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Moore to return for Rangers? Braga & Martindale in focus

By in News, Sports News
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Clive Lindsay

BBC Sport Scotland

Thursday’s European fixtures and Sunday’s Premier Sports Cup final mean this weekend’s five remaining Scottish Premiership games are spread over three days.

With Celtic facing St Mirren at Hampden, Heart of Midlothian have the chance to stretch their lead to six points when they visit Falkirk on Saturday.

Third-place Motherwell have a chance to narrow the gap to the reigning champions when they visit Dundee United, as do Rangers and Hibernian when they meet on Monday.

There is a big game between Livingston and Dundee at the bottom and, on Sunday, Aberdeen host Kilmarnock.

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Match of weekend – Rangers v Hibernian (Mon)

Rangers' Mikey Moore (centre) against FerencvarosSNS

Rangers once more return to domestic action on the back of a bruising Europa League defeat, this time a 2-1 loss to Ferencvaros in Hungary.

Up until then they had gone six games unbeaten and have won five of their seven league games under Danny Rohl – as many as the final 18 prior to his arrival – drawing the other two.

But they have also won just once in five outings as the perceived progress since Russell Martin’s dismal short-lived reign as head coach threatens to stall.

A return to their own patch is no great cause for comfort given they have been held to draws in their latest two outings at Ibrox – and Monday’s visitors won 2-0 on their last league visit in April.

However, Rangers reversed that scoreline when they met again in the League Cup in September and also won their latest league meeting, 1-0 at Easter Road the following month.

Hibs have slipped down to fifth, two points behind Motherwell and Rangers, but after two defeats got back to winning ways with Saturday’s convincing 3-0 win over Falkirk.

Rohl will get a first-hand view of what might have been as in-form midfielder Josh Mulligan lines up in opposition after being touted for a Scotland call-up – and claims of enquiries from Leeds United and Nottingham Forest – having joined Hibs from Dundee this summer amid reports of interest from Rangers.

It would be no surprise if Mikey Moore, who was bright off the bench in Hungary, was handed a start by Rohl given the on-loan Tottenham Hotspur winger has scored in both of his past two Premiership games.

At the back, the German expects to be able to call on the services of Nasser Djiga for the last time until next month as the centre-half heads to the Africa Cup of Nations with Burkina Faso.

Just as well considering the lack of options with John Souttar and Derek Cornelius injured.

While Rohl was angry at the goals conceded in Hungary, Rangers have kept four clean sheets in their past six league matches, as many as their previous 28.

Player to watch – Claudio Braga (Heart of Midlothian)

Claudio Braga had suffered a frustrating five-game barren spell that had coincided with Celtic closing the gap with Hearts at the top of the Premiership.

However, he sprung back to life with a vengeance at Celtic Park last weekend, pouncing on hesitancy in defence to prod in the opening goal in a 2-1 win that re-established a three-point lead for Derek McInnes’ side over the reigning champions.

The Portuguese 26-year-old has now scored more away goals in the Premiership this season than any other player, with five of his seven strikes in the competition coming on the road.

With one assist in addition, he is just one goal involvement behind fellow Hearts forward Lawrence Shankland and Motherwell’s Tawanda Maswanhise – and McInnes’ will be hoping the summer purchase from unheralded Norwegian club Aalesunds can kick on again after his vital goal in Glasgow.

It was key to only a second win in seven outings, albeit Hearts also only lost one, and he and Scotland international Shankland could again be key against a Falkirk side who will be trying to bounce back from a 3-0 loss to Hibs that ended their own five-game unbeaten run.

Manager in spotlight – David Martindale (Livingston)

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Already four points adrift of visitors Dundee at the foot of the table, Saturday’s is a game Livingston can little afford to lose if they are to retain hopes of avoiding at the very least a play-off to avoid relegation.

David Martindale seems to be in with the bricks at Almondvale, so there is less speculation about his future than there is about visiting head coach Steven Pressley or Stuart Kettlewell, whose Kilmarnock side are also in freefall and level on points with Dundee.

However, Livingston’s manager is increasingly looking a forlorn and frustrated, even resigned, figure as he prepares to enter his sixth year as manager.

No wonder after 14 games without a win and three defeats in a row, culiminating in Saturday’s 3-0 defeat in Motherwell.

Yet only Celtic and Hibernian, two other top-five sides, have also beaten Livingston by more than a single goal during that run.

Dundee have won their latest four meetings, including their two visits to West Lothian two seasons ago – and by 3-2 in the reverse fixture at Dens Park in September.

However, Martindale is unlikely to change tactics that have resulted in only leaders Heart of Midlothian registering more high turnovers in the Premiership this season than Livingston.

Especially as no side has faced more goal attempts following high turnovers against them in the division this term than Dundee (level with Falkirk).

Indeed, Pressley’s side are themselves on a dismal run of one victory in seven, losing the other six, and have lost six in a row on the road – their worst run since 2005 – and failed to score in the latest four.

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Truth behind Andrew Marr’s breathless LBC appearance as fans air concern

By in Entertainment News, News

Listeners to LBC on Thursday night were concerned for Andrew Marr as he appeared breathless

Listeners to Andrew Marr’s LBC show feared the presenter was seriously ill after listening to him struggle on Thursday night.

In a clip which has been shared widely on social media and heard by more than 140,000 people, Marr appears breathless and anxious, but bravely battles through reading a section about prisons in Alabama.

The audio, at 6.35pm, has led to fears he may have suffered a serious medical issue, with a number of people who heard the clip on X replying “I hope he is OK”.

But the Mirror can reveal Marr is absolutely fine aside from suffering from a heavy cold.

A source who works with Marr told the Mirror: “Andrew has had a stinking cold all week. He finished the show and is fine and will be back on air on Monday.”

Marr was due to be off air today anyway, as Tonight with Andrew Marr is on LBC Monday – Thursday from 6-7pm.

The three day weekend will hopefully give him time to rest up and sound more like his usual self next week.

Concerns from fans for former BBC veteran Marr were genuine and also reflect the fact he suffered a stroke in 2013.

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In November 2021 he announced he was leaving the BBC to “get his voice back” and host a more opinion led show. He had joined the broadcaster as political editor in 2000 and presented a Sunday morning programme from 2005-2021. Born in Glasgow, Marr, 53, began his career in journalism on The Scotsman newspaper in 1981, later moving to London to become its political correspondent.

He was part of the team which launched The Independent in 1986, later becoming its editor. He joined the BBC as political editor, in May 2000.

Princess Beatrice celebrates daughter’s christening but shamed Andrew and Fergie skip bash

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Princess Beatrice has been seen heading to the pub with friends to celebrate her daughter Athena’s christening – but her parents disgraced Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Sarah Ferguson were absent

Princess Beatrice celebrated her daughter’s christening with a trip to the pub – but her disgraced parents were nowhere to be seen. Beatrice and husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi had their youngest daughter Athena baptised at the Chapel Royal in St James’ Palace this morning in front of close family and friends.

Her parents shamed Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and ex-wife Sarah Ferguson left exile to attend their first major royal event since they were stripped of their titles. The former prince arrived at St James’s Palace in London in a green Range Rover this morning, quickly entering via a side gate away from waiting media.

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Meanwhile, Fergie arrived separately, crouching forwards in the back of a Mercedes people carrier with blacked out windows. The christening appeared to feature just immediate family, and no senior royals were present. Beatrice’s sister Princess Eugenie, her husband Jack Brooksbank and their two sons August and Ernest were spotted arriving.

Also joining them was the singer James Blunt and his wife, Sofia Wellesley, who were seen arriving on foot at the venue. After the service, Beatrice was seen arriving at a pub with her husband, sister Eugenie and a group of pals including Princess Nina of Greece to celebrate her daughter’s big day.

Beatrice could be seen carrying a large bag in a red dress with a long navy coat, while husband Edo held a large white box. Eugenie was seen making her way into the pub as was singer-songwriter Blunt. But Andrew and Fergie did not join them.

The King officially stripped his disgraced brother Andrew of both his HRH style and his prince title because of his “serious lapses of judgment” over his association with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Fergie, who is also embroiled in the scandal, lost her Duchess of York courtesy title too.

Athena is Andrew and Fergie’s fourth grandchild and is the second daughter of Beatrice and her husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi. She was born several weeks early in January, with her middle name Elizabeth paying tribute to her late great-grandmother, the Queen.

The couple also has an older daughter called Sienna, while Edo has a son, Christopher Woolf, from a previous relationship. The christening marks the first royal event attended by Andrew and Fergie since the funeral of the Duchess of Kent at Westminster Cathedral in September.

Weeks later, the King officially stripped his disgraced brother of his HRH style and his prince title, and removed his dukedom from the Roll of the Peerage over Andrew’s “serious lapses” of judgment.

The move followed the publication of a posthumous memoir by Andrew’s accuser, Virginia Giuffre, and the US government’s release of documents from Epstein’s estate.

It emerged that Andrew had emailed Epstein in 2011 saying “we’re in this together”, three months after he claimed he had broken all contact with the paedophile. Andrew denies all wrongdoing.

As well as being stripped of his titles, he has also been forced to give up his sprawling Royal Lodge mansion and will move to a much smaller property on the King’s private Sandringham estate in the New Year.

Fergie also got caught up in the Epstein scandal after it emerged that she sent the paedophile financier an email calling him a “supreme friend” – despite previously publicly condemning him.

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In September, it was revealed that she apologised to the sex offender in April 2011 after publicly disowning him in the media. Her spokesman alleged that she had sent the email as the disgraced financier had threatened to sue her for defamation

It led to the former Duchess being dropped as patron by numerous charities, including the Teenage Cancer Trust and the British Heart Foundation.

Suryakumar and Gill backed to regain India mojo for T20 World Cup

By in News, World News

India Twenty20 captain Suryakumar Yadav and his deputy Shubman Gill continued their run drought, but the team management has backed the duo to regain their form before the home World Cup early next year.

Returning from a neck injury, opener Gill managed four and zero in the first two T20 matches of the ongoing home series against South Africa. The right-hander has now gone 17 innings in this format since his last half-century.

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“I thought he got (dismissed by) a good ball today, which can happen when you are short on form,” assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate said after Gill, who has an impressive record in the Indian Premier League (IPL), fell for a first-ball duck against South Africa on Thursday.

“But we also know the class. If you look at his IPL record, where he stacks up 700 runs, 600 runs, 800 runs, 600 runs.

“We believe in his class and we believe he will come good.”

T20 specialist Suryakumar has endured worse. Across his last 20 innings in this format, he has compiled 227 runs at 13.35 with no fifties.

“It’s exactly the same with Surya,” ten Doeschate said. “Personally, I think you back quality players and quality leaders like that and they will come good.

“I can understand from the outside it looks like a concern, but I have got absolute faith in both of them coming good at the right time for us.”

Former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan said the duo’s recent run of poor form was “a real cause of concern for India”.

“Surya will be under pressure because he’s the captain, and as a captain, your slot in the playing 11 is secured automatically,” Pathan told JioHotstar.

“As a player, if you haven’t scored runs in a year, you are under pressure. His form has to come back before the World Cup. He needs the right batting position and better shot selection.”

Russian forces ‘completely cut off’ from Kupiansk, says Ukrainian commander

By in News, World News

Ukraine says it has retaken parts of Kupiansk, a town in the northern region of Kharkiv, which Russia’s Ministry of Defence claimed to have seized on November 21.

On Friday, as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited Kupiansk and hailed the defending troops, a Ukrainian commander said Russian forces in the city had been completely surrounded.

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“Today, we can say that the Russians in the city are completely cut off. For a long time, they couldn’t understand what was happening. But now they know they are surrounded,” said Ihor Obolienskyi, head of the Khartiia Corps of the National Guard, as quoted by the Ukrainska Pravda news outlet.

The battlefield unit said it had liberated northern districts of the town.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy self-records a video in front of a sign that reads ‘Kupiansk’ in the front-line town in Kharkiv region, Ukraine, on December 12, 2025 [Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/Handout via Reuters]

Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed Kupiansk had been “practically in the hands of Russian forces” on November 4.

“Our guys, so to speak, were finishing mopping up isolated neighbourhoods and streets. The city’s future had already been determined at that point,” Putin told his National Security Council.

“The volume of Russian lies far exceeds the actual pace of Russian troop advances,” Oleksandr Syrskii, the Ukrainian commander-in-chief, wrote on the Telegram messaging service. “The enemy uses disinformation and fake maps in a hybrid war against Ukraine.”

INTERACTIVE-WHO CONTROLS WHAT IN UKRAINE-1765274027
(Al Jazeera)

Meanwhile, Ukraine has continued to fight in its contested eastern city of Pokrovsk this week, despite Russian claims to have seized it entirely.

“The defence of Pokrovsk continues, our troops control almost 13 square kilometres [five square miles] in the northern part of the city,” Syrskii said on Tuesday, calling it an “extremely difficult phase” of the fight.

Geolocated footage showing Russian drones striking there on Wednesday confirmed the presence of Ukrainian troops.

Russia had claimed complete control over Pokrovsk on December 2.

Syrskii later explained that Ukrainian forces had tactically retreated from Pokrovsk, but fought their way back in.

“At a certain stage in the autumn, there were no more of our troops in Pokrovsk due to limited capabilities,” he told Ukrainian media executives on Wednesday.

He also said Ukrainian forces held 54sq km (21 square miles) west of the city.

Ukrainian forces were also resisting Russian advances in Myrnohrad, east of Pokrovsk, Syrskii said.

The two cities are almost surrounded by Russian forces, with supply lines and evacuation routes running only through a narrow neck to the west.

The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said their troops were still repelling attacks in Pokrovsk and Myrnohrad on Thursday, as well as in outlying villages near the two towns.

INTERACTIVE-WHO CONTROLS WHAT IN EASTERN UKRAINE copy-1765274019
(Al Jazeera)

Russian narratives were part of a campaign to force Ukraine to sign a peace agreement that United States President Donald Trump presented last month, said the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank.

That plan demands that Ukraine hand over Pokrovsk and the rest of a “fortress belt” of cities in the eastern Donetsk region. Ukraine invested an estimated billion dollars last year to defend the region.

“ISW continues to assess that the Russian campaign to militarily seize the rest of Donetsk Oblast, including Ukraine’s heavily fortified Fortress Belt, would likely take at least two-to-three years, pose a significant challenge, and result in difficult and costly battles that the Russian Federation may not be able to sustain,” the ISW wrote.

INTERACTIVE-WHO CONTROLS WHAT IN SOUTHERN UKRAINE-1765274022
(Al Jazeera)

Zelenskyy said Ukraine had not agreed to any territorial concessions demanded in the original plan, and was continuing to negotiate the proposal, though many observers believed it was a dead end.

“I don’t think the current US-managed Ukraine peace process is serious,” wrote Oxford historian Timothy Garton Ash on his Substack newsletter. “Trump wants the quick win, in effect. He is not really bothered to understand the core drivers of the conflict.”

Putin repeated on December 9 that Russia’s wartime goals had not changed, including the seizure of Donetsk, casting doubt on whether Moscow was serious about negotiating.

Despite highly publicised seizures of villages and rural terrain, Russia’s progress has been slow for the past two years of the war, figures show.

Last year it seized 4,168sq km (1,609sq miles), equivalent to 0.69 percent of Ukraine. So far this year, the ISW estimated it has seized 4,669sq km (1,802sq miles), or 0.77 percent of Ukraine. During that time, Russia has suffered an estimated 820,000 casualties.

Servicemen of the 13th Operative Purpose Brigade 'Khartiia' of the National Guard of Ukraine prepare targets with images depicting Russian President Vladimir Putin during shooting practice between combat missions, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kharkiv region, Ukraine December 10, 2025. REUTERS/Sofia Gatilova TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY
Ukrainian servicemen prepare targets with images depicting Russian President Vladimir Putin during shooting practice between combat missions in the Kharkiv region, Ukraine, on December 10, 2025 [Sofia Gatilova/Reuters]

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov this week said Russian manufacturing, construction, agriculture and services faced a shortage of 2.3 million workers.

After weathering the first three years of war well, the Russian economy slowed down in 2025 and its treasury, central bank and energy corporations are running out of cash, leading to cuts in defence spending.

The European Union aimed to deal Russia another economic blow on Friday, freezing 210bn euros ($246bn) in immobilised Russian assets indefinitely rather than in rolling six-month periods, in a step towards using the cash to finance Ukraine’s war effort.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian troops, though outgunned, have not lost their will to fight, according to the testimony of a Russian assault company commander, identified as Vladimir, in a Telegram post published by Russia’s Defence Ministry.

The ministry said he led the seizure of the village of Rovnoye in Donetsk.

Jimmy Carr reveals heartbreak behind changed appearance with ‘little of real face left’

By in Entertainment News, News

Jimmy Carr has opened up about the heartbreaking reason behind why he has had botox and undertaken a strict diet, and described his cosmetic procedures as ‘addictive’

Jimmy Carr has shared the real reason he gets botox and keeps to a strict diet. The comedian recently opened up about his struggles with body image, which he links to the death of his mother almost 25 years ago.

Jimmy’s mother, Nora, died aged 57 in 2001, after being diagnosed with pancreatitis. The stand-up comedian and TV presenter has said that he tries to stay as healthy as possible to avoid dying young like his mother.

On The Rosebud with Gyles Brandreth podcast, he told Gyles: “My mother didn’t look after herself, was maybe a little bit overweight. She was unhealthy and then she got sick and then she died. And that’s not lost on me in terms of, I’m very particular about trying to keep myself trim.”

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He admitted to having a “strange relationship” with food, but insisted he does not have an “eating disorder”. “I have something like – I don’t think I have an eating disorder – but I certainly have a strange relationship with food,” he said.

Jimmy added that he’s not just a fan of “tweakments” such as botox and veneers, but has found them to be “addictive”. He also told Virgin Radio: “I’ve had a little bit done, like a little bit of filler here and there, a little bit of Botox, a little bit. I had a hair transplant. That was kind of fun to do.”

Fans have noticed that Jimmy’s appearance, particularly his face has changed over the years. Jimmy himself has joked about his altered looks. He has previously said that “very little” of his original face still exists.

Back in 2021, he told the Happy Hallow Jeans podcast that being on TV had made him more critical of his looks. “It’s the illusion of being on TV – you see yourself in full make up looking your best and lit well, then you look in the mirror and go, ‘Oof, that’s disappointing’.”

Also on Gyles Brandreth’s podcast, Jimmy added that his mother’s death was the “catalyst” behind becoming estranged from his father. He also credited puberty with their “falling out”.

“[Her death] was the catalyst, I think, although, in maybe a more reflective tone, we talk a lot about the teenage transition and those teenage years that we go through in puberty,” he started.

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Later, he continued: “And I think maybe around that age was when everything changed for me. My belief in God went. Everything changed around those years. And part of that was we had a falling out. And that’s fine.”