‘It was extremely pornographic’: Cara Hunter on the deepfake video that nearly ended her political career

The Irish politician was targeted in 2022, in the final weeks of her run for office. She has never found out who made the malicious deepfake, but knew immediately she had to try to stop this happening to other women

When Cara Hunter, the Irish politician, looks back on the moment she found out she had been deepfaked, she says it is “like watching a horror movie”. The setting is her grandmother’s rural home in the west of Tyrone on her 90th birthday, April 2022. “Everyone was there,” she says. “I was sitting with all my closest family members and family friends when I got a notification through Facebook Messenger.” It was from a stranger. “Is that you in the video … the one going round on WhatsApp?” he asked.

Hunter made videos all the time, especially then, less than three weeks before elections for the Northern Ireland assembly. She was defending her East Londonderry seat, campaigning, canvassing, debating. Yet, as a woman, this message from a man she didn’t know was enough to put her on alert. “I replied that I wasn’t sure which video he was talking about,” Hunter says. “So he asked, did I want to see it?” Then he sent it over.

Published: December 1, 2025, 5:00 am

‘I was hooked’: the rise of the intrepid female solo traveller

Women of all ages, especially older ones, are actively choosing to travel alone. What’s behind the trend?

UK travel companies have reported an increase in bookings for solo travellers, primarily older women, often leaving partners behind to “explore on their own terms”.

Last month, the tour operator Jules Verne said solo travellers accounted for 46% of bookings for its trips departing next year, up from 40% in 2023. Just under 70% of its current solo bookings are made by women.

Published: November 30, 2025, 3:00 pm

‘I have been defeated’: hundreds of Palestinians face eviction from East Jerusalem

Residents in Batn al-Hawa have all but given up hope and blame the Gaza war which, they say, has created ‘an atmosphere of hate’ towards them

The dome of the al-Aqsa mosque gleamed in the late afternoon autumnal sun as Zohair Rajabi looked out from his balcony towards the skyline of Jerusalem’s Old City. Christian pilgrims spilled out of buses, while observant Jewish worshippers gathered outside the gate to the Western Wall.

New flags now fly a few metres from Rajabi’s home. Blue and white and bearing the Star of David, they mark where residents were evicted recently from their homes by Israeli police. After more than 20 years of activism, Rajabi knows his days in Batn al-Hawa, a predominantly Palestinian neighbourhood less than a mile south of the Old City, are almost certainly numbered.

Published: December 1, 2025, 6:00 am

Nine eco-minded gifts that actually make a difference

From tool library memberships to repair kits and even refurbished electronics – here are ways to give sustainable gifts this holiday season

• The 163 best holiday gift ideas for 2025, vetted by the Guardian US staff

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

Here is the uncomfortable truth about gift-giving: many fun-to-unwrap baubles get used twice, shoved in a drawer, and eventually hauled off to Goodwill or the landfill. So for anyone who cares about the climate crisis or the environment, the holidays are a minefield of cognitive dissonance: you want to give loved ones something meaningful, while cringing at your own consumerism. It’s a dilemma, but it doesn’t have to be.

There are thoughtful ways to give without adding to the problem, or better yet, giving gifts that make the right kind of difference. We’re not talking about carbon credits or vague promises of planting trees – the gifts here can extend the life of things you already own, replace single-use waste, or fund conservation work directly. Some I have tested myself; others come from trusted organizations with long track records and verifiable credentials. Here are some gift ideas that you and your eco-minded recipient can both feel great about.

Published: November 30, 2025, 3:15 pm

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

Extreme weather has killed nearly 1,000 people across southern and south-eastern Asia as cyclones turbocharged rain systems across the region

• Devastating floods hit Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Thailand – latest updates

Tropical cyclones have combined with heavy monsoon rains to lay waste to swathes of Asia, killing close to 1,000 people and leaving many more homeless.

Parts of the Indonesian archipelago have been particularly hard hit, with the death toll reaching 442 following flooding that began about a week ago, a number that is expected to rise. Nearly 300,000 people have been displaced and nearly 3,000 houses damaged, including 827 that were flattened or swept away.

Published: December 1, 2025, 4:25 am

Does ‘laziness’ start in the brain?

Understanding the surprising mechanism behind apathy can help unlock scientific ways to boost your motivation

We all know people with very different levels of motivation. Some will go the extra mile in any endeavour. Others just can’t be bothered to put the effort in. We might think of them as lazy – happiest on the sofa, rather than planning their latest project. What’s behind this variation? Most of us would probably attribute it to a mixture of temperament, circumstances, upbringing or even values.

But research in neuroscience and in patients with brain disorders is challenging these assumptions by revealing the brain mechanisms that underlie motivation. When these systems become dysfunctional, people who were once highly motivated can become pathologically apathetic. Whereas previously they might have been curious, highly engaged and productive – at work, in their social lives and in their creative thinking – they can suddenly seem like the opposite.

Published: November 30, 2025, 12:00 pm

Trump confirms he recently spoke with Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro

Trump remained tight-lipped on details of call with Venezuelan president as tensions rise between countries

Donald Trump confirmed on Sunday that he had spoken with Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro, but he did not provide details on what the two leaders discussed.

“I don’t want to comment on it. The answer is yes,” the US president said when asked if he had spoken with Maduro. He was speaking to reporters onboard Air Force One.

Published: December 1, 2025, 12:16 am

Trump invites families of national guard members who were shot to White House

President plans to honor Sarah Beckstrom, who was fatally shot, as well as Andrew Wolfe, who is in critical condition

Donald Trump said on Sunday that he invited the family of a national guard member fatally shot last week to the White House, adding that he spoke to her parents and they were “devastated”.

US army specialist Sarah Beckstrom, 20, was killed in a shooting on Wednesday in Washington DC. Her fellow service member, US air force staff Sgt Andrew Wolfe, 24, remains hospitalized in critical condition. Vigils across West Virginia have taken place in their memory.

Published: November 30, 2025, 11:29 pm

Ukrainian and US officials meet in Florida to discuss proposals to end Russia’s war

Marco Rubio, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner meet Kyiv delegation amid more deadly Russian attacks in Ukraine

Ukrainian negotiators have met US officials in Florida to thrash out details of Washington’s proposed framework to end Russia’s war in Ukraine, as Kyiv faces pressure on military and political fronts.

The secretary of state, Marco Rubio; the special envoy, Steve Witkoff; and Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law; sat down with a Ukrainian delegation on Sunday before planned US talks this week in Moscow with Vladimir Putin.

Published: November 30, 2025, 6:20 pm

AI’s safety features can be circumvented with poetry, research finds

Poems containing prompts for harmful content prove effective at duping large language models

Poetry can be linguistically and structurally unpredictable – and that’s part of its joy. But one man’s joy, it turns out, can be a nightmare for AI models.

Those are the recent findings of researchers out of Italy’s Icaro Lab, an initiative from a small ethical AI company called DexAI. In an experiment designed to test the efficacy of guardrails put on artificial intelligence models, the researchers wrote 20 poems in Italian and English that all ended with an explicit request to produce harmful content such as hate speech or self-harm.

Published: November 30, 2025, 2:00 pm

Winter storm brings foot of snow to midwest over busiest US travel weekend

Plane skidded off runway and 45 cars were piled up as 53 million were under winter weather alerts over Thanksgiving

A Thanksgiving weekend storm system brought over a foot of snow and strong winds across the US midwest and thunderstorms across the south, as 53 million people from South Dakota to New York were under winter weather alerts.

Over the weekend, ahead of one of the busiest travel days of the year on Sunday, a 45-car pile-up occurred on interstate 78 in Indiana and a Delta Air Lines plane skidded off the runway in Des Moines, Iowa, during landing.

Published: November 30, 2025, 5:49 pm

Power surge: law changes could soon bring balcony solar to millions across US

Tweaks to state laws mean many Americans will be able to benefit from small, simple plug-in solar panels

Acquiring solar panels at home can be an expensive hassle for people in the US. But small, simple, plug-in solar panels for use on balconies are soon to become available for millions of Americans, with advocates hoping the technology will quickly go mainstream.

Earlier this year, Utah became the first state in the country to pass legislation allowing people to purchase and install small, portable solar panels that plug into a standard wall socket.

Published: November 30, 2025, 12:00 pm

Love Actually star says romcoms have lost their magic

Thomas Brodie-Sangster, who played Sam in Richard Curtis’s film, thinks streaming ushered in genre’s decline

If modern romcoms aren’t sweeping you off your feet any more, you’re not the only one wondering where the magic went.

Romantic comedies are just not as good as they used to be, according to one of the stars of Love Actually.

Published: November 30, 2025, 5:14 pm

NFL roundup: Panthers shock Rams as Allen sets TD record in Bills’ win over Steelers

• Bryce Young excels in Carolina victory

• Bills QB scores record 76th rushing touchdown

Bryce Young completed 15 of 20 passes for 206 yards and three touchdowns – two of them coming on fourth down – and the Carolina Panthers (7-6) forced three turnovers by Matthew Stafford to beat Los Angeles (9-3) and snap the Rams’ six-game winning streak. Carolina’s defense intercepted Stafford twice with Mike Jackson returning one for a 48-yard touchdown and ended the 37-year-old’s NFL record of 28 straight TD passes without an interception. Derrick Brown, who tipped a ball resulting in one of Stafford’s first pick, came up with a key strip-sack with 2:25 left in the game to preserve the win. Stafford completed 18 of 28 passes for 243 yards with two touchdown passes to Davante Adams, his 13th and 14th of the season.

Published: December 1, 2025, 12:46 am

Virginia Democrat flips seat in state legislature by taking on datacenters

John McAuliff won against a Republican by focusing on something affecting all his constituents: the cost of energy

John McAuliff, a 33-year-old small business owner and former civil servant, was one of the more unlikely Democrats to win election to Virginia’s legislature this month, after a campaign in which he could, at times, come off a bit like a Republican.

McAuliff was among the 13 Democrats elected to the legislature in Virginia’s elections earlier this month, as part of a blowout victory for the party that gives it firm control of the southern state’s government. Along with wins in New Jersey, California and elsewhere, the results put some wind back into Democrats’ sails nationwide, a year after their drubbing at the hands of Donald Trump and the Republicans.

Published: November 30, 2025, 2:51 pm

‘He massages Trump’s basest instincts’: why is Fifa’s Gianni Infantino cosying up to the US president?

For a man who insists football isn’t political, the Fifa boss is putting a lot of effort into into courting the most divisive politician on Earth

Gianni Infantino was 18 years old the first time he ran for office. It was a presidential election at FC Brig-Glis, the local amateur football club in the small Swiss town where he grew up. Running against two older men, and with no discernible footballing record of his own, the little red-haired kid with freckles was, unsurprisingly, the rank outsider in the race.

But he had a vision. He had a ferocious work ethic, boundless enthusiasm, well-established networks in the town’s Italian immigrant community. And even at this tender age, he had a flair for an eye-catching scheme. To the shock of many veterans at the club, Infantino surged to victory: partly on the back of his pledge to attract new sponsors and revenue streams, and partly on something more tangible. Infantino promised that if he won, his mother Maria would wash all the players’ kits, every week, for as long as he was president.

Published: November 30, 2025, 8:00 am

How the cuts have shaken HIV/Aids care to its core and will mean millions more infections ahead

Reports highlight devastating impact of slashed funding, especially in parts of Africa, that could lead to 3.3m new HIV infections by 2030

In Mozambique, a teenage rape victim sought care at a health clinic only to find it closed. In Zimbabwe, Aids-related deaths have risen for the first time in five years. In Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), patients with suspected HIV went undiagnosed due to test-kit stocks running out.

Stories of the devastating impact of US, British and wider European aid cuts on the fight against HIV – particularly in sub-Saharan Africa – continue to mount as 2025 comes to an end, and are set out in a series of reports released in the past week.

Published: December 1, 2025, 6:00 am

Old tensions simmer just below surface as Tusk and Merz to meet in Berlin

Ukraine will top agenda, but meeting comes as positive sentiment towards Germany in Poland hits near record lows

When the Polish and German governments meet on Monday for annual political talks in Berlin – the first since Friedrich Merz became chancellor – the headlines are likely to be dominated by Ukraine.

Amid growing US pressure for a peace deal with Russia, Warsaw and Berlin will want to send a signal of support for Kyiv and of unity between central Europe’s largest – and militarily strongest – countries.

Published: December 1, 2025, 5:00 am

Is it true that … a glass of wine a day is good for your heart?

Moderate wine consumption may benefit your cardiac health, but foods such as grapes and berries offer similar advantages without the negative effects

“People shouldn’t think that drinking wine is good for you,” says Dr Oliver Guttmann, a consultant cardiologist at the Wellington hospital in London.

Alcohol consumption is linked to high blood pressure, liver disease, digestive, mental health and immune system problems, as well as cancer.

Published: December 1, 2025, 8:00 am

Why won’t Marvel let Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine retire in peace?

The actor himself has promised to accept all future cameos as the beloved claw-gremlin, but this will only wear out his superpowers

There was once a time when Hugh Jackman Wolverine cameos made a sort of sense. Bursting out of a cell in full Weapon X gear, massacring half a bunker, then vanishing, in 2016’s otherwise pretty forgettable X-Men: Apocalypse. Telling potential recruitment team Magneto and Professor X to, er, go fuck themselves while propping up a bar in 2011’s X-Men: First Class. Even popping up via archived footage from X-Men Origins: Wolverine in 2018’s Deadpool 2. These were cameos we could accept: quick, self-contained sideshows that understood the sacred rule that such things ought to be fun and brief. They also arrived at a time when Jackman didn’t yet carry the weight of 25 years of audience investment.

Last week, in an appearance on the BBC’s Graham Norton Show, Jackman revealed that he has banned himself from saying no to future appearances as the surly mutant. “I am never saying ‘never’ ever again,” he said. “But I did mean it when I said ‘never’, until the day when I changed my mind. But I really did for quite a few years, I meant it.” There are suggestions that he could make a brief appearance in the forthcoming Avengers: Doomsday, in order to capitalise on the success of Marvel’s recent $1bn megahit Deadpool & Wolverine, even though he wasn’t mentioned in an interminable name-on-chair live stream from earlier this year, in which most of the main cast members were revealed.

Published: December 1, 2025, 8:00 am

‘I took literary revenge against the people who stole my youth’: Romanian author Mircea Cărtărescu

As the first part of his acclaimed Blinding trilogy is released in the UK, the novelist talks about communism, Vladimir Nabokov – and those Nobel rumours

In 2014, when he was travelling around the US on a book tour, Mircea Cărtărescu was able to fulfil the dream of a lifetime: a tour of Vladimir Nabokov’s butterfly collection. Cărtărescu is a great admirer of the Russian-American author, and shares with him a literary career that bridges the western and eastern cultural spheres – as well as a history of being mooted as the next Nobel literature laureate but never having won it.

Above all, the Romanian poet and novelist shares Nabokov’s fascination with butterflies. As a child, he harboured dreams of becoming a lepidopterist. On a visit to Harvard, Cărtărescu was allowed access to Nabokov’s former office and marvelled at specimens the St Petersburg-born author had collected. “His most important scientific work was about butterflies’ sexual organs, and I saw these very tiny vials with them in,” he whispers in awe. “It’s like an image from a poem or a story. It was absolutely fantastic.”

Published: November 30, 2025, 12:00 pm

Expect a tale of two holiday seasons as the well-off spend and the rest pull back | Gene Marks

Parts of the US economy are doing just fine but many are struggling to make rent, let alone splurging on gifts

Will retailers and merchants have a strong holiday season? That depends. This year, more than most, the 2025 holiday season will actually be two holiday seasons.

If your business caters to higher-income individuals or if you’re located in a wealthier part of the country, you’ll probably have a decent holiday season. True, even the wealthy are cutting back. But according to the HR firm ADP average salaries have risen between 4.5% and 6.7% depending on whether workers stayed or switched jobs. The stock markets, though increasingly volatile, are up over 13% since the beginning of the year. And in some parts of the country, notably New York, Boston, DC and San Francisco, the average household income is over $125,000 - almost $41,000 higher than the national average. People in this demographic may be a little more cautious but they’ll spend.

Published: November 30, 2025, 3:00 pm

It's not just Gaza. From the West Bank to Syria and Lebanon, Israel's onslaught continues | Nesrine Malik

Broken ceasefires, bombing, ground incursions and mounting deaths: Israeli imperialism is now expanding across the region

It is clear now that the ceasefire in Gaza is only a “reducefire”. The onslaught continues. There are near-daily attacks on the territory. On a single day at the end of October, almost 100 Palestinians were killed. On 19 November, 32 were killed. On 23 November, 21. And on it goes. Since the ceasefire, more than 300 have been killed and almost 1,000 injured. Those numbers will rise. The real shift is that the ceasefire has reduced global attention and scrutiny. Meanwhile, Israel’s emerging blueprint becomes clearer: bloody domination not only in Gaza, but across Palestine and the wider region.

A “dangerous illusion that life in Gaza is returning to normal”, is how Amnesty International’s secretary general, Agnès Callamard, described this post-ceasefire period. Israeli authorities have reduced attacks and allowed some aid into Gaza, she said, but “the world must not be fooled. Israel’s genocide is not over.” Not a single hospital in Gaza has returned to being fully operational. The onset of rain and cooling weather has left thousands exposed in dilapidated tents. Since the ceasefire on 10 October, almost 6,500 tonnes of UN-coordinated relief materials have been denied entry into Gaza by Israeli authorities. According to Oxfam, in the two weeks after the ceasefire alone, shipments of water, food, tents and medical supplies from 17 international NGOs were denied.

Published: December 1, 2025, 6:00 am

China is bearing down on Taiwan – enabled by Trump’s weakness and vacillation | Simon Tisdall

The US hasn’t just left Ukraine vulnerable; it is also provoking Xi’s intensifying attitude towards what he considers a renegade province

Sheer ignorance, fed by malign intent, historical prejudice and mutual misunderstanding, is often the crucial spark that ignites simmering international conflicts. If Adolf Hitler, remarkably ignorant of the US, had grasped the true extent of American industrial might, would he still have fatefully declared war on Washington in 1941?

When the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979, it evidently had no idea what it was getting into. Humiliating defeat contributed greatly to its subsequent disintegration. In 1990, Iraq’s Saddam Hussein attacked Kuwait, convinced he had a green light from the White House. In all these cases, stupidity produced disastrous misjudgments that proved fatal.

Simon Tisdall is a Guardian foreign affairs commentator

Published: November 30, 2025, 8:00 am

We have a practical framework for American resistance. Now we need a spiritual one | Rami Nashashibi

There is growing understanding that our country is witnessing evil in our public life. Here is a path to confronting it

Across the country, organizers are carrying something heavier, clearer and more spiritually charged than anything I have seen in over 30 years of this work. From veteran freedom fighters to young activists, there is a growing alignment around the unmistakable presence of evil in our public life. The horrors unfolding before us have sharpened our collective sight and deepened the understanding that our resistance must be morally unwavering and spiritually grounded.

The spiritual framework for this argument begins with a simple conviction. Our movements need to reclaim a moral vocabulary that names evil plainly. Dr King understood this. When he named the pain of poverty, the sickness of racism and the excess of materialism, he called them the “triple evils”, speaking with unflinching clarity about the devastation that this collective evil was inflicting on the country, on our conscience and on our very souls. We are living in such a moment again. The evil is fully out, and anyone with spiritual integrity can see it. Among the forces driving that clarity are Gaza, empire and ICE.

Dr Rami Nashashibi is a MacArthur fellow and the founding executive director of the Inner-City Muslim Action Network (IMAN)

Published: November 30, 2025, 12:00 pm

If toxic humility is a thing, I definitely have it. But perhaps there’s another way | Emma Beddington

We’re taught that modesty is good and pride is bad. This ignores the fact that telling ourselves we’re OK is actually beneficial

What’s your favourite thing about yourself? Stylist’s Love Yourself campaign asked over 400 women that, and published eight pages of their answers. People mostly picked low-key, quite specific stuff – “I can cook something out of nothing”; “I’m really strong”; “I can talk to anyone”; “I’ve got an excellent bum” – and it was lovely, and touching, to see women affirm what they like about themselves. It also felt strange – almost shocking? Stylist called giving yourself a compliment “squirm-inducing” and yes, the thought of doing it myself made me squirm.

I feel something similar when I see people online expressing uncomplicated, justified pride in their achievements or liking who they are out loud – it’s a sort of “is that allowed?” feeling, like the rules have changed and no one told me. If toxic humility is a thing, I definitely have it, because I get a masochistic buzz from self-deprecation, especially when it provokes someone into contradicting me. I have a shopping list of things I hate about myself that I take out and luxuriate in on sleepless nights, but deep down, I don’t actually believe I’m a worthless, irredeemable worm (even typing that feels transgressive!); I do hate the idea of letting anyone know that though.

Published: November 30, 2025, 2:00 pm

Norris and Piastri voice frustration at McLaren’s strategy as title race goes to finale

• Team failed to pit drivers behind safety car in Qatar

• Max Verstappen won race to stay in title contention

Lando Norris, the championship leader, has decried the McLaren team strategy error at the Qatar Grand Prix that allowed Max Verstappen right back into the fight and forced a three-way battle at next Sunday’s title-deciding finale in Abu Dhabi.

Verstappen won the race in Doha after McLaren chose not to pit their drivers under a safety car early in the race. It was a costly error that gave Verstappen the lead and the win. Norris could finish only fourth and his teammate Oscar Piastri, who was equally unhappy with the team, was second.

Published: November 30, 2025, 8:53 pm

Treylon Burks’ one-handed miracle catch draws comparisons to Odell Beckham’s Giants grab

• One-handed TD catch comes on Sunday Night Football

• Catch draws praise from Beckham himself

Odell Beckham’s Jr’s miracle grab in 2014 may remain the best NFL catch this century, but Treylon Burks’ effort on Sunday pushes it close.

During the third-quarter of Sunday’s game between the Commanders and Broncos, the Washington receiver reached behind him as he fell backwards in the end zone and grabbed a Marcus Mariota pass with his right hand. He secured the ball as he fell to the turf and his touchdown tied the game at 13-13.

Published: December 1, 2025, 3:58 am

Mikaela Shiffrin claims another slalom victory to stay perfect in Olympic season

• American has won four straight World Cup slaloms

• Victory comes on home snow in Colorado

Mikaela Shiffrin dominated her World Cup slalom on home snow in Colorado on Sunday to remain perfect in the discipline during the Olympic season.

Shiffrin extended her winning streak in slalom to four races after also claiming the opening two races this season and the final event of last season. It was Shiffrin’s record-extending 104th World Cup victory and her 67th in slalom – extending the discipline record, too.

Published: December 1, 2025, 12:09 am

European football: ‘utterly outrageous’ fireworks cause Ajax abandonment

• Pyrotechnics in stands cause referee to call halt

• Real Madrid’s Mbappé levels in 1-1 draw at Girona

Ajax have strongly criticised an “utterly outrageous” firework display that caused their Eredivisie match against Groningen at the Johan Cruyff Arena to be abandoned.

The referee Bas Nijhuis took the players off the field within five minutes of the start after fireworks and flares were ignited behind one of the goals, and the stadium filled with smoke. Attempts to restart the match 45 minutes later were met with more fireworks, causing Nijhuis to formally abandon the game.

Published: November 30, 2025, 10:37 pm

Belichick remains tight-lipped as UNC season ends in another loss: ‘I don’t have a recap’

• North Carolina beaten 42-19 by NC State in finale

• Belichick’s debut season has been beset by problems

Bill Belichick stood at the microphone in a crowded room of reporters. North Carolina’s season had just ended with a lopsided loss to a fierce nearby rival to cap a four-win season.

And the six-time Super Bowl-winning head coach wasn’t in much of a mood to talk about it. A little more than four minutes’ worth, in fact.

Published: November 30, 2025, 8:36 pm

Cooper Flagg passes LeBron to become youngest player in NBA history to score 35 points

• Rookie also holds record for assists for 18-year-old

• Mavericks rally to beat Clippers on Saturday night

Cooper Flagg became the youngest-ever player to score 35 points in an NBA game as he helped the Dallas Mavericks rally to a 114-110 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers on Saturday night.

The 18-year-old went 13 for 22 from the field in his 20th career game. The top pick in this year’s draft also grabbed eight rebounds. The only other 18-year-old to score 35 points in an NBA game is LeBron James, who did so twice in his rookie season. His first came when he was 18 years and 348 days old, five days older than Flagg was on Saturday.

Published: November 30, 2025, 12:46 pm

Arsenal held by 10-man Chelsea in feisty draw after Moisés Caicedo gets VAR red

Arsenal would surely have taken a draw beforehand, against a Chelsea team that have emerged as surprise title rivals in recent weeks – and especially when they realised they had to play without William Saliba, who injured himself in training on Saturday.

It was a different story when, in the 38th minute, Chelsea were reduced to 10 men after Moisés Caicedo’s X-rated challenge on Mikel Merino. It was one of those that made you wince upon each replay, the stand-in Arsenal striker fortunate to emerge unscathed.

Published: November 30, 2025, 6:45 pm

Duplantis wins top award and takes aim at Grand Slam Track’s exclusion of field events

• Duplantis named World Athletics’ male athlete of year

• Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone wins top female award

Armand Duplantis has capped a remarkable 2025, in which he broke four world records and won another world title, by being named World Athletics’ male athlete of the year.

Immediately after picking up the award, the Swedish pole vaulter took aim at Michael Johnson’s Grand Slam Track, which collapsed in the summer and is still yet to pay athletes their full prize money.

Published: November 30, 2025, 9:39 pm

California police search for suspect who killed four including three children at family party

Victims who died in Stockton attack reportedly between ages eight and 21, while 11 others were wounded

Police are searching for the suspect who killed four people, including three children, and injured 11 in a shooting at a family gathering in Stockton, California, on Saturday night – and they are appealing to the public for any tips people may have.

“If you have surveillance footage, if you’re a local business here, if you’re in the area, live in the area, or maybe you’ve heard rumors – please contact the sheriff’s office,” said Heather Brent, a spokesperson for the San Joaquin county sheriff’s office.

Published: November 30, 2025, 6:08 pm

Benjamin Netanyahu asks Israel’s president for pardon in corruption case

Request is submitted weeks after Donald Trump called on Isaac Herzog to pardon Israeli prime minister

Benjamin Netanyahu has asked Israel’s president for a pardon for bribery and fraud charges and an end to a five-year corruption trial, arguing that it would be in the “national interest”.

Isaac Herzog’s office acknowledged receipt of the 111-page submission from the prime minister’s lawyer, and said it had been passed on to the pardons department in the ministry of justice. The president’s legal adviser would also formulate an opinion before Herzog made a decision, it added.

Published: November 30, 2025, 1:04 pm

Failure to diagnose treatable male infertility leading to unnecessary IVF, experts say

Men represent 50% of all infertility cases but poor understanding among GPs means it is often untreated

Couples are needlessly going through IVF because male infertility is under-researched, with the NHS too often failing to diagnose treatable causes, leading experts have said.

Poor understanding among GPs and a lack of specialists and NHS testing means male infertility is often left untreated in couples struggling to conceive, despite men accounting for 50% of all infertility cases.

Published: November 30, 2025, 8:00 am

The Wiggles don’t condone drugs, spokesperson says after controversial TikTok video set to Ecstasy song

Blue Wiggle Anthony Field and ‘Tree of Wisdom’ appeared in now-deleted video from singer Keli Holiday

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The Wiggles want to make one thing very clear: they do not condone the use of MDMA.

After two of its members appeared in a controversial TikTok video, the group – which has entertained children around the world for decades – issued a statement on the weekend denying any suggestion it supports the use of drugs.

Published: December 1, 2025, 5:45 am

African leaders push for recognition of colonial crimes and reparations

Algerian foreign minister says African countries and peoples continue to pay a heavy price for colonialism

African leaders are pushing to have colonial-era crimes recognised, criminalised and addressed through reparations.

At a conference in the Algerian capital, Algiers, diplomats and leaders convened to advance an African Union resolution passed at a meeting earlier this year calling for justice and reparations for victims of colonialism.

Published: November 30, 2025, 9:40 pm

Bridge to the past: JR to wrap Pont Neuf again, 40 years after artistic forebears

Exclusive: French artist planning to cover bridge over Seine in tribute to Christo and Jeanne-Claude

The enigmatic French artist JR will undertake what he says is his biggest ever challenge next year when he “wraps” Pont Neuf, the oldest standing bridge across the Seine River in Paris, in a tribute to a monumental art project by Christo and Jeanne-Claude.

For three weeks next June, the 232-metre (761ft) long bridge will be wrapped in fabric, 40 years after the married artists known for their large-scale, site-specific environmental installations did the same thing.

Published: November 30, 2025, 9:00 am

‘In the presence of evil’: Manchester synagogue attack survivor on the day that shook British Jews

Exclusive: Shot as he barricaded the synagogue, Yoni Finlay describes the assault – and the climate that allowed it to happen

It was just after 6am and Yoni Finlay woke early with nerves. It was Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, and the 39-year-old Mancunian was due to sing the dawn prayer, Shacharis, before hundreds of worshippers later that morning.

After practising his verse, Finlay buttoned up his white robes and headed to Heaton Park shul in north Manchester. He greeted familiar faces – exchanging a cheery hello with Bernard Agyemang, the security guard – then took a seat on the stage, the bimah, and said prayers.

Published: November 30, 2025, 8:09 am

Japan ‘One Piece’ singer stopped mid-performance as Japan-China relations sour

Axing of Maki Otsuki performance in Shanghai the latest in spate of cancelled cultural events involving Asia’s two biggest economies

Japanese “One Piece” singer Maki Otsuki was forced to halt her performance on stage in Shanghai, her management said, one of the latest events hit by a diplomatic spat between Tokyo and Beijing.

Otsuki, known for the theme song of the popular anime, had been slated to perform for two days from Friday at the Bandai Namco Festival 2025 in the Chinese city.

Published: November 30, 2025, 8:26 am

Onlookers review – snapshots of a south-east Asian country shaped by tourism

Through static compositions and observational detail, the documentary explores how Laos’s visitors and residents inhabit the same spaces in very different ways

Shot in Laos, Kimi Takesue’s idiosyncratic documentary gazes upon sights and vistas that would not be out of place on travel postcards. Minimal in its camera movements, the film looks at glimmering golden temples, waterfalls cascading down silver rocks, and processions of monks moving through lush landscapes. It also shows what is absent from glossy brochures, namely the intrusion of tourists. The disruption to the local rhythm of life is at once visual and aural: we see throngs of wandering visitors, their casual clothes of shorts and T-shirts a stark contrast to the ancient architecture. Their occasionally rowdy leisure activities are intercut with more mundane moments from the locals’ everyday lives, like schoolchildren heading to class or laywomen offering alms to monks by the roadside.

There’s a sense of tension between the static camera and the movements that occur within the frame. Scenes of tourists being loaded on to buses bring to mind Jacques Tati’s 1967 classic Playtime, which gently pokes fun at the idea of an authentic cultural experience attained via consumerist means. The point of view in Takesue’s film, however, is on shakier grounds. Some of the visual juxtapositions veer towards reiterating well-worn binaries between the east and west, the regional and the global. For instance, most of the tourists seen in Onlookers are white; in truth, visitors to Laos largely come from neighbouring Asian countries. Likewise, the Laotian population is also far from homogeneous: one sequence shows middle-aged men playing a game of catch, with the caption telling us they are “arguing in Lao” – yet some of them are speaking Vietnamese.

Published: December 1, 2025, 7:00 am

Paddington: The Musical review – they’ve looked after this bear quite splendiferously

Savoy theatre, London
State-of-the-art animatronics, imaginative staging, fabulous performances and some marvellous songs about marmalade make for an evening that will fill you with joy and melt your heart

Here is the Peruvian bear as we have never seen him before – or so we are led to believe from the marketing of this musical, which is based on the beloved 2014 film, based on Michael Bond’s beloved books. But this is in fact exactly how we have seen him before: initially alone in Paddington station with marmalade sandwiches under his felt hat and a pleading look in his eye for strangers to be kind to outsiders such as him.

This is not new fare, even if Paddington is brought to life with state-of-the-art animatronics: James Hameed is his voice and remote puppeteer, while Arti Shah is under his furry skin on stage (puppet design by Tahra Zafar). The Brown family are recognisable from the star-studded film: risk-averse dad (Adrian Der Gregorian), arty mum (Amy Ellen Richardson), adolescent Judy (Delilah Bennett-Cardy) and encyclopaedia-chomping wee Jonathan (Jasper Rowse on the night of attendance), along with houseguest Mrs Bird (Bonnie Langford, in national treasure mode).

Published: December 1, 2025, 12:01 am

‘I sang karaoke with Novak Djokovic – a surreal experience’: Jacob Collier’s honest playlist

The musical prodigy discovered Stevie Wonder aged two and danced to Brazilian jazz at a Grammys afterparty. But what song does he think is the best in the world?

The first song I fell in love with
So many songs hit me as a child, they were like windows opening up new worlds. But the first I truly loved was Did I Hear You Say You Love Me, by Stevie Wonder, which I remember clearly when I was around two years old.

The first single I bought
I bought an iTunes single by Take 6 when I was 13. They are a six-part a cappella, gospel, jazz group, and they completely exploded my creative imagination. The song, He Never Sleeps, has the most unbelievable harmonic journey.

Published: November 30, 2025, 9:00 am

Comedian Judi Love: ‘I’m a big girl, the boss, and you love it’

Before she was a TV mainstay, Judi Love was a single mum juggling standup with care work. Now she’s back on stage for a show that finds humour in past trauma: ‘It’s laughter that helped me’, she says.

Judi Love was 17 when she was kidnapped, though she adds a couple of years on when reliving it on stage. It was only the anecdote’s second to-audience outing when I watched her recite it, peppered with punchlines, at a late-October work-in-progress gig. The bones of her new show – All About the Love, embarking on a 23-date tour next year – are very much still evolving, but this Wednesday night in Bedford is a sell out, such is the pull of Love’s telly star power.

She starts by twerking her way into the spotlight, before riffing on her career as a social worker and trading “chicken and chips for champagne and ceviche”. Interspersed are opening bouts of sharp crowd work – Love at her free-wheeling best. Next, she’s at college, studying IT, but mostly “going into the games room looking for boys”. It’s here that Love meets this unnamed lad.

Published: November 30, 2025, 10:00 am

Dining across the divide: ‘I was nervous – was he going to attack me for being a snowflake?’

A Green-party globalist and a right-of-centre Tory clash over immigration. Would they see eye to eye over reparations?

Peter, 34, London

Occupation Former civil servant, now a student, studying public health

Published: November 30, 2025, 12:00 pm

The kindness of strangers: a concierge gave me his mother’s opera ticket

I was travelling with my parents and discovered that Don Giovanni was being performed while we were there. I simply had to try to see it

• Read more in the kindness of strangers series

At age 20, I fell head over heels in love with opera. It happened after seeing Joseph Losey’s film adaptation of Don Giovanni. Something clicked in me. I became a fervent subscriber to the Australian Opera and saw every opera I possibly could.

A few years later, I was travelling in France with my parents and discovered that Don Giovanni was being performed in Avignon while we were there, with José van Dam, who had played Leporello in the film, starring as Don Giovanni. I simply had to get a ticket to see it.

Published: November 30, 2025, 2:00 pm

Shopping for Christmas bargains? Beware the ‘spray and pay’ parcel delivery fraud

Criminals send thousands of texts about an undelivered bargain buy and ask for a redelivery fee in a bid to mine your data and bank details

You have landed a lot of bargains in the run-up to Black Friday and most of your Christmas shopping is done.

So when a text arrives about a delivery, it’s no surprise. A quick click on a link and you have paid the £2 redelivery charge it’s asking for.

Published: November 30, 2025, 7:00 am

Unhappy Messi and Napoleon’s Battle of Austerlitz: photos of the weekend

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

Published: November 30, 2025, 10:26 am