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Relentless football fixture list is damaging the physical and mental health of players | Maheta Molango

Games are being crammed into every space and footballers are rarely consulted – eventually they will say ‘enough is enough’

For football fans, as the song says, this is meant to be the most wonderful time of the year. A special feature of the English game is the rapid succession of festive fixtures in front of big Christmas crowds. Going to a game is a central and longstanding part of many family traditions. But after the feast of football at the men’s World Cup, the current glut of games risks feeling a little like that final mince pie that proves difficult to get down.

To stretch the analogy further, overindulgence at Christmas is often followed by a much-needed period of abstinence in January. Not this season. In the men’s game, the match schedule for January represents a chaotic jigsaw of league fixtures and domestic cup ties seemingly shoehorned into whatever gap is available. It’s enough to make even the most ravenous football fan think about loosening their belt.

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Yotam Ottolenghi’s recipes for new year comfort food

Comfort food to see you through the winter: squash polenta with spicy oil, chicken pie with prunes, and an apple-and-pear sponge pudding

We’ve made it through another year – well done us! There are all kinds of ways to see out 2022, but whether you’re dressing up to party or donning slippers to get cosy, the weeks ahead demand only one thing of the kitchen: comfort food. What that is means different things to different people, but there’s often something about its texture that hits the spot: flaky, all-butter puff pastry, warm sponge, duvet-like polenta, soft prunes, melted cheese … These are just some of the ways I’ll be getting comfort from food in the new year, and I hope you will, too. Here’s to 2023.

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As northern mayors, we’re too often treated like Oliver Twist begging government for more scraps. This is how we change it | Jamie Driscoll

A devolved north can be trusted to thrive – just look at what we’ve achieved in the north-east already

  • Jamie Driscoll is mayor of the North of Tyne combined authority

It is a truth universally acknowledged that whatever the problem, it is always someone else’s fault. Especially in politics. What, though, if there are some genuinely difficult problems to solve? Like why the north-east of England generates less wealth per capita than the south-east. Why 38% of our children live in poverty. Why our life expectancy is the lowest in England.

Michael Gove has just confirmed the government’s extended devolution deal for the north-east. It’s worth £4.3bn and covers transport and adult education, and includes a £1.4bn investment fund for economic regeneration. I’ve been working on it for three years and it’s the best-funded devolution deal in England. But will it fix what needs fixing?

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Exiled chief rabbi says Jews should leave Russia while they can

Exclusive: Pinchas Goldschmidt warns Jewish population will be made scapegoat for hardship caused by war

Moscow’s exiled chief rabbi says Jews should leave Russia while they still can, before they are made scapegoats for the hardship caused by the war in Ukraine.

“When we look back over Russian history, whenever the political system was in danger you saw the government trying to redirect the anger and discontent of the masses towards the Jewish community,” Pinchas Goldschmidt told the Guardian. “We saw this in tsarist times and at the end of the Stalinist regime.”

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Sahra Wagenknecht: heroine of German left could become ally of far right

Die Linke politician is receiving overtures from rightwing AfD and is rumoured to be planning a breakaway party

She has been compared to iconic political figureheads such as Frida Kahlo and Rosa Luxemburg, as much for her strident leftwing views as for her striking looks.

Sahra Wagenknecht is a household name in Germany and the best-known figure on the far left. The most prominent and outspoken member of the 15-year-old Die Linke party, she has been rattling the Berlin political scene for years with her vague pronouncements that she is planning to form her own breakaway bloc.

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More girls playing football is hard-won progress – but there is still a long way to go | Baroness Campbell

We must give children a voice and a choice about sport; it’s the key to helping more children enjoy sport and physical activity

Sport teaches you so many important life skills and one of the most essential is resilience. My life has been dedicated to one simple mission – changing girls’ and women’s lives in sport and through sport. It has not been easy and there have been many setbacks, but the strength of my purpose has helped me to recover and continue the journey.

I started my professional career as a PE teacher in Manchester and later became chief executive of the Youth Sport Trust and chair of UK Sport, supporting our Olympic and Paralympic teams to achieve success at London 2012.

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This year, of all years, we needed a delightfully pointless meme about negronis | Hannah Jane Parkinson

Who knew that a chat about drinks between actors Olivia Cooke and Emma D’Arcy could be so sexy and comforting?

“Negroni. Sbagliato … with prosecco in it.” Before October, it was an occasional order for the more discerning drinker. After October, it became one of the most Googled phrases in the world, the words stitched into caps and sweatshirts, the centrepiece of millions of social media views, calling card of LGBT people worldwide.

One of the greatest things about the internet is its ability to transform seemingly innocuous or quotidian happenings into sources of deep intrigue, scandal or hilarity. It is, along with the acquisition of legitimate knowledge, what the internet is good for. It’s what makes it worthwhile, just when you think the rightwing trolls and people who copy tweets word-for-word are winning.

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Think the war in Ukraine is the world’s deadliest conflict? Think again | Magdalene Abraha

A brutal war in East Africa has claimed up to 600,000 lives. This Christmas, families like mine don’t even know if our loved ones are alive

A war is raging that has cost up to 600,000 lives. Its victims have borne witness to shocking human rights abuses and, tragically, civilians have been deliberately targeted. Tens of thousands of women have been raped. It has lasted two years and is happening today, yet the chances are you don’t even know where it is. Though it is far deadlier than the war in Ukraine, the western media have mostly ignored it.

On 4 November 2020, when Ethiopia’s prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, a Nobel Peace prize winner, announced a military offensive in the disputed territory of Tigray, it was difficult to imagine how catastrophic it would become. A population of more than 6 million people, under a government blockade, has been pushed towards mass starvation – with young children dying of acute malnutrition. Tigray has become a centre of weaponised rape and an internet blackout that has added to the psychological torture faced by victims, and by families such as mine desperate to hear from our loved ones.

Magdalene Abraha is a writer and publisher at Jacaranda Books

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Even a snatched wallet couldn't dim the joy of my return to Venice | Joan Bakewell

As the city came to life after the pandemic, gondoliers and tourists alike sat back, laughed and let fun and pleasure prevail

It’s the Venice Biennale. Art aficionados flock to the Giardini, where each country has its own pavilion and its own art: they gossip, plot, criticise and do a little business.

Not so the gondoliers. Here they snatch a moment off duty to lark and frolic; young men, lithe, relaxed, off-duty, throwing gondola cushions back and forth. At a nearby restaurant, tourists scoff delicious Venetian dishes – truffle ravioli for me. My photograph reminds me how delicious it was. Venice offers untold pleasures: the brisk divide between formal tourists and local providers disappears. All enjoy its beauty, coloured houses, ancient pavements, the quayside, the glimpse at every moment of something beyond.

Joan Bakewell is a writer and broadcaster

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The theatre that inspired me to be a performer – and let me share my grief | Richard E Grant

As a child from Swaziland, I was bowled over by seeing Max Bygraves at the Palladium. This year, I took to the stage myself

When I was 12 years old, in 1969, my father decided that as Swaziland (now Eswatini) had only one cinema, one amateur theatre club and no television, I would benefit from an injection of culture in the northern hemisphere.

We flew to London and the culture shock was immediate and unforgettable. Emerging from Piccadilly Circus tube station, I saw the Eros fountain crowded with hippies, strongly smelling of patchouli oil. Walking through Soho and Carnaby Street, I saw mini-skirted women with see-through blouses. Until then, the only naked adults I’d ever seen were in National Geographic magazine. We went to the Shaftesbury theatre to see the musical Hair, which featured the entire cast standing stark bollock naked for a few seconds, just before the interval. In other words, I got to see Elaine Paige’s front bum. (We’ve since become friends and I can officially say that I’ve never seen it since.)

Richard E Grant is an actor. His memoir, A Pocketful of Happiness, is out now

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NBA Christmas 2022: Tatum’s 41 power Celtics past Bucks in top-two matchup

  • Tatum has 41, Celtics push back on Giannis, Bucks 139-118
  • Doncic, Mavs top Lakers 124-115 to celebrate Nowitzki statue
  • Embiid helps 76ers blow by Knicks to win eighth straight

Jaylen Brown knocked down his shots in the fourth quarter. And then he knocked down Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo.

Brown scored 13 of his 29 points in the fourth, and Jayson Tatum scored 41 for Boston on Sunday to help the Celtics beat Milwaukee 139-118 in a matchup of the top two teams in the NBA.

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Wolves confirm Matheus Cunha signing from Atlético Madrid in £44m deal

  • Brazil forward joins on loan with obligation for Wolves to buy
  • ‘I’m happy like a kid,’ says Cunha as he links up with Diego Costa

Wolves have signed the Brazil forward Matheus Cunha on loan from Atlético Madrid with an obligation to buy for €50m (£44m).

The 23-year-old will join Julen Lopetegui’s squad from 1 January subject to a work permit. The former Sion, RB Leipzig and Hertha Berlin player moved to Atlético in the summer of 2021 and scored seven goals last season but has struggled for playing time this term.

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Musk, Zuck, SBF: the lousiest tech bosses of 2022 – rated

It’s been a bad year for delusional egomaniacs in Silicon Valley. But who had it worst?

It’s been a pretty good few decades for America’s top tech CEOs, as their supposed brilliance turned them into billionaire oligarchs with cultlike followings. But in 2022, things suddenly looked a bit bleaker.

Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta and Jeff Bezos’s Amazon reportedly cut thousands of workers. Elon Musk, once hailed as a genius, has revealed a truly impressive level of incompetence at Twitter. Elizabeth Holmes was sentenced to more than a decade in prison. And then there’s Sam Bankman-Fried, who recently became a household name for disastrous reasons.

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I had my tongue pierced … and couldn’t eat the turkey – the Christmas present I’ll never forget

It wasn’t exactly me, but I’d asked my girlfriend for the piercing as a gift. I have no idea why

No, I don’t know why I asked my girlfriend for a tongue piercing for Christmas.

It wasn’t exactly “me”, an introverted, 21-year-old indie music fan not prone to bold style statements. Was it a desperate attempt to hang on to some youthful irresponsibility after recently leaving the safety net of university life? Or a nod to my immersion in DayGlo psychedelic trance raves – surprisingly popular in Leeds around the turn of the millennium, and often frequented by the kind of person who thought forcing a steel bar through a crucial muscle was an eminently sensible idea? Or maybe I was simply trying to impress said girlfriend?

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Pussy Riot song protests against war in Ukraine and calls for Putin to be prosecuted

The collective said Mama, Don’t Watch TV – a reference to the words of a captured Russian conscript soldier – rails against the Russian leader’s ‘bloodthirsty puppets’ and ‘war criminals’

Pussy Riot have released a new song protesting against the war in Ukraine, Russian censorship and the west “sponsoring” the regime through buying oil and gas from Russia. They have also called for the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, to be tried at an international tribunal.

In a statement, they described Putin’s government as a “terrorist regime” and call him, his officials, generals and propagandists “war criminals”.

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‘The equivalent to our Covid pandemic’: bird flu hasn’t gone away and is still spreading

Wild bird populations have been decimated across the UK and scientists fear there is more to come in 2023

It is more than a year since avian flu began to devastate wild birds in large numbers, and conservationists are fearful of what 2023 will hold. The highly infectious variant of H5N1 has caused Europe’s worst bird flu season and has spread across the globe with little sign of slowing.

In the UK, there were reports of some great skua dying from the H5N1 variant in the summer of 2021 but the mass die-offs started in the autumn and winter. More than a third of Svalbard barnacle geese in the Solway Firth, on the border of England and Scotland, – 16,500 out of 43,000 – died last winter.

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Leave Elf on the shelf: why Carol should be at the top of everyone’s Christmas movie list

Todd Haynes’ bittersweet jewel has glam Cate Blanchett and ingenue Rooney Mara falling in love in the tinselly 50s, a must for sophisticated festive film fans

What’s the greatest Christmas film of all time? It’s the question that dominates the cultural discourse and the television schedules from basically mid-November each year. There are the Elf lovers; the diehard Die Hard fans; the acolytes of Miracle on 34th Street; the people living for It’s a Wonderful Life; those who will eschew nights out to watch Home Alone; and the fans who insist that the greatest Christmas film is Love Actually, actually.

I’m here to tell you that the greatest Christmas film of all time is, in fact, Todd Haynes’ Carol. It’s not a film that often comes up as a contender in the debate, and yet it has so much going to recommend it as top of the tree. (And much overlooked is that it’s literally called … carol).

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The peculiar history of thornapple, the hallucinogenic weed that ended up in supermarket spinach

Used as a poison, a cosmetic and a treatment for asthma, Datura stramonium has a rich and varied history. Just don’t mention the naked soldiers …

The agent that contaminated baby spinach, prompting a recent national recall, has been revealed. It’s a weed, not deliberate misadventure or a chemical contaminant.

The culprit is thornapple, otherwise known as jimsonweed or, to give it its scientific name, Datura stramonium.

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Symbols of Ukraine war cast shadow over Russia’s festive celebrations

Attempts at integrating war into country’s new year celebrations have become obvious target for opposition

The Christmas village at Moscow’s Gorky Park is decked out as in any other year – quaint wooden huts with icicles and snow-lined fir trees festooned with baubles and white lights.

But this year, there are new ornaments. Glowing in fluorescent lights are three letters: Z, V, and O, all symbols of the war that Russia is waging against Ukraine and which looms heavily over the country as the end of the year approaches.

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‘There is nothing on TV more disorientating’: the brilliant weirdness of the reality TV Christmas special

From festive insults to ropey charity singalongs – all clearly shot at the wrong time of year – seasonal specials from the likes of Towie are a comical joy. Hopefully their days aren’t numbered …

For superfans of The Only Way Is Essex, Christmas was cancelled months ago. In October it was announced that due to budget concerns, the annual Towie Christmas special, The Only Way Is Essexmas, had been axed. For 11 out of the 12 years the show has been broadcast, the special has aired, and its cancellation has raised questions about the show’s future, amid declining ratings and a shrinking cast.

Though I stopped watching Towie some time ago, I too felt saddened by the news. In the same way lapsed EastEnders fans dip back into the show on Christmas Eve, I like to check in on what the Towie lot are up to once a year. Watching Chloe Sims and her sisters pretend to open presents in matching pyjamas is as synonymous with the season as putting up the tree. The Christmas episode has always been one of its standouts; Towie broke the mould with a notoriously dire live recording in 2012 and cemented their status as a festive harbinger in the public imagination by recording a Christmas charity single covering Wham!’s Last Christmas. The cancellation of its festive special might mark the beginning of the end of the series, but I hope it doesn’t mark the beginning of the end of something far bigger: the reality TV Christmas special.

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Cornwall space project given licence to launch by regulator

Go-ahead brings prospect of ‘historic’ space flight from UK a step closer

The prospect of a “historic” space flight taking off from Cornwall early in the new year has taken a major step forward after the UK Civil Aviation Authority issued a launch licence for the project.

Virgin Orbit will begin final preparations for the first launch of satellites from UK soil, though no final date for lift-off has been set.

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