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

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

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

Whether it’s nightclubs banning phones or a drop in online dating, there are signs that we’re rediscovering the joy of being in the moment

It’s only a small rectangular sticker, but it symbolises a joyous sense of resistance. Some of Berlin’s most renowned clubs have long insisted that the camera lenses on their clientele’s phones must be covered up using this simple method, to ensure that everyone is present in the moment and people can let go without fear of their image suddenly appearing on some online platform. As one DJ puts it, “Do you really want to be in someone’s picture in your jockstrap?”

Venues in London, Manchester and New York now enforce the same rules. Last week brought news of the return of Sankeys, the famous Mancunian club that closed nearly a decade ago, and is reopening in a 500-capacity space in the heart of the city. The aim, it seems, is to fly in the face of the massed closures of such venues, and revive the idea that our metropolises should host the kind of nights that stretch into the following morning. But there is another basic principle at work: phones will reportedly either be stickered or forbidden. “People need to stop taking pictures and start dancing to the beat,” said one of the club’s original founders.

John Harris is a Guardian columnist. His book Maybe I’m Amazed: A Story of Love and Connection in Ten Songs is available from the Guardian bookshop

In his joyous new comedy Finding Father Christmas, the star is on a mission to prove Santa really exists – and he’s got Stephen Fry to help him! He talks magic, trampoline mayhem and finally getting behind the wheel of a car

It’s time for a father to have an awkward conversation with his teenage son. No, not that one. This is far worse – Chris is 16 and still believes in Father Christmas. He needs to know the truth: all the presents, the fake snow on the roof, the soot in the grate, it was all his dad. “You’re Father Christmas?” says Chris, astonished. “You bring joy and happiness to billions of children all over the world?”

In Finding Father Christmas, Channel 4’s funny and moving comedy, Chris, played by Lenny Rush, bunks off school and sets out on a mission with his older cousin Holly (Ele McKenzie) to prove to his sceptic dad that Santa is real. Poring over a photograph taken at a celebrity party, Chris thinks he has identified four people who may have secret links to Santa – Stephen Fry, mathematician Prof Hannah Fry, the space scientist Maggie Aderin-Pocock and SAS: Who Dares Wins star Jason Fox. Finally, he follows clues to a secret secure facility in Milton Keynes and breaks in with the help of a mini trampoline and the magic of television (a bungee cord). “It was terrifying, but so much fun,” says Rush of the stunt. “I feel like if I was offered [to do it] and I said no, I’d kick myself on the way home. I wanted to give it a go and I’m happy I did. But there was an element of fear.”

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.

An author and a tech coach had a heated debate about refugees, loud phones in public spaces, and our reliance on cars. Did they part with a smile?

Andy, 62, Stevenage

Occupation Agile coach in technology

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.”

One gunman was killed and another wounded; two police officers among the injured taken to hospital

Amid the horror of the shooting, one video has emerged showing incredible bravery – a bystander rushing one of the gunmen from behind to wrestle the firearm off him.

Praised a hero, he is being identified by some media as a 43-year-old fruit shop owner from the Sutherland Shire.

Israeli prime minister claims the Australian government ‘let the disease’ of antisemitism spread ‘and the result is the horrific attacks on Jews we saw today’

• Follow live updates

• Bondi beach terrorist attack: full report

• What we know about the Bondi beach attack

Leaders around the world expressed their horror at Sunday’s terrorist attack on Bondi beach, in which at least 16 people died, mixed in some cases with harsh words for the Australian government for alleged shortcomings in tackling antisemitism over the past two years.

The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said he had written to his Australian counterpart, Anthony Albanese, in August, warning that the government’s decision to recognise a Palestinian state “pours fuel on the antisemitic fire … emboldens those who menace Australian Jews and encourages the Jew hatred now stalking your streets”. He claimed Albanese had “replaced weakness with weakness and appeasement with more appeasement”.

Eyewitnesses describe acts of bravery from bystanders and police officers after gunmen opened fire on people enjoying a warm summer evening

• Bondi beach shooting: live updates

The killing went on so long, those fleeing had time to scream “they’re reloading” as they scrambled for any place of safety they could find.

Those who could not were pitilessly gunned down.

Communities express shock and solidarity after at least 12 people killed in Sydney at event marking start of Hanukah

• Bondi beach shooting: live updates

• What we know so far about the attack

Jewish communities across the world have reacted with shock, sadness and solidarity after what Australia’s prime minister described as a “targeted attack on Jewish Australians” at Bondi beach in Sydney.

On Sunday, as hundreds of people were gathered to celebrate the first day of Hanukah, the Jewish festival of lights, at least two individuals armed with guns began firing on crowds on the beach. At least 11 people were killed and 29 injured in what police designated as a terrorist attack. One of the alleged gunman was also killed, bringing the total number of dead to 12.

There are now more guns in the community per capita than in the aftermath of the Port Arthur massacre, with at least 2,000 new firearms lawfully entering the community every week

For almost three decades, Australia’s gun laws have been recognised as among the most stringent – and effective – in the world.

After the horror of the 1996 Port Arthur massacre that killed 35 people in Tasmania, Australia’s then conservative government stared down the gun lobby to introduce restrictions that led to a dramatic decrease in the number of guns.

Australia recorded 1,654 anti-Jewish incidents in year to September – three times higher than any annual total before Gaza war

• Bondi beach shooting – live updates

• What we know so far about the Bondi beach attack

Shortly after the mass shooting targeting Australia’s Jewish community on Sunday, Rabbi Levi Wolff of Central Sydney Synagogue told reporters that “the inevitable has happened now”.

Wolff was speaking in Bondi, close to where two men armed with powerful rifles or shotguns had just attacked an event celebrating Hanukah, the Jewish religious festival. At least 12 people were killed, including one alleged gunman, and dozens were injured in Australia’s deadliest mass shooting in almost three decades.

Video shows the man rushing one of the alleged gunmen who shot dozens of people on Sunday evening in Australia

• Bondi beach shooting live updates

• Bondi terror attack: full report

• What we know so far about the shooting in Australia

A bystander tackled and wrestled a gun from one of the two alleged gunman during the Bondi beach mass shooting in which at least 12 people were killed, footage shows.

Video of the scene shows the alleged gunman standing on a footpath between a grassy area and parking lot holding a long-barrelled weapon and firing into the distance.

Exclusive: Catherine Howard’s exit comes amid disagreements at top of government about how far to push deregulation agenda

Rachel Reeves’s attempts to overhaul Britain’s planning laws have been dealt a blow after a senior lawyer whom she appointed as an adviser decided to leave the government after just four months.

Catherine Howard will leave the Treasury when her contract ends on 1 January, despite having been asked informally to stay on indefinitely.

Campaigners call for quarterly data to be published in line with other departments instead of FoI route

Human rights and refugee campaigners are calling on the Home Office to be transparent about the numbers of asylum seekers who die in its care by publishing quarterly data as other government departments do.

The only way to obtain data about asylum seeker deaths is via freedom of information (FoI) requests to the Home Office, which officials do not always comply with. However, the NHS produces regular figures about deaths in hospitals and the Ministry of Justice does so with deaths in custody.

Police increase patrols around synagogues and other venues as tens of thousands celebrate Hanukah

• Bondi beach shooting – live updates

British police forces are stepping up security in Jewish communities after the antisemitic terror attack that left 12 people dead on Bondi beach in Australia.

The Metropolitan police said they were increasing their presence around synagogues and other venues in London, where tens of thousands of Jews are celebrating Hanukah.

Exclusive: Analysis of NHS data shows rise in patients ‘stranded’ in beds as flu crisis hits and resident doctors’ strikes loom

Hospitals in England face dangerous overcrowding this winter because even more patients than last year are “stranded” in a bed, according to an analysis of NHS figures.

The findings come as the health service struggles to cope with the early onset of its usual winter crisis driven by a crippling “flu-nami” and the NHS in England is bracing itself for a five-day strike by resident doctors starting on Wednesday.

The percentage of bed days used by patients whose discharge was delayed rose from 10.1% in 2024 to 11% this year, an increase of 9% or 19,000 bed days.

That rise was driven by an 8% year-on-year rise in the number of discharges, equivalent to about 3,800 patients a month.

The number of the NHS’s overall stock of about 100,000 general and acute beds occupied last winter by delayed discharge patients hit a peak of 14%, but it is likely to be even higher this winter.

The move marks a major shift for Ukraine, which has fought to join Nato as a safeguard against Russian attacks

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has offered to drop Ukraine’s aspirations to join the Nato military alliance, as he held five hours of talks with US envoys in Berlin on Sunday to end the war with Russia.

Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff said “a lot of progress was made” as he and the US president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, met Zelenskyy in the latest push to end Europe’s bloodiest conflict since the second world war – though full details were not divulged.

Mia Tretta was shot in the abdomen in 2019 at a school near LA and Zoe Weissman witnessed a Florida shooting in 2018

• Full report: person of interest in custody

• What we know so far

As the deadly attack unfolded at Brown University, leaving students hiding under desks and reeling as gunshots rang out, the scene was eerily familiar for at least two students.

Years earlier, Mia Tretta, 21, and Zoe Weissman, 20, had both survived school shootings. “What I’ve been feeling most is just, like, how dare this country allow this to happen to someone like me twice?” Weissman told the New York Times.

Party would also abolish zero-emission vehicle mandate, cutting legal requirement on carmakers to sell EVs

The Conservatives have announced proposals to end the 2030 ban on new petrol and diesel cars and cut the legal requirement on car manufacturers to sell electric vehicles.

A Conservative government would abolish the zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate, ending the legal requirement for manufacturers to sell a fixed rising percentage of zero-emission vehicles each year – 80% of new cars and 70% of new vans by 2030, increasing to 100% by 2035. It would also completely end the 2030 ban on new petrol and diesel cars.

JetBlue pilot calls incident ‘outrageous’ and says US military refueling tanker didn’t have transponder turned on

A JetBlue flight from the small Caribbean nation of Curaçao halted its ascent to avoid colliding with a US air force refueling tanker on Friday, and the pilot blamed the military plane for crossing his path.

“We almost had a midair collision up here,” the JetBlue pilot said, according to a recording of his conversation with air traffic control. “They passed directly in our flight path ... They don’t have their transponder turned on, it’s outrageous.”

Australian researchers think the skeleton found in South Africa is not the same species as two found in the same South Africa cave system

Little Foot, one of the world’s most complete hominin fossils, may be a new species of human ancestor, according to research that raises questions about our evolutionary past.

Publicly unveiled in 2017, Little Foot is the most complete Australopithecus skeleton ever found. The foot bones that lend the fossil its name were first discovered in South Africa 1994, leading to a painstaking excavation over 20 years in the Sterkfontein cave system.

As claims spread suggesting men from certain backgrounds have a propensity to commit certain crimes, here’s why the statistics fail to provide the full picture

It is a familiar pattern in news coverage of recent months: a horrific, often sexual, crime is committed by an asylum seeker or foreign national.

A flurry of headlines and commentary follows, suggesting that men from the country, ethnic group or religion in question have a propensity to commit these types of offence. A common theme was crystallised by the Daily Mail’s Sarah Vine on Wednesday after two Afghan asylum seekers were jailed for raping a 15-year-old girl: “For too long this country has ignored the reality of what happens when men from certain cultures are let loose in our liberal democracy.”

In an economy that rewards confession and self-labeling, pain is no longer something to survive – but something to brand, sell, and curate

In March 2023, Dr Gabor Maté, a retired family physician and among the most respected trauma experts in the world, boldly diagnosed Prince Harry with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), during a live interview.

Having read the Duke of Sussex’s ghost-written memoir, Spare, Maté said that he had arrived upon “several diagnoses” that also included depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder. These were not evidence of disease per se, Maté went on to elaborate. Rather, he said: “I see it as a normal response to abnormal stress.”

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.

He’s so anxious that it took the presenter 47 years to even try ham. This travelogue, in which Ant and Dec send him to South Korea to overcome phobias – including nudity – is strangely charming

What can I tell you about Stephen Mulhern? He’s an ITV presenter (Dancing on Ice, Deal or No Deal, You Bet), magician, longtime friend of Ant and Dec, he’s never had hummus or tasted a prawn, and he’s only recently been introduced to ham. “I like what I like,” he says simply, when Ant (or Dec – I never did have them straight in my mind and it’s honestly too late to start now) asks him how it is possible to have avoided ham for 47 years.

“He’s odd,” says Dec (maybe – see above) fondly. “He’s an odd man.” “Sheltered,” supplements Ant. “Set in his ways.”

DanceEast, Ipswich
This colourful quest story is stylishly simplified for a young audience and an energetic cast of just four, choreographed by Luca Silvestrini to a melodious Frank Moon score

One of the things that’s so successful about this all-ages version of The Magic Flute is the way it effortlessly synthesises all of its ingredients – dance, text, operatic arias and a dreamy-folky reinterpretation of Mozart’s score – in service to the story. And that famously fantastically convoluted narrative is presented clearly enough for everyone to understand (recommended age is five-plus, and it’s delightful for grownups too).

Papageno the bird catcher is played with bags of personality by the brilliant Nathan Bartman, he’s cheeky and big-hearted with more than enough warm energy to fill the stage. Prince Tamino (Jacob Lang) is his more earnest foil, and the choreography sends them both in easy arcs, lilting and circling across the stage as they set off to find Princess Pamina (Faith Prendergast). Multitalented soprano Donna Lennard, meanwhile, swaps between roles, as comfortable landing the leaping notes of the Queen of the Night’s famous Der Hölle Rache aria, as she is dancing or making winking asides to the audience.

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

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

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

I was determined not to vomit in front of six lanes of traffic, so I started crawling towards a nearby park

• Read more in the kindness of strangers series

When I was 19, I commuted to work every morning on an express bus. It was perpetually crowded and would always be standing room only by the time I got on.

One particular morning, I was feeling quite nauseous as the bus swayed around each corner. I kept telling myself to hold on another few kilometres until the bus got to my stop, and then I could make a mad dash for the nearest public toilet to throw up.

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

German striker was given a sarcastic ovation by the Sunderland fans after his inadvertent match winner

On numerous occasions during the 75 minutes he spent on the pitch during the Wear-Tyne derby, Nick Woltemade cut an extremely isolated, peripheral and forlorn figure in the opposition box. A bad afternoon for Newcastle’s German striker got significantly worse shortly after half-time when he cut an even more isolated, peripheral and forlorn figure in his own team’s box after inadvertently heading a Nordi Mukiele cross past Aaron Ramsdale from six yards out.

Woltemade’s embarrassing own goal proved to be the unwitting match-winner in a contest that had until that point been high on full-blooded aggression but low on moments of real quality. As he made way for Yoane Wissa, it was no surprise the Sunderland fans granted the visibly deflated 23-year-old a sarcastic ovation. A fan favourite on Tyneside until the 46th minute of this match, Woltemade has now pulled off the unlikely feat of winning a permanent, bitterly ironic place in mackem hearts.

• Updates from big weekend of divisional matchups

• Get in touch: mail Graham about the games

TOUCHDOWN! Jaguars 7-0 Jets 10:18, 1st quarter

T Lawrence to B Thomas for 4 yards

D Maye 8-yard rush

• Manager says it will take time to turn club around

• Spence reaction to substitution will be investigated

Thomas Frank said Tottenham’s 3-0 defeat at Nottingham Forest offered a sobering reminder his side remain a “work in progress” and amid increasing scrutiny the head coach reiterated improving Spurs’s fortunes is “not a quick fix”, saying: “If no one gets the time, no one can turn this around.”

Spurs have been hit and miss since Frank took charge in June and are in mid-table in the Premier League after a run of one win in seven top-flight matches, though still only six points off fourth-placed Chelsea. Spurs registered a single shot on target at the City Ground, where Callum Hudson-Odoi scored twice and Ibrahim Sangaré sealed victory with a stunning first-time strike.

• Head coach praises ‘real leader’ Dias as defence holds firm

• Win at Selhurst Park extends Manchester City’s run to five

Pep Guardiola has warned that Manchester City are growing in resilience after Erling Haaland and Phil Foden secured the side’s fifth win in succession and maintained pressure on the Premier League leaders Arsenal.

City gained revenge for their FA Cup final defeat by Crystal Palace in May with a ruthless 3-0 win at Selhurst Park after they saw off Real Madrid in the Champions League in midweek. It means they have won all five matches since enduring successive defeats against Newcastle and Bayer Leverkusen at the end of November and are back to within two points of Arsenal.

Players and coaches need to realise they will not be immune if fortunes do not change in the third Test in Adelaide

There’s always a lot of white noise around an Ashes series but at the moment for England it must be overwhelming, not just given their performances in the first two Tests but because of the mid-tour break they’ve just been on, with assorted media and attention-seekers following them around the beaches of Noosa.

I absolutely understand that Brendon McCullum’s priority is to do what he believes is right for the team, but the optics around that trip were not great and many England fans, who have spent their hard-earned money travelling to Australia with little reward so far, will be quick to bring it up if they produce another poor display.

• ‘I will be pleased … I just want my players happy’

• United host Bournemouth in league on Monday

Ruben Amorim has said he would be “really pleased” if Kobbie Mainoo decided to speak to him about a loan move away from Manchester United.

Amorim has not started Mainoo in any of United’s 15 Premier League games, with the midfielder’s only start coming in the Carabao Cup defeat at Grimsby. In light of that, Amorim was asked in the buildup to Monday’s visit of Bournemouth if the 20-year-old had spoken to him regarding a temporary move.

Blame and plenty of it is now flying around at Celtic. This defeat, a third for Wilfried Nancy in his three games as the manager, plunged the club firmly into a state of crisis. What a festive fiasco.

There is a scenario in which Nancy changes Celtic’s fortunes. The trouble for the Frenchman is, that feels highly unlikely. On one of the finest days in St Mirren’s 148-year history they deservedly claimed the League Cup for only the second time. Yet it was impossible to ignore the desperate nature of Celtic’s performance. They have swapped Brendan Rodgers and Martin O’Neill – elite managers who fully comprehend this environment – for a project under Nancy that is already covered in red flags. Another key attribute shared by Rodgers and O’Neill is experience. Nancy is in a situation he has never encountered before in football.

• Pool 4: Northampton 50-5 Bulls

• Saints score eight tries in Pool 4 win

On the face of it Northampton are flying in the Champions Cup courtesy of two consecutive bonus points wins. The more pedantic-minded might also point out that both their opponents have fielded below-strength sides, but when the qualifying sums are completed next month that will not be the top line as far as the Saints’ management are concerned.

Because regardless of the depth of the resistance they are facing, Northampton are again underlining their ability to pick apart sides who give them too much space and time. On this occasion they rattled up eight tries, including a hat-trick for George Hendy, two for the fit-again Ollie Sleightholme and one for the roaming Henry Pollock, who showed a further glimpse or two of his rare talent.

• Man City 6-1 Aston Villa, Man Utd 3-3 Tottenham

• Chelsea 3-0 Brighton, West Ham 2-2 Liverpool

Khadija Shaw’s phenomenal scoring record for Manchester City was extended to 103 goals in all competitions, with a stunning four goals in the league leaders’ 6-1 defeat of Aston Villa.

It was Shaw’s 120th appearance for City in all competitions and the Jamaica forward struck twice in the first half at the Joie Stadium to give City a commanding lead before Aoba Fujino and Vivianne Miedema scored either side of Lucy Parker’s goal for Villa. Shaw completed her hat‑trick in the 84th minute and got a touch on Grace Clinton’s effort for her fourth. She moves into third on the list of Women’s Super League all‑time top scorers.

Long before the shocking killings in Sydney, the threat of antisemitic violence was often left unchallenged. That must change

Like all Australians, Bondi isn’t just a place to me, it lives in my heart as a symbol of who we are. As a child I spent many Sundays on the beach at North Bondi life-savers as a “nipper”, and as a former mayor of Waverley council and a local councillor for more than a decade, I have walked its concrete ramparts thousands of times, in all its seasons.

In a few weeks, visitors from every corner of the globe will gather there to celebrate Christmas. For locals, it is a place of peace and play. For the small Jewish community, it is also a place where festivals are marked openly and proudly.

The potential demand that visitors to the US hand over their social media records, or even their phones, opens up a world of embarrassment

As someone with a child in the US, this new Trump threat to scrutinise tourists’ social media is concerning. Providing my user name would be OK – the authorities would get sick of scrolling through chicken pics before they found anything critical of their Glorious Leader – but what if I have to hand over my phone at the border, as has happened to some travellers already? I would rather get deported.

There’s nothing criminal or egregiously immoral on there; I don’t foment revolution or indulge in Trump trolling, tempting as that would be. But my phone does not paint a flattering picture of me. Does anyone’s? Those shiny black rectangles have become contemporary confessionals, and we would like to believe they abide by the same kind of confidentiality rules.

The City expects a cut in interest rates on Thursday but the economic prospects for 2026 complicate the picture

In the economic gloom of Labour’s first year in power, Rachel Reeves has had a reliable shred of comfort to cling to: five times since the general election, the Bank of England has cut interest rates.

This week, in all likelihood, the chancellor will get a sixth to shout about, as Threadneedle Street prepares to reduce borrowing costs in an early Christmas present that will be seized upon by the Treasury.

I see in Christmas an invitation to see differently: God in the social outcast, life on the margins reimagined as the centre of gravity

Do you want to be influential?

So do 57% of gen Zs in the US who aspire to be influencers, presumably lured by money and fame. But say you also want to make the world a better place. In that case, maybe the spiritual instruction you need emerges in the famous final lines of George Eliot’s 1871 novel Middlemarch:

Justine Toh is senior research fellow at the Centre for Public Christianity

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.”

The president announces non-existent emergencies to invoke extraordinary powers – and neutralizes the opposition

This month, we learned that, in the course of bombing a boat of suspected drug smugglers, the US military intentionally killed two survivors clinging to the wreckage after its initial air assault. In addition, Donald Trump said it was seditious for Democratic members of Congress to inform members of the military that they can, and indeed, must, resist patently illegal orders, and the FBI and Pentagon are reportedly investigating the members’ speech. Those related developments – the murder of civilians and an attack on free speech – exemplify two of Trump’s principal tactics in his second term. The first involves the assertion of extraordinary emergency powers in the absence of any actual emergency. The second seeks to suppress dissent by punishing those who dare to raise their voices. Both moves have been replicated time and time again since January 2025. How courts and the public respond will determine the future of constitutional democracy in the United States.

Nothing is more essential to a liberal democracy than the rule of law – that is, the notion that a democratic government is guided by laws, not discretionary whims; that the laws respect basic liberties for all; and that independent courts have the authority to hold political officials accountable when they violate those laws. These principles, forged in the United Kingdom, adopted and revised by the United States, are the bedrock of constitutional democracy. But they depend on courts being willing and able to check government abuse, and citizens exercising their rights to speak out in defense of the fundamental values when those values are under attack.

David Cole is the Honorable George J Mitchell professor in law and public policy at Georgetown University and former national legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union. This essay is adapted from his international rule of law lecture sponsored by the Bar Council.

While acting on your moral convictions can be risky, it can also feel profoundly good

In the eleven months since Donald Trump took office – during which he has unleashed unprecedented assaults on the checks and balances of American democracy – there has been a wave of warnings and advice from activists, writers and scholars who have either fought against authoritarian regimes or studied them closely. A common thread runs through much of their guidance: Americans, especially those in positions of power, must find the courage to stand up for what is right, even when doing so carries personal risk.

Yet few have addressed the harder questions: how does one become courageous? How much of courage is innate, and how much is learned? And what can we do to help people find the courage to act?

Yaqiu Wang is a Chinese human rights researcher and advocate. She is currently a fellow at University of Chicago’s Forum for Free Inquiry and Expression.

The beachside attack on Australia’s Jews, targeting a Hanukah gathering, reflects growing bigotry and political violence

The shock and horror that have rippled out from Bondi Beach across the world are immense. At least 16 people died at a place packed with families. A further 29 individuals suffered serious injuries. For Sunday evening’s shootings to occur in one of the most idyllic and quintessentially Australian of locations, at one of the most joyous times in the Jewish calendar, only deepens the fear and anguish felt throughout the Jewish community, across Australia and more broadly.

Authorities were quick to identify the attack as terrorism, targeting Jews as they gathered to celebrate the beginning of Hanukah on the beach. The two gunmen – one now dead, another critically injured as of Sunday night – fired on the crowds from a bridge. Parents ran with their children in their arms; elderly people struggled to flee. A car containing improvised explosive devices was found nearby and late on Sunday police were still searching for a possible third offender. Without the extraordinary courage of the man who single-handedly wrestled a gun from one attacker at the beach, and the swift response of others, this violence would probably have been still more devastating.

The US president’s claims to have ended eight conflicts look shakier than ever as conflict reignites in south-east Asia and the Democratic Republic of Congo

When the hastily confected Fifa world peace prize was bestowed on Donald Trump last week, the ceasefire in the Thai-Cambodian border dispute was among the achievements cited. Mr Trump also boasted of having ended war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He brags of having brought eight conflicts to a close and has just had the US Institute of Peace renamed in his honour.

Yet the truce between Thailand and Cambodia has already fallen apart. Half a million residents along the border have fled renewed fighting and civilians are among at least 27 people killed. Meanwhile, in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, at least 200,000 people have fled the advance of Rwanda-backed M23 rebels – days after a peace deal was signed in Washington.

Your obituary records how Tom Stoppard’s Jewish family, the Sträusslers – Eugen, a doctor working for Bata shoes, his wife, Marta, and their two small boys, Petr and Tomáš – were helped to escape from Czechoslovakia early in 1939, when Adolf Hitler was poised to invade the country.

My doctor in Nairobi, Dr Gellert, also Jewish, told me a story about this. He had been a friend and colleague of Sträussler in Czechoslovakia. The chief executive of Bata shoes, Jan Antonín Bat’a, gave Gellert a ticket for his family to go to the Bata factory in Singapore, and he gave Sträussler a ticket for his family to go to Nairobi, to another Bata factory. Thinking that Singapore sounded more interesting, Sträussler offered to swap tickets with his friend. Gellert agreed and the fatal exchange took place.

Dr Richard Hassall, Allen Frances and Natasha Fairbairn respond to a column by John Harris which argued that the health secretary should not jump on a rightwing bandwagon about mental health

John Harris is misguided in his criticism of Wes Streeting’s review of UK mental health services (The right’s callous overdiagnosis bandwagon is rolling. Wes Streeting should not be on it, 7 December). While this review will inevitably examine questions of overdiagnosis, Harris is wrong to imply that Streeting’s main motivation is political. There is nothing unusual, of course, about ministers making decisions based on political considerations, but there is rather more to the review than Harris indicates.

It hardly needs restating that mental health services are grossly overstretched and underresourced, and an inquiry is necessary. This is a particular problem in child and adolescent mental health services (Camhs). When I was working as a clinical psychologist and involved in a Camhs autism diagnosis team 15 years ago, the waiting time for an autism assessment was around four to six months. Nowadays a waiting time of up to two years is common.

They are not ‘bureaucrats’ who must be culled, writes Michael Joffe

The finding that one in seven GP referrals are getting lost, with harm to most of the patients involved (Thousands of patients in England at risk as GP referrals vanish into NHS ‘black hole’, 7 December), is no surprise to me. But it is not confined to GP referrals. Hospital patients are constantly in a similar position. I have experienced this myself many times, with investigations and/or outpatient appointments promised but never happening. Sometimes this follows an appointment being cancelled, with a “we will be in contact soon” message that turns out not to be true. Sometimes one just falls off the system, presumably included on a waiting list to be dealt with, that is then not dealt with. My experience is shared by large numbers of patients.

The administrators are, in my experience, competent and dedicated people – but the system is not working. The commonly heard complaint that “there’s too much bureaucracy in the NHS” is wrong. What is needed is a well-managed administrative system, where the chief priority is that somebody is responsible for ensuring coordination, and that gaps are filled, eg when an administrator is on leave, ill, or moves to a different job. The present dire situation also means that nurses and doctors have to add administrative tasks to their already-heavy workload, adding to their stress and burnout.

Australia is showing what is possible by not succumbing to the pressures of big tech. The UK needs to follow its lead, says Daniel Kebede

Lisa Nandy’s suggestion that an Australian-style restriction on social media for under-16s would lead to prosecuting children is a distraction (Young people have faced ‘violent indifference’ for decades, Lisa Nandy says, 9 December). No one is calling for teenagers to be criminalised for using platforms designed to keep them hooked. The responsibility lies squarely with the tech companies that profit from exposing children to harm. Why does the government still allow systems that erode childhood for commercial gain?

Teachers and parents witness the fallout daily: pupils too anxious and distracted to learn, children awake into the night because notifications demand constant attention, bullying that never ends, and content that pushes young people to extremes. This is not poor parenting or teaching – it is caused by the exploitative business models at the core of these addictive platforms.

Exclusive: MP dismisses as ‘idle speculation’ reports he could resign as part of ‘coup’ against Keir Starmer

• UK politics live – latest updates

The former health minister Andrew Gwynne has dismissed as “idle speculation” reports he could resign his seat as part of an Andy Burnham “coup” against Keir Starmer.

Allies of Burnham were reported on Sunday to have identified a shortlist of seats to allow the Greater Manchester mayor to return to Westminster in the new year.

As federal agents target families, teens are left to care for siblings – from accessing bank accounts to medical records

Vilma Cruz, a mother of two, had just arrived at her newly leased Louisiana home when federal agents surrounded her vehicle in the driveway. She had just enough time to call her oldest son before they smashed the passenger window and detained her.

The 38-year-old Honduran house painter was swept up in an immigration crackdown that has largely targeted Kenner, a New Orleans suburb with a large Hispanic population, where some parents at risk of deportation had rushed to arrange emergency custody plans for their children in case they were arrested.

Former senator’s comments echo recent call from Erika Kirk that ‘everyone has responsibility’ to tone down hatred

Politicians should “calm down” and stop approaching one another in “attack mode” amid the US’s climate of political violence, former US senator Joe Manchin said on Sunday.

The West Virginia independent who generally caucused with Senate Democrats echoed similar comments made at a town hall Saturday by Erika Kirk, the widow of conservative political activist Charlie Kirk, who was shot to death in September.

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.

Details of financing structure to be reviewed by culture secretary and regulators before deal can proceed

The owner of the Daily Mail has secured funding for a £500m takeover of the Telegraph, in a crucial development that paves the way for the group to announce the terms of its acquisition on Monday.

Lord Rothermere’s Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT) has agreed to pay the sum in two instalments, according to weekend reports. An initial payment of £400m will be funded by an increase in the group’s debt with its longstanding lender NatWest and existing company cash.

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.

Home secretary says UK has managed the challenges of multiculturalism ‘very well’

• UK politics live – latest updates

The US government’s claims that Europe faces “civilisational erasure” because of mass migration are an attempt to score political points against Muslims, the home secretary has suggested.

Shabana Mahmood dismissed the idea that European civilisation and national identities were under threat because of migration and said the UK had managed the challenges of multiculturalism “very well”.

Hundreds of sausage dogs gather for annual festive parade that organiser started to help her puppy socialise

The pitter-patter of tiny paws has brought joy – and more than a little chaos – to Hyde Park in London as hundreds of dachshunds and their owners gathered for the annual sausage dog Christmas walk.

Now in its eighth year, the event was started by Ana Rodriguez as a way to help her dachshund, Winston, socialise as a puppy. Meeting at noon by the Physical Energy statue in the centre of the park, the dogs – well, the owners really – competed in a best-dressed competition before enjoying an hour of play and socialising before the parade. Rodriguez said previous years’ events had ended up attracting as many as a thousand people and dogs.

Mary-Ann Stephenson says official guidance will not usher in ‘toilet police’ in businesses and public places

• UK politics live – latest updates

“Nobody is expecting a toilet police” but people should follow the rules when guidance is finally issued on single-sex spaces, the chair of the equalities watchdog has said.

Mary-Ann Stephenson said that “generally speaking, we expect people to follow the rules and make sure that there is adequate provision”.

Investment Association, influential group of shareholders, urges pay committees to avoid ‘benchmarking’

The UK’s largest listed companies have been warned against using “boilerplate” arguments to justify big executive pay increases by an influential group of shareholders.

The Investment Association (IA) – whose members manage £10tn of assets – has told pay committees to avoid “benchmarking”: where companies argue higher pay is needed in order to match rivals and avoid bosses jumping ship for larger salaries and bonuses elsewhere.

End of subsidies after failed legislation will have serious and damaging impact on entire sector, policy experts say

With subsidies for Affordable Care Act (ACA) health insurance set to expire, Americans who rely on them will probably switch to plans with lower monthly premiums and high deductibles or decide not to purchase any coverage, which will have a serious and damaging impact on the entire sector, according to healthcare policy experts.

The average amount ACA plan enrollees pay annually for premiums is estimated to more than double, from an average of $888 this year to $1,904 in 2026, according to a KFF analysis.

Senior DP members previously allege being told to disband or face severe consequences including possible arrest

Hong Kong’s last major opposition party has disbanded after a vote by its members, the culmination of Chinese pressure on the city’s remaining liberal voices in a years-long security crackdown.

The Democratic party (DP) has been Hong Kong’s main opposition since its founding three years before the financial hub’s return to Chinese rule in 1997. The party used to sweep city-wide legislative elections and push China on democratic reforms and upholding freedoms.

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 vast collection of masterpieces that are part of the family’s multibillion-euro fortune.

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.

Agency added Mary Carole McDonnell to Most Wanted list for loan fraud tied to phony heiress story

When Nigel Bellis went to work as a show runner for Bellum Entertainment in 2017, a friend gave him a warning: “They have a habit of not paying on time.”

Bellis spent the next several months in New Orleans, helping churn out more than 50 episodes of a true-crime TV show called Murderous Affairs. Though his payments came late, they always arrived. So when the company’s owner, Mary Carole McDonnell, offered him a new role in Los Angeles, he took it.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Whether it’s through TikTok buzz, celebrity endorsements or good old-fashioned word of mouth, some titles enjoy a second, more powerful, life. But what unites them – and is there a formula for this type of success?

There is a particular kind of literary deja vu that strikes sometimes. Seemingly out of nowhere, the same book starts appearing across multiple social media feeds. On the bus, you’ll spot two copies of the same title in one day. A friend says, “Have you read this yet?”, to which you respond, “Someone was just telling me about it the other day.”

These are the sleeper hits that seem to materialise without warning. They are not stacked high on the new release tables. They are books that, for one reason or another, have slipped their original timelines and found a second, often more powerful life.

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 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.

Here are all the best movies to watch over the holidays – from favourites like Elf and Paddington to the latest from Mission: Impossible and Knives Out. Plus, two of the sexiest films ever made

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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.

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).

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.

St Ann’s Warehouse, New York

Oscar-nominated actor struggles to convince in an emotionally inert attempt to resurrect one of the playwright’s lesser-known works

Though it won a Pulitzer prize in 1922, Eugene O’Neill’s social melodrama Anna Christie is not among the venerated playwright’s most famous works. For the better part of a century, ambitious theater artists have endeavored to climb the mountains of Long Day’s Journey Into Night and The Iceman Cometh. Less so for Anna Christie, a strange piece about a supposedly ruined woman trying to get her life back in order.

It’s an interesting choice of vehicle for star Michelle Williams, making her return to the stage after a nine-year hiatus. Anna Christie is an erratic and now quite dated play, one whose moral outlook is hard to parse, its shifts in tone sudden and varied. There’s also the matter that at 45, Williams is about a quarter-century older than O’Neill’s heroine, who is meant to be a hardened and battered young woman trying to start her adult life on new footing.

Howard Assembly Room, Leeds
A TV cookery star becomes the main course, while doomed vegetables and a depressive egg create havoc, in this darkly comic show by the Scottish artist and composer David Fennessy at Opera North

Spare a thought for Amy J Payne, the gutsy mezzo-soprano who plays the title role in Opera North’s Pass the Spoon. Divas, of course, are used to leaping from castle walls or being swept away in avalanches but seldom is a singer required to be swallowed whole by a monstrous gourmand. Payne plays June Spoon, the vociferous host of a TV cookery programme, and whether or not she will be “passed” or, alas, be turned into excrement is the 11th-hour dilemma in this frankly bonkers show.

The idea was cooked up (pardon the pun) back in 2008 when Irish composer David Fennessy and director Nicholas Bone hooked up with David Shrigley, the visual artist famous for his distinctive, darkly humorous line drawings and witty captions. Described as “a sort-of opera,” it premiered at Glasgow’s Tramway in 2011.

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.

From migration to ecology, new knowledge makes new cartographic demands

In May, as part of his campaign to annex Canada, President Donald Trump called the border with his neighbour an artificial line that had been drawn with a ruler “right across the top of the country”. He suggested that the map of North America would look more beautiful without it.

Historians pointed out that the border reflected a complex history and an everyday reality for millions, but they also admitted that Trump wasn’t entirely wrong. Much of the border does follow a straight line – the 49th parallel – and the Americans and Britons who drew it up knew almost nothing about local geography.

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.

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

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

• The best Christmas drinks

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

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

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

• The best supermarket mince pies, tasted and rated

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

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

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.

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions takes a quizzical look at human nature. Why hasn’t it advanced along with other forms of progress? Or has it?

Over the course of human evolution, our brains, our knowledge, technology, healthcare and longevity have advanced hugely. Why has human nature not evolved at the same rate? It seems to me that every country has criminals and every age in history had warfare. We seem to be as morally primitive as our distant ancestors. Why are we not better people? John Gorrill, Cumberland

Send new questions to nq@theguardian.com.

Impress your guests with interiors experts’ top tips for a stylish sleepover

When guests feel that they’ve been looked after with care, it sets the tone for a harmonious visit. Whether you have the luxury of a guest room, or a space that is somewhere between a home office and a laundry graveyard, there are lots of simple, thoughtful ways to give guests a genuinely warm welcome.

When friends and family are staying for just one night, it’s all about making their room comfortable and convenient – think cosy bedding, chargers by the bed, space for an overnight bag, etc. But if it’s a few days or more, it’s worth putting more effort in because, however close you are, you don’t want to be on top of each other. Create a space where they’re happy to relax, and everyone will be able to enjoy some time to decompress.

From choosing frozen turkey to shopping supermarket specials, the traditional meal need not break the household budget

Figures show that the total cost of the all-important Christmas dinner is up 5% on a year ago, with the price of important elements such as pigs in blankets and stuffing up by 7%.

With the cost of living still biting, however, a supermarket price war is taking some of the sting out of high food costs – with Aldi and Lidl selling the ingredients for a main Christmas meal for eight for less than £12.

A luxurious iced dessert stuffed full of boozy dried fruit, candied peel and frozen chestnut puree

This festive, frozen chestnut puree dessert is often credited to the great 19th-century chef Antonin Carême, even though the man himself conceded that this luxurious creation was that of Monsieur Mony, chef to the Russian diplomat Count Nesselrode (albeit, he observed somewhat peevishly, inspired by one of his own chestnut puddings). It was originally served with hot, boozy custard – though I think it’s just enough as it is – and it makes a fabulous Christmas centrepiece,

Prep 15 min
Soak Overnight
Cook 20 min
Freeze 2 hr+
Serves 6

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.

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.

Sarah and Scott have been together since school, but the sex just keeps getting better
• How do you do it? Share the story of your sex life, anonymously

It took me a while to figure out what turned me on – I was well into my 20s when I first had an orgasm with him

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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 long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical concepts

The dramatic chipmunk, distracted boyfriend, the raccoon with the candy floss or “success kid”, what is – or was – the absolute top, world-beating, best-ever internet meme? Antony Scacchi, Los Angeles, US

Post your answers (and new questions) below or send them to nq@theguardian.com. A selection will be published next Sunday.

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 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.

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

Black and brown former employees from CBS, NBC and Teen Vogue talk about the effects of being let go

Trey Sherman was traveling to work on the New York subway when he received an email from David Reiter, a CBS News executive, about an imminent meeting on 29 October. Sherman, an associate producer of CBS Evening News Plus at the time, suspected that he would be laid off. CBS News’s parent company, Paramount, had closed a merger with the Hollywood studio Skydance in August, and planned to slash more than 2,000 jobs as part of corporate restructuring.

Sherman, who is Black, and Reiter, who is white, had an amicable conversation, according to Sherman. Reiter told Sherman that he was being laid off because his show was being eliminated, Sherman said, and that Reiter was unable to assign the team to other positions. Sherman accepted the news and the two men wished each other good luck.

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.

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

We would like to hear from young people who have left the UK in recent months –or are planning to do so

Young people are leaving the UK in high numbers and we’d like to find out more about the reasons why.

Is it about finding a better salary abroad or concerns about rising costs and tax in the UK? How did you choose where to move? How have you found the experience?

We want to hear from the public and healthcare workers about the impact of the ‘worst-case scenario’ flu crisis

Flu cases rose 55% in one week in England this month, as the NHS braces for a “worst-case scenario” in the next fortnight as hospitals, GP surgeries and ambulances services come under intense strain.

It comes as the British Medical Association has lined up strike action for resident doctors in England next week over concerns on pay.

We’d like to hear from people in Britain who have turned to family or friends to borrow money instead of to banks, and how this has affected them

Britons often turn to family and friends to borrow money now, a new survey has suggested.

The survey of more than 4,000 adults commissioned by non-profit Fair4All Finance found that while 25% of respondents had taken out a Buy Now Pay Later loan, 26% had borrowed from family and 15% from friends this year.

We would like to hear about your favourite new podcast you’ve been listening to this year and why

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