, brash scepticism has made the podcaster and writer something of a cult figure. But as concern over large language models builds, he’s no longer the outsider he once was

If some time in an entirely possible future they come to make a movie about “how the AI bubble burst”, Ed Zitron will doubtless be a main character. He’s the perfect outsider figure: the eccentric loner who saw all this coming and screamed from the sidelines that the sky was falling, but nobody would listen. Just as Christian Bale portrayed Michael Burry, the investor who predicted the 2008 financial crash, in The Big Short, you can well imagine Robert Pattinson fighting Paul Mescal, say, to portray Zitron, the animated, colourfully obnoxious but doggedly detail-oriented Brit, who’s become one of big tech’s noisiest critics.

This is not to say the AI bubble will burst, necessarily, but against a tidal wave of AI boosterism, Zitron’s blunt, brash scepticism has made him something of a cult figure. His tech newsletter, Where’s Your Ed At, now has more than 80,000 subscribers; his weekly podcast, Better Offline, is well within the Top 20 on the tech charts; he’s a regular dissenting voice in the media; and his subreddit has become a safe space for AI sceptics, including those within the tech industry itself – one user describes him as “a lighthouse in a storm of insane hypercapitalist bullshit”.

I was a bit nervous when I first joined a pop choir that included a weekly pub singalong. I needn’t have worried

When I walked into Auberge, a pub near Waterloo station in London, on Thursday 21 October 2021, I didn’t know a soul. By kicking-out time, I had 50 new friends. I’ve been back almost every Thursday since.

She started out performing in her living room, charging £1.50 a ticket. Now, having blazed through Love Island and silenced her Strictly haters, the Welsh sensation is really hitting the big time

At the end of last year’s Strictly Come Dancing semi-final, pro dancer Nikita Kuzmin made a tearful appeal to camera, “I speak to the audience at home: guys, just please, please be kind!” His celebrity partner, Love Island winner, Dancing on Ice contestant and musical theatre actor Amber Davies, had been getting a lot of flak online. “You have had so much hate, every single day,” said Kuzmin.

Isn’t it crazy that we have to remind people to be nice to other humans who are just doing their job, I say to Davies, when we meet in a London hotel bar. “I genuinely think it’s getting worse,” says Davies, who has been in the public eye since 2017. “With TikTok, when people jump on a bandwagon, they go for it,” she adds. “But I feel like the nasty comments I was getting [on Strictly] weren’t actually coming from the younger audience, they came from the older audience.”

• Morocco head coach furious after Senegal leave pitch in protest

• Post-match press conference held up by arguments among media

The Morocco head coach, Walid Regragui, accused Senegal’s Pape Thiaw of having brought shame on African football after Morocco failed to win the Africa Cup of Nations in what he termed “a final with a Hitchcockian script”. After Senegal had had a goal ruled out in stoppage time, his side were awarded a penalty by the video assistant referee, prompting Senegal’s players to walk off the pitch in protest. When they returned, Brahim Díaz missed the penalty with a duffed Panenka, and Senegal went on to win in extra time.

“The image we’ve given of Africa is shameful. A coach who asks his players to leave the field … What Pape did does not honour Africa,” Regragui said. “He had already started in the [pre-match] press conference. He wasn’t classy. But he is a champion, so he can say whatever he wants. We stopped the match in the eyes of the world for 10 minutes. That didn’t help Brahim. That doesn’t excuse Brahim for the way he hit the penalty. He hit it like that and we have to accept it. We were one minute from being African champions. That’s football. It’s often cruel. We missed what for some was the opportunity of a lifetime.”

Or will they have you in pieces?

Today’s puzzles are all geometrical, and all from the mind of the UK’s most enduring and eloquent popular maths writer, Ian Stewart.

1. Bonnie Tiler

• Sixth seed cruises through 6-2, 6-2, 6-3 at Melbourne Park

• Australian No 1 to face Hamad Medjedovic in second round

McDonald to serve first…

De Minaur and MacDonald have met twice before with the Australian winning on both occasions, but the most recent of those was indoors in 2022, so it’s unlikely to be playing on the minds of either combatant.

• Los Angeles Rams 20-17 Chicago Bears (OT)

• Rams will play Seahawks for place in Super Bowl

• Patriots face Broncos in AFC championship

Matthew Stafford and the Los Angeles Rams survived an incredible throw by Caleb Williams that forced overtime, beating the Chicago Bears 20-17 on Sunday night to advance to the NFC championship game.

Harrison Mevis kicked a 42-yard field goal in OT after Kam Curl intercepted a deep pass by Williams on the Bears’ first possession of the extra period. Stafford completed a 16-yard pass to Puka Nacua to get the Rams into field-goal range and set up the 245lbs Mevis, known as the “Thiccer Kicker,” for the game-ending kick. He was mobbed by teammates while a crowd that was rocking earlier watched in near silence.

Queensland police appeal for witnesses after 19-year-old, reportedly a Canadian citizen, found on beach north of the Maheno shipwreck

• Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

A crime scene has been established on a popular tourist island off the Queensland coast after a 19-year-old woman died on Monday morning.

The national broadcaster reported the young woman found on the beach north of the Maheno shipwreck on K’gari (formerly known as Fraser Island) was a Canadian citizen.

Government’s truce with Syrian Democratic Forces follows advance on Kurdish-held areas amid struggle to control entire country

The Syrian government on Sunday announced a ceasefire with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), taking almost full control of the country and dismantling the Kurdish-led forces that controlled the north-east for over a decade.

The announcement comes as tensions between government forces and the SDF boiled over earlier this month, eventually resulting in a major push by government forces towards the east. The SDF appeared to have largely retreated after initial clashes on a tense frontline area in eastern Aleppo province.

The segment, reported by Sharyn Alfonsi, was supposed to air on 21 December but was pulled by editor in chief Bari Weiss

Nearly a month after CBS News editor in chief Bari Weiss ignited controversy by shelving a 60 Minutes segment about Venezuelan prisoners, telling staffers that it needed more reporting, the piece finally aired on Sunday night.

Weiss had originally instructed 60 Minutes to hold the segment about the Cecot prison in El Salvador, which had already been scheduled, in part because it lacked “the administration’s argument”.