65 minutes ago Usyk vs Fury was a masterclass but it revealed one harsh boxing truth for both men

The Usyk-Fury rematch was personal and brilliant, writes Steve Bunce, but big decisions lie in both fighters’ future and danger lurks round the corner

Politics

71 minutes ago My body is already in decline. Now experts can predict when my mind will follow | Emma Beddington

What’s more depressing than the thought of a long, slow decline in health? The thought of several short, sharp declines. Thank you, science!I don’t believe ageing is linear: I reckon we have long plateaux, then everything falls apart all at once. I realised this at the close of my harrowing 31st year, when I looked in the mirror and didn’t recognise the sad, grey ghost staring back. I swear one day I was young and moderately dewy with a functioning musculoskeletal system; the next my face imploded, shortly followed by my knee (yes, it was a fun year). There’s a phrase for this kind of sudden ageing in French: prendre un coup de vieux, which feels appropriate, since I was living in France during that first precipitous decline and prolonged exposure to the angry rigours of Parisian life was at least partly to blame.Anyway, now science is catching up. Earlier this year, researchers identified two “peaks” for ageing at 44 and 60, and now a new paper points to three peaks in brain ageing...

Science

2 hours ago Rick Stein makes one important warning to anyone cooking Christmas dinner

Christmas dinner preparations can be long and exhausting, but it doesn't have to be that way according to celebrity chef and TV personality, Rick Stein

Events

2 hours ago Assisi braces for visitor influx as Jubilee year for Catholics starts on Christmas Eve

Some in the small, medieval town famed for St Francis worry too many people will come because of ‘Millennial saint’ Carlo AcutisInside a souvenir shop in Assisi, the face of a boy with thick black curly hair smiles out from wall tapestries, fridge magnets and key rings, outshining the flying cherubim, snow globes and other religious trinkets that cram the shelves.But the owner, Elvira Boccacci, is struggling to explain to some intrigued tourists who Carlo Acutis, the boy in the image, is. “Americans have asked if he’s an Italian footballer, because of his tracksuit top,” she said. Continue reading...

Politics

3 hours ago ‘The great capitulation’: why key US figures are seeking Trump’s favor

People from tech executives to foreign leaders and even some mainstream media figures are ‘acquiescing in advance’, experts say, because of greed and fearWhen “Justice for All”, a dirge-like version of the national anthem sung by defendants jailed over their alleged roles in the January 6, 2021 insurrection, was played last month at Mar-a-Lago in Florida, guests stood with hand on heart.Among them was Mark Zuckerberg, the billionaire founder of Facebook. Continue reading...

Politics

4 hours ago Starmer could introduce new law to block Musk from donating to Reform, minister suggests

As a US citizen, Mr Musk cannot legally make a personal donation to a UK political party, but he could do so through the UK subsidiaries of his companies

Politics

4 hours ago Claudia Winkleman left 'shaking' after moment in upcoming Traitors 'took her breath away'

Strictly host Claudia Winkleman is gearing up for the third series - but admits she's still nervous over how it will be perceived despite the BBC show's incredible success

Politics

5 hours ago With Assad’s fall, Putin’s dream of world domination is turning into a nightmare | Peter Pomerantsev

Complaints about the president are growing among Russian military and business leaders. Now is the time for the west to turn up the heat As Bashar al-Assad fell, Russian nationalist military bloggers turned on the Kremlin. “Ten years of our presence,” fumed the “Two Majors” Telegram channel to its more than one million subscribers, “dead Russian soldiers, billions of spent roubles and thousands of tonnes of ammunition, they must be compensated somehow.” Some didn’t shy away from lambasting Vladimir Putin. “The adventure in Syria, initiated by Putin personally, seems to be coming to an end. And it ends ignominiously, like all other ‘geopolitical’ endeavours of the Kremlin strategist.” These weren’t isolated incidents. Filter Labs, a data analytics company I collaborate with, saw social media sentiment on Syria dip steeply as Assad fell.It was in stark contrast to Putin’s silly claim at his annual news conference last week that Russia had suffered no defeat in Syria. Unlike social med...

Politics

5 hours ago Knowing the Christmas school fair is on? Not for all the reminders in the world | Seamas O'Reilly

Some parents are good at noting the important events, others at making up for it in the sweets raffleThe Christmas fair in my son’s school was, like all such things, unexpected. This is no one’s fault, but my own. I have a tendency to be – nay, an addiction to being – the last person to know about anything going on in his school. It is entirely my fault, you understand. There are leaflets and emails and reminders, it’s just that they never seem to sink in and leave me filling out zoo paperwork at 6am on the morning of ‘Adopt a Giraffe’ Day, or scrambling to cobble together a costume on Sunday night, before ‘Dress Like One of Those Chilean Miners That Got Trapped In 2010’ Week begins in earnest for another year.It’s tempting to say that I was blindsided by this Christmas fair, but sadly, such a claim does not stand up to scrutiny. For one thing, I have been reminded of it several times by people in our school WhatsApp group and my son has also mentioned it several times more than onc...

Science

6 hours ago Manchester United XI vs Bournemouth: Predicted lineup, confirmed team news and injury latest

Ruben Amorim sweating on fitness of key defender for clash at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium

Events