With an experimental and maxed-out sound, bold new MCs are emerging from all corners of the UK – and with US rap in the doldrums, the time is ripe for another British Invasion

It’s early November and London’s Electric Ballroom is heaving. The warm-up DJ drops Fetty Wap’s 2014 smash Trap Queen, and the young crowd, a fair portion of whom were in primary school when the tune first came out, roar every word. They’re clad in baggy skatewear, with distressed, monochromatic union jacks plastered across hats and jackets. A coat sails across the room: someone is going home chilly tonight, but that’ll be the last thing on their mind as Liverpool rapper EsDeeKid, one of the fastest-rising musicians in the world, explodes on to the stage.

Wrapped in a hooded cloak and spinning like a twig in a hurricane, he grabs the mic and snarls: “Are you ready for rebellion?”, his distinctive scouse accent battling a storm of apocalyptic bass and John Carpenter-esque horror synths. Behind him, projections flash in stark black and red – tower blocks, eyeballs, dot-matrix geometries – more like the ragged photocopy aesthetic of 80s post-punk than any luxury rap branding. The teenagers in the room are ecstatic, borne aloft by the palpable sense, thrumming from stage to pit, that this is A Moment.

For this year’s Guardian charity appeal we are asking readers to donate to Citizens UK, The Linking Network, Locality, Hope Unlimited Charitable Trust and Who is Your Neighbour?

• Donate to our charity appeal here

It has been an unsettling year of social division, anger and unrest in the UK and beyond. Extremist violence and rhetoric are escalating, with the demonisation of migrants reaching a fever pitch. Far-right activists march in the streets. NHS nurses, care workers and charities face abuse amid a resurgence of “1970s-style racism”.

Against this toxic backdrop, the Guardian is launching its 2025 charity appeal on Friday. This year’s theme, unapologetically, is hope. We are supporting grassroots charities, which, through their vital work at the heart of local neighbourhoods, nurture community pride and positive change, and provide a powerful antidote to polarisation, distrust and hate.

Sandwich messiah Max Halley sorts the merry from the meh in our taste test of supermarket and high-street festive butties

• The best Christmas drinks, from gingerbread rum to mulled rose

As the owner of a sandwich shop, I was delighted when the Filter asked me to taste and rate the best high-street Christmas sandwiches. I’ve been making sandwiches professionally for 11 years and (of course) at home for much longer. In my shop – Max’s Sandwich Shop in north London – we have a sandwich mantra: hot v cold, sweet v sour, crunchy v soft. The presence of these three core contrasts is, I believe, the key to a great sandwich. Also, I have a liberal attitude to mayonnaise.

To test Christmas sandwiches, I got stuck in – trying each one thoroughly rather than taking just one bite. It would be a tall order to expect a factory-made supermarket sandwich to perfect the contrasts laid out in my sandwich mantra, but I did look for them to be created with contrasts in mind.

I knew that a revolution in our understanding of soil could change the world. Then came a eureka moment – and the birth of the Earth Rover Program

• Report: Experts say seismic waves can check soil health and boost yields

It felt like walking up a mountain during a temperature inversion. You struggle through fog so dense you can scarcely see where you’re going. Suddenly, you break through the top of the cloud, and the world is laid out before you. It was that rare and remarkable thing: a eureka moment.

For the past three years, I’d been struggling with a big and frustrating problem. In researching my book Regenesis, I’d been working closely with Iain Tolhurst (Tolly), a pioneering farmer who had pulled off something extraordinary. Almost everywhere, high-yield farming means major environmental harm, due to the amount of fertiliser, pesticides and (sometimes) irrigation water and deep ploughing required. Most farms with apparently small environmental impacts produce low yields. This, in reality, means high impacts, as more land is needed to produce a given amount of food. But Tolly has found the holy grail of agriculture: high and rising yields with minimal environmental harm.

George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist

These events are meant to make Christmas magical, and while many do, a few fall spectacularly short. Here, in no particular order, are some of the worst offenders

It’s the most wonderful time of the year: the season where British people traditionally complain about spending too much on rip-off Christmas events. This year’s festivities have already kicked off in earnest, thanks to the malfunctioning Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer drone show in Haywards Heath this week. By all accounts the drone show was a classic of the genre. It made big promises, offering families “a night of magic and wonder” complete with “state of the art production [and] 600 LED drones”. Then it charged big money, with some families paying hundreds of pounds to attend. And then, of course, it comprehensively underdelivered.

Reports describe the event as not only being too short – about just 15 minutes – but also, due to the failure of several drones, completely unintelligible. “From the beginning, large numbers of drones were missing, which left huge gaps in the formations and made it nearly impossible to understand what the images were even supposed to represent!” wrote one aggrieved attendee on social media. “The ‘finale’, the moment the entire audience was waiting for, didn’t even happen. Just a black sky.”

The hobbyists who helped build this site created technology that has been used to humiliate countless women. Why didn’t governments step in and stop them?

For Patrizia Schlosser, it started with an apologetic call from a colleague. “I’m sorry but I found this. Are you aware of it?” He sent over a link, which took her to a site called Mr DeepFakes. There, she found fake images of herself, naked, squatting, chained, performing sex acts with various animals. They were tagged “Patrizia Schlosser sluty FUNK whore” (sic).

“They were very graphic, very humiliating,” says Schlosser, a German journalist for Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) and Funk. “They were also very badly done, which made it easier to distance myself, and tell myself they were obviously fake. But it was very disturbing to imagine somebody somewhere spending hours on the internet searching for pictures of me, putting all this together.”

Exclusive: Group’s open letter says Reform UK leader must take responsibility for behaviour as a schoolboy

A group of Holocaust survivors have demanded Nigel Farage tell the truth and apologise for the antisemitic comments that fellow pupils of Dulwich college allege he made toward Jewish pupils.

The Reform UK leader has said he never racially abused anyone with intent but may have engaged in “banter in a playground”.

Streaming service to gain control of studio behind Harry Potter and Batman, as well as HBO, home to The White Lotus and Game of Thrones

• Business live – latest updates

Netflix has agreed to buy Warner Bros Discovery in an $82.7bn (£62bn) deal that will dramatically reshape the established Hollywood film and TV industry.

The streaming company will take control of WBD’s prize assets such as Warner Bros, the studio behind franchises including Harry Potter, Superman and Batman, as well as HBO, home to shows including Game of Thrones, The White Lotus and Succession.

Ministers want to secure deal by end of 2026 as part of a broader reset of Britain’s relationship with Europe

• UK politics live – latest updates

Tens of thousands of young British and European citizens would be given the right to live and work in each other’s countries under plans for a scheme that ministers are aiming to finalise within the next year.

Ministers want to secure a youth mobility scheme with the EU by the end of 2026, as part of a broader reset of Britain’s relationship with Europe six years after leaving the bloc.

French president’s remarks come a day after a report claimed he had warned Washington could betray Kyiv

Emmanuel Macron has said there is “no mistrust” between Europe and the US, a day after a report claimed the French president had warned privately there was a risk Washington could betray Ukraine.

“Unity between Americans and Europeans on the Ukrainian issue is essential. And I say it again and again, we need to work together,” Macron told reporters during a visit to China.

Starmer hails child poverty strategy as a ‘moral mission’ which will include measures to help with childcare and getting families out of temporary housing

Readers may be aware, going into the weekend, that Edinburgh airport had to temporarily suspend flights this morning due to technical issues.

The delays lasted about an hour. A report here:

• Second Test, day two: England 334; Australia 378-6

• Late wickets offer tourists hope amid string of spills

The ball may be pink and the meal breaks off-kilter, but for so much of the second day in this pivotal day-night Test match, the atmosphere inside the Gabba was an all-too-familiar one for England’s supporters.

Gone was the triumphalism that met Joe Root’s first Test century on these shores 24 hours earlier and in its place a creeping sense of dread. The bottom line is: England’s bowlers spent most of the day sending down so many long hops and half-volleys as to make Jackson Pollock look positively precise.

Cloudflare reports it is investigating issues with Cloudflare Dashboard and related APIs

Technical problems at internet infrastructure provider Cloudflare today have taken a host of websites offline this morning.

Cloudflare said shortly after 9am UK time that it “is investigating issues with Cloudflare Dashboard and related APIs [application programming interfaces – used when apps exchange data with each other].

Logan Smith, 18, got out of ambulance driving him to hospital in Somerset, says official watchdog

A teenager who got out of an ambulance on a motorway hard shoulder was Tasered by police before being hit and killed by a car, official watchdogs have said.

Logan Smith, 18, was being taken to hospital when the ambulance pulled off the northbound carriageway of the M5 in Somerset because paramedics were concerned. The Independent Office for Police Conduct said Smith left the ambulance near the junction for Weston-super-Mare and walked on to the live lanes of the motorway.

Robbie addresses backlash to casting Elordi as a character described by Brontë as ‘dark-skinned’, while Fennell praises her female star’s ‘big dick energy’

Margot Robbie has come out in defence of Emerald Fennell’s new adaptation of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, in which she is playing Cathy opposite Jacob Elordi’s Heathcliff.

Despite being months away from release, the film has attracted criticism for its casting as well as alterations that Fennell has made to the characters. In an interview with Vogue magazine, Robbie said: “I get it … there’s nothing else to go off at this point until people see the movie.”

How elite gamblers buy betting accounts of losing punters to bamboozle bookmakers

The world of professional gambling is secretive by design.

Successful punters find an edge wherever possible and seldom show their hand to rivals when they spot an opportunity to make a killing.

He’s played a reindeer, spent hours recreating Home Alone’s most lethal stunts – and now he’s having a yuletide disaster in Stuffed. The Man Like Mobeen star talks about interfaith Christmas … and why he refuses to go back to Lapland

Guz Khan is developing something of a reputation as Mr Christmas. The comedian and actor is about to release Stuffed, a Lapland-set one-hour comedy co-starring Morgana Robinson. This time last year, he voiced a reindeer in the Richard Curtis animation That Christmas. Two years before that, he made a festive special with James Acaster testing the scientific validity of Home Alone.

“It sounds like, based on all the projects you’ve just listed there, Christmas paid for the extension on my house,” Khan booms down the phone. “Christmas is way better than Eid, bro, based on the facts that you’ve just given me.”

Designer Michael Schmidt’s 36-piece collection was made from the wool of rams who have shown same-sex attraction

When a ram tips its head back, curls its upper lip, and takes a deep breath – what is known in the world of animal husbandry as a “flehmen response” – it is often a sign of arousal. Sheep have a small sensory organ located above the roof of the mouth, and the flehmen response helps to flood it with any sex pheromones wafting about.

Usually, rams flehmen when they encounter ewes during the mating period, according to Michael Stücke, a farmer with 30 years of experience raising sheep in Westphalia, Germany. But on Stücke’s farm, the rams flehmen “all the time”.

Many users of the app were shocked, this week, by this addition to the Spotify Wrapped roundup – especially twentysomethings who were judged to be 100

“Age is just a number. So don’t take this personally.” Those words were the first inkling I had that I was about to receive some very bad news.

I woke up on Wednesday with a mild hangover after celebrating my 44th birthday. Unfortunately for me, this was the day Spotify released “Spotify Wrapped”, its analysis of (in my case) the 4,863 minutes I had spent listening to music on its platform over the past year. And this year, for the first time, they are calculating the “listening age” of all their users.

Whether it’s hair rollers, giant ice cubes or beer mats, your festive favourites make one thing clear: it’s party time

• The best Christmas gifts for 2025

Ever wish you could read people’s minds when giving them their Christmas presents?

Working for the Filter is like having that wish granted, only without the emotional fallout. You see, we get to find out which of our gift guide recommendations you’ve really loved – as opposed to the ones that make you say, “Oh, you really shouldn’t have.”

The director’s two-part revenge saga has now been released as one mammoth movie with tweaks and additions here and there

Quentin Tarantino and his epic revenge saga Kill Bill had, as the vengeful lead character in the movie keeps saying, unfinished business. Actually, Tarantino mostly finished the business of re-integrating two volumes of Kill Bill into a single feature as early as 2006, just a couple of years after the release of Kill Bill: Vol 2. But while that version played at Cannes and had a few more recent runs at Tarantino-owned theaters in Los Angeles, it never reached home video (though some bootlegs attempted to recreate it) or a wide theatrical release. That’s all changed with this weekend’s debut of Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair, a four-and-a-half-hour version of the movie hitting over 1,000 screens across North America.

Tarantino made long movies before and after Kill Bill; features that run over two-and-a-half hours make up the vast majority of his filmography. But in the early 2000s, Kill Bill represented a major pivot for the film-maker, away from his then-signature crime dramas with healthy helpings of black comedy. Tarantino and his Pulp Fiction star Uma Thurman cooked up the character of the Bride – “Q & U” are named as providers of the source material in the credits – as a pregnant ex-assassin who becomes the victim of a vicious wedding-eve attack from her ex-boss/lover (that would be Bill) and their lethal colleagues (those would be the other four on her “death list five”, a phrase whose rhythm recalls Fox Force Five, the fictional TV pilot Thurman’s character in Pulp Fiction once starred in). The Bride unexpectedly survives the shooting, goes into a coma, and wakes up years later desperate for revenge, forming the backbone of a movie that pays extensive tribute to the kung fu, exploitation, and revenge movies of Tarantino’s youth – and his dreams, if the vividly colorful look of the film is any indication.

Brownlow is best known for restoring silent movies, but in conjunction with Andrew Mollo, he made two features, in 1964 and 1975, that look astonishingly prescient today

Anyone who has sat in the dark and watched the beautiful, glowing images of a silent film come to life on the screen has plenty to thank Kevin Brownlow for. Since the 1960s he has been on a quest to collect, preserve and restore these fragile artefacts of early cinema – thousands of which were lost, binned, or melted down for their silver content. He even won an honorary Oscar in 2010 for his efforts. But perhaps less well known is Brownlow’s career as a film director; not just with the various documentaries and TV shows related to his passion for silent movies, but in feature films that are as good as any of the more celebrated products of British cinema’s 1960s and 70s golden age.

Brownlow, in conjunction with co-director (and historian) Andrew Mollo, has two brilliant features on his CV: It Happened Here, released in 1964, and Winstanley, released more than a decade later in 1975. But that was it. Brownlow, now 87, seems pretty sanguine about it. “We did try,” he says. “If producers had been enthusiastic, I’m sure we’d have made at least one more feature.”

Wonderful art, amazing design and beautiful locations have drawn our tipsters to chapels, churches and cathedrals from Norway to Bulgaria

• Tell us about a great charity challenge you’ve taken part in – the best tip wins a £200 holiday voucher

The Tromsøysund parish church, commonly called the Arctic Cathedral, in Tromsø is a modernist delight. The simple, elegant exterior that reflects the surrounding scenery and evokes traditional Sami dwellings is matched by an interior that has the most comfortable pews I have ever sat on. The stunning glass mosaic titled the Return of Christ at one end may not be to everyone’s taste, but to me had power and majesty. Exiting this magnificent building after an organ recital to be met by the northern lights flickering overhead was awe-inspiring.
Bruce Horton

This week’s best wildlife photographs from around the world

Everyone’s favourite former PM is back! Her mission? To save Britain from its current ‘doomloop’ with, you guessed it, a YouTube talkshow

Will you be seeing a pantomime this year? Birmingham’s got Gok Wan and Biggins in Robin Hood, Bradford has Sinitta in Snow White, while Bromley landed Su Pollard for Beauty and the Beast. And at the end of YouTube’s infinite pier, there’s The Liz Truss Show, starring She’s-Behind-You herself. Curtain up on that one is tonight at 6pm.

According to the producers, Liz’s show “confronts the issues that others tiptoe around”. Wow. The lives, loves, and clinical explanations? Let’s just say I’d watch that. Sadly, this doesn’t seem to be the format. Instead, like all seasonal entertainment, The Liz Truss Show is based on a fairytale. “The deep state and their allies in the media and politics tried to destroy me,” madam explains in a statement, “now I’m back.” Are the gilt markets the deep state now? Honestly, I can’t keep up. You’ll remember that the irony of Truss’s flameout at the hands of market forces was particularly acute given that she had spent an entire career explaining that free markets were the greatest judge of absolutely everything. Small ideological adjustment: free markets are now the greatest judge of everything except the ideas and personage of Liz Truss.

Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist

The new strategy lays out Britain’s social disgrace in painful detail. But it also offers hope and a clear way forward that is worthy of a leftwing party

Once Labour set up a child poverty taskforce, it was predestined that the two-child benefit limit would be abolished. Every authority consulted confirmed it as the fastest way to rescue the most children from a life of direst poverty. Every authority, that is, except the general public, who oppose removing the cap by 56% to 31%, YouGov finds. This was an unpopular act knowingly taken for good reasons. Not many will read the taskforce’s findings, but if they did, even the meanest mind might soften: the dismal facts of a child’s life in poverty are, as ever, shocking.

All the many measures in this far-reaching policy will lift 550,000 children above the poverty line by 2030 – the most achieved within one parliament. But that leaves behind about 4 million poor children living without the basics. That still makes us among the most unequal and most poverty-stricken of similar European countries. This is a major factor in why British five-year-olds have now become up to 7cms shorter than children of the same age in Europe.

Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist

From tackling child poverty to being honest about Brexit, the party seems to have recognised the growing electoral threat to its left

What does it take for a small child not to recognise their own name? I’ve been thinking about that for days, since reading the Local Government Association’s recent report on a growing crisis in early childhood. We’ve known for a while about children starting school still in nappies, or speaking in Americanisms absorbed from hours stuck in front of YouTube, or even struggling to sit upright because they’ve spent too long slumped over an iPad to develop core muscles. So sadly, it’s not surprising to read of early-years workers telling the LGA they see more and more pre-schoolers who can barely speak, play with others or contain their rage when things don’t go their way. But it was the practitioner who noted that some children “don’t seem to respond to their name” who got to me. You have to wonder how often that child hears a loving adult trying to get their attention. Too often, another practitioner said, “children are not spoken to at home, but offered screens all day” – at mealtimes, out shopping, or in the car – with parents seemingly scared of provoking tantrums if they take the phone away.

The report describes a complex puzzle with multiple causes: poverty, and the parental exhaustion that comes of a hardscrabble life; growing up in a pandemic; changes in early-years provision; and way too much screen time. It can’t be solved by money alone, but certainly won’t be solved without it. So a two-pronged strategy of lifting the two-child limit on children’s welfare payments – as Rachel Reeves did last week – and intervening early where toddlers aren’t meeting their milestones makes sense. The Best Start family hubs rolling out gradually nationwide will, we learned this week, get Send (special educational needs and disabilities) co-ordinators, focusing particularly on speech and language. They’ll promote the upcoming National Year of Reading to wean kids off screens and on to books, and more generally attempt, on a shoestring, to mimic the support that their predecessor programme Sure Start once offered parents. There’s not enough funding – there never is – but there are the beginnings of joined-up thinking, accepting that tackling problems in nursery rather than in primary school is easier, cheaper and kinder on everyone involved.

Gaby Hinsliff is a Guardian columnist

We know from recent hacks, and even the Snowden revelations, how vulnerable information gathered is to theft and misuse

One thing to remember about the modern world is that nothing online is ever secure. M&S and Jaguar taught us that. Edward Snowden taught us that. Every week, it seems, some giant corporation sees its system collapse at the touch of a button in an attic.

The government this week opened a consultation on its plan for nationwide facial recognition and surveillance. You would need only put your face outdoors and walk down the street and authorities will know and record it. Of course we will be assured that all will be kept secure. It will not. Cash or conspiracy will find it out and it will leak.

Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist

The leaked exchange shows how much the party dislikes scrutiny – which reveals a lot about its approach to governing

• Will Hayward publishes a regular newsletter on Welsh politics and is the author of Independent Nation: Should Wales Leave the UK?

Last week saw one of the proudest moments of my journalism career. Leaked messages from a WhatsApp group containing several senior members of Reform UK in Wales seemed to suggest that the party’s director of communications called me a bad word in January this year. I won’t say the word, but it’s the bad one beginning with C.

Personally I don’t have any issue with being called that inside a private group. I would have considered it a stain on my professionalism if any political party’s comms chief had given me a glowing review. Mates of mine have actually suggested that it’s perhaps the most accurate thing to come out of Reform UK HQ. However, it is symbolic of behaviour from Reform in Wales that makes me far more concerned about what the party would be like in power, and which should worry voters both here in Cymru and in the wider UK. The first concern has to be its attitude to scrutiny.

Will Hayward is a Guardian columnist. He publishes a regular newsletter on Welsh politics and is the author of Independent Nation: Should Wales Leave the UK?

The surge in mental ill health is hugely distressing. That’s why I’ve commissioned a review to find out what’s driving it

Earlier this year, I appeared on the BBC and was asked a question by Laura Kuenssberg that I hadn’t anticipated: did I believe there’s a problem with mental health overdiagnosis?

I gave a simple answer, that yes, I did think there was overdiagnosis, that too many people were being written off, and too many people weren’t getting the support they needed.

Wes Streeting is the secretary of state for health and social care and Labour MP for Ilford North

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.

Seventy years after the Montgomery bus boycott, policies hiding in plain sight continue to ravage the Black community

Friday is the 70th anniversary of the Montgomery bus boycott, which began because Rosa Parks refused to relinquish her seat to a white person, as required by law. While her brave act brought national attention to the civil rights movement and triggered student sit-ins to end segregation across the south, it also subjected her and her husband, Raymond, to constant death threats. Consequently, like many other Black families fleeing Jim Crow south’s racial violence, in August 1957, Rosa and Raymond moved up north to Detroit.

When the Parks arrived in Detroit, they and other Black people did not have to sit at the back of the bus. Nonetheless, the city was permeated by a quieter but no less pernicious type of racism: racist policies, which are any written or unwritten laws and processes that produce or sustain racial inequity. In my book Plundered: How Racist Policies Undermine Black Homeownership in America, I demonstrate how racial covenants, redlining, urban renewal, blockbusting, predatory mortgage lending and racialized property tax administration have stymied the Black community.

Bernadette Atuahene is the Duggan Professor at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law, the Executive Director of the Institute for Law and Organizing, and the author of Plundered: How Racist Policies Undermine Black Homeownership in America

As technology advances, so does the problems it causes. Ministers as well as regulators need to be tough and proactive

Awareness of the harm caused by online pornography is rising. Last month, the government bowed to pressure from campaigners and pledged to make depictions of strangulation illegal. Research showing that a majority of children have viewed this kind of material is extremely disturbing, all the more so given evidence that viewing “choking” makes people – mostly men – more likely to do it in real life. This week, the Guardian examined the distressing effects of deepfake pornography in schools, and interviewed the women behind the successful campaign to criminalise the nonconsensual creation of deepfake intimate images.

Ofcom’s announcement that it has issued a £1m fine to a Belize-based pornography company, AVS Group, thus seems timely. Oliver Griffiths, the regulator’s director of online safety, referred on BBC radio to a “tide turning” as enforcement powers in the Online Safety Act take effect. The age-verification checks on AVS’s websites, introduced to protect children, are judged not to be effective enough. If the company does not pay up, Mr Griffiths said that he would move to block the site.

Parliament’s ban on discussion of the royals is infantile. A committee of MPs has the chance to end the secrecy over their finances

Everyone in Britain has views about the royal family. In many cases, lots of views. Britain’s parliament, however, never lets the subject pass its lips. By long tradition, the House of Commons prohibits itself from any mention, let alone any discussion, of the monarchy or the royal family. This self-imposed gag – in which a centuries-old constitutional monarchy is unable to discuss constitutional monarchy – is infantilising and indefensible.

The gag may, however, be loosening. This week, the Commons public accounts committee announced an inquiry into the crown estate. ​T​he probe is a direct response to news that the disgraced former Prince Andrew (now Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor) and his brother Prince Edward have been paying “peppercorn rents” for very extensive properties owned by the estate. It is an extremely unusual move in the modern era.

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.

Readers respond to an article by the Guardian’s former environment correspondent from his hospital bed

By now we all know the truth spoken by the Guardian’s venerable former environmental journalist Paul Brown from his hospital bed (‘I have watched politicians failing yet and yet again’: lessons from a life as an environment writer, 28 November). Politicians have routinely failed basic leadership principles on even the most profound issues. The US government has taken this to appalling levels, and much of the UK opposition tries to do so too.

Brown and John Vidal’s work – now taken forward by Fiona Harvey, Damian Carrington, Phoebe Weston, Damien Gayle and others at the Guardian – highlights the reality gap between the best of science and the worst of political leadership.

Chris Burgess says her daughter has had to reapply for a wheelchair seven times, in response to an article by Paul Sagar. Plus a letter from Charlie Hislop

Paul Sagar writes eloquently about his experience of the wheelchair service as a well-educated adult, with some access to funds (‘I wish I could say I kept my cool’: my maddening experience with the NHS wheelchair service, 2 December). My 38-year-old daughter was born with a similar level of spinal injury. A wheelchair that is used all day, every day disintegrates after about five years, so she has had to reapply for one seven times. Imagine trying to attend school while negotiating to obtain this essential equipment.

Statistics that support a high level of satisfaction with the wheelchair service do not reflect the experiences of younger disabled people who cannot walk or stand. Disability increases with age, and the typical wheelchair user is an elderly person, often a part-time user who can walk indoors. This may account for the satisfaction with the wheelchair service by older users, who are less dependent on a wheelchair than younger users.
Chris Burgess
Stockport, Greater Manchester

Dr Amanda Nimon Peters responds to an article by Zoe Williams in which she said we should stop using the term

Zoe Williams’ articles are often insightful, but her suggestion that the word “mansplaining” is no longer relevant is a disappointment (‘Mansplaining’ was once a contender for word of the year. Here’s why we should stop using it, 1 December). The foundation of her argument appears to be in the last paragraph, in which she notes that occasionally the term is unfairly applied to men who know what they are talking about.

No one is arguing that there are not many men who do indeed know what they are talking about. That is not sufficient justification to attempt to essentially gaslight women generally into believing that the phenomenon does not exist.

Dating dinosaurs | Quaker community | Inaptly named places | Films on boats

Scott Galloway needs to move on (Interview, 3 December). He’s a dinosaur if he really thinks that “a woman is not going to have sex with a man who splits the bill with her”. Some of us wouldn’t want to have sex with a man who doesn’t want to recognise a woman’s independence – personal and financial – but wants to pay for them. Catch up, Scott! Plutocrats are a real turn-off. Young men need to know this. The more money a man has, the less attractive he often becomes.
Janet Tomlinson
Andover, Hampshire

• Robin Craig’s story spoke to me (A moment that changed me: My unbearable grief kept growing – until I found solace in a silent community, 3 December). It was very poignant and moving. I have been a Quaker all my life, and I’m glad that Robin has discovered them and found the deep peace helpful in his bereavement process. He refers to “Advices and Queries … a kind of mini‑guide for practising Quakers”. My favourite advice in it is “Live adventurously”. Being a Guardian reader certainly helps me to do this.
Christine Hayes
Wokingham, Berkshire

As it turns out, not that much

• See more of Fiona Katauskas’s cartoons here

⚽ Draw begins in Washington DC at 5pm GMT / 12pm local
⚽ Draw explainer | Qualifiers | Follow on Bluesky | Mail John

Benjamin gets in touch: “I am webmaster of www.national-football-teams.com !

“As you can imagine, draw day is quite something when international football is one of your things. I want to chip in on possible groups of death. These are the two of the hardest groups I could come up with:

Argentina

Morocco

Norway

Italy (If they qualify)

Spain

Colombia

Ivory Coast

Denmark (If they qualify)

Canada

Austria

Qatar

Cape Verde

Belgium

Iran

South Africa

Curacao

As Australia’s batting linchpin helps hosts pull away, England’s premier paceman is yet to get him out in a Test

Jofra Archer versus Steve Smith in 2019 is already Ashes folklore. The atmosphere at Lord’s that afternoon was charged in all senses, a huge slab of cloud bringing darkness to the day. Fresh from a match-winning World Cup final, Archer marked his Test debut with what was then the fastest spell recorded for England. Smith was in the middle of a Bradman-hued streak of 774 runs in seven innings. All that could pause him was a short-pitched attack of building ferocity, one that finally dropped Smith with a bouncer to the neck. It was a pure duel, the kind that cause spectators genuine fear.

In the immediate aftermath, and again as Archer took six-fers in wins at Headingley and the Oval, one principal idea came up: imagine, what would he be able to do in Australia? Imagine him on a fast and bouncy track in Perth or Brisbane. It was: “I can’t wait to get you to the Gabba”, but born of admiration rather than antagonism. The show, we all imagined, could be a spectacle.

⚽ All the latest updates heading into the weekend’s action
⚽ Premier League: 10 things to look out for | Email David

Back to domestic matters and last night’s Premier League clash at Old Trafford. Despite looking absolutely woeful against Liverpool, West Ham managed to nick a point with a late equaliser against Manchester United. Ruben Amorim was pretty miffed it’s fair to say.

Ashes news. Quick plug for our other live blog. It was looking a bit grim for England but then two quick wickets! What a catch by Will Jacks! Rob Smyth has the details.

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Out there in the extended WhatsApp metaverse, an exclusive group of footballers send each other memes, jokes and probably much else besides. What goes encrypted stays encrypted but it was only last week that Christian Fuchs, reliable left-back turned Newport County manager, revealed his appointment to the Welsh club had set the notifications buzzing on the “Champions” group, made up of the 2015-16 Leicester City players. Ten years ago today, a Riyad Mahrez hat-trick at Swansea sent the Foxes to the Premier League summit. Jamie Vardy was denied a goal but had just completed a record-breaking streak of scoring in 11 consecutive matches. The following Monday, a 2-1 win over Chelsea sent José Mourinho through the Stamford Bridge door marked Do One. “I want to stay and I hope Mr Abramovich and the board want me to stay because I want to stay,” squealed José. “All at Chelsea thank José for his immense contribution …” came the reply.

That season, everyone trailed in the wake of a Vardy, Mahrez and N’Golo Kanté-charged wrecking ball. Next summer there will doubtless be a 10th anniversary celebration. Their story continues to defy belief. No tactical manual or chalkboard wonk ever divined the sheer inspiration of Claudio Ranieri’s “dilly ding dilly dong” motivational techniques. The problem with football is that you can never truly bask in the past. Just look at Manchester United’s constipations or the deleterious fall of Liverpool, actual champions whose performances have turned even the cheeriest Anfield fan into a Samuel Beckett tragicomedy. Though if you are mining for misery look no further than Leicester in 2025. There is the possibility that the 10th anniversary party will take place in League One.

Did the downfall begin the very next season? Where did it all go wrong, Mr Vardy? An opening-day loss at Hull, a team with no manager, was soon followed by Ranieri’s defenestration: dilly ding, dilly gone. Since then, there’s been tragedy in the 2018 helicopter crash that killed Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, the club’s owner. And good money thrown after bad: Leicester have walked a financial tightrope that may lead to docked points soon, plunging them into the Championship’s relegation zone. When Vardy departed for Cremonese last summer, the last of the immortals departed the tower. The doom has doubled. Ruud van Nistelrooy’s failure to find any fight against relegation last season has been replicated by Martí Cifuentes.

Player-manager on his long road to recovery after a betting addiction, and leading the lowest-ranked team left in the FA Cup

“It’s tough, it’s stressful, it’s completely draining … but I absolutely love what I do,” says Scott Davies, sitting in an empty dressing room waiting for his players to arrive for training. Since 2022, Davies has been the player-manager of Slough Town who, sitting third bottom in National League South, are the lowest-ranked team left in this season’s FA Cup.

Some players are stuck in traffic; training was moved forward to teatime to accommodate a local team’s match on the Arbour Park pitch. When the session gets under way in the bucketing rain, the sixth‑tier side are sharing the 3G surface with a junior team. “I always thought I’d love to be a manager of a non-league football club and have a job on the side,” says Davies. The 37-year-old has opted out of training, instead watching the session from inside, with a tactics board propped up in front of him.

• Mainoo has not started in Premier League this season

• Amorim: ‘I try to put the best players on the pitch’

Ruben Amorim has denied not trusting Manchester United’s academy by pointing to his selection of Kobbie Mainoo in the matchday squad.

Mainoo was an unused substitute in Thursday’s 1-1 draw at home to West Ham. The 20-year-old midfielder, who has been at the club since he was six, has made 10 appearances this season but only one start, against Grimsby in the Carabao Cup.

Van de Ven may be key for Spurs, Wissa could make Newcastle debut and Dyche deserves warm Everton welcome

Arsenal’s recent memories of Aston Villa are of awkward opponents. Mikel Arteta’s side squandered a two-goal lead at the Emirates Stadium when the teams last met, in January, Arsenal dropping two points, their title charge dented. With such little margin for error, it was the kind of day that boosted Liverpool and crystallised the sense that the Gunners would come up short. Villa also defeated Arsenal in 2023-24, abruptly halting a six-game winning streak. Now Arsenal are in a different position, at the summit with a five-point lead – and six clear of Unai Emery’s team. Victory at Villa Park on Saturday, against a side that have lost only once in the league since August, would offer another significant indication that this could be the season Arsenal take the crown. Ben Fisher

Aston Villa v Arsenal, Saturday 12.30pm (all times GMT)

Bournemouth v Chelsea, Saturday 3pm

Everton v Nottingham Forest, Saturday 3pm

Manchester City v Sunderland, Saturday 3pm

The margin may have got smaller but the brilliant Spanish midfielder makes it a hat-trick of No 1 finishes

They say the best things come in threes, and Aitana Bonmatí has written herself into the Guardian’s top 100 history as the first player to finish at the top of the tree for a third consecutive year.

Last year the majestic midfielder emulated her Barcelona and Spain teammate Alexia Putellas by winning for a second year running, but the 27-year-old has now gone one better, establishing herself once again at the top of the women’s game.

Head coach credits loyalty to his trusty Casio watch for helping him lift the Lisbon club after Ruben Amorim’s messy exit

If there is a stoppage in what is sure to be a supercharged Dérbi de Lisboa on Friday, the Sporting head coach, Rui Borges, will likely look down to check the watch he considers a lucky charm.

The black Casio – bought for €20 while still playing for his hometown club Mirandela in north-east Portugal, 150km inland from Porto – is a symbol of his superstitious nature and one he has maintained on his journey from the obscurity of being an amateur coach to making a mark on the biggest stage in club football.

Exclusive: In open letter, 225 groups describe home secretary’s plan to overhaul asylum system as ‘cruel and ‘ruthless’

• UK politics live – latest updates

The home secretary has been urged not to “play into the hands of those seeking to build division” by more than 200 community groups across the UK who have described Shabana Mahmood’s plans to overhaul the asylum system as “cruel” and “ruthless”.

Last month Mahmood announced policies intended to tackle bogus asylum claims and reduce the numbers of people trying to cross the Channel in small boats, including the end of permanent protection for refugees, the escalated removal of families with children whose claims have been refused, and scrapping the legal requirement to support destitute asylum seekers.

Calls for review after technology found to return more false positives for ‘some demographic groups’ on certain settings

• UK politics live – latest updates

Ministers are facing calls for stronger safeguards on the use of facial recognition technology after the Home Office admitted it is more likely to incorrectly identify black and Asian people than their white counterparts on some settings.

Following the latest testing conducted by the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) of the technology’s application within the police national database, the Home Office said it was “more likely to incorrectly include some demographic groups in its search results”.

Footage seen by US senators shows two unarmed, shirtless men struggling to stay afloat before they were killed, sources say

• Experts say Trump’s ‘drug boat’ war is legally shaky

Two men who survived a US airstrike on a suspected drug smuggling boat in the Caribbean clung to the wreckage for an hour before they were killed in a second attack, according to a video of the episode shown to senators in Washington.

The men were shirtless, unarmed and carried no visible radio or other communications equipment. They also appeared to have no idea what had just hit them, or that the US military was weighing whether to finish them off, two sources familiar with the recording told Reuters.

All 18-year-old men to be screened for suitability for armed forces, but proposal falls short of conscription

The German parliament has rubberstamped a new model for military service that aims to boost its armed forces as thousands of school pupils demonstrated across the country against the plans.

The change will include the obligatory screening of all 18-year-old men to gauge their suitability to serve in the military from 1 January, but does not include conscription, as favoured by some conservative politicians.

Text signed by president seems to echo ‘great replacement’ theory, saying Europe faces ‘civilisational erasure’

Donald Trump’s administration has said Europe faces “civilisational erasure” within the next two decades as a result of migration and EU integration, arguing in a policy document that the US must “cultivate resistance” within the continent to “Europe’s current trajectory”.

Billed as “a roadmap to ensure America remains the greatest and most successful nation in human history and the home of freedom on earth”, the US National Security Strategy makes explicit Washington’s support for Europe’s far-right parties.

RSPB says growing trend for honouring species that are in decline is not matched by action on conservation

Britain’s street names are being inspired by skylarks, lapwings and starlings, even as bird populations decline.

According to a report by the RSPB, names such as Skylark Lane and Swift Avenue are increasingly common. Using OS Open Names data from 2004 to 2024, the conservation charity found that road names featuring bird species had risen by 350% for skylarks, 156% for starlings and 104% for lapwings, despite populations of these having fallen in the wild.

Conservationists say changes, coupled with underfunding, will curb take-up and leave less land protected for nature

• UK politics live – latest updates

An ambitious scheme to restore England’s nature over coming decades has been undermined after the government inserted a clause allowing it to terminate contracts with only a year’s notice, conservationists have said.

The project was designed to fund landscape-scale restoration over thousands of hectares, whether on large estates or across farms and nature reserves. The idea was to create huge reserves for rare species to thrive – projects promoted as decades-long commitments to securing habitat for wildlife well into the future.

‘Soilsmology’ aims to map world’s soils and help avert famine, says not-for-profit co-founded by George Monbiot

• George Monbiot: Over a pint in Oxford, we may well have stumbled upon the holy grail of agriculture

A groundbreaking soil-health measuring technique could help avert famine and drought, scientists have said.

At the moment, scientists have to dig lots of holes to study the soil, which is time-consuming and damages its structure, making the sampling less accurate.

In this week’s newsletter: Coroners can’t agree on how to count heat fatalities – and the dismantling of climate investments is leaving fragile communities exposed

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Donald Trump’s decision to boycott Cop30, withdraw the US from the Paris agreement and illegally terminate a slew of investments in renewable energy will not change the reality of climate breakdown for Americans.

In what has become an annual reporting tradition, I found myself in Arizona reporting on heat-related deaths during yet another gruelling heatwave, when temperatures topped 43C (110F) on 13 out of 14 straight days in Phoenix. Before embarking on this trip, I spent weeks combing through hundreds of autopsy reports, which I obtained from two county medical examiners using the Freedom of Information Act. Each death report gave me a glimpse into the person’s life, and I used clues from the case notes to track down friends and loved ones in the hopes of better understanding why heat is killing people in the richest country in the world.

How cyclones and monsoon rains converged to devastate parts of Asia – visual guide

The environmental costs of corn: should the US change how it grows its dominant crop?

‘Those who eat Chilean salmon cannot imagine how much human blood it carries with it’

Americans are dying from extreme heat. Autopsy reports don’t show the full story

‘Deeply demoralizing’: how Trump derailed coal country’s clean-energy revival

‘It happened so fast’: the shocking reality of indoor heat deaths in Arizona

Project will make the famously confusing London landmark easier to navigate and more accessible

“Everything leaks,” says Philippa Simpson, the director of buildings and renewal at the Barbican, who is standing outside the venue’s lakeside area and inspecting the tired-looking tiles beneath her feet.

Water seeps through the cracks into the building below and serves as a reminder of the job facing Simpson and the team who are overhauling the 43-year-old landmark.

EasyJet, British Airways and Ryanair passengers among those caught up in cancellations caused by air traffic control problems

• Business live – latest updates

Flights have resumed at Edinburgh airport after it suspended operations on Friday morning because of an IT issue in air traffic control.

Planes were beginning to take off at about 10.40am, according to a statement posted by the airport on social media.

Access to nature and essential services and friendliness of the people led ‘gateway to the Dales’ to top Rightmove index

It is nicknamed “the gateway to the Dales”, is home to one of England’s best-preserved medieval castles and, for trivia fans, was the birthplace of half of Marks & Spencer. Now, the Yorkshire market town of Skipton has been named “the happiest place to live” in Great Britain.

It received the accolade from the property website Rightmove, which runs a “happy at home” index that is now in its 14th year. The survey asks residents how they feel about their area based on a range of factors.

Gordon McKee, whose explainer has racked up 3m views, leads way as party tries to harness power of social media

• UK politics live – latest updates

A perennial head-scratcher for progressives is how to craft a simple, compelling message on the economy. One Labour MP found the answer in a few packets of M&S biscuits.

Gordon McKee, who represents Glasgow South, has racked up more than 3.3m views on X with an 101-second video in which he demonstrates the UK’s debt to GDP ratio using stacks of custard creams and chocolate bourbons.

Up to 150,000 residents of El Fasher are missing since North Darfur capital fell to paramilitary Rapid Support Forces

The Sudanese city of El Fasher resembles a “massive crime scene”, with large piles of bodies heaped throughout its streets as the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) work to destroy evidence of the scale of their massacre.

Six weeks after the RSF seized the city, corpses have been gathered together in scores of piles to await burial in mass graves or cremated in huge pits, analysis indicates.

The 92-year-old actor made the announcement again as he received an award at the Red Sea international film festival in Saudi Arabia

Michael Caine has offered an update on his possible retirement from acting at the Red Sea international film festival in Saudi Arabia, appearing to call time on his career for the fourth time.

Taking to the stage to accept a lifetime achievement award, the actor said: “I kept going until I was 90, which was two years ago, and I thought to myself I’m not going to do anything else because I’ve had all the luck you can get.”

Ruling likely to put European Commission on collision course with billionaire, and possibly Donald Trump

• Business live – latest updates

Elon Musk’s social media platform, X, has been fined €120m (£105m) after it was found in breach of new EU digital laws, in a ruling likely to put the European Commission on a collision course with the US billionaire and potentially Donald Trump.

The breaches, under consideration for two years, included what the EU said was a “deceptive” blue tick verification badge given to users and the lack of transparency of the platform’s advertising.

Kristi Noem said the list of countries from which travel to the US is prohibited will increase to an unspecified number

• US politics live – latest updates

The US plans to expand the number of countries covered by its travel ban to more than 30, the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Kristi Noem, has announced.

Noem, in an interview on Fox News’s The Ingraham Angle on Thursday evening, was asked to confirm whether the Trump administration would be increasing the number of countries on the travel ban list to 32.

CEO Elon Musk says lower-cost electric car will reignite demand by appealing to broader range of buyers

• Business live – latest updates

Tesla has launched the lower-priced version of its Model 3 car in Europe in a push to revive sales after a backlash against Elon Musk’s work with Donald Trump and weakening demand for electric vehicles.

Musk, the electric car maker’s chief executive, has argued that the cheaper option, launched in the US in October, will reinvigorate demand by appealing to a wider range of buyers.

Halifax says average price of house was a record £299,892 in November but that affordability is at its strongest since 2015

• Business live – latest updates

Buyers attempting to get on to the property ladder in the UK have received a lift, after figures from Halifax showed they are in the best position to snap up a home in a decade.

Britain’s biggest mortgage lender said that the average price of a UK property hit a record high of £299,892 in November, after a marginal month-on-month rise.

Bank of England and FCA to join city minister in Rochdale amid plans to streamline regulation and expand expert support

City regulators have announced a package of changes aimed at bolstering growth across the mutuals and co-operatives sector after the Labour government promised to double the size of the £223bn industry.

Top officials from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Bank of England will join the city minister, Lucy Rigby, in Rochdale – the birthplace of the UK’s co-operative movement – on Friday to set out plans to streamline regulation, simplify applications and launch a new mutual societies development unit to provide expert advice and support.

Dario Vitale exits after one season, having taken the helm from Donatella Versace

Versace has announced its creative director is leaving, less than nine months after taking on the role and two days after the deal to sell the brand to rival Italian fashion house Prada.

Dario Vitale exits after just one season, having taken the helm from Donatella Versace. Prada said it would announce a replacement “in due course”.

From an enraging indictment of Spotify to Del Amitri frontman Justin Currie’s account of Parkinson’s and a compelling biography of Tupac Shakur, here are five titles that strike a chord

Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist
Liz Pelly (Hodder & Stoughton)
Enraging, thoroughly depressing, but entirely necessary, Mood Music offers a timely, forensically researched demolition of Spotify. In Pelly’s account, the music streaming giant views music as a kind of nondescript sonic wallpaper, artists as an unnecessary encumbrance to the business of making more money and its target market not as music fans, but mindless drones who don’t really care what they’re listening to, ripe for manipulation by its algorithm. Sharp business practices and evidence of its deleterious effect on the quality and variety of new music abound: the worst thing is that Pelly can’t really come up with a viable alternative in a world where convenience trumps all.

Men of a Certain Age: My Encounters With Rock Royalty
Kate Mossman (Bonnier)
There’s no doubt that Men of a Certain Age is a hard sell, a semi-autobiographical book in which the New Statesman’s arts editor traces her obsession with often wildly unfashionable, ageing male artists – Queen’s Roger Taylor, Bruce Hornsby, Steve Perry of Journey, Jon Bon Jovi among them – through a series of interviews variously absurd, insightful, hair-raising and weirdly touching. But it’s elevated to unmissable status by Mossman’s writing, which is so sparkling, witty and shrewd that your personal feelings about her subjects are rendered irrelevant amid the cocktail of self-awareness, affection and sharp analysis she brings to every encounter. In a world of music books retelling tired legends, Men of a Certain Age offers that rare thing: an entirely original take on rock history.

From Angels With Filthy Souls in Home Alone, to Deception in The Holiday, fake movies are taking on a life of their own

The cold was brutal and so were the gangsters. It was the first – and worse, only – day of shooting, and when cinematographer Julio Macat threaded some film into his camera, it was so cold that the film snapped. The gangsters flitted around menacingly, fedoras and machine guns at the ready.

Macat was hoping to make a movie that was frightening and strange. “The goal,” he says, “was to scare a kid.” And so, even though it was 1990, he chose to shoot the noir like it was the 40s, with black and white film, fog filters on the camera lenses, and an intense, old-fashioned lighting setup to cast deep shadows on the set.

Robert De Niro stars in a bloody mafia saga from the writer of Goodfellas, while Toni Collette and Andy Garcia charm in a flirtatious rom-dram

Barry Levinson has history with the American mafia, having told the tale of Bugsy Siegel back in 1991. Here’s another chapter in the bloody saga, scripted by Goodfellas writer Nicholas Pileggi. It traces the falling out between “the prime minister of the underworld”, Frank Costello, and his childhood buddy – and previous capo di capi – Vito Genovese in 1950s New York. The mob life is endlessly fascinating, with its twisted codes of honour, rules and power plays, while Robert De Niro does a fine job in dual roles as the thoughtful Frank and the hair-trigger Vito – whose railing against his loss of power threatens to bring down their nationwide crime network.
Sunday 7 December, 2.30pm, 9.45pm, Sky Cinema Premiere

Suzanne Mulholland and Joe Swash help a family to prepare a fuss-free festive spread. Plus: Kate Winslet on directing her first film. Here’s what to watch this evening

8pm, Channel 4
Would you make your Christmas dinner three months before the big day? Suzanne Mulholland – AKA The Batch Lady – swears by a frozen turkey and prepared trimmings in this heavily Lidl-sponsored programme. She and Joe Swash join a family hosting Christmas for the first time to show them how it’s possible to whip up a festive feast in just half an hour, as well as lobster mac and cheese and a tiramisu that the kids can make. Hollie Richardson

The music mogul is back and ready to assemble a new boyband with boot camps, eliminations and the lot – plus a total treat for Swifties

With his stubble, his shades and his belief in the eternal power of the choreographed quintet, Simon Cowell is resolutely unchanging. But has the world changed around him? As an assistant bravely points out, there may be teenagers auditioning for his latest project who have barely heard of One Direction. Appropriately, there’s something old school about this series in which Cowell assembles a new boyband – but, possibly for that reason, as the familiar process of auditions, boot camps and eliminations begins, it’s easy to settle in for the duration. Depending on your feelings about the man himself, of course; inevitably, it stakes everything on the viewer being able to root for Simon Cowell.
Netflix, from Wednesday 10 December

Connoisseurs of all things delicate and deeply felt will love the music put out by A Colourful Storm, the Melbourne-based DJ’s indie label

From Melbourne
Recommended if you like the C86 compilation, AU/NZ jangle-pop, Mess Esque
Up next Going Back to Sleep out now

Melbourne-based DJ Moopie, AKA Matthew Xue, is renowned for engrossing, wide-ranging sets that can run the gamut from gelid ambient music to churning drum’n’bass and beyond. He also runs A Colourful Storm – a fantastic indie label that massively punches above its weight when it comes to putting out charmingly moody experimental pop music, from artists as disparate as London-based percussionist Valentina Magaletti, dubby Hobart duo Troth, and renowned underground polymath Simon Fisher Turner.

In 2017, the label released I Won’t Have to Think About You, a compilation of winsome, C86-ish indie pop. Earlier this year, it put out Going Back to Sleep, a quasi-sequel to that record which also functions as a neatly drawn guide to some of the best twee-pop groups currently working. Sydney band Daily Toll, whose 2025 debut A Profound Non-Event is one of the year’s underrated gems, contribute Time, a seven-minute melodica-and-guitar reverie. Chateau, the duo of Al Montfort (Terry, Total Control) and Alex Macfarlane (the Stevens, Twerps), push into percussive, psychedelic lounge pop on How Long on the Platform, while Who Cares?, one of Melbourne’s best new bands, channel equal parts Hope Sandoval and Eartheater on Wax and Wane.

Elsewhere, Going Back to Sleep features tracks from San Francisco indie stalwarts the Reds, Pinks and Purples; minimalist Sydney group the Lewers; and sun-dappled folk-pop from Dutch duo the Hobknobs. It’s an unassuming compilation that’s almost certain to become well-loved and frequently referenced among connoisseurs of all things delicate and deeply felt. Shaad D’Souza

He’ll be forever known for his festive hit, but Wood was virtually the face of 70s glam rock – writing and performing stomping hits with the Move, ELO and Wizzard

Roy Wood occasionally wrote for others – psych fans should check the Acid Gallery’s splendid 1969 single Dance Round the Maypole – and the single he made with girlfriend Ayshea Brough, an early 70s TV presenter, exemplifies his idiosyncratic pop skills and his kitchen-sink approach to arrangement: kettle drums! More oboe!

(Domino)
Blooming strings, mellifluous guitars and airy vocals make Melody Prochet’s fourth album a calming place to visit – even if there’s a lack of standout tracks

French musician Melody Prochet, AKA Melody’s Echo Chamber, never struggles to find a supporting cast. Her self-titled 2012 debut was produced by Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker. On second album Bon Voyage (2018) she teamed up with Swedish psychedelic rock band Dungen, whose guitarist Reine Fiske popped up again on 2022’s Emotional Eternal and now features on Unclouded. Prochet’s fourth album is produced and partly co-written by composer Sven Wunder, and its dizzying array of contributors also includes Josefin Runsteen (opulent strings) and DJ Shadow collaborator Malcolm Catto (percussive fizz).

Still, somehow Prochet retains her own singular vision. Borrowing a title from a quote by Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki – “You must see with eyes unclouded by hate. See the good in that which is evil, and the evil in that which is good” – Unclouded takes her airy vocals and baroque dreampop into brighter terrain. Some tracks have a 90s vibe, reminiscent of Saint Etienne or Lush. Others have a feel that can only be accurately described in horticultural terms: the blooming strings of the really lovely Broken Roses, or the sprinkles of xylophones that make Burning Man sound like, well, a Japanese garden.

(Brawl)
The violinist sets out on her darkest exploration of yuletide yet, giving a murky and melancholy twist on familiar Christmas standards

Traditional music finds its popular, cosy home in the carol, despite the uncanniness that surrounds the nativity story, and the fraying thread back to the past that each winter brings. A veteran explorer of the season (in 2020’s sparkling Winter Rituals EP with cellist Kate Ellis, and 2022’s starker New Christmas Rituals, with amplified fiddle-playing from André Bosman), Laura Cannell sets out on her best and darkest journey yet here, exploring the time of year when, as she writes on the liner notes, “joy and heartache try to exist together”.

Named after the line in Good King Wenceslas before the cruel frosts arrive, Brightly Shone the Moon begins at the organ – a nod to Cannell’s childhood Christmases in the Methodist chapels and churches of Norfolk. Cannell’s fiddle then quivers around the 16th-century folk melody of O Christmas Tree/O Tannenbaum, as if the carol is swirling in a snowglobe, trying to settle in memory. All Ye Faithful follows, full of murky repetitions of the pre-chorus passages, where choirs usually sing “come let us adore him”. But here, love feels stuck, rooting around like an animal in the ground, a sonic reminder of how smothering and strenuous the winter can be for many.

An eco-masterpiece, icy intrigue, cyberpunkish cyborgs, memory-eating aliens and super-fast travel sends the world spinning out of control

Circular Motion
Alex Foster (Grove)
Alex Foster’s novel treats climate catastrophe through high-concept satire. A new technology of super-fast pods revolutionises travel: launched into low orbit from spring-loaded podiums, they fly west and land again in minutes, regardless of distance. Since every action has an equal and opposite reaction, our globe starts to spin faster. Days contract, first by seconds, then minutes, and eventually hours. It’s a gonzo conceit, and Foster spells out the consequences, his richly rendered characters caught up in their own lives as the world spirals out of control. As days become six hours long, circadian rhythms go out of the window and oceans start to bulge at the equator. The increasing whirligig of the many strands of storytelling converge on their inevitable conclusion, with Foster’s sparky writing, clever plotting and biting wit spinning an excellent tale.

When There Are Wolves Again
EJ Swift (Arcadia)
There are few more pressing issues with which fiction can engage than the climate crisis, and SF, with its capacity to extrapolate into possible futures and dramatise the realities, is particularly well placed to do so. Swift’s superb novel is an eco-masterpiece. Its near-future narrative of collapse and recovery takes us from the rewilding of Chornobyl and the return of wolves to Europe, through setback and challenge, to 2070, a story by turns tragic, alarming, uplifting, poetic and ultimately hopeful. Swift’s accomplished prose and vivid characterisation connect large questions of the planet’s destiny with human intimacy and experience, and she avoids either a too-easy doomsterism or a facile techno-optimism. We can bring the world back from the brink, but it will require honesty, commitment, hard work and a proper sense of stewardship.

From Seamus Heaney’s collected poems and Simon Armitage’s animal spirits, to prizewinners Karen Solie and Vidyan Ravinthiran

Many of 2025’s most notable collections have been powered by a spirit of wild experimentation, pushing at the bounds of what “poetry” might be thought to be. Sarah Hesketh’s 2016 (CB Editions) is a fabulous example: it takes 12 interviews with a variety of anonymous individuals about the events of that year and presents fragments of the transcripts as prose poems. The cumulative effect of these voices is haunting and full of pathos, as “they vote for whoever, and their life stays exactly the same”.

Luke Kennard and Nick Makoha also daringly remixed their source material and inspirations. The former’s latest collection, The Book of Jonah (Picador), moves the minor prophet out of the Bible into a world of arts conferences, where he is continually reminded that his presence everywhere is mostly futile. Makoha’s The New Carthaginians (Penguin) turns Jean-Michel Basquiat’s idea of the exploded collage into a poetic device. The result? “The visible / making itself known by the invisible.”

Anthony Hopkins and Kathy Burke on acting, Jacinda Ardern and Nicola Sturgeon on politics, plus Margaret Atwood on a life well lived

Not all memoirists are keen to share their life stories. For Margaret Atwood, an author who has sold more than 40m books, the idea of writing about herself seemed “Dead boring. Who wants to read about someone sitting at a desk messing up blank sheets of paper?” Happily, she did it anyway. Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts (Chatto & Windus) is a 624-page doorstopper chronicling Atwood’s life and work, and a tremendous showcase for her wisdom and wit. Helen Garner’s similarly chunky, Baillie Gifford prize-winning How to End a Story (Weidenfeld & Nicolson) is a diary collection spanning 20 years and provides piquant and puckish snapshots of the author’s life, work and her unravelling marriages. Mixing everyday observation and gossipy asides with profound self-examination, it is spare in style and utterly moreish.

In Arundhati Roy’s Mother Mary Comes to Me (Hamish Hamilton) and Jung Chang’s Fly, Wild Swans (William Collins), formidable mothers get top billing. In the former, The God of Small Things author reveals how her mother, whose own father was a violent drunk, stood up to the patriarchy and campaigned for women’s rights, but was cruel to her daughter. Describing her as “my shelter and my storm”, Roy reflects on Mary’s contradictions with candour and compassion. Fly, Wild Swans is the sequel to Chang’s bestselling Wild Swans, picking up where its predecessor left off and reflecting how that book was only made possible by the author’s mother, who shared family stories and kept her London-dwelling daughter apprised of events in China.

Space-travelling telepaths, LGBTQ+ activism, a war-torn Britain, online alter egos and feminist trailblazers

Torchfire
Moira Buffini (Faber)
In her 2024 YA debut Songlight, Buffini plunged young adult readers into a dystopian landscape inspired by John Wyndham’s The Chrysalids, with nations bitterly divided by attitudes to telepathy. The second in the trilogy pits the Brightlanders, who persecute those with “songlight”, against the Aylish, who prize them – and the Teroans, spacefaring telepaths who see ordinary humans as disposable. As multiple finely drawn protagonists – including Elsa, searching desperately for sanctuary, Nightingale, forced to appease a terrifying captor, and Rye, trying to understand an extraordinary discovery – fight to find love, acceptance and safety, the book blazes like its title, consuming the reader more fiercely with every page. Fans will find it hard to wait for the final instalment.

We Are Your Children
David Roberts (Two Hoots)
“Words, when hurled like stones, wound deeply,” asserts Roberts, introducing his bright, brilliant history of LGBTQ+ activism by describing his own childhood experience of homophobic bullying. The power of words to wound, but also to tell of authentic living, courage and change, delivered via sit-ins, marches and protests on every scale, is apparent throughout this book, which chronicles queer activism in the UK and US from the 1950s to the early 21st century. Though it contains many stories of violence and suffering, from the assassination of Harvey Milk to the ravages of HIV/Aids, the prevalent mood, emphasised by Roberts’s bold, colourful, expressive artwork, is of defiance, joy and proud hope – from Quentin Crisp’s flamboyance to the iterations of the Pride flag, Julian Hows wearing a skirt as a London Underground worker in the 70s to the first same-sex pre-watershed kiss. An outstanding achievement, setting out via individual, accessible narratives the hard-won rights that remain continually under threat.

Pulled by Steam and Epic Games Store, indie horror Horses shook up the industry before it was even released. Now it’s out, all the drama surrounding it seems superfluous

On 25 November, award-winning Italian developer Santa Ragione, responsible for acclaimed titles such as MirrorMoon EP and Saturnalia, revealed that its latest project, Horses, had been banned from Steam - the largest digital store for PC games. A week later, another popular storefront, Epic Games Store, also pulled Horses, right before its 2 December launch date. The game was also briefly removed from the Humble Store, but was reinstated a day later.

The controversy has helped the game rocket to the top of the digital stores that are selling it, namely itch.io and GOG. But the question remains – why was it banned? Horses certainly delves into some intensely controversial topics (a content warning at the start details, “physical violence, psychological abuse, gory imagery, depiction of slavery, physical and psychological torture, domestic abuse, sexual assault, suicide, and misogyny”) and is upsetting and unnerving.

As the Grand Theft Auto co-writer launches a new project, he reflects on his hugely successful open-world adventures and where game design might go next

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It is hard to think of a more modern entertainment format than the open-world video game. These sprawling technological endeavours, which mix narrative, social connectivity and the complete freedom to explore, are uniquely immersive and potentially endless. But do they represent a whole new idea of storytelling?

This week I met Dan Houser, the co-founder of Rockstar and lead writer on Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption, who has been in London to talk about his new company, Absurd Ventures. He’s working on a range of intriguing projects, including the novel and podcast series A Better Paradise (about a vast online game that goes tragically wrong), and a comedy-adventure set in an online world named Absurdaverse. He told me that, 15 years ago, he was doing press interviews for the Grand Theft Auto IV expansion packs when he had something of a revelation about the series.

PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox; Eyes Out/Blumhouse Games
Psychedelic visuals and a promising premise are let down by tired game design in this first-person horror with an appearance from the synthpop pioneer

Video games have delivered a feast of singular and wondrous sights in 2025: ecological fantasias teeming with magical beasts; stunning, historically obsessive recreations of feudal Japan. But here is an end-of-year curio: psychological horror game Sleep Awake serves us synth-rock pioneer Gary Numan stepping into what is perhaps the schlockiest role of his life – a gigantic floating head named Hypnos.

This late-stage cameo is not quite indicative of the game as a whole; the handful of hours prior to Numan’s arrival are more mournful than madcap. Mostly, you explore the dilapidated, tumbledown streets of what is thought to be the last city on Earth. This setting is a magnificent work of imagination. You see it through the eyes of a young woman named Katja, who moves along rooftops, gazing out upon a barren, lifeless hinterland, into labyrinthine streets whose darkness and arcane logic recall the stirring subterranean etchings of Italian artist Piranesi.

Nintendo Switch/Switch 2 (version tested); Retro Studios/Nintendo
The bounty hunter – Nintendo’s most badass and most neglected hero – returns in an atmospheric throwback sci-fi adventure that’s entirely untroubled by the conventions of modern game design

In a frozen laboratory full of cryogenically suspended experimental life forms, metal boots disturb the frost. A lone bounty hunter in a familiar orange exosuit points her blaster ahead. Making my way towards the facility’s power generator, scanning doors and hunting for secret entrances, broken hatches and hidden keys, I suspect that I know exactly what’s going to happen when this place begins to thaw; every clank and creak sounds as if it could be a long-dormant beast busting out of one of those pods. And yet Samus Aran delves deeper, because she has never been afraid of anything.

This section of Prime 4 is classic Metroid: atmospheric, eerie, lonely, dangerous and cryptic. Samus, Nintendo’s coolest hero, is impeccably awesome, equipped here with new psychic powers that accent her suit with pulsing purple light. (I have taken many screenshots of her looking identically badass all over the game’s planet.) She is controlled with dual sticks, or – much better, much more intuitive – by pointing one of the Switch 2’s remotes at the screen to aim. Or even by using it as a mouse on a table or your knee, though this made my wrist hurt after a while. She transforms into a rolling ball, moves statues into place with her mind, and rides a futuristic shape-shifting motorcycle across lava and sand between this distant planet’s abandoned facilities, unlocking its dead civilisation’s lost knowledge.

With Dog Man making his London theatre debut next summer, theatre makers explain how to make a successful jump from page to stage

From Paddington and the BFG to The Gruffalo’s Child, My Neighbour Totoro to The Tiger Who Came to Tea, there is no shortage of stage adaptations of children’s classics filling theatres at the moment.

This week it was announced that Dog Man, the half-canine crime fighter from Dav Pilkey’s bestselling graphic novels, will make his London theatre debut at the Southbank Centre next summer.

Old Fire Station, Oxford
Things get tense when a newcomer seems to know too much in Karim Khan’s absorbing play

Karim Khan’s absorbing Christmas play offers warmth, doubt, uncanny strangers and a generous handful of sweets from the Pic ’n’ Mix. It all makes for a smartly unexpected festive story. It’s 1999, ticking down to the millennium. At the Woolworths staff party in Oxford (paper hats, sensible shop-floor shoes), Zoya (Gurjot Dhaliwal) chirrups about the wonder of Woolies and her scathing colleague Iqra (Prabhleen Oberoi) scoffs that she has been radicalised. Both Pakistani-born – Iqra is a politics student, Zoya a young wife – they bop and plan their futures, until they are joined by Faiza (Hannah Khalique-Brown), a mysterious holiday temp who knows more about them than seems plausible.

Iqra initially describes the newcomer as “BBCD” (“British-born confused desi”). “British Pakistanis are fascinating specimens,” she sighs. But who is Faiza? A management stooge or spy for Zoya’s in-laws? Or something far stranger? Even as the friends share secrets of the Pic ’n’ Mix, simple questions open up a chasm of anxiety – on the tight square stage, the space between the three actors is tense and watchful. Secrets and surprises start to spill like a scatter of toffees.

Liverpool Playhouse
The story becomes less and less relevant as this slapstick monster pastiche leads to an irresistible sense of chaos

When a film as perfect as Mel Brooks’s Young Frankenstein exists, you might well be forgiven for asking what need is there for a live version? As the opening night of this production hysterically demonstrated, the possibility for chaos thanks to the ephemeral nature of live theatre is reason enough.

That ephemerality created a sequence of events that saw: a cast member (Simeon Truby as Inspector Kemp) join the audience to watch the show, a stage manager announce there would be a pause in the action – leaving Inspector Kemp ad-libbing for all he was worth – and then another member of stage management arrive to tell the audience, “just wait here and … entertain yourselves”. Someone did eventually remember a cast member had been left adrift and Truby was rescued. Then we were told that Inga (Julie Yammanee) had suffered an injury and that Jessica Wright, from the ensemble, would be stepping into Inga’s shoes. Within minutes she performed an astoundingly accomplished tap dance routine. What other medium gives you such moments?

The British Museum is infused with Sufi spirit, Henry VIII’s storied Ottoman dagger gets its own show, Rego’s art is renewed and a Fabergé sets a new record – all in your weekly dispatch

Henry VIII’s Lost Dagger
A curious quest for the Tudor tyrant’s lost, highly phallic dagger in the house where modern gothic began.
• Strawberry Hill House, London, until 15 February

The writer of the Tony award-nominated Slave Play remains in custody after authorities say they found MDMA in his bag

American actor and playwright Jeremy O Harris, known for the Tony-nominated Slave Play, was arrested last month at an airport in Japan on suspicion of attempting to smuggle illegal drugs into the country, local authorities said late on Thursday.

Harris, 36, was stopped on 16 November at Naha airport on Okinawa island after a customs officer discovered 0.78 grams of crystal containing the synthetic drug MDMA in his tote bag, an Okinawa regional customs spokesperson said.

The coffee brand Lavazza engaged Alex Webb, a contemporary street photographer from the Magnum Photos agency, for its 2026 calendar, which explores the rich tapestry of elements that make up the Italian lifestyle

Wait, what? You mean … white? Are they trolling us? Emma Joyce explains all to Nick Miller

Hi, Emma! I’m so pumped to find out what colour 2026 is going to be. Fill me in!

Brace yourself, Nick. Every year since 1999 Pantone chooses a colour for the year, a representation of the zeitgeist – from how we’re feeling to what we’re wearing, how we’re styling our homes and even our eyebrows. Last year’s was the darker shade of beige “mocha mousse”, the year before that was the soft, warm “peach fuzz”.

Forget aprons and baking trays: these tried-and-tested gifts – from a lime squeezer for margaritas to a bare root rose – hit the spot for mothers

• The best home gifts for Christmas and beyond

Mothers do A LOT in the buildup to Christmas: studies show the mental load increases significantly for women in particular. Yet while they’re often the ones finding thoughtful gifts for every relative (and their dog), they can sometimes feel a bit forgotten on the big day.

We’re here to change that, with a selection of the best, most thoughtful gifts for mothers. You won’t find any washing-up sponges, reusable baking-tray liners or three years’ worth of pink leather driving gloves (all genuine gifts that haunt my Christmas past). But there are a few dos and don’ts.

Always wondered what everyday stuff celebrities buy, where they shop for food and the basic they scrimp on? Gok Wan talks Christmas shopping, regretful buys and coleslaw in the Filter’s new column

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Gok Wan is a multi-award-winning UK television presenter, designer, stylist, in-demand DJ, cook and author. His first TV series for Channel 4, How to Look Good Naked, catapulted him into the public eye and paved the way for a further seven series.

He presents weekly on ITV’s This Morning and is the co-host of Magic FM Breakfast alongside Harriet Scott. Gok is an ambassador for JD Williams and the voice of two animated characters in Luo Bao Bei, which airs globally.

From fondue sets to hot sauce, board games to stadium prints, our edit has presents for every budget – even for dads who swear they’ve got everything

• The best Christmas gifts for 2025

All dads want in life is a good book, comfy slippers and, if they’re parenting particularly young children, some peace and quiet (my daughter has just turned one and is learning what her voice is capable of).

We’ve rounded up a selection of gifts for all ages, tastes and interests (silence courtesy of some decibel-dampening earplugs), with enough options for there to be something here for even those impossible-to-buy-for fathers.

Sequins shed, pollute and rarely get worn. From peplum to ribbons, here are the festive alternatives that bring all the glamour and none of the damage

• Jess Cartner-Morley’s December style essentials

Halloween hadn’t even happened this year when my local supermarket began proudly displaying its festive womenswear. Almost exclusively spattered in sequins, it looked much the same as the previous year’s party offering and was already reduced by 50% by – wait for it – 11 November. For £9 you could pick up a black sequin vest a mere two weeks after it was available at an already worryingly low full price.

Judging by the sale and well-stocked rails, the items didn’t appear to be in demand, and with so many identikit sequin garments in existence (more than 500 black sequin vests at the same price and under on Vinted at the time of writing in the UK), what’s the point of producing more every year?

Our beauty editor reveals her festive wish list, from silky socks and home comforts to the perfect blush

• The best self-care gifts for Christmas

I am told that buying for me is difficult, but I’m more easily pleased than people imagine. A vintage Welsh blanket from eBay to add to my collection, a gift voucher, olive oil, a vintage magazine or a perfect mug (they have to be large, pottery, not porcelain, for heat retention, and white inside so I can properly gauge the colour of the tea) will all keep me very happy.

I’ve nonetheless received some brilliantly imaginative presents over the years. My husband once bought me the complete catalogues of the late Elizabeth Taylor’s belongings, which I treasure (and subsequently bought for my best friend). My girlfriends once adopted me a rescue goat, because I adore them. And recently, all my friends clubbed together to commission the ceramicist Alice Mara to make a miniature replica of my house, and it is now my most beloved item.

My husband and I were unable to have children, and then we heard about a new experimental technique

I was 26 when my gynaecologist told me that my fallopian tubes were blocked and there would be no way I could get pregnant. I was devastated. I had always wanted children. It was 1972; I was living in Bishopbriggs, near Glasgow, and working as a college lecturer. IVF didn’t exist, and when my husband and I put our names down to adopt a baby, we were told we had very little chance because few babies were available to adopt at the time. Meanwhile, my gynaecologist tried to open my fallopian tubes. It didn’t work.

I refused to accept that I had no options. I read every article I could about fertility treatment. After three years, I heard about a medical breakthrough by gynaecologist Patrick Steptoe and physiologist Robert Edwards. It was described as very experimental and new.

From picking Royal Mail or a courier firm to avoiding post office queues, here’s how to have a stress-free experience

For Royal Mail parcels within the UK, these are: 17 December for second class and second-class signed for; 20 December for first class and first-class signed for; 19 December for Tracked 48; 22 December for Tracked 24; 23 December for special delivery guaranteed.

Gin and Japanese vodka combine with jasmine tea in a martini-style pre-mix that you could even gift at Christmas

Store this batch cocktail in a glass bottle in the fridge, so it’s ice-cold and ready to go whenever the need arises over the festive period; alternatively, bottle and gift it to a loved one or friend. It’s a citrussy, martini-style union of sake from Peckham, Japanese vodka and London dry gin.

Aidan Monk, restaurant and beverage manager, Humble Chicken, London W1

Chewy, marshmallow-coated Rice Krispie baubles that are as fun to make as they are to gift

These edible baubles make a joyful addition to the Christmas table or tree. Soft, chewy, marshmallow-coated Rice Krispies are studded with pistachios and cranberries, chocolate and ginger, or peppermint candy cane; they’re as fun to make as they are to eat, and they make a perfect little gift. To add a ribbon for hanging, cut small lengths of ribbon, then loop and knot the ends. Push the knotted end gently into the top of each ball while it’s still pliable, then reshape around it, so it holds the knot securely as it sets. Alternatively, wrap each bauble in cellophane, then gather at the top and tie with a ribbon, leaving a long loop for hanging.

From morning drinks to nolo suggestions for the non-drinkers, and from stocking fillers to showstoppers and after-dinner port

I make the same mistake every single year. And that mistake it this: I underprepare. “How is that possible, Hannah?” you may well be asking. “You’re a wine writer with presumably dozens of half-drunk bottles in your flat at any given time?” It’s because I spend Christmas with my parents, who live about two hours away by train, and there’s no way I’m risking the spill of any bottles on EMR.

So, I usually bring up three or so bottles that are always in the recycling bin by Christmas Eve. What I really need to do is not leave things to the last minute, and instead order ahead. And not just for Christmas dinner, either, but for every moment of the day. From the opening of presents to the falling asleep in front of the umpteenth viewing of The Good Life Christmas special, each instance calls for something entirely different to meet the moment.

Five families around the world share their struggles to keep their children away from UPFs

• Parents and young people: share your concerns about ultra-processed foods (UPFs)

The scourge of ultra-processed foods (UPFs) is global. While their consumption is particularly high in the west, forming more than half the average diet in the UK and the US, for example, UPFs are replacing fresh food in diets on every continent.

This month, the world’s largest review on the health threats of UPFs was published in the Lancet. It warned that such foods are exposing millions of people to long-term harm, and called for urgent action. Earlier this year Unicef revealed that more children around the world were obese than underweight for the first time, as junk food overwhelms diets, with the steepest rises in low- and middle-income countries.

TikTokers say it will show the health of your relationship. Does it really show how we think about romance?

What would you say if your partner told you they saw a bird today? Would you mumble noncommittally, or ask a follow-up question?

You might be surprised to know that thousands of people on TikTok and Instagram would judge you if you chose the former.

When you make art proof of virtue, you can make it feel like a drag, advice columnist Eleanor Gordon-Smith writes. Instead, encourage him to develop his own sensibility

• Read more Leading questions

My eight-and-a-half-year-old son is a voracious reader and budding writer. I am very happy that he enjoys reading and want to help him find the next good read. Unfortunately he’s extremely easily influenced by cover art. He will unwrap a gift book and immediately dismiss it and refuse to give it a go if he doesn’t like the cover. He doesn’t even read the blurb. When I was still reading to him, we had a pact that he had to listen to at least one page, and that’s how he was introduced to many of his favourite books despite initial reluctance. I completely understand the appeal of great illustration but, now that he reads chapter books, I wish he could get over the two least important pages. How can I help him not to judge a book by its cover?

Eleanor says: I totally appreciate the virtue of getting him to see beyond the cover but, on the other hand … could you just change the cover?

Whitney thinks Haile would be happier in a relationship. Haile says she’s fine by herself. You decide who’s being too single-minded
• Find out how to get a disagreement settled or become a juror

I’m being treated like a sad case, but I am fine by myself. I’m not interested in dating at the moment

Haile’s happiest when she’s in love. I’m glad she’s found peace, but I worry she’s closing herself off

After my dad died, I tried to cope by keeping busy: a day job, a side hustle, socialising and working out. But I kept bursting into tears in public. At a Quaker meeting, it was as if someone had turned down the volume of the world

It was 2022, and my dad had just died from a rare blood disease. In the aftermath, I quit my PhD and moved back to London from Brighton. I coped by keeping incredibly busy. I regularly informed friends “I’m fine, actually”, as I threw myself into a new job in communications, went clubbing every weekend, picked up a side hustle selling secondhand clothes and got suspiciously invested in my gym routine. If I could just keep busy, I thought, perhaps I could drown out the growing tidal wave of grief.

And it worked, until it just didn’t any more. I began to burst into tears randomly – during a work meeting, at the gym, on my commute – and everyone around me would politely pretend they didn’t notice the 28-year-old man weeping on the tube at 8.30am. I tried to push through it, but my ability to keep up with my own life was faltering, and all of it – the clubs, the job, the gym – suddenly felt unbearably loud and overwhelming.

Major attractions often don’t take lone-parent families into account in their pricing structures, making days out more expensive

I’m frequently irked by family tickets – as a parent of an only child there’s rarely a deal to be had for my circumstances. But at least in my set-up there are two adults. In families with only one earner it must be especially frustrating to be charged as much as a family where there are two.

Vaila McClure from the charity Gingerbread, which campaigns for lone parents, says they are often low earners and have pressures on their finances. “So many single-parent families really struggle to afford to go out,” she says. “Single-parent families shouldn’t be overlooked – they are still part of society. Money shouldn’t be a barrier for them because of unfair ticket pricing.”

Prices are rising on everything from energy to food – but there are ways to cushion the impact

Inflation measures how much prices rise over time. It is measured officially by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Weird tales of meter mix-ups, incomprehensible bills, and to foment the drama, a teenager threatened with a trashed credit rating

On a dark winter’s night, what could be more engrossing than my latest tragifarce about energy firms, guaranteed to set spines tingling?

From Isas to salary sacrifice and inheritance to property tax, here’s how to best navigate the chancellor’s changes

• Your questions about your finances answered

• ‘Struggling to pay the bills’: Britons under pressure react to budget

• Video: tax, pensions and energy bills: how the budget could affect you

After much anticipation, the chancellor delivered her second budget this week, unveiling a series of changes that could affect how you spend and save your money.

Here are some suggestions to consider what might lessen the impact on your finances.

New York venues aren’t required to give out water – but nightlife workers say it could make the difference between a safe evening out and an ER visit

When the Brooklyn metal band Contract performs around New York, they expect a mosh pit: thrashing bodies shoving and jumping along to the music. They also want to make sure the amped-up, usually drunk crowd stays hydrated. Without water, a mosher might feel sick, faint or pass out. “You don’t want anyone to get injured or hurt,” frontman Pele Uriel said.

Most of the spaces Uriel plays or visits have water stations where customers can easily fill up. But some do not. The worst offenders sell bottles of water at astronomical prices, from $5 to $10. “There have been times when I asked for water, but they charged a lot, so I went to the store next door to buy some,” Uriel said.

Venues promoting destruction as stress relief are appearing around the UK but experts – and our correspondent – are unsure

If you find it hard to count to 10 when anger bubbles up, a new trend offers a more hands-on approach. Rage rooms are cropping up across the UK, allowing punters to smash seven bells out of old TVs, plates and furniture.

Such pay-to-destroy ventures are thought to have originated in Japan in 2008, but have since gone global. In the UK alone venues can be found in locations from Birmingham to Brighton, with many promoting destruction as a stress-relieving experience.

If you aren’t getting the quality time or intimacy you need, try these connection experiments to shake up interactions

Lately, life has felt like Groundhog Day: work, gym, sleep, repeat. Between a punishing work schedule, the grim weather and my desire to hibernate, my social life has suffered. I feel dissatisfied, restless and isolated. But I have plenty of friends and active group chats – I can’t be lonely, surely?

Wrong!

It used to be all boozy lunches and late-night carousing. Now it’s hyperbaric chambers and longevity chat. Andrew Carnie, CEO of the private club, explains how life and trends have changed since the Covid era

Friday night in the north of England. On the ninth floor of the old Granada Studios, a very chi-chi crowd is drinking tequila and eating crisps. Not Walkers out of the bag, mind, but canapes of individual crisps with creme fraiche and generous dollops of caviar. A young woman – leather shorts, chunky boots, neon lime nails, artfully messy bob – winks at me from the other side of the silver tray. “Ooh, caviar. Very posh for Manchester.”

Soho House’s 48th members’ club has caused quite the stir. Thirty years after Nick Jones opened the first club in Soho, London, the first north of England outpost of the empire is raising eyebrows. An exclusive club, in the city that AJP Taylor described as “the only place in England which escapes our characteristic vice of snobbery”. (The home, after all, of the Guardian.) An open-air rooftop pool, in the climate that fostered the textile industry because the rain created the perfect cool, damp conditions for spinning cotton. Will it work?

Want to look elegant despite the cold? All you need is lace, a cocktail coat and jewellery that glimmers in the candlelight

The many elegant South Korean brands dominated the year, but France’s faultless Mimétique and the reasonably priced The Ordinary also make the cut

One can’t reflect on this year’s best skincare without acknowledging the domination of South Korean brands. Collectively, Yepoda, TirTir, Anua, Aestura, KraveBeauty, Beauty of Joseon, Dr Althea, Innisfree, Laneige and Then I Met You – to name but 10 of dozens – have succeeded in tempting droves of British consumers away from traditional products and towards very hydrated, unagitated and glassy-looking skin.

Space forbids me from covering all their impressive product launches, and so I’ll pick out Beauty of Joseon’s Relief Sun Rice + Probiotics SPF50+ to wave the Korean flag on the nation’s behalf.

Amid all the fairy lights and tinsel, an understated getup can look a bit curmudgeonly – you need to add some fashion sparkle

Christmas has begun. Don’t come for me with your pedantry about partridges and pear trees. The lights are lit, the turkey sandwiches are in Pret: ’tis the season, already. For the next few weeks we will be in a bubble that has its own festive rules. This is an alternate universe in which it is perfectly acceptable to have Michael Bublé on your Spotify playlist and to drink at lunchtime (to be fair, it is almost dark by then) and non-negotiable to play parlour games.

Christmas also comes with its own set of fashion rules, some of which are set in stone, and others which are updated every year. So I thought it may be helpful to have a quick refresher on how to dress for Christmas. Not least because one of the ways in which this time of year is its own little world is that even people who don’t like parties go to parties.

Irish fashion designer whose linen dresses were a staple of Princess Diana’s wardrobe

Paul Costelloe had a very Irish career. He learned and practised fashion internationally as a migrant in Paris, Milan and New York, and designed for such British institutions as Diana, Princess of Wales, and British Airways at its 1990s zenith.

But he was rooted in the island of Ireland’s terroir, appreciating its fibres, wool and, especially, linen, by fingertip feel as much as eye. Fashion only rediscovered linen after synthetics lost appeal with the oil price shock of the mid 70s. For Ireland, and Costelloe, linen was always an essential resource.

A new overnight bus service in the Netherlands, Belgium and Switzerland offers comfort and sustainability

I feel my travel-scrunched spine start to straighten as I stretch out on the plump mattress, a quilted blanket wrapped around me and a pillow beneath my head. As bedtime routines go, however, this one involves a novel step – placing my lower legs in a mesh bag and clipping it into seatbelt-style buckles on either side; the bed will be travelling at around 50mph for the next 12 hours and there are safety regulations to consider.

Last month Swiss startup Twiliner launched a fleet of futuristic sleeper buses, and I’ve come to Amsterdam to try them out. Running three times a week between Amsterdam and Zurich (a 12-hour journey via Rotterdam, Brussels, Luxembourg and Basel), with a Zurich to Barcelona service (via Berne and Girona) launching on 4 December, the company’s flat-bed overnight sleeper buses are the first such service in Europe.

By avoiding the famous hotspots and travelling in December, we enjoy culinary delights and historic charms without the summer crowds

The copper pot is filled with a custard so golden it looks like liquid sunshine. Our waiter carefully ladles the sugary, egg-yolk elixir, zabaglione, into two bowls for dunking warm pansarole doughnuts. Our conversation stops, a silent competition to nab the last one. We are literally living la dolce vita.

This dessert is a tradition in Apricale, a fairytale-like village in Liguria, Italy’s crescent-shaped region that hugs the Mediterranean. It’s a far cry from crowded Cinque Terre and posh Portofino to the east. This western edge, on France’s south-eastern border, feels more authentic and calmer in the winter, with more local people than tourists. Unburdened from competing with others for reservations, you are free to live in the present. Let spontaneity be your guide – or, in my family’s case, our appetites.

From city rooftops to seafront winter wonderlands, these are some of the best places to slide into Christmas

Leicester Square in the West End of London has its first ice rink, encircling the statue of Shakespeare that has stood on the spot since 1874. Unusually for a London pop-up rink, there are tickets available every day for walk-up visitors, with skating sessions starting every 15 minutes from 10am to 10pm. A bar serves hot chocolate, mulled wine and mulled cider, and Christmas market stalls surround the rink. The attraction is run by Underbelly, best known for its shows at the Edinburgh festival fringe, and is raising money for the Angel Child Fund at The Brain Tumour Charity (optional £2 donation).
Adults and teens from £14.50, under 13s from £9.50, families from £40, until 4 January, skateleicestersquare.co.uk

The route showcases the North Pennines’ unsung landscapes. We road test a 50-mile section that takes in golden forests, high moors and pretty villages

Up on Langley Common the wind is rising. The tussocks under my boots cover the Maiden Way, perhaps the highest Roman road in Britain, but the sense of being close to the sky – today a simmering grey – remains as palpable as it would have been 2,000 years ago. Looking north, a rainbow arcs across the horizon, the full reach of it clearly visible from this high ground. Buffeted by the squall with every step, it feels as though I’m striding across the top of the world, which is apt, since I’m following the new Roof of England Walk.

This 188-mile, multi-day trail was developed by the North Pennines national landscape team, and launched in September. Taking in lofty footpaths and some of the best-loved elements of the North Pennines – among them High Force, Cross Fell, High Cup Nick, the Nine Standards and England’s highest pub, the Tan Hill Inn – the aim is to showcase this sometimes overlooked corner of the country.

From a rose-coloured cottage in the centre of a historic market town to an old windmill on a hilltop with sweeping views

Digging a trench alongside your vegetable bed is an easy way to dispose of food and plant waste, and enrich soil for next year’s crops

On a visit to our friends’ house recently, the subject of food waste came up. They haven’t got a tucked-away spot to set up a compost bin or heap in their garden, and their local council doesn’t collect. They had put their effort into bokashi composting in the past, but with a baby on the way I suspect they’ll have more than enough to do without taking on the added responsibility of caring for a bucket of fermenting kitchen scraps.

But as they’re already accustomed to burying their bokashi-ed vegetable peelings, it got me thinking about how low effort and high impact trench composting can be for those without room for a larger system. Trench composting is the simple process of putting your compostable matter – fruit and vegetable waste, plant material from the garden, grass clippings, leaves, etc – into a trench near where you’re planning to grow your crops next year. Over the coming months, this organic matter will slowly decompose, enriching the soil and improving its structure, making it ready to welcome the following season’s plants. No further effort is required from you to engage in this ancient approach.

Janet’s wishlist, which ran in Leeds Mercury, and letter from Hampshire girl in 1898 unearthed in newspaper archives

The toys on the Christmas wishlist may have evolved in more than 140 years but children, it seems, do not change. That, at least, is the suggestion of a newly uncovered letter to Father Christmas dating from 1883, believed to be one of the earliest known such messages in the UK.

The letter, addressed to “DeAR SAnTA CLAus”, was written by a six-year-old girl called Janet and preserves her idiosyncratic spelling and capitalisation. “PLeAs BRIng a Doll to Me with a cRADEL, AND a TRuMPtet to JiMMie, AND SoMe OTHer THing to MA AND PA,” wrote Janet, demonstrating both a touching concern for her family members and a canny nose for publicity.

Are you feeling festive? If not, here are some great and unexpected shortcuts, from fish pie to ‘intermittent wrapping’ to watching a seasonal film every day of December

If I haven’t wrapped up warm and wobbled around in circles, it isn’t Christmas. I can measure out my life in London’s ice rinks. Broadgate Circus in the early 00s, because it was cheapest and I was skint. Several seasons of Skate at Somerset House with my ex, because it was our “romantic” Christmas tradition (actually, he hated skating). This year, I’ll be mixing old and new: Hampton Court Palace, where people have been skating since the 1800s, and the inaugural Skate Leicester Square. As long as there’s a mug of something mulled afterwards, I’m happy. Rachel Dixon, travel writer

Years ago, a regrettable ex-boyfriend bought me a merman Christmas tree ornament so bizarre that it short-circuited my brain, unleashing something primal within me. Ever since, I have scoured department stores, gift shops and the darkest reaches of the internet for more mermaid baubles, like some kind of gay Gollum. I now have more than a hundred, including a flautist mermaid, several Santa Claus mermen and (my favourite) a merperson who is somehow also a pig and a ballerina. Unboxing my treasures at the start of December is both the first gladdening sign that Christmas is upon us and – arguably – a cry for help. Joe Stone, lifestyle editor, Guardian Saturday magazine

Cristina Dorador is on an urgent mission in the world’s driest desert, the Atacama in Chile. As the rise of drug-resistant superbugs kills millions per year, Cristina has made it her mission to uncover new, life-saving antibiotics in the stunning salt flats she has studied since she was 14. Against the magnificent backdrop of endless plains, microscopic discoveries lead her team of scientists to question how critically lithium mining is damaging the delicate ecosystem and impacting Indigenous communities

Reports of escaped wallabies are on the rise, especially in southern England. But how easy is it to spot these strange and charismatic marsupials – and why would a quintessentially Australian creature settle here?

It was about 9.30 or 10 on a dark, late November night; Molly Laird was driving her pink Mini home along country lanes to her Warwickshire cottage. Suddenly, the headlights’ beam picked up an animal sitting in the road. “I thought it was a deer at first,” Molly tells me. “But when it moved, its tail wasn’t right, and it was hopping. It took me a while to realise, but I thought: that’s a kangaroo!”

Molly’s next thought was: “I’m going insane,” closely followed by, “No one’s going to believe me.” So she got out her phone and filmed it. Later, she posted the video on social media, where she was told it was likely to be not a kangaroo, but its smaller cousin, the red-necked wallaby.

The new Data (Use and Access) Act, which criminalises intimate image abuse, is a huge victory won fast in a space where progress is often glacially slow

For Jodie*, watching the conviction of her best friend, and knowing she helped secure it, felt at first like a kind of victory. It was certainly more than most survivors of deepfake image-based abuse could expect.

They had met as students and bonded over their shared love of music. In the years since graduation, he’d also become her support system, the friend she reached for each time she learned that her images and personal details had been posted online without her consent. Jodie’s pictures, along with her real name and correct bio, were used on many platforms for fake dating profiles, then adverts for sex work, then posted on to Reddit and other online forums with invitations to deepfake them into pornography. The results ended up on porn sites. All this continued for almost two years, until Jodie finally worked out who was doing it — her best friend – identified more of his victims, compiled 60 pages of evidence, and presented it to police. She had to try two police stations, having been told at the first that no crime had been committed. Ultimately he admitted to 15 charges of “sending messages that were grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing nature” and received a 20-week prison sentence, suspended for two years.

The controversy over flags has faded from the national agenda – but street by street, late at night and with ingenious equipment, their raising and removal is the subject of a roiling dispute over local identity

The Christmas lights have gone up in Stirchley. A multifaith mix of stars and swirls add a festive air to the lamp-posts along the main street of this south Birmingham suburb. Stirchley is a modest kind of place, sandwiched between better known (and better off) areas such as Bournville and Moseley, but there is plenty of evidence here of the lively community spirit that last year resulted in the area being named the best place to live in the Midlands.

Posters in shop windows along Pershore Road advertise a knitting group, a neighbourhood winter fair and the local food bank, while in the former swimming baths, now a community hub, friendly flyers for coffee mornings and choirs are stacked.

If you had the chance to write just one last letter, to whom would you send it?

The Danish postal service will deliver its last letter at the end of this month to focus on packages, citing the “increasing digitalisation” of society.

While the public will still be able to send letters through the distributor DAO, it made us think about how we would use that last chance to send a letter.

Perhaps you started Christmas earlier or are making extra special efforts to enjoy the festive season

Are you leaning in to Christmas this year, determined to make the most of the festive season?

Perhaps you put your Christmas tree up earlier than usual? Or, for the first time in years? Maybe you’re embracing Christmas jumper wearing with unusual zeal? Or perhaps you’re listening to Christmas songs earlier than usual? Maybe you’re making more effort to enjoy time with friends and loved ones in the run-up to 25 December.

We want to hear from UK parents with experience in temporary accommodation about the impact on their lives, family and schooling

More than 172,000 children were living in temporary accommodation in England at the end of June, according to the latest quarterly official figures from October.

That represented an 8.2% rise on the same period last year. There are now more than 130,000 households households living in temporary accommodation in England, the figures showed.

We would like to hear from centenarians, their family and friends

The number of centenarians (aged 100 years and over) in the UK has doubled from 8,300 in 2004 to 16,600 in 2024, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Between 2004 and 2024, the number of male centenarians has tripled from 910 to 3,100. During the same period, the number of female centenarians almost doubled from 7,400 to 13,600.

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