Her delivery might be stilted – but Truss’ new YouTube show has grand ambitions: a ‘Trump revolution’ in Britain with the help of an influential US conservative ecosystem

Liz Truss, Britain’s shortest-serving prime minister, began the first edition of her YouTube show with a vow to unmask “the evil-doers” attempting to bring down Britain, the US and Europe. She would, she explained, reveal how an “international network of leftists work to subvert democracy and the will of the people”.

Despite her bleak monologue, Truss pointed to hope from across the Atlantic. “We’re going to look at the Trump revolution and see how this can be achieved in Britain,” she said. “We’ll be talking to the leading lights of the Maga movement.”

I defy anyone to watch the Nigella Christmas special and feel anything but drunk on yuletide bonhomie

If your run-up to Christmas already feels a bit chaotic, there’s always a cosy nook of the TV schedule where nothing but gorgeous, kitsch, heartwarming things happen. And by that I mean the cooking channels, where it’s currently full-on re-run time. Nigel Slater’s 12 Tastes of Christmas, anyone? That episode of Fanny Cradock at Christmas when she folds mincemeat into an omelette? I defy anyone to watch my own personal favourite, 2017’s Nigella: At My Table, Christmas special and feel anything but drunk on yuletide bonhomie. Or just drunk, considering our Nigella’s first recipe is a massive Christmas vodka martini featuring vodka, raspberry liqueur and enough crème de cacao blanc to stun a reindeer. Later, she whips up a no-churn brandy and salted caramel ice-cream and souses some red cabbage with cranberries. Heaven.

I won’t make a single one of these recipes, though; I’m just here to gawp. Behold, my Christmas angel, utterly resplendent in chic, countryside garb and ambling about her fairylight-strewn cottage (even though it’s actually a TV set in Elstree with a BBC snow machine turned up to 11). Ooh, devilled eggs and duck à l’orange? I should make those! (Spoiler: I won’t.)

But whether or not we make these Yuletide recipes, all these festive specials by Nigella, Jamie, Nigel, Keith and Fanny provide a sterling service to the stressed home cook. In the Capital Floyd: Christmas Specials from 2000, Keith isn’t remotely stressed by a 12-pound turkey with giblets or a gravlax starter for nine. Yes, perhaps that’s because he’s been glugging Chateau Lafite Rothschild since 9am, but no one can accuse our man Floyd of an iota of festive fluster. Tom Kerridge Cooks Christmas, meanwhile, is another delight in which he rolls his turkey into kievs with sage butter, mulls cider and whips up some Christmas pud ice-cream. Tom doesn’t so much as break a sweat, and it’s all clearly completely doable with a bit of pre-thought, a good spud peeler and some elbow power! It’s all in the planning, he says.

Obviously, the tinsel-covered elephant in all of these rooms – and the one that’s never, ever mentioned – is that all these Christmas specials were very pre-planned. So much so, in fact, that they were recorded all the way back in April, with a cast of at least 25 researchers, producers, home economists, food stylists and lighting technicians all working for weeks to ensure that Nigella’s cottage is so spectacularly seasonal that we go all misty-eyed while watching the woman whip meringue into snowy peaks.

Grace Dent is judge and co-presenter of finals week for BBC One’s Celebrity MasterChef on Tuesday 15 December and Friday 19 December

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

• The best supermarket mince pies, tasted and rated

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

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

US president finds himself shouldering same burdens of affordability crisis and the inexorable march of time

He was supposed to be touting the economy but could not resist taking aim at an old foe. “Which is better: Sleepy Joe or Crooked Joe?” Donald Trump teased supporters in Pennsylvania this week, still toying with nicknames for his predecessor Joe Biden. “Typically, Crooked Joe wins. I’m surprised because to me he’s a sleepy son of a bitch.”

Exulting in Biden’s drowsiness, the US president and his supporters seemed blissfully ignorant of a rich irony: that 79-year-old Trump himself has recently been spotted apparently dozing off at various meetings.

The most exciting places our writers came across this year, from untouched islands in Finland to an affordable ski resort in Bulgaria and the perfect Parisian bistro

On a midsummer trip to Ireland, I saw dolphins in the Irish Sea, sunset by the Liffey, and misty views of the Galtee Mountains. The half-hour train journey to Cobh (“cove”), through Cork’s island-studded harbour, was especially lovely. As the railway crossed Lough Mahon, home to thousands of seabirds, there was water on both sides of the train. I watched oystercatchers, egrets, godwits and common terns, which nest on floating pontoons. Curlews foraged in the mudflats, and an old Martello tower stood on a wooded promontory.

A further 18 people are in hospital, with paramedics treating more at the scene. Follow updates live

• Main report: NSW police advise people to ‘take shelter’ after Bondi mass shooting

• What we know so far about the Bondi beach attack

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, just released a statement. He said:

The scenes in Bondi are shocking and distressing. Police and emergency responders are on the ground working to save lives. My thoughts are with every person affected.

I just have spoken to the AFP Commissioner and the NSW Premier. We are working with NSW Police and will provide further updates as more information is confirmed.

I urge people in the vicinity to follow information from the NSW Police.

The HCDA, which sought to expose police corruption and violence, was secretly monitored for a decade

Undercover officers secretly monitored a community organisation that sought to expose wrongdoing and corruption in the Metropolitan police, the spycops public inquiry has heard.

Previously secret reports show that the Hackney Community Defence Association (HCDA) in east London and its key organiser were monitored by police spies for a decade.

Mayor of Providence, Rhode Island, says ‘shooter’ still at large, as officials embark on widespread manhunt

• What we know so far about the Brown University shooting

At least two people were killed and nine more critically injured in a shooting on Saturday at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, with the suspect still at large hours after the first shelter in place orders were issued.

Police scattered across the campus and into an affluent neighbourhood filled with historic and stately brick homes, searching academic buildings, back yards and porches for hours late into the night after the shooting was first reported in the afternoon.

Liz Sayce, who led inquiry into department’s failures, ‘distressed’ at carers being blamed for running up huge overpayments

The Department of Work and Pensions needs a management and cultural overhaul if it is to restore public trust after the benefits scandal which left hundreds of thousands of unpaid carers in debt, a key government adviser has warned.

Prof Liz Sayce led a scathing review of the carer’s allowance scandal, which found the DWP system and leadership failures were responsible for carers unknowingly running up huge debts, some of which resulted in serious mental illness and, possibly, criminal convictions for fraud.

Exclusive: More than 150 anonymous channels using cheap AI tools to spread false stories about Keir Starmer, study finds

YouTube channels spreading fake, anti-Labour videos have amassed more than a billion views this year, as opportunists attempt to use AI-generated content to profit from political division in the UK.

More than 150 channels have been detected in the last year that promote anti-Labour narratives, as well as outright fake and inflammatory accusations about Keir Starmer.

Trump-inspired former congressman expected to succeed Gabriel Boric but compulsory voting could create volatility

Chileans will head to the polls on Sunday for a presidential runoff in which the favourite is a Donald Trump-inspired candidate who has pledged to build a wall along the country’s borders to keep migrants out.

José Antonio Kast, 59, an ultra-conservative former congressman who has built his campaign on a promise to expel tens of thousands of undocumented migrants, faces Jeannette Jara, 51, a former labour minister under the current centre-left president, Gabriel Boric, 39.

Shabana Mahmood responds to claims that up to 50% of police officers on sexual violence and rape squads are trainees

The prime minister has commented on “deeply distressing news” from Australia, where there have been multiple deaths after a shooting.

Sir Keir Starmer posted on X: “Deeply distressing news from Australia. The United Kingdom sends our thoughts and condolences to everyone affected by the appalling attack in Bondi beach. I’m being kept updated on the developing situation.”

Baronesses Nadine and Ariane de Rothschild at odds over future of Swiss chateau’s priceless contents

After three generations of genteel discretion bordering on secrecy, the international banking family the Rothschilds has been riven by rival claims to a multibillion-euro fortune including a vast collection of art masterpieces.

The battle now playing out in the courts and media has pitched the 93-year-old senior baroness, Nadine de Rothschild – widow of Edmond de Rothschild, the late scion of the French-Swiss branch of the family – against her daughter-in-law, Ariane de Rothschild, the current baroness.

A letter to the king has added a royal flourish to life at Rothera Research Station, where mail remains a vital link to the world

It might be traditional to write to Father Christmas with a gift list, but when Kirsten Shaw wanted a new postbox for staff at the UK’s Rothera Research Station in Antarctica, she wrote to the king.

The request has resulted in a special delivery for Shaw – a station support assistant who, among myriad other tasks, runs the British Antarctic Territory post office at the station.

Venezuelan politicians battling to end Maduro’s rule reject claims his downfall would thrust their country into maelstrom of bloodshed and retribution

Nicolás Maduro is chased out of office by a massive popular revolt but the Venezuelan military takes to the streets, turning its guns on the civilians who have brought him down.

A palace coup sends Venezuela’s authoritarian leader into exile, sparking a bloody power struggle between members of his disintegrating regime.

Relatives fear for lives of men thought to remain trapped in war after allegedly being recruited by a daughter of Jacob Zuma

Mary hasn’t heard from her son since 27 August, when he told her he was worried he was being sent to the frontlines of Russia’s war with Ukraine. Since then she has been ill with worry.

“I’m honestly really sick,” she said, exhaustion in her voice. “I get anxiety attacks, I’m in and out of hospital, palpitations. It’s just a whole lot. Headaches, I’m dizzy all the time. It’s not easy for me.”

With public service broadcasters starting to look like ‘endangered species’, many want Channel 4 and BBC to work more closely

The prospect of Comcast taking over ITV has prompted concerns about the impact on British public service broadcasting, a fact that Channel 4’s new chief executive, moving from a senior post at Sky, will be all too well aware.

Sky’s advertising chief, Priya Dogra, will now be expected to lead the charge to block her former employer’s takeover plan to protect Channel 4.

Last time the fierce enmity between Mozart and Salieri was adapted for the screen, it won a best picture Oscar. Now a new TV version turns up the temperature several notches – but will its stars develop a rivalry of their own?

“A prodigal son story with God as the father,” is how actor Paul Bettany describes Amadeus, the Peter Shaffer play that became a celebrated film in 1984. Both depict the rivalry between Austrian court composer Antonio Salieri and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, a former child phenomenon whose towering talent exposes Salieri as mediocre and stuck in his ways. Salieri, who believes a composer’s gift to be divine, is so affronted by this upstart that he renounces God and sets about destroying Mozart.

Now Amadeus has been remade for TV, with Will Sharpe in the title role and Bettany as Salieri. The series, which begins with Mozart arriving in Vienna in a rickety carriage and promptly throwing up in the street, is written by Joe Barton, the Black Doves and Giri/Haji writer known for his leftfield approach to genre TV. Little surprise, then, that Amadeus takes liberties with the classic period drama, injecting it with modern-day dialogue and gloriously anarchic flourishes. While I won’t divulge the details of an early sex scene between Mozart and a young soprano, safe to say you won’t look at a macaron the same way again.

As the exam regulator consults about introducing onscreen exams amid complaints of hand fatigue, a young aspiring journalist goes head-to-head with a self-professed expert

This week it was reported that students could soon be sitting their end-of-year exams on laptops after pupils complained of hand fatigue, saying their muscles “are not strong enough”.

With Ofqual preparing to launch a public consultation on the introduction of onscreen exams, we decided to conduct a test of our own, pitting the Guardian columnist Zoe Williams, a seasoned hack of the pen-and-paper generation, against George Francis Lee, our gen-Z journalist in training.

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

• The best Christmas drinks

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

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

Forget homeschooling, how about taking your family on a perpetual gap year and quitting the nine-to-five? Families who did just that share the hostel horrors and mid-trip meltdowns behind the Instagram feed

It was going to be the adventure of a lifetime. Late last year, Josy and Joe Davis decided to quit their jobs, sell their home and pull their two young daughters out of school to travel the world. Though their life in Gloucestershire was good on paper, post-pandemic it had been increasingly feeling like a grind. Josy, 35, a police dispatcher, worked shifts that swung from early morning to late night. Joe, also 35, a logistics manager, was often on call until 10pm. Neither felt as if they could ever switch off – let alone enjoy family time.

Exhausted, Josy caught herself being short with her daughters, Lola and Zara, six and four. “I felt like I spent my days off recovering, rather than actually being present,” she says. Though only in Year 1, Lola was feeling the pressure at school, fretting about where she ranked in the class.

Technology has improved since the 50s and in the last five or six years especially, there has been a lot of progress. But the world is still too often designed without wheelchair users in mind

A lot has changed for people with disabilities since the 1950s, when the then seven-year-old Alice Moira was given her first wheelchair – not least the fact that it was made of wood and she couldn’t push it herself. Technology has come on in leaps and bounds, of course, as has society’s understanding of disability, while moves towards flexible working have, in some ways, made things easier. But wheelchair users still face challenges in a world that, so often, has been designed without them in mind. Recent plans to make cuts to disability benefits in the UK have raised concerns that disability rights might be retreating. Thirty years on from the UK’s Disability Discrimination Act becoming law, Moira, now 81, chats to 25-year-old Lochlann O’Higgins about what their experiences of using a wheelchair have had in common – and how they differ.

Do you remember the first time you used a wheelchair?
Lochlann O’Higgins: No, I was two. My parents told me about it, though. I have brittle bone disease, so I used to break my bones a lot and I couldn’t walk. In the hospital, the first time I got in a wheelchair, I apparently just jumped in it and started wheeling up and down the corridor, having the best time of my life because I was able to move around freely for the first time. The nurses and my mum were scared I was going to crash into a wall.

The Another Chance star does Journey at karaoke and gets the party started with Daft Punk. But which Stevie Wonder track would he like played at his funeral?

The first song I fell in love with
I grew up in New York City, so the emergence of hip-hop really connected with me when I was a kid. Rapper’s Delight by the Sugarhill Gang started me down the road where I am today.

The first single I bought
Let No Man Put Asunder by First Choice, on 12-inch vinyl from Rock and Soul in New York City, with money I’d saved from working part-time at the grocery store.

Everyone needs a hand in the kitchen, and in lieu of any sous elves, Claire Dinhut – AKA Condiment Claire – picks the ones that will make your feast sing

Salt, sweet, bitter, acid, umami. While we don’t think to use too much “sweet” before dessert, it can counterbalance and enhance other flavours. Maple syrup is my sweetener of choice during the holidays because it just tastes cozy. Add it to roasted root vegetables or a poultry glaze, and it’s especially tasty in drinks, from hot apple cider to eggnog and even mulled wine.

You’re reluctant to discuss this with your parents – but doing so might help you shake off the feeling of injustice

I am struggling with the different way my parents have treated me and my brother. My dad started a business when I was five. Now it’s worth several million. My brother was invited by my dad to go into the business when he left university. I was not. By then, the business was well established and my dad stayed on as CEO. My dad gave my brother 80% of it. He will now sell the business and realise millions, meaning he can retire early.

My dad helped me with university fees and house purchases. He’s told me I will inherit the house and whatever money is left when my parents pass away, which is likely to be in about 20 years. I doubt there will be anything left.

Need something brilliant to read this weekend? Here are six of our favourite pieces from the last seven days

Scarlett Johansson’s directorial debut stars the 96-year-old June Squibb, while Netflix’s lovable tweefest sees its heroine move to Rome

Eleanor the Great
Out now
June Squibb stars in Scarlett Johansson’s directorial debut, which premiered at Cannes and tells the tale of the eponymous Eleanor, a senior citizen recently relocated to New York, who strikes up a friendship with a 19-year old – and then stumbles her way into pretending to be a Holocaust survivor.

Lurker
Out now
A hit at Sundance, this is the story of a lowly retail employee who happens to strike up a friendship with a rising pop star, becoming the Boswell to his Johnson, if Boswell was part of a pop star’s entourage. But the path of friendship with a famous person never did run smooth, and the uneven power dynamic soon prompts some desperate manoeuvring in this psychological thriller.

Ella McCay
Out now
Emma Mackey stars in the latest from James L Brooks (his first since 2010), a political comedy about an idealistic thirtysomething working in government and preparing to step into the shoes of her mentor, Governor Bill (Albert Brooks). Jamie Lee Curtis co-stars as Ella’s aunt.

Here’s how to follow along with our coverage – the finest writing and up-to-the-minute reports

A buzzy thriller about a Hollywood hanger-on and a moving documentary following the parents bereaved in last summer’s Southport attack. Here’s the pick of the week’s culture, taken from the Guardian’s best-rated reviews

⚽ All the latest news before Sunday’s live action
⚽ Fixtures | Tables | Read Football Daily | Mail us

There was just one fixture in the WSL yesterday as Arsenal travelled to Goodison Park to take on Everton. Tom Garry was at one…

Smith erases any doubts for Arsenal to seal victory at Everton

• At 2-0 down, England are desperate for a win in Adelaide

• Coach says ‘kneejerk reactions’ are ‘not really our way’

The series is on the line and, in all likelihood, jobs with it. But for Brendon McCullum, the latter is irrelevant. The England head coach has instead backed an unchanged top seven to deliver a fightback in the third Ashes Test and flip a narrative that has already featured talk of a whitewash bubble up.

At 2-0 down with three to play, all wriggle room has disappeared for England. But talk of Ollie Pope potentially being dropped, or even Ben Stokes moving to No 3, was shot down by McCullum as his players resumed training on Sunday afternoon. No going back now was the message.

Forward made an emotional lap of honour at Anfield after a week that put his future at the club in doubt

Mohamed Salah and Liverpool have put politics to shame by showing what a long week truly looks like. It ended with the Egyptian doing a one-man lap of honour at Anfield, an attempt to rebuild trust with the supporters after creating a ceasefire, if not a complete truce, with Arne Slot.

Over the past seven days a lot has changed, but one thing remained the same, Salah started a Premier League game on the bench, not that he needed to wait long for a chance to do his talking on the pitch. He would finish with an assist after playing 75 minutes against Brighton in a game in which he desperately wanted to score. Maybe his parade was the beginning of the end, but it felt more like the start of the apology that should continue after the Africa Cup of Nations, giving both parties space to breathe.

After the tumult of four managers in two years, back-to-back wins have eased some of the unrest at League One club

The last time Plymouth hosted Rotherham was the penultimate Saturday before Christmas 2023, when a dramatic 3-2 Championship win was the last before Steven Schumacher left – in a helicopter, so it is said – for Stoke. Then everything started to go wrong, hence the relief on Saturday when Plymouth beat Rotherham 1-0, relieving pressure on Tom Cleverley and fears of a second successive relegation.

It wasn’t pretty but while a smart first-half finish from Joe Ralls was not quite enough to lift the Devon side out of the League One dropzone, it did send the 14,000 or so Plymouth fans home happy for the first time in months. Cleverley, appointed in the summer, was certainly smiling after a second 1-0 win in four days even if his men spent much of the second half hanging on.

Women’s Super League’s support for clubs outside top flight paying dividends for players and for commercial growth

The rebranding of the Championship to WSL2 was long overdue for a division that needed “a bit more love”, and along with a host of upgrades the arrival of one of the game’s fondly followed traditions has provided a further uplift.

For the first time WSL2 players feature in the WSL Panini sticker album, which was released this week. It features 64 WSL2 collectibles in its third edition, with 48 players and each club represented.

• Lim beats Jeffrey de Graaf to set up Luke Humphries rematch

• Singaporean beat the future champion in 2020

Paul Lim made World Darts Championship history at Alexandra Palace – and then hoped lightning would strike twice against Luke Humphries.

Lim became the oldest player to win a match at the event as the Singaporean, who turns 72 next month, defeated Jeffrey de Graaf 3-1 to extend his own record set in 2020. On that occasion he overcame Humphries and the pair are reunited in round two after the world No 2 produced eight 180s in crushing Ted Evetts 3-1.

• Former striker scored a hat-trick in 1979 derby

• Rowell had been diagnosed with leukaemia

The former Sunderland striker Gary Rowell has died at the age of 68, the Black Cats have announced. He was being treated for leukaemia.

The Seaham-born Rowell, who scored a hat-trick in a 4-1 Division Two win over Newcastle at St James’ Park in February 1979, died on Saturday. His death comes 50 years to the day since he made his Sunderland debut and just a day before the Black Cats host the Magpies in the first Premier League derby between the clubs since March 2016, at which the hosts will mark Rowell’s death.

What had seemed like a routine win for Chelsea became something a lot more mysterious thanks to a cryptic comment from Enzo Maresca in the post-match press conference. “The last 48 hours,” he said, “have been the hardest since I joined the club because so many people didn’t support me and the team.”

But which people? It was far from obvious. There was a clear sense Maresca was directing a message to somebody: he made the statement in response to a question about Malo Gusto’s form and repeated it before clarifying: “I love the fans and we are very happy with the fans.” Nor did it seem that he meant the media; he has never previously given any indication he cares what journalists and pundits say, there was no sense of hostility and he had appeared in perfectly good spirits at his pre-match press conference.

The Manchester City midfielder is in sparkling club form but that doesn’t mean he is the right fit for Tuchel’s England

By the time the World Cup comes around, nine years will have passed since Phil Foden won the Golden Ball as England lifted the Under-17 World Cup. That tournament can be seen in hindsight as a watershed for the English game, the first indication that the elite player performance plan (EPPP) and the England DNA project – taking youth football seriously – might be beginning to pay off.

Youth football is notoriously unpredictable and England’s record in the Under-17 World Cup since shows a failure to qualify and a pair of last-16 exits, but following that 2017 success, England’s senior side have reached two European Championship finals and a World Cup semi-final, while the under-21s have won two European titles. Two previous Golden Ball winners from Under-17 World Cups – Cesc Fàbregas and Toni Kroos – have gone on to win the senior World Cup. Some, such as Landon Donovan, Anderson and Kelechi Iheanacho have had perfectly decent careers. And others have vanished almost entirely: Sani Emmanuel of Nigeria, for instance, won in 2009 then made just 16 senior appearances, 10 of them in the Swiss second tier with Biel-Bienne; while another Nigerian, Kelechi Nwakali, winner in 2015, joined Arsenal but, after a series of loan moves and stints in the lower reaches of the Spanish and Portuguese systems, was kicked out of Barnsley this past summer after returning late for pre-season.

The jailing of a Sudanese militia leader is an anomaly in a world where Putin, Netanyahu and yes, Hegseth, act without fear of international law

It was a rare success for international courts struggling to resist a rising tide of official lawlessness. Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-al-Rahman, a leader of the notorious, government-backed Janjaweed militia that committed genocide in Sudan’s Darfur region from 2003 to 2005, was jailed for 20 years last week by the international criminal court (ICC). He had been found guilty on 27 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Although hundreds of militia were involved, Abd-al-Rahman, also known as Ali Kushayb, is the first person to be convicted of atrocities in Darfur, now again the scene of terrible violence in Sudan’s civil war. The ICC has charged Omar al-Bashir, Sudan’s president at the time, with genocide and war crimes. Ahmad Harun, a former minister, faces similar charges. But both men have evaded arrest.

The artist’s winning Turner prize entry has been hailed for its life and energy, but to some dissenting voices its challenge to the status quo is hard to stomach

Nnena Kalu is an artist. She is also, as of this week, a winner of the Turner prize. Her work – twisting ribbon forms made from old VHS tape, plastic and strips of fabric – has been praised for its “finesse of scale, composition and colour” (the judges), its “emphasis … on the visual, tactile and experiential in art” (Mark Hudson, the Independent) and for being “so full of life and energy … so embodied, so sensuous” (Adrian Searle, this newspaper).

As well as being an artist, Kalu also happens to be autistic, has a learning disability and does not communicate verbally as much as many neurotypical people (she is supported by the organisation ActionSpace). These things shouldn’t matter, and perhaps one day they won’t. However, neurodivergent artists have not historically been given much space by the art world, especially not those with learning disabilities. Four years ago, when Project Art Works – a collective of neurodivergent artists – was nominated for the prize, its CEO, Kate Adams, recounted to me how she was told by a museum professional: “I don’t think it’s right [to have] people with learning disabilities in an exhibition downstairs with an artist of calibre upstairs. They shouldn’t be in the same building.”

New business rates regime that is poised to hit pubs and hotels is latest example of hasty decision-making

There is a heavy cloud hanging over Labour’s Christmas celebrations.

The most recent figures show the economy is going backwards and worse, the slide is prompting recession talk in the corridors of City banks.

The Reform leader bit back over allegations of racial abuse and revealed his strategy: the best form of defence is dragging everyone else into the mire

As the allegations of Nigel Farage’s racist and antisemitic school bullying multiplied, it was hard to keep up with his shifting array of responses. At times, in his evasiveness and discomfort, he has looked like that most un-Farage of things: a nervous politician, anxious not to say the wrong word.

Last week, however, he angrily returned to his preferred posture: brimming with indignation at the moral hypocrisy of elites. He lashed out at the BBC’s “double standards” for indulging the allegations, when the broadcaster itself showed racist jokes and skits back in those days. Farage announced it was not he who should apologise, but apparently the BBC that should say sorry “for virtually everything you did throughout the 1970s and 1980s”.

The OpenAI CEO gushed about the bot’s parental-assistance abilities. Is it really his best child-rearing hack?

Just how does he do it all? Every time I look at the news, Sam Altman’s face seems to be staring back at me. The CEO of OpenAI, a well-known workaholic, is constantly in the public eye explaining how AI will probably cure cancer and transform the social contract and generally change the world. While doing all that he’s reportedly gearing up for OpenAI to file for a stock market listing valuing the company at $1tn, as soon as next year. And he’s also a new dad: Altman and his husband, Oliver Mulherin, welcomed their first child into the world in February. So he’s got a lot on his plate.

Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist

Trump’s racist remarks on Ilhan Omar and Somali immigrants reveals his vision for the US as a white Christian nation

A rally on affordability in Pennsylvania on 9 December devolved into a racist tirade when Donald Trump said to the crowd: “We only take people from shithole countries. Why can’t we have some people from Norway, Sweden, just a few? … From Denmark. Do you mind sending us a few people? Send us some nice people. But we always take people from Somalia, places that are a disaster, right? Filthy, dirty, disgusting, ridden with crime.”

Referring to the US representative Ilhan Omar’s hijab as a “little turban”, Trump continued: “She should get the hell out. Throw her the hell out.” His supporters erupted in chants of: “Send her back.”

The ban on under-16s accessing ‘harmful’ content that began this week has overwhelming approval from adults – even if it had a few teething issues

A few weeks ago, my 14-year-old went into the garage, pulled out his skateboard and told me this was going to be his “skate park summer”. I was curious about what was sparking his renewed interest in an activity he hadn’t thought about since he was 12. His response: “The ban.”

I was thrilled. As far as I was concerned, Australia’s world-first social media law aimed at preventing children under 16 from accessing social media apps was already a success. But this week, as the ban took effect, my son wasn’t so sure. Access to his accounts remained largely unchanged. Many of his friends were in the same position. Across the country, the rollout has been uneven, as social media companies try to work out how to verify kids’ ages.

Sisonke Msimang is the author of Always Another Country: A Memoir of Exile and Home (2017) and The Resurrection of Winnie Mandela (2018)

The US is ramping up the pressure on Nicolás Maduro with a tanker seizure and expanded sanctions following threats and boat strikes

Early in his first term, Donald Trump mooted a “military option” for Venezuela to dislodge its president, Nicolás Maduro. Reports suggest that he eagerly discussed the prospect of an invasion behind closed doors. Advisers eventually talked him down. Instead, the US pursued a “maximum pressure” strategy of sanctions and threats.

But Mr Maduro is still in place. And Mr Trump’s attempts to remove him are ramping up again. The US has amassed its largest military presence in the Caribbean since the 1989 invasion of Panama. It has carried out more than 20 shocking strikes on alleged drug boats. Mr Trump reportedly delivered an ultimatum late last month, telling the Venezuelan leader that he could have safe passage from his country if he left immediately. There was already a $50m bounty on his head. This week came expanded sanctions and the seizure of a tanker.

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The UK art world is finally becoming more inclusive. But greater support must be given to the organisations that enable disabled artists to flourish

The Turner prize is no stranger to sparking debate or pushing boundaries. This year it has achieved both. For the first time, an artist with learning disabilities has won. Glasgow-born Nnena Kalu took the award for her colourful, cocoon-like sculptures made from VHS tape, clingfilm and other abandoned materials, along with her large swirling vortex drawings. Kalu is autistic, with limited verbal communication. In an acceptance speech on her behalf, Kalu’s facilitator, Charlotte Hollinshead, said that “a very stubborn glass ceiling” had been broken.

Kalu’s win is a high-profile symbol of a shift towards greater inclusivity that has been happening in the UK arts world over the past five years. Last month, Beyond the Visual opened at the Henry Moore Institute, Leeds, in which everything is curated or created by blind and partially sighted artists. The exhibits range from Moore sculptures (which visitors are encouraged to touch) to David Johnson’s 10,000 stone-plaster digestive biscuits stamped with braille. Design and Disability at the V&A South Kensington is showcasing the ways in which disabled, deaf and neurodivergent people have shaped culture from the 1940s to now.

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The University of Leeds complex was a prototype for the Barbican – and the work done to it over time demonstrates how brutalist buildings can be humanised, writes Alan Radford

I read with interest about the refurbishment plans for the Barbican (Barbican revamp to give ‘bewildering’ arts centre a new lease of life, 5 December). I spent more than 30 years working on the prototype – the large complex of buildings that the architects Chamberlin, Powell and Bon designed for the University of Leeds, constructed circa 1970.

All of the design features in the Barbican were there in the Leeds complex of offices, laboratories, library and so on, including all the problems. I always explained to visitors that I regarded the Chamberlin buildings primarily as a large-scale piece of brutalist sculpture rather than as a working environment.

Europe must realise its superior economic and military potential has to be mobilised, writes Bill Jones, while Robin Wilson addresses Belgium’s resistance to seizing Russian assets

I wholly support the plea to Europe by Timothy Garton Ash (Only Europe can save Ukraine from Putin and Trump – but will it?, 6 December). One aspect he did not mention was the strategic nuclear balance. Since the late 1940s, responsibility for deterrence has always lain with the Pentagon and has succeeded in keeping the peace, though at times a very fragile version of it.

The recent US statement on defence makes it clear that Europe is no longer seen as a priority by the Trump administration, the danger now being that doubt is crucially being raised as to the credibility of Nato’s deterrent. Without certainty of a reaction in kind, Russia, under its ambitious and risk-taking president, might be tempted to chance its arm in what almost looks like a ceding of Europe by the US into a Russian “sphere of influence”.

Guardian readers share their views on a proposed shorter working week for educators

As a teacher who already works four days (albeit I don’t get paid for the fifth), I can wholeheartedly say it has transformed my relationship with the job (‘Bring it on!’: growing support in England for four-day week in schools, 9 December). I no longer have the dread of weekends and holidays with insurmountable mountains of work. The move to a four-day teaching week would need to be thought about carefully.

I, for one, would not want to have one full day out of school – this would mean four straight days of teaching. In most schools, a day not teaching would equate to five planning, preparation and assessment periods (PPAs).

Nick Moss, Dr Deborah Talbot, Dimitra Blana and Mary Pimm on the prime minister’s plan to ‘protect our borders’ and Donald Trump’s accusations that Europe is ‘weak’ and ‘decaying’

There is something particularly sickening about Keir Starmer’s call for European leaders to “urgently curb joint human rights laws” (Starmer urges Europe’s leaders to curb ECHR to halt rise of far right, 9 December).

It is not just that the human rights lawyer who wrote a key text on the Human Rights Act 1998 has become, as prime minister, an advocate of the act’s undoing, along with all the consequences for migrant families that will flow from that. It is that Starmer shows through this the complete dearth of ideas available to European social democracy.

Relatives of Virginia Giuffre say they are surprised Scotland Yard made decision just before release of Epstein files

The family of Virginia Giuffre have expressed their “deep disappointment” that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor will not face a criminal investigation in the UK over allegations against him.

It was alleged that Mountbatten-Windsor had sex in London with a teenager who was trafficked, and then put pressure on his police protection officer to dig up dirt on her.

Number is stark contrast with estimated 110,000 at far-right activist’s ‘unite the kingdom’ rally in September

The far-right activist Tommy Robinson led a carol concert to “put the Christ back into Christmas” on Saturday in an event that had a huge drop-off in attendance from his last rally in London.

The Metropolitan police said about 1,000 people attended the event at its peak, in stark contrast to the estimated 110,000 who turned up to Robinson’s “unite the kingdom” rally in September.

Training and qualifications body, acquired by private Greek firm in October, to become ‘leaner organisation’

The training and qualifications body City & Guilds is shrinking its UK workforce as part of a £22m cost-cutting drive after it was acquired by a private Greek business in October.

Founded in 1878 by the City of London and a group of 16 livery companies, the original institute developed a national system of technical education, offering qualifications and apprenticeships in fields ranging from manufacturing and mechanical engineering to hairdressing and horticulture.

If Saed is dead he would be most senior militant to be killed since October ceasefire, in attack on car that reportedly left four dead

The senior Hamas commander Raed Saedhas been killed in a strike on a car in Gaza City, the Israeli military said on Saturday.

The attack killed four people and wounded at least 25 others, according to Gaza health authorities. There was no immediate confirmation from Hamas or medics that Saed was among the dead.

White House official confirms Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff will meet with Zelenskyy and European leaders this weekend. What we know on day 1,390

Donald Trump’s special envoy will meet with Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other European leaders in Berlin this weekend, the White House said, as Washington presses for a plan to end the war. Germany said earlier on Saturday that it would host US and Ukrainian delegations over the weekend for talks on a ceasefire, before a summit involving European leaders and Zelenskyy in Berlin on Monday. Zelenskyy also confirmed that he will personally meet with Donald Trump’s Steve Witkoff in the series of meetings: “Most importantly, I will be meeting with envoys of President Trump, and there will also be meetings with our European partners, with many leaders, concerning the foundation of peace – a political agreement to end the war,” Zelenskyy said in an address to the nation late on Saturday.

Kremlin foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov reaffirmed Friday that Moscow will give its blessing to a ceasefire only after Ukraine’s forces have withdrawn from parts of the Donetsk region that they still control. Ushakov told the business daily Kommersant that Russian police and national guard troops would stay in parts of eastern Ukraine’s Donbas even if they become a demilitarised zone under a prospective peace plan – a demand likely to be rejected by Ukraine.

Russia attacked five Ukrainian regions overnight, targeting the country’s energy and port infrastructure, according to Zelenskyy, who said the attacks involved more than 450 drones and 30 missiles. With temperatures hovering around freezing, Ukraine’s interior minister, Ihor Klymenko, said more than a million people were without electricity.

An attack on Odesa caused grain silos to catch fire at the coastal city’s port, Ukrainian deputy prime minister and reconstruction minister Oleksiy Kuleba said. Two people were wounded in attacks on the wider region, according to regional head Oleh Kiper.

Germany has said it will send a group of soldiers to Poland to help with a project to fortify the country’s eastern border as worries mount about the threat from Russia. Poland, a strong supporter of Ukraine in its fight against Moscow, announced plans in May last year to bolster a long stretch of its border that includes Belarus and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad. The main task of the German soldiers in Poland will be “engineering activities,” a spokesperson for the defence ministry in Berlin said late Friday.

About 480 people were evacuated Saturday from a train traveling between the Polish city of Przemysl and Kyiv after police received a call concerning a threat on the train, Karolina Kowalik, a spokesperson for the Przemysl police, said. Nobody was hurt and she didn’t elaborate on the threat. Polish authorities are on high alert since multiple attempts to disrupt trains on the line linking Warsaw to the Ukrainian border, including the use of explosives in November, with Polish authorities saying they have evidence Russia was behind it.

Ukraine’s navy accused Russia of deliberately attacking a civilian Turkish vessel carrying sunflower oil to Egypt with a drone on Saturday, a day after Moscow hit two Ukrainian ports: “Russia delivered a targeted strike using a drone against the Turkish vessel ‘VIVA’, which was en route to Egypt carrying sunflower oil,” Ukraine’s navy said on social media. None of the 11 crew were wounded and the ship was able to continue its journey, it added.

Ukraine received 114 prisoners released by Belarus on Saturday, Kyiv’s PoW coordination centre said. The centre’s statement said that the released captives would receive medical attention, and those Belarusian citizens who so wished would subsequently be transported to Poland or Lithuania.

The watershed summit in 2015 was far from perfect, but its impact so far has been significant and measurable

Ten years on from the historic Paris climate summit, which ended with the world’s first and only global agreement to curb greenhouse gas emissions, it is easy to dwell on its failures. But the successes go less remarked.

Renewable energy smashed records last year, growing by 15% and accounting for more than 90% of all new power generation capacity. Investment in clean energy topped $2tn, outstripping that into fossil fuels by two to one.

Repeated fall storms led to the temporary lake, known as Lake Manly, appearing in basin 282ft beneath sea level

After record-breaking rains, an ancient lake in Death Valley national park that had vanished has returned to view.

The temporary lake, known informally as Lake Manly, has appeared once more at the bottom of Badwater Basin, which sits 282ft beneath sea level, in California. The basin is the lowest point in North America, according to the National Park Service.

Announcement draws anger from Labour MP over refusal to remove tonnes of rubbish dumped near school in Wigan

The Environment Agency is to spend millions of pounds to clear an enormous illegal rubbish dump in Oxfordshire, saying the waste is at risk of catching fire.

But the decision announced on Thursday to clear up the thousands of tonnes of waste illegally dumped outside Kidlington has drawn an angry response from a Labour MP in Greater Manchester whose constituents have been living alongside 25,000 tonnes of toxic rubbish for nearly a year.

Dense, 450-mile-long fog bank lingering over central valley as experts blames unusual combination of weather factors

New Nasa satellite images reveal the scope of central California’s dreary December, caused by an enormous fog formation that has been haunting the Central Valley for weeks, trapping residents in colder-than-usual temperatures.

The low cloud formation, known as tule fog, first formed over central California in November and persisted into early December. The Central Valley typically sees this type of fog during the colder months of the year, when the air near the ground is cold and moist, and the winds are calmer, allowing moisture in the air to transform into a thick layer of fog.

Ince says he resigned as co-host of Infinite Monkey Cage because of what he described as his lack of ‘obedience’

The comedian and author Robin Ince has resigned from his role as co-host of the long-running BBC Radio 4 podcast The Infinite Monkey Cage after a fallout with BBC executives over “problematic” opinions and what he described as a lack of “obedience”.

Ince, who has co-presented the popular science show alongside Prof Brian Cox for 16 years, posted on social media that his personal views, aired outside the BBC, “have been considered problematic for some time” and he “felt he had no choice but to resign”.

Health secretary wrote to Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, urging her to ‘take heat and ideology’ out of debate

The health secretary, Wes Streeting, has called on the Conservatives to maintain the cross-party consensus on gender identity services built before the last election in a letter to Kemi Badenoch.

Streeting wrote to opposition leader on Friday urging her to “take the heat and the ideology” out of debate amid controversy over a puberty blocker trial for children.

Tree, which was planted more than 10 years ago, was felled hours after its Christmas lights were switched on

Two men have been arrested in relation to a “disgusting act of mindless vandalism” after a Christmas tree which had stood in a village for more than 10 years was cut down.

On Wednesday, the tree in Shotton Colliery, County Durham, was felled sometime between 10pm and 11pm, just hours after the Christmas lights were switched on.

Ball will be replaced by Emma Willis but will continue to host special programmes for the station

Zoe Ball has announced she is leaving her role as presenter of her BBC Radio 2 show.

Speaking on the show, the 55-year-old said she would be replaced by the broadcaster Emma Willis. Ball will present her last programme next Saturday and will continue to host special programmes on the station.

Duchess of Sussex says journalistic ethics breached as dad turns to journalist first to break news of leg amputation

When Thomas Markle received bad news about his health earlier this month, he immediately texted someone close to him to let them know. The 81-year-old had been admitted to hospital after one leg swelled up and turned black. “Going to lose the leg today,” he wrote.

The message was not sent to his son, Thomas, who lives with him in Cebu in the Philippines, nor to his older daughter, Samantha, who is based in Florida. Instead, Markle contacted Caroline Graham, the US editor of the Mail on Sunday, who is based in Los Angeles. It was she who called Markle’s two older children to let them know the news. She wrote later that they were “flabbergasted”.

US Central Command reports an ambush on Saturday, the first attack to inflict US casualties since fall of Bashar al-Assad

Two US army soldiers and one American civilian interpreter have been killed and several other people wounded in an ambush on Saturday by the Islamic State group in central Syria, the Pentagon said.

The attack on US troops in Palmyra is the first to inflict casualties since the fall of the former Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, a year ago.

Cuban officials denounce the US seizure of the Skipper oil tanker off Venezuela’s coast. Key US politics stories from 13 December 2025

Cuban officials have denounced the US seizure of the Skipper oil tanker off Venezuela’s coast on Wednesday, calling it an “act of piracy and maritime terrorism”, as well as a “serious violation of international law” that hurts the Caribbean island nation and its people.

The tanker, which was reported now to be heading for Galveston, Texas, was believed to loaded with nearly 2m barrels of Venezuela’s heavy crude, according to internal data from the Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA, as reported by the New York Times.

Greene, 60, praised for the various villains he played during his career but manager says he also had ‘heart as big as gold’

Peter Greene, the actor known for his roles in Pulp Fiction and The Mask, has died at the age of 60.

He was found dead at his New York City apartment on Friday, his manager said, and the cause of death has not been disclosed.

John Vincent on bouncing back after cutting branches, refreshing the menu, and staff learning from martial arts

John Vincent is going back to the future. Four years after selling Leon, the fast food chain named after his father and founded in 2004 with two friends, he has bought it back with hopes of reviving its fortunes.

“In a crisis you need a pilot in full control,” the martial arts fan says, speaking to the Guardian from Leon’s headquarters near London Bridge.

Several European nations are already planning similar moves while Britain has said ‘nothing is off the table’

Australia is taking on powerful tech companies with its under-16 social media ban, but will the rest of the world follow? The country’s enactment of the policy is being watched closely by politicians, safety campaigners and parents. A number of other countries are not far behind, with Europe in particular hoping to replicate Australia, while the UK is keeping more of a watchful interest.

Free2Move, Enterprise Car Club and Co Wheels among those eyeing growth, as well as peer-to-peer firm Hiyacar

• Business live – latest updates

Several car-sharing companies are considering launching or expanding in London, with the imminent closure of Zipcar’s UK operation leaving a large gap in the market in one of Europe’s biggest cities.

Free2Move, owned by the carmaker Stellantis, said it was “closely monitoring the London market”, and “actively assessing” options for its services. It already operates fleets in cities including Berlin, Paris, Rome and Washington DC.

More trains, faster journeys and better reliability promised – but spectre of great timetable fiasco of 2018 looms large

Billions of pounds of investment, years of engineering works – and now, the moment of truth. On 14 December a revamped railway timetable goes live across Great Britain, with the biggest fanfare and radical changes for the east coast mainline, where passengers are promised more train services, faster journeys and a new era of reliability.

But the spectre of a previous, disastrous timetable change from May 2018 still looms over the railway. So will Sunday’s revamp be a great gift for passengers that the industry expects – or usher in a bleak midwinter ahead?

Festive theatrical feasts serve audiences a slap-up dinner with their entertainment. But is what’s on stage as appetising as what’s on your plate?

In west London, a line of smartly dressed theatregoers on a street corner enter a building and walk back in time. We pass through tight lamp-lit corridors and arrive in a cavernous hall, with tables laid and lanterns dangling overhead. This is Charles Dickens’ parlour, where he has just finished writing A Christmas Carol, and it’s dinner time.

The Great Christmas Feast is an immersive production in which a three-course meal is served while a quicksilver Dickens (David Alwyn) narrates his ghost story about the perils of penny-pinching in the season of goodwill. Immersive theatre has evidently concocted a tasty festive offshoot that might suit those tired of watching yet another straight-up adaptation of the classic tale.

The Grand Designs presenter and co-host of Tim & Kev’s Big Design Adventure on living with bats, the most important room in a house and eating fermented shark

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There’s an aphorism that Australians only want to talk about two things – sport and real estate. Do you think we talk too much about real estate?

In my experience, Australians never talk about real estate but the Australian media talks about it all the time. It’s a little bit like politics in the UK, where the right wing occupy a tiny minority and yet they’re all over the BBC. The media will always pick up on something they think should be the topic of national conversation because it sells newspapers. But in my dealings with Australians, I find I talk about pretty well every other subject. There is something very exciting about Australia’s can-do attitude. The British national default is to say, “Maybe, I don’t know – ask me in six months”. We’re very good at circumlocuting an issue. But the moment I get off the plane in Australia, it is, “What can we do?” I love the optimism of Australia.

From Judi Dench’s very naughty tea with Kenneth Branagh to the Peep Show Bake Off special – including Olivia Colman! – here’s your definitive guide to the best holiday viewing. Bring it on

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The Clueless icon plays an aggressive lawyer in sinister series Irish Blood. Plus: Ant and Dec’s ridiculous new challenge show. Here’s what to watch this evening

9pm, Sky Witness

The smash hit sci-fi nostalgia-fest reaches the end game on Boxing Day – so brace yourself for blockbuster whoppers. Plus: Ethan Hawke is a dirt-digging ‘truthstorian’ in a quirky drama full of heart – and more Emily in Paris!

The concluding episodes of the Duffer brothers’ smash-hit coming-of-age, sci-fi nostalgia-fest (maybe the secret of the show’s success is how many genres it manages to incorporate?) will be dropping all over the festive season – and they are blockbuster whoppers. Devotees will be up bright and early on Boxing Day for episodes five to seven (the finale airs on New Year’s Day). Events are dominated by Will’s new powers, which present a massive threat to Vecna. But why is Vecna so wary of the cave in which Max is hiding? As the finale looms, the past and present are set to fall into place – and the now visibly twentysomething cast will be able to move on with their lives.
Netflix, from Boxing Day

Lyttelton theatre, London
Coughlan plays a barmaid, alongside Derry Girls co-star Siobhán McSweeney, in JM Synge’s 1907 classic

Every woman loves a bad boy, or so the cliche goes. Here it is tested when Christy Mahon walks into a pub to confess he has killed his father with a farming tool. It’s not quite the truth but he is, to his own surprise, turned into a local celebrity. Women flock to see him and men hail him a hero.

John Millington Synge’s unromanticised comic portrayal of a farming community in the west of Ireland caused moral outrage at its 1907 premiere at Dublin’s Abbey theatre. This revival by the Abbey’s current artistic director, Caitríona McLaughlin, makes clear that it is something of a woman’s play, ahead of its time, with two female leads abjuring conservative Catholic morality to hope for something bigger than a small, scratching country existence.

The wife of the Trump adviser aims to entice conservative women into Maga – but like much of the rest of the movement, her sales pitch is fundamentally lacking

When Katie Miller, the wife of Donald Trump’s powerful adviser Stephen Miller, interviewed Pete Hegseth on her podcast last week, she didn’t ask him about whether the war secretary had ordered the US military to kill the shipwrecked survivors of an airstrike. She didn’t ask him about the settlement he paid a woman who accused him of sexually assaulting her. Nor did she ask about allegations of alcohol abuse, or the accusation that he had made his ex-wife so terrified that she hid in a closet.

Instead, when Hegseth and his wife, Jennifer Rauchet, appeared on the Katie Miller Podcast, the titular host asked questions like: “If you could write one Hegseth family rule on that whiteboard, what is that?”

As Wham! top singles chart, Minogue draws level with David Bowie, Eminem, U2 and Rod Stewart in the album league table, thanks to a reissue of her 2015 Christmas LP

Kylie Minogue has scored her 11th UK No 1 album, putting her level with David Bowie and Eminem in the league of all-time album chart-toppers.

The album, Kylie Christmas (Fully Wrapped), will sound familiar to her fans: it’s a reissue of her 2015 album Kylie Christmas (which only reached No 12), containing four newly recorded tracks and an altered tracklisting. It had already been reissued once before, in 2016, as the Snow Queen Edition. Nevertheless, the Fully Wrapped version counts as a new album in chart terms, and so continues a non-consecutive run of No 1s that began in 1988, when Minogue’s self-titled debut spent six weeks at the top.

A reboot of Peter Shaffer’s play hopes to repeat the 1984 film’s magic and lure a fresh audience to classical music

Forty years ago, Amadeus won eight Oscars, four Baftas and four Golden Globes – and introduced a new generation to 18th-century music. Millions bought the film’s Mozart soundtrack and it remains one of the bestselling classical music albums of all time, shifting more than 6.5m copies globally, and earning 13 gold discs.

It even inspired a novelty hit when Falco mixed Europop with rap in Rock Me Amadeus – the first German-language song to top the US Billboard chart (Nena’s 99 Luftballons only reached No 2 in the US, pop-pickers).

Unhurried trippy bass lines and poet Iona Lee’s commanding, velvety voice conjure a glamorously unhurried sense of hypnosis

From Edinburgh
Recommended if you like Dry Cleaning, Massive Attack, Nick Cave
Up next Warm Days in December out now, new EP due early 2026

As fixtures of Edinburgh’s gig-turned-performance art scene, Acolyte’s eerie, earthy psychedelia is just as likely to be found on stage at the Traverse theatre as in a steamy-windowed Leith Walk boozer. Their looped bass lines and poet Iona Lee’s commanding, velvety voice conjure a sense of slow-burn hypnosis – and just like their music, Acolyte are glamorously unhurried. They’ve released only a handful of songs in the seven years since Lee and bassist Ruairidh Morrison first started experimenting with jazz, trip-hop and spoken word, but now the group (with Daniel Hill on percussion and Gloria Black on synth, also known for throwing fantastical, papier-mache-costumed club nights with her former band Maranta) are gathering pace.

Colm Tóibín, Robert Macfarlane, Elif Shafak, Michael Rosen and more share the novels, poetry and memoirs that make the perfect gift

I love giving books as presents. I rarely give anything else. I strongly approve of the Icelandic tradition of the Jólabókaflóðið (Yule book flood), whereby books are given (and, crucially, read) on Christmas Eve. Nan Shepherd’s The Living Mountain is the one I’ve given more often than any other; so much so that I keep a stack of four or five to hand, ready to give at Christmas or any other time of the year. It’s a slender masterpiece – a meditation on Shepherd’s lifelong relationship with the Cairngorm mountains, which was written in the 1940s but not published until 1977. It’s “about the Cairngorms” in the sense that Mrs Dalloway is “about London”; which is to say, it is both intensely engaged with its specific setting, and gyring outwards to vaster questions of knowledge, existence and – a word Shepherd uses sparingly but tellingly – love.

Tribute to Sylvia Townsend Warner follows campaign to nominate overlooked women

“The thing all women hate is to be thought dull,” says the title character of Sylvia Townsend Warner’s 1926 novel, Lolly Willowes, an early feminist classic about a middle-aged woman who moves to the countryside, sells her soul to the devil and becomes a witch.

Although women’s lives are so limited by society, Lolly observes, they “know they are dynamite … know in their hearts how dangerous, how incalculable, how extraordinary they are”.

The author on getting hooked on Flann O’Brien, reassessing Kingsley Amis, and why his grandfather was outraged by Watership Down

My earliest reading memory
Not my earliest reading memory, exactly, but my earliest memory of reading with avid enjoyment: The Three Investigators mysteries, a series of kids’ books about three juvenile detectives operating in far-off California (impossibly glamorous to me at the time) under the benign direction of Alfred Hitchcock, of all people. I devoured the first 12 in the franchise.

My favourite book growing up
Like everybody else growing up in the 1970s, I had a copy of Watership Down by Richard Adams on my bedroom shelves – it was the law. I did love it, though. Whatever fondness I have for the English countryside probably comes from that book. I remember my grandfather – a real country dweller – seeing me reading it and being outraged. “A book about rabbits?” he shouted. “They’re vermin!”

Halcyon Years by Alastair Reynolds; Paris Fantastique by Nicholas Royle; All Tomorrows by CM Kosemen; The Salt Oracle by Lorraine Wilson; The Witching Hour by various authors

Halcyon Years by Alastair Reynolds (Gollancz, £25)
Yuri Gagarin, the Russian cosmonaut who was the first man in space, is reborn as a private eye on board the starship Halcyon as it draws nearer to the end of a centuries-long journey. Yuri knows he died for the first time back in the 1960s, long before the technology existed to launch such sophisticated spaceships, but believes his remains were preserved and stored for future revival. Onboard life is modelled on classic crime noir from the 1940s: men in hats, cigarettes and whisky, with no futuristic tech beyond some clunky, glitching robots. As he doggedly pursues the truth about the seemingly unconnected deaths of two teenagers from the most powerful families on the ship, Yuri gradually learns about himself. There’s a conspiracy that goes back generations in this clever, entertaining blend of crime and space opera.

Paris Fantastique by Nicholas Royle (Confingo, £9.50)
The third collection after London Gothic and Manchester Uncanny captures both the reality and the mysteries of contemporary life in Paris in 14 short stories, 11 published here for the first time. Royle is a genius at blending the ordinary with the eerie, and his stories range from displays of outright surrealism to sinister psychological mysteries that play out as suspensefully as Highsmith or Hitchcock. It’s a memorable, unsettling excursion through the streets, passages and banlieues of Paris, and a masterclass in writing evocative short fiction.

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

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

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

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 won nine awards, including game of the year, while newly announced games at the show include the next project from Baldur’s Gate 3 developer Larian Studios

• The Game Awards 2025: the full list of winners

At the Los Angeles’ Peacock theater last night, The Game Awards broadcast its annual mix of prize presentations and expensive video game advertisements. New titles were announced, celebrities appeared, and at one point, screaming people were suspended from the ceiling in an extravagant promotion for a new role-playing game.

Acclaimed French adventure Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 began the night with 12 nominations – the most in the event’s history – and ended it with nine awards. The Gallic favourite took game of the year, as well as awards for best game direction, best art direction, best narrative and best performance (for actor Jennifer English).

Every prize at the The Game Awards from the Peacock theater in Los Angeles

• Star Wars, Tomb Raider and a big night for Expedition 33 – what you need to know from The Game Awards

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 – WINNER
Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
Donkey Kong Bananza
Hades II
Hollow Knight: Silksong
Kingdom Come: Deliverance II

An all-new Croft adventure, Tomb Raider Catalyst, will be released in 2027 – and a remake of the action heroine’s first adventure arrives next year

After a long break for Lara Croft, a couple of fresh Tomb Raider adventures are on their way. They will be the first new games in the series since 2018, and both will be published by Amazon.

Announced at the Game Awards in LA, Tomb Raider Catalyst stars the “charismatic, self-assured, formidable Lara Croft” from the original 1990s games, says game director Will Kerslake. It’s set in the markets, mountains, and naturally the ancient buildings of northern India, where Lara is racing with other treasure hunters to track down potentially cataclysmic artefacts. It will be out in 2027.

The writer’s former partner and her co-star Ruby Ashbourne Serkis describe the bittersweet nature of remounting his 90s play so soon after his death

• ‘We were swimming in the mind pool of Tom Stoppard!’ – actors salute the great playwright

I won’t, I promise, refer to Felicity Kendal as Tom Stoppard’s muse. “No,” she says firmly. “Not this week.” Speaking to Stoppard’s former partner and longtime leading lady is delicate in the immediate aftermath of the writer’s death. But she is previewing a revival of his Indian Ink, so he shimmers through the conversation. The way Kendal refers to Stoppard in the present tense tells its own poignant story.

Settling into a squishy brown sofa at Hampstead theatre, Kendal describes revisiting the 1995 work, developed from a 1991 radio play. “It’s a play that I always thought I’d like to go back to.” Previously starring as Flora Crewe, a provocative British poet visiting 1930s India, she now plays Eleanor Swan, Flora’s sister. We meet Eleanor in the 1980s, fending off an intrusive biographer but uncovering her sister’s rapt and nuanced relationships in India.

Barbican, London
An all British programme featured music by Thea Musgrave, Vaughan Williams and William Walton, with Antoine Tamestit an expressive and sensitive soloist in the latter’s Viola concerto

Antonio Pappano’s evangelical embrace of British music continued apace in a concert featuring a welcome rarity by Thea Musgrave, William Walton’s strangely neglected Viola Concerto, and the latest in his ongoing Vaughan Williams cycle, the evocative A London Symphony.

Musgrave, still composing at 97, wrote Phoenix Rising in 1997 for the late Andrew Davis, to whom Pappano dedicated this concert. A 23-minute rollercoaster, it pits a blackguardly timpanist and his stick-wielding allies against a devil-may-care hornist and his brassy backup band. The horn player enters from off stage, the timpanist stalks off in a huff, and somewhere in the middle, for no immediately discernible reason, a phoenix soars aloft in an iridescent haze of tuned percussion. Pappano and the London Symphony Orchestra gave it a thorough workout with marimba, vibraphone, glockenspiel, xylophone and tubular bells creating a magical aura. The musicians certainly revelled in its prickly harmonies, though the theatrical elements might have been pushed further.

Tate stresses its departing director has ‘diversified’ the collection, but it has hidden its treasures and let its galleries slide into insulting incoherence – and visitors have voted with their absence

In the last nine years Tate has had some hits, but its misses have become embarrassing. Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall is currently occupied by a feeble installation that would be weak in an ordinary-sized art space, let alone this gigantic one. It’s become genuinely hard to understand what Tate’s priorities are when it chooses artists for the annual Turbine Hall commission. And the Turner prize is even more mystifying. Once the stage of shocking, provocative art that engaged – whether they were for or against – a massive public, it has retreated into wilful obscurity, its trips around the UK starting to seem part of a studied wholesomeness. What’s the point of staging it in Bradford when the shortlist just exports the enigmatic tastes of a metropolitan elite?

Is Maria Balshaw, who is quitting her post as director of Tate, solely responsible for this? No, but perhaps she is courageously taking the blame and allowing the institution to reinvent itself as it needs to, fast. The achievements Tate stresses in its announcement of her departure centre on how she has “diversified” the collection, exhibition and audiences. But in that noble quest, there has been a loss of artistic ambition, aesthetic thrills, raw horror and beauty. Sometimes we really do want art for art’s sake and Tate has lost sight of that.

Wigmore Hall, London
A beautifully controlled programme of Chopin, Rameau, and the latter’s long-forgotten contemporary Duphly, showcased the pianist’s unerring sense of line

Siberian-born Pavel Kolesnikov soared into view after winning the Honens piano competition in 2012 in his early 20s. More than a decade later, he has established a mix of standard concerto performances with idiosyncratic, smaller-scale projects: a choreographic collaboration, chamber-music partnerships and imaginatively off-piste recital programming.

For his latest Wigmore Hall appearance, bookending 18th-century French keyboard music with Chopin, Kolesnikov sloped on to the stage largely hidden behind his own hair. He sat abruptly but caressed the opening of Chopin’s Waltz in C sharp minor Op 62 No 2 as if he’d been at the keyboard for hours, his touch cashmere-soft, the sound almost outrageously intimate. Movements from a suite by the long-forgotten French composer Jacques Duphly followed without a break. Kolesnikov emphasised the contrasts – between spare, crisply articulated contrapuntal meandering and flurries of liquid passagework, the harsh and the barely audible – as if the five movements were a single fantasia composed in Chopin’s era, not Duphly’s.

The former X Factor judge is back, auditioning boyband wannabes for his latest talent show – but gen Z doesn’t seem to care very much, or even know who he is

Have we gone back in time to 2010? If only! No, Simon Cowell is just back in the headlines, reasserting his svengali status for his new Netflix show. Reviews suggest that Cowell’s attempted comeback, 15 years since his celebrity peak, highlights less his particular star power than how totally the world has moved on. But is there anything to learn from SyCo now, and will his new boyband work? Let’s see!

1. Cowell is chasing a new direction

This spectacular image taken in Sakrisøy, Norway, triggered accusations that it was simply too good to be true

Yuan Li splits his time between two careers: in the winter, he works as a ski instructor; in summer, a photographer. When he took this image, Beijing-based Li was visiting Norway and Iceland with friends, on a trip focused on sightseeing and photographing the aurora borealis. He captured this picture while exploring Sakrisøy, a small island in Lofoten, Norway. In the foreground sits this distinctive yellow homestay; in the background, Olstinden mountain.

“It had snowed heavily all day,” Li recalls. “As I was setting up to capture this scene, the snow stopped and the sun came out, which made the perfect environment for taking photos.”

My reduced vision badly affected my ability to appreciate films and art, but the stripped-back staging and immediacy of the play gave me back my sense of self

I began to notice my sight deteriorating in my 40s, but not just in the way that you expect it to with age. I had night blindness and blind spots in my field of view. At 44, I was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, a genetic eye condition that causes the retina cells to die. I had always been a very visually oriented person: I was a practising architect, and someone who loved to read, draw, go to the cinema and visit art exhibitions. So when black text disappeared on a glaring white page, films became impossible to follow and artworks only took shape once explained to me, I questioned who I would be without my vision.

Around the age of 50, I had a particularly stressful year: I got divorced; dissolved my business; started a new job; moved house; and my dad died. As my life fell off a cliff, so did my eyesight, so that by 2015 my field of vision had decreased to only 5-10 degrees (a healthy average person’s is about 200 degrees). I was registered blind, but for a long time I lived in denial, not telling anyone how much vision I had lost. At work, feeling vulnerable and like I could lose my job, I presented as fully sighted, a daily performance that became exhausting. I was in survival mode, focusing on putting one foot in front of the other, hoping I wouldn’t get found out. I refused to see myself as disabled, and resisted using a white stick, but once I eventually did, I found people saw my disability before they saw me. I felt a total loss of identity. And I stopped doing the cultural things that once brought me joy.

Colour-coordinating couples are nothing new, but Timothée Chalamet and Kylie Jenner still caught the eye

When the Hollywood star Timothée Chalamet and the media personality and businesswoman Kylie Jenner appeared at the LA premiere of his new film, Marty Supreme, this week, they appeared to have been Tangoed.

Dressed head to toe in matching bright orange outfits made by the LA-based brand Chrome Hearts, they drew strong reactions online. “I have now confirmed there is such a thing as too much orange,” said one on Reddit.

Whether giving as a festive gift or just enjoying during your own yuletide celebrations, these whiskies – and whiskeys – will bring the warmth

• I tried 60 low- and no-alcohol drinks: here are my favourite beers, wines and spirits

Searching for a whisky this Christmas? From Speysides to single malts, Japanese whiskies and special edition bottlings, the sheer choice can be overwhelming.

If you’re looking for a delicious dram to enjoy with your mince pie, a versatile bottle to have on standby this party season or the perfect gift, there’s a whisky out there with your name on it. It needn’t cost the earth either: I’ve found sustainable B Corp whiskies and pocket-friendly blends along with higher-end options to suit everyone’s budget.

From sustainable and low-alcohol tipples to Snoop Dogg and Dr Dre’s surprisingly sippable bottle, these are the gins worth your time – and tonic – this Christmas

• The best whisky, from scotch and single malt to bourbon

It’s party season; better make sure the bar cart is fully stocked before friends and family descend. Gin forms the basis of many well-known cocktails, including the negroni, French 75, bramble, gimlet and – 2025’s favourite – the martini. Selecting a decent bottle – or two – will give your usual G&T an upgrade and ensure your Christmas drinks party will be one to remember.

But what is gin? Essentially, it’s a distilled alcohol made from a neutral spirit (usually derived from grain), flavoured with juniper berries and bottled at 37.5% ABV minimum. So, distillers have relative freedom to play around with ingredients, infusions and distillation methods – creating a huge range of gin styles but making it tricky to pick out the right bottle for you.

Our styling editor shares her favourite looks for getting dressed up to the nines

• The best flat shoes for party season

It’s party season, a time of year that either fills you with sartorial dread or has you screaming with excitement as you get to wear yet another embellished dress to the pub on Friday night (‘tis the season after all).

I spend most of the year wearing navy trousers and oversized shirts, but there’s something about a party dress that speaks to my inner J-Lo. Give me applique flowers, cowl necks, asymmetric hemlines and lace edging, perhaps with an oversized blazer or knee-high boots. The options are endless and, in my opinion, during the silly season, the usual rules don’t apply. Here are the best party dress picks for December and beyond.

From festive gin sets and cult tequila to beautifully boxed fizz, these Christmas-ready bottles make ideal presents for even the trickiest people on your list

• The best whisky, tested

For the person who has everything – or insists they don’t want a gift – a bottle of something fabulous is often the safest idea. With many brands going the extra mile to make their drinks more desirable at Christmas, it is possible to pick out something special.

Whether you’re looking for a hostess gift to impress, are shopping for hard-to-buy-for dads, or you’ve drawn the short straw in the work secret santa, a well-chosen bottle is a solid choice. From festive gin and cult-classic tequila to painstakingly curated wines and English fizz, there’s a bottle for every taste and budget.

Over-the-top praise for an item should ring alarm bells, with fake feedback generated by AI, bots and humans on a mass scale

You’re doing a spot of online Christmas shopping and see an air fryer that is competitively priced. You don’t recognise the brand, but the reviews are fantastic – five-star raves that say things such as “this product changed my life” and “this is the greatest air fryer ever”.

You buy it, but when it arrives it is clearly cheap and poor quality, and possibly dangerous, too.

Ash Jacks McCready had low expectations for her first date with Tom, but after an awkward start, their relationship moved fast and wild

• Find more stories from the moment I knew series

In high school I was in an all-consuming relationship with one thing: dance. Any free time I had was spent on working towards a coveted spot at a performance company.

As soon as I graduated school in Brisbane, I left to begin my career as a performer.

Three sweet treats for even the fussiest sweet tooth: fig and hazelnut crumble mince pies, sherry and raisin ice-cream, and chestnut and pear meringues

Out of sheer laziness, this is a no-churn, very quick to assemble take on things. I tend usually not to recommend no-churn ice-creams unless there is booze involved, so this sherry and raisin one is a great candidate (the alcohol stops the ice-cream from becoming too hard and crystallised). And keep the leftover egg whites from the mince pies to make the chestnut and pear meringue, an alternative for the Christmas pudding haters at your table – there is always one. I think it’s important to have at least two puddings at Christmas.

Hobnobs, ricotta, chocolate and amaretto – what’s not to like?

I believe in divine communion, especially when it comes to food; an alliance of ingredients that come together as though they were meant to feed spirit and body. It might be too lofty to say that this semifreddo is divine, but the combination of Hobnobs, ricotta, chocolate and amaretto really does it for me. That said, there are many alliances that can be formed in the Christmas store-cupboard, so use this as a base for any biscuits, dried fruit and chocolate to which you feel most spiritually aligned.

Not a fan of the traditional festive spread? These recipes are a Christmas feast that even turkeys would vote for

This rich and moreish (and plant-based) yule log is a Lebanese Christmas favourite that harks back to the country’s French colonial past

I love a yule log, also known as a bûche de Noël. It’s a remnant from the time when Lebanon was a French colony, which lingers to the modern day, and is popular in Lebanese bakeries and patisseries over the Christmas period, often decorated with small figurines, plastic holly leaves and festive messages. Those decorations, and the trompe-l’oeil nature of this treat, enchanted me as a child, and I wanted to bring back some of that enchantment with this take on a woodland yule log.

This is an edited extract from Beyond Baking, by Philip Khoury, published by Quadrille at £30. To order a copy for £27, go to guardianbookshop.com

Rita, 35, a travel agent, meets Tom, 40, a social media manager

What were you hoping for?
To have a refreshing new experience. I was curious to see who the Guardian would match me with.

A throuple in Tennessee shares how they planned a fairytale wedding, from rings to first dance

On the day of her wedding, Janie Coppola, 30, overslept. She woke up to a friend banging on her bedroom window, and had to quickly do her hair before rushing to the venue, a dreamy castle in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Fortunately, the rest of the day went smoothly, and on the afternoon of 18 October, she walked down the aisle in a big white dress to be wed to her husband. And her wife.

“Your favorite throuple got hitched,” Margaret French, 32, Janie’s wife, captioned an Instagram post about the day.

Marielle says being recorded is part of being her friend, but Beth is fed up of being a muse. Who should reel it in?

• Get a disagreement settled or become a YBTJ juror

Sometimes she films me while I’m eating. I’ll see myself on her Instagram – it’s like a jumpscare

I want Beth to see that the content we make together can get us a foot in the door

Katy Perry and Justin Trudeau are the latest A-listers to announce their relationship status online. But there are many ways to do it - from fancy dress to panicked deletions

As a mark of pure intent, going Instagram official has become a firmly entrenched dating marker. To post a picture of you and your new partner on Instagram – on the grid, mind you, not hiding behind the cowardice of a story – is to not only declare that you are in love, but also that you are confident enough in your future to share it with the world.

As such, Katy Perry’s decision to go Instagram official with Justin Trudeau is a classic of the genre. Long dogged by rumours that they might be together, Perry this week debuted a sanctioned image of them both. They are cheek to cheek. They are smiling, albeit in that slightly strained hurry-up-and-take-it way you do when someone decides to shoot a whole reel of photos. Katy Perry is pulling the exact same face she did when she stared into the camera that time she sort of went into space, which is how you know that it is really serious. Good luck to the pair of them.

Drivers also told to take caution after complaints rise about long-stay meet-and-greet services

Terence Baxter* had booked a meet-and-greet service to park his Volkswagen at Heathrow airport while he and his wife went on holiday. The couple handed over the keys at the drop-off site and were driven to the terminal – and that was the last they saw of their car. On their return they were informed by the company it had been stolen.

Their case comes as airports and police forces are warning travellers to be wary of “unofficial” operators advertising cheap long-stay parking after a rise in complaints.

Snuggle up under oak beams in front of a deep inglenook fireplace, stay warm with underfloor heating or enjoy your own wine cellar for festive entertaining

The short answer is yes, but if you don’t want big brands or to use Amazon then more time and a lot more prompts are needed

• ‘Is retail ready for the AI shopping shift?

The question “what present do you recommend for …” will be tapped into phones and computers countless times over this festive period, as more people turn to AI platforms to help choose gifts for loved ones.

With a quarter of Britons using AI to find products, brands are increasingly adapting their strategies to ensure their products are the ones recommended, especially those trying to reach younger audiences.

Parcels worth £666.5m have been stolen in the UK this year, though some pranksters have found ways to give culprits their comeuppance. With Christmas deliveries arriving thick and fast, here are practical steps to take

A couple of years ago, 31-year-old charity worker Nicki Wedgwood had ordered Christmas presents online for friends and family. When the packages were delivered to her in Hackney, east London, the driver left them in the lobby of her building rather than taking them directly to her flat. She spotted them as she popped out to a nearby shop and decided to pick them up when she came back. When she returned 10 minutes later, the boxes had been ripped open and their contents were gone.

Wedgwood thinks she passed the thief in the hallway as she was leaving for the shop. “There was some random dude just inside the doorway, who had a Boris bike with him,” she says. She had assumed he was a guest of one of her neighbours. “I said hello to him … I think he even said Merry Christmas.”

Experts weigh in on if the traditional remedy of whisky, honey, lemon and hot water can actually help your cold

The hot toddy has a reputation as a folk remedy for illness. And if you’re sick, a steaming cup of whisky, honey, lemon, and water can sound like a lot more fun than crackers and broth.

But what about the alcohol? Here’s what experts say about hot toddies and colds.

The vitamin has many benefits, but research shows that people who take it are just as likely to get the sniffles as those who don’t

‘Vitamin C is important for your health in lots of ways,” says Daniel M Davis, the head of life sciences at Imperial College London. It is a strong antioxidant, helping protect cells from harmful unstable compounds that arise from toxins and pollution. It helps the body absorb iron, and is also used in the production of collagen. “But the idea that taking high doses of vitamin C – or drinking lots of orange juice – will stop you catching a cold, or help you recover faster, is a myth.”

Davis, the author of Self Defence: A Myth-Busting Guide to Immune Health, explains that the popular belief in vitamin C’s cold-fighting powers has persisted for more than 50 years, “pretty much solely because of the evangelical view of one man: Linus Pauling”.

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.

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

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

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

Mismatched or holey socks won’t cut it if your host asks you to leave your footwear at the door this party season

Avery Trufelman is the New York-based radio producer behind Articles of Interest, a fashion podcast that has non-fashion people gripped in their millions

Did you know that the zipper only came about because a Swedish-born engineer named Gideon Sundback fell in love with a factory owner’s daughter? Or that it took longer for it to be developed than it took for the Wright brothers to invent the aeroplane? You probably know that pockets have become a symbol of gender privilege – but were you aware that in the 18th century, women’s pockets were big enough to hold tools for writing, a small diary and a snack for later? Perhaps most surprising is that layering, which has made Uniqlo one of the biggest brands in the world, was in effect invented in the 1940s by a man named Georges Doriot, who was also famous for inventing venture capital.

All these nuggets and more are included in Articles of Interest, a podcast by 34-year-old Avery Trufelman. Listeners tune in for the smarts but also her disarming sense of fun. Not to mention her low, husky voice, which seems made for podcasting. “I don’t take care of it, if that’s what you’re asking,” she says over video call from her apartment in New York.

Co-chairs will preside over gala theme of Costume Art, with Beyoncé attending for first time since 2016

The co-chairs of the Met Gala, which is held every year on the first Monday in May in New York City, have been announced as Beyoncé, Venus Williams, Nicole Kidman and, of course, Anna Wintour.

The gala is known as “fashion’s biggest night out” or “the Superbowl of fashion”, and it will be Beyoncé’s first time in attendance since 2016, when she wore Givenchy to attend a Met Gala themed Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology.

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

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

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

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

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

A cultural initiative in Piedmont is unlocking a trove of priceless medieval frescoes in rural churches

The Santa Maria di Missione chapel in Villafranca Piemonte, northern Italy, stands at the end of a long cornfield. Behind it, the mountains rise gently, their outlines caressed by the sun. The colours of autumn frame the 15th-century frescoes that embellish the structure’s interior, painted by Italian artist Aimone Duce, of the Lombard school. The chapel is the municipality’s oldest religious building, serving about 4,000 inhabitants, and stands on the site of a pre-existing building dating back to 1037.

Inside the small chapel, my footsteps echo softly against the walls, breaking the stillness of the surrounding countryside. The sharp scent of plaster mingles with the earthy smell of the fields outside, carried in on the wind along with the sweetness of wheat. Light filters through the narrow windows, catching the vivid hues of a fresco that depicts the seven deadly sins – a theme often revisited in medieval iconography.

Italian sweets, Irish smoked fish, honey cakes in Belgium … travel writers choose the stores and local delicacies they make a beeline for when travelling

I fell in love with Belgian snacks when cycling the amateur version of the Tour of Flanders some years ago. The feed stations along the route were crammed with packets of Meli honey waffles and Meli honey cake. I ate so many that I suffered withdrawal symptoms after finishing the last of them at the end of the 167-mile route.

The actor, writer and comedian on turning his life around, fancying Cilla Black and his secret nose-picking

Born in Coventry, Guz Khan, 39, was working as a secondary school teacher when he began uploading comedy videos as the character Mobeen in 2014. The following year, he gave up teaching to pursue standup. In 2017, his show Man Like Mobeen was released by the BBC and ran for five series. He won a Royal Television Society award in 2020 and was Bafta-nominated twice. His films include Army of Thieves and The Bubble. Guz Khan’s Custom Cars starts on Quest on 19 January. He is married with five children and lives in the West Midlands.

What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
Impulsivity. We end up in strange places, like right now – I am in the Middle East.

Rehearsals for a live broadcast at short notice reduce us to silence then swearing. This does not bode well

On Wednesday afternoon I receive a text that seems to suggest the band I’m in has been invited to play live on national radio. Twenty minutes later, the guitarist rings me.

“Did you get my text?” he says.

From demon, equal and encyclopedia to The Tour of Life and Before the Dawn, test your knowledge with the Saturday quiz

1 Inflation adjusted, what is the highest-grossing film of all time?
2 What was revamped in 1279, 1560, 1696, 1816 and 1971?
3 Dorothy Parker “fwowed up” in a 1928 review of which children’s classic?
4 Native to South America, what is the world’s largest bird of prey?
5 Which fabric is protected by the orb certification mark?
6 The Almanach de Gotha is a directory of what?
7 Which amusement park was opened in Vienna in 1766?
8 What British term for rare US R&B 45s was coined by Dave Godin?
What links:
9 Năstase; Connors twice; Tanner; McEnroe twice?
10 Menevia, c600; County Down, c460; Lydda, c303; Patras, c60?
11 Choral by Beethoven; The Great by Schubert; From the New World by Dvořák?
12 Reverend Joy Carroll Wallis; hotelier Donald Sinclair; US military surgeon Richard Hornberger?
13 Demon; equal; encyclopedia; eon; fairy; medieval; primeval?
14 The Tour of Life in 1979 and Before the Dawn in 2014?
15 Charles X’s sword; Corot’s The Road from Sèvres; Empress Eugénie’s tiara; Mona Lisa?

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

Full interview with Nickie Aven, available here

Nigel Farage’s party is gunning for power – so what is it like in the places where they’ve already got it? We embedded with Lancashire county council to find out what happens when rhetoric meets reality

22 May 2025: a new dawn for Lancashire. Outside Preston’s grand old county hall, 53 brand new Reform UK councillors in turquoise ties – and one petite woman with an enormous turquoise hair bow – are hot-footing it past a gaggle of protesters for their first full council meeting. Most keep their heads down and get into the building as quickly as possible. But Joel Tetlow, a first-time politician who has made a few unfortunate headlines before even taking his seat, is intrigued. He stands in the doorway, vaping, as a demonstrator bellows: “Reform is a far right party and Nigel Farage is a racist and a fascist!”

Tetlow – late 40s with a full head of vertiginous hair, wearing a powder-blue three-piece suit – insists he isn’t bothered. “They don’t know us as people,” he shrugs. “It’s a word that’s slung around now so much, to be a racist. You know, what is it to be a racist? All we want to do is stand for our country, look after the people within it. So we’re not racist. None of us are racist.” (Farage, too, has denied accusations of racism, and Reform dispute that they are a far right party.)

The Free Birth Society was selling pregnant women a simple message. They could exit the medical system and take back their power. By free birthing. But Nicole Garrison believes FBS ideology nearly cost her her life. This is episode one of a year-long investigation by Guardian journalists Sirin Kale and Lucy Osborne

In World Cup parlance, Qatar was Fifa president Gianni Infantino’s qualifier. Now it’s the big time for Trump’s dictator-curious protege

I used to think Fifa’s recent practice of holding the World Cup in autocracies was because it made it easier for world football’s governing body to do the things it loved: spend untold billions of other people’s money and siphon the profits without having to worry about boring little things like human rights or public opinion. Which, let’s face it, really piss around with your bottom line.

But for a while now, that view has seemed ridiculously naive, a bit like assuming Recep Erdoğan followed Vladimir Putin’s election-hollowing gameplan just because hey, he’s an interested guy who likes to read around a lot of subjects. So no: Fifa president Gianni Infantino hasn’t spent recent tournaments cosying up to authoritarians because it made his life easier. He’s done it to learn from the best. And his latest decree this week simply confirms Fifa is now a fully operational autocracy in the classic populace-rinsing style. Do just absorb yesterday’s news that the cheapest ticket for next year’s World Cup final in the US will cost £3,120 – seven times more than the cheapest ticket for the last World Cup final in Qatar. (Admittedly, still marginally cheaper than an off-peak single from London to Manchester.)

Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist

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