The Beatles Anthology review – the incredible audio shows exactly why the world fell in love with this band

This update of the 1995 documentary series is utterly authoritative. And its tweak of the Fab Four’s songs is a thing of wonder – their music absolutely thumps!

It would be wrong to go into The Beatles Anthology expecting another Get Back. Peter Jackson’s 2021 documentary did such a miraculous job of recontextualising the glum old footage from Let It Be, by setting it against an ingenious ticking clock device and expanding it out to become a maximalist feelgood avalanche, that it felt like you were watching something entirely new.

But The Beatles Anthology is not new. If you saw the original series on television in 1995, or on YouTube at any point since, you’ll know what you’re in for. It is almost the exact same thing, only the images are sharper and the sound is better.

The Beatles Anthology is on Disney+ now.

Published: November 26, 2025, 5:00 am

I got an epidural for all three of my births – none of them worked as expected

Here’s what you should know before getting an epidural – and why it might not provide full pain relief as expected

The first time I got an epidural, it was too late.

I’d heard it was best to wait, for fear the medication would run out mid-labor (I later found out this is a myth). So I gritted my teeth through hours of contractions, and when I finally told the nurses I was ready, the anesthesiologist was with another patient.

Published: November 25, 2025, 5:00 pm

JD Vance might want to run in 2028 – but does he have a Palantir-shaped problem? | Arwa Mahdawi

The VP wouldn’t be where he is today without the patronage of the Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel. But with voters becoming more and more concerned about the firm’s surveillance tech, could that relationship affect his chances?

The US is the land of the free and the home of the world’s most expensive, and most excruciatingly drawn-out, elections. In most democracies, the election cycle lasts just a few weeks or months. In most democracies there are strict laws regulating how long politicians can campaign, and how much money political parties can accept. But the US is not most democracies.

Published: November 25, 2025, 3:30 pm

Coupling up: how to avoid money worries in your relationship

From joint bank accounts and pooled savings to mortgages and tax allowances, talk about money for a happy financial future together

There’s no one-size-fits-all answer for whether you should manage your finances jointly, separately or somewhere in the middle.

Published: November 26, 2025, 7:00 am

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery review – Josh O’Connor excels in another deadpan delight

Daniel Craig is joined by a sparkling array of talent including O’Connor, Glenn Close and Josh Brolin in this latest murder mystery with a religious undercurrent

Rian Johnson’s delectable new Knives Out film is a chocolate box: mouthwateringly delicious on the first layer and … well, perfectly tasty on the second. Daniel Craig returns as private detective Benoit Blanc, in a slightly more serious mode than before, with not as many droll suth’n phrases and quirky faux-naif mannerisms, but rocking a longer hairstyle and handsomely tailored three-piece suit.

Blanc arrives at a Catholic church in upstate New York to investigate the sensational murder of its presiding priest, Monsignor Jefferson Wicks, a ferocious clerical alpha male played by Josh Brolin, thundering his reactionary views from the pulpit. (That “Monsignor” title can only be bestowed by the pope incidentally: presumably Benedict XVI or John Paul II, not milksop liberals like Francis or Leo XIV.) And prime suspect is the sweet-natured, thoughtful junior priest Father Jud Duplenticy, amusingly played by Josh O’Connor, who was upset by the Monsignor’s heartless attitudes and was caught on video threatening to cut him out of the church like a cancer. Atheist Blanc faces off with the young priest, a worldview culture-clash which leads to an extraordinary encounter with the Resurrection itself.

Published: November 26, 2025, 7:00 am

‘Drone operators are hunted. You feel it from your first day’: the female pilots on Ukraine’s frontline

As casualties mount, recruitment is expanding. Three women talk about why they signed up for a brutal combat environment

Women have been involved in Ukraine’s drone operations since the early months of the full-scale invasion, but as shortages in the military increase their presence has grown, particularly in FPV (first-person-view) attack units.

Casualty figures are not disclosed but widely understood to be high, and Ukraine is becoming reliant on civilians to fill roles that once belonged to trained military personnel. A short but intensive 15-day course is given to a trainee operator for frontline deployment, a turnaround that reflects the urgent need.

Indoor and outdoor training courses set up for trainee pilots at a drone school

Published: November 26, 2025, 5:00 am

US justice department memo about boat strikes diverges from Trump narrative

Exclusive: Officials frame strikes as self-defense against violence, without naming aggressor, while Trump claims they’re to stop US overdose deaths

The Trump administration is framing its boat strikes against drug cartels in the Caribbean in part as a collective self-defense effort on behalf of US allies in the region, according to three people directly familiar with the administration’s internal legal argument.

The legal analysis rests on a premise – for which there is no immediate public evidence – that the cartels are waging armed violence against the security forces of allies like Mexico, and that the violence is financed by cocaine shipments.

Published: November 25, 2025, 11:45 pm

Trump envoy Witkoff reportedly advised Kremlin official on Ukraine peace deal

Steve Witkoff spoke to Yuri Ushakov on territorial control and suggested congratulating Donald Trump and framing talks more optimistically, audio recording suggests

Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff told a senior Kremlin official last month that achieving peace in Ukraine would require Russia gaining control of Donetsk and potentially a separate territorial exchange, according to a recording of their conversation obtained by Bloomberg.

In the 14 October phone call with Yuri Ushakov, the top foreign policy aide to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, Witkoff said he believed the land concessions were necessary all while advising Ushakov to congratulate Trump and frame discussions more optimistically.

Published: November 26, 2025, 6:38 am

Trump may have inadvertently issued mass pardon for 2020 voter fraud, experts say

Pardons of Giuliani and others who took part in fake elector scheme were largely symbolic, but could have a big effect

Donald Trump may have inadvertently pardoned any citizen who committed voter fraud in 2020 when he granted a pardon to Rudy Giuliani and other allies for their efforts to overturn the election, legal experts say.

The pardons of Giuliani and others who participated in the fake elector scheme earlier this month were largely symbolic since the federal government dismissed its criminal cases once Trump was elected. Many of those pardoned have faced criminal charges at the state level.

Published: November 25, 2025, 8:50 pm

Pete Hegseth orders US navy to investigate Mark Kelly’s comments

Defense secretary escalates attacks by Trump administration on Arizona senator by ordering review

The US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, escalated attacks by Trump administration chiefs on Arizona senator Mark Kelly on Tuesday by ordering the secretary of the US navy to investigate “potentially unlawful comments” made by Kelly in a social media video with other lawmakers.

Hegseth’s order came in the form of a memorandum to John Phelan asking the Navy secretary to review Kelly and a group of fellow Democrats’ comments in the video last week that sought to remind serving soldiers and intelligence officers that they have the right to refuse unlawful orders.

Published: November 25, 2025, 11:14 pm

US triples national park fee for non-residents, amid ‘new’ fee for Americans

Interior department, which has defunded conservation organizations, claims fee hike is for conservation

The interior department announced today new “America-first” entrance fees for national parks, commemorative annual passes featuring Donald Trump and “resident-only patriotic fee-free days for 2026” including Trump’s birthday.

Starting next year, entrance fees for international visitors will more than triple.

Published: November 26, 2025, 1:31 am

Virginia Giuffre died in Australia without a valid will – now the legal battles can resume

WA court appoints administrator to oversee estate after Jeffrey Epstein victim’s lawyer and housekeeper contest Giuffre’s sons being granted authority

An interim administrator has been appointed to oversee the estate of Virginia Giuffre after she died without a valid will, meaning multiple lawsuits that had been on hold can now resume.

Giuffre, 41, died on a small Western Australian farm, 80km north of Perth, in April.

Published: November 26, 2025, 3:17 am

‘Living an American nightmare’: LA hearing details lasting trauma of ICE raids

Southern California residents shared disastrous effects of Trump’s immigration crackdown at a congressional hearing

The Trump administration’s ICE raids across southern California have had disastrous effects on the region’s immigrants and swept up US citizens in the process, community leaders and residents said at a congressional hearing in Los Angeles on Monday.

Andrea Velez, an American arrested by US immigration officials over the summer, described how she was accosted by masked agents while on her way to work. She said she was charged with assaulting an officer and held for two days in a federal detention center, where detainees had to pay for a cup in order to have water. The charges against her were ultimately dismissed due to what her attorney described as a lack of evidence.

Published: November 25, 2025, 8:15 pm

Previously unknown Renoir painting sells for 1.8m euros at Paris auction

The oil painting depicting the artist’s son Jean had never been exhibited or sold before.

A previously unknown work by French impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir depicting his son Jean sold for €1.8m ($2.08m) at a Paris auction, according to the auction house.

The oil painting – L’enfant et ses jouets – Gabrielle et le fils de l’artiste, Jean (The Child and His Toys – Gabrielle and the son’s artist, Jean) – had never been exhibited or sold before.

Published: November 26, 2025, 5:58 am

‘Queen of the Zoo’: Gramma, tortoise who lived through two world wars, dies aged 141

Gramma came to San Diego Zoo from Bronx Zoo in 1928 or 1931 and lived through 20 US presidents

After more than a century of munching on her favorite foods of romaine lettuce and cactus fruit, beloved Galapagos tortoise Gramma, the oldest resident of the San Diego Zoo, has died.

Gramma was born in her native habitat and was estimated to be about 141 years old, zoo officials said. She died on 20 November.

Published: November 25, 2025, 4:00 pm

Trump news at a glance: Pete Hegseth increases administration’s attacks on senator Mark Kelly

Trump’s defense secretary orders US Navy secretary to investigate ‘potentially unlawful comments’ made by Kelly – key US politics stories from 25 November 2025

The US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, escalated attacks by Trump administration chiefs on Arizona senator Mark Kelly on Tuesday by ordering the secretary of the US navy to investigate “potentially unlawful comments” made by Kelly in a social media video with other lawmakers.

Hegseth’s order came in the form of a memorandum to John Phelan asking the Navy secretary to review Kelly and a group of fellow Democrats’ comments in the video last week that sought to remind serving soldiers and intelligence officers that they have the right to refuse unlawful orders.

Published: November 26, 2025, 12:44 am

Gobble-degook: Trump talks turkey and trashes another presidential tradition

The US president made jokes at the annual turkey pardoning ceremony. It went as well as you would expect

Don’t give up the day job. On Tuesday, Donald Trump came to the annual Thanksgiving turkey pardoning ceremony at the White House ready to serve up some political satire. It went about as well as you would expect.

Like a startled turkey flapping in zigzags, the US president’s speech ricocheted bafflingly from topic to topic. He told jokes in the worst possible taste and watched them arc through the Rose Garden sky before landing with a thud. And on a day intended for charity and good cheer, he described a state governor as “a big, fat slob”.

Published: November 25, 2025, 9:36 pm

Judge orders Trump administration to provide bond hearings to detained migrants

District judge in California says detainees who were already living in the US are legally entitled to a bond hearing

A federal judge has ruled that Donald Trump’s administration cannot impose mandatory detention on thousands of migrants held by US immigration authorities without first giving them an opportunity to seek release on bond.

US district judge Sunshine Sykes in Riverside, California, certified a nationwide class of individuals who were already living in the United States when they were detained and are legally entitled to a hearing to determine whether they can be released on bond while their deportation cases proceed.

Published: November 25, 2025, 11:54 pm

Louisiana official who called Covid-19 vaccines ‘dangerous’ given key CDC post

Ralph Abraham appointed deputy director as RFK Jr continues to reshape US federal health leadership

Ralph Abraham, a top Louisiana health official who stopped promoting mass vaccination policies and once described Covid-19 vaccines as “dangerous”, has been appointed deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), it was revealed on Tuesday.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has not formally announced Abraham’s appointment, but the center’s internal database now lists Abraham as the federal agency’s principal deputy director, effective this week. Abraham’s appointment was confirmed to the Washington Post by an HHS spokesperson.

Published: November 25, 2025, 9:35 pm

JD Vance exploited a brawl to paint Cincinnati as crime-ridden. The fallout has divided the city

National spotlight, after video of violent fight went viral, has led residents to question just how safe their city is or isn’t – and who is responsible for sparking the debate

It took only a few days for footage of a violent brawl in downtown Cincinnati in July to catch the attention of some of the country’s most high-profile figures.

The fight, which saw a white woman punched in the face from behind by an African American man, among other incidents, took place when about 150,000 people were attending events in the city’s urban core.

Published: November 25, 2025, 2:00 pm

US, Russia and Saudi Arabia create axis of obstruction as Cop30 sputters out

Trump puts US in unflattering company as lack of representative reveals disdain for climate progress

More than two decades ago, the US railed against the “axis of evil”. Now, after international climate talks spluttered to a meagre conclusion, the US finds itself grouped with unflattering company – an “axis of obstruction” that has stymied progress on the climate crisis.

Donald Trump’s administration opted to not send anyone to the UN climate summit in Brazil that culminated over the weekend – a first for the US in 30 years of these annual gatherings and another representation of the president’s disdain for the climate crisis, which he has called a “hoax” and a “con job”.

Published: November 25, 2025, 11:00 am

‘It is a dream come true!’ Meet Britain’s bus driver of the year – and six other unsung heroes

From the top lollipop person to the most dedicated convenience store managers, we celebrate the winners of the year’s most unusual accolades

Michael Leech, from Sowerby Bridge, West Yorkshire, has been named the UK bus driver of the year

Published: November 26, 2025, 5:00 am

28 of the best gifts for US kids five to eight, picked by kids themselves

You knew about Labubus and Legos, but did you know about Squishmallows, Hatchimals, and Wild Kratts? We’ll let the kids explain

• The 47 best gift ideas for US tweens in 2025 – picked by actual tweens

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

Whether you’re shopping for a home cook who has everything or the fussy gadget collector in your life, holiday shopping can be stressful. And kids five through eight are particularly hard to read. What won’t get banished to the bottom of their toy box? Is a Labubu still trendy?

We went straight to the source and asked 15 children ages five through eight what gifts they hope to find under their tree this year. From Lego sets for budding builders to a bass guitar for the emerging musician, you’ll find something for every type of kid in your life.

Published: November 25, 2025, 8:14 pm

A moment that changed me: I adopted a koala – and I remembered something important about myself

As I watched the news about Australia’s devastating bushfires in 2020 I felt compelled to help. It was the start of a new relationship with nature, and a reminder of my childhood joie de vivre

As hookup sites go, it was in another league. I was looking for a different kind of soulmate and I was spoilt for choice. Would it be Floyd, “a stylish poser and a winner of hearts”? Or Bobby, “who loves cuddling and is a bit of a showoff”? Or could it be the “beautiful and incredibly sweet Morris with a gentle nature”? One stood out. Not only was he “very affectionate” but he was also “a bit of a troublemaker – always exploring and often found sitting on the rocks”. Just what I was looking for; I swiped right. That’s how I met Jarrah. My koala.

A month before, in 2020, I’d seen a newsflash about the bushfires in Australia. The effect on the continent’s wildlife was devastating. An estimated 61,000 koalas had been killed or injured among 143 million other native mammals. There were two things I felt I could do from the UK: one was to make koala mittens to protect their burnt paws (following a pattern I found online); and two, I could adopt a koala and send monthly donations to protect them in the wild. So I joined the Australian Koala Foundation, which is dedicated to the marsupials’ survival.

Published: November 26, 2025, 6:55 am

‘A fire, a dog, and the starry sky’: the teens overcoming phone-addiction through Arctic pursuits

A new documentary from the makers of Jesus Camp follows the students enrolled at one of Norway’s 85 ‘folk high schools’. Can sledding and survival skills cure their social media-induced anxiety?

Nineteen-year-old Hege is stricken by all the common anxieties of her generation. She spends too much time scrolling through socials on her phone, and as a result she is obsessed with how other people perceive her, and highly stressed when it comes to interacting with real humans in the flesh. “I think a lot about what people think about me,” she says. “You get tired of it.”

The young adult from Sandnes in the south-west of Norway is one of the three teenage protagonists of Folktales, a new documentary that proposes a refreshingly simple remedy for zoomer angst: “Give yourself a fire, a dog, and the starry sky above you.”

Published: November 25, 2025, 4:19 pm

‘I love my country. I don’t want to leave’: readers reflect on the exodus from New Zealand

As people continue to move away in record numbers, readers share their reasons for leaving and contemplate life in New Zealand

In the past year, tens of thousands of New Zealanders have left the country, surpassing the last spike in 2012 and raising fears of a “hollowing out” of mid-career workers. Guardian readers share their experiences on why they left – or are thinking of moving out of New Zealand.

Published: November 26, 2025, 3:04 am

When Israel breaks international law, what does Trump’s US do? Sanction the judges | Owen Jones

Three ICC judges have been put on a list with terrorists after approving an arrest warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu. This is the charade of the ‘rules-based order’

The fate of one French judge is a case study in the west’s long unravelling. Nicolas Guillou cannot shop online. When he used Expedia to book a hotel in his own country, the reservation was cancelled within hours. He is “blacklisted by much of the world’s banking system”, unable to use most bank cards.

Guillou, you see, has been sanctioned by the United States, putting him on a 15,000-strong list alongside al-Qaida terrorists, drug cartels and Vladimir Putin. Why? Because alongside two other judges of the international criminal court pre-trial chamber I, he approved arrest warrants for the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, his former defence minister, Yoav Gallant, and Mohammed Deif, the former commander of Hamas’s military wing. Guillou and his colleagues had “actively engaged in the ICC’s illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America or our close ally, Israel”, the US claimed when imposing the sanctions in June. All are now barred from entering the US – but that is the least of the consequences.

Owen Jones is a Guardian columnist

Published: November 26, 2025, 8:34 am

‘We’re a bit jealous of Kneecap’: how Europe’s minority tongues are facing the digital future | Stephen Burgen

What does it mean to lose a language? And what does it take to save it? Those were the big questions being asked in Barcelona recently

There’s an Irish saying, tír gan teanga, tír gan anam: a country without a language is a country without a soul. Representatives of some of Europe’s estimated 60 minority languages – or minoritised, as they define them – met in Barcelona recently to discuss what it means to lose a language, and what it takes to save it.

Language diversity is akin to biodiversity, an indicator of social wellbeing, but some of Europe’s languages are falling into disuse. Breton, for example, is dying out because its speakers are dying, and keeping languages alive among young people is challenging in an increasingly monolingual digital world.

Stephen Burgen is a freelance writer who reports on Spain

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: November 26, 2025, 5:00 am

The Comey and James dismissals are a reminder of Trump’s lawlessness | Austin Sarat

A judge tossed indictments against two of the president’s political enemies, standing against politicized prosecutions

Monday brought good news for two of Donald Trump’s most hated enemies: the former FBI director James Comey, and the New York state attorney general, Letitia James. A federal judge dismissed the sham indictments the administration had obtained against them.

Judge Cameron McGowan Currie reminded the president and his attorney general of the great lessons of a society governed by the rule of law: how things are done matters as much as what is done. Without fair procedures, no one can be safe from the arbitrary exercise of government power.

Published: November 25, 2025, 1:00 pm

Is the Democratic party embracing Bernie Sanders-style politics? | Dustin Guastella

Maybe. Let’s hope it is not too late for Democrats to win back the working class and Washington

Since the Democrats’ sweeping victories on 4 November, a strange thing has happened among the party factions: a semblance of unity has emerged.

At first, “affordability” became the slogan of rapprochement. Moderates, populists and socialists agreed Democrats must campaign around the cost-of-living crisis and hang the broken economy around Donald Trump’s neck.

Published: November 25, 2025, 11:00 am

What can we learn from RFK's 'erotic poetry'? That Americans need to get better at enjoying a scandal | Marina Hyde

The US health secretary’s ‘digital affair’ with Olivia Nuzzi doesn’t need sombre analysis. Take it from this Brit: sometimes laughter is the only option

Literally nothing on this earth takes itself as seriously as American journalism. There are rogue-state dictators it’s more permissible to laugh at than the endlessly hilarious pretensions of newsmen and newswomen in the United States. The crucial difference between the British press and US press is that at least we in the British press know we’re in the gutter. The Americans have always imagined – and so loudly – that they are involved in some kind of higher calling. Guys, I love you and stuff, but get over it, because you’re missing one of the great jokes of the century. Yourselves.

I don’t deny that everything’s bigger in America. Our former health secretary had a knee-trembler up against his office door in the pandemic; their current one apparently wrote felching … poetry, is it … felching poetry? … to a superstar journalist who was worrying about his brainworm, yet the story is being written up like it’s Dante, instead of X-rated Italian brainrot.

Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist

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: November 25, 2025, 12:59 pm

Estêvão wonder goal lights up Chelsea’s statement win over 10-man Barcelona

There cannot have been many moments during Lamine Yamal’s short, golden career when the Barcelona winger has had to let another wonderkid dominate the stage. The accolades have come his way but it was different at Stamford Bridge.

Lamine Yamal was barely given a kick by Marc Cucurella, who delighted in neutralising his international teammate, and was unable to do anything to make his first meeting with Estêvão Willian live up to expectations.

Published: November 25, 2025, 10:04 pm

Cowboys’ Marshawn Kneeland died after police believed they were pursuing stolen car

• Defensive end died this month at age of 24

• Player’s car reached speeds of more than 145 mph

Body and dash cam footage from law enforcement officials have charted the events leading up to the death of Dallas Cowboys player Marshawn Kneeland earlier this month.

The 24-year-old was found dead in the early morning of 6 November, hours after being pursued by officers who had attempted a traffic stop in suburban Dallas. Police say Kneeland took his own life.

In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org

Published: November 25, 2025, 4:38 am

The NBA’s dress code was seen as policing Black culture. Instead it inspired a fashion revolution

Twenty years after the league introduced its controversial policy, many players see it as helping them develop self-expression

Lonzo Ball froze in confusion. The question – “What do you think about the NBA dress code?” – hung in the air for a second before he cracked a sheepish grin.

“There’s a dress code?” he said, smiling.

Published: November 25, 2025, 10:00 am

49ers’ Jennings says he threw punch at Panthers’ Moehrig after ‘cheap shot’ to groin

• Players scuffled after end of Monday night’s game

• Moehrig suspended for one game over actions

• Game report: McCaffrey stars against former team

San Francisco receiver Jauan Jennings said he threw a punch at Tre’Von Moehrig at the end of Monday night’s game after a “cheap shot” from the Carolina safety.

Television cameras caught Moehrig delivering a punch to Jennings’ groin late in the 49ers’ 20-9 victory. Jennings did not immediately retaliate but once the game was over he approached Moehrig and hit him in the helmet before giving him a shove. Jennings then needed to be held back as the teams left the field.

Published: November 25, 2025, 12:51 pm

World Cup 2026 draw to adopt tennis-style system for the four top seeds

• Spain, Argentina, France, England will be top seeds

• Fifa says measure will ‘ensure competitive balance’

The four highest-placed teams in Fifa’s rankings have had a pathway cleared to meet in the World Cup semi-finals after tennis-style seeding measures were introduced in the name of “ensuring competitive balance”.

Spain, Argentina, France and England – the top four in descending order – are to be split into different brackets in the 48-team finals tournament, with the aim of preventing Spain from facing Argentina, or England from playing France, before a possible final.

Published: November 25, 2025, 5:26 pm

Could the ‘notch’ be key to understanding ACL injuries in women’s football?

Research is on ‘an upward curve’ and the next five years could be vital in trying to limit cruciate ruptures

Players who compete in the top two levels of German women’s football are four times more likely to rupture their anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) than their male counterparts, according to the German Football Association (DFB).

The governing body has funded a central injury and illness registry in women’s football for three years. So far in the Frauen Bundesliga, Germany’s top flight, there have been a reported seven ACL injuries 10 games into the current campaign. In the men’s Bundesliga, meanwhile, there have been three such injuries.

Published: November 25, 2025, 11:56 am

Cristiano Ronaldo clear to start World Cup after Fifa suspends two games of his ban

• Portugal forward was sent off against Republic of Ireland

• He missed Armenia game so is free to play at tournament

Cristiano Ronaldo has been cleared to play in the opening matches of Portugal’s World Cup campaign after he was handed a suspended sentence for his red card against the Republic of Ireland.

The forward, who was a guest of president Donald Trump in the White House last week, had a customary three-match ban for violent conduct commuted by Fifa’s disciplinary committee on Tuesday to a one-game ban, with two further matches suspended under a year’s probation.

Published: November 25, 2025, 5:04 pm

Tennis burnout on the rise as grind of long season brings stars to their knees

Players are being worn down by a cluttered calendar and lack of unity over their welfare from governing bodies

Elina Svitolina simply could not go on. Her hopeful start to the 2025 season had given way to despair as the mental and emotional strain of constant competition, travelling and stress left its mark. The 31-year-old understood that competing would only make things worse and, in September, Svitolina decided to prematurely end her season, citing burnout.

The world No 14 is not alone in feeling suffocated by her sport. This has been another year filled with incredible performances and gripping matches, but the past 11 months have also been defined by the physical and mental ailments endured by many of the sport’s stars.

Published: November 25, 2025, 8:00 am

Arsenal v Bayern offers a stark reminder of the shift in football’s power balance | Sean Ingle

Ten years ago Arsenal were thrashed by the Bavarian giants – now Mikel Arteta’s men are rated the best side in Europe

November 2015. The Allianz Arena, Munich. A decade ago, yet a lifetime away for Arsenal in the Champions League.

That night Arsène Wenger’s team were so shredded in a 5-1 defeat by Bayern Munich that my Guardian colleague David Hytner likened them to “the chicken feed from the lower reaches of the Bundesliga that Bayern routinely gobble up”. It was Arsenal’s joint‑worst result in Europe. And to rub it in, Bayern repeated the trick the following season. Twice: 5-1 at home, then 5-1 at the Emirates Stadium.

Published: November 25, 2025, 8:00 am

Jair Bolsonaro ordered to start 27-year prison term for plotting Brazil coup

Ex-president to start serving term in 12 sq metre bedroom in police base in Brasília after time for appeals elapses

Brazil’s former president, Jair Bolsonaro, has been ordered to start serving his 27-year sentence in a 12 sq metre bedroom in a police base in the capital, Brasília, after his conviction for plotting a coup.

The far-right populist, 70, who governed Latin America’s largest democracy from 2019 until 2022, was handed the punishment in September after the supreme court found him guilty of leading a criminal conspiracy to stop his leftwing rival, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, taking power.

Published: November 25, 2025, 7:08 pm

Taiwan plans extra $40bn in defence spending to counter China’s ‘intensifying’ threats

President Lai Ching-te declared there was ‘no room for compromise on national security’ in face of escalating harassment and espionage

Beijing’s threats to Taiwan are “intensifying” and its preparations to invade are speeding up, Taiwan’s government has said while announcing a $40bn special defence budget and a swathe of measures to counter Chinese attacks.

The Taiwan president, Lai Ching-te, said there was “no room for compromise on national security”, and he was committed to boosting Taiwan’s defences in conjunction with US support.

Published: November 26, 2025, 6:30 am

Nato scrambles jets as Russian drones make deepest incursion into Romania

Fighter jets track two uncrewed aircraft in first daytime breach of Romanian airspace since full-scale Ukraine war

Nato jets were scrambled to track two Russian drones that crossed into Romania on Tuesday in the deepest and first daytime incursion into the country’s airspace since the start of the full-scale war in Ukraine.

German Typhoon and Romanian F-16 fighter jets took off in pairs to follow the uncrewed aircraft. The first flew back into Ukrainian airspace, but the second was later found downed in Puieşti, about 70 miles from Ukraine.

Published: November 25, 2025, 3:40 pm

Study claims to provide first direct evidence of dark matter

Astrophysicist Prof Tomonori Totani says research could be crucial breakthrough in search for elusive substance

Nearly a century ago, scientists proposed that a mysterious invisible substance they named dark matter clumped around galaxies and formed a cosmic web across the universe.

What dark matter is made from, and whether it is even real, are still open questions, but according to a study, the first direct evidence of the substance may finally have been glimpsed.

Published: November 25, 2025, 11:00 pm

Rebuilding ‘human-made abyss’ in Gaza will cost at least $70bn, UN says

Report says Israel’s operations ‘significantly undermined every pillar of survival’ and reduced the economy by 87%

Israel’s war in Gaza has created a “human-made abyss”, and reconstruction is likely to cost more than $70bn (£53bn) over several decades, the United Nations has said.

The UN’s trade and development agency (Unctad) said in a report that Israel’s military operations had “significantly undermined every pillar of survival” and that the entire population of 2.3 million people faced “extreme, multidimensional impoverishment”.

Published: November 25, 2025, 3:04 pm

‘The narwhals stop calling’: how the noise from ships is silencing wildlife in the Arctic

Evidence that the whales and other marine animals are particularly vulnerable to sound is driving calls for quieter vessels

The delicate clicks and whistles of narwhals carry through Tasiujaq, locally known as Eclipse Sound, at the eastern Arctic entrance of the Northwest Passage. A hydrophone in this shipping corridor off Baffin Island, Nunavut, captures their calls as the tusked whales navigate their autumn migration route to northern Baffin Bay.

But as the Nordic Odyssey, a 225-metre ice-class bulk carrier servicing the nearby iron ore mine, approaches, its low engine rumble gives way to a wall of sound created by millions of collapsing bubbles from its propeller. The narwhals’ acoustic signals, evolved for one of Earth’s quietest environments, fall silent.

Published: November 25, 2025, 10:00 am

‘It fully changed my life!’ How young rewilders transformed a farm – and began a movement

At Maple Farm, nature is returning in droves: nightingales, grass snakes, slowworms, bats and insects. All due to the vision of a group determined to accelerate its recovery

The manically melodic song of the nightingale is a rare sound in Britain these days, but not at Maple Farm. Four years ago, a single bird could be heard at this secluded spot in rural Surrey; this summer, they were everywhere. “We were hearing them calling all night, from five different territories,” says Meg Cookson, lead ecologist for the Youngwilders, pointing to the woodland around us. A group of Youngwilders were camping out at the site, but the birds were so loud, “we couldn’t sleep all night,” says Layla Mapemba, the group’s engagement lead. “We were all knackered the next day, but it was so cool.” An expert from the Surrey Wildlife Trust came to help them net and ring one of the nightingales the next morning, Cookson recalls: “He’d never held a nightingale in his hands before. He was crying.”

Rewilding is by definition a slow business, but here at Maple Farm, after just four years, the results are already visible, and audible. The farm used to be a retirement home for horses. Now it’s a showpiece for the Youngwilders’ mission: to accelerate nature recovery, in one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world, and to connect young people (18-30-year-olds) with a natural world they are often excluded from, and a climate crisis they are often powerless to prevent. Global heating continues, deforestation destroys natural habitats, and another Cop summit draws to a disappointing conclusion in Brazil – so who could blame young people for wanting to take matters into their own hands?

Published: November 25, 2025, 5:00 am

‘Fossil fuel giants finally in the crosshairs’: Cop30 avoids total failure with last-ditch deal

It took some oblique wording, but Saudi Arabia made a last-minute decision to sign deal that marks departure for Cop

Dawn was breaking over the Amazonian city of Belém on Saturday morning, but in the windowless conference room it could have been day or night. They had been stuck there for more than 12 hours, dozens of ministers representing 17 groups of countries, from the poorest on the planet to the richest, urged by the Brazilian hosts to accept a settlement cooked up the day before.

Tempers were short, the air thick as the sweaty and exhausted delegates faced up to reality: there would not be a deal here in Brazil. The 30th UN climate conference would end in abject failure.

Published: November 25, 2025, 5:00 am

Officials find source of leak in Olympic pipeline two weeks after first report

Fuel from the pipeline, operated by BP, was first spotted in a ditch near an Everett, Washington, blueberry farm

Investigators have identified the source of a leak in the Olympic pipeline two weeks after fuel was first spotted in a ditch near an Everett, Washington, blueberry farm.

Oil and gas company BP, the operator of the pipeline, shared in a statement that it had determined the leak occurred in a 20in pipeline and not a neighboring 16in pipeline, allowing that pipeline to be restarted.

Published: November 25, 2025, 10:09 pm

Rush Hour 4 in the works at Paramount after reports of Trump intervening

Brett Ratner, accused of sexual misconduct by several women, will bring his hit franchise back to the big screen

Rush Hour 4 is reportedly a go at Paramount – after Donald Trump intervened on behalf of the movie.

The studio will now release the next sequel by Brett Ratner, the director, who had retreated from Hollywood after numerous allegations of sexual misconduct during the #MeToo movement.

Published: November 25, 2025, 6:24 pm

Campbell’s Soup executive called its products food for ‘poor people’, lawsuit alleges

Executive Martin Bally put on leave after alleged remarks were purportedly recorded and attributed to him in lawsuit

A Campbell’s Soup Company executive has been put on temporary leave after he allegedly referred to the firm’s offerings as “shit for fucking poor people” – a remark purportedly caught on an audio recording and attributed to him in a former employee’s wrongful termination lawsuit.

The lawsuit was filed last Thursday in Wayne county circuit court in Michigan by Robert Garza, who had joined Campbell’s New Jersey headquarters remotely in September 2024 as a security analyst. Garza alleges he was fired in January after he raised concerns about comments made by Martin Bally, Campbell’s vice-president of information technology – including referring to one of the company’s ingredients as “bioengineered meat” while going off on a racist tirade.

Published: November 25, 2025, 6:47 pm

Food influencer known as ‘dine-and-dash diva’ arrested in Brooklyn

Pei Chung allegedly ate at multiple fancy restaurants around New York City and then skipped out on paying

A would-be food influencer known online as the “dine-and-dash diva” has been jailed in Brooklyn, New York, after multiple previous arrests for allegedly skipping out on the bill at high-end restaurants.

Pei Chung, 34, is said to have developed a habit of going to fancy restaurants around New York City, ordering extensively off the menu – and then trying to get out of paying.

Published: November 25, 2025, 2:31 pm

Nigerian schoolgirls rescued after mass abduction in Kebbi

The president of Nigeria, Bola Tinubu, said all 24 of the girls kidnapped last week had been rescued

All 24 schoolgirls held by assailants after a mass abduction last week from a school in north-western Nigeria have been rescued, the country’s president announced on Tuesday.

A total of 25 girls were abducted on 17 November from the Government Girls Comprehensive secondary school in Kebbi state’s Maga town, but one of them was able to escape the same day, the school’s principal said. The remaining 24 were all saved, according to a statement from the Nigerian president, Bola Tinubu, though no details were released about the rescue.

Published: November 25, 2025, 8:35 pm

Mother who hid children’s bodies in suitcases jailed for life in New Zealand

Hakyung Lee was found guilty of murdering her children and concealing their remains in a storage locker

A mother who murdered her two children and hid their bodies in suitcases stored inside a rented locker has been sentenced to life imprisonment in New Zealand.

Hakyung Lee, a New Zealand citizen originally from South Korea, was found guilty earlier this year of killing her children in a crime that has become known as the “suitcase murders”.

Published: November 25, 2025, 9:58 pm

Three more ex-pupils at school with Nigel Farage reject ‘banter’ claims

Exclusive: Dulwich college contemporaries ‘rubbish’ Reform UK leader’s suggestion alleged racist taunts not intended to hurt

• Don’t believe Nigel Farage’s denials. He targeted me for being Jewish – and it hurt | Peter Ettedgui
  
  

Three more school contemporaries who claim to have witnessed Nigel Farage’s alleged teenage racism have rejected the Reform UK leader’s suggestion that it was “banter”, describing it as targeted, persistent and nasty.

One former pupil, Stefan Benarroch, claimed that people emerging from a Jewish assembly at Dulwich college had been in the sights of Farage and others for taunts while a second, Cyrus Oshidar, described as “rubbish” the claim that the Reform leader did not act with intent to hurt.

Published: November 25, 2025, 8:58 pm

Four more people arrested in connection with Louvre heist

French media say those held include alleged final member of four-person gang who broke into museum

French authorities have arrested four more people in connection with last month’s spectacular heist of an estimated €88m (£77m) worth of crown jewels from the Louvre, the Paris prosecutor has said.

“They are two men aged 38 and 39, and two women aged 31 and 40, all from the Paris region,” Laure Beccuau said. French media said the arrests included the last remaining alleged member of the four-person gang who broke into the museum.

Published: November 25, 2025, 2:42 pm

Frances McDormand on her adult-sized cradle art project: ‘It’s not performative, it’s experiential’

A Shakers-inspired exhibition has united the three-time Oscar winner and conceptual artist Suzanne Bocanegra

A small-town police chief of plainspoken decency in Fargo. A working-class mother driven to seek justice for her daughter in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. A modest, resilient woman finding dignity in life on the road in Nomadland.

The actor Frances McDormand’s three Oscar-winning performances display rare versatility but have empathy at their core. But qualities were on display last week when she joined the conceptual artist Suzanne Bocanegra at the opening of an exhibition featuring adult-sized cradles.

Published: November 25, 2025, 3:41 pm

‘A nucleus of a community’: the five-hour stage play about Dungeons & Dragons

In Initiative, a group of young people in the early 2000s finds themselves via the role-playing game, the latest example of its undying popularity

It sounds like a big ask, the idea of presenting an audience with a five-hour play. (Or even a four-and-a-half-hour play with several intermissions.) Yet Initiative, a new off-Broadway coming-of-age epic of sorts, flies right by, as emotionally immersive as the Dungeons & Dragons games that enrapture most of its seven teenage characters. Playwright Else Went doesn’t seem worried about the show’s length. “It was very much part of the intent,” they said. (Went is non-binary and uses they/she pronouns.) “When you sit in the theater for long enough – without feeling like the thing that you’re watching is failing you – there’s a certain point that you cross as an audience member, where you enter a new type of commitment. And it is in that state that new things can happen, dramatically.”

Initiative certainly does new things with material that could have been familiar. It arrives, after a lengthy workshop period, at a time when Dungeons & Dragons seems resurgent in visibility, thanks in part to the Netflix smash-hit Stranger Things, which uses D&D players (and game-derived terminology) in its own 80s-set fantasy-adventure-horror story. (There’s even a Stranger Things prequel play on Broadway.) Initiative defies some of the cultural cliches about the game, starting with its setting; rather than a self-consciously retro 80s, it takes place during the early years of the millennium, following its characters between 2000 and 2004. More subtly but equally bold, the show doesn’t begin with a tight-knit nerd crew role-playing together before life pulls them in separate directions, a standard narrative for these types of stories. In fact, no one in the show plays the game until late in the first of three 90-minute acts, when Riley (Greg Cuellar) acts as Dungeon Master for his younger friends Em (Christopher Dylan White), Tony (Jamie Sanders), and Kendall (Andrea Lopez Alvarez). Eventually, they’re joined by Riley’s best friend Clara (Olivia Rose Barresi), who finds the game to be an unexpected escape from her self-applied academic pressure, romantic/sexual traumas and the horrors of a post-9/11 United States.

Published: November 25, 2025, 10:02 am

Jingle Bell Heist review – Netflix comedy is slight cut above standard festive filler

A game cast and some decent twists help to elevate this passably entertaining London-set Christmas offering about a department store robbery

We’re a few weeks into the annual Netflix Christmas dump and standards have already fallen below freezing. In both Alicia Silverstone’s A Merry Little Ex-Mas and Minka Kelly’s Champagne Problems, motions were lethargically, and cheaply, gone through without any seasonal sparkle added, a low bar once again set for the next month and change.

So while there’s nothing all that remarkable about the streamer’s latest festive effort, crime caper turned romcom Jingle Bell Heist, there’s just about enough to give it an edge over its more anemic peers. Rather than being set in Snowflakeville or some other absurdly named small town in Middle America (while being clearly filmed in Canada), it’s shot on location in London during Christmas 2023 (directed by Mike Flanagan’s long-time cinematographer Michael Fimognari). The city does a great deal of heavy-lifting with every pub, caff and high street helping to conjure up a real sense of place usually absent in such territory (it also means no need for increasingly distracting fake CG snow). There are roles for British comedy stars like Peter Serafinowicz and Amandaland’s wonderful Lucy Punch and the soundtrack opts for alternative holiday songs from Low and Run-DMC over yet another easily affordable cover of All I Want for Christmas is You. There’s also a plot that isn’t quite as rote as we’re used to with no career-minded woman waiting to be tamed by a family-craving hunk. These might not sound like major, applause-worthy diversions but in the hopelessly generic, and at times unforgivably lazy, world of Netflix Christmas fodder, it’s not nothing.

Published: November 26, 2025, 8:01 am

From Years and Years to Black Mirror: the best TV prophecies for how AI will end us all

Will AI take all our jobs? Prevent all crimes from being committed? Or finally develop skills beyond that of a trainee copywriter? Here are television’s finest depictions of our imminent future…

There aren’t many television shows yet about how AI affects our daily lives. After all, there isn’t much dramatic potential in shows about creatively flaccid people using ChatGPT to write woeful little Facebook updates. But that is not to say we haven’t come close.

For years, fiction about AI tended to be exclusively about killer robots, but some shows have taken a more nuanced look at how AI will shape our lives over the next few years. Here are the best of them.

Published: November 25, 2025, 4:25 pm

Moving: an elegant portrait of 90s Japan through tweenage eyes

In this hypnotic, meditative film, a family’s breakdown sets a 12-year-old girl’s coming-of-age in motion as she constructs various ploys to reverse her parents’ separation

During a science class, 12-year-old Renko Urushiba (Tomoko Tabata) is confronted by her classmates for befriending Tachibana (Nagiko Tono), a girl from Tokyo who is shunned for having divorced parents. Refusing to give up her friendship, Renko hurls a laboratory burner on to her desk, setting it ablaze and throwing the class into chaos. Unbeknown to most of her friends, Renko’s parents are separated, too.

Equal parts perceptive and mischievous, little Renko is the protagonist of 1993’s Moving, the acclaimed 10th feature by the Japanese auteur Shinji Sōmai. Attuned to the sensibilities of childhood, Moving delicately traces the uncertainties that line the thorny path towards adolescence. With Sōmai’s signature long takes and elaborate camera movements, the film tries to keep up with Renko’s hurried footsteps as she dashes between her discordant parents.

Published: November 25, 2025, 2:00 pm

Service by John Tottenham review – comic confessions of a grumpy bookseller

Working in a bookshop while failing to write a novel, the narrator admits to being a ‘living cliche’ in this bitter black comedy

“I had become a living cliche: the cantankerous bookseller,” the narrator declares a third of the way through John Tottenham’s debut novel. “No book or movie that included a scene set in a bookstore was complete without such a stock ‘character’.” That’s one way to pre-empt criticism, and Sean Hangland is just such a stock figure. Embittered, rude, apathetic, resentful of the success and happiness of others and intellectually snobbish, he’s a 48-year-old aspiring writer who makes ends meet, just about, working in an independent bookshop in a gentrifying part of LA.

He worries about turning 50 having made nothing of his life. He notes, lugubriously, that he barely seems to get any writing done and that – having no gift for plot, characterisation or prose – the novel he claims to be trying to produce will be lousy anyway. He keeps bumping into old friends whose books are being published by hip independent presses or who have acquired nice girlfriends, or both. His teeth are in bad shape.

Published: November 26, 2025, 9:00 am

The School of Night by Karl Ove Knausgård review – can this sprawling epic deliver on its promise?

In the fourth volume of the occult Morning Star cycle, a Faustian pact haunts a misanthropic artist who finds miraculous success

Karl Ove Knausgård’s Morning Star cycle may turn out to be even larger in scope than his six-volume autofictional bestseller, My Struggle. Four books deep, this gargantuan work of supernatural existentialism is an unsettling account of the occult phenomena that attend the appearance in the sky of a bright new star. Mysteries from the first three volumes include: who killed the musicians in the forest? What’s going on with the local wildlife? Why does no one seem to be dying any more? By the end of The School of Night, the most burning question may sound comparatively mundane: who is Kristian Hadeland?

Scattered references appeared in the saga’s first 2,000 pages. Kristian Hadeland was the 67-year-old man buried without mourners by doubting priest Kathrine Reinhardsen in The Morning Star (2021). In The Third Realm (2024), he was the sinister chap hitching a lift with Kathrine’s husband after the unloved man she buried is supposed to have died.

Published: November 25, 2025, 11:09 am

Crick: A Mind in Motion by Matthew Cobb review – the charismatic philanderer who changed science

Genius and arrogance play leading roles in a new biography of the man who helped uncover the structure of DNA

Most people could tell you that Francis Crick, together with James Watson, discovered the double helix structure of DNA, and shaped our understanding of how genes work. Fewer know that Crick also played a key role in modern neuroscience and inspired our continuing efforts to understand the biological basis of consciousness.

Crick once said the two questions that interested him most were “the borderline between the living and the non-living, and the workings of the brain”, questions that were usually discussed in religious or mystical terms but that he believed could be answered by science. In his new biography of the Nobel prize-winning scientist, Matthew Cobb, emeritus professor of zoology at the University of Manchester, does an admirable job of capturing the rare thinker who not only set himself such ambitious goals but made remarkable progress in achieving them, radically remaking two scientific disciplines in the process.

Published: November 25, 2025, 9:00 am

‘An idealized version of LA’: fabled mid-century Stahl house on sale for first time

Home perched in Hollywood Hills, constructed for $37,500 and made famous by Julius Shulman photo, listed for $25m

The Stahl house – a paragon of Los Angeles mid-century modern architectural design – is for sale for the first time in the home’s history.

The cantilevered home, perched in the Hollywood Hills, hit the listings market this week. The asking price: $25m.

Published: November 25, 2025, 12:39 am

Jimmy Cliff’s charisma and fearless creativity expanded the horizons of reggae | Lloyd Bradley

Cliff, who has died aged 81, took every opportunity that he was presented with, and created plenty more himself. It resulted in a career path like no other

• Jimmy Cliff: A life in pictures

When Jimmy Cliff died, reggae and the music world in general lost one of its most accomplished opportunists. The less sympathetic might have called him a chancer, but from the very beginnings there was little he wouldn’t try if he thought it would advance either himself or the music. Over the years I got to know him, both from interviews and sometimes just hanging out, so many of his anecdotes ended with the words: “Well I wasn’t going to say no, was I?” I wasn’t fully joking when I told him it should be his catchphrase.

But that was Jimmy Cliff, a charismatic combination of charm, bravery, humour and an ability to see beyond what was put in front of him. Throughout his career he frequently shifted away from standard reggae industry practice, often expanding the music’s horizons and options.

Published: November 25, 2025, 1:42 pm

Post your questions for Tom Felton

As the Harry Potter actor brings Draco Malfoy to Broadway and is set to star in a Jimmy Carr-penned spoof period drama alongside Damian Lewis, the eternal bad boy will answer your questions

It can’t be easy being best known for always playing the bad guy. After starting out more mildly, as Jim Broadbent and Celia Imrie’s son in The Borrowers and Jodie Foster’s offspring in Anna and the King, Tom Felton was cast as Harry Potter’s nemesis Draco Malfoy when he was 12. In spite of propelling him to worldwide fame, Felton says that it led to a tough time at his real muggle school: “I was walking around with dyed hair and played an evil wizard. It wasn’t cool.”

Post Potter, Felton has mainly continued down the antagonist route, be it abusing the captive apes with his dad Brian Cox in 2011’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes; cheating on the golf course in 2011’s sports drama From the Rough; behaving inappropriately towards Gugu Mbatha-Raw in 2013 period drama Belle; stabbing Hamlet to death in 2018’s Ophelia; or scaring everyone as the bogeyman in 2020’s A Babysitter’s Guide to Monster Hunting. Some may say he had his just deserts when he was sucked into the nothingness in 2012 supernatural The Apparition.

Published: November 25, 2025, 11:54 am

From Byzantine cottages to vulvic stadiums: the brilliance of female architects

A RIBA report says “stark displays of sexism” are driving women from the profession. If we don’t fight this systemic misogyny, we won’t just lose dazzling designs – we’ll have a world only fit for 6ft tall policemen

If one were to think “Brazilian 20th-century modernist genius”, one might alight on Oscar Niemeyer, but see also the Italian émigré Lina Bo Bardi, who developed an Italian-style modernism with a Brazilian accent in her adopted homeland. Her Teatro Oficina, in São Paulo, was named by this paper as the best theatre in the world.

Five hundred miles away is one of my favourite residential buildings, A la Ronde; an eccentric 16-sided home in Exmouth, Devon. It was designed in 1796 by Jane and Mary Parminter (two “spinster” cousins, in the words of the National Trust) and relative John Lowder. The cousins, who were not professionals, had been inspired by their Grand Tour of Europe (an unusual undertaking for women at the time) and, in particular, the Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna, Italy. The critic Lucinda Lambton described the cottage orné with Byzantine inflection as embodying “a magical strangeness that one might dream of only as a child”.

Published: November 25, 2025, 11:41 am

Two-sip martinis – and IV infusion drips: Soho House’s CEO on how wellness replaced hedonism

It used to be all boozy lunches and late-night carousing. Now it’s hyperbaric chambers and longevity chat. Andrew Carnie, CEO of the private club, explains how life and trends have changed since the Covid era

Friday night in the north of England. On the ninth floor of the old Granada Studios, a very chi-chi crowd is drinking tequila and eating crisps. Not Walkers out of the bag, mind, but canapes of individual crisps with creme fraiche and generous dollops of caviar. A young woman – leather shorts, chunky boots, neon lime nails, artfully messy bob – winks at me from the other side of the silver tray. “Ooh, caviar. Very posh for Manchester.”

Soho House’s 48th members’ club has caused quite the stir. Thirty years after Nick Jones opened the first club in Soho, London, the first north of England outpost of the empire is raising eyebrows. An exclusive club, in the city that AJP Taylor described as “the only place in England which escapes our characteristic vice of snobbery”. (The home, after all, of the Guardian.) An open-air rooftop pool, in the climate that fostered the textile industry because the rain created the perfect cool, damp conditions for spinning cotton. Will it work?

Published: November 25, 2025, 10:00 am

Does methylene blue really have wellness benefits or will it just leave you with the blues? | Antiviral

The fabric dye is popular in wellness circles, with a laundry list of claimed benefits – but it also carries serious risks

• Read more in the Antiviral series

A week before he was sworn in as secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services in February, a video of anti-vaccination conspiracy theorist Robert F Kennedy Jr went viral.

In it, Kennedy, who has frequently promoted debunked health claims, is seen squirting inky blue liquid into a drinking glass. The substance was widely speculated to be a dye called methylene blue, though Kennedy has not publicly commented on it.

Published: November 25, 2025, 2:00 pm

Alice Zaslavsky’s kataifi pie with feta, tomatoes and warm oregano honey – recipe

In her quiche-pie hybrid, Alice Zaslavsky chooses kataifi for its exquisite crunch, eggs and feta for the filling, and a herby honey for the finish

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Of all the styles and shapes in the pantheon of pastry, kataifi is the most playful. It loves to be twisted and turned, bathed in butter or oil, baked or fried until glowing with the promise of crispy flakes on your chin, lap and heart as you crunch into its golden, glassy fuzz.

Since they’re often interchangeable doughs, it’s easy to assume that kataifi pastry is simply shredded filo. But rather than being rolled and stretched into paper-thin sheets like filo (or phyllo, depending who you ask) kataifi begins as a light, pourable batter which is streamed through fine nozzles on to a rotating heated plate, where it cooks almost instantly into a cascade of fine vermicelli-like strands, delicate yet strong, like spun silk.

Published: November 25, 2025, 2:00 pm

What’s the secret to great chocolate mousse? | Kitchen aide

For a dessert with just three basic ingredients, mousse-making certainly has its fair share of snags. Our panel of experts unpicks them one by one

I always order chocolate mousse in restaurants, but it never turns out quite right when I make it at home. Help!
Daniel, by email
“Chocolate mousse defies physics,” says Nicola Lamb, author of Sift and the Kitchen Projects newsletter. “It’s got all the flavour of your favourite chocolate, but with an aerated, dissolving texture, which is sort of extraordinary.” The first thing you’ve got to ask yourself, then, is what kind of mousse are you after: “Some people’s dream is rich and dense, while for others it’s light and airy,” Lamb says, which is probably why there are so many ways you can make it.

That said, in most cases you’re usually dealing with some form of melted chocolate folded into whipped eggs (whites, yolks or both), followed by lightly whipped cream. And, with so few ingredients, you need to make them count, Lamb says: “What you’re doing by making chocolate mousse is extending the flavour of the chocolate, so first off always go with a bar you really like.” And, for her, that means 70% dark chocolate.

Got a culinary dilemma? Email feast@theguardian.com

Published: November 25, 2025, 1:00 pm

The dangerous rise of Buddhist extremism: ‘Attaining nirvana can wait’

Still largely viewed as a peaceful philosophy, across much of south-east Asia, the religion has been weaponised to serve nationalist goals

In the summer of 2023, I arrived in Dharamshala, an Indian town celebrated as the home of the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader. The place hadn’t changed much since my last visit almost two decades ago. The roads were still a patchwork of uneven asphalt and dirt, and Tibetan monks in maroon robes filled the streets. Despite the relentless hum of traffic, Dharamshala had a rare stillness. The hills seemed to absorb the noise. Prayer flags flickered in the breeze, each rustle a reminder of something enduring.

But beneath the surface, the Buddhism practised across Asia has shifted. While still widely followed as a peaceful, nonviolent philosophy, it has been weaponised, in some quarters, in the service of nationalism, and in support of governments embracing a global trend toward majoritarianism and autocracy.

Published: November 25, 2025, 5:00 am

Thrill ride: the best of Africa Foto Fair 2025 – in pictures

In 2010, the photographer Aida Muluneh created the Addis Foto Fest in Ethiopia’s capital to showcase talents from Africa and beyond. Since the pandemic, the event has boomed online to include work without borders

Published: November 26, 2025, 7:00 am