• Coach will not be able to take opening training session
• United expect visa to be granted soon

Rúben Amorim is yet to be granted a visa despite starting his first official day as Manchester United’s new No 1 on Monday and will not be able to take an opening training session.

The 39-year-old will travel to the club on Monday to begin his tenure but, while United expect the visa to be granted soon, it is unclear what duties Amorim can actually undertake until this occurs.

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• McGregor and Kühn score in 2-0 win at Kilmarnock
• Referee Nick Walsh cuts short minute’s silence

Callum McGregor and Nicolas Kühn continued their goalscoring form to ensure Celtic emerged from a difficult test at Kilmarnock with three points and top spot in the Scottish Premiership.

McGregor’s cross drifted into the net in first-half stoppage-time and Kühn sealed a 2-0 victory at Rugby Park when he finished from a tight angle in the 71st minute. It was the Celtic captain’s fifth goal of the season and Kühn’s 10th.

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Celebrity hairdresser known for his pioneering 1970s styles the Wedge and the Scrunch

After Vidal Sassoon changed the look of women’s hair with his radical geometric cuts in the early 1960s, variants of his original shapes prevailed. Short cuts kept close to a head’s profile, longer bobs swung in movement but dropped straight as a curtain at rest.

Then in 1974, Sassoon’s young artistic director, Trevor Sorbie, saw how a model’s locks fell full and chunky as he pulled a brush through them, and, impromptu, cut that shape into her hair. This was 3D geometry. Voila, the Wedge, so striking that Vogue allotted it an unprecedented double-page spread. The cut was imitated worldwide, an emblem of the 70s like the platform soles and wide flares it balanced.

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Total number of arrivals by small boats reaches 32,691 this year, up 22% on same time last year but lower than 2022

Nine boats carrying 572 people have been intercepted while attempting to cross the Channel, according to the Home Office.

The latest crossings come after Keir Starmer announced plans to tackle what he described as the “national security threat” of people smugglers, pledging an extra £75m and a new team of detectives.

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Grey and misty weather has been a mainstay this month – but brighter skies should arrive soon

If things have felt especially gloomy this week, it is not just the politics.

The grey mist that seems to have descended is down to an outlier weather event that has been under way since the start of November, with some regions of England recording just a few minutes of sunshine this month.

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Writer best known for the novel Gabriel’s Lament and a sympathetic biography of the brothel madam Cynthia Payne

The writer Paul Bailey, who has died aged 87, believed in ignoring surfaces or trying to see past them – to identify what was special about the ordinary and overlooked, and what was recognisable and understandable in the unfamiliar. His first career was in acting, and he always aimed to escape narrow egoism. Like the hero of his wonderfully entertaining novel Peter Smart’s Confessions (1977), Bailey “hated self-display” and was a “keen observer of it in others”.

His lifelong suspicion of preciousness was reflected in the priorities and approach of his work as novelist, critic and broadcaster. Reviewing his weekly Radio 3 conversations with writers (1988-92), the Daily Telegraph described him as a “perfect interviewer”.’

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Focus on joy over voters’ concerns about economy was Harris campaign’s downfall, some Labour insiders say

They say in every defeat there is a lesson. The lesson that senior Labour advisers want some of their party critics to learn comes from the Democrats’ disastrous campaign in the US.

When Kamala Harris’s campaign had the most momentum, the core of it was joy. And although the final weeks were dominated by darker warnings of fascism under Donald Trump, Harris returned to that theme of optimism in one of her final messages to supporters, saying they had “brought back the joy”.

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Andrew Wrench’s case over ‘secret’ dealership commission could help UK consumers win billions in compensation

Self-styled as the Erin Brockovich of the Potteries, and described by the court of appeal as “a postman with a penchant for fast cars”, Andrew Wrench is a force to be reckoned with.

And while he may not be a household name yet, those who work in the multimillion-pound car-leasing industry will be all too aware of his campaigning zeal.

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Two people also injured in shooting in Sydenham, while a man and a woman were injured in Walworth stabbing

A man has died and two people were injured after a shooting in a residential area of south-east London, while another man died in a separate knife attack a few miles away.

Police appealed for witnesses to come forward after what was described as a “senseless act of violence” in the area of Wells Park Road, Sydenham.

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