Head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said he was at Yemen’s international airport when it was hit

Here are some of the latest images coming out of Yemen following the deadly Israeli airstrikes yesterday:

Welcome back to the Guardian’s live coverage of the Middle East crisis after Israel struck multiple targets linked to the Iran-aligned Houthi movement in Yemen on Thursday, including the international airport in the capital, Sana’a . Houthi media said at least six people were killed.

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Parker solar spacecraft successfully completes closest flyby of any human-made object

Nasa’s Parker solar probe is safe and operating normally after successfully completing the closest-ever approach to the sun by any human-made object, the space agency has said.

The spacecraft passed just 3.8m miles (6.1m km) from the solar surface on 24 December, flying into the sun’s outer atmosphere – the corona – on a mission to help scientists learn more about Earth’s closest star.

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Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news

• Boxing Day footfall down on UK high streets despite discounts

Begbies Traynor also reports that an additional 28,747 retail businesses in the UK are in ‘significant’ financial distress – less severe than ‘critical’, but still concerning.

Begbies Traynor partner Julie Palmer says:

“As we look ahead to 2025, the outlook is very mixed.

While some retail businesses are adapting to these pressures, many others remain vulnerable, especially in the face of rising wages, online competition from the likes of Temu and Shein, and fragile consumer confidence. With mounting challenges on the horizon, weaker businesses are likely to find little joy as we enter the New Year.”

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Why did we succeeded when other hominins didn’t, and can lessons from our evolutionary past help rein in our destructive impulses?

In an institute in Germany, scientists are growing “Neanderthalised” human brain cells in a dish. These cells form synapses and spark as they would have done in a living Neanderthal as she (they are female cells) foraged or breastfed or gazed out of a cave mouth at dusk. That is the spine-tingling opening gambit of a book co-authored by one of the directors of the institute, Johannes Krause, and the information that sets it apart from a host of popular science books that attempt to predict humanity’s future based on our evolutionary past.

A mere 90 genetic differences distinguish modern humans, Homo sapiens , from Neanderthals, Homo neanderthalensis . That’s paltry, given the roughly 20,000 genes that make up the human blueprint, and not all of them affect the brain. Yet those 90 differences could explain why Neanderthals died out, some 40,000 years ago, while we went on to dominate the planet. They could hold the key to how we, the apparently more adaptable human type, might adapt again before we destroy the ecosystems we depend on, and ourselves along with them.

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From a Grade I-listed building in Norfolk designed by Sir John Soane to a minimalist cottage in the Scottish countryside

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Rosalind Eleazar stars in the latest twisty murder mystery from Harlan Coben, and Martin Compston’s oil drama is back with more admirably OTT action

DI Kat Donovan ( Rosalind Eleazar ) isn’t a woman who makes life easy for herself. Her dad’s murderer is about to die, so she’s decided to go and visit him on his deathbed. Her ex – who disappeared when she was grieving, 11 years earlier – has matched with her on a dating app and rather than running a mile, she’s swiped right. This thriller, adapted from a novel by Harlan Coben, relies heavily on such contrivances to build its narrative. It’s equal parts a twisty murder mystery and a study in trauma – as such, takes itself incredibly seriously. But the fine ensemble cast, which also includes Ashley Walters, Lenny Henry and a cartoonishly villainous Marc Warren, keep things interesting.
Netflix, from New Year’s Day

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Nato’s warning reached me as I braced for a missile attack in Kyiv – where we’ve learned how to survive in the era of Russian hybrid warfare

Day 1,024 of the invasion. Kyiv, 7am. Friday the 13th. In a former life, someone would have observed that this is a day that portends bad luck. But in a country where shelling is a daily occurrence, it has become irrelevant. I wake up to the sound of an app on my phone warning me of an increased missile threat. While my partner and I are hiding in the corridor, I read the news that the Nato chief, Mark Rutte, has called on members of the US-led transatlantic alliance to “shift to a wartime mindset”.

With the first bang of the air defence system, a thought strikes me: for those who have not already been living with it for nearly three years, how would you explain this mindset? What is this wartime thinking?

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Our photographer selects his favourite images of the opera productions he has shot in 2024; from Rossini in a deli to an athletic rake

• All pictures: Tristram Kenton for the Guardian

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We travelled with our folding e-bike for a cycling holiday in France with no problems on the way out, but on return it was not allowed on the train

At the end of August my partner and I went on a cycling holiday in France with our folding e-bikes. We travelled by Eurostar and had no problems on the way out.

However, on the return journey we were stopped by security at Paris Gare du Nord and told our batteries would not be allowed on the train as “they were at risk of exploding”.

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