34 m. ago WTA Finals tennis: Sabalenka fends off Pegula; Gauff beats ailing Paolini – as it happened

Aryna Sabalenka dug deep to beat Jessica Pegula 6-4, 2-6, 6-3 while Coco Gauff cleaned up her service game to win 6-3, 6-2 against Jasmine PaoliniGauff 3-1 Paolini* (* denotes server): Gauff nets two backhands in a row as the Italian plays her first ball with a bit more power than in the first three games. But Guaff uses the court to make Paolini chase the ball at the baseline and gets to deuce after a weak second serve from the Italian. The two trade advantages for a while and at the fifth deuce, Gauff nets a backhand return. Paolini finally sees out the 8min 58sec game after Gauff sends one long.*Gauff 3-0 Paolini (* denotes server): A long rally ends with the Italian powerfully slicing a winner and following it up with another crosscourt forehand that Gauff strains to reach. But she sends three returns long in back-to-back break points, putting her arms up in the air in frustration. Gauff gets the advantage and turns the game around to take the set after another poor return from ...

Politics

37 m. ago Chelsea have £150m buffer against fines from FA, say football finance experts

Revelation may make points deduction or suspension from competition over Abramovich-era breaches more likelyChelsea FC would be unaffected by any financial penalty for alleged breaches of Football Association (FA) rules during the Roman Abramovich era, football finance experts have said, after corporate filings revealed its owners have a £150m cushion against the cost.Clearlake, a consortium led by the US investor Todd Boehly, agreed to pay Abramovich £2.5bn for Chelsea in 2022, shortly after the Russian oligarch was sanctioned by the UK government over his links to Vladimir Putin. Continue reading...

Economics

51 m. ago De Niro to JLaw: should celebrities be expected to speak out against Trump?

Trump’s second term has stars calling out the president – but others choose to remain silent, questioning whether it makes any differenceIf you were hoping Jennifer Lawrence might be able to tell you who to vote for and why, you’re in for some disappointment. “I don’t really know if I should,” the actor told the New York Times recently when asked about speaking up about the second Trump administration – and she’s not the only one. “I’ve always believed that I’m not here to tell people what to think,” Sydney Sweeney recently told GQ, after a year in which she was the subject of controversy over a jeans ad and a possible Republican voter registration. This marks a shift from Donald Trump’s first term, when more celebrities seemed not just comfortable speaking out against the administration, but obligated to do so. Now voters will no longer be able to so easily consult with Notes-app-made posts on Instagram to decide who and what they care about before they head to the polls. The era o...

Politics

52 m. ago Michelle Obama’s book details how the media’s fixation on her arms was used to ‘otherize’ her

The Look, a new photo book, aims to offer insight into how the former first lady used fashion as a tool for visibility and representationOne of the most powerful images of the first lady of the United States is her first official portrait. Released by the White House and housed in the National Archives, it commemorates the start of their time in office but also carves out a sense of their identity and style.Now, 16 years since Michelle Obama appeared in hers wearing a black sleeveless shift dress from the American designer Michael Kors, the former first lady has spoken about the particular outrage caused by her bare arms. Continue reading...

Politics

53 m. ago Donna Jean Godchaux supplied steel and soul to the Grateful Dead in their prime

Godchaux sang on classics by Elvis and Otis Redding and had a long solo career, but it’s as a member of the Dead’s classic, acid-drenched 70s lineup – and as the band’s only female member – that she will be remembered• Donna Jean Godchaux-MacKay, Grateful Dead singer, dies aged 78By her own admission, Donna Jean Godchaux was not a fan of the Grateful Dead when she arrived in California – then Donna Jean Thatcher – in 1970. Already a music industry veteran at 23, she had spent five years as a member of Southern Comfort, a group of singers regularly employed as backing vocalists at the renowned Fame studios in her native Alabama. But she was rigidly unimpressed with her San Francisco friends’ undying devotion to Jerry Garcia and co. She hated the band’s name and loudly opined that the only reason people liked them was because they were invariably out of their minds on drugs when they went to see them live. In fact, she could prove she was right: she offered to attend a Dead show sober...

Politics

59 m. ago Munich's surfers left stunned after famed river wave vanishes

Eisbach wave in the Bavarian city had been a surfing magnet for decades but disappeared after a cleanupA standing wave in a Munich stream that has been a surfing magnet for more than four decades has vanished, leaving urban surfers high and dry.Water levels in the Eisbach (“ice brook”) dropped last week for annual cleanup work along the streambed. Continue reading...

Politics

60 m. ago Maybelline’s sky high mascara is just £8 ahead of Black Friday 2025

This bargain buy has amassed billions of views on TikTok

Economics

73 m. ago The Dyson supersonic is unmatched for fast drying – and it’s on sale ahead of Black Friday 2025

This hair tool is a staple in my routine

Politics

79 m. ago Cilla Black fans can pick up a piece of late star in massive charity auction of her stage gear

Our Cilla, who died in 2015, was almost as famous for her bold fashion sense as catchphrases like “surprise, surprise” and “lorra, lorra laughs”

Politics

94 m. ago Lidl reveals 2025 Christmas advert announcing one meaningful service is returning to stores

Lidl has revealed it will be bringing back one popular service in the run up to Christmas

Politics

1 hour ago EU could admit new members by 2030, says its foreign policy chief

Kaja Kallas tells reporters more countries could join 27-country bloc, including Montenegro, Albania and UkraineThe European Union could admit new members by 2030, its foreign policy chief has said, as officials praised reform efforts by frontrunners Montenegro and Albania, while criticising backsliding in Serbia and an even steeper democratic decline in Georgia.The verdicts came as the European Commission published its annual report cards on 10 countries that aspire to join the EU, after the invasion of Ukraine in 2022 injected new momentum into a process that had long been moribund. Continue reading...

Events

1 hour ago Amazon Black Friday deals 2025: Early offers and what to expect

Amazon Black Friday deals are some of the biggest and the best so here's what we've seen so far

Economics

1 hour ago Predator: Badlands review – a pointless but unkillable franchise that has started to eat itself

The toothy villain is humanised and made sympathetic in this disappointing horror sci-fi – at which point it ceases to be the Predator There is disappointment in store for those hoping the Terrence Malick classic Badlands had been rebooted as a horror sci-fi, with Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek menaced by a great big space alien with a peculiar mouth. No: this is actually the umpteenth iteration of the Predator franchise, which has a roach-like unkillability itself, having started in 1987 with Arnold Schwarzenegger facing an extraterrestrial creature rustling and snarling in the Central American jungle.Predator: Badlands is just about kept from flatlining by Elle Fanning’s effortless charm, though it shows what happens when the Predator in question must, in the service of narrative development, be humanised and made sympathetic and vulnerable and kinda nice? What happens is that it ceases to be the Predator, so something or someone else has inevitably to fill the Predator role. Conti...

Events

1 hour ago Trump and his media buddies are taking the muddling of reality to a whole new level | Arwa Mahdawi

How scared should we be by Trump’s heavily edited appearance on a US news programme this weekend, and Elon Musk’s Grokipedia?You know how I’m going to be able to tell that I’ve really made it as a writer in America? When our very handsome (much better-looking than Zohran Mamdani!) and very high-IQ leader Donald Trump gives me a personal shoutout to commend me on what a wonderful job I’m doing. As we all know, a good journalist should always make the rich and powerful feel comfortable.While I wait for that day to come, I’m watching and learning from the head honchos at CBS. Trump appeared on CBS News’s 60 Minutes on Sunday night for his first sit-down with the show in five years and commented on how much better the network has become after its owner, Paramount, was taken over by his billionaire allies, the father-and-son duo Larry and David Ellison. Continue reading...

Events

2 h. ago Aldi’s Black Friday Specialbuys are back – here’s what we’re buying

Expect deals across beauty, tech, appliances and more

Politics

2 h. ago Pennsylvania artist sorry for including Nazi camp arch on school parade float

‘I made a mistake’ says artist who included cloned archway on Halloween float for a Catholic school A Pennsylvania artist’s efforts to create a Halloween float for a local Catholic school went awry when he inadvertently included a replica of the gateway arch from a Nazi concentration camp, prompting a hasty apology from the diocese of Harrisburg.In apologizing for the fiasco, Galen Shelly told PennLive that a lighted archway and lanterns he ordered to decorate a parade float he was building for Hanover’s St Joseph’s school did not arrive in time – so he searched the internet for images of cemetery gates to represent the idea that “none of us get out of this life alive”. Continue reading...

Culture

2 h. ago LOL: is this the ultimate texting faux pas (and what should you use instead)?

From abbreviations to happy poos, gen Z has strong opinions on appropriate texting behaviour. But can anyone keep up with the ever-changing rules?Name: “LOL”.Age: The Oxford English Dictionary first included LOL in 1997. Continue reading...

Politics

2 h. ago Teenager taken to Ghana away from UK ‘gang culture’ to stay for now, court rules

Boy had sought court order to force his return, after parents took him on trip to Ghana and returned without himA British teenager whose parents left him in Ghana, fearing he was at risk from “gang culture” in the UK, should stay there until at least the end of his GCSE exams, a judge sitting at London’s high court has ruled.The boy took legal action against his parents, seeking a court order that would force his return, after they enrolled him in a boarding school and arranged for him to live with extended family in Ghana without telling him. Continue reading...

Events

2 h. ago 'Here we go again': Sarina Wiegman relishes Spain rematch as England learn World Cup qualifying path

The Lionesses face a repeat of the 2025 Euros final

Politics

2 h. ago Great British Bake Off: Everything you need to know about Scottish baker Jasmine ahead of 2025 final

From her Edinburgh roots to her studies, here’s everything you need to know about Bake Off finalist Jasmine.

Politics