CORENEWS: The Guardian

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How Maradona inspired Paolo Sorrentino’s film about Naples, Hand of God – and inadvertently saved his life

The Italian director’s new, semi-autobiographical film reveals a charming and rarely seen side of his home city

‘This, for me, is the most beautiful place on Earth,” Paolo Sorrentino told Filippo Scotti, the actor playing the director’s younger self in his latest film, as their 1980s Riva speedboat chopped the waves of the Bay of Naples. Their view stretched from the precipitous peninsula of Sorrento all the way west towards Posillipo. The two promontories flank the sprawling port city, offering a warm embrace to all those who disembark there. Sorrentino’s new film, the Hand of God, opens with that same view: the sun-mottled bay, whose peace is disturbed by the sound of four Rivas as they speed towards the shore. The film is both a love letter to, and a portal into, Paolo Sorrentino’s Naples.

In cinemas now and on Netflix this week, The Hand of God sees the Academy award-winning director return to his home city for the first time since One Man Up, his 2001 debut. Sorrentino tells the story of his own coming of age, up to the moment when his life is shattered by the death of his parents in a tragic accident. Sorrentino’s story is a tale of great grief, loss and perseverance, set in a middle-class part of Naples, a far cry from the impoverished neighbourhoods shown in the city’s other recent portraits: Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend or the mafia-focused Gomorrah series.

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Ghost riders: the invisible lives of Johannesburg food couriers – photo essay

An army of riders ferry food around the South African city, their lives and travails largely unseen by the people they serve. Photojournalist James Oatway has spent several months documenting their challenges

It’s a Friday night in Johannesburg. Lockdown has just been eased as Covid infection rates have plateaued. The restive city is slowly springing back to life, with cars once again careering along the city’s recently empty arterial roads.

At the scene of a crash, the blue and red lights of emergency vehicles bathe the street in an eerie glow. Two motorbike food couriers have been knocked down by a car. The driver tried to flee but was apprehended by another motorist. One of the bikes has been flattened. Next to it lies a black canvas carrier bag bearing the Uber Eats logo.

A Congolese driver was seriously injured in a crash in Sandton. Footage showed a car going through a red light and hitting the rider. The vehicle did not stop and the driver has never been apprehended.

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The pandemic is a blow to mental health – and that means more missing children | Francisco Garcia

While most return ‘safe and well’, cuts in services mean too many are at serious risk of disappearing again

The first few years of life weren’t easy for Leo*. His mother was severely dependent on drugs, as were other members of his family. There were periods of neglect, and he was taken into the care of his local authority while still a very young child. Now 16, Leo lives in semi-independent accommodation. But his difficulties haven’t evaporated. Often he has felt lonely and unwanted. On several recent occasions, Leo has been the subject of a missing persons report. When visited by caseworkers after returning, conversation has repeatedly turned to his mental health struggles. He just feels low most of the time.

Leo’s story is not unique, just as the UK’s missing persons crisis is nothing new: 170,000 people are reported missing every year, at a rate of one every 90 seconds. More than 70,000 are children and the majority, like Leo, boomerang in and out of sight repeatedly, perhaps living in care or unstable households. Though it’s rarely possible to pinpoint one single cause leading to a disappearance, poor mental health is very often a significant contributing factor. One in five children subject to a return interview with the charity Missing People has disclosed information about mental health issues.

Francisco Garcia is a London-based writer and journalist

*Names have been changed

In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is at 800-273-8255 or chat for support. You can also text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis text line counsellor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org

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England’s theatres and restaurants fear another ruinous Christmas

Latest Covid restrictions could push bookings down by 50% at some attractions, government warned

Theatres face a peak Christmas season with bookings down by as much as 50%, while restaurants and other attractions could see mass cancellations, as a result of the government’s new Covid restrictions.

The Society of Independent Theatres said regional and smaller theatres would be especially hard hit by “plan B” government restrictions and concerns over the Omicron variant during a period when they generate about a third of their income.

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Omicron is sneaky. It could be fatal for us – or for our faith in government | Francois Balloux

The week ahead will be pivotal as we track the spread of the new variant and discover its potential legacy

The emergence and rapid spread of the Omicron Sars-CoV-2 variant feels like a flashback to last year’s grim festive season when much of the world went into lockdown to avert the worst of the Alpha variant wave. But though the sense of eerie, impending doom feels familiar, the epidemiological and political situations are different from one year ago.

The Omicron wave represents a key turning point in the pandemic. But no plausible outcome looks particularly auspicious – it feels largely like a lose-lose deal. If if turns out to be roughly as severe as previous pandemic waves, it might normalise harsh mitigation measures and render the prospect of a return to post-pandemic normality fairly remote. If it turned out to be milder than feared, this could spell the end of lockdowns with Covid-19 on its way into endemicity. The cost would be a loss of trust in political and public health authorities, which may make it difficult to deal with future threats.

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Brighton v Manchester United: Women’s Super League – live!

Live updates from the 12.30pm GMT kick-off
The 100 best female footballers in the world 2021
Email John or tweet @JohnBrewin_ with your thoughts

Some pre-match reading, a big shock yesterday.

And Suzanne Wrack on Clapton’s women’s team.

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No fix in sight as rugby edges closer to harsh truth hardwired into collision sports | Michael Aylwin

Despite changing directives, unless players take fewer blows by playing fewer games do not expect any good news soon

A year ago last week, rugby was thrown into turmoil. Steve Thompson, a 2003 World Cup winner, announced that he and seven other former players were launching a lawsuit against World Rugby, the Rugby Football Union and the Welsh Rugby Union, after their diagnoses of dementia or, in the case of the 31-year-old Adam Hughes, post-concussion syndrome. The players with dementia were all in their early 40s.

The eight have since been joined by another 150, drawn from the same generation, with a further 75 from rugby league. Fifty more, and counting, wait in the wings weighing up their options. Of the 150, half have been diagnosed, the other half have been tested and await results, but all report similar unnerving symptoms.

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UFC 269: Julianna Peña stuns Amanda Nunes in one of MMA’s biggest upsets

Peña wins bantamweight title in Nunes’ first loss since 2014
Charles Oliveira beats Dustin Poirier to retain lightweight belt

Julianna Peña pulled off one of the biggest upsets in mixed martial arts history to score a second-round submission win over Amanda Nunes and win the UFC bantamweight title at UFC 269 on Saturday.

Peña looked to be in trouble in the first round of the Las Vegas co-main event against one of the most dominant champions the sport has ever seen. The 32-year-old American came storming back in round two, though, rocking the pre-fight favourite with combinations and pouring on flurries of punches.

Nunes, whose record includes wins over Ronda Rousey, Valentina Shevchenko and Cris Cyborg, looked in trouble before the fight went to the mat, and her five-year reign as champion came to an end at the 3:23 mark. Nunes tapped out of the second round as Peña sank in a rear naked choke, handing the Brazilian her first defeat since September 2014.

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Vasiliy Lomachenko targets Kambosos and titles after battering Commey

Lomachenko overwhelms Commey to win wide decision
Fury makes surprise appearance and meets Usyk at ringside
Vasiliy Lomachenko v Richard Commey – as it happened

Vasiliy Lomachenko made his pitch for a lightweight title shot with a masterclass performance that showed why he was for years regarded as boxing’s pound-for-pound best.

The two-time Olympic gold medalist and three-weight champion from Ukraine won nearly every round against Richard Commey on Saturday night at Madison Square Garden, dropping the hard-hitting Ghanian in the seventh before cruising to a unanimous-decision win by scores of 117-110, 119-108 and 119-108. (The Guardian had it 119-108.)

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Will Omicron kill Christmas? How science stacks up in boosters v Covid variant battle

Analysis: UK faces grim winter if vaccines offer poor overall protection, but if the virus has weak powers to evade immunity, hospital cases can be contained

Two competing forces will determine Omicron’s impact on the nation over the next few weeks. The power of booster jabs to give last-minute protection against Covid-19 will be pitted against the new variant’s ability to elude existing immunity. The outcome will decide whether our festive season is going to be muted or miserable.

If enough arms are jabbed with booster vaccines, while Omicron turns out to have poor powers to evade immunity, then there is hope hospital cases will be contained and the NHS will be protected. Severe restrictions in the new year – including the prospect of lockdowns – could be avoided.

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From hippos to hamsters: how Covid is affecting creatures great and small

Scientists are racing to assess the spread of the virus in wild and domestic animals, and the threat it could pose to us

A year ago humanity embarked on a project to vaccinate every person against Covid-19. But in recent months a shadow vaccination campaign has also been taking place. From giraffes to snow leopards, gorillas to sea lions, zoos around the world have been inoculating their animals with an experimental Covid vaccine as an insurance policy against what they fear could be a similarly fatal illness for certain mammals.

Meanwhile, veterinary scientists have been scrambling to understand the scale of Covid-19 infection in our furry household companions, and what the consequences could be for their health – and our own.

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Why uncontrolled HIV may be behind the emergence of Omicron

Analysis: experts say weakened immune systems may give rise to new Covid variants – so HIV prevention could be key to stopping coronavirus

Where did Omicron come from? By all accounts it is a weird variant. Though highly mutated, it descended not from one of the other variants of concern, such as Alpha, Beta or Delta, but from coronavirus that was circulating maybe 18 months ago. So where has it been all this time? And why is it only wreaking havoc now?

Researchers are exploring a number of hunches. One is that Omicron arose in a remote region of southern Africa but failed to spread until now. Another is that it evolved in infected animals, such as rats, and then crossed back into humans. But a third explanation is gaining ground as more data come to light, that Omicron arose in a person with a weakened immune system: someone having cancer treatment perhaps, an organ transplant patient or someone with uncontrolled HIV.

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Hamilton and Verstappen’s gripping duel in Abu Dhabi represents F1's peak | Richard Williams

Calmer Hamilton has had to respond to Dutchman’s aggressive style, with winner taking all in the world championship

No one goes to a motor race hoping to see a crash, or so they used to say. It may be less true this weekend, when the promise of mayhem between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen in the final round of the 2021 Formula One world championship promises to attract a vast worldwide television audience.

As they prepare for Sunday’s showdown, Verstappen hoping to become champion for the first time and Hamilton in line to surpass Michael Schumacher with a record eighth title, not just individual career landmarks rest on the outcome. It feels as though much more – perhaps nothing less than the entire culture of the sport – is at stake here.

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Ralf Rangnick will not try to persuade Paul Pogba to stay at Manchester United

France midfielder is in the final year of his United contract
‘Players have to want to play for a big club,’ says manager

Ralf Rangnick will not try to persuade Paul Pogba to stay at Manchester United if the midfielder wants to go. The France international is in the final year of his deal and can sign a pre-contract agreement with another team from January. Rangnick was asked what he could do to influence Pogba to agree fresh terms and whether it was worth keeping a player who did not wish to remain at the club.

“I wouldn’t say he’s not worth keeping,” the interim manager said. “But players have to want to play for a big club like Manchester United. If a player does not want to play Manchester United in the medium or long term, I don’t think it makes sense to convince him to change his mind.

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Magnus Carlsen’s world title victory also proves big win for online fans | Leonard Barden

Superb live online coverage of this World Chess Championship expertly followed the most dominant win in a century

Magnus Carlsen wrapped up his world championship defence yesteron Friday afternoon in Dubai when his Russian rival Ian Nepomniachtchi, already demoralised by a succession of defeats, blundered badly in a level position in the 11th game of their best of 14 games series, and resigned after 49 moves and three and a half hours play.

Asked what he thought helped him dominate the match, Carlsen replied: “In simple positions I made very few mistakes. A few times the position was very complicated, we both made mistakes, but he made the last one.”

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Talking Horses: Dostal Phil has the quality to triumph at Cheltenham

Lightly raced eight-year-old is attractively priced at the December meeting on his first run since April

The big handicap chase at Cheltenham’s December meeting has always been an obvious target for horses that ran well in the Paddy Power Gold Cup in November, and eight of the winners since 2006 lined up for that race three weeks beforehand.

Only Exotic Dancer, in 2006, has completed the double, however, and he had enough quality to make the frame in a Gold Cup.

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A Covid Christmas: top scientists on how they will navigate party season

Covid experts explain their personal approaches to festive gatherings in face of Omicron

As Omicron cases are on the increase and a new wave threatens to overshadow Christmas, the scientists working on Covid are also making calculations about which of their own festivities to go ahead with and which to scale back.

Prof Jennifer Rohn, cell biologist at University College London

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Heathrow passenger numbers down 60% as cancellations mount

Airport says it is likely to take years to return to pre-pandemic numbers, with rules hitting travel confidence

Heathrow has said passenger numbers were 60% lower in November than before the coronavirus pandemic and there were “high cancellations” among business travellers concerned about being trapped overseas for Christmas as Omicron spreads.

The UK’s largest airport said the government’s travel restrictions had dealt a fresh blow to travel confidence and predicted it was likely to take several years for passenger numbers to return to pre-pandemic levels.

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From Hungary to China, Germany's toughest challenges lie to the east | Timothy Garton Ash

The new government headed by Chancellor Olaf Scholz has a plan – and it is already being put to the test

The Lufthansa stewardess on the flight from London to Munich handed me one very small, yellow-wrapped bar of chocolate: the usual ration. When she saw that I was working my way through a long German document she gave me one more, exclaimingm Sie sind so fleissig! (”You’re so hard-working!”) I explained that this was actually the 177-page coalition agreement between the three parties forming her new government. Excitedly, she showered me with a whole handful of the miniature chocolate bars, followed by yet another handful. Most of them I offered to my neighbour, who had young children, but I slipped a couple into my pocket. A few days later, I presented one to a key minister in the “traffic light” government of Social Democrats, Greens and Free Democrats that formally took office in Berlin on Wednesday. He accepted it with appropriate ceremonial gravity.

Some chocolate is called for. Given the difficulty of reaching common ground between three parties, the coalition agreement is remarkably coherent, substantial and ambitious. Parts of it are even well-written, with echoes of the inspirational rhetoric of the great chancellor of West German Ostpolitik, Willy Brandt. As befits a democracy now more widely respected than that of the US, it proposes a mixture of continuity and change. Yet the government headed by chancellor Olaf Scholz faces huge challenges from its very first day. As often before in German history, many of these lie in the east. They are Germany’s new Eastern Questions.

Timothy Garton Ash is a Guardian columnist

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How we get tree planting wrong – video

In the face of the impending climate catastrophe, there has been a growing clamour to repopulate the trillions of trees our planet has lost over the centuries. But large-scale tree planting is not helping, and in some cases it's creating more problems for the environment. Josh Toussaint-Strauss discusses how we've been getting tree planting wrong, and what we should be doing instead to safeguard precious ecosystems and reduce greenhouse gases

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