Dear Britain: things are bad, but America will recover from Donald Trump. Just give us three years | Jimmy Kimmel

When the president targeted me and my TV show, millions said no. So don’t give up on us – and always remember, we’re not all like him

I have no idea if you know who I am, but I was asked to deliver this year’s alternative Christmas message (which I’ve heard is a big deal) so I hope you do, but if not I host what you call a chatshow (we call it a talkshow) in what you call the colonies, I think? I honestly have no idea what’s going on over there.

I do know what’s going on over here though, and I can tell you that, from a fascism perspective, this has been a really great year. Tyranny is booming over here.

Published: December 25, 2025, 6:00 pm

It’s turkey time! The 12 worst films of 2025

This year has brought us some great movies – and also at least a dozen dire one-star disasters. Here are the Guardian’s critics on the pick of the year’s cinematic calamities

• Guardian readers’ best films of the year
• Peter Bradshaw’s film picks of the year
• More on the best culture of 2025

What we said: “Even the superest superfan of the legendary US TV comedy show Saturday Night Live is going to struggle with the unbearable self-indulgence and self-adoration of this exhausting film from director and co-writer Jason Reitman.” Peter Bradshaw
Read the full review

Published: December 25, 2025, 9:00 am

‘We were treated like enemies of society’: Japan’s dangerous hardcore punk scene looks back to its roots

The pressure to conform in Japanese society made being a punk risky – even before you factor in the flamethrowers. As a new rash of reissues arrives, 80s stalwarts Lip Cream, Death Side and the Nurse recall the thrills and threats

A few short years after punk’s initial shock-and-awe inspired thousands of teenagers to spike their hair and learn three chords, the genre mutated into hardcore: a leaner, meaner and fiercely independent hybrid that would soon be tearing up squats, church halls and dive bars around the world.

Forty-five years on, hardcore is enjoying a moment in the mainstream thanks to bands such as Turnstile, Speed and Knocked Loose. There are hardcore bands on talkshows, in fast-food ads and on $40 T-shirts – all things that the 1980s artists would probably have gobbed at.

Published: December 25, 2025, 11:00 am

How effective is protesting? According to historians and political scientists: very

From emancipation to women’s suffrage, civil rights and BLM, mass movement has shaped the arc of US history

Trump’s first and second terms have been marked by huge protests, from the 2017 Women’s March to the protests for racial justice after George Floyd’s murder, to this year’s No Kings demonstrations. But how effective is this type of collective action?

According to historians and political scientists who study protest: very. From emancipation to women’s suffrage, from civil rights to Black Lives Matter, mass movement has shaped the arc of American history. Protest has led to the passage of legislation that gave women the right to vote, banned segregation and legalized same-sex marriage. It has also sparked cultural shifts in how Americans perceive things like bodily autonomy, economic inequality and racial bias.

Published: December 25, 2025, 2:00 pm

Into the void: how Trump killed international law

The rules-based global order, its institutions and value system face a crisis of legitimacy and credibility as the US turns away

‘The old world is dying,” Antonio Gramsci once wrote. “And the new world struggles to be born.” In such interregnums, the Italian Marxist philosopher suggested, “every act, even the smallest, may acquire decisive weight”.

In 2025, western leaders appeared convinced they – and we – were living through one such transitional period, as the world of international relations established after the second world war crashed to a halt.

Published: December 25, 2025, 1:00 pm

Inside the US’s psychedelic church boom, where taking drugs is legal

Religious groups using banned drugs are increasingly testing the limits of faith and law – and winning

The Church of Gaia in Spokane, Washington, has all the makings of a traditional place of worship: regular gatherings, communal songs and member donations – except they also serve ayahuasca, a psychedelic substance that can induce nausea and, at times, projectile vomiting.

“This is a purely spiritual practice,” said Connor Mize, the ceremonial leader of the Church of Gaia. “It’s not a thing you do just for fun.”

Published: December 25, 2025, 1:00 pm

US carries out strikes on Nigeria targeting Islamic State militants, Trump says

President claims strikes targeted militants in country’s north-west, accusing group of attacking Christian communities

Donald Trump has said the US carried out airstrikes against Islamic State militants in north-west Nigeria on Thursday, after spending weeks decrying the group for targeting Christians.

The president said in a post on his Truth Social platform: “Tonight, at my direction as Commander in Chief, the United States launched a powerful and deadly strike against ISIS Terrorist Scum in Northwest Nigeria, who have been targeting and viciously killing, primarily, innocent Christians, at levels not seen for many years, and even Centuries!

Published: December 25, 2025, 11:41 pm

Southern California sees third death from atmospheric river storm drenching region

Some parts of LA saw more than 11in of rain, with flooding, road closures and debris flows reported across the region

A strong rain and wind storm, carried by an atmospheric river from the Pacific, has been blamed for a third death in southern California as flooding, road closures and debris flows are reported across the region.

A flood watch was also extended through Thursday for almost all of the area, as more than 11in of rainfall was measured in some parts Los Angeles county as of Wednesday night and evacuation warnings were issued for mountain communities in San Bernardino county.

Published: December 26, 2025, 12:25 am

Russian opposition leader sentenced to six years in prison

Sergei Udaltsov, Putin critic affiliated with the Communist party, convicted of justifying terrorism

A court in Russia on Thursday convicted a pro-war activist and critic of Vladimir Putin of justifying terrorism and sentenced him to six years in prison.

Sergei Udaltsov, the leader of the Left Front movement that opposes Putin and is affiliated with the Communist party, was arrested last year.

Published: December 25, 2025, 7:31 pm

Ukraine war briefing: Kyiv hits Russian oil refinery with British Storm Shadow missiles

Ukrainian military says ‘numerous explosions’ at Novoshakhtinsk refinery; Zelenskyy says ‘very good’ talks held with Trump envoys. What we know on day 1,402

Ukraine used British Storm Shadow missiles to attack a Russian oil refinery on Thursday, the country’s military said. The Novoshakhtinsk refinery was hit by the missiles and “numerous explosions” were recorded, the Ukrainian armed forces’ general staff said in a social media post. It has already used the British missiles to attack targets inside Russia. The military also said the Novoshakhtinsk plant was one of the main suppliers of petrol products in southern Russia “and is directly involved in supplying the Russian Federation’s armed forces”.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Thursday that he had “very good” talks with Donald Trump envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner about how to end the war. “It was a really good conversation: many details, good ideas, that we discussed,” the Ukrainian president said on Telegram. “There are some new ideas on how to bring the real peace closer, and it concerns formats, meetings, and, certainly, the timeline.” Zelenskyy’s post came a day after he said Ukraine had won some limited concessions in the latest version of a US-led draft peace plan, which is being reviewed by Moscow.

A court in Russia has convicted a pro-war activist and critic of Vladimir Putin of justifying terrorism and sentenced him to six years in prison. Sergei Udaltsov, the leader of the Left Front movement that opposes the Russian president and is affiliated with the Communist party, was arrested last year. According to Russian independent news site Mediazona, the charges against him stem from an article Udaltsov posted online in support of another group of Russian activists accused of forming a terrorist organisation. Those activists were convicted earlier this month and given sentences from 16 to 22 years in prison. Udaltsov has rejected the charges against him as fabricated. On Thursday, he denounced the verdict as “shameful” and said he was going on a hunger strike, Mediazona reported.

The Kremlin has said it is in contact with the French authorities over the fate of a French political scholar serving a three-year sentence in Russia and reportedly facing new charges of espionage. Russia has made “an offer to the French” regarding Laurent Vinatier, arrested in Moscow last year and convicted of collecting military information, and “the ball is now in France’s court”, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday. He refused to provide details. French president Emmanuel Macron is following Vinatier’s situation closely, his office said in a statement. A French foreign ministry spokesperson said all government services were fully mobilised to provide consular support to Vinatier and push for his liberation as soon as possible

The Mariupol Drama Theatre that was destroyed in a 2022 Russian airstrike while hundreds of civilians were sheltering in its basement is to open its doors again, with Russian occupation authorities heralding the reconstruction as a sign of renewal, while former actors at the theatre denounced the reopening as “dancing on bones”. The Kremlin has made the reconstruction of Mariupol a calling card of its rule in occupied Ukraine, but Moscow’s oversight is accompanied by arrests or exile of critics, along with property seizures that have stripped thousands of Ukrainians of apartments they legally owned, report Shaun Walker, Pjotr Sauer and Artem Mazhulin. The Mariupol theatre is due to reopen by the end of the month with a performance of Russian fairytale The Scarlet Flower after being rebuilt almost from scratch over the past two years.

Published: December 26, 2025, 1:59 am

‘Keeps your mind alert’: older Swedes reap the benefits of learning for pleasure

Retirees with ‘fantastic hunger for education’ taking part in university organised events in record numbers

Record numbers of Swedish retirees are enrolling in a university run “by pensioners for pensioners” amid increased loneliness and a growing appetite for learning and in-person interactions.

Senioruniversitet, a national university that collaborates with Sweden’s adult education institution Folkuniversitetet, has about 30 independent branches around the country which run study circles, lecture series and university courses in subjects including languages, politics, medicine and architecture.

Published: December 26, 2025, 5:00 am

‘Not for the people’: Myanmar junta prepares for elections designed to legitimise grip on power

Elections will be first since military seized power in 2021, but analysts say vote is far from a step toward democracy

Myanmar is preparing to go to the polls for the first time since its military seized power in a coup in 2021, but with its former leader behind bars, its most successful political party disbanded and roughly a third of the country either disputed or in rebel hands, few believe claims by its military rulers that its 28 December election will be “free and fair”.

“This is not for the people, this is for themselves,” says Pai, 25, who fled Myanmar after the military seized power. “They [the ruling junta] are looking for a way out of the trap they are [in].”

Published: December 26, 2025, 12:01 am

US labor unions gear up to fight against Trump’s ‘Billionaire First’ agenda

AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler says union ready to stand up for struggling Americans: ‘Which side are you on?’

Donald Trump has staged a year of “unrelenting attacks on working people,” according to the head of the largest federation of the labor unions in the US. Now they’re preparing to fight back.

Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO, said it was gearing up to challenge the US president’s “Billionaire First” agenda in 2026 – and drive candidates in key elections to stand up for “struggling” Americans.

Published: December 25, 2025, 11:00 am

King Charles calls for reconciliation and unity in Christmas message

Monarch urges people to draw strength from community diversity after a year marked by division and violence

King Charles has called for reconciliation after a year of deepening division, saying in his Christmas address that people must find strength in the diversity of their communities to ensure right defeats wrong.

The monarch cited the spirit of the second world war generation, which he said came together to take on the challenge that faced them; displaying qualities he said have shaped both the UK and the Commonwealth.

Published: December 25, 2025, 3:10 pm

Arkansas Powerball lottery player wins $1.817bn jackpot on Christmas Eve

It was the second-largest lottery windfall in US history, with a lump-sum cash payment option of $834.9m

A Powerball player in Arkansas won a $1.817bn jackpot in Wednesday’s Christmas Eve drawing, ending the lottery game’s three-month stretch without a top-prize winner.

Final ticket sales pushed the jackpot higher than previously expected, making it the second-largest in US history and the largest Powerball prize of 2025, according to www.powerball.com. The jackpot had a lump sum cash payment option of $834.9m.

Published: December 25, 2025, 2:20 pm

‘Not an enabler’? A glimpse behind the curtain at Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles

Are her recent candid remarks about Trump an attempt to distance herself from an increasingly unpopular president?

She was now one of the family. When Donald Trump addressed supporters in Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania, in early December, he asked: “Susie Trump – do you know Susie Trump? Sometimes referred to as Susie Wiles.”

The US president was referring to his chief of staff, who he said had persuaded him to return to the campaign trail ahead of the 2026 congressional midterm elections. But a week later, Wiles appeared at risk of becoming the family outcast.

Published: December 25, 2025, 4:18 pm

‘When no one laughs, your soul leaves your body’: have you heard the one about the Bradley Cooper film inspired by John Bishop … ?

Is This Thing On? is Cooper’s third film as writer/director – and his third to wonder whether performing saves or destroys your love life. He and stars Will Arnett, Laura Dern and Andra Day talk gags, growth and relationship goals

Last Christmas, the audience at an open-mic night in New York welcomed to the stage a new standup. Alex Novak, he said his name was. Mildly funny, bit depressed. Mostly told jokes about getting divorced. Weirdest thing though: he looked exactly like that guy from Arrested Development.

“I was so naively unaware of what to expect,” says Will Arnett, almost a year later. “I’ve been comedy-adjacent for a lot of my life, but not a comedian. I had no idea what I was in for.”

Published: December 26, 2025, 5:00 am

What happened next: The We Do Not Care Club – how a funny, furious feminist movement began

Melani Sanders was frazzled and sleep-deprived, and wondered whether other menopausal women were going through the same thing. So she put her feelings on camera. The answer was immediate ...

If you’re a woman of a certain age with a phone, you’ve probably seen one of Melani Sanders’ We Do Not Care Club posts. In a fleecy dressing gown with reading glasses hanging off her like Christmas tree baubles, a sleep mask wonkily on her forehead, Sanders stares deadpan at the camera. “We are putting the world on notice that we simply do not care much any more,” she says. She uncaps a highlighter with her teeth, spitting the lid out of shot, then starts flatly listing stuff members of the We Do Not Care Club, her virtual community of menopausal women, don’t care about. “We do not care we have to go to therapy weekly; you are probably the reason we are there.” “We do not care if we asked you the question 13 times. We do not remember the answer; say it again.” “We do not care if you realise we are not wearing a bra: this, my friend, is freedom.”

Sanders laughs when I show her over Zoom (she’s in West Palm Beach, Florida) the highlighter tucked into my bra strap in her honour. Since she first suggested starting a “we do not care club” on 13 May 2025, it has become more than a series of brilliantly funny videos about how the midlife hormonal rollercoaster leaves women bereft of fucks to give. It is a worldwide sisterhood of 2.2 million followers on Instagram and 1.5 million on TikTok. But when Sanders, 45, sat frazzled and sleep-deprived in her car, fetching the supplements that kept her (somewhat) sane since entering surgically induced perimenopause, she was wondering if she was alone. Pre-hysterectomy, she was a perfectionist, running her home, family and life with military precision; no more. Her sports bra was skew-whiff; her hair dishevelled. “I said: ‘Melani, you really just don’t care any more … Is it just a me thing? I just hit record.’”

Published: December 26, 2025, 5:00 am

My weirdest Christmas: on Boxing Day I vomited in the sink – and began to suspect I had a mysterious condition

At first I thought my spinning head and nausea were symptoms of a hangover. But could they be connected to a documentary I had made on Havana syndrome?

Waking foggy-headed and with the room spinning on 26 December is surely not an uncommon condition. Who among us hasn’t felt the effects of overindulgence on Christmas Day?

These were my immediate thoughts when I rose in such a state in my parents’ house in Dublin two years ago. An hour later, the room continued its relentless swirl, nausea was building and it was becoming hard to stand. So far, so Christmas hangover. I remained in bed and waited for things to blow over. They didn’t. Gradually, family members stuck their heads into my childhood bedroom and wondered if everything was OK. I could only say that I felt quite strange.

Published: December 26, 2025, 5:00 am

The Lowdown review – Ethan Hawke’s new drama is hilariously poignant

The actor plays a ‘truthstorian’ trying to uncover how a powerful man’s death came about. Brace yourself for a hugely funny, all-American wild goose chase!

Lee Raybon (Ethan Hawke) is a “truthstorian”. How to explain that proudly self-applied title? A historian, but also an investigative journalist with an inherent distrust of mainstream narratives? A maker of trouble for trouble’s sake? Or one of those fantasists whose home contains a huge mood board (current mood? Paranoid!) covered with photos of suspects and newspaper clippings and various strands of a conspiracy connected by pieces of string? Raybon actually has one of those. “I’m a very visual thinker,” he says. His scathing former business partner Wendell (Peter Dinklage) sees it differently: “It’s like you read one Oklahoma history book and then made a junior high collage out of it.”

This exchange is typical of the alacrity with which The Lowdown cheerfully undercuts itself. Sterlin Harjo’s Tulsa noir is brilliantly elusive in tone. It allows Raybon, its nominal hero, precious little dignity. Raybon is, in many ways, a ridiculous man. His marriage is in ruins. He puts his sweet, resourceful daughter Francis in danger by mixing business and parenting. He’s one of the least physically imposing renegades you’ll ever meet (“How does an adult with a gun get put in the trunk of a car?” wonders his associate Cyrus at one point). He isn’t Woodward or Bernstein, he’s Jeffrey “The Dude” Lebowski with a sympathetic editor and a political agenda.

Published: December 26, 2025, 5:00 am

Experience: I cycled the length of the UK on a wooden bike

With no plans, I set off from John O’Groats to travel down south to Dover. Friends and family didn’t think I’d last a mile

Since coming to England from Ethiopia eight years ago, I’ve lost parts of my cultural identity. I was stuck in a monotonous, isolated routine studying for a biochemistry degree at Imperial College London, without the family-centred lifestyle I was used to. Back in Ethiopia, I’d be surrounded by my aunt, grandparents, friends.

So this year, I took 12 months out and moved to my uncle’s house in Leeds. The change helped me try new things, like cycling: as a child, I had never ridden a bike. I bought one in a charity shop. My friends told me that it was made for a 10-year-old and donated an adult-sized bike to me.

Published: December 26, 2025, 5:00 am

Stranger Things season five vol 2 review – the fact that this isn’t unbearable is a miracle

Yes, the kids are now 90% Adam’s apple. Yes, Winona Ryder has been unforgivably sidelined. And yes, some characters are trapped in a room filling with yoghurt. But despite our misgivings, this show still absolutely slaps

Listen, this isn’t the place for newcomers. Stranger Things has been around for almost a decade, and it has spent almost all this time building a mythology that has grown so unwieldy that trying to explain it would cost me my wordcount and my will to live.

However, in fairness, this new penultimate batch of episodes gives it a good try. The content of these new episodes can neatly be split into three categories. There’s action, which is high-octane and fun, and probably why you’re watching. Then there’s dialogue, which is less successful because it causes characters to stop moving and emote at each other, even though they should probably be concentrating on the imminent end of the world.

Published: December 26, 2025, 1:00 am

Don’t fret the first night and nap if you need: how to sleep well, away from home

Disturbed sleep is very common as you adapt to a new environment but, with good sleep hygiene and some practical adjustments, you can quickly settle in

• Read more summer essentials

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As the working year draws to a close, many of us only have one hope for the season, and that’s a decent night’s sleep. While not every family visit or post-Christmas getaway is going to be a trip to Rancho Relaxo, a few things can help us catch holiday kip. Pre-departure apps can be useful, so can pillow mists and thermoregulation, but when it comes to maximising rest on the road, some say less is more.

Published: December 25, 2025, 7:00 pm

‘A game changer’: these glass food containers transformed how I store leftovers

Don’t let loads of holiday leftovers languish in the fridge. These microwaveable glass containers from Anyday will help you waste less food – and cut back on dirty dishes

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When I cook for my family, I always pack up leftover food with the best of intentions, and remnants of a weeknight meal generally get eaten within a day or two. Holiday dinners, however, are an entirely different story.

Try as I might to prepare a reasonable spread when I host, I usually end up making or ordering too much of everything. At Christmas, this means I’m often left with more than half of a ham or turkey, a mountain of mashed potatoes and a smattering of other side dishes and desserts. In the past, I would stuff what was left of each item into the biggest air-tight container it required, then cram them all into my fridge, full-well believing my kids and I would live off of those leftovers for the better part of a week.

The best glass food storage containers: Anyday 2-Cup Glass Round Dish Multipack

Published: December 25, 2025, 3:15 pm

Our king, priest and feudal lord – how AI is taking us back to the dark ages | Joseph de Weck

Since the Enlightenment, we’ve been making our own decisions. But now AI may be about to change that

This summer, I found myself battling through traffic in the sweltering streets of Marseille. At a crossing, my friend in the passenger seat told me to turn right toward a spot known for its fish soup. But the navigation app Waze instructed us to go straight. Tired, and with the Renault feeling like a sauna on wheels, I followed Waze’s advice. Moments later, we were stuck at a construction site.

A trivial moment, maybe. But one that captures perhaps the defining question of our era, in which technology touches nearly every aspect of our lives: who do we trust more – other human beings and our own instincts, or the machine?

Joseph de Weck is a fellow with the Foreign Policy Research Institute

Published: December 26, 2025, 5:00 am

Nicola Jennings on Trump and Putin’s Christmas Day – cartoon

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Published: December 25, 2025, 11:00 am

The hill I will die on: Fruit with meat? What kind of pervert are you? | Katy Guest

Please don’t ever offer me cranberry sauce with my roast turkey – that’s just jam on your Christmas dinner, and who wants that?

As a grumpy old woman in the prime of my pedantry, I have already died on many hills, and I have the scars to prove it. I have sacrificed myself on the battlefield of patriarchy chicken, by walking square into people who stride down the centre of the pavement staring at their phones and expecting everyone else to jump out of their way. I have risked life and limb in a pub full of football fans by declaring my belief that the only “real sports” are running fast, jumping high and throwing or swimming far – the rest are just “games”. And I have driven myself to tears by consistently walking into the same branch of Pret a Manger and ordering the same coffee, please, “and nothing else”, and then standing there blankly when I’m invariably asked, “And anything else?” When it comes to defending arbitrary red lines, my belligerence knows no bounds.

And yet, with Christmas approaching, I have been trembling at the thought of strapping on my armour and fighting yet again for what I truly believe: that meat and fruit should never be served on the same plate. And yes, you perverts, I do mean turkey and cranberry sauce – just stop putting jam on your Christmas dinner!

Katy Guest is a Guardian Opinion deputy editor and a style guide editor

Published: December 25, 2025, 6:00 am

My five-year-old daughter is learning to love cricket. It’s a source of delight in a difficult summer | Kate Lyons

Watching the Ashes has felt like a small bright spot. Something for Australians to cheer about when our hearts are broken

One of the many joys of this Ashes series is that this summer my daughter has begun to care about cricket.

And there is nothing that reminds you of the beautiful weirdness of the game so much as trying to explain it to a relentlessly curious five-year-old.

Published: December 25, 2025, 7:00 pm

Wild animals are great gift givers – and there’s one present in particular I’d love to receive for Christmas | Helen Pilcher

Penguins hand over pebbles; scorpionflies give spitballs. But I’m hankering after a sea sponge presented by a dolphin

This Christmas morning, are you worried you didn’t choose quite the right gift for that someone special? I always try my hardest, but everywhere I turn I’m bombarded with unhelpful suggestions. No, I don’t want a candle that smells like turkey, because, well, we’ll be cooking turkey. Nor do I want a sunrise alarm clock that mimics natural light, because I can leave the curtains open. And I definitely don’t want a salmon DNA pink collagen jelly mask (Good Housekeeping’s Best for Beauty Lovers), because said DNA comes from milt. AKA semen. If I wanted fish sperm on my face, I would tickle some pollocks.

So if, like me, you’re always looking for inspiration, my advice is: learn from the animal kingdom. Humans didn’t invent gifting. The practice has been around for at least 100m years, long before our species evolved. With a little help from natural selection, this has given wild animals ample time to perfect the art of giving. Hell, some spiders even gift-wrap!

Helen Pilcher is a science writer and the author of Bring Back the King: The New Science of De-Extinction

Published: December 25, 2025, 8:00 am

Prescott leads Cowboys past skidding Commanders as Lions eliminated with loss

• Prescott ties Romo with fourth 30-TD season

• Lions eliminated after error-strewn loss to Vikings

• Broncos’ defense shines in win over Chiefs

Dak Prescott threw for 307 yards and two touchdowns, and the Dallas Cowboys blew most of an 18-point lead before squeezing past the Washington Commanders 30-23 Thursday.

Dallas (7-8-1) scored touchdowns on their first three possessions to go up 21-3. Although the Commanders (4-12) cut the gap to a touchdown on three different occasions, they couldn’t complete the comeback and absorbed their 10th loss in 11 games.

Published: December 25, 2025, 9:34 pm

NBA Christmas 2025: Spurs make it three wins over Thunder in two weeks

• Spurs beat Thunder for third time in two weeks

• Knicks rally from 17 down in fourth quarter to win

• Anthony Davis leaves with injury in Mavericks loss

De’Aaron Fox scored 29 points, and the San Antonio Spurs defeated the Oklahoma City Thunder for their third win over the defending NBA champs in the past two weeks.

The Spurs also defeated the Thunder in an NBA Cup semi-final on 13 December and in San Antonio on Tuesday. The teams meet again on 13 January in Oklahoma City.

Published: December 25, 2025, 10:49 pm

I was there: Rory McIlroy’s Masters triumph was the ultimate moment

It felt like nothing would top Tiger Woods’s Masters win, but then the Northern Irishman completed his career grand slam on an extraordinary final day at Augusta

At 7am on 14 April in an Augusta rental home, Rory McIlroy awoke and immediately spotted a Green Jacket draped over a chair. “You think: ‘Yeah, that did happen yesterday,’” he says. “That.” McIlroy was now the sixth man to win all four of golf’s majors.

The detail of what lay around in the bedroom of my own Augusta billet is of no interest to anybody. That was, however, a memorable morning. I had previously and wrongly believed nothing would top Tiger Woods’s 2019 Masters win in respect of seismic reaction. Scores of messages from friends, colleagues, family members – umpteen of whom have no interest whatsoever in golf – had landed. Broadcast outlets across the world wanted my assessment of what had played out on Masters Sunday. Yeah, that did happen yesterday.

Published: December 25, 2025, 8:00 am

Liverpool praying for a golden sky after seven months of storms

Despair and disorder have engulfed the club since their title party, leaving all concerned in need of previous serenity

As Virgil van Dijk raised the Premier League trophy on a cool May afternoon at Anfield, the cap was sealed on a serenely glorious season for Liverpool. For sure there had been challenges en route to a 20th league title, but not many, and those that did arise were dealt with in a calm, orderly fashion. The ultimate prize had been captured with minimum sweat.

Cue the celebrations after a final‑day 1-1 draw with Crystal Palace: players and staff dancing on the pitch, supporters doing the same in the stands, and no sense this was as good as it was going to get for the just-crowned champions. It took less than 24 hours for everything to change and set in motion an astonishing seven‑month period in the history of a club where it was probably thought they had seen and done it all.

Published: December 25, 2025, 12:00 pm

John Robertson, Nottingham Forest and Scotland legend, dies aged 72

• Winger was described by Clough as ‘Picasso of our game’

• Scored in Scotland’s 1981 win over England at Wembley

John Robertson, the Nottingham Forest and Scotland legend, has died at the age of 72. Robertson was a hugely important part of the great Forest team that under Brian Clough rose from the second tier of English football to win multiple major honours, most famously back-to-back European Cups.

Robertson assisted the decisive goal in the first European Cup triumph in 1979 and scored the decisive goal in the second, contributions that mark him out as one of the most remarkable players in British football history. He earned 28 Scotland caps, notably scoring the winning goal in a Home Championship victory over England at Wembley in May 1981. Clough described him as “the Picasso of our game”.

Published: December 25, 2025, 1:52 pm

Epstein survivor calls for Mountbatten-Windsor to be ‘brought to justice’ in US

Marina Lacerda urges him to answer questions as Virginia Giuffre’s lawyer says anyone who accepted former royal’s denials ‘should be ashamed’

One of the victims of the convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has called for Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor to answer questions in the US, while a lawyer for the former royal’s accuser said those who had previously believed his denials “should be ashamed of themselves”.

Speaking to the Guardian after the release of some of the Epstein files, the tranche of documents related to the disgraced financier, Marina Lacerda, an Epstein survivor, said Mountbatten-Windsor should be “brought to justice”.

Published: December 25, 2025, 2:18 pm

Israeli police arrest Palestinian man dressed as Santa Claus at Christmas party

Officers closed Christmas event in Haifa, confiscating equipment and also arresting a DJ and a street vendor

Israeli police arrested a Palestinian man dressed as Santa Claus during a raid on a Christmas party in Haifa, a civil rights monitor has said.

Israeli officers closed an event celebrating Christmas on Sunday, confiscating equipment, and arresting the Palestinian Santa Claus, as well as a DJ and a street vendor. In a video, police can be seen pushing the men to the ground and handcuffing them as bystanders watched.

Published: December 25, 2025, 12:12 pm

Blood test could predict who is most at risk from common inherited heart condition

Exclusive: Scientists find a way to forecast hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, which affects millions worldwide

Scientists are developing a simple blood test to predict who is most at risk from the world’s most common inherited heart condition.

Millions of people worldwide have hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), a disease of the heart muscle where the wall of the heart becomes thickened. It is caused by a change in one or more genes and mostly passed on through families.

Published: December 25, 2025, 1:00 pm

Falling price of cocaine forces drug traffickers to reuse narco-submarines, say Spanish police

Previously vessels would be sunk once they had completed their cargo runs from South America to Europe

The plummeting price of cocaine is forcing drug-traffickers to reuse the “narco-submarines” they would previously have scuttled once the custom-built vessels had completed their cargo runs from South America to Europe, according to a senior Spanish police officer.

While semi-submersible vehicles have been used regularly in Colombia and other parts of South and Central America since the 1980s, they were not detected in European waters until 2006, when an abandoned sub was found in an estuary in the north-west Spanish region of Galicia.

Published: December 25, 2025, 9:00 am

Dordogne murder mystery: British woman’s death confounds detectives

Brutal stabbing of Karen Carter, 65, in France has been followed by talk of affairs and speculation over the culprit

The quiet village of Trémolat nestled in the Dordogne valley is best known for its “cingle”, where the sinuous river forms an Instagrammable loop.

Home to about 700 people, along with restaurants, a cafe, boulangerie and wine bar, it is a picture-perfect French idyll and a popular place for a getaway or even retirement.

Published: December 25, 2025, 10:00 am

‘Dancing on bones’: Mariupol theatre to reopen with staging of Russian fairytale

Restoration presented as rebuilding, but many see it as part of a broader Russification effort in occupied Ukrainian city

The Mariupol Drama Theatre, destroyed in a Russian airstrike in 2022 while hundreds of civilians were sheltering in its basement, is to open its doors again, with Russian occupation authorities heralding the reconstruction as a sign of renewal, while former actors at the theatre denounced the reopening as “dancing on bones”.

The Kremlin has made the reconstruction of Mariupol a calling card of its rule in occupied Ukraine, but Moscow’s oversight is accompanied by arrests or exile of critics, along with property seizures that have stripped thousands of Ukrainians of apartments they legally owned.

Published: December 25, 2025, 11:00 am

‘They’re scared of us now’: how co-investment in a tropical forest saw off loggers

Low-cost tech and joined-up funding have reduced illegal logging, mining and poaching in the Darién Gap – it’s a success story that could stop deforestation worldwide

There are no roads through the Darién Gap. This vast impenetrable forest spans the width of the land bridge between South and Central America, but there is almost no way through it: hundreds have lost their lives trying to cross it on foot.

Its size and hostility have shielded it from development for millennia, protecting hundreds of species – from harpy eagles and giant anteaters to jaguars and red-crested tamarins – in one of the most biodiverse places on Earth. But it has also made it incredibly difficult to protect. Looking after 575,000 hectares (1,420,856 acres) of beach, mangrove and rainforest with just 20 rangers often felt impossible, says Segundo Sugasti, the director of Darién national park. Like tropical forests all over the world, it has been steadily shrinking, with at least 15% lost to logging, mining and cattle ranching in two decades.

Published: December 25, 2025, 3:00 pm

We can be heroes: the inspiring people we met around the world in 2025 – part one

From the Indigenous doctor balancing traditional and western medicine to a father risking death to provide for his family in Gaza, these are some of the people whose determination and bravery stood out

In 2012, Adana Omágua Kambeba travelled 4,000km (2,500 miles) from her home in Manaus, in the Brazilian Amazon, to take up a coveted place to study medicine at the Federal University of Minas Gerais in south-east Brazil. She became the first among her people, the Kambeba, or Omágua, to graduate in the field, still largely dominated by white elites. According to the 2022 census, Indigenous people represented 0.1% of those who graduated in medicine in Brazil.

Adana Kambeba uses the ancestral knowledge of her people alongside conventional medicine in her work. Photograph: Marizilda Cruppe/the Guardian

Published: December 25, 2025, 5:00 am

‘It’s the wildest place I have walked’: new national park will join up Chile’s 2,800km wildlife corridor

Government poised to officially protect 200,000 hectares of remote Patagonian coastline and forest

Chile’s government is poised to create the country’s 47th national park, protecting nearly 200,000 hectares (500,000 acres) of pristine wilderness and completing a wildlife corridor stretching 1,700 miles (2,800km) to the southernmost tip of the Americas.

The Cape Froward national park is a wild expanse of wind-torn coastline and forested valleys that harbours unrivalled biodiversity and has played host to millennia of human history.

Published: December 25, 2025, 12:00 pm

Princesses Eugenie and Beatrice join royal family for Christmas Day service

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s daughters seen at Sandringham church as more details about his ties to Jeffrey Epstein emerge

Princesses Eugenie and Beatrice attended church with the royal family on Christmas morning, in a year where their father, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, was stripped of his royal titles.

Mountbatten-Windsor’s two daughters could be seen walking behind King Charles III and Queen Camilla on their way to church on the private Sandringham estate in Norfolk.

Published: December 25, 2025, 12:26 pm

Two men missing in sea off Devon beach on Christmas Day

Emergency services launched major search at Budleigh Salterton after reports of people in difficulty in the water

Two men are missing in the water off a beach in Devon, after a number of people were reported to be in difficulty.

Emergency services were called to Budleigh Salterton at 10.25am on Christmas Day following concerns for people in the water.

Published: December 25, 2025, 5:21 pm

The best old music we discovered this year

Strange folk, lost pop, disco oddities and, um, Dido – here are the forgotten tracks that became this year’s most replayed revelations
• The 50 best albums of 2025
• More on the best culture of 2025

I grew up listening to the Mamas and the Papas’ hits but had never heard their albums before this year. I had no idea anything as creepy as Mansions lurked within their sunny oeuvre. Its sound is ominous, its mood one of stoned paranoia, its subject rich hippies sequestered in the titular luxury homes, haunted by the sensation that the flower-power dream is going wrong.

Published: December 25, 2025, 2:00 pm

Michael Mann: ‘I make films for a large presentation’

As his epic crime thriller Heat turns 30, the director talks about pairing acting legends, his thoughts on AI and what’s happening with Heat 2

Hannibal Lecter’s first movie appearance was in 1986’s Manhunter, starring Brian Cox. It took director and writer Michael Mann just five weeks to adapt Thomas Harris’s novel Red Dragon for the screen.

But when it came to adapting his own work – Heat 2, co-authored with Meg Gardiner as both a prequel and sequel to his 1995 film Heat – Mann discovered the pain of self-editing. “I thought OK, 10 weeks, 12 weeks,” he reflects in a Zoom interview from Los Angeles. “Instead, it took like 10 months and it was arduous because I wanted the same effect as the novel, which required recombining events to fit within a two-and-a-half-hour timeframe. That selection became agonising to say the least.”

Published: December 25, 2025, 11:12 am

Strictly Come Dancing Christmas Special 2025 – live

Happy Christmas, glitterati! Tissues at the ready for Tess and Claud’s last hurrah. Join us for every minute of this tinsel-strewn tearjerker

Season’s greetings, hoofing fans. Michael here – I hope you’re all enjoying some comfort, joy and purple ones from the Quality Street. You might just be weeping into the tin soon, because the Strictly Come Dancing Christmas Special promises to be a tinsel-adorned tearjerker.

Yes, today’s edition is one for the history books: it’s the last time ever that Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman present the BBC ballroom blockbuster before new hosts take over in 2026. After 21 years beneath the gliiterball for Tess and nearly as long for Claud, it’s truly the end of a twinkle-toed era.

Published: December 25, 2025, 5:00 pm

Sunny Nights review – Will Forte and D’Arcy Carden’s sassy Australian comedy is criminally good fun

Despite a comedic surface, this playful romp is fundamentally a crime story that is less concerned with plausibility than having a good time

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This very entertaining and sassy new series starring Will Forte and The Good Place’s D’Arcy Carden joins a long line of productions about foreigners setting up shop in Australia. Things often don’t go well for outsiders attempting to make good down under – but unlike John Grant in Wake in Fright and, more recently, Nic Cage in The Surfer, American siblings Martin (Forte) and Vicki (Carden) don’t get psychologically pummelled by the sun. Their story is sun, for they are in Sydney to launch a spray tan business.

Created by Nick Keetch and Ty Freer and directed by comedy stalwart Trent O’Donnell (a reliable pair of hands, whose shows include Colin From Accounts, No Activity and Review with Myles Barlow), Sunny Nights initially presents itself as a frothy romp, buoyed by two funny imported leads and plenty of spritzy banter. It took me a little while to fully appreciate that, beneath the playful surface, this is fundamentally a crime story – one told with a disarmingly light comedic touch that nudges emphasis away from plausibility to sheer enjoyability.

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Published: December 25, 2025, 7:00 pm

Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell audiobook review – the life and loss of the woman behind the Bard

The wife of William Shakespeare takes centre stage in a rich, sensitive examination of parental grief, sensitively narrated by Jessie Buckley

The jury is still out on the merits of Chloé Zhao’s Hamnet, which arrives in cinemas next month, but there is no arguing with the quality of the source material. Maggie O’Farrell’s lyrical and immersive novel, which won the Women’s prize in 2020, imagines the relationship between William Shakespeare and his wife, Agnes Hathaway, and their grief over the death of their 11-year-old son, Hamnet, from the plague in 1596. The book opens with the young Hamnet realising his twin sister Judith is unwell and searching for an adult to attend to her, while unaware that he is the one who is fatally ill.

Shakespeare – who is never named and instead referred to as “the husband” or “the father” – is depicted not as a literary superstar but a flawed man who is rarely home. The focus is on Hathaway, a free-spirited woman with deep connections to the landscape. The narrative shifts between her childhood, the early years of her marriage and the aftermath of Hamnet’s death, during which Shakespeare writes one of his greatest plays, Hamlet (records state that the names Hamlet and Hamnet were interchangeable in those days).

Published: December 25, 2025, 3:00 pm

Books to look out for in 2026 – nonfiction

Memoirs from Liza Minnelli and Lena Dunham, essays by David Sedaris and Alan Bennett’s diaries are among the highlights of the year ahead

Over the past year we’ve been spoiled for memoirs from high-wattage stars – Cher, Patti Smith and Anthony Hopkins among them. But 2026 begins with a very different true story, from someone who never chose the spotlight, but now wants some good to come of her appalling experiences. After the trial that resulted in her husband and 50 others being convicted of rape or sexual assault, Gisèle Pelicot’s aim is to nurture “strength and courage” in other survivors. In A Hymn to Life (Bodley Head, February) she insists that “shame has to change sides”. Another trial – of the men accused of carrying out the Bataclan massacre – was the subject of Emmanuel Carrère’s most recent book, V13. For his next, Kolkhoze (Fern, September), the French master of autofiction turns his unsparing lens back on himself, focusing on his relationship with his mother Hélène, and using it to weave a complex personal history of France, Russia and Ukraine. Family also comes under the microscope in Ghost Stories (Sceptre, May) by Siri Hustvedt, a memoir of her final years with husband Paul Auster, who died of cancer in 2024.

Hollywood isn’t totally out of the picture, though: The Steps (Seven Dials, May), Sylvester Stallone’s first autobiography, follows the star from homelessness in early 70s New York to Rocky’s triumph at the Oscars later that decade. Does achieving your creative dreams come at a price, though? Lena Dunham suggests as much in Famesick (4th Estate, April), billed as a typically frank memoir of how how her dramatic early success gave way to debilitating chronic illness. Frankness of a different kind is promised in More (Bloomsbury, September), actor Gillian Anderson’s follow-up to her bestselling 2024 anthology of women’s sexual fantasies, Want.

Published: December 25, 2025, 7:00 am

Ice by Jacek Dukaj review – a dazzling journey to an alternate Siberia

The 1908 Tunguska comet changes the direction of history and gives rise to a weird new reality in this acclaimed epic from the Polish author

The opening sentence of this remarkable novel announces that the reader is in for an intriguing experience. “On the fourteenth day of July 1924, when the tchinovniks of the Ministry of Winter came for me, on the evening of that day, on the eve of my Siberian Odyssey, only then did I begin to suspect that I did not exist.” It may hint at Kafka in the ominous arrival of officials, or Borges in its metaphysical conundrum, but stranger things are afoot. In 1924 there was no tsar, let alone his bureaucrats, the tchinovniks. The date is significant, but I don’t mind admitting I had to find out why online. The time, as Hamlet says, is out of joint.

The rudely awakened sleeper is Benedykt Gierosławski, a Polish philosopher, logician, mathematician and gambler whose debts will be erased if he undertakes a special mission for the Ministry. He is to travel to Siberia, “the wild east”, and find his father, Filip, who was exiled there for anti-government activities. This is not clemency. Filip is now known as Father Frost, and as a geologist, radical and mystic, he might have a connection with what has occurred. The reader is drip-fed the details. A comet fell into Tunguska in Siberia in 1908, as it did in our universe. But here the event has caused the emergence of an inexplicable, expanding, possibly sentient coldness called the “gleiss”. Ice, which won the European Union prize for literature, came out in Poland in 2007, well before the Game of Thrones TV adaptation made “winter is coming” a meme; but in this novel, it certainly is.

Published: December 25, 2025, 7:00 am

The video games you may have missed in 2025

Date a vending machine, watch intergalactic television and make the most out of your short existence as a fly. Here are the best games you weren’t playing this year
• The 20 best video games of 2025
• More on the best culture of 2025

PS5, Xbox, Switch, PC
Have you ever wanted to romance your record player? Date Everything! offers players the chance to develop relationships with everyday objects around your house, in a fully voiced sandbox romp featuring over 100 anthropomorphised characters. Wonderfully meta; you can put the moves on the textbox, or even “Michael Transaction” (microtransaction – get it?) himself. Meghan Ellis

Published: December 25, 2025, 10:00 am

No pain, no game: how South Korea turned itself into a gaming powerhouse

Gaming was once compared to drugs, gambling and alcohol in South Korea. Now its gaming academies offer a chance to earn a six-figure salary – if you make the grade

Son Si-woo remembers the moment his mother turned off his computer. He was midway through an interview to become a professional gamer.

“She said when I played computer games, my personality got worse, that I was addicted to games,” the 27-year-old recalls.

Published: December 25, 2025, 12:05 am

‘Pure magic!’ Farewell Tess and Claudia, the power couple who were Strictly’s life and soul

The trailblazing female duo’s days of effortlessly holding the BBC dance competition together are over. They open up on the joy of working together

For the past 21 years, there has been only one ever-present on Strictly Come Dancing. It’s not dancer-turned-judge Anton du Beke, who usually got knocked out of the contest early. It’s not the panel’s panto villain, Craig Revel Horwood, who might be the longest-serving judge but took sick leave after testing positive for Covid in 2021. It’s not even trusty band leader Dave Arch, who didn’t join until series four.

No, Strictly’s sole permanent fixture is Tess Daly. She took a few weeks maternity leave in autumn 2004 after giving birth to eldest daughter Phoebe but since then, the glitterball stalwart hasn’t missed a show, clocking up in excess of 500 episodes. It’s an astonishingly resilient record. Daly has been the linchpin of the ballroom behemoth since the very start. And now that she and co-host Claudia Winkleman have stepped down, it is truly the end of a TV era.

Published: December 25, 2025, 6:45 pm

My weirdest Christmas: I was 11 and braced for tension. Then I found my parents and step-parents in bed together

It was our first joint family Christmas, and I watched fearfully as my mum walked into the kitchen she had once called hers. The next 48 hours were full of surprises

There are still moments I pinch myself: when, over the remnants of turkey and red wine, my divorced parents regale us all with an in-joke from their previous life. When, on the pre-lunch walk, my dad and stepdad stroll in lockstep and talk about finance and even feelings, occasionally. When we’ve all exchanged gifts, and the most thoughtful gifts are not between husband and wife or parent and child, but ones the divorced and remarried couples have given each other.

We’ve been doing this for 25 years now, this joint family Christmas, complete with step-parents, parents and siblings. But every so often, I remember how weird it all once felt. The first time, when I was 11 years old, I watched fearfully as, on Christmas Eve, my mum walked into the kitchen she once called hers. Despite her initial efforts to pretend otherwise, it was clear she still knew where everything lived – and that the next 48 hours would be easier if she admitted it.

Published: December 25, 2025, 5:00 am

Around the world in 50 countries: the globe-trotting Christmas travel quiz

From the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World to Donald Trump’s territorial wishlist, test your travel knowledge. Every answer is the name of a country

Name the six countries or territories Donald Trump has said or suggested he would like to annex, acquire or take control of.

Published: December 25, 2025, 6:00 am

You be the judge: my partner is obsessed with our home’s water consumption. Should he stop?

Peter is waging war on the water company but Winnie feels his policing of usage is overbearing. You decide whose argument gets flushed away

• Find out how to get a disagreement settled or become a juror

Peter nags me not to flush the toilet after a wee, which is gross. I’m not up for being monitored

Everyone lets these water firms do what they like. It’s time to fight back. So we need to cut our usage

Published: December 25, 2025, 8:00 am

My big night out: I went to a White Stripes gig with a colleague – and she became my best friend

On that brilliant night at Ally Pally 21 years ago, Laura and I decided to go to Detroit on holiday. Since then there have been countless adventures: road trips, dive bars, rock camps …

Kicking-out time, January 2004, and Laura and I are sitting on the kerb waiting for a bus outside Alexandra Palace in north London. Not that we’re in a hurry to be anywhere else. We’re having the best time on our kerb, cheeks flushed from hard liquor and the exhilaration of the White Stripes show we’ve just seen. We’re busy communing with a fellow nocturnal creature, a woodlouse. It is one of those rare moments in my 20s when just about everything feels right.

Laura and I had quietly become office allies over a few years, a bond initially forming around our mutual shy diligence in the face of not fully fitting in. We would conspiratorially skip downstairs to the canteen together most lunchtimes and temper any work worries by chatting shit, laughing hysterically and plotting small acts of rebellion. (Like the time we childishly made a “FUCK CHESS” sign and left it on the office chess club’s shelf, which for some reason felt necessary and hilarious. If you’re reading this, chess club, we’re very sorry.)

Published: December 25, 2025, 1:00 pm

Dr Alex George looks back: ‘A dying friend told me to throw myself into things more – Love Island came into my mind’

The author and mental health campaigner on not fitting in at school, being on the Covid frontline, and how grief inspired him to help others

Born in Carmarthen in 1991, Dr Alex George is a former NHS doctor, an author and a mental health campaigner. After studying medicine at the Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry, he worked as an A&E doctor in London before joining the cast of 2018’s Love Island. In 2021, he was appointed the UK government’s youth mental health ambassador. He is the author of five books; his latest, Happy Habits, is out now, with Am I Normal? published on 15 January.

Mum loved to make outfits for special occasions, and Christmas was no exception. It was an important time of year for our family; she was determined for us to experience the magic of tradition. It would have been a small, intimate day in Capel Dewi in Carmarthenshire – just me, my parents, my two brothers and my grandmother.

Published: December 25, 2025, 8:00 am

Bono busking and a festive royal duet: photos of the day – Christmas Day

The Guardian’s picture editors select photographs from around the world

Published: December 25, 2025, 11:59 am