Milestone reached as journalists including Polly Toynbee and John Crace prepare for fundraising event on Saturday

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The first week of the Guardian’s Hope appeal has raised more than £200,000 for grassroots charities doing inspiring work to bring divided communities together, promoting tolerance and positive change, and opposing racism and hate.

The milestone was reached before the annual fundraising telethon on Saturday. Journalists preparing to take donations over the phone include Polly Toynbee, John Crace, Jonathan Liew, Patrick Wintour and Simon Hattenstone.

From Judi Dench’s very naughty tea with Kenneth Branagh to the Peep Show Bake Off special – including Olivia Colman! – here’s your definitive guide to the best holiday viewing. Bring it on

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Colm Tóibín, Robert Macfarlane, Elif Shafak, Michael Rosen and more share the novels, poetry and memoirs that make the perfect gift

I love giving books as presents. I rarely give anything else. I strongly approve of the Icelandic tradition of the Jólabókaflóðið (Yule book flood), whereby books are given (and, crucially, read) on Christmas Eve. Nan Shepherd’s The Living Mountain is the one I’ve given more often than any other; so much so that I keep a stack of four or five to hand, ready to give at Christmas or any other time of the year. It’s a slender masterpiece – a meditation on Shepherd’s lifelong relationship with the Cairngorm mountains, which was written in the 1940s but not published until 1977. It’s “about the Cairngorms” in the sense that Mrs Dalloway is “about London”; which is to say, it is both intensely engaged with its specific setting, and gyring outwards to vaster questions of knowledge, existence and – a word Shepherd uses sparingly but tellingly – love.

US president finds himself shouldering same burdens of affordability crisis and the inexorable march of time

He was supposed to be touting the economy but could not resist taking aim at an old foe. “Which is better: Sleepy Joe or Crooked Joe?” Donald Trump teased supporters in Pennsylvania this week, still toying with nicknames for his predecessor Joe Biden. “Typically, Crooked Joe wins. I’m surprised because to me he’s a sleepy son of a bitch.”

Exulting in Biden’s drowsiness, the US president and his supporters seemed blissfully ignorant of a rich irony: that 79-year-old Trump himself has recently been spotted apparently dozing off at various meetings.

The most exciting places our writers came across this year, from untouched islands in Finland to an affordable ski resort in Bulgaria and the perfect Parisian bistro

On a midsummer trip to Ireland, I saw dolphins in the Irish Sea, sunset by the Liffey, and misty views of the Galtee Mountains. The half-hour train journey to Cobh (“cove”), through Cork’s island-studded harbour, was especially lovely. As the railway crossed Lough Mahon, home to thousands of seabirds, there was water on both sides of the train. I watched oystercatchers, egrets, godwits and common terns, which nest on floating pontoons. Curlews foraged in the mudflats, and an old Martello tower stood on a wooded promontory.

Women’s football is booming – but the bigger it’s got, the messier it’s become for players. Through it all, the hot tip for Sports Personality of the Year has kept a cool head

At the end of last year, Chloe Kelly was seriously considering stepping away from football. She was deeply unhappy at Manchester City, her team since 2020, where it seemed as if they wouldn’t let her play, nor let her leave. She wasn’t getting enough time on the pitch, so wasn’t sure that she would be selected for England, who were preparing to defend the title she had helped win in 2022 in the Euros tournament. She was 26, about to turn 27. She had been a professional footballer since she was 18, but her mother was starting to get concerned. She desperately wanted her daughter to be happy again. “I remember my mum coming up to see me and she was meant to go home, but she didn’t go home, because she was so worried,” recalls Kelly.

Less than a year later, and things are very different. At the time of writing, Kelly is favourite to win Sports Personality of the Year after a history-making comeback. At the end of January, she was loaned to Arsenal and in May she lifted the Champions League trophy with the team, very much the underdogs in the final against Barcelona, whom they defeated 1-0. At the end of July, she scored that penalty for England, securing them a second Euros title, against arch-rivals Spain. She was fifth in the Ballon D’or Féminin, and named in the Fifpro World 11 squad for the first time – a peer-voted list of the best footballers in the world. Against the odds, then, 2025 has turned out to be a great year. “For sure,” Kelly smiles. “To bounce back, that’s what makes it the best year of my career.”

Health secretary wrote to Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, urging her to ‘take heat and ideology’ out of debate

The health secretary, Wes Streeting, has called on the Conservatives to maintain the cross-party consensus on gender identity services built before the last election in a letter to Kemi Badenoch.

Streeting wrote to opposition leader on Friday urging her to “take the heat and the ideology” out of debate amid controversy over a puberty blocker trial for children.

Scotland Yard says there will not be a criminal investigation into claims about Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor

The Metropolitan police will not be launching a criminal investigation into reports that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor asked his personal bodyguard to investigate Virginia Giuffre, the force has said.

More details soon …

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Some goals have done in, and it’s Huddersfield 1-1 Wigan, Oxford 1-2 Preston, Salford 1-2 Colchester, Norwich 1-1 Southampton.

At Norwich, whose goal came from Jovon Makama, Southampton missed a first-half penalty and have now equalised through Ryan Manning.

Nobel prize winner Ales Bialiatski and opposition figure Maria Kalesnikava among those freed after US talks with Alexander Lukashenko

The Belarusian president, Alexander Lukashenko, has freed 123 prisoners, including Nobel peace prize winner Ales Bialiatski and leading opposition figure Maria Kalesnikava, after the US lifted sanctions on Belarusian potash, a key export.

The announcement came after two days of talks with an envoy of the US president, Donald Trump, the latest diplomatic push since the Trump administration started talks with the autocratic leader.