Kildunne is known for her startling speed and audacious tries, but there’s more to the talented full-back than rugby, from a passion for photography to a sideline in DIY tattooing

Ellie Kildunne says it’s not quite sunk in yet. A couple of months on from winning the Rugby Union World Cup with her England teammates, she’s still on a high. I ask if she slept with her winner’s medal by her bed the night they won. “That night?” She gives me a look. “It’s still by my bed. Every day. I wake up and the medal’s next to my bed. And it’s, like, as if!”

But Kildunne is not resting on her laurels. She says the medal is also a reminder of what’s left to achieve – for her, and for women’s rugby in general. “Your heart’s telling you that you’ve done it, but I need to refocus. So it’s about how can we win the prem, how can we win another Six Nations, more World Cups? How can we keep fans coming to games? We’ve sold out Twickenham, so how do we do it again?”

After several attempts at eating ‘out’, I’m still on the fence

Christmas dinner? At home or in a restaurant? It’s at this juncture of the year, with Christmas dinner hurtling towards us, that you may well find yourself muttering: “Well, we could always go out!” Who could blame any home cook for wanting to shove this great burden on to someone else’s back, especially since every culinary TV show, magazine article and advertising break since mid-November has hammered home what a colossal faff Christmas dinner actually is. No, it’s not just a slightly posh Sunday roast with a few more guests.

Christmas dinner in the UK these days is more like a cross between dinner at Balmoral and 4 July at Mar-a-Lago. The table has to be heaving with holly-embossed crockery, the carrots must be bejewelled in star anise and Himalayan pink pepper, the turkey has to be brined in aromatic salt water and your roasties shaken in polenta and smothered in duck fat. If you’re the designated martyr organising proceedings, field-marshalling everything and cooking this tinsel-strewn palaver, it is common to try instead to divert it all to the local pub, where they’re doing “turkey and all the trimmings” for £79 a head (and including a cracker and a pre-dinner “glass of something sparkly”).

After several attempts at spending Christmas “out”, however, I’m still on the fence as to whether or not it’s really worth it. Chances are, if you’re the designated cook, as I often am, you’ll also find yourself equally burdened as the designated table-finder, taxi-booker and exasperated berk trying to get Aunt Agnes up to the Queen’s Head by 3pm, mainly because she won’t on any account miss the king’s speech, won’t eat turkey without bread sauce and would ideally like her Jim Reeves cassette played over the pub’s sound system.

As peace hopes falter, infantry soldiers face more long deployments risking their lives against Russian attacks

For almost all of their 62-day deployment on the frontline east of Pokrovske, Bohdan and Ivan hid – first in a village shop, then, after a deadly firefight with Russian soldiers, in a tiny basement where the infantrymen from Ukraine’s 31st Brigade had to survive seven more weeks.

Food, water, cigarettes and other supplies were airlifted in by a friendly drone, their toilet was their 3 sq metre room, their nearest comrades 200 metres or so away. Their only hope was to remain underground, because they knew if they were detected a Russian drone could kill them all.

Powerful Christian figures are emerging in Britain but there are important differences from the US, where evangelism has fuelled Trump

At recent Reform UK press conferences, two very distinctive heads can often be spotted in the front row: the near-white locks of Danny Kruger, the party’s head of policy, and the swept-back blond mane of James Orr, now a senior adviser to Nigel Farage.

As well as guiding the policy programme for what could be the UK’s next government, the pair have something else in common. Both are highly devout Christians who came to religion in adulthood, and have trenchant views on social issues such as abortion and the family.

The Duchess of Sussex is back and suddenly her show makes sense. It is cringingly ultra-extra, of course, but isn’t that what Christmas is all about?

No matter the time of year, ’tis always open season on the Duchess of Sussex’s televisual offering, With Love, Meghan. Critics, professional and armchair, have rarely been so united as when gleefully ripping series one and two of the lifestyle show to shreds. The consensus was that there has never been a greater royal outrage than when she took some pretzels out of a labelled bag, put them in a different bag, then labelled it. And she didn’t even attempt to explain herself to Emily Maitlis afterwards.

Now, like a merry renegade master, she is back once again with a “Holiday Celebration” (aka a Christmas special). But this time, it’s different. There are still the usual elements we’ve come to expect – psychobabble word salads, extreme hosting – but in the context of a yuletide episode, suddenly it all makes sense. The pieces have fallen into place; it’s a perfect snow storm.

Our style guru’s gift picks are in – from a cult lip oil and fashion-desk-approved earrings to the T-shirt brand every cool kid wants

• The best self-care gifts for Christmas

Angelina Jolie once bought Brad Pitt a California waterfall for Christmas. Another time, she got him a 200-year-old olive tree for their estate in Provence as a Valentine’s gift. I guess she set the bar pretty high when she bought him Ernest Hemingway’s actual typewriter as a wedding gift.

Anecdotally, this does not suggest that gift-giving is a guarantee of a happy marriage, so maybe don’t sweat your beloved’s pressie too much. However, I do love the treasure hunt of Christmas shopping, and a wrapping session with a good podcast or two. Here’s what I’ve got my sights on this year …

Church leaders respond to far-right appropriation of Christian symbols with ‘Outsiders welcome’ message

The Church of England is to launch a poster campaign aimed at challenging the anti-migrant message of Tommy Robinson, whose “Unite the Kingdom” movement has urged its supporters to join a carols event next weekend to “put the Christ back into Christmas”.

The posters, which will go on display at bus stops, say “Christ has always been in Christmas” and “Outsiders welcome”. They will also be available for local churches to download and display over the festive period.

Government to fund 350,000 training and work experience placements in sectors such as construction and social care

Rounding up his interview, Trevor Phillips asked Helen Whately about the Guardian’s investigation into Nigel Farage’s alleged racist and antisemitic behaviour as a teenager towards fellow Dulwich college pupils. She suggested that the Reform leader appears not to be giving “straight answers” when asked about his past behaviour, and ruled out any pact with Farage’s party at the next general election.

“He needs to give people a straight answer,” Whately said.

The number one reason why people, young people, are becoming Neet – not in employment, education or training – is because they’re moving on to sickness benefits.

Yet we just saw a few months ago where Labour was attempting to make some reforms to this problem (people going on to sickness benefits). They u-turned, they abandoned their reforms.

Fire broke out at midnight in Arpora, North Goa district, according to reports, with victims mostly kitchen workers according to chief minister

At least 25 people have been killed in a fire at a nightclub in Goa, an Indian state popular for its nightlife and tourism.

Several tourists were among the 25 dead in the fire, which broke out at about midnight at Birch by Romeo Lane, a popular restaurant, cocktail bar and club in Arpora, a district north Goa.

Detainee held on suspicion of assault after incident in terminal 3 car park, Metropolitan police say

A man has been arrested on suspicion of assault after people were allegedly attacked with a “form of pepper spray” at a multistorey car park at Heathrow airport terminal 3, the Metropolitan police said.

The force said armed officers were called to the terminal 3 car park at about 8.11am to a reports of people being assaulted.