56 m. ago Chess: Magnus Carlsen wins Freestyle Tour title despite defeat in final event

Norway’s world No 1, 35, lost 0.5-1.5 to the US veteran Levon Aronian, 43, in Cape Town but was already sure of overall victory and a prize of around $500kNorway’s world No 1, Magnus Carlsen, was shocked by a 0.5-1.5 loss to the US veteran Levon Aronian in Thursday’s final of the Freestyle Grand Slam Tour in Cape Town, but still finished the overall winner of the five-event Tour.Freestyle chess is also known as Fischer Random and Chess 960. Pieces start randomly placed on the two back rows, thus drastically limiting opening preparation. Its 2025 season, with a Tour financed mainly by a $12m investment from the venture firm Left Lane Capital, has featured tournaments in Weissenhaus, Karlsruhe, Paris and Las Vegas before the final in South Africa. Continue reading...

Politics

57 m. ago Line of Duty's Martin Compston admits going into 'dark place' for new thriller

EXCLUSIVE: Martin Compston opened up about the emotionally-driven series The Revenge Club and how he dealt with such heavy topics.

Politics

68 m. ago Mo Salah's 'secret' talks with Jordan Henderson as Saudi clubs want Liverpool transfer

Mohamed Salah met ex-Liverpool team-mate Jordan Henderson in London amid ongoing speculation about his future after his extraordinary rant at Reds boss Arne Slot and squad exile

Society

1 hour ago Royal skips lavish event after revelation she met Jeremy Epstein 'a few times'

The 41-year-old met the paedophile billionaire Jeremey Epstein several times before marrying the prince, the Royal Family disclosed this week

Politics

1 hour ago Joyride by Susan Orlean review – an extraordinary, curious life

An exuberant, inspiring memoir from the New Yorker writer and author of The Orchid ThiefIn 2017, 10 years after Susan Orlean profiled Caltech-trained physicist turned professional origami artist Robert Lang for the New Yorker, she attended the OrigamiUSA convention to take Lang’s workshop on folding a “Taiwan goldfish”. I was with her, a radio producer trying to capture the sounds of paper creasing as Orlean attempted to keep pace with the “Da Vinci of origami”, wincing when her goldfish’s fins didn’t exactly flutter in hydrodynamic splendour.It was Orlean in her element: an adventurous student, inquisitive and exacting, fully alive to the mischief inherent to reporting – and primed to extract some higher truth. “When we first met you said something to me I’ve never forgotten,” Orlean told Lang. “That paper has a memory – that once you fold it, you can never entirely remove the fold.” Was that, she wondered, an insight about life, too? Continue reading...

Politics

2 h. ago Cops release CCTV in hunt for missing woman, 53, who was last seen five days ago travelling in a car to Stonehenge

COPS have released CCTV in the hunt for a missing woman last seen five days ago travelling in a car to Stonehenge. Gail, 53, from Calne, Wiltshire, was last spotted on December 5 with police "very concerned" for her welfare. Wiltshire Police said Gail had travelled to the Amesbury and Stonehenge area in a silver...

Events

2 h. ago Illegal pangolin meat and cane rats seized by police in Deptford

Officers from the Food Standards Agency and the Metropolitan police found the bushmeat at a site in south-east London on December 5

Events

2 h. ago Police launch murder probe after receiving fresh information over death of woman electrocuted in her bath 25 years ago

An inquest in October 2000 heard Rhonda Anderson, 29, was found in the bath with the radio still switched on and floating beside her at her Northampton home.

Events

2 h. ago The facts are stark: Europe must open the door to migrants, or face its own extinction | George Monbiot

Plummeting birth rates mean that without attracting immigration, many countries are sliding towards collapseI know what “civilisational erasure” looks like: I’ve seen the graph. The European Commission published it in March. It’s a chart of total fertility rate: the average number of children born per woman. After a minor bump over the past 20 years, the EU rate appears to be declining once more, and now stands at 1.38. The UK’s is 1.44. A population’s replacement rate is 2.1. You may or may not see this as a disaster, but the maths doesn’t care what you think. We are gliding, as if by gravitational force, towards the ground.Civilisational erasure is the term the Trump administration used in its new national security strategy, published last week. It claimed that immigration, among other factors, will result in the destruction of European civilisation. In reality, without immigration there will be no Europe, no civilisation and no one left to argue about it.George Monbiot is a Guard...

Events

2 h. ago ‘Men explicitly loving men is so threatening to the status quo’: why are gay male pop stars being shut out of the music industry?

Not long ago, artists such as Lil Nas X and Olly Alexander were ruling pop. But success has stalled as acts face industry obstacles and rising homophobia. What now?At the turn of the decade, gay male and non-binary pop stars seemed poised to take pop music by storm. Lil Nas X broke out with Old Town Road – which blew up on TikTok, sold about 18.5m copies and remains tied with Shaboozey’s A Bar Song (Tipsy) and Mariah Carey’s All I Want for Christmas Is You as the longest-running No 1 single in US history – and artists such as Sam Smith, Troye Sivan and Olly Alexander from Years & Years were all singing about gay love and sex.But the initial promise has stalled. Lil Nas X’s attempts to build on his smash debut album have fizzled, and he is publicly dealing with mental health issues. In October, Khalid released his first album since being outed by his ex last year but only sold 10,000 copies in the first week in the US. A previous album, 2019’s Free Spirit, sold some 200,000 copie...

Events

2 h. ago Met police face independent inquiry over fears 300 recruits not properly vetted

Home secretary to order special investigation amid concern inadequate checks during hiring spree may pose criminal risk The home secretary is to order an independent special inquiry into whether the Metropolitan police allowed hundreds of recruits to join without proper vetting amid fears they may pose a criminal risk.The Guardian has learned that the inquiry will be carried out by the policing inspectorate, with concerns centred on 300 new officers hired between 2016 and 2023. Continue reading...

Events

3 h. ago Defence pathologist in trial of woman accused of murdering husband 'much more in favour' of tragedy being an accident

'We have so many gaps in our knowledge that we cannot know for certain', he told jurors in the trial of Daryl Berman, who denies murdering her husband David Berman

Events

3 h. ago Death row inmate apologizes for rape and murder of college student before being executed in Tennessee

Harold Wayne Nichols, 64, died by lethal injection at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution for the 1988 rape and murder of Karen Pulley, 20.

Events

4 h. ago Woman who finds all of her food from supermarket waste bins says she's 'only ever been sick once'

Sofie says she has barely had to spend any money on feeding herself in 2025 - as she finds it all for free

Politics

7 h. ago Female paramedic is punched in face by drink and drug thug who threatens to rape her as she treats him

Emily Jackson, 31, was called to a pub in London to treat the seriously ill, unconscious man.

Events

7 h. ago Trump expands Venezuela sanctions as Maduro decries new ‘era of piracy’

Six more oil supertankers added to sanctions list, as well as members of Maduro’s extended family, amid rising tensions following tanker seizureDonald Trump has exerted more pressure on Venezuela’s president Nicolás Maduro, expanding sanctions and issuing fresh threats to strike land targets in Venezuela, as the South American dictator accused the US president of ushering in a new “era of criminal naval piracy” in the Caribbean.Late on Thursday, the US imposed curbs on three nephews of Maduro’s wife, Cilia Flores, as well as six crude oil supertankers and the shipping companies linked to them. The treasury department alleged the vessels “engaged in deceptive and unsafe shipping practices and continue to provide financial resources that fuel Maduro’s corrupt narco-terrorist regime”. Continue reading...

Politics

7 h. ago Revealed: Two young Afghan asylum seekers were free to roam the streets for a MONTH after they admitted raping a 15

Despite admitting the brutal rape of a 15-year-old girl, Afghan asylum seekers Jan Jahanzeb and Israr Niazal, both 17, were not remanded in custody until six months after the attack.

Events

8 h. ago ‘Anxiety at 14 left me unable to go to school – I couldn't get out of bed'

A young woman told about the impact her mental health had on schooling – as a poll shows nearly half of pupils aged 11 and over were off due anxiety in past academic year

Politics

9 h. ago The festive treats with hidden health benefits that could actually be good for you from Christmas pudding to prosecco

HALLELUJAH! That mountain of treats you are craving this Christmas might not be so bad for you after all.  Scientists reckon an ingredient found in dark chocolate could help slow the ageing process.   A King’s College London study showed theobromine can reduce DNA damage. Those with more of it in their blood appeared to have...

Politics

9 h. ago Vile rapist's chilling words as he broke into pregnant woman's home and attacked her armed with knives

Liam Cowley, 32, broke into the woman's home and raped her multiple times in a horrifying ordeal, while it was later discovered he had adopted an alias and inflicted violence on a 19-year-old partner

Events