In the early 2020s, readers flocked to books to explain political turbulence. But is the world now too grim to read about – and are podcasters taking the place of authors?

In the decade leading up to the pandemic, nonfiction seemed unstoppable. Readers flocked to books that explained a world upended by Brexit, Trump, #MeToo and climate upheaval. Titles such as Timothy Snyder’s On Tyranny, Caroline Criado-Perez’s Invisible Women, and Robin D’Angelo’s White Fragility soared up the charts. It felt as though reading itself was part of the civic response, a way to understand what was happening, and perhaps influence what might happen next.

Fast forward to the present day, and the picture is starting to look different: a recent report from NielsenIQ found that trade nonfiction sales have slipped sharply. In volume terms, the category is down 8.4% between last summer and the same period this year – nearly double the decline in paperback fiction – and down 4.7% in value. Though there have been some exceptions, such Chloe Dalton’s Raising Hare and Want by Gillian Anderson, 14 out of 18 nonfiction subcategories have contracted.

MPs from most corners of Commons laughed at the festive gag – but stony-faced Farage failed to see the funny side

Whisper it softly, but Keir Starmer made a joke. A good one at that. MPs from most corners of the Commons even laughed. Genuine laughter. Not the contrived partisan guffaws you usually get at prime minister’s questions that makes the public howl in despair.

OK, we can take issue with the delivery. Starmer has next to no grasp of comic timing. Any gag takes its life in its own hands when Keir is around. Most are dead on arrival. But let’s not be too picky. It was still a black swan event. A genuine rarity.

Choosing the right gift can feel difficult, but it is possible to buy something meaningful that will please your loved ones – and stay out of the trash

My family members are incredible gift-givers. Every birthday and holiday, they manage to select exactly what the recipient wanted – or didn’t know they wanted.

I didn’t inherit this gene.

What do people talk about when they’re not trying to impress you? What are their genuine interests, passions and concerns?

Notice their lifestyle, Maso says: “How they live, what they value, where they unwind.”

Choose something that “reflects their world, not yours”. Did I want a Lego orchid? Yes. Did my father? No.

Add a touch of the unexpected. “The best gifts always have a little, ‘I didn’t know I needed this, but it’s so me!’ moment,” Maso says.

The actor has said Shakespeare’s language can be understood ‘in the body’. I couldn’t disagree more

I want to believe in reincarnation because I want to come back as Paul Mescal. What it must be like to be irresistible. I’m sure it gets wearing, but I’d still like to give it a try, just for research purposes. Not so much for the carnal stuff, but for the way every word he utters is taken to be as beautiful as he is. Intoxicated by their admiration, his admirers leap headfirst into the still waters of his pronouncements apparently certain of hidden depths thereunder.

So it has been with the reaction to how he comforted his director when she confessed, in so many words, that she couldn’t always grasp what Shakespeare was on about. We’ve all been there. At least I have. There there, quoth Mescal: “Listen, if Shakespeare is performed right, you don’t have to understand what they’re saying. You feel it in the body, the language is written like that.”

The Marty Supreme star said the Britain’s Got Talent runner-up is one of the greatest Britons of all time – surely he’s not taking her name in vain for attention

Timothée Chalamet understands the true nature of greatness. In Marty Supreme, he plays a character loosely based on a former two-time US men’s singles table tennis champion. In A Complete Unknown, he played Bob Dylan at the exact moment he decided to reshape all of pop culture in his own image. His upcoming third Dune film is based on a book that is literally called Messiah. So when Timothée Chalamet singles out a figure for greatness, understand that the greatness is warranted.

Which is a roundabout way of saying that Timothée Chalamet thinks Susan Boyle is great. Not only great, but one of the greatest Britons to have ever lived.

Canadian researchers tracking bear known as X33991 noticed she had gained a second cub who likely needed help

Scientists in Canada have documented a rare case of female polar bear adopting a new cub, in an episode of “curious behaviour” that highlights the complex relationships among the apex Arctic predators.

Polar Bears International, a non-profit conservation group, said on Wednesday that when they first placed a GPS collar on a female polar bear in the spring, she had one young cub. But when she was spotted with two cubs of roughly the same age last month, they realized they were witnessing an exceedingly rare case of adoption.

Exclusive: UK government’s ‘naive belief’ that Trump is a good faith actor ‘could cost UK taxpayer billions’, says health select committee chair

Ministers and senior MPs have warned that the UK’s agreements with Donald Trump are “built on sand” after the Guardian established that the deal to avoid drug tariffs has no underlying text beyond limited headline terms.

The “milestone” US-UK deal announced this month on pharmaceuticals, which will mean the NHS pays more for medicines in exchange for a promise of zero tariffs on the industry, still lacks a legal footing beyond top lines contained in two government press releases.

Pressure is growing on member states to back a €90bn loan for Kyiv ahead of a Brussels summit

European leaders are being urged to decide whether to use Russia’s frozen assets to fund Ukraine’s defence at a time of unprecedented pressure from the US.

At a critical summit in Brussels on Thursday, EU leaders will be asked to make good on a promise to find urgently needed cash for Ukraine, with Kyiv under pressure to cede territory as Russia ekes out advances on the battlefield.

Exclusive: Lawsuit is the first UK case of its kind, with Ros and Mark Dowey accusing Meta of ‘putting profit before our young people’

The parents of a 16-year-old who took his own life after he fell victim to a sextortion gang on Instagram are suing Meta for the alleged wrongful death of their son, in the first UK case of its kind.

Murray Dowey died in December 2023 at his family home in Dunblane, after being tricked into sending intimate pictures to an Instagram contact. He thought it was a girl his own age, but it turned out to be overseas criminals involved in financially motivated sexual extortion.

The Guardian gained rare access to Royal Stoke university hospital to see how staff free up beds for patients in a gridlocked system

• Acas offers to help break deadlock in resident doctors’ strike

Thirteen ambulances are lined up at the rear of the emergency department (ED) of the Royal Stoke university hospital, Staffordshire, as Ann-Marie Morris, the hospital trust’s deputy medical director, walks towards the entrance, squinting in the low afternoon sun. Behind the closed door of each vehicle is a sick patient, some of whom have been waiting for four hours or more, backed up in the car park, just to get in the door.

The reason they are stuck out here is that there are no beds in the ED – and there is not much corridor space, either. In the tight foyer, a cluster of ambulance staff and a senior nurse in hi-vis are huddled around a computer station. Behind them, a corridor stretches into the ward, where at least six or seven beds are lined up head to toe along one side, each occupied by a patient. Leading off to the left are three more beds and three more strained, watchful patients. Another patient and another bed are to the right.

Teenager appears in court over death of girl in Weston-super-Mare on Monday

A 15-year-old boy has appeared in court charged with the murder of a nine-year-old girl in Weston-super-Mare.

Aria Thorpe died from a single stab wound at an address in the North Somerset town on Monday, Somerset police said. Emergency services were called to Lime Close shortly before 6.10pm.

Australia all out for 371; England fume over Snicko call
Ashes top 100 | Follow on Bluesky | Email Martin

The consensus is that today and tomorrow will be the best days to bat. England need to go huge, because they won’t fancy chasing too many against Nathan Lyon on day five.

“As the cliche has it, it’s a crucial first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh hour,” writes Gary Naylor. “Are Australia bringing 871 Test wickets into an already winning team or imbalancing their attack with a couple of rusty bowlers? Are England Bazball zealots or pragmatic pros? Did 2006 happen at all? Feels like the opening credits of an episode of Soap.”

Exclusive: Key figures at frozen assets depository among targets of intimidation campaign, say European intelligence agencies

Belgian politicians and senior finance executives have been subject to a campaign of intimidation orchestrated by Russian intelligence aimed at persuading the country to block the use of €185bn assets for Ukraine, according to European intelligence agencies.

Security officials indicated to the Guardian that there had been deliberate targeting of key figures at Euroclear, the securities depository holding the majority of Russia’s frozen assets, and leaders of the country.

Forecast is slightly cooler than the record 1.55C reached in 2024, but 2026 set to be among four hottest years since 1850

Next year will bring heat more than 1.4C above preindustrial levels, meteorologists project, as fossil fuel pollution continues to bake the Earth and fuel extreme weather.

The UK Met Office’s central forecast is slightly cooler than the 1.55C reached in 2024, the warmest year on record, but 2026 is set to be among the four hottest years dating back to 1850.

Son of Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner who is being held without bail did not enter a plea

Nick Reiner, who has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the killing of his parents, acclaimed actor and director Rob Reiner and photographer Michele Singer Reiner, made his first appearance in court on Wednesday.

The 32-year-old, who is being held without bail, did not enter a plea, and his arraignment has been delayed until January.

The molluscs are decimating food chains in Switzerland, have devastated the Great Lakes in the US, and this week were spotted in Northern Ireland for the first time

Like cholesterol clogging up an artery, it took just a couple of years for the quagga mussels to infiltrate the 5km (3-mile) highway of pipes under the Swiss Federal Technology Institute of Lausanne (EPFL). By the time anyone realised what was going on, it was too late. The power of some heat exchangers had dropped by a third, blocked with ground-up shells.

The air conditioning faltered, and buildings that should have been less than 24C in the summer heat couldn’t get below 26 to 27C. The invasive mollusc had infiltrated pipes that suck cold water from a depth of 75 metres (250ft) in Lake Geneva to cool buildings. “It’s an open invasion,” says Mathurin Dupanier, utilities operations manager at EPFL.

Mathurin Dupanier indicates the water cooling systems that were blocked by the invasive quagga mussels. Photographs: Phoebe Weston/the Guardian; École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

Resident doctors in England have begun five days of strike action after rejecting the government’s latest offer to resolve a long-running dispute over pay and jobs.

The health secretary, Wes Streeting, met the British Medical Association on Tuesday in a final attempt to reach an agreement, but they failed to agree a deal. It means that resident doctors – formerly known as junior doctors – will remain on strike until 7am on Monday.

Lucy Hough talks to the Guardian’s health policy editor, Denis Campbell

In Nayrab, a town near the Syrian city of Idlib, the family of Ahmed al-Ahmed have been overwhelmed by the global response to his act of bravery

• Ten minutes of terror: how the Bondi mass shooting unfolded

It has been almost 20 years since Ahmed al-Ahmed left Nayrab in the countryside near the north-western Syrian city of Idlib. But on Sunday, he was the talk of the town.

Nayab’s residents awoke to a video of Ahmed wrestling a gun from a shooter halfway around the world in Sydney’s Bondi Beach, saving lives in what was the country’s deadliest shooting in nearly 30 years.

This precision-crafted Belfast police drama is a tense, thrilling watch that’s rich with detail. Has there ever been a more terrifying cliffhanger than it served up this season?

• The 50 best TV shows of 2025
• More on the best culture of 2025

There haven’t been many police dramas quite like Blue Lights. While it might feel as if you’re simply watching a superior spin on a generic format – the gritty, urban cop show – Declan Lawn and Adam Patterson’s Belfast-set thriller is actually an outlier. Paradoxically, police procedurals usually work as entertainment because the police defy the procedures. The rule-breaking maverick cop is among the sturdiest of all TV archetypes. Blue Lights is the opposite. It works so brilliantly because it’s a stickler for the rules. It has to be.

Rule-breaking mavericks generally come a cropper in Blue Lights. Shane (Frank Blake) nearly loses his career because of some shady evidence-gathering via a mobile phone. When Aisling (Dearbháile McKinney) pays an after-hours visit to a domestic violence suspect, catches him abusing his wife and arrests him, she doesn’t get a pat on the back; she is suspended for behaving like a vigilante.

‘I wanted to make a perfect square with my body. My back hurt for days afterwards. People often want to know if the kitten is real’

I’ve thought a lot about the time I made this image. In my 20s, I was living in New York. Then I broke up with my long-term partner in 2019 and I sort of didn’t really know how to cope any more. I didn’t feel creative – my whole experience of living in New York was tied to that relationship, and I felt I needed to go somewhere else and start over. I moved to Austin, Texas – I thought I’d give it a go for a bit.

I was doing a lot of tinkering at home, and I started doing a lot more self-portraits and let my psyche run wild. At this point, in 2021, one of my friends, Mike, was living in a 1940s building in East Austin, with old popcorn ceilings, really cool mouldings and outlet covers and original details, including the fireplace. It was inspiring to be there.

Panto season is upon us, and for the performers, anything could happen. Actors recall their most excruciating moments – from a panic attack while dressed as a cow, to dripping blood while in flight as Peter Pan

When panto goes wrong, the show must always go on. And there is a lot that could go wrong: malfunctioning pyrotechnics, panic attacks, chafing thighs, broken props, broken bones, bruised egos – and that’s before you get live animals involved. Missed cues and forgotten lines are small potatoes by comparison. So with panto season once again in full swing, we speak to seasoned professionals about the exhausting, error-laden, explosive truth behind the most “magical” season of the year.

Adam Buksh played The Genie in Aladdin at Howden Park Centre, Livingston, West Lothian, in 2013
It was halfway through the show when Aladdin got trapped in the cave. Our version was based on the original story, One Thousand and One Nights (not Disney’s), in which Aladdin possesses two magical entities: a powerful Genie of the Lamp (me) and Scheherazade, Genie of the Ring. I was on stage with Aladdin and Scheherazade, using my magic to smash the ring and break the evil sorcerer’s curse. For dramatic purposes, we used a handheld pyrotechnic which was similar to a little lighter with a wheel flint, but made of metal. I would use it to break the ring and free Aladdin from the cave.

US alt-rock band announce they are finally parting ways, following fisticuffs, accusations and lawsuits

US alt-rock band Jane’s Addiction has announced they are parting ways after a tumultuous 15 months of fisticuffs, accusations and lawsuits.

The veteran Californian group, who have a history of drama, dust-ups and bust-ups, prematurely terminated the US leg of their reunion tour in September last year after an onstage altercation in Boston between frontman Perry Farrell and guitarist Dave Navarro led to blows and, ultimately, a $10m lawsuit.

And don’t get me started on office Secret Santas

As we head into the so-called silly season – that sun-drenched summer of drinks and parties, barbecues and socialising – there’s a shadow looming over the festivities.

The office Christmas party.

Big tech, retailers and compliance firms are hiring people to ‘own the narrative’. But what do they actually mean by that?

Name: Storyteller

Age: Since Once Upon a Time, in a land far, far away.

In the 50 years since equal rights for women were enshrined in UK law, the campaigners have been reduced to caricatures, or forgotten. But their struggle is worth remembering

Celia Brayfield was at her desk in the Femail section of the Daily Mail’s Fleet Street office when an editor called her over. It was July and Wimbledon had started. “He said: ‘We want you to go down and get into the women’s changing rooms and report on lesbian behaviour.’ One didn’t normally swear at that time but I declined. That was the attitude then,” she told me.

From the late 1960s until the early 70s, Brayfield was one of a small group of female journalists working on women’s pages in newspapers. “We were dealing with everyday sexism on an unbelievable scale,” she said. “You learned to wear trousers or take the lift because if you took the stairs someone would try to look up your skirt. But then you couldn’t go to a lot of press conference venues in trousers. In the Savoy, for example, women in trousers weren’t allowed.”

The hard right and far right are the political winners from the migration ‘crisis’, but only because centrist parties keep legitimising them

For a decade, Europe has remained suspended in a perpetual state of migration crisis. While the Greek word krisis refers to an exceptional moment that disrupts the normal order of things, since 2015 it has become an enduring condition in contemporary Europe. That year, 1 million people sought refuge in Europe, fleeing wars and persecution. In the ensuing decade, the issue of migration has been so thoroughly weaponised that one can hardly remember a time when it was not considered a crisis.

The idea of a permanent state of emergency does not reflect a reality whereby Europe genuinely cannot cope with new arrivals. Rather, it reflects the fact that there are simply too many who profit from manufacturing a sense of crisis.

Dr Maurice Stierl is a migration and border researcher at the University of Osnabrück, Germany

In an era of rising nationalism, this move represents a brief flicker of hope for the internationalist ideal

‘I am a citizen of the world,” so the great Renaissance thinker Desiderius Erasmus is reputed to have said. It is because of his cosmopolitanism that 521 years after his birth, the EU named its exchange programme for students after him. It was part of a project aiming to create citizens of Europe, not just of its member states.

Britain’s post-Brexit withdrawal from the scheme was a setback for a cosmopolitan project that has suffered bigger blows since. Nationalism has been ascendant across the continent, and Euroscepticism ceased to be a peculiarly British phenomenon years ago. Could the announcement that British students are to be readmitted to Erasmus+ provide some hope that the internationalist dream is not dead yet?

Julian Baggini is a writer and philosopher; his latest book is How the World Eats: A Global Food Philosophy

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

Now is the time to simply say: Jewish lives matter. May we rise above the horror and national shame to be a better and stronger country

I for one am reeling. I am overwhelmed with sorrow and grief for the murdered and their families, friends and communities.

It is a time, above and well before all else, for supporting them – no community or religious group should be killed or live in fear no matter their beliefs, customs or even allegiances.

Argument for ensuring ethylene production at Grangemouth is strong, yet policymaking on deindustrialisation is disjointed

• Government invests £120m to save UK’s last ethylene plant

“Our commitment is clear: to back British industry, to stand by hardworking families, and to ensure places like Grangemouth can thrive for years to come,” said Keir Starmer as the Ineos ethylene plant on the Firth of Forth was saved for the nation with the help of £120m of public money.

Is the commitment clear, though? What, precisely, does the prime minister mean by “places like Grangemouth”? Which heavy industries and plants is the government pledging to shield from the forces of sky-high energy prices and carbon taxes? Is there a strategy here? Or does intervention happen only at the 11th hour when an important plant is threatened with imminent closure and ministers panic about knock-on consequences?

The legal action has made news and it will do damage. A potential disaster for the corporation and the UK, but a good day’s work for this president

Love Actually may be a terrible movie, but it provides one speech that’s hard not to wish into reality this Christmas. Keir Starmer, the actual, nonfictional UK prime minister, needs to channel the one played by Hugh Grant – and stand up to an absurd US president now bullying the BBC with a $10bn lawsuit.

Just imagine for one moment that Starmer decided to make Donald Trump’s claim against the BBC the final straw for a special relationship that is increasingly special only in a bad way. That would not be outlandish, for not only has Trump taken aim against a British broadcaster, but earlier this week it seemed that his promise of an AI “prosperity deal” (bought, let’s not forget, with gurning invites to Windsor Castle) is set to evaporate. As the fictional Love Actually PM once said: “A friend who bullies us is no longer a friend … Since bullies only respond to strength, from now onward I will be prepared to be much stronger.”

Jane Martinson is professor of financial journalism at City St George’s and a member of the board of the Scott Trust, which owns the Guardian Media Group. She writes in a personal capacity

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

Apple’s smash hit sci-fi drama has confounded and compelled in equal measure and provided hope for small screen innovation at an underwhelming time

In many ways, it feels like 2025 was the year that television gave up. Old favourites such as The White Lotus and Severance let us down, with gaping plotholes and a total absence of forward momentum respectively. New shows have failed to break through, too, largely due to an expectation that television shows are now the things people put on in the background while they scroll on their phones.

All in all, it seems like there hasn’t been a show that people could really get their teeth into this year. That is, until Pluribus came along.

The European Commission’s proposals to water down a 2035 ban on new petrol and diesel cars will store up major problems for the future

Two years ago, the European Union’s adoption of a 2035 ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars was hailed as an act of global leadership, and a declaration of faith in the journey to net zero. That the home of BMW, Renault and Fiat should decisively reverse away from the internal combustion engine was seen as a symbolic moment.

This week, Brussels proposals to water down that ban have sent a very different kind of message. Electric vehicles might be the future. But after intensive lobbying by German and Italian manufacturers, the European Commission has proposed a reprieve for new CO₂-emitting cars that would allow them to be sold after the former cut-off date. According to the EU’s industry commissioner, Stéphane Séjourné, this U-turn offers a “lifeline” to an ailing car industry that has struggled to cope with Donald Trump’s trade wars and Chinese competition.

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

Children under the age of 16 needed protecting and the moral argument wasn’t winning. Government regulation can change the terms of debate

On 10 December, the world watched as Australia enacted the first social media ban for under-16s. Whether it will have the desired effect of improving young people’s lives we are yet to find out. But what the ban has achieved already is clear.

Many politicians, along with academics and philosophers, have noted that self-regulation has not been an effective safeguard against the harms of social media – especially when the bottom line for people like Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk depends on keeping eyes on screens. For too long, these companies resisted, decrying censorship and prioritising “free speech” over moderation. The Australian government decided waiting was no longer an option. The social media ban and similar regulation across the world is now dragging tech companies kicking and screaming toward change. That it has taken the force of the law to ensure basic standards – such as robust age verification, teen-friendly user accounts and deactivation where appropriate – are met shows the moral argument alone was not enough.

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

Karen Ford says strike action is set to continue because of political posturing, while an NHS consultant worries about the deteriorating relationship among colleagues. Plus letters from John Sowerby, Dr Mussaddaq Iqbal, Gill Kelly and a final-year medical student

“Striking resident doctors are digging in. History suggests this will go on and on” says the headline on Denis Campbell’s analysis piece (16 December). As a retired public health research and policy adviser and the parent of a doctor currently in core training, I agree that it is likely to go on and on – but not because doctors are stubborn. It will persist because the numbers do not add up and too much of the response has been political posturing rather than workforce planning.

This year, around 30,000 doctors competed for just 10,000 specialty training posts, leaving thousands unable to progress. Promised increases of around 1,000 posts from 2026 may help at the margins, but will leave large numbers with no route into registrar training.

Robin Maynard reponds to an article by George Monbiot

George Monbiot labels anyone raising concerns about ongoing global human population, currently growing by 70 million per year, as “obsessives” (The facts are stark: Europe must open the door to migrants, or face its own extinction, 12 December).

Deploying familiar tropes and the loaded phrase “population control” (not used by the organisations or institutions working on the issue), he insinuates that anyone raising population concern is at best hypocritical, at worst racist, by blaming “poorer Black and Brown people in the global south” while ignoring excessive individual consumption in rich, developed countries like the UK. His crusade to scare off any liberal, progressive person from daring to posit that growth in population as well as consumption might be an issue sinks to new lows when he claims that only “mass murder on an unprecedented scale” could slow and stabilise population growth.

Mark Cottle, who has metastatic prostate cancer, responds to an article by Carolin Würfel

It’s not just Germans like Carolin Würfel (16 December) who face a challenge with the question “How are you?” When I was diagnosed with metastatic prostate cancer, that question went from being a routine conversation-opener to something much trickier.

The convention, in Britain at least, is to answer something like “Oh, not bad…” Frankly, things are very bad, so I’m stuck between the dishonesty of the ritual reply and the full truth, which is a lot to fling back at someone offering an innocent greeting. I’ve developed the more nuanced response “All right today”, which I use if I really am doing all right in the general context of things.

Readers respond to Sunday night’s terror attack targeting Jewish families celebrating the first night of Hanukah at Bondi beach in Sydney, Australia

The Bondi beach terror attack did not occur in a vacuum. It followed years in which antisemitism originating on the left has been minimised, sanitised, or treated as a conceptual misunderstanding rather than a real threat.

In Australia, language that Jews recognise immediately as dangerous has been repeatedly defended as nuance. Antisemitic imagery has been excused as metaphor. Threats have been recast as “context”. When Jews object, they are told they are conflating criticism with hatred – even when the language used would be unacceptable if directed at any other minority.

To remedy a local let down, enter the local hero. After 56 years without a trophy before glorious victory at Wembley in March Newcastle were never going to let go of the Carabao Cup without a fight, but few of the impressionable children walking up Barrack Road for a pre-Christmas treat imagined their heroes having to hang on to the silverware this grimly before Lewis Miley’s stoppage-time winner.

The Magpies had dominated without often threatening the killer blow, with the constant threat of their own doubt undermining them after the miserable derby defeat at Sunderland that cast a cloud of gloom over St James’ Park well before the Wednesday afternoon rain set in.

• Sam Kerr header secures 2-1 victory in Wolfsburg

• United seeded for playoffs along with Arsenal

Chelsea clinched an automatic place in the Women’s Champions League quarter-finals by coming from behind to stun Wolfsburg and avoid having to contest February’s playoffs.

Sam Kerr won the game with her 20th Champions League goal, heading in Johanna Rytting Kaneryd’s cross. Chelsea survived a late scare when the German side struck the crossbar in the 94th minute, but will now contest the last eight in March.

• New manager’s nightmare continues at Tannadice

• Lawwell to leave club as Nicholson hits out at ‘assaults’

Celtic’s chair, Peter Lawwell, has announced he is to stand down, citing “intolerable” treatment from a section of the club’s support, with the club’s chief executive, Michael Nicholson, revealing that three of their colleagues were “assaulted” after the Scottish League Cup final defeat by St Mirren on Sunday.

Lawwell’s exit will intensify a sense of crisis around the Scottish champions. Sunday’s final marked a third loss in succession for the new manager, Wilfried Nancy. Three became four defeats on Wednesday night when Celtic lost 2-1 at Dundee United in the Scottish Premiership.

Annual jamboree can spring surprises and Masters champion could be at risk of repeating 2014 disappointment

It has been a 2025 for the ages for Rory McIlroy. He cemented his legacy by completing a career grand slam with victory at the Masters. Then he carried Europe on his back at the Ryder Cup, defying the venom and spite of a braying Maga crowd. Now, though, he has one final devilish sandtrap to navigate: the curse of golf at the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year award.

Only twice in the 71-year history of the event has a golfer claimed the honour: the Welshman Dai Rees in 1957, when he captained Great Britain and Ireland to Ryder Cup success, and the Englishman Nick Faldo, following his Masters success in 1989. It is a pitiful return. Especially given athletics stars have won it 19 times, Formula One drivers eight, and football and tennis players seven apiece.

• Club yet to make a decision on how to build bigger ground

• A £10bn housing and retail bid for site approved this week

Chelsea have been urged to “put up or shut up” and decide whether they want to move to Earl’s Court after alternative plans for the site were approved by Kensington and Chelsea council.

The club are yet to make a decision on how to build a bigger ground and another stumbling block is in their path after the Earls Court Development Company’s proposals for a £10bn housing and retail development were granted planning permission at a council meeting on Tuesday. The ECDC, whose master plan does not include room for a football stadium, secured unanimous approval from Hammersmith and Fulham council last month.

• Bellmont: ‘This is great for all Swiss people’

• James Wade cruises past Ryusei Azemoto

The five-time world champion Raymond van Barneveld was left stunned after falling to a straight-sets defeat by Switzerland’s Stefan Bellmont in their first-round clash at Alexandra Palace.

Bellmont produced the performance of his career to become the first Swiss player win a match at the World Darts Championship. The 36-year-old from Cham hopes that his success will inspire a wave of darts enthusiasts in his home country.

Arsenal secured a seeded spot for the Women’s Champions League knockout playoffs with a comfortable 3-0 victory away at OH Leuven. Olivia Smith, Beth Mead and a Saar Janssen own goal helped Renée Slegers’ team end the league phase in fifth place.

Slegers was delighted with her side’s maturity in front of a raucous crowd at the Den Dreef as they earned their fourth win of the campaign against the plucky hosts.

Victor Osimhen, Fermín López and Estêvão are placed between numbers 70 and 41 as we continue our countdown of the best players on the planet

• Our methodology | The top 100 female players for 2025

• 2024 edition | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012

Deal agreed to rejoin exchange programme in 2027, fulfilling Labour election manifesto pledge

Young people across the UK will be able to study or gain work experience through the EU’s Erasmus scheme for the first time since Brexit, after the government announced an agreement to rejoin at a cost of £570m.

The scheme, known officially as Erasmus+, will be reopened to those involved in education, training, culture and sport from 2027, after discussions in London and Brussels to fulfil a Labour election manifesto pledge.

From 1 January, contraceptives will be subject to a 13% VAT rate – part of a carrot-and-stick approach by the government to increase births

China is set to impose a value-added tax (VAT) on condoms and other contraceptives for the first time in three decades, as the country tries to boost its birthrate and modernise its tax laws.

From 1 January, condoms and contraceptives will be subject to a 13% VAT rate – a tax from which the goods have been exempt since China introduced nationwide VAT in 1993.

Philippine police dismiss speculation Naveed and Sajid Akram underwent training during four-week stay in Davao City

• Victims of the Bondi beach shooting

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The Bondi terror attacks suspects spent their entire four-week visit to the Philippines in Davao City, rarely leaving their hotel except for an hour or so at a time, and never talking to any other guests or receiving visitors, according to Philippine police and hotel staff.

The initial police investigation casts more light on the four-week trip by the alleged gunmen, the father and son Sajid and Naveed Akram, amid speculation that they went to the Philippines to receive military training from Islamist groups believed to operate in the country.

Manchester, Bradford and outer London boroughs among those to receive increases ministers hope will ‘restore pride’

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Some of England’s most-deprived councils will receive a funding boost under a new three-year local government deal which prioritises urban areas with high social needs at the expense of affluent places in the leafy south-east.

Manchester, Birmingham, Luton, Bradford, Coventry, Derby and outer London boroughs such as Haringey and Enfield will receive big spending power increases under what ministers have described as a fairer system that will “restore pride and opportunity in left-behind places”.

Fulton county DA hits back at Republican opponents who investigated her over relationship with special prosecutor

Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis testified on Wednesday at a combative Georgia state senate committee about her prosecution of Donald Trump for election interference.

The state senate created the special committee in early 2024 to investigate Willis after the revelation that she had a romantic relationship with Nathan Wade, special prosecutor in the Trump case, which ultimately derailed the prosecution of the now-re-elected president.

Greece is hoping that protected areas will help keep daytrippers away and allow vulnerable monk seals to return to their island habitats

Deep in a sea cave in Greece’s northern Sporades, a bulky shape moves in the gloom. Someone on the boat bobbing at a distance offshore passes round a pair of binoculars and yes! – there it is. It’s a huge Mediterranean monk seal, one of the world’s rarest marine mammals , which at up to 2.8 metres and over 300kg (660lbs), is also one of the world’s largest types of seal.

Piperi, where the seal has come ashore, is a strictly guarded island in the National Marine Park of Alonissos and Northern Sporades, Greece’s largest marine protected area (MPA) and a critical breeding habitat for the seals. Only researchers are allowed within three miles of its shores, with permission from the government’s Natural Environment and Climate Change Agency.

Conservationists appeal to public for help after rare birds disappear in suspicious circumstances

One of the first white-tailed eagles to fledge in England for hundreds of years has vanished in suspicious circumstances, alongside two more “devastating” disappearances of the reintroduced raptor.

Police are appealing for public help as they investigate the disappearances, which are a setback to the bird’s successful reintroduction. Their disappearance is being investigated by several police forces and the National Wildlife Crime Unit.

Though minister had said ZEV mandate review would be completed ‘quickly as we can’, government confirms it won’t be published until 2027

The government has played down reports that it is planning to bring forward the publication of a review of electric vehicle sales targets from 2027 to next year amid concerns from the car industry.

The government had said in April it would weaken its zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate – which was brought in to force carmakers to sell more electric cars every year or face the prospect of steep fines – after lobbying from the car industry, and planned to review the targets.

Researcher in Kerala rainforest sounds alarm after being told frogs had died after being handled by humans

A group of endangered “galaxy frogs” are missing, presumed dead, after trespassing photographers reportedly destroyed their microhabitats for photos.

Melanobatrachus indicus, each the size of a fingertip, is the only species in its family, and lives under logs in the lush rainforest in Kerala, India. Their miraculous spots do not indicate poison, as people sometimes assume, but are thought to be used as a mode of communication, according to Rajkumar K P, a Zoological Society of London fellow and researcher.

Allowing entry on the basis of self-identification of gender rather than biological sex is unlawful, high court told

Rules permitting trans women to share female changing facilities and swim in a women-only pond are discriminatory and unlawful, the high court has heard.

The City of London Corporation is breaching equality legislation by allowing trans people to use the single-sex ponds on Hampstead Heath, according to a claim brought by the rights group Sex Matters. It is seeking permission to challenge the admission regulations.

Total of five arrests made at pro-Palestine demonstration in London – hours after chiefs of two police forces announced change in approach

Two people have been arrested after allegedly shouting slogans calling for “intifada” during a protest by pro-Palestinian demonstrators in London, police said.

Five people in total were detained outside the Ministry of Justice in Westminster on Wednesday evening, with further arrests for obstruction and public order offences.

Protesters had gathered outside prison to demand 20-year-old, who is on day 46, receive urgent medical attention

A 20-year-old woman taking part in the hunger strike by Palestine Action-affiliated prisoners has been taken to hospital after protesters gathered outside the jail where she was being held to demand she receive urgent medical attention.

Qesser Zuhrah, who is being held at HMP Bronzefield in Surrey while awaiting trial, is on day 46 of her hunger strike.

Labour chair urges Electoral Commission to investigate claims Reform leader spent too much in Clacton campaign

Nigel Farage is facing a possible second investigation into allegations he overspent on his Clacton election battle by £9,000 after the official watchdog said it was assessing the claims.

The Electoral Commission was asked by Labour to look into Reform UK’s election expenses after a whistleblower told the Daily Telegraph that the party failed to declare spending on leaflets, banners, utility bills and refurbishment of a bar in its Clacton campaign office.

Deaths and damage to ship reported in attack in Rostov-on-Don; Zelenskyy to reportedly push EU plan to use frozen Russian assets. What we know on day 1,394

Ukrainian forces have struck a tanker in a southern Russian port and caused deaths, the regional governor said early on Thursday. The strike in the southern Russian port of Rostov-on-Don damaged the vessel and, according to preliminary information, crew members had died, regional governor Yuri Slyusar said on Telegram. Mayor Alexander Skriabin was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying: “Emergency teams are extinguishing the fire on the tanker that was struck while docked in a drone attack … A leak of oil products was avoided. Unfortunately, there are dead and injured.” Slyusar also said parts of a high-rise apartment block under construction were damaged in the city and two private homes burned in a nearby town.

Russian air strikes on and around the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia wounded at least 32 people, local authorities said. All the wounded came from the city and its surroundings, the head of the regional military administration, Ivan Fedorov, said on Telegram. Rescue services earlier said five children were among the casualties in a provisional toll of 30 after the Russian strikes on a block of flats, a house and an educational establishment on Wednesday. Firefighters were seen battling a blaze in a multi-storey housing block. Fedorov said two people were also wounded in a Russian drone strike on a civilian car in Kushuhum, south of Zaporizhzhia.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy will be in Brussels on Thursday to convince European partners to use frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine, despite Washington “pressuring” EU countries against the plan, Agence France-Presse quoted an unnamed Ukrainian official as saying. The European Union has laid out a plan to use the frozen assets to harness €90bn ($105bn) for a loan to help Ukraine repel Moscow’s forces, with the money to be paid back by any eventual Russian reparations to Ukraine.

Belgian politicians and senior finance executives have been subject to a campaign of intimidation orchestrated by Russian intelligence aimed at persuading the country to block the use of €185bn ($217bn) assets for Ukraine, according to European intelligence agencies. Dan Sabbagh and Jennifer Rankin report that security officials indicated to the Guardian that there had been deliberate targeting of key figures at Euroclear, the securities depository holding the majority of Russia’s frozen assets, and leaders of the country. EU leaders meeting in Brussels on Thursday are debating whether to approve the lending of urgently needed funds for Ukraine secured on Russian central bank assets.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia was preparing to wage a new “year of war” on his country in 2026, after Vladimir Putin said Moscow would “certainly” achieve its objectives. “Today, we heard yet another signal from Moscow that they are preparing to make next year a year of war,” the Ukrainian president said in his evening address on Wednesday. The statement was a reaction to the Russian president, who earlier said Moscow would “certainly” achieve its goals in its Ukraine offensive, including seizing Ukrainian territories it claims as its own, amid the flurry of international diplomacy to end the war. Putin warned that Moscow would seek to extend its gains in Ukraine if Kyiv and its allies rejected the Kremlin’s demands in peace talks.

The UK has given its final warning to Roman Abramovich to release £2.5bn ($3.3bn) from the oligarch’s sale of Chelsea FC to give to Ukraine, telling the billionaire to release the funds within 90 days or face court action, reports Jessica Elgot. The British prime minister, Keir Starmer, told the House of Commons the funds from Abramovich, who is subject to UK sanctions, would be converted into a new foundation for humanitarian causes in Ukraine and that the issuing of a licence for the transfer was the last chance Abramovich would have to comply.

Arnett won 1966 Pulitzer Prize for international reporting for his Vietnam War coverage for the Associated Press

Peter Arnett, the Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter who spent decades dodging bullets and bombs to bring the world eyewitness accounts of war from the rice paddies of Vietnam to the deserts of Iraq, has died at 91.

Arnett, who won the 1966 Pulitzer Prize for international reporting for his Vietnam War coverage for the Associated Press, died on Wednesday in Newport Beach, California, and was surrounded by friends and family, said his son Andrew Arnett. He had entered hospice on Saturday while suffering from prostate cancer.

Israel military chief, Eyal Zamir, announced on Monday that the 'yellow line', drawn up by the October ceasefire plan, was a 'new border' for Israel. This line has become a lethal boundary, preventing Palestinians entering an area representing 58% of their territory. The Guardian's chief Middle East correspondent, Emma Graham-Harrison, describes life on the ground for those forced on an ever-smaller part of their land. Israeli officials claim forces are being 'deployed in Gaza in accordance with the ceasefire outline'

• ‘Yellow line’ that divides Gaza under Trump plan is ‘new border’ for Israel, says military chief

• ‘Bloodshed was supposed to stop’: no sign of normal life as Gaza’s killing and misery grind on

Commons committee monitoring revolving door that gave jobs to George Osborne, Nick Clegg and Tony Blair

When the billionaire chief executive of AI chipmaker Nvidia threw a party in central London for Donald Trump’s state visit in September, the power imbalance between Silicon Valley and British politicians was vividly exposed.

Jensen Huang hastened to the stage after meetings at Chequers and rallied his hundreds of guests to cheer on the power of AI. In front of a huge Nvidia logo, he urged the venture capitalists before him to herald “a new industrial revolution”, announced billions of pounds in AI investments and, like Willy Wonka handing out golden tickets, singled out some lucky recipients in the room.

O’Neill, who has led Woodside Energy since 2021, will be BP’s first female chief executive

BP’s board has appointed its first female chief executive in a bid to revive the oil company’s fortunes, after ousting Murray Auchincloss less than two years into his role.

In an unexpected leadership shake-up Auchincloss will step down as chief executive with immediate effect, but remain in an advisory role until the end of next year.

After WBD accused Paramount of misleading investors, the network assured it had ‘all necessary financing’ for the deal

Warner Bros Discovery has urged shareholders to reject a $108.4bn hostile takeover offer from Paramount Skydance, branding it “inadequate” amid an extraordinary corporate battle to control the legacy media conglomerate.

WBD agreed to sell its storied movie studios, HBO cable network and streaming service to Netflix in a $82.7bn deal earlier this month, setting the stage for a seismic shift in Hollywood’s industrial landscape.

This article was amended on 17 December 2025 to include comment from Paramount and its chair, David Ellison

Failings included allowing customer to place £20,000 in bets across eight-hour session, Gambling Commission finds

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Paddy Power and Betfair have reached a £2m settlement with the gambling industry regulator over social responsibility failings, including allowing one customer to bet for nearly eight hours solid.

The Gambling Commission said the online betting and gaming brands, which are owned by Flutter Entertainment, had fallen “far short” of what was expected during a routine compliance assessment performed in 2024.

Drop in November annual rate adds to case for Bank of England cut to interest rates on Thursday

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UK inflation fell by more than expected in November to the lowest level in eight months amid a slowdown in food prices, clearing the way for the Bank of England to cut interest rates on Thursday.

In a crunch week for the economy, the Office for National Statistics said the rate as measured by the consumer prices index eased to 3.2% last month from a reading of 3.6% in October. City economists had forecast a modest drop to 3.5%.

The video game-derived thriller series should be terrifying, but it’s often side-splitting. Its second outing adds excellent guest spots from Justin Theroux, Kumail Nanjiani and Macaulay Culkin

The west doesn’t get much wilder than in Fallout. The show takes place 200 years into a post-nuclear apocalypse where most humans are scratching out an existence in a stricken wasteland California of sand dunes, outlaw gangs and mutated monsters. Resources are scarce. Life is cruel. Death is a constant. It should be terrifying. Instead, it’s often hilarious.

A wicked sense of humour elevated the first season of Prime Video’s well-received, no-expense-spared adaptation of the long-running video game franchise. An early episode opened with one faction dumping newborn pups into an incinerator – in case you were wondering who the bad guys were – and those flashes of satirical glee gave Fallout an edge over gloomier post-apocalyptic shows such as The Walking Dead or The Last of Us.

The woman Quentin Tarantino called ‘the goddess of go-go’ is one of the most connected and accomplished in Hollywood. At 82, she recalls working with Tina Turner, Bette Midler, Frank Sinatra, David Byrne, Margot Robbie, Leonardo DiCaprio – the list goes on – and the time Bing Crosby made a pass at her

If your knowledge of Toni Basil begins and ends with her cheerleader-chanting smash hit Mickey, that’s just the tip of a very deep iceberg. By the time Mickey topped the US charts 43 years ago this week, in 1982, Basil had already spent four decades in the entertainment industry. The deeper you go, the more places you realise she was. When Elvis Presley sings “See the girl with the red dress on” in his 1964 movie Viva Las Vegas, and points across the dancefloor, the gyrating girl in the red dress is Basil. When Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper take LSD at the end of Easy Rider with two sex workers, one of them is Basil. When dance troupe the Lockers show​case their pre-hip-hop street dance moves on Soul Train in 1976, it’s six guys and … Basil. By the time of Mickey she had already worked with everyone from David Bowie to Tina Turner to Talking Heads, with more to come.

Basil has been-there-done-that in so many places, for so long, and over the course of our two-hour conversation she’ll casually drop asides such as “… so I went to see Devo with Iggy Pop and Dean Stockwell” or “… me and Bowie had just come from dinner with Bob Geldof, Paula Yates and Freddie Mercury” or “I was just at Bette Midler’s 80th birthday party, what a bash!” She’s now 82 years old but on Zoom, from her dance studio in Los Angeles, she doesn’t look much older than she did in the video for Mickey – and she looked like a teenager in that, even though she was 38 at the time. Her memory is perfectly sharp, too, and her energy levels are as high as ever, as she shares her packed life story with animated diction. If she has a secret to eternal youth, it’s that she has danced her whole life, and she still does, she says. “Dance is my drug of choice. You get high from it, and it gives you community.”

In Kate Winslet’s Goodbye June, Timothy Spall, 68, plays the father of Toni Collette, who is 53 – and pregnant. But those liberties are nothing compared with North by Northwest, The Manchurian Candidate or Thanksgiving

To be able to enjoy Kate Winslet’s new Christmas movie, Goodbye June, you have to be able to do a couple of things. First, if you’ve ever suffered any form of bereavement, you may have to approach it slowly, since the film is explicitly about the death of a parent. But the other thing you need to do is not Google the age of any of the cast.

This is for good reason. The titular June is played by Dame Helen Mirren, and her husband is played by Timothy Spall. Fine actors and national treasures, the pair of them. However, Mirren is 80 years old, and Spall is 68. Again, this is fine. You have undoubtedly met couples with bigger age gaps than this, and in all probability they are perfectly happy together.

From a John Cusack 80s teen comedy to the other Frank Capra Christmas crowd-pleaser, here are some seasonal picks you might not have seen

Something that bugs me about a lot of contemporary Christmas movies is how insistently self-conscious they are about the whole production – the ostentatious decorations, checklist of soundtrack chestnuts, the dialogue about the true meaning of the holidays that sounds canned even when the movie is trying to acknowledge its various stressors. Maybe because the idea of a holiday movie hadn’t yet ossified into routine, I’ve found that the versions of these films that came out in the 1940s tend to approach Christmas from more inventive, less neurotically obsessive angles. One of my favorite discoveries in sifting through 1940s Christmas comedies is It Happened on Fifth Avenue, a 1947 semi-romantic farce with a great starting hook: a cheerful vagrant Aloysius T McKeever (Victor Moore) winters in New York every year, because he knows a way into a particular Fifth Avenue mansion seasonally vacated by its enormously wealthy owner. One winter, Aloysius invites some new acquaintances to stay with him: veteran Jim Bullock (Don DeFore) and his military buddies, plus runaway Trudy O’Connor (Gale Storm) – who is secretly the daughter of the mansion’s owner. Eventually, the owner himself is forced to disguise himself as another vagrant and stay in the house, too, so Trudy can make sure Jim loves her on her own merits. This all takes place during the run-up to Christmas and into New Year’s, and director Roy Del Ruth gives the movie a found-family warmth that newer holiday movies have to labor two or three times as hard for, assembling a funny and lovable surrogate family in one of the city’s well-appointed empty spaces. Speaking of labor: It Happened on Fifth Avenue lands perfectly between class-conscious social picture about the importance of affordable housing and romantic urban fairytale. Jesse Hassenger

It Happened on Fifth Avenue is available on Plex and to rent digitally in the US, UK and Australia

A meet-cute between Humanity and Earth, a mod ballet and Nick Mohammed’s career-best standup set – our critics pick the best stage shows of the year

10. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry
Staging a bestselling book that has already been adapted into a film starring bona fide national treasures (Jim Broadbent and Penelope Wilton) might have been daunting. But, in Chichester, Katy Rudd’s musical of a man’s Bunyanesque journey to visit a dying woman met that challenge with lo-fi eccentricity and folksy songs with a foot-stomping spirit (composed by Michael Rosenberg, AKA Passenger). In the West End from 29 January. Read the review

In a spectacular return to form, the Dardenne brothers bring empathy and dignity to ill-equipped teen mums looking for a brighter future amid drug addiction and social hardship

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The Dardenne brothers, Luc and Jean-Pierre, have long functioned as a Belgian answer to Ken Loach, pitching their film-making camp among the most marginalised and forgotten. Normally this means clear-eyed fables of teenagers and twentysomethings living in difficult circumstances: nightmare parents, petty crime, drugs and jail. In a series of films between the mid-90s and early-10s, they twice won the Palme d’Or, plus the best screenplay and the Grand Prix at the Cannes film festival for their distinctive brand of naturalist storytelling, employing a light-on-its-feet handheld travelling-camera style to deal with some seriously dark material. Then came bit of a wobble; perhaps their success opened up opportunities they couldn’t turn down. They found themselves working with an actual film star (Marion Cotillard) and then turned to hot-button issues – radical Islamism in Young Ahmed, illegal immigration in Tori and Lokita – which perhaps didn’t bring the best out of them.

Well, all this is a preamble to saying that Young Mothers sees the Dardennes fully back in their comfort zone, with material and actors they know how to deal with. The subject, as the title suggests, is the young women who find themselves pregnant, or with very young children, and who are heartbreakingly ill-equipped to deal with the situation. Challenges range from basic techniques of baby care – one, for example, has to be reminded to take her phone off the baby changing mat – to the emotional storms of recalcitrant boyfriends, drug dependency and narcissistic and uninterested parents of their own.

Cadogan Hall, London
The likes of Janine Jansen, Timothy Ridout and Kian Soltani were part of a starry lineup giving this London audience a taste of heaven on earth

This week’s Hodge Report has formally identified problems that have long been anecdotally evident. Arts in the UK are underfunded and overburdened with bureaucracy to gain what little money there is in a contracting industry. It’s heartening, then, to see a major new charity step into the breach.

Veteran London-based violin dealers J&A Beare have supported students and professional players with loan-instruments for nearly five decades. Now they up the ante with a new Cultural Trust, founded to supply masterclasses, scholarships and practical support for string players. A biennial mini festival, featuring Beare’s instruments and their international players, launched last night at a sold-out Cadogan Hall, with a second concert at the Wigmore Hall this evening.

AI promises to have far-reaching effects in music-making. While some welcome it as a compositional tool, many have deep concerns. Here are some of your responses

AI-generated music is flooding streaming platforms, and it seems to be here to stay. Last month, three AI songs reached the highest spots on Spotify and Billboard charts. Jorja Smith’s label has called for her to receive a share of royalties from a song thought to have trained its original AI-generated vocals on her catalogue, which were later re-recorded by a human singer.

With this in mind, we asked for your thoughts on music composed by AI, the use of AI as a tool in the creation of music, and what should be done to protect musicians. Here are some of your responses.

The former TikTok star defied expectations by delivering dreamy, experimental synth-pop whose fizzy hedonism was a tonic for trying times
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The second coming of Addison Rae was first sown last summer, when Charli xcx featured the former TikTok dancer on the remix of her Brat single Von Dutch. Rae’s vocals are fluttery and sugar-sweet, making her an odd fit for such an abrasive song. But there was symbolic significance to Rae’s presence in a track about sticking it to the haters.

“Got a lot to say about my debut,” Rae trills, “while you’re sitting in your dad’s basement!” The 25-year-old star was referring to the backlash that followed her first single, 2021’s generic Obsessed. Back then, she was widely known as one of TikTok’s original young stars, famous for her viral choreography. Her attempts to translate that fame off-platform – that much-maligned single, a role in a dud Netflix film – had only led to widespread derision. But this time, things seemed different. Her proximity to xcx and her alt-pop cool swiftly washed away the sticky juvenilia of Rae’s TikTok fame.

The Nazis adopted Beethoven’s Ode to Joy. Happy Birthday hides a tale of corporate greed. And Putin uses Shostakovich’s Leningrad symphony as a call to arms. That’s why I put them in my soundtrack to the complexities of human existence

The idea was always a ludicrous one: to reduce millennia of human musical history – not to mention billennia of the Earth’s sonic geology – into a book of 50 pieces of music. And yet that’s the challenge I decided to take on. The most pressing question was: why? To which my answer was: the inevitable failures and gaps of the project are precisely where its interest lies.

The next concern was how. Called A History of the World in 50 Pieces, the book is not a digested history of music, nor a list of my favourite songs, performances or recordings. Instead, it’s centred on the definition of a “piece of music”. This is a democratic principle – a belief that works don’t belong only to their creators but are shared and reinterpreted by generations of musicians at distances of time, geography and technology, in ways their original composers and performers could not imagine.

A brilliant history of psychiatric ideas suggests we are on the cusp of a transformation in our understanding of severe mental illness

In 1973, an American psychologist called David Rosenhan published the results of a bold experiment. He’d arranged for eight “pseudo-patients” to attend appointments at psychiatric institutions, where they complained to doctors about hearing voices that said “empty”, “hollow” and “thud”. All were admitted, diagnosed with either schizophrenia or manic-depressive psychosis. They immediately stopped displaying any “symptoms” and started saying they felt fine. The first got out after seven days; the last after 52.

Told of these findings, psychiatrists at a major teaching hospital found it hard to believe that they’d make the same mistake, so Rosenhan devised another experiment: over the next three months, he informed them, one or more pseudopatients would go undercover and, at the end, staff would be asked to decide who had been faking it. Of 193 patients admitted, 20% were deemed suspicious. It was then that Rosenhan revealed this had been a ruse as well: no pseudopatients had been sent to the hospital at all. Not only had doctors failed to spot sane people in their midst; they couldn’t reliably recognise the actually insane.

This story of a teenage druid whose body is discovered in a peat bog has memorable moments – but its evocation of time and place is unconvincing

Anna North’s fourth book, Bog Queen, is a stranded or braided novel. First “a colony of moss” speaks – or rather, does not speak, but “if such a colony could tell the story of its life”, here’s some of what it might say. Then we have Agnes in 2018, American, tall, awkward, expert in forensic pathology and uncertain about everything else, including much of life in England. And then, in the first person, there is an iron age teenage girl, the druid of her village, riding towards a Roman town with her brother Aesu and friend Crab: “I had been druid for two seasons at that point and everyone said I was doing very well.”

Agnes has a post-doctoral fellowship in Manchester, from which she is summoned to the discovery of a body in a peat bog in Ludlow. The story shadows that of Lindow Man, found by peat harvesters in a bog near Wilmslow in 1984. In this novel, “Ludlow” is a town in which “the steel mill has closed down” leaving nothing but “[a] few shops, a Tesco, a Pizza Express”. It’s “the Gateway to the north” and a bus ride from Manchester. Novelists may of course invent time and place as they see fit, but it’s an odd choice to borrow the location of a bourgeois satellite town of Manchester and give it the name of a pretty medieval market town in the Welsh Marches, with a history that belongs to neither.

The Indigenous Canadian author brilliantly captures the interdependence of humans and the natural world, in a darkly satirical critique of colonialism

Noopiming, by the Canadian writer-musician Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, means “in the bush” in the language of the Ojibwe people. The title of this startlingly original fiction is an ironic reference to Roughing It in the Bush; or, Forest Life in Canada, an 1852 memoir about “the civilisation of barbarous countries” by Susanna Moodie – Simpson’s eponymous “white lady” – a Briton who settled in the 1830s on the north shore of Lake Ontario, where Simpson’s ancestors resided and she now lives.

That 19th-century settlers’ guidebook went on to be hailed as the origin of Canadian women’s writing; Margaret Atwood adopted the Suffolk-born frontierswoman’s voice in her 1970 poetry collection, The Journals of Susanna Moodie. Though she mentions Moodie’s book only in an afterword, Simpson’s perspective is different. For Moodie, extolling “our copper, silver and plumbago mines” in the extractivist British colony, the “red-skin” was a noble savage, and the “half-caste” a “lying, vicious rogue”. Yet, rather than a riposte to the toxic original, Noopiming – first published in Canada in 2020 and shortlisted for the Dublin Literary award in 2022 – sets about building a world on its own terms. The “cure”, then – the antidote to Moodie’s blinkered vision – is this book.

A journey through a visionary landscape, exceptionally bright in icy weather, conjures a surreal semi-mythical world

Winter Walk

She left the hut and bright log fire at noon
And walked outside on crisp white winter snow
To find the iced slopes shadowed like the moon,
The wild wood desolate and bare below;
The red trees wet, adrift with icy flow,
The evergreens with glassy needled leaves;
A bloodstone veined red and white this view weaves.

With ​a blend of retro-futurism, moral ambiguity and monster-filled wastelands, Fallout became an unlikely prestige television favourite. Now there is something a bigger, stranger and funnier journey ahead

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The Fallout TV series returns to Prime Video today, and it’s fair to say that everyone was pleasantly surprised by how good the first season was. By portraying Fallout’s retro-futuristic, post-apocalyptic US through three different characters, it managed to capture different aspects of the game player’s experience, too. There was vault-dweller Lucy, trying to do the right thing and finding that the wasteland made that very difficult; Max, the Brotherhood of Steel rookie, who starts to question his cult’s authority and causes a lot of havoc in robotic power armour; and the Ghoul, Walton Goggins’s breakout character, who has long since lost any sense of morality out in the irradiated wilderness.

The show’s first season ended with a revelation about who helped cause the nuclear war that trapped a group of people in underground vaults for a couple of centuries. It also left plenty of questions open for the second season – and, this time, expectations are higher. Even being “not terrible” was a win for a video game adaptation until quite recently. How are the Fallout TV show’s creators feeling now that the first season has been a success?

PC, Nintendo Switch/Switch 2; Simogo
A suite of iOS classics is lovingly preserved in this collection from the Swedish developer, early standard-setters of the meaningful smartphone game

Fifteen years ago in Malmö, Sweden, animator Simon Flesser and programmer Magnus “Gordon” Gardebäck left their jobs at the now-defunct games studio Southend Interactive to strike out on their own. Tired of the fussy nature of console development, the pair would stake their claim on Apple’s App Store, which in 2010 was regarded as one of the most exciting frontiers in games. Mashing their names together to form a portmanteau, Flesser and Gardebäck became Simogo, and a consistently wonderful and forward-thinking games studios was born.

Simogo Legacy Collection represents the Swedish indie studio’s first seven games, released across its first five years. Originally released for iPhone and iPad from 2010 to 2015, Apple’s constantly changing standards meant that Simogo, like all iOS developers, had to either regularly update their games to comply with the latest specifications, or see their games rendered unplayable. The only solutions are either to perpetually issue updates, or find a way to bring the mobile game experience to other platforms.

He rewrote the rule book with Rockstar then left it all behind. Now Dan Houser is back with a storytelling-focused studio to take on AI-obsessed tech bros and Mexican beauty queens

There are only a handful of video game makers who have had as profound an effect on the industry as Dan Houser. The co-founder of Rockstar Games, and its lead writer, worked on all the GTA titles since the groundbreaking third instalment, as well as both Red Dead Redemption adventures. But then, in 2019, he took an extended break from the company which ended with his official departure. Now he’s back with a new studio and a range of projects, and 12 years after we last interviewed him, he’s ready to talk about what comes next.

“Finishing those big projects and thinking about doing another one is really intense,” he says about his decision to go. “I’d been in full production mode every single day from the very start of each project to the very end, for 20 years. I stayed so long because I loved the games. It was a real privilege to be there, but it was probably the right time to leave. I turned 45 just after Red Dead 2 came out. I thought, well, it’s probably a good time to try working on some other stuff.”

It started with a goat. Now – via a degree for developers and an incubator for startups – the tiny city is churning out world-famous video game hits. What is the secret of its success?

On 26 March 2014, a trailer for a video game appeared on YouTube. The first thing the viewer sees is a closeup of a goat lying on the ground, its tongue out, its eyes open. Behind it is a man on fire, running backwards in slow motion towards a house. Interspersed with these images is footage of the goat being repeatedly run over by a car. In the main shot, the goat, now appearing backwards as well, flies up into the first-floor window of a house, repairing the glass it smashed on its way down. It hurtles through another window and back to an exploding petrol station, where we assume its journey must have started.

This wordless, strangely moving video – a knowing parody of the trailer for a zombie survival game called Dead Island – was for a curious game called Goat Simulator. The game was, unsurprisingly, the first to ever put the player into the hooves of a goat, who must enact as much wanton destruction as possible. It was also the first massive hit to come out of a small city in Sweden by the name of Skövde.

Almeida theatre, London
A north London Jewish family share a meal – and heated arguments – in this complex and courageous drama

Stella Adler, the renowned actor and teacher of Yiddish origin, believed theatre to be a “spiritual and social X-ray of its time”. That might be an ever more unattainable ideal in our time of Punch and Judy politics, culture wars and artistic self-censorship. This is one of the reasons why Sam Grabiner’s play about a north London Jewish family eating dinner on Christmas Day feels so singularly outspoken.

It begins lightly with humour (“You’re not Larry David, you’re from Hendon”), then builds to bickering and full-on fallouts, covering antisemitism, spirituality, belonging and how the Israel-Gaza war has shaped these Londoners’ sense of self. There is certainly no conflation of Israel and Jewishness but a deliberate foray into this highly charged and contested ground.

At Almeida theatre, London, until 8 January

Puccini’s opera returns to Covent Garden in a vivid staging that, although 40 years old, still feels fresh and fun. David Levene had exclusive access to rehearsals to witness the severed heads, the sumptuous costumes – and the executioner going green

Andrei Șerban’s staging, with dazzling designs by Sally Jacobs, made its debut in 1984 and is the Royal Opera’s longest-running production. This is its 19th revival: the performance on 18 December will be its 295th at Covent Garden. Turandot tackles grand emotions and even grander themes: love, fear, devotion, power, loyalty, life and death in a fantastical, fairytale version of imperial China. And, of course, there’s surely opera’s most famous moment, the showstopper aria Nessun Dorma.

“If the opera has depths, Șerban is content to ignore them, but for once it doesn’t seem to matter. The three-storey Chinese pagoda set, army of extras and troupe of masked dancers make his cartoon-coloured creation the nearest the company has to a West End spectacular,” wrote the Guardian’s Erica Jeal reviewing a 2005 revival.

Puccini’s libretto states that the emperor appears among “clouds of incense … among the clouds like a god”. In this production he does indeed appear as if from the heavens, his magnificent throne lowered slowly to the ground.

Soho theatre, London
Lauren Lyle and Alexander Arnold make a compelling pair in a surprising drama about a one night stand

It is set on a summer morning in Edinburgh during the festival but David Ireland’s two-hander, first staged as a reading at the fringe in 2012, has an odd sort of Christmas spirit heightened by the timing of its London premiere.

To explain requires some spoilers about its bizarre twists but the setting could not be more straightforward. In a Travelodge hotel room, a couple wake up after a one night stand. She’s in the shower; he’s devouring a bucket of KFC for breakfast. When she emerges, Glaswegian Mary (Karen Pirie star Lauren Lyle) licks her lips and takes pleasure from recounting their mind-blowing sex while Hoosier Mike (Skins’ Alexander Arnold) reserves his orgasmic delight for the drumsticks. Wasn’t last night amazing, she asks. “It was something else,” he replies – and half an hour later we find out what he means.

At Soho theatre, London, until 24 January

Soho theatre, London
The comedian’s compelling show explores gender politics in modern India, singledom and self-improvement

Modesty: “I don’t speak for all women …” Swagger: “… but I do speak for many.” Prashasti Singh’s Divine Feminine shuttles between these poles, now deprecating her own foibles as a thirtysomething unmarried woman in modern India, now running the rule over gender politics in the 21st century. A deft balance is struck, with enough self-mocking silliness to endear herself and keep us entertained, but some arresting thinking too about Singh’s home country and its progress towards female liberation.

That’s the subject under interrogation here, albeit refracted through the confusions and contradictions of a woman who grew up wishing to be a man. Few of the female role models on offer in India seemed terribly inspiring – and the one that did, a high-achieving distant relative, undercut her inspo standing with a very unsisterly warning against spinsterdom. No wonder our host swings wildly between pride in her independence well into middle age, anxiety that her descent into “crazy lady” status may soon be irreversible – and therapy sessions advising she reframe her sadness as a colourful personality trait.

Exclusive global rights to the year’s biggest night in film will move to the video platform for a four year period

The Oscars will be moving from broadcast to online as part of a multi-year new deal with YouTube.

From 2029, the video platform will have exclusive global rights to Hollywood’s biggest night, including the ceremony but also red carpet coverage, behind-the-scenes content and Governors Ball access. The deal will run until 2033.

Actor who gave memorable, sometimes unnerving, performances in films such as Pulp Fiction, The Mask and The Usual Suspects

“A giant exposed nerve ending” is how Entertainment Weekly described the actor Peter Greene in 1995. Greene, who has died suddenly aged 60, brought his unnerving intensity to a handful of high-profile films in the 1990s, including Quentin Tarantino’s brash comic thriller Pulp Fiction (1994).

Greene appears in the small but memorable role of a depraved security guard named Zed, who uses the eeny-meeny-miny-moe method to determine which of the two trussed-up captives in a pawn-shop basement – a gangster (Ving Rhames) or a boxer (Bruce Willis) – he should rape first.

The $40m film – directed by Brett Ratner, who has been accused of sexual misconduct – follows Melania Trump in the days before the 2025 inauguration

Amazon has released the first trailer for next year’s documentary on Melania Trump.

The film will follow the first lady in the 20 days before the 2025 inauguration and has “unprecedented access” with promises of “exclusive footage capturing critical meetings, private conversations, and never-before-seen environments”.

Family members can be sweet and relentless but how can we aid our relatives in the age of new tech and device addiction

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I don’t want to sound dramatic but, a few weeks ago, something happened that has completely changed how I view online material. I fell for AI-generated content. For someone who is constantly squabbling with older relatives about how little they question what they see online, this was a profoundly unsettling and humbling experience. And it made me think about how, during this holiday period, we could all use this as an opportunity to approach those conversations with the “WhatsApp aunties” more sensitively.

From ‘WhatsApp Aunties’ to ‘AI Aunties’

They claim to fix fine lines, blemishes and redness – but which stand up to scrutiny? We asked dermatologists and put them to the test to find out

• The best anti-ageing creams, serums and treatments

LED face masks are booming in popularity – despite being one of the most expensive at-home beauty products ever to hit the market. Many masks are available, each claiming to either reduce the appearance of fine lines, stop spots or calm redness. Some even combine different types of light to enhance the benefits.

But it’s wise to be sceptical about new treatments that are costly and non-invasive, and to do your research before you buy. With this in mind, I spoke with doctors and dermatologists to find out whether these light therapy devices actually work.

Best LED face mask overall:
CurrentBody Series 2

Best budget LED face mask:
Silk’n LED face mask 100

Unleash your inner mixologist this Christmas with these awesome agave spirits, from sustainable to smoky to margarita-ready

• ‘Dreamy in a dirty martini’: the best vodkas, tested

Across North America, Mexican spirits have always been big – tequila even overtook whiskey as the US’s second biggest spirit in 2023 – but it’s taken the UK a little longer to catch on.

Now, though, premium Mexican spirits are on the rise, and we are surely in our agave era. Celebs are bringing out agave-based drinks by the crate-load (shout out to Rita Ora, Kendall Jenner and Nick Jonas), spicy margs have their own merch, and even Waitrose reported an 86% increase in sales of tequila last year.

Your tips and tricks for cutting festive waste; how to host the perfect Christmas dinner; and the best pyjamas for cosy nights and lazy mornings

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Not to sound too Scrooge-ish, but it can sometimes feel like Christmas is the season of overconsumption and overindulgence. Whether it’s wasted food, unwanted presents or single-use crackers, trees and wrapping paper – once we’ve finished decking the halls, a lot of it ends up decking landfill.

Our handy guide to cutting Christmas waste has lots of useful ideas, but we also asked you for your tips and tricks. From alternative trees to an ingenious way to use up leftovers, here are your top hacks for a more sustainable festive season.

Hosting Christmas? Don’t panic. Here’s our experts’ guide to a memorable meal, from thoughtful details to sustainable produce and tips on stress-free entertaining

• The best Christmas drinks

Canapes, crackers, Christmas playlists, flowing drinks, and a ripe brie cosying up to a firm gruyere on a cheeseboard surrounded by grapes and fresh figs: there is no better time of year to host guests, feast and be merry.

Even better, you can do almost everything in advance of the big day: decorate, prepare canapes, get your dinner oven-ready and even pre-batch your cocktails. We’ve spoken to chefs, wine experts and professional hosts – among others – to pull together a curated guide to every element of your Christmas dinner, from ethical turkey to table decorations that won’t spend the rest of the year at the back of a drawer.

Our resident Sweet Spotter had the (mis)fortune of eating a selection of widely available chocolate truffles to save you one more Christmas chore ….

• The best supermarket mince pies, tasted and rated

A perfect chocolate truffle, for me, has a fine, tempered shell that, with a soft, satisfying snap, gives way to a ganache that melts luxuriantly on the tongue (and, failing that delicate snap, then give me a classic bitter dusting of cocoa). Truffles may come in endless variations, but at their core, they are simply chocolate and cream, which makes the quality of both non-negotiable.

A good dark chocolate, about 60-70% cocoa, brings complexity and depth without bitterness, while the right cream-to-chocolate ratio creates a ganache that’s smooth, rich and just soft enough to dissolve in the mouth. Any further additions such as salt, liqueur, citrus, coffee or spices should never be dominant. And, whatever the finish, be it cocoa powder, toasted nuts, coconut or a glossy shell, it should complement rather than compete with the chocolate ganache inside.

Fuelled by social media and a rare visit by Japan’s elite wrestlers, growing numbers of Britons are taking part in the centuries-old sport

It is a centuries-old Japanese tradition, steeped in ceremony, with roots deep in the ancient faith of Shintoism … and it also happens to be super popular on TikTok.

Sumo is finding a new audience in the UK and, not only that, many Britons are now donning a loincloth – or mawashi – and taking up the sport themselves. So much so, in fact, that amateur wrestlers from across the UK and Ireland are gearing up for the first ever British Isles Sumo Championships, due to be held in six weeks.

I had no idea what to do with the injured bird I named Belinda. But suddenly 3,000 Mancunians were happy to help, giving me a whole new appreciation of my home town

The plane pushed through wall after wall of sleet on its descent into Manchester. I’d had a sinking feeling during the flight that only deepened as I shuffled through the terminal. I resented having to be back in the city where I had grown up, after living on the other side of the world for what had felt like a lifetime.

After a few days, I headed out to get a haircut. My mind was miles away, back across an ocean, when I heard something hit the pavement. I looked down to see a pigeon on its back, spatchcocked, and twitching.

Make ahead and impress your guests with crunchy-topped hazelnut creme brulees and a centrepiece chocolate fondant bundt cake

Even though our to-do lists are longer and our homes busier than ever, there’s something about Christmas that gives us the extra chutzpah to bake. And not just any baking, but baking for a crowd. So, with this in mind, here are two crowdpleasing recipes – a rich hazelnut “Nutcracker” creme brulee and a resplendent chocolate fondant bundt cake – with a few make-ahead and shortcut secrets to give you a head start.

A delicious, gelatine-free panna cotta that saves yoghurt from the waste bin

I was really shocked to learn from environmental action NGO Wrap that, of the 51,000 tonnes of yoghurt that’s wasted in the UK every year, half of it is in unopened pots! The reason is our old arch enemy, date labels, which can cause confusion and trick us into thinking that perfectly safe yoghurt is not OK to eat. That’s one reason many supermarkets have scrapped use-by dates on the likes of yoghurt, but they still use best-before dates. Remember, if a product doesn’t have a use-by date, always do the sniff test before throwing it away.

Today’s recipe is a light, gelatine-free version of panna cotta that’s instead set with agar agar (a type of seaweed), which gives it a soft-set texture. It’s refreshing, deliciously sour and simple to make. I use brown sugar for flavour and micronutrients, but regular sugar, honey and other sweeteners will all also work well.

Perfection is a hard, a soft, a blue, a sheep and a goat’s, say our panel of experts, but three to four generous wedges will do the trick

What should I serve on my Christmas cheeseboard?
David, via email
It will come as no surprise that Mathew Carver, founder of Pick & Cheese, The Cheese Barge and Rind, eats a lot of cheese, so in an effort to keep his festive selection interesting, he usually focuses on a specific area or region: “Last year, for instance, I spent Christmas in Scotland and served only local cheese.” Wales is up later this month. “I’m a creature of habit and tend always to go back to the cheeses I love, so this strategy makes me try new ones,” he explains – plus there’s nothing to stop you slipping in a classic such as comté in there too, because, well, Christmas.

Unless you’re going for “the baller move” of just serving one glorious cheese, Bronwen Percival, technical director of Neal’s Yard Dairy, would punt for three or four “handsome wedges, rather than slivers of too many options”. After all, few have “the time or attention for a board that needs a lot of explaining”. The trick is to find a balance between styles. “The perfect five would be a hard, a soft, a blue, a sheep and a goat’s,” says Carver, who factors in 50-60g of each cheese per person. “The general consensus is 30-40g, but at Christmas you need more than you can fathomably eat.”

Got a culinary dilemma? Email feast@theguardian.com

Have a very chewy yuletide with this sumptuously layered meringue smasher that pumps pavlova up a level

I’m switching up my usual Christmas pavlova this year for a slightly different but equally delicious meringue-based dessert. Discs of pistachio meringue are baked until crisp, then layered with pistachio cream and cherry compote. The meringue softens a little under the cream as it sits, giving it a pleasingly chewy, cake-like texture. A very good option if you’re after a Christmas dessert without chocolate, alcohol or dried fruit.

David Gentleman’s brilliant career spans eight decades, from watercolour painting to tube station murals to drawing the Tottenham riots. Here his daughter, the Guardian journalist Amelia Gentleman, dispenses his invaluable advice

When we were children, my father, the painter David Gentleman, never offered much advice to me or my siblings. If we wanted to draw, he would hand out pencils and let us get on with it. He was encouraging, but never gave us instructions. If we were enjoying ourselves, more paper was available; but if we wanted to go and do something else, that was fine too. The idea of teaching people how to do things still makes him uncomfortable, so his latest book, Lessons for Young Artists, has come as a surprise to us all. At 95, he has attempted to distil everything he has learned about working as a painter since the late 1940s into clear advice. These lessons are not aimed exclusively at art students, or even at older people who want to paint, but are for anyone wondering how to build a life and career as a creative person.

I haven’t inherited his artistic talents, but I have picked up other important things from growing up with someone who has managed to spend the past eight decades earning a living from what he enjoys doing most. Over the past two years, as he wrote this book, I’ve spent hours in his Camden studio, talking about painting and drawing and helping him search for pictures to illustrate his ideas. Here are 10 things I’ve learned from a lifetime watching him work.

In the UK, close to half of 25-year-olds now live with parents who, in many cases, would expect their nest to have long since emptied. How does this change families, for good and bad?

If life had worked out differently, Serena would by now be coming to terms with an empty nest. Having brought up seven children, she and her husband might even have been enjoying a little more money and time for themselves. But as it is, three of their adult children are now at home: the 23-year-old finishing his degree; the 28-year-old, a teacher, saving for a house deposit; and the 34-year-old, after a mental health crisis. At 63, Serena comes home from her job as a social worker to a mountain of laundry, and a spare downstairs room requisitioned as a bedroom.

Having a houseful is “really good fun”, she says, and makes life richer and more interesting. But it took a while to get used to partners staying over – “I’m not a prude, but you don’t necessarily want to be part of that life for your children, do you?” – and lately, she has felt the lack of an important rite of passage. “I’ve become old and I never really felt it, because I’ve been in that parent mode for such a long time,” she says. “It’s suddenly hit me that I didn’t have that transition that often happens, with kids who leave when you’re in your 40s and 50s – that just hasn’t happened. It’s odd.”

Parents and experts weigh in on how to navigate blended family dynamics over the festive season

The festive season can be a stressful time for anyone, especially so for those managing co-parenting and blended families.

Here, parents with lived experience; psychologist Dr Ahona Guha; and a spokesperson for the Council of Single Mothers and their Children (CSMC) offer their best tips for co-parenting at this time of year, from navigating tricky family dynamics to managing the season’s expectations and pace.

Would telling a buddy my to-do list was done – before I’d done it – really make it more likely to happen? But leaving her a voice note every day has increased my productivity, and deepened our friendship

When my friend Rosamund suggested we try a productivity technique of leaving each other a voice note every day, I immediately said yes – even if I suspected, deep down, that we might not keep it up for long. I was circumspect because we both lead busy lives, 3,500 miles apart. She lives in London and I’m based in Brooklyn. It is hard to keep in touch sometimes. Even talking on the phone feels tough, what with the time difference and our schedules. Adding another thing to do every day, even a small, two-minute task, felt like a challenge.

The technique is simple enough. You send a friend a voice note in the morning saying what you “did” that day. You always speak in the past tense for accountability. The theory is that once you tell a friend you have “done” something, you will be more likely to follow it through.

Celebrity chefs such as Jamie Oliver launch ‘Bang in Some Beans’ campaign to highlight cost savings and health advantages

• Magic beans: top chefs’ recipes for protein-rich superfood

Beans have it all, according to some of the best-known chefs in the country. They are sustainable, plentiful, nutritious and a fraction of the cost of meats such as steak and chicken.

Notifications of cancellations at Rebecca Adlington and Steve Parry’s swimming school don’t mention form-filling process to get money back

Swim!, the nationwide swimming school set up by the Olympians Rebecca Adlington and Steve Parry, has cancelled a number of my child’s lessons recently, but makes it unnecessarily hard to get refunds.

Parents, who pay by direct debit, must specifically request a refund by filling out a form within 30 days. None of the text or email notifications of cancellations mention this. Consequently, I have ended up inadvertently paying for five cancelled lessons.

The service was cut off and then there were threats of losing the number of 60 years

My 84-year-old parents, who have significant disabilities, had their TalkTalk landline cut off without notice in August.

We eventually had to sign a new contract to get the service restored and were assured that they would keep their phone number of 60 years.

From athletes such as Tristan Thompson to artists such as Iggy Azalea, celebrities have returned to hawking crypto

Following the numbers suggests Tristan Thompson is nearing the end of his basketball career. While the 6ft 9in center once regularly played more than 80 games in a regular season, he’s hit new career lows, appearing just 40 times on court during the 2024-2025 season. Following the money, however, suggests Thompson is pivoting into a new career. He’s rebranded as a crypto investor, consultant and brand ambassador, bringing his relative cultural cache to the blockchain. Now the host of his own podcast, Courtside Crypto, he has made frequent appearances with other crypto celebrities, such as at the Nasdaq in September, when he celebrated the IPO of an explicitly nationalist Bitcoin mining operation alongside Eric Trump; Thompson has also developed a crypto startup slated to launch in 2026.

In 2025, crypto is back in style in Washington and among a growing set in Hollywood, where Thompson lives adjacent to the Kardashian clan, some of whom have been crypto spokespeople. Donald Trump has reversed Joe Biden’s legal offensive against crypto, debuting his own token, $Trump, before his inauguration, and rolling back government actions against the industry, which heavily supported him during his bid for the presidency. Celebrities have likewise returned to hawking cryptocurrency projects or launching tokens of their own.

The temptation is to sit at home and hibernate, but beating the winter blues can be done. Here’s how to embrace the coldest and arguably most beautiful season

Stephanie Fitzgerald, a chartered clinical psychologist, used to dread winter. Like many, she coped by keeping busy at work and hibernating at home, waiting for the cold, dark days to be over. But this approach wasn’t making her happy. So she sought out the science that would help her embrace the winter months, rather than try to escape them. In her resulting book, The Gifts of Winter, she writes: “I fell deeply in love with winter … It is a captivating and truly gorgeous season.”

How did she change her mindset – and can the 42% of us who say summer is our favourite season learn to love winter too?

A breast cancer diagnosis is hard enough – what happens when a mother and daughter go through it at the same time?

Genna Freed should have been in the mood to celebrate. On a cloudy November day in 2022, her mother, Julie Newman, was about to complete her final round of radiation, after being diagnosed with breast cancer in September. The whole family, a close-knit bunch, was gathering with balloons and signs.

But Freed, then a few weeks shy of her 31st birthday, was carrying a secret. Spurred by her mother’s diagnosis, she had her first mammogram a couple days earlier, and it had turned up a suspicious spot. Now she needed a second, diagnostic mammogram, and likely a biopsy. She found herself walking a surreal sort of tightrope, caught between relief that her mother’s treatment was over and fear that she might soon be starting her own.

Several kinds of bacteria can give you an upset stomach. Here is how to steer clear of the worst offenders, and what to do if they do make it through

Many people in the modern world, it’s probably fair to say, do not take food poisoning particularly seriously. Yes, most folks wash their hands after handling raw chicken and use different chopping boards for beef and green beans – but who among us can honestly say we’ve never used the same tongs for an entire barbecue or left a storage box of cooked rice on the sideboard for a couple of hours? Ignore that rhetorical question for a moment, though – before you comment that of course everyone should do all those things, let’s talk about what’s happening in your body when it all goes horribly wrong.

At the risk of stating the obvious, food poisoning occurs when you eat food contaminated with harmful bacteria, viruses or toxins – but that doesn’t mean it always works the same way. “Some bacteria, such as Bacillus cereus – sometimes found in reheated rice – produce toxins before the food is eaten, meaning they can cause symptoms such as sudden vomiting within hours,” says Dr Masarat Jilani, an NHS specialist who regularly manages children and adults with food poisoning. Bacillus cereus also produces another type of toxin in the small intestine, which can cause diarrhoea. “Others, such as Salmonella and E. coli, act after you’ve eaten and often cause longer-lasting symptoms through inflammation of the gut.”

I understand the temptation to run away – I have felt it too. Try to stay in the room, and in the moment. You’ll be glad you did

This is my last column for you. I am shocked and delighted that I’ve been allowed to carry on for almost two years, saying such controversial and true things as: the oedipal complex is real and all of us have one; psychodynamic psychotherapy is an effective and vital mental health treatment and we must fight for it in the NHS; and Midnight Run is the best film of all time. It has been a joy and an honour, and, now we are here, I’ve been thinking about the significance of endings.

Because they are significant. Sometimes, having no time left can make it possible to feel and say what was impossible before. They can invite an intimacy and truthfulness and grief that some find overwhelming. It’s not unusual for patients to talk of dropping out, or to skip the final session – to call it a waste of time, to want to leave the room before the end.

Clothes can be tricky presents to pick, but follow my simple rules and you’ll have your shopping all wrapped up

Once upon a time, Christmas shopping meant grabbing the newest album release or an old-favourite DVD box set, wrapping it in glitter paper, depositing it under the tree and putting your feet up with a highlighter pen to annotate the Radio Times. Now that music and film lives in the cloud, we’ve turned to clothes as the new go-to gift. But choosing them for another person is a high-risk endeavour. How can we boost our chances of getting it right?

Because we do really, really want to get it right. Kids just want Santa to bring them the swag, but one of the things that happens when you become a grownup is that you care more about whether other people like the gifts you’ve given them than you do about what you receive. And fashion is more difficult to get right than many think. After all, if how to dress well was self-evident, then I wouldn’t have a job.

Clip-in fringes are easy to use and trying one first could save tears and regrets

That quote about the definition of insanity being the repetition of the same behaviours with the expectation of a different result is often wrongly attributed to Einstein. Whoever it really was, I’m certain it was someone who had decided to get another fringe – and I relate.

Despite occasionally catching sight of one of my several former fringes in a photo album and always thinking how bloody awful I look (only my husband disagrees), I am seemingly never far from a decision I’d definitely regret. As was proved when I saw a recent photograph of Demi Moore, all yard-long black hair and short, scruffy fringe that looked to be artfully cut with a pair of old nail scissors. She looked exquisite, obviously, in a way that my rational brain knows to be absolutely unattainable, but nonetheless I found myself sending hairdresser Hadley Yates a WhatsApp asking if he’d do the deed.

For years it’s been predicted that the market for male ‘support garments’ will take off … but it hasn’t quite happened. Now M&S is trying again

There is a moment – just seconds into getting dressed – when I think I might panic. The hem of my stretchy top has got rolled up round my ribs before my head has popped out of the neck hole, and with my hands still stuck in the sleeves, I cannot reach round to pull it down. I wriggle helplessly for a minute, but the situation doesn’t improve; the band of rolled-up fabric is taut across my chest, immovable. That’s when I feel the first tingle of rising alarm – so familiar from early childhood – that comes of being trapped in your clothes.

I am trying, for the first time, to put on an item of shapewear for men – an ordinary-looking, highly elasticated long-sleeved workout top that will, I hope, give me the instant slim profile of someone who goes to the gym regularly, instead of not since the pandemic started.

Marlon Brando was a victim of it, even Princess Diana was caught out by a collar ‘curled like bacon in a pan’. Here are a few ways to avoid their fate

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It is sometimes, amusingly, known as “bacon neck”, and it is the bane of my life: the loss of elasticity that results in a crinkly, ill-fitting collar. This undulating menace commonly befalls the classic crew-neck T-shirt or sweatshirt, but scoop, polo and V-necks can also be afflicted. Too often, science conspires to transform a smooth neckline into something resembling a failed polygraph test.

The term “bacon neck” (not to be confused with “turkey neck”, the disparaging phrase for sagging skin that is almost uniformly levelled at women) was coined, or at least popularised, in a 2010 Hanes commercial featuring the basketball star Michael Jordan. In the clip, Jordan’s seat-mate points out a fellow plane passenger’s worn-out collar: “See how it’s all curled up like bacon in a pan? See how bad this guy looks?”

This tiny country is awash with atmospheric castles, many of which you can stay in, making for a magical wintry break. And it won’t cost you a cent to travel between them

The top of the tower had disappeared in the mist, but its bells rang clear and true, tolling beyond the abbey gates, over the slopes of frost-fringed trees, down to the town in the valley below. Final call for morning mass. I took a seat at the back of the modern church, built when the Abbey of Saint Maurice and Saint Maurus relocated to this hill in Clervaux, north Luxembourg, in 1910. Then the monks swept in – and swept away 1,000 years. Sung in Latin, their Gregorian chants filled the nave: simple, calming, timeless. I’m not religious and didn’t understand a word, but also, in a way, understood it completely.

Although mass is held here at 10am daily, year-round, the monks’ ethereal incantations seemed to perfectly suit the season. I left the church, picked up a waymarked hiking trail and walked deeper into the forest – and the mood remained. There was no one else around, no wind to dislodge the last, clinging beech leaves or sway the soaring spruce. A jay screeched, and plumes of hair ice feathered fallen logs. As in the church, all was stillness, a little magic.

Going away for the festive season has left me with unforgettable memories, from a boat trip with Bangladeshi fishermen to exploring Castro’s Cuban hideout

I have made a point of escaping Christmas for as long as I can remember. Not escaping for Christmas, but avoiding it altogether – the stressful buildup, consumer chaos, panic buying, the enforced jollity and parties. When the first festive gifts start appearing in the shops in September, it’s time to confirm my travel plans, ideally to include New Year’s Eve as well.

Sometimes I travel independently, but more often in a group, and while it’s not always possible to avoid the tinsel and baubles – even in non-Christian countries thousands of miles away – I just relish not being at home at this time of year.

From Essex to Istanbul, and from a soul music bar to a dramatic mountain pass, our tipsters share their personal travel highlights of the year

Moments after stepping off the bus, I wanted to text my friend: “What have I done to you, why did you tell me to come here?” As I weaved my way through coach-party day trippers, my initial suspicions dissipated. I came to swim, but Piran offered so much more. Venetian squares provided a delicately ornate backdrop, while cobbled passageways housed bustling seafood restaurants, serving the day’s catch. The majestic Adriatic was made manageable by concrete diving platforms, fit for all ages. Naša Pekarna stocked delightfully crisp and filling böreks, and the bar/cafe Pri Starcu – owned by Patrik Ipavec, a former Slovenia international footballer – married warm hospitality with ice-cold beer and delicious early evening refreshments.
Alex

It’s a far cry from the sun-kissed beaches of Cape Town where she grew up, but the simple pleasures of a seaside village in Cornwall draw the author back year after year

The idea of the sea that I grew up with was associated with sundowners and souped-up cars and skipping classes to sunbathe with the models who took over Cape Town’s beaches each summer. As a student, long nights would end, not infrequently, with a swim at sunrise (until, one morning, the police arrived to remind us that sharks feed at dawn). So it’s hardly surprising that, after moving to Norwich to study in my 20s, the British seaside trips I made felt tepid. Cromer, with its swathe of beige sand sloping into water an almost identical colour, seemed to suggest that over here, land and sea were really not that different from one another. That the sea as I’d known it – with all its ecstatic, annihilating energy – was an unruly part of the Earth whose existence was best disavowed.

It was only several years later, burnt out from a soul-destroying job, that I took a week off and boarded a train to Cornwall. I was 25, poor and suffering from the kind of gastric complaints that often accompany misery. With a pair of shorts, two T-shirts and a raincoat in my backpack, I arrived in St Ives and set off to walk the Cornish coastal path.

From Quality Street to Toblerone to the Terry’s classic, festive treats are becoming more of a luxury – and it’s not just down to the price of cocoa

You’re right – it is smaller. The Terry’s Chocolate Orange on shop shelves this Christmas weighs 12g less than it did this time last year. That’s a decrease in size of 8% – not as big a cut as when the product lost 10% of its mass in 2016, but a further whittling away of a favourite Christmas treat.

Prices have been going up too, although it’s been a series of increases. Figures from market researchers Assosia show that across the big four supermarkets, the full price of a cChocolate oOrange has increased from £1.24 in December 2022 to about £2.25 today – a rise of 81%. If you factor in the size reduction, you’re actually paying 96% more.

Just in time for Christmas, a little calf has arrived at a German zoo and gone viral. But is he cuter than Moo Deng?

Name: Panya the pygmy hippo.

Age: About three weeks.

It can work wonders on aphids but won’t conquer tough infestations such as mealybugs – and be careful not to scorch the leaves

The problem
Few things test a plant-lover’s patience like a pest infestation. The internet is full of DIY advice, and one of the most popular tips is to mix washing-up liquid with water and use it as a pest spray. It’s cheap, easy and always within reach. But it’s not without risk.

The hack
A diluted detergent solution is said to break down the waxy coating of soft-bodied pests, dehydrating them on contact. It can work wonders on aphids, spider mites and thrips, killing them quickly without the need for harsh chemicals. But household detergents weren’t made for plants. The wrong formula or a heavy hand can cause serious leaf burn, leaving behind residue that stresses your plant more than the pests did.

The Nip/Tuck and Downton Abbey star on losing her sister, growing up in a theatrical dynasty, and how she feels about ageing

Born in London in 1965, Joely Richardson is an actor and campaigner. The daughter of actor Vanessa Redgrave and director and producer Tony Richardson, she trained at Rada, and rose to prominence with roles in 101 Dalmatians, Nip/Tuck and The Tudors, as well as in theatre and on Broadway. More recently, she appeared in Guy Ritchie’s The Gentlemen, and Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale. Richardson is working for Save the Children’s annual festive fundraiser, Christmas Jumper Day, and also backing the charity’s new Christmas campaign.

I remember this as a happy day, but my eyes tell a different story. They look a little mistrustful. In my arms is my brother Carlo – we have different fathers; his is Italian actor Franco Nero. That day was Carlo’s christening, and it was obvious from my hand position that I’m not used to standing like that. Someone’s gone: “Put your arms out! We’re taking a picture of you holding the baby!” The whole thing looks awkward.

Dying is a process and in a person’s final hours and days, Nickie and her Threshold Choir are there to accompany people on their way and bring comfort. Through specially composed songs, akin to lullabies, the choir cultivates an environment of love and safety around those on their deathbed.  For the volunteer choir members, it is also an opportunity to channel their own experiences of grief and together open up conversations about death.

Full interview with Nickie Aven, available here

The Guardian's Jonathan Liew visits the World Darts Championships at Alexandra Palace to explore how the game went from the working men's clubs to the world stage, what the next 10 years looks like, and how it continues to have a ever-developing cultural impact around the world

Border conflict has roots in colonial maps and long-standing ‘sibling rivalry’

Thailand and Cambodia have been locked in a border dispute for more than a century, which exploded again in the summer of 2025. Peace efforts have had mixed results and fighting continues.

A historical dispute over lines drawn on colonial maps is often used as a pretext for simmering nationalism. The two countries have had what one historian called a “sibling rivalry” for decades, fanned by competing claims to the region’s rich cultural heritage, including ancient temples in disputed areas.

On a frontline where Russia has made the most gains in recent weeks, drone pilots wonder how long they can keep up the fight

In a warm bunker, lined with wooden logs, it is Dmytro’s job to monitor and help the drone crews on the frontline. Perhaps a dozen video feeds come through to his screen on an increasingly hot section of the front, running roughly from Pokrovske to Huliaipole, 50 miles east of Zaporizhzhia city.

Dmytro, 33, is with the 423rd drone battalion, a specialist unit only formed in 2024. He cycles through the feeds, on Ukraine’s battlefield Delta system, expanding each in turn. The grainy images come from one-way FPV (first person view) drones; clearer footage, with heights and speed, from commercially bought Mavic drones; at another point there is a bomber drone, available munitions marked in green.

We’d like to hear from UK students who are – or are planning to – live at home while studying at university

We’d like to find out about students who are living at home while studying at university, rather than living in student accommodation or a flat share.

Why have you taken the decision to live at home? What are the positives and negatives? How has the cost of living affected your university experience and student social life? Are you happy living at home or would you prefer to move out?

We want to hear about the best film you have seen this year. Share your favourite now

We would like to hear about your favourite films of 2025. Was it a tantalising thriller, a comedy that had you rolling in the aisles, or a horror that gave you goosebumps? Which film released in 2025 tops your list?

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We would like to hear about your television highlights of the year. Share your thoughts now

The Guardian’s culture writers are compiling their best TV shows of the year – and we’d like to hear about yours, too.

What was your top TV show of 2025, and why?

The Guardian’s Saturday magazine is interested in hearing from couples, partners and former lovers to talk about their sex lives

How is your sex life going? The Guardian is looking for couples to talk honestly – and anonymously – about what they get up to in the bedroom for the Saturday magazine’s much-loved This is How We Do It column.

The point of this column is to tell truthful, un-sensationalised stories about sex, so we are particularly keen to hear from you if you are not swinging from the chandeliers. How do you navigate intimacy when your partner wants sex more than you do? Or when the honeymoon stage has worn off? Or when you are not feeling spectacular about your body?

We’re looking for couples of all ages and sexualities. We would not publish your names or where you live.

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