Chris Rea’s Driving Home for Christmas is an evergreen, everyman anthem that captures the season’s true spirit

By rejecting the bombast of 80s pop, the late singer-songwriter’s track has endured, and thereby perfectly captures the nostalgic feelings at the heart of Christmas

• Chris Rea, rock and blues singer-songwriter, dies aged 74
• Chris Rea – a life in pictures

Britain isn’t a great island for road songs. It’s not big enough, really, for you to hit the road and drive. And if you try, you may just end up stuck in traffic on the A1, where the late Chris Rea found himself in Christmas 1978, his wife behind the wheel of her Mini, he beside her as they tried to get from Abbey Road Studios in London to their home in Middlesbrough, 220 miles away.

He wrote the song on a whim, scribbling down the lyrics whenever passing headlights illuminated the car interior (as he told this paper’s Dave Simpson in 2016), then put it away with his other unfinished scraps when he got home. Eight years later, he paired his lyric with some jazzy chords he’d written and a song was born. At first, he shoved it on a B-side, but in 1988 he rerecorded it for a compilation, put it out as a single, and … it was not an instant hit. Instead it was a slow burner that went from radio playlists and department store PA systems into people’s hearts over many years.

Published: December 22, 2025, 5:21 pm

Yet again, released Epstein files raise more questions than answers | Moira Donegan

The documents are disturbing. But they seem largely to reflect information that has already been made public

After months of public outcry and pressure from within the Maga coalition, Donald Trump’s justice department released what it called The Epstein Files, with the Trump world’s typical fanfare. A media frenzy ensued. But the “files” that were released by Pam Bondi’s Department of Justice left many observers frustrated and confused. The release was partial and heavily redacted; much of the information had already been made public. Media figures were incensed, and members of Congress pledged to push the Trump administration for more. The episode left Washington watchers frustrated. It fueled speculation that Trump, who had long opposed the release of the documents, had something to hide.

That was on 27 February, when a group of 15 rightwing media figures who had taken a special interest in the Epstein case were summoned to the White House and given white binders labeled “The Epstein Files”. The release was meant to allay pressure from the president’s conspiracy-minded base and neutralize the Epstein issue, which has dogged Trump since the financier, sex offender and former close friend of the president died in prison during his first term in 2019. But those who received the binders said that there was little new information in them. The episode only further inflamed tensions and increased the salience of the Epstein issue.

Published: December 22, 2025, 2:00 pm

The 21 best family board games in the US, according to experts

Peel your family away from their screens this holiday season with games for every type of person – vetted by our panel of specialists

• In the UK? Roll with it: the 30 best board games for Christmas 2025

• Sign up for the Filter US newsletter, your weekly guide to buying fewer, better things

There is nothing wrong with getting together as a family to watch a movie or play some video games. But gathering around a table to play a board game can peel kids off their screens and pull families together in a way few things can. That’s a big reason why family game night is such a treasured tradition in many households, especially during the holidays.

You could opt for classics such as Monopoly and Scrabble of course, but there is so much variety and diversity in modern board games that you would be missing out. If you’re willing to expand your horizons, we promise there’s a new game on this list that will have your family members clearing calendars for a rematch.

Published: December 22, 2025, 8:15 pm

The 50 best TV shows of 2025: No 2 – Dying for Sex

Michelle Williams put in a stunning performance in this tale of a dying woman’s quest to have an orgasm. It’s not just clever, tender and blackly comic – it’s a beautiful meditation on what it means to live (and die) well

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

Dying for Sex is about a fortysomething woman leaving her husband and having lots of experimental sex after she is diagnosed with terminal cancer. Except, of course, it’s not. It’s about so much more than that. By the end, the sex scenes – many and varied though they may be – are just a bagatelle.

Partly this is because there is no false hope offered here. None of the sexy set pieces are a full escape from reality. The series is based on a true story and the podcast made about Molly Kochan’s decision to cram years of sexual experience into the little time she was told she had left before metastasised breast cancer killed her. Whatever Molly does, whatever we see her do – enjoy or not enjoy – we know it will not change the ultimate outcome. This is the frame in which all the scenes of sex parties, age-gapped hookups, discovery of “pup play” and mastering the tricky latches on cock cages in Molly’s pursuit of her first partnered orgasm are set.

Published: December 22, 2025, 10:00 am

My big night out: I was hungover and locked in an apartment. The only escape? A high, narrow window ledge

It was 1995, and I had spent the evening carousing and drinking neat vodka. Now I was trapped in a friend’s flat in Paris, with no phone – and he had flown to New York

Winter 1995: I wake to the sound of a vacuum cleaner repeatedly striking the door near my head. I’m in a small bed in a tiny room. Wherever I am, I’m hungover.

I remember: I’m in Paris, after a big night out. Just the one night – I’d arrived on the Eurostar the previous afternoon with a friend. We’d gone out for drinks, then to a cool restaurant, then somewhere to drink more. The rest was blurry, but we ended up back at this apartment – owned by the company my friend worked for – drinking neat vodka until my friend remembered he was catching an early plane to New York.

Published: December 22, 2025, 1:00 pm

State of play: who holds the power in the video games industry in 2025?

This year has brought us many brilliant video games – but as wealth continues to concentrate, and games are used to exert economic and political influence, we need to keep an eye on the top players

I love playing video games, but what interests me most as a journalist are the ways in which games intersect with real life. One of the joys of spending 20 years on this beat has been meeting hundreds of people whose lives have been meaningfully enhanced by games, and as their cultural influence has grown, these stories have become more and more plentiful.

There is another side to this, however. A couple of decades ago, video games were mostly either ignored or vilified by governments and mainstream culture, leading to an underdog mentality that has persisted even as games have become a nearly $200bn industry. As their popularity has grown, so have their political and cultural relevance. And the ways in which games intersect with real life are now coloured by the economic and political realities of our times.

Published: December 22, 2025, 10:00 am

Epstein survivors call out Trump’s justice department for ‘extreme redactions’ in latest file release – live

The statement says the release was ‘a fraction of the files, and what we received was riddled with abnormal and extreme redactions with no explanation’

• Schumer to ask Senate to back legal action over partial Epstein files release

CNN reports that some CBS staffers are “threatening to quit” over the controversial cancellation of a 60 Minutes investigation into the brutal CECOT prison in El Salvador where the Trump administration has deported hundreds of migrants.

Editor-in-chief Bari Weiss’s decision to pull the story – taken last night three hours before broadcast - has been blasted by members of Congress and the veteran correspondent involved, Sharyn Alfonsi, who had interviewed people deported by the Trump administration to the notorious mega-prison about the “brutal and torturous conditions” they faced.

Published: December 22, 2025, 10:31 pm

Outrage after CBS pulls 60 Minutes segment on El Salvador’s Cecot prison

Controversially appointed editor-in-chief Bari Weiss says: ‘I held that story and I held it because it wasn’t ready’

CBS News was dealing with internal and external uproar on Monday after it pulled at the last minute an investigation for its flagship 60 Minutes show into the harsh prison in El Salvador where the Trump administration deported hundreds of Venezuelans from the US earlier this year.

The episode about the Cecot mega-prison was due to air on Sunday night. However, in an “editor’s note” posted on X late that afternoon, the broadcaster’s official account announced that “the lineup for tonight’s edition of 60 Minutes has been updated. Our report ‘Inside Cecot’ will air in a future broadcast.”

Additional reporting by Jeremy Barr

Published: December 22, 2025, 6:35 pm

Number of people in ICE detention hits record high, data shows

ICE held more than 68,400 people as of 14 December, breaking previous high set at beginning of December

The number of people in immigration detention in the US has hit an all-time high according to data published by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The data, which comes out every two weeks, shows that as of 14 December 2025, ICE held more than 68,400 people.

This many people in immigration detention is a new record, breaking the previous high set at the beginning of December.

Published: December 22, 2025, 7:37 pm

Vince Zampella, co-creator of Call of Duty video game series, dies aged 55

Game developer, who was also involved in Medal of Honor and Titanfall, was killed in a car crash

Vince Zampella, the co-creator of the Call of Duty video game series, has died aged 55.

The head of the video game developer Respawn Entertainment and the co-founder of Infinity Ward was killed in a car crash in California, NBC Los Angeles reported.

Published: December 22, 2025, 9:10 pm

Chris Rea, rock and blues singer-songwriter, dies aged 74

Middlesbrough-born musician had hits with Driving Home for Christmas, On the Beach and The Road to Hell

• Chris Rea – a life in pictures
• Driving Home for Christmas captures the season’s true spirit

Chris Rea, the British singer-songwriter whose hits included Driving Home For Christmas, has died at the age of 74, a spokesperson for his family said.

The statement said that he died “peacefully in hospital … following a short illness”.

Published: December 22, 2025, 3:02 pm

One dead in California floods as state braces for brutal week of Christmas storms

An atmospheric river is forecast to drive storms across the state this week, bringing rain, high winds and risk of floods

One person has died in California amid heavy flooding, as residents across the state brace for a week of brutal storms that are predicted to bring extensive rainfall throughout the Christmas weekend.

Authorities in Redding, a city in northern California, reported that a motorist died on Sunday after becoming stranded in their vehicle.

Published: December 22, 2025, 9:54 pm

New York school board investigates wooden ‘timeout’ box allegations

Governor calls accusations that students with disabilities may have been confined in boxes ‘highly disturbing’

A school district board in upstate New York is investigating school officials amid accusations that the district may have confined elementary school students inside wooden “timeout” boxes.

Images of the boxes, which resemble tiny padded cells, first spread on social media last week, after a former member of the Salmon River school district school board accused officials of building them to seclude children with disabilities. The images unleashed an immediate uproar in the small district, which teaches about 1,300 children and lies on the border between New York state and Canada.

Published: December 22, 2025, 8:00 pm

Betty Reid Soskin, who became a park ranger at 85, dies aged 104

During her time as a ranger Soskin sought to shed light on experiences of women of color during the second world war

• A new start after 60: I found my feet in midlife, became a park ranger at 85 – and retired happily at 100

Betty Reid Soskin, who retired in 2022 as the National Park Service’s oldest active ranger at the age of 100, has died.

Soskin’s family announced at the weekend that their beloved relative had died aged 104. She became a park ranger at 85, having always been a pioneer in the workplace.

Published: December 22, 2025, 7:33 pm

First footage of Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey released online

Trailer shows Matt Damon as the Greek hero, with Anne Hathaway as Penelope and Tom Holland as Telemachus

The first trailer has been released online for Christopher Nolan’s epic adaptation of Homer’s Odyssey.

Starring Matt Damon as the classic Greek hero, the trailer offers a series of shots of a bearded Damon as he sets out to return from the fall of Troy as his gravelly voiceover announces: “After years of war … no one could stand between my men … and home … not even me.”

Published: December 22, 2025, 4:06 pm

Trump officials halt offshore wind-farm projects over ‘national security risks’

Interior department move affects five projects under construction in latest blow to industry targeted by Trump

The Trump administration has said it is immediately pausing all leases for offshore wind farms already under construction, in the heaviest blow yet to an industry that the administration has relentlessly targeted throughout the year.

Trump’s Department of the Interior said that it was halting the building of five wind projects due to “national security risks”. The department said it would work with the US Department of Defense to mitigate the risk of the wind turbine towers creating radar interference called “clutter” that could in some way hamper the US military.

Published: December 22, 2025, 4:16 pm

One twin is a Democratic politician, the other supports Trump. They’ve learned to bridge the divide

Despite the fact that they disagree on everything when it comes to politics, Nick and Nathan Roberts make it a point to be kind to each other

A pair of identical Indiana twins whose life on opposite ends of the US’s political divide recently propelled them to internet virality say it has been key for them to prioritize kindness and civility whenever they engage in conversations about politics.

Nick Roberts is an elected Democratic politician, and his brother Nathan Roberts is a Republican supporter of Donald Trump. Their relationship generated significant public commentary when Nick posted a social media video imploring his followers not to confuse him with Nathan, who runs Save Heritage Indiana, a non-profit organization that it says is dedicated to opposing illegal immigration in the state.

Published: December 22, 2025, 11:00 am

US justice department halts funding for human-trafficking survivors

DoJ has nearly $90m appropriated by Congress to support victims, but organizations say funding has been cut

More than 100 organizations that support victims of human trafficking have lost funding since October, leaving thousands of survivors at risk, a Guardian investigation has found.

Anti-trafficking advocates say the US Department of Justice’s failure to spend nearly $90m appropriated by Congress is impeding law-enforcement investigations and exposing survivors to homelessness and the risk of deportation, jail time or re-exploitation.

Published: December 22, 2025, 12:00 pm

You cannot annex other countries, Danish and Greenlandic leaders tell Trump

Mette Frederiksen and Jens-Frederik Nielsen demand respect for borders after US appoints Greenland envoy

The prime ministers of Denmark and Greenland have demanded respect for their borders after Donald Trump appointed a special envoy to the largely self-governing Danish territory, which he has said repeatedly should be under US control.

“We have said it very clearly before. Now we say it again. National borders and the sovereignty of states are rooted in international law … You cannot annex other countries,” Mette Frederiksen and Jens-Frederik Nielsen said in a joint statement.

Published: December 22, 2025, 4:28 pm

‘I want that escape route’: Americans seek dual citizenships under Trump

Some US citizens, grappling with issues from LGBTQ+ rights to the economy, are looking to the countries their families once left behind

Daniel Kamalić was born and raised in New York City, where he spent his summers riding his bike around Brighton Beach before pedaling home to his “Brooklyn Jewish” mother and his “smooth talker” father. He went out for Cub Scouts and soccer before realizing, during his time studying at MIT, that he loved sailing most of all. Now 48, he is a professional tenor with the opera, performing in and around New York.

Kamalić never considered that he might want to be anything but American – why would he? His life was shaped by the freedoms and opportunities that his father, Ivan Kamalić, risked everything for.

Published: December 22, 2025, 4:00 pm

‘It’s made things worse for everyone’: Philadelphia grapples with rise of new street drug

Medetomidine has extreme and fast-acting withdrawal symptoms – and the detox centers that help patients are struggling with how best to cope

The staff at the harm reduction hub Sunshine House in the middle of Kensington, a neighborhood in north-east Philadelphia home to the most notorious open drug scene in the US, often reverse at least one overdose a day.

But the mutating illegal drug supply is regularly conjuring new drugs with novel sets of potentially deadly risks. For the past 18 months, there has been a new drug in circulation, the veterinary sedative medetomidine, also known as “rhino tranq”. It has perhaps the most extreme and fast-acting withdrawal symptoms of all known street drugs.

Published: December 22, 2025, 1:00 pm

Fairer laws passed, polluting factories shuttered, charges against innocent people dropped – and 10 more ways our US reporting made change in 2025

Our work would not be possible without the support of our readers. From everyone at the Guardian US: thank you

• Please consider supporting us as we approach the deadline of our crucial year-end appeal

After we exclusively revealed that Israel’s elite spy agency was using Microsoft technology to store recordings of millions of mobile phone calls made each day by Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, Microsoft announced it was terminating the Israeli military’s access to services used in that surveillance system. According to sources, the sweeping and intrusive surveillance program was used to shape military operations and facilitate the preparation of deadly airstrikes. Our report, in collaboration with the Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 Magazine and Hebrew-language outlet Local Call, prompted protests at Microsoft’s US headquarters and pressure from employees and investors that led to the tech company’s extraordinary decision.

Published: December 22, 2025, 11:00 am

John Updike’s best books – Ranked!

Following the publication of the novelist’s letters, we count down the best of his books, from the dark magic of The Witches of Eastwick to the misadventures of Rabbit Angstrom

Inspired by and drawing on three British novels (HG Wells’s The Time Machine, George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four and Henry Green’s Concluding), Updike’s debut imagines a near future where the residents of a care home stage a revolt in which two antagonists, John Hook and Stephen Conner, struggle for supremacy. A curio.
Updike tropes Religion, death

Published: December 22, 2025, 12:00 pm

Why I spent a year sweeping a sidewalk in the desert

Loving your neighbors doesn’t come naturally. But continuing to try may be the point

St John of the Cross, the great 16th-century mystic, priest and Carmelite friar, once said that he prayed to die in great pain, far from home, among people who hated him.

I’ve thought of that a lot since moving from Los Angeles to Tucson, Arizona, in 2021.

Strive always to prefer, not that which is easiest, but that which is most difficult;
Not that which is most delectable, but that which is most unpleasing;
Not that which gives most pleasure, but rather that which gives least;
Not that which is restful, but that which is wearisome;
Not that which is consolation, but rather that which is disconsolateness;
Not that which is greatest, but that which is least.

Published: December 22, 2025, 5:00 pm

My weirdest Christmas: my family had a picture-perfect celebration – but the presents left me distraught

I grew up in a Muslim family in Dubai, but became obsessed with the Hallmark vision of Christmas, and with Macaulay Culkin. The reality was a disappointment only Home Alone could assuage

When I was eight years old, I was living in Dubai and desperate to experience a western Christmas. My family are Muslim, and Christmas was something we’d never celebrated – but after consuming countless festive Hallmark movies, I was hooked on the dream of having turkey, tinsel and, most importantly, presents. I also had an enormous crush on Macaulay Culkin, and thought if I could experience Christmas for myself it would somehow bring me closer to him.

After months of badgering my parents about why my twin brother and I deserved Christmas, they relented. My beautiful Iraqi-Egyptian mother took on the task with gumption, finding the largest, tackiest tree you can imagine.

Published: December 22, 2025, 12:00 pm

The best design and architecture of 2025

This year’s highlights include the remodelling of a Richard Seifert brutalist ‘corncob’ tower, a celebration of Japanese carpentry and a wearable hot-water bottle
• The best art and photography of 2025
• More on the best culture of 2025

In a case of contents outshining the container, the V&A’s national museum of everything takes the public up close and personal to a gallimaufry of precious things, from porcelain to poison darts, textiles to tiaras. Elegantly shoehorned into the gargantuan hangar that was originally the broadcasting centre for the 2012 Olympics, it’s an Amazon warehouse crammed with global treasures, setting visitors off on an odyssey of “curated transgression” through an immersive cabinet of curiosities.

Published: December 22, 2025, 12:00 pm

Trump’s shuttering of the National Center for Atmospheric Research is Stalinist | Michael Mann and Bob Ward

This is the latest in the relentless purge of climate researchers who refuse to be co-opted by the fossil fuel industry

The Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin would no doubt have understood and even appreciated the latest attack by the Trump administration on climate researchers and their work.

The National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, is to be dismantled after more than 50 years at the forefront of global research on climate science and monitoring.

Professor Michael Mann is the presidential distinguished professor and director of the Penn Center for Science, Sustainability and the Media at the University of Pennsylvania, and co-author with Peter Hotez of Science Under Siege; Bob Ward is policy and communications director at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics and Political Science

Published: December 22, 2025, 11:00 am

Despite his knack for slick pop, the principled and passionate Chris Rea never took the easy road

The late musician bristled against his record companies, his producers and fame itself – but that friction ignited both his AOR hits and his raw, spirited take on the blues

• Chris Rea, rock and blues singer-songwriter, dies aged 74
• Gallery: a life in pictures
• Comment: Driving Home for Christmas captures the season’s true spirit

For an artist best-known for a string of slickly commercial adult-oriented rock hits – Josephine, On the Beach, The Road to Hell, the Yuletide perennial Driving Home for Christmas – Chris Rea’s career was a rather more fraught business than you might have expected.

He had something of the splendidly grumpy refusenik about him. His debut single, Fool (If You Think It’s Over) was a transatlantic hit, earning him a best new artist Grammy nomination (he lost to Billy Joel, an artist the single had garnered comparisons to), but Rea announced that he “despised” the song: “It’s just not me.” He chafed at his record company’s expectations: his 1978 debut album, Whatever Happened to Benny Santini? got its title after his label suggested that he might consider adopting a stage name, and he later protested that the producers he worked with made his music too glossy and “smoothed-out”.

Published: December 22, 2025, 6:58 pm

It was lethal to be in Gaza this year, and deadly for those who tried to tell the world | Jane Martinson

The Al Jazeera reporter Anas al-Sharif was the most prominent name among so many targeted for simply bearing witness to the truth

In January this year, Anas al-Sharif was filmed being lifted into the air after taking off his helmet and flak jacket to celebrate a ceasefire that would prove all too temporary in Gaza. This summer, the Palestinian journalist broke down while reporting on starvation in his home town that is now a war zone. A bystander told him: “Persist, Anas, you are our voice”.

But al-Sharif’s popularity in Gaza made him a target. In July, international agencies warned of the danger he was in as the Israel Defense Forces stepped up online attacks, falsely labelling him a Hamas terrorist. His employer, Al Jazeera, insisted he restrict his reporting to the more protected al-Shifa hospital after his father and many colleagues were killed. In August, a few months short of his 29th birthday, al-Sharif and six others were killed in a direct attack on a media tent next to the hospital. In a posthumous post he said: “If these words reach you, know that Israel has succeeded in killing me and silencing my voice.”

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

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

Published: December 22, 2025, 6:00 am

I thought an edible would take the edge off family Christmas. I spent the day on the floor | Bunny Banyai

If there’s anything worse than children yelling in your ear as you wonder if you’ll regain the capacity to distinguish a door from a window, I haven’t experienced it

Face-down on the carpet of my bedroom floor, unable to move, I make feeble pleas to the heavens: “Please let me live. I’ll never complain again. It’s Christmas Day. I just want my old life back.”

I hadn’t suffered a severe medical episode. I was just … a bit too high.

Published: December 22, 2025, 2:00 pm

Reward countries that toe the line, punish those that don’t: that’s how Trump is exerting control in Latin America | Jordana Timerman

His interference in the region has been aided by the collapse of the leftist forces that once pushed back against US imperialism

For the past generation, Latin America has been a place of unstable stability. Marked on the surface by protests, political pendulum swings and spectacular scandals, most of the region has, since the democratisation of the 1980s and 1990s, remained firmly democratic and free of war between states. Though scarred by the violence of armed groups and increasingly powerful criminal organisations, it has, by and large, lived up to its self-assumed moniker of a “zone of peace”.

Which is why this year has felt so jarring. Throughout 2025, the first year of Donald Trump’s second term, analysts have obsessively parsed potential US military incursions into a hemisphere once defined by its unified defence of national sovereignty. But the fixation on whether Washington’s escalating pressure on Nicolás Maduro presages a physical military invasion of Venezuela has distracted from the real story: the larger shift towards direct intervention has already happened, and it has faced remarkably little resistance. More than 100 people have been killed in US maritime strikes that experts characterise as extrajudicial executions, and the loudest objections have come not from Latin American presidents or regional organisations, but from the US Congress.

Jordana Timerman is a journalist based in Buenos Aires. She compiles the Latin America Daily Briefing and is part of the Ideas Letter’s editorial team

Published: December 22, 2025, 8:00 am

The Guardian view on sending letters: the writing’s on the wall

The Danish postal service has announced it will cease deliveries from 30 December after 400 years. Eventually, other countries may go down a similar route

Predictions of the demise of letter writing are not new. The invention of the telegraph and the rise of the postcard were both seen as potential threats to a more leisurely, reflective form of communication. Yet by the close of the 20th century, more letters were being sent than ever, as social correspondence began to be supplemented by a boom in business mail.

From Europe’s most tech-savvy society, however, comes ominous news. As of next week, Denmark’s state-run postal service will end all letter deliveries after doing the rounds for 400 years. Around 1,500 jobs are being cut, and the country’s beloved red letterboxes are being sold off. It will still be possible for Danes to send a card or a love letter to someone far away next Christmas, but only via the shops of a smaller private company or a costly home collection.

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

Published: December 22, 2025, 6:59 pm

The Jacksonville Jaguars aren’t a punchline any more – they’re a problem

Once loose, erratic and reliably unreliable, Jacksonville have hardened into something far more serious, with Trevor Lawrence’s control and confidence turning a hot streak into a genuine AFC threat

Seven weeks ago, the Jaguars were still that team: loose, entertaining, unreliable. The kind that could light up a quarter and then spend the next three undoing it. Now, they’re a wagon.

After beating the Broncos on Sunday, the Jaguars have ripped off six straight wins. They’ve won 11 regular-season games for the first time since 2007. And with two winnable games to close the season, they have a solid path to the No 1 seed, with the AFC potentially running through Jacksonville.

Published: December 22, 2025, 2:36 pm

Detroit Lions fan denies using racial slur after DK Metcalf punch incident

• Fan denies racial slur allegation through lawyers

• NFL reviewing Metcalf sideline incident

• Heated xchange caught on CBS broadcast

A Detroit Lions fan who Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver DK Metcalf punched at during a game between the teams has denied allegations he used a racial slur in a statement released by his lawyers Monday.

A law firm representing Ryan Kennedy said in a statement released to the Associated Press on Monday that Kennedy “categorically denies” using a slur or any other derogatory statement during the exchange with Metcalf that ended with the two-time Pro Bowler taking a swing at Kennedy with his right arm.

Published: December 22, 2025, 10:26 pm

NBA moves closer to launching European men’s league with Fiba

• NBA seeks investors for new Europe-wide men’s league

• Permanent franchises plus annual qualification pathway

• League aims to avoid clashes with domestic competitions

The NBA confirmed Monday that it would begin pursuing teams and ownership groups for a new professional European men’s league it hopes to launch in partnership with Fiba.

The prospective league would feature permanent teams and additional spots up for grabs via an annual qualification pathway. Clubs in Fiba-affiliated domestic leagues around Europe could qualify for the new league through the Basketball Champions League or an end-of-year tournament.

Published: December 22, 2025, 6:51 pm

NFL’s Chiefs will leave Arrowhead and relocate across Kansas-Missouri border

• Chiefs to leave Arrowhead after nearly 60 years

• New domed Kansas stadium targeted for 2031

• Missouri efforts to retain team fall short

The Kansas City Chiefs announced Monday they will relocate across the Kansas-Missouri border in a new domed stadium that will be ready by the 2031 season.

The move comes after a Kansas legislative committee approved a bonding package to support the move earlier in the day to lure one of the NFL’s iconic franchises across the state line from Missouri and replace popular but aging Arrowhead Stadium.

Published: December 22, 2025, 9:54 pm

Joshua and Paul provide pitiful spectacle and the worst is there’s more to come | Donald McRae

Miami bout was a bleak and blood-flecked affair but both men will find more opponents willing to take the money

Jake Paul’s mouth opened wide, and his eyes became huge glazed saucers, as he sank to the canvas in shock and awe after a pulverising right hand from Anthony Joshua finally ended the circus in Miami late on Friday night. It looked as if Paul was trying to say “Wow!” as the severity of impact registered in his scrambled brain.

Pinned in a corner of the ring midway through the sixth round, Paul could no longer run or cling to Joshua’s legs like a forlorn little boy as the gravity of boxing enveloped him. Instead, as he tried to absorb the punch that broke his jaw in two separate places, Paul was lost in his utterly stunned moment.

Published: December 22, 2025, 8:00 am

Raúl Jiménez dents Nottingham Forest’s revival to lift Fulham clear of danger

Fulham are battling. Marco Silva’s options are limited and he does not have many ways to freshen up his side, but at least he can count on an experienced core and a group willing to scrap when they are at risk of being dragged towards the relegation zone.

It is putting it kindly to say this game will not live long in the memory. It was scrappy, stop-start and overly physical. Both teams were disappointing in the final third and it probably would have finished goalless but for Douglas Luiz’s rush of blood to the head gifting Raul Jiménez to score the goal that lifted Fulham 10 points above the bottom three before their trip to West Ham on Saturday.

Published: December 22, 2025, 10:07 pm

Premier League: 10 talking points from the weekend’s action

Highs and lows for Alexander Isak, Wolves’ sobering survival chances and were Chelsea lucky at Newcastle?

• Premier League scoring charts

Can results be misleading? That is the question. Aston Villa’s winning streak continued against Manchester United, but so did the nagging doubts. They were the lesser team by several measures – fewer shots (12-15), less possession (43-57), fewer big chances (2-3). As usual, the victory was a slender one. But games are not won by stats. They are won by solid teamwork, shrewd management and individual talent – and Villa have all three. Morgan Rogers may be their only star, but he’s delivering like Father Christmas. Unai Emery is wily, battle-hardened, five years ahead of Ruben Amorim. If Rogers profited from Leny Yoro’s naivety, that was probably because Emery had spotted that Yoro is not a right-back, and told Rogers to start wide, cut in and torment him. Talent and management, working together. Tim de Lisle

Match report: Aston Villa 2-1 Manchester United

Match report: Everton 0-1 Arsenal

Match report: Manchester City 3-0 West Ham

Match report: Tottenham 1-2 Liverpool

Match report: Newcastle 2-2 Chelsea

Match report: Wolves 0-2 Brentford

Match report: Leeds 4-1 Crystal Palace

Published: December 22, 2025, 8:00 am

Rowing’s answer to snowcross, BMX and beach volleyball is coming to LA

Beach sprints are shaking up this most strait-laced of sports and may be heading to a coastal town near you

At a point when most rowers are pounding away on rivers in the wind and rain through the dark winter months, a new breed are honing their skills in brighter climes surrounded by sun, sand and waves, all the while dreaming of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

Out of 17 sports that proposed an extra discipline to the International Olympic Committee, rowing came out on top with its beach sprints format added to the LA 2028 programme. While many may have noticed the addition of five new sports in baseball, cricket, flag football, lacrosse and squash, a mini-revolution is happening on the water within a sport that will no longer have a lightweight category but will have five coastal rowing events in 2028.

Published: December 22, 2025, 8:00 am

Wolves’ freefall leaves even Derby’s dismal record low a lofty goal

A side that once looked resilient has collapsed into historic futility, with Wolves now facing the grim task of avoiding the worst season English league football has ever seen

Saturday’s defeat at home to Brentford means Wolves have taken just two points for 17 games. No side in the entire history of English league football, in any division, has ever made a worse start than that. To reach 11 points, the record low for a Premier League season set by Derby County in 2007-08, would require a significant improvement.

How can this have happened? Wolves finished 16th last season, recovering after a dismal start. When Vitor Pereira took over on 19 December last year, they were second bottom on nine points from 16 games. They picked up 23 points from the final 22 games of the season and effectively ended any prospect of relegation with a run of six successive victories in the spring. How can a team go from averaging near enough a point a game to a 10th of that? The drop-off is extraordinary.

This is an extract from Soccer with Jonathan Wilson, a weekly look from the Guardian US at the game in Europe and beyond. Subscribe for free here. Have a question for Jonathan? Email soccerwithjw@theguardian.com, and he’ll answer the best in a future edition.

Published: December 22, 2025, 4:53 pm

Larry Ellison gives personal guarantee for Paramount takeover of Warner Bros Discovery

WBD had urged shareholders to reject $108.4bn hostile takeover bid from Paramount, which is controlled by the Ellisons, following $82.7bn Netflix deal

The tech billionaire Larry Ellison has agreed to provide a personal guarantee of more than $40bn for Paramount Skydance’s fight to gain control of Warner Bros Discovery, amid an extraordinary corporate battle over the entertainment giant.

WBD urged shareholders to reject a $108.4bn hostile takeover bid from Paramount – which is controlled by the Ellisons – last week, having agreed to sell its storied movie studios, HBO cable network and streaming service to Netflix in a $82.7bn deal earlier this month.

Published: December 22, 2025, 4:13 pm

Russian general killed by car bomb in Moscow, say investigators

Russia’s Investigative Committee says it is looking into whether Ukraine intelligence services were behind attack

A Russian general has been killed after an explosive device detonated beneath his car in what Moscow described as a likely assassination carried out by Ukrainian intelligence services.

Lt Gen Fanil Sarvarov, the head of the operational training directorate of the Russian armed forces’ general staff, died of his injuries, a spokesperson for Russia’s investigative committee said in a statement.

Published: December 22, 2025, 6:52 pm

Police allege Bondi shooters had ‘tennis ball bomb’ and made IS-inspired video manifesto, court documents reveal

Documents released Monday outline allegations against Naveed Akram and his father Sajid over the 14 December attack

New details about the police case against the alleged Bondi terrorists have been released, including details of an alleged video manifesto linked to the Islamic State and the undetonated explosives – including a “tennis ball bomb” – found at the scene.

Naveed Akram, 24, faces charges of murdering 15 people and injuring dozens more in the shooting at a Hanukah celebration on 14 December. His 50-year-old father, Sajid Akram, 50, is the second alleged shooter, and died at the scene.

Published: December 22, 2025, 11:00 am

Barry Manilow to undergo surgery for lung cancer

The 82-year-old singer says the disease is in its early stages and he plans to be back on stage in February

Barry Manilow has revealed that he has been diagnosed with lung cancer and will undergo surgery.

The 82-year-old singer, whose parade of high-spirited hits from Copacabana to Mandy has made him one of pop music’s most beloved showmen, will have surgery to remove part of his lung in an effort to fight off the disease, which is in its early stages.

Published: December 22, 2025, 6:46 pm

Yellowstone hot spring spews forth spectacular muddy plumes

Black Diamond Pool eruption provides dramatic footage after being captured on official camera

A hot spring in Yellowstone national park that erupts sporadically was captured on an official camera exploding in spectacular muddy plumes at the weekend.

Volcanic experts at the US Geological Survey described the eruption as simply “Kablooey!”

Published: December 22, 2025, 6:49 pm

Activist group says it has scraped 86m music files from Spotify

Platform with 700m users says it is investigating after Anna’s Archive claims to have scraped tracks and metadata

An activist group has claimed to have scraped millions of tracks from Spotify and is preparing to release them online.

Observers said the apparent leak could boost AI companies looking for material to develop their technology.

Published: December 22, 2025, 8:50 pm

London gets at least one new Banksy mural for Christmas

Artist confirms image in Bayswater is by him, but gives no indication about another outside Centre Point tower

A new Banksy mural that shows two children lying down and looking at the sky has appeared in west London.

The artist revealed he was behind the artwork above a row of garages on Queen’s Mews in Bayswater by posting a photo of it to his Instagram account on Monday afternoon.

Published: December 22, 2025, 6:12 pm

‘Unashamedly capitalist’ rewilders claim ‘Moneyball’ approach could make millions – but experts sceptical

Rich Stockdale says model of ‘regenerative capitalism’ would maximise profits by planting trees, restoring peatlands, and installing windfarms across its estates

The founder of an investment firm buying large estates across Britain to restore woods and peatland has said it is “unashamedly and proudly” capitalist, and plans to make tens of millions of pounds in profit.

Rich Stockdale, the chief executive of Oxygen Conservation, said his model of “regenerative capitalism” was a “force for good” because it would offer investors significant profits by planting trees, restoring peatlands, operating solar farms and holiday homes and installing new windfarms across its estates.

Published: December 22, 2025, 11:26 am

2025 is ‘year of the octopus’ as record numbers spotted off England’s south coast

Milder weather led to a bloom in the invertebrates in south Cornwall and Devon, wildlife charity says

Record numbers of sightings of one of the world’s most intelligent invertebrates over the summer have led the Wildlife Trusts to declare 2025 “the year of the octopus” in its annual review of Britain’s seas.

A mild winter followed by an exceptionally warm spring prompted unprecedented numbers of Mediterranean octopuses to take up residence along England’s south coast, from Penzance in Cornwall to south Devon.

Published: December 22, 2025, 6:01 am

‘Miracle’ of Zealandia: chick is born to rare takahē pair thought to be infertile

Unexpected arrival is a boon for birdlife in New Zealand, where there are only 500 takahē left

A pair of rare native New Zealand takahē birds who were believed infertile have stunned staff at the world’s largest urban eco-sanctuary, after hatching a “miracle” chick.

The roughly seven-week old chick was discovered inside Zealandia, a fully fenced eco-sanctuary 10 minutes from Wellington’s city centre, in November, but its arrival has been a closely guarded secret to ensure its safety.

Published: December 21, 2025, 6:00 pm

The plants that thrive in salt: could halophytes help save coastal farming?

As rising seas salinise the soils of the Venice lagoon, scientists and chefs are turning to long-forgotten wild herbs

On the scrubby banks of the rural swathes of the Venice lagoon, an evening chorus of cicadas underscores the distant whine of farmers’ three-wheeled minivans. Dotted along the brackish fringes of the cultivated plots are scatterings of silvery-green bushes – sea fennel.

This plant is a member of a group of remarkable organisms known as halophytes – plant species that thrive in saltwater. Long overlooked and found growing in the in-between spaces – saltmarshes, coastlines, the fringes of lagoons – halophytes straddle boundaries in both ecosystems and cuisines. But with shifting agricultural futures, this may be about to change.

Published: December 21, 2025, 10:00 am

US farmers say Trump’s $12bn package not enough to undo damage from tariffs

Thousands of farms set to go bankrupt as grain farmers in particular hit by trade disruptions caused by price hikes

Donald Trump, having promised to “NEVER LET OUR FARMERS DOWN”, appeared to come through for them this month when he unveiled a $12bn aid package. Industry leaders say thousands of farms will still go bust this year.

While the US president has vowed to increase domestic farm production, and even claimed this formed a “big part” of his plan to lower grocery prices for Americans, many US farmers are grappling with mounting financial issues – compounded by Trump’s agenda.

Published: December 22, 2025, 11:00 am

Bourbon maker Jim Beam stops production at Kentucky site for 2026

Whiskey brand, owned by Japanese drinks group Suntory, to close main distillery amid tariff uncertainty

The maker of Jim Beam bourbon whiskey will halt production at its main site in Kentucky for all of 2026.

The company said in a statement it would close its distillery in Clermont until it took the “opportunity to invest in site enhancements”.

Published: December 22, 2025, 10:32 am

Gripes and infighting on display as Maga stars gather at Turning Point conference

Figures at event include Tucker Carlson, Steve Bannon and Trump Jr as cohesion of political right shows signs of stress

The stars of Maga conservatism converged for the four-day AmericaFest conference in Phoenix this weekend amid reports that the cohesion of the political-religious right, a year into Donald Trump’s second presidential term, is showing signs of stress.

The sold-out Turning Point USA event brought together figures from the right including Megyn Kelly, Tucker Carlson, Steve Bannon, Donald Trump Jr, Vivek Ramaswamy, Ben Shapiro and Glenn Beck, to kick around the dominant themes of conservatism.

Published: December 21, 2025, 9:12 pm

Trump administration recalls nearly 30 career diplomats around world

Tenures end for mission chiefs in at least 29 countries, including 15 in Africa, as US reshapes its diplomatic posture

The Trump administration is recalling nearly 30 career diplomats from ambassadorial and other senior embassy posts as it moves to reshape the US diplomatic posture abroad with personnel deemed fully supportive of Donald Trump’s “America first” priorities.

The chiefs of mission in at least 29 countries were informed last week that their tenures would end in January, according to two state department officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal personnel moves.

Published: December 22, 2025, 4:43 pm

Ecuador court sentences 11 air force troops over disappearance of four boys

Long sentences in case of Afro-Ecuadorian ‘Guayaquil Four’ focuses attention on president’s crackdown on crime

A court in Ecuador has sentenced 11 air force personnel to decades in prison over the forced disappearance” of four Afro-Ecuadorian boys aged between 11 and 15 during security operations in the country’s largest city last year.

The case of the “Guayaquil Four” is widely seen as the starkest example of human rights abuses under the iron-fist security policy pursued by the rightwing president, Daniel Noboa, who placed the armed forces at the centre of the fight against drug trafficking.

Published: December 22, 2025, 6:02 pm

Man in UK charged alongside five others with sexual offences against his wife

Philip Young, 49, is accused of 56 sexual offences, including drugging and raping his now ex-wife

A man has been charged with drugging and raping his then wife over a period of 13 years, with five other men also charged with sexual offences against her.

Philip Young, 49, formerly from Swindon but now living in Enfield in north London, has been charged with 56 sexual offences.

Published: December 22, 2025, 5:59 pm

France’s national post office hit by suspected cyber-attack

La Poste’s websites, apps and banking service affected by a DDoS incident, which is also delaying postal deliveries

The websites and apps of France’s national post office and its banking service have been hit by a suspected cyber-attack, disrupting deliveries and hampering online payments and transfers at the busiest time of the year.

Three days before Christmas, La Poste said on Monday that a distributed denial of service incident, or DDoS, had “rendered its online services inaccessible”. Customer data was safe, it said, but mail distribution, including parcels, had been slowed.

Published: December 22, 2025, 5:54 pm

Portugal’s far-right Chega party ordered to take down posters targeting Roma people

Lisbon court rules the posters could incite hatred and tells party leader Andre Ventura to remove them within 24 hours

The leader of Portugal’s far-right Chega party has been ordered to remove street posters attacking the Roma community, after a Lisbon court ruled they were discriminatory and could incite hatred.

Judge Ana Barao said the posters’ wording “attacks an ethnic minority” and she gave Andre Ventura 24 hours to remove them or face a daily fine of €2,500 (£2,200) per poster.

Published: December 22, 2025, 4:55 pm

A Gaza mass wedding and a Durbar horse procession: celebrating the agency photographers of 2025

The Guardian’s picture editors highlight the work of photojournalists working for news agencies worldwide whose images have made an impact and contributed to our journalism during 2025

Over the course of 2025, millions of images have been filed through our picture system from agencies who cover news all over the world.

The images taken by their teams of photojournalists, filed through local editors and international desk editors, are a mainstay of our coverage of international news, and enable the production of reactive news stories as well as features and visual essays.

Members of the Mahogany Blue Baby Dolls march in the 25th Anniversary Satchmo Salute second line parade honouring the jazz legend Louis Armstrong, in New Orleans, Louisiana, 3 August.

Published: December 22, 2025, 9:37 am

Doctor Zhivago at 60: David Lean’s sweeping romantic relic endures

Julie Christie remains as magnetic as ever in the mammoth big-screen adaptation of Boris Pasternak’s novel

There’s no more perfect illustration of the cinematic crossroads of the mid-1960s than the year Julie Christie had in 1965. First, she starred as an amoral model in John Schlesinger’s Darling, a snapshot of Swinging London that reflected the trendy, flashy, forward-thinking culture that had seduced young adults. Then she starred as an elusive Russian beauty in Doctor Zhivago, a three-hour-plus historical epic from David Lean that was as stodgy and old-fashioned as Darling was suggestive of the future. There was an appetite for both that year – credit Christie’s astonishing magnetism for that, at least in part – but a sense that one era was crashing into another and times were about to change.

It seems fitting, then, that Doctor Zhivago is about what happens when history takes a turn and a band of insurgents make a once-stable and familiar place seem completely unrecognizable. It’s easy to imagine a master like Lean, who had just made Lawrence of Arabia a few years earlier, feeling a bit like his hero, Yuri Zhivago (Omar Sharif), a celebrated poet whose work suddenly falls out of favor after the Russian Revolution. Though Doctor Zhivago was honored with a raft of Oscar nominations – and five wins, mostly in technical categories – many contemporary reviews had dismissed it as an ossified romance, disengaged with the harsh realities of early-to-mid-1900s Russia. Even 60 years later, it feels like a relic of an earlier era.

Published: December 22, 2025, 12:03 pm

‘Cue air punches and tears’: why Next Goal Wins is my feelgood movie

Continuing the series where writers pick their go-to mood-lifting films is a look back to an inspiring sports documentary

It feels apt following a 2026 World Cup draw featuring the tiny island debutants Curaçao and Cape Verde to revisit Next Goal Wins, an underdog story I adopted upon first watch as if it were a team I would loyally follow for the rest of my life.

The documentary chronicles the world’s (once) worst soccer team, American Samoa, and their valiant efforts to qualify for the 2014 World Cup, but to label it merely a soccer film is to overlook a perfect study of remarkable characters, circumstances and a lesser-seen island life. You don’t need to be a sports fan to be uplifted here.

Published: December 22, 2025, 10:00 am

Avatar Fire and Ash: harmony is no longer guaranteed in James Cameron’s threequel – discuss with spoilers

Crucial tonal shifts mean the film asks harder questions than the series ever has before. Share your thoughts in the comments below
• This article contains spoilers for Avatar: Fire and Ash

For more than a decade now, James Cameron’s Avatar films have been built on the reassuring idea that the universe is alive, connected and spiritually pure. Part of the pleasure of making it to the end credits of one of them is the comforting feeling that we are nothing like all those evil humans who want to destroy Pandora’s gorgeous bioluminescent utopia of giant blue cat people and navel-gazing whale creatures. Cameron wants to remind us that if we only spent less time chasing profit and more listening to nature, everything would probably be fine.

Fire and Ash is where that reassurance starts to curdle. It is still recognisably an Avatar movie: the tech is absurd, the sincerity remains weaponised, and the creatures appear to have been designed by a benevolent god with a doctorate in marine biology. But something has shifted. Harmony is no longer guaranteed; nature does not reliably pick a side. What emerges is a threequel that feels oddly argumentative, sometimes with the audience, sometimes with itself. The saga that once promised balance now seems fascinated by fracture. Avatar has started asking much harder questions than it ever has before.

Published: December 22, 2025, 1:05 pm

From California to Tehran, this year has been about the films that resist

Films such as One Battle After Another, The Secret Agent and It Was Just An Accident celebrate the importance of fighting back against oppressive forces

On 8 March, Mahmoud Khalil became the first among several college campus pro-Palestinian protesters to be detained by ICE. He was held for three months, missing the birth of his first child, by an administration that smeared his opposition to Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza as cheerleading for terrorism, while abusing immigration policy to silence him.

At the movies this year, I was repeatedly reminded of Khalil, and others who have seen their altruistic activism reframed as violent threats that need to be snuffed out, in characters whose plights followed similar tracts. In Wicked: For Good, Elphaba’s attempts to expose the lies told in Oz are twisted into death threats. In Superman, Kal-El is investigated for being a foreign agent when he defends a community suffering under violent US-backed occupation. Even in Zootopia 2, a bunny cop is framed for attempted murder because she is exposing an attempt to eradicate a marginalized population from their lands and erase their history.

Published: December 21, 2025, 11:04 am

The 10 best experimental albums of 2025

Raisa K’s solo album is primitive and intimate, Saeko Killy adds a euphoric touch to her dimly lit sound and Bitchin Bajas get blissed out
• The 50 best albums of 2025
• More on the best culture of 2025

Chicago minimalist trio Bitchin Bajas are experts in crafting the ultimate slow burn, with a discography full of soundscapes that often stretch languorously around or beyond the 10-minute mark. Their latest record follows suit with four winding, blissed-out tracks over a 40-minute run time. But it’s not just overindulgent lounge music: the analogue loops quietly build to transcendental heights, nudged along by wandering sax solos, spritely keys and other cosmic flourishes. It’s a lush, often moving odyssey which, towards the end of the epic 18-minute closer, climaxes in an effervescent flurry.

Published: December 22, 2025, 7:00 am

The weirdest, wildest tales of the World Cup: best podcasts of the week

From Ronaldo’s legendary haircut to Argentina’s improvised 1986 away shirt – the odd stories behind football’s biggest trophy are explored. Plus, a smart series from the makers of Pod Save America

This series from football site Goal dedicates an episode to each one of the last 10 World Cups and pulls out an idiosyncratic moment. Take the story behind the bizarre 2002 haircut of Brazilian striker Ronaldo, or a profile of the shirts Argentina played in during the 1986 tournament, which were bootleg versions of their own shirts. It’s all narrated by commentator Martin Tyler, who has covered the last 12 tournaments. Alexi Duggins
Widely available, episodes fortnightly

Published: December 22, 2025, 7:00 am

Palaver by Bryan Washington review – a remix of the author’s greatest hits

From exile to family dysfunction, street food to sex, this stylish novel about a mother visiting her estranged gay son in Tokyo explores familiar themes

While we now use it to mean a fuss or convoluted mess, the origins of the word palaver, the title of Bryan Washington’s third novel, lie in the Portuguese term palavra, which simply means “word”. Over time, and possibly coloured by the historical context of Portuguese colonists’ rampages across the globe, “palaver” came to refer to a complex debate or negotiation between two culturally distinct parties.

Culture clashes, conflicted conversations, oppositions and exchanges are principal interests for Washington. His debut novel, 2020’s Memorial, was a sobering but sensitive consideration of a fracturing interracial gay relationship set between Houston and Osaka. This was followed in 2023 by Family Meal, again taking place in Houston, with its pithy observations of a combustible queer love triangle. Palaver centres on the tense relationship between protagonists “the son” and “the mother”. Guarded and prickly, the son is an American who has lived in Tokyo for the best part of a decade, teaching English as a foreign language. Throughout this period, he’s been estranged from his Jamaican-American mother back home in Texas. The novel opens with the equally crabby mother unexpectedly turning up on her son’s doorstep, and mostly covers the week and a half they spend together, moving between their two perspectives. Illuminated by Tokyo’s harsh neon, mother and son edge around reckonings with their bitter past of familial dysfunction, and make their way towards something resembling rapprochement.

Published: December 22, 2025, 7:00 am

Poem of the week: Down on the canal on Christmas Day by Chris McCabe

A melancholy December vision in Liverpool invokes a Dickensian ghost with more worldly but still warm realism

Down on the canal on Christmas Day

Down on the canal on Christmas Day
a man walks towards me out of water-light,
upright, Cratchit-wrapped, a smile to say:
I know you. Hello Chris. Ghost in a time-ripped landscape
where a low solstice sun spills whisked
through a metallic staircase.
With joy, the man’s smile haunts me for miles —
a long blasted path, where a dead rat’s belly festoons
its purple crinoline Christmas hat.

Published: December 22, 2025, 7:00 am

The Land Trap by Mike Bird review – ground down

A masterful introduction to the economics of our most basic asset

‘The landlord is a gentleman who does not earn his wealth … his sole function, his chief pride, is the consumption of wealth produced by others.” It was 1909, and a liberal politician was launching an assault on a class of people who – in the eyes of many – contributed nothing to Britain’s advances in industry while living off its gains.

A little over a century after David Lloyd George’s Limehouse speech, and it feels as though the issue of land has returned to politics: an analysis of MPs’ financial interests revealed that a quarter of all Tory MPs earned more than £10,000 from renting out property, while 44 Labour MPs – 11% – did the same. The winner of the most dazzling political campaign of the past year, New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani made “freeze the rent” his central pledge. On the right, a revolt against property taxes is gathering pace. Journalist Mike Bird’s history of the most basic asset arrives, then, at an opportune moment.

Published: December 22, 2025, 9:00 am

The books quiz of 2025 – set by Mick Herron, Bernardine Evaristo, Ali Smith and more

The romantic proclivities of the Shelleys, a notable corpse and a diner delight – test your knowledge with questions posed by favourite authors

• In the mood for more? For all our crosswords and sudoku, as well as our new football game, On The Ball, and film quiz, Film Reveal, download the Guardian app. Available in the Apple App Store and Google Play.

Published: December 21, 2025, 12:00 pm

Last-minute gift ideas for gamers: Minecraft, Roblox, Fortnite and more

Weighing up a present but perplexed by virtual cash? Here’s how to give Minecoins, V-Bucks, Robux and others

While cash or a voucher to spend at a local shop used to be a welcome gift, nowadays many young gamers would rather receive virtual currencies under the tree.

V-Bucks, Minecoins, Robux and FC Points are some of the most popular in-game currencies that players use to unlock different features within popular titles – from “skins” to personalise your player to new buildings to style your online world.

Published: December 21, 2025, 8:41 am

The best art and photography of 2025

Jenny Saville’s bruising paintings, Andy Goldsworthy’s immersive stones, Lee Miller’s surrealist shots and Diane Arbus’s unforgiving nudes – our critics highlight a spectacular year
• The best design and architecture of 2025
• More on the best culture of 2025

Published: December 22, 2025, 12:00 pm

Renate Reinsve on vomit-inducing reviews and 19-minute standing ovations: ‘You feel your face go stiff from smiling so long’

The Norwegian star was considering giving up acting to be a carpenter when Joachim Trier wrote The Worst Person in the World for her. Now the pair have teamed up again – but she refuses to get carried away by all the praise

One day in July 2021, Renate Reinsve got up, read the Guardian and promptly vomited. It was – mostly – a happy kind of hurl. The Norwegian actor was at Cannes, where The Worst Person in the World had premiered the previous evening. Joachim Trier’s film, which follows Julie, a young woman on a capricious yet uncompromising quest for meaning and happiness, was the first Reinsve had ever starred in. During the screening, she decided “this movie is great, but I am shit!” Hours later she was confronting the possibility that she might be one of the greatest actors of her generation. This newspaper’s verdict – “A star is born” – was, she said, “too much to process, so I just started puking. My whole image of myself and what I could do just changed instantly.”

Reinsve went on to win the best actress prize at the festival. Her performance would later be shortlisted for a Bafta and a slew of other awards (the film itself received two Oscar nominations). The accolades certainly helped on the self-esteem front, but the 38-year-old knew she mustn’t let the acclaim go to her head. “I was very overwhelmed and then I sat with it and was like: OK, I need to keep a distance to this somehow,” she recalls, sitting on the sofa in a cavernous hotel suite in Soho, London. “You can’t take criticism too personally and you can’t take praise too personally.” Such affirmation, I imagine, must become addictive. “Yes. And everything in life shall pass. So the aim was to keep everything a little bit even and keep the image I have of myself intact.”

Published: December 21, 2025, 10:00 am

A mildly subversive gift guide: 10 banned books for curious and rebellious US readers

Gift a banned book to the defiant reader in your life this holiday season. Our picks by Toni Morrison, Alice Walker and others have all faced US challenges or bans

• Gifts with heart: 15 thoughtful US ideas that support causes in need

• Sign up for the Filter US newsletter, your weekly guide to buying fewer, better things

I live, study and teach writing in a state that is one of the epicenters of book bans in this country. For years, Texas has consistently been a top-ranking state in book ban attempts in schools and libraries, according to the American Library Association (ALA), which publishes annual censorship reports.

In its latest report for 2024, the organization recorded 821 attempts to ban library books and other materials in the US. Many of these books are first challenged before banned, and they are often not from the disgruntled parents you may be thinking of. According to the ALA, most censorship attempts last year came from “pressure groups and decision makers who have been swayed by them”. The most common reasons for book challenges: objections to sexual content and themes around race and racism, LGBTQ+ and other social justice issues.

Published: December 21, 2025, 8:15 pm

No more kitchen martyrs – a guide to sharing the load at Christmas

From peeling sprouts to pouring drinks, there’s an art to being genuinely useful during festive cooking

• Sign up here for our weekly food newsletter, Feast

“Anything I can do to help?” If ever a line was guaranteed to incense the person in charge of cooking for a crowd, it is this one: uttered in seeming innocence by a guest roused by the sound of clattering pans, and who wants to seem polite but in reality hopes the answer is: “No, thank you.” This was drilled out of us from a young age by a mother who firmly believed that those who are serious about helping need not look far to find vegetables to chop or pots to wash up. But for guests who can’t “read” kitchens – or minds, for that matter – there are some principles that might prove helpful at this time of year. And, for hosts who hate delegating, there are a few ways to share the load (and increase the fun) without losing your sanity.

The easiest and perhaps most obvious job at Christmas is to pour drinks: for the principal cook first, and then for others. Not only does popping a cork or shaking a cocktail make a cook feel less like a caterer and more like part of the party, the sound has the effect of drawing in other helpers. “If you make a cocktail and divvy out jobs, even peeling vegetables is fun,” says Wahaca founder and Guardian regular Thomasina Miers, who enlists everyone in preparing for festivities.

Published: December 22, 2025, 12:30 pm

Is it true that … you can sweat out a hangover?

It’s the liver – not the skin – that rids the body of the toxins in alcohol, but exercise can help manage the symptoms

Here’s a useful fact to quote to any smug relatives who say they went for a run the morning after their Christmas party: you can’t get rid of toxins by sweating. “Toxins” is a broad term, says Adam Taylor, professor of anatomy at Lancaster Medical School, covering anything that can damage the body – from heavy metals to chemicals found in plastics, as well as the normal byproducts of our own metabolism. The liver is designed to process the toxins in alcohol and either break them down into usable units or get rid of them. The waste products are then filtered from the blood and excreted in urine or stools.

Sweat, on the other hand, has a very different job. Although it can contain extremely small amounts of some metabolic byproducts, its purpose is temperature regulation (and, in some situations, to signal stress or fear). “Sweating is not the means to remove toxins,” says Taylor. “Going for a run or sitting in a sauna after a night of drinking won’t reduce the toxins produced by metabolising alcohol, and it won’t lower your blood alcohol level.”

Published: December 22, 2025, 8:00 am

‘I’m going to scream!’: how to survive (and maybe even enjoy) your family Christmas

From preparing safe topics to taking silly games, we ask the experts how to avoid falling out with your nearest and dearest – before, during and after the big day

• I threw a potato. Mum brandished a knife – would whole-family therapy save our Christmas?

Plan breaks in your schedule
Spending time with difficult family members requires careful planning, says Katie Rose, a therapist registered with the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) and the founder of TherapEast. “If you’re going to stay with somebody for three or four days, find ways to politely give yourself a break. Go for lunch with friends who live locally, or book a ticket to a museum or a National Trust place so that you have ways of getting yourself out of the house.” Tamara Hoyton, a senior practitioner for Relate at Family Action, agrees that scheduling breaks is a good strategy. “Arrange a trip out, or offer to cook so that you’re away from the living room where everyone else is,” she says.

Published: December 21, 2025, 6:00 am

This is how we do it: ‘Even after 16 years I only have to look at him and I’m ready to go’

Ally and Jason met when she was 25 and he was 47. After more than a decade apart, they’re back together and their sexual connection is stronger than ever

• How do you do it? Share the story of your sex life, anonymously

Ally notices the occasional looks people give us, and her response is to ask me to give her a kiss in front of them

Published: December 21, 2025, 11:00 am

After three years of long-distance, my partner and I aren’t sure if we should stay together

These types of relationships can be challenging – you need to have an honest conversation about what you both want

My partner and I are professionals in our early 30s. We’ve been together for five years, and long-distance for the last three, but have just moved back in together.

While we were long-distance, we both had difficulties in our work. She had important exams, and it’s taken a long time for me to get into my career. Over the last year, our relationship has become strained, and it feels as if we’ve grown apart. Now it feels as if we aren’t friends, let alone partners. This is complicated by our work shifts. Despite now living together, we still barely see each other.

Published: December 21, 2025, 6:00 am

Did you solve it? Are you ready for twenty twenty-six…seven?

The answers to today’s problems

Earlier today I set you the following set of numerical challenges to celebrate the arrival of 2026.

Auld lang signs

Five 9s

Six 8s.

Six 7s.

Six 6s.

Four 5s.

Six 4s.

Four 3s.

Four 2s.

a partridge in a pair tree. (Only joking)

Published: December 22, 2025, 5:00 pm

My weirdest Christmas: I took a family friend to A&E – and he went from peaky to barely responsive on the way

He insisted he was OK, but he didn’t look it, and when he tried and failed to eat Christmas lunch we knew it was time for a mercy dash to hospital

Our family friend has always been a larger than life figure. Witty, unsentimental – and not one to say no to another brandy. At family parties, he’s the one gossiping about the latest scandal to catch up with a local MP, or regaling us with tales of the outrageous philandering of various Sheffield Wednesday players over the past 40 years. He could make anything – a jacket potato, a broken relationship – funny, somehow.

We would often spend Christmas morning with him and his family, before going our separate ways. But, one Christmas, about 10 years ago, when he was supposed to be meeting family abroad, he fell down the stairs, whisky in one hand, suitcase in the other, and broke his ribs. The hospital had patched him up and told him not to fly. So, here he was back with us in Sheffield, making the best of it, but looking increasingly peaky.

Published: December 22, 2025, 5:00 am

Kimchi, made in China: how South Korea’s national dish is being priced out at home

In the first 10 months of this year, South Korea imported $159m worth of kimchi, almost entirely from China, while exporting $137m

The pungent scent of red chilli powder hangs in the air at Kim Chieun’s kimchi factory in Incheon, about 30km west of Seoul. Inside, salted cabbage soaks in large metal vats in the first stage of a process that Kim has followed for more than 30 years.

But watching over the production line has become increasingly fraught. South Korea imports more kimchi than it exports, and the gap has widened as cheaper Chinese-made products take hold in the domestic market.

Published: December 22, 2025, 12:39 am

Stargazing in the Lake District: a new forest observatory opens in Grizedale

There’s no shortage of stunning scenery and daytime activities in the Lakes. Now, an observatory is offering stellar nocturnal events too

A tawny owl screeches nearby in the dark and her mate replies, hooting eerily from the forest below. A white dome floats in the gloaming above a plain black doorway outlined with red light, like a portal to another dimension. I’m in Grizedale Forest, far from any light-polluting cities, to visit the Lake District’s first public observatory and planetarium, which opened in May.

Grizedale Observatory offers immersive films in the planetarium and three-hour stargazing events that go on late into the night. There are sessions on astrophotography and, on moonless nights, dark sky astronomy with the chance to see “a glittering tapestry of stars, galaxies, nebulae and star clusters”. Its director, Gary Fildes, is a veteran in the field, having founded and led three UK observatories over two decades. The goal at Grizedale, he says, is to create “an immersive, year-round astronomy and science destination that brings the beauty of the Lake District skies to visitors”.

Published: December 22, 2025, 7:00 am

‘I can’t forget the horror’: a young mother on giving birth twice during the Gaza war

Hadeel Al Gherbawi survived her two pregnancies despite extreme hunger and pain

• Childbirth under attack: how women and babies became targets in conflicts around the world

Hadeel Al Gherbawi was seven months pregnant when the war started in October 2023. Up until that point the 26-year-old had meticulously prepared for her son’s arrival. She visited her doctor twice a month because the pregnancy was high risk, had regular ultrasounds and took vitamins. “I love the details,” she says.

Living on the east side of Gaza City, close to the border with Israel, and knowing that being pregnant would make moving fast difficult, she decided to go to her parents in the west of Gaza City that first day. “I thought it was just going to be a few days and I would go back.”

Published: December 22, 2025, 9:00 am

Five big global health wins in 2025 that will save millions of lives

From HIV to TB, scientists and doctors made breakthroughs in treatment and prevention of some of the world’s deadliest diseases

With humanitarian funding slashed by the US and other countries, including the UK, this year’s global health headlines have made grim reading. But good things have still been happening in vaccine research and the development of new and improved treatments for some of the most intractable illnesses.

Published: December 22, 2025, 12:00 pm

Can Dan Bongino regain his stature in the conservative media world?

Trump says the former podcaster and radio host ‘wants to go back to his show’ after a brief spell as FBI deputy director

After several failed attempts at elected office, Dan Bongino finally found national acclaim as a pugilistic, bare-knuckle conservative media personality, appearing as a contributor on Fox News before hosting an eponymous radio show and podcast.

The Dan Bongino Show, which was hosted by Westwood One, ended abruptly earlier this year when Bongino was plucked out of the conservative media-sphere by another veteran pro-Maga podcaster, Kash Patel, and picked to serve as his second-in-command at the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Published: December 21, 2025, 11:00 am

Festive cars in South Africa and a youth protest in Nepal: photos of the day – Monday

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

Published: December 22, 2025, 1:43 pm