• Keeper opted to join City rather than Newcastle in July

• ‘I’m a big fan of his,’ says Eddie Howe before semi-final

The prospect of James Trafford joining Newcastle from Manchester City in the summer heightened on Monday when Eddie Howe spoke admiringly of the goalkeeper and Pep Guardiola left open the prospect of a move.

Trafford chose City ahead of Newcastle when he left Burnley in July, expecting to become the first choice at the Etihad Stadium. Since the deadline-day arrival of Gianluigi Donnarumma, however, he has played in only four domestic cup ties and one Champions League match.

Multiple Torah scrolls were damaged after fire broke out early Saturday at Beth Israel Congregation in Jackson

A suspect has been taken into custody after a historic synagogue in Mississippi was badly damaged in a fire that authorities described on Sunday as an arson case.

According to officials, the blaze broke out shortly after 3am Saturday at Beth Israel Congregation in Jackson. No one was hurt in the fire.

• Lioness will leave German club at end of season

• Aston Villa set to sign Chelsea’s Oriane Jean-François

Arsenal are among the leading candidates to sign Georgia Stanway this summer after Bayern Munich confirmed the England midfielder would leave the German club when her contract expires.

According to sources, the north London club are understood to be one of a number of teams interested in acquiring the 27-year-old on a free transfer, but Renée Slegers’ team are leading the running having tracked Stanway’s progress and are eager to add a world-class midfielder to their squad.

It should have been easier for Wrexham to dump Nottingham Forest out of the FA Cup but triumphing on penalties after suffering a late fightback will have made knocking out the Premier League side sweeter.

After Callum Hudson-Odoi came off the bench to score a late double to bring parity after 90 minutes, Wrexham goalkeeper Arthur Okonkwo brought back the euphoria with two saves in the shootout to secure something akin to a shock. Liberato Cacace, Ollie Rathbone and Dom Hyam thought they had done enough to send Wrexham through at 3-1 but Forest threatened to ruin the party. They need not have worried as Okonkwo made sure there was glory at the end.

A handful of Republicans joined Democrats to pass a three-year extension of tax credits cutting ACA premiums

The US House of Representatives on Thursday passed legislation to reestablish tax credits that lowered premiums for Affordable Care Act (ACA) health plans, after a small group of Republicans broke ranks and joined with Democrats to defy Donald Trump on a key healthcare issue that could sway voters ahead of the November midterm elections.

The chamber voted 230-196 to approve a bill that would extend for three years the credits, which were first created under Joe Biden but expired at the end of last year despite a concerted effort by the Democratic minority to continue them.

Startup founded by former OpenAI staff is aiming to more than double its annualized revenue run rate this year

Anthropic is planning a $10bn fundraise that would value the Claude chatbot maker at $350bn, according to multiple reports published on Wednesday.

The new valuation represents an increase of nearly double from about four months ago, per CNBC, which reported that the company had signed a term sheet that stipulated the $350bn figure. The round could close within weeks, although the size and terms could change. Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC and Coatue Management are planning to lead the financing, the Wall Street Journal reported.

• Last 16: Côte d’Ivoire 3-0 Burkina Faso

• Heavyweight quarter-final meeting with Egypt awaits

Amad Diallo scored one goal and created another to continue his excellent form in Morocco as the defending champions Côte d’Ivoire eased past Burkina Faso 3-0 in their Africa Cup of Nations last-16 game in Marrakech on Tuesday.

Côte d’Ivoire will face the seven-time winners Egypt in a heavyweight quarter-final in Agadir on Saturday, a repeat of the 2006 decider where the north African side triumphed on penalties after a 0-0 draw.

Daughter of the Wisconsin author confirmed her father died on 29 December and did not provide cause of death

Michael Schumacher, a Wisconsin author who produced a diverse array of works ranging from biographies of film-maker Francis Ford Coppola and musician Eric Clapton to accounts of Great Lakes shipwrecks, has died. He was 75.

Schumacher’s daughter, Emily Joy Schumacher, confirmed Monday that her father died on 29 December. She did not provide the cause of death.

Over-by-over updates from Sydney Cricket Ground
Play starts at 10am local at the SCG/11pm GMT
Live scorecard | The Ashes top 100 | Email Tanya

And hello Paul Moody!

“Hi from Brasil, boa noite.

• Mali 1 Tunisia 1 (aet; Mali win 3-2 on penalties)

• North Africans fail to take the game to 10 men

There is perhaps no nation on earth whose football is as paranoid as that of Tunisia, and with so little reason. They qualified for a third successive World Cup with ease and forced a draw in a friendly against Brazil in November, yet their football is infected with fear. To watch them play is to experience a dystopian world in which imagination has been outlawed. In the end, they went out of the Cup of Nations on Saturday because their self-doubt proved an even stronger than Malian self-destructiveness.

The Mali goalkeeper Djigui Diarra took the plaudits but this was a game Tunisia should never have lost. For over an hour and half they played against 10. They took the lead in the 89th minute. Twice they led in the shootout. And somehow they still lost, undermined by their own unwillingness to take the game on. If they had only played, they would surely have won but as so often before, Tunisia did not just play. They squabbled and spoiled, feigned injury and moaned, and every so often forgot themselves, played a handful of passes and looked the decent side that they really should be.

Executive chair Richard Baker to replace Marc Metrick after company misses $100m interest payment on debt

Saks Global said on Friday that its CEO, Marc Metrick, has stepped down and named executive chair, Richard Baker, as his successor, amid reports that the luxury retailer is preparing for bankruptcy.

The change at the top comes days after the Wall Street Journal reported that the Neiman Marcus parent company is preparing for bankruptcy after missing an interest payment exceeding $100m on debt from its Neiman merger.

Batter has been thrown in at the deep end at No 3 and if the selectors have faith in a young player they should be doing everything to help them succeed

There used to be a saying in county cricket: a quick game’s a good game. You’d hear it from the old pros who sensed a poor wicket or a downpour, because it meant they would get more time off. Well, England and Australia have certainly adhered to that saying.

There’s another one you hear a lot in cricket these days: there’s a ball with your name on it. It frees batters up, takes the pressure off, and allows them to run down the wicket, to play scoops and ramps, in the belief that they have to be proactive because there’s a good ball round the corner. Modern batters don’t want to trust their defence and, if the world’s best players have that mindset – you hear it a lot from this England setup – you’re going to get a lot of unnecessary dismissals, leading to accelerated matches. That’s what we saw in the fourth Test, exacerbated by an unsatisfactory pitch.

• Manager praises his team’s turnaround in past 12 months

• January arrivals also hailed for making a key difference

Pep Guardiola has praised Manchester City for turning their form around to become the best-performing Premier League team in 2025 and warned rivals they will improve once Rodri returns to full fitness.

Despite a rare trophyless season, City go to Sunderland on New Year’s Day with 2025’s best points-per-game ratio, narrowly ahead of Arsenal, who played two more league matches.

Trump official says funds will be released ‘only when states prove they are being spent legitimately’

The Department of Health and Human Services is freezing all childcare payments to all states, an official for Donald Trump’s administration told ABC News in a report published Wednesday, just hours after department officials announced that they had frozen childcare funding to Minnesota.

States’ funds, the unnamed official said, will be released “only when states prove they are being spent legitimately”.

So December – the busiest month on the Premier League calendar – comes and goes without a single win for West Ham or Brighton; 12 matches played between them, but only occasional draws to show for their endeavours.

At least this meeting of the winless was not short on entertainment, with two goals apiece in just the Premier League’s second ever game to see three first-half penalties awarded. But the draw – matching the one they shared at the Amex Stadium earlier this month – helps neither team.

Former Brazilian president underwent a phrenic nerve block while temporarily released from prison for surgery

Jair Bolsonaro underwent a second “phrenic nerve block procedure” on Monday to treat persistent hiccups.

The treatment went well and the former Brazilian president’s condition is stable, according to his medical team.

• Bangal, Catamo and Calila score in 3-2 victory

• Diallo on target as Côte d’Ivoire draw with Cameroon

Mozambique ended a 40-year wait for victory at the Africa Cup of Nations as they beat Gabon 3-2 in Agadir.

Goals from Faisal Bangal, Geny Catamo and Diogo Calila earned the southern African side a deserved victory in which they were led by 42-year-old winger Elias Pelembe. It is their first win at the continental finals since their debut in 1986 in what was their 17th game.

Blackmail! Murder! Horny Republicans! This starry bonkbuster is about as good as nonsense television gets

This is it. This is your reward. For getting through Christmas, for getting through the crisis-laden sorrowfest that was 2025, the gods of television have vouchsafed us all The Hunting Wives, eight episodes of the most perfect trash to fill our screens since – well, I don’t even know when. Since Rivals? Maybe, but like the book it was based on by the late, great Jilly Cooper, that show was too good to qualify for this coveted title. The Hunting Wives is not. The Hunting Wives is perfect trash. The most perfect trash possibly ever – how’s that?

I’m not sure I can explain quite how much fun it is with only the paltry resource of the written word at my disposal but let me limn first its hysterical outlines and we’ll see how we get on.

• Australia edge England in wild opening to Boxing Day Test

• Over-by-over updates from Melbourne Cricket Ground

• Live scorecard | Geoff Lemon on Australia’s bowlers

For a while, Boxing Day 2025 felt like a re-enactment of Boxing Day 2010. We’re talking an amateur historical re-enactment, given the lower intensity and higher number of participants with private lives under investigation, but still, the broad shape of the thing was much the same. You had England choosing to bowl on a cloudy morning and finishing off the hosts in time for an early tea. The original instance lasted 42.5 overs, this repeat lasted 45.2, only 15 deliveries between them.

Yet this year’s edition felt different for more reasons than just a higher scoring rate that yielded 152 all out versus 98 all out last time around. In 2010, England owned the day, a Jimmy Anderson swing masterclass ripping out a paralysed middle order, Chris Tremlett lopping off top and tail like a légumier preparing string beans. The rehash was a less complete bowling effort that drew a strangely faltering batting response: chop-ons and leg-side nicks and run outs, occasionally the bowling team via Josh Tongue remembering to pitch the ball up before rocketing through someone’s defences.

Police allege the man also trespassed at ANU and ‘stuck propaganda-style stickers’ on buildings and other property

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An 18-year-old has been charged with allegedly performing two separate Nazi salutes at Canberra shopping centres and putting up “propaganda-style stickers” in recent months.

The man is expected to appear before ACT magistrates court on Friday, where police will allege in October a member of the public confronted him as he stuck stickers up at a shopping centre and then performed a Nazi salute before leaving the centre.