The perfect way to beat the slump: how to tackle mid-afternoon energy dips

In the dead of winter, it can be hard to keep your alertness up when it gets darker. Here are a few good habits that will help you stay productive

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It is an all-too-familiar scenario: you reheat a bowl of last night’s noodles for lunch, devour it, then return to your desk and gradually droop over the course of the afternoon, to the point at which you are battling to keep your eyes open. Or perhaps you struggle with energy on waking up; or, after a busy start and strong coffee first thing, you begin to fade mid-morning. Or, like me, after dinner in the winter months, you are completely lethargic.

How common are such peaks and troughs in our energy levels? “If you’re having an active day, then you will naturally get tired because we are human, we’re not machines,” says Dr Linia Patel, a dietitian and nutritionist. “Getting tired at the end of the day, before you go to bed, is perfect. But getting tired at your desk is not great.” Chronic tiredness is something to see a doctor about, says Patel, as it could be a symptom of illness.

Published: January 1, 2026, 4:00 pm

‘Their first instinct was to loot’: how Trump’s acolytes are plundering the Kennedy Center

Sheldon Whitehouse, an ex officio member of the Kennedy Center board, remains undeterred and determined to press on with his investigation

“That’s the tactic they use,” said Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island senator, pondering whether Donald Trump might attach his name to the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. “You float stuff and you float stuff and you float stuff until people get inured to what a stupid or outrageous thing it is that has been floated and then you pull the trigger.”

Whitehouse was sitting in his Senate office and speaking to the Guardian at 11am on Thursday 18 December. Two hours later, his words proved prophetic. Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, announced on X that the Kennedy Center board had “voted unanimously” to rename it the Trump-Kennedy Center.

Published: January 1, 2026, 4:00 pm

How to talk dating like gen Z: 51 (hyperspecific) terms for love, sex and bad behavior

As young people take on a messy dating landscape, they’ve created their own lexicon to match. Here’s like what phrases ‘bird theory’ and ‘monkey branching’ mean

This year marked a decade since the term “ghosting” hit the mainstream. At the time, the idea that someone could abruptly cease communication with a lover without explanation seemed like the peak of indignity. How naive we were. In the 10 years since, finding a partner has only become more confounding – an oftentimes fruitless exercise in humiliation that is increasingly pigeonholed by social media jargon.

Gen Z, a cohort who came of age during a loneliness epidemic, a masculinity crisis, and a coordinated attack on the rights of women and the LGBTQ+ community, faces a far messier landscape than their millennial predecessors could ever imagine. And so their dating glossary has grown longer and more deranged, with phrases like “Shrekking” and “monkey branching” testing the limits of your sanity.

Red flags – Behavioral quirks indicating a potential partner is bad news. Examples include calling their exes crazy, subpar tipping habits, a love of Woody Allen films, a burgeoning DJ career …

Green flags – These quirks validate your decision to pursue a mate. Examples include checking in to make sure you got home safe after a date, low screen time, owning a bed frame …

Beige flags – These usually describe niche, mostly benign quirks. Examples include being an enthusiastic birdwatcher, still carrying around a pen in their purse, paying rent in cash …

Published: January 1, 2026, 11:00 am

I’ve been a New Yorker for 23 years. Today Zohran Mamdani’s swearing-in makes this city a real home | Mona Eltahawy

The new mayor embraces social justice, and rejects hate and nationalism. That’s why we’re so excited to see what he’ll do in office

On a cold Saturday morning, a little over a week before the New York City mayoral election in November, I was at a park in Queens to speak at a fundraiser for Asiyah Women’s Centre, the oldest and largest shelter providing support for American Muslim female victims of domestic violence. Vendors selling everything from chai to embroidered Palestinian handicrafts turned out to support the fundraiser; a DJ blasted music and artists painted children’s faces with the colours of Halloween.

I chose the vendor with the most protein on offer because I lift and squat more than my bodyweight and must meet a daily goal. “Our kebab is one of Zohran’s favourites,” the man at the King of Kebab stand told me, proudly and unprompted, as he piled my plate with meat.

Mona Eltahawy writes the FEMINIST GIANT newsletter. She is the author of The Seven Necessary Sins for Women and Girls and Headscarves and Hymens: Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual Revolution

Published: January 1, 2026, 8:00 am

Doomed lovers, high heels and The Odyssey: films to get excited about in 2026

Margot Robbie busts her corset in Wuthering Heights, the Devil Wears Prada sequel goes fashionably to war, and Christopher Nolan brings us a Greek epic. Plus much more in our pick of the best films coming to UK cinemas this year

• More from the 2026 culture preview

Jessie Buckley may need to hire a carpenter for the silverware-cabinet she is expected to need for her hugely admired performance in the film based on the Maggie O’Farrell novel. She plays Anne (or Agnes) Hathaway, wife of William Shakespeare, grieving the terrible loss of their 11-year-old son, Hamnet, in 1596, which the story imagines to be a spur to the creation of Shakespeare’s play Hamlet. Paul Mescal plays Shakespeare and Emily Watson his mother, Mary.
• 9 January.

Published: January 1, 2026, 6:00 am

The perfect day for parents: how to keep kids healthy and happy – without neglecting yourself

Having a routine but not overplanning, getting them involved with chores and making sure you have time just for you can all help you stop being overwhelmed

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My four-year-old is in the living room playing with a dinosaur, a pig and Jessie the cowgirl from Toy Story. I’m trying to cook dinner. “Mama, mama, pllleeease can you play with me?” I hear a pot lid rattle. The broccoli is starting to smell burned; I dash back to the kitchen. “Help! Quickly come! I’m falling!” I rush through. She’s dangling from the sofa pretending to fall off the side of a volcano. “HEEELP!” The broccoli is definitely burning. And there goes the door. “Muuuuuum, I need a poo!”

This wild ride of five minutes is one most parents will recognise. Getting through the day is to feel like you’re being pulled in a solar system’s worth of directions, and by turns defeated, happier than you’ve ever felt before, like a husk, in control and like you’re careening off a cliff. It throws up a need to get very good at planning, and prioritising what demands to acquiesce to, when to say no; when to sit down and play, when to say: “Sorry, I need to sit down, or go for a run.”

Published: January 1, 2026, 11:00 am

‘It happened in seconds’: sudden inferno brings horror to Swiss ski resort

New year party at Le Constellation bar in Crans-Montana turned into tragedy as flames shot across the ceiling

The new year had passed its first hour and the party in Le Constellation was in full swing with revellers dancing to thumping hip-hop. Dawn was far off and the teenagers and twenty-somethings were in no hurry to leave the bar. It was, after all, New Year’s Day.

Outside, darkness draped Crans-Montana, a ski resort in the Swiss Alps with a reputation for posh luxury. Le Constellation, however, had few pretensions: a cavernous venue with TV screens on the top floor to watch sport, and a basement with low lighting, loud music and a dancefloor.

Published: January 1, 2026, 6:43 pm

Zohran Mamdani promises ‘new era’ for New York City in first speech as mayor

Mayor says ‘I will govern as a democratic socialist’ at inauguration ceremony featuring AOC and Bernie Sanders

Zohran Mamdani on Thursday vowed to “reinvent” New York City in a speech on his first day as mayor, promising “a new era” for America’s largest city and an ambitious start to his term of office.

The 34-year-old political star and democratic socialist, who a year ago was a virtually unknown state assemblyman, is the city’s first Muslim mayor, first of south Asian descent and the first to be born in Africa. He is also the first to be sworn in using the Qur’an.

Published: January 1, 2026, 8:17 pm

Abortion may no longer be a top priority for Democratic voters ahead of 2026 midterms, polls show

Abortion was seen as one of Democrats’ strongest issues in the 2024 election – new polls indicate that may be shifting

Up to seven states will vote on abortion rights this year. But recent polling indicates that Democrats may not be able to count on the issue in their efforts to drive votes in the 2026 midterms, after making abortion rights the centerpiece of their pitch to voters in the elections that followed the fall of Roe v Wade.

In 2024, 55% of Democrats said abortion was important to their vote, according to polling from the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI). But in October of this year, just 36% of Democrats said the same. By contrast, abortion remained about as important to Republicans in both 2024 and 2025, PRRI found. PRRI’s findings mirror a September poll from the 19th and SurveyMonkey, which found that the voters who cared most about abortion are people who want to see it banned.

Published: January 1, 2026, 5:00 pm

US ‘adapt, shrink or die’ terms for $2bn aid pot will mean UN bowing down to Washington, say experts

Afghanistan and Yemen excluded from list of 17 priority countries chosen by Trump administration to receive aid laden with demands

The $2bn (£1.5bn) of aid the US pledged this week may have been hailed as “bold and ambitious” by the UN but could be the “nail in the coffin” in changing to a shrunken, less flexible aid system dominated by Washington’s political priorities, aid experts fear.

After a year of deep cuts in aid budgets by the US and European countries, the announcement of new money for the humanitarian system is a source of some relief, but experts are deeply concerned about demands that the US has imposed on how the money should be managed and where it can go.

Published: January 1, 2026, 1:00 pm

Two people confirmed dead as Iran protests turn into ‘battlefield’

Nationwide protests against living conditions enter fifth day with security forces reportedly using live ammunition

The largest protests in Iran for three years entered a fifth day on Thursday amid reports of deadly clashes between protesters and security forces, with state-affiliated media confirming at least two people had been killed.

Although state media did not identify those killed, witnesses and videos circulating on social media appear to show protesters lying motionless on the ground after security forces opened fire.

Published: January 1, 2026, 4:22 pm

Israel allowing traders to bring into Gaza ‘dual-use’ items barred from aid organisations

Sources say generators and tent poles restricted from humanitarian bodies but commercial shipments allowed in

Israel is running a parallel system of controls for shipments into Gaza, allowing commercial traders to bring goods into the territory that are barred for humanitarian organisations.

Basic life-saving supplies including generators and tent poles are on a long Israeli blacklist of “dual-use” items. The Israeli government says entry of these items must be severely restricted because they could be exploited by Hamas or other armed groups for military ends.

Published: January 1, 2026, 8:00 am

Trump rings in 2026 at Mar-a-Lago with $2.75m auction of Jesus painting

President auctioned off portrait painted live onstage and said his new year’s resolution was ‘peace on Earth’

Donald Trump welcomed 2026 with a glitzy bash at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach where he auctioned off a freshly painted portrait of Jesus Christ for $2.75m and said his new year’s resolution was a wish for “peace on Earth”.

The portrait of Jesus had been painted onstage by artist Vanessa Horabuena who, the president said, was “one of the greatest artists anywhere in the world”.

Published: January 1, 2026, 3:47 pm

Apple reportedly cuts production of Vision Pro headset after poor sales

Company had hoped the virtual reality device would herald a new era in ‘spatial computing’

Poor sales have reportedly forced Apple to cut production of the Vision Pro headset that it had hoped would herald a new era in “spatial computing”.

The tech company also reduced marketing for Vision Pro by more than 95% last year, according to the market intelligence group Sensor Tower in figures first reported by the Financial Times.

Published: January 1, 2026, 3:07 pm

Executions in Saudi Arabia hit highest number on record in 2025

Analysts attribute increase to kingdom’s ‘war on drugs’ as authorities kill 356 people by death penalty

Saudi authorities executed 356 people in 2025, setting a new record for the number of inmates put to death in the kingdom in a single year.

Analysts have largely attributed the increase in executions to Riyadh’s “war on drugs”, with some of those arrested in previous years only now being executed after legal proceedings and convictions.

Published: January 1, 2026, 1:15 pm

South Park writer buys ‘Trump Kennedy Center’ domain name

Toby Morton now owns trumpkennedycenter.org, which advertises new year performance by the ‘Epstein dancers’

Donald Trump may be remaking the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts into a pool of his self-reflection, but a writer for South Park, the TV series that better reflects the obsessions and tendencies of the administration than any political pundit, has purchased the rights to trumpkennedycenter.org.

Toby Morton, a TV writer and producer who has worked on the long-running and joyfully offensive sitcom, said he purchased the domain in August after predicting the president would change the name from the Kennedy Center to the Trump Kennedy Center after he installed himself as chair and stocked the board with loyalists.

Published: January 1, 2026, 10:09 pm

US federal employees file complaint against ban on gender-affirming care

Complaint argues Trump administration denying coverage of gender-affirming care is sex-based discrimination

The Trump administration is facing a legal complaint from a group of government employees affected by a new policy going into effect Thursday that eliminates coverage for gender-affirming care in federal health insurance programs.

The complaint, filed Thursday on the employees’ behalf by the Human Rights Campaign, is in response to an August announcement from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) that it would no longer cover “chemical and surgical modification of an individual’s sex traits through medical interventions” in health insurance programs for federal employees and US Postal Service workers.

Published: January 1, 2026, 3:23 pm

Trump administration reportedly freezes all childcare payments to all states

Trump official says funds will be released ‘only when states prove they are being spent legitimately’

The Department of Health and Human Services is freezing all childcare payments to all states, an official for Donald Trump’s administration told ABC News in a report published Wednesday. States’ funds will be released “only when states prove they are being spent legitimately”.

The report came a day after Jim O’Neill, the HHS deputy secretary, and Alex Adams, an HHS assistant secretary who oversees the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), appeared in a Tuesday evening video message. O’Neill declared that the department had “activated our defend-the-spend system for all ACF childcare payments across America” and would now require “justification, receipt or photo evidence before we make a payment”.

Published: December 31, 2025, 11:13 pm

Lauren Boebert claims Trump’s veto of safe drinking water bill is retaliation

Colorado lawmaker, who pushed for Epstein files release, points to bill’s unanimous passage through US House and Senate

Republican representative Lauren Boebert has fired back at Donald Trump for vetoing a bill that would have funded a drinking water project in her Colorado district, implying the president was playing at political retaliation.

The bill was aimed at funding a decades-long project to bring safe drinking water to 39 communities in Colorado’s eastern plains, where the groundwater is high in salt and wells sometimes unleash radioactivity into the water supply.

Published: January 1, 2026, 12:36 am

The US reporter who has witnessed 14 executions: ‘People need to know what it looks like’

South Carolina-based journalist Jeffrey Collins observed back-to-back executions in 2025 after the state revived the death penalty following a 13-year pause

Jeffrey Collins has watched 14 men draw their final breaths.

Over 25 years at the Associated Press, the South Carolina-based journalist has repeatedly served as an observer inside the state’s execution chamber, watching from feet away as prison officials kill men who were sentenced to capital punishment. South Carolina has recently kept him unusually busy, with seven back-to-back executions in 14 months.

Published: January 1, 2026, 4:00 pm

From rent to utility bills: the politicians and advocates making climate policy part of the affordability agenda

As the Trump administration derides climate policy as a ‘scam’, emissions-cutting measures are gaining popularity

A group of progressive politicians and advocates are reframing emissions-cutting measures as a form of economic populism as the Trump administration derides climate policy as a “scam” and fails to deliver on promises to tame energy costs and inflation.

Climate politics were once cast as a test of moral resolve, calling on Americans to accept higher costs to avert environmental catastrophe, but that ignores how rising temperatures themselves drive up costs for working people, said Stevie O’Hanlon, co-founder of the youth-led Sunrise Movement.

Published: January 1, 2026, 12:30 pm

'The Brooklinen of suits': How Zohran Mamdani makes his $500 suits work

Looking for an affordable men’s suit under $500? Here’s what you can learn from the everyman wardrobe of New York City’s new mayor

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You’re probably not going to see a Suitsupply suit on the Met Gala red carpet. You will, however, probably see it on a fresh college graduate, the guy shopping for his very first suit and, perhaps most prominently, New York City’s 111th mayor, Zohran Mamdani.

The city’s newly sworn-in mayor wore the brand’s everyman suits throughout his campaign, drawing commentary from the style desks of Bloomberg (calling him “style icon”), the New York Times (calling his style “millennial”) and GQ (calling it “Uniqlo uncle”). What they all agreed on: somehow, Mamdani pulled off wearing $500 suits on a national stage.

Published: January 1, 2026, 3:15 pm

Wuthering Heights, Michael Jackson and the ‘Trump effect’ – will 2026 see the end of the ‘woke’ blockbuster?

The president is scrutinising studio deals, and was rewarded with the promise of a Rush Hour reboot. With Supergirl, Hoppers and a live-action Moana on the way, can Hollywood stand up to Trump?

It’s fair to say that Hollywood is in crisis, or at least in transition. Studios getting taken over, culture wars all over the place, and gen AI rearing its head. The last thing they need is an interventionist president determined to wage war on the entertainment industry, as well as no doubt extracting what value he can. Donald Trump, as we know, is very interested in the movie business: in his pre-politics days, he made dozens of appearances in films, as well as on TV. It seems very likely that he’s eyeing a place at Hollywood’s top table after he leaves office (presuming he does).

Perhaps that’s what is behind his most spectacular recent intervention: demanding, and getting, a fourth Rush Hour movie from the new owners of Paramount Pictures, the studio that was recently taken over by David Ellison, son of Larry, one of Trump’s key allies. Coincidentally, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner is one of the funders of Paramount’s subsequent bid to derail Netflix’s takeover of Warner Bros, with Trump himself suggesting he might influence US corporate regulators to prevent the Netflix deal from going ahead. And of course, in the background, is Trump’s threat of non-specific “tariffs” on the film industry, ostensibly aimed at keeping movie production inside the US. But, arguably, this could also be a way of keeping Hollywood’s top executives nervous and pliable.

Published: January 1, 2026, 2:00 pm

‘They sowed chaos to no avail’: the lasting legacy of Elon Musk’s Doge

The billionaire – who had no government experience – left various federal agencies in disarray while overseeing an ‘efficiency’ drive across Washington

As Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, splurged more than $250m on Donald Trump’s 2024 re-election campaign, the US president commissioned his new ally to oversee a sweeping “efficiency” drive across the federal government.

The Tesla and SpaceX boss, who had no experience inside government, was tasked with eradicating waste and cutting spending as part of the so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge) – and was quick to stoke expectations.

Published: January 1, 2026, 2:00 pm

Songs about new beginnings – ranked!

From CMAT and the Carpenters’ fresh starts to the Beatles’ Here Comes the Sun and Nina Simone’s Feeling Good, starting again is a rich theme in pop. Here are some of the best examples

It’s hard to imagine anyone’s heart not being lifted a little by Right Back Where We Started From: the euphoric rush of new love rendered into three minutes of cod-northern soul (performed, unexpectedly, by various ex members of ELO, the Animals and 60s soft-poppers Honeybus). Avoid the 80s cover by Sinitta at all costs.

Published: January 1, 2026, 1:00 pm

My big night out: I was about to get fired – then a colleague invited me to the party that changed my life

I wasn’t sure journalism was for me until I ended up in a bar with a group of lawless, funny co-workers who complained long and hard about the panther suspended above us in a cage

In the mid-90s, I was working as an admin assistant on the listings magazine of the London Evening Standard, and was about to be fired. OK, I wasn’t that good at the job, but I was also done with it. It was on my mind that I needed an actual job, one that you could describe to someone: “I’m an X.” At what point did you get to say: “I’m a journalist”? And was that even a real thing? A lawyer friend had told me: “I see mine as a profession and yours as more of a trade.” I ruminated on that a lot.

Anyway, some time between my latest misdemeanour and my inevitable disciplinary letter, someone from the main paper, let’s call him Pete Clark because that was his name (everyone else will go by initials, but Pete’s dead now, and he would want to be named, I think), asked if I wanted to go to a party. It was no special occasion, just the launch of a bar; this happened every night in the 90s, even Mondays. He was 43, but all old people look the same when you’re 23, so I felt as if the viscount owner of the paper had noticed me from the top of his gold mountain and invited me to a ball.

Published: January 1, 2026, 1:00 pm

They tried to smear him as an antisemite – but Mayor Zohran Mamdani walks in a rich Jewish tradition | Molly Crabapple

When I look at Mamdani, I don’t see some radical departure. I see him as an heir to the Yiddish socialism that helped build New York

Billionaires raised fortunes against him. The president threatened to strip his citizenship. Mainstream synagogues slandered him as the spawn of Osama Bin Laden and Chairman Mao. But today, Zohran Mamdani became the first socialist mayor of New York City.

For all the hysteria, when I look at Mamdani, I didn’t see some radical departure from the past. I see him as the heir to an old and venerable Jewish tradition – that of Yiddish socialism – which helped build New York.

Published: January 1, 2026, 1:00 pm

When racists shout ‘Go home’, and you come from 15 places, what to do? | Hugh Muir

A DNA test showed me that theoretically I have links to a long list of countries – and that the way we look at belonging makes little sense

While accepting that David Lammy, the deputy prime minister and justice secretary is, for many, the human embodiment of Marmite – loved or hated, with not much in between – one can still question whether, for all his faults, he should “go home to the Caribbean”. Whether you agree with him over this or that utterance or the broad sweep of government policy, he has, unquestionably made his contribution to Tottenham, in north London, whose people he has represented for a quarter of a century, to parliament, as a senior MP, as foreign secretary and now as an important figure with several key portfolios.

So when a lieutenant of Nigel Farage, admittedly no fan of Lammy’s, suggests, without notable contradiction or condemnation from Reform, that Lammy “should go home to the Caribbean”, one is tempted to look at that askance. But then, in the year just past, when bigotry in frontline politics took off its training wheels and othering became the sport that everyone can play, the notion that someone who clearly belongs here should not belong here ceased to shock.

Hugh Muir is executive editor, Opinion

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Published: January 1, 2026, 6:00 am

At the turn of the year, I’m facing a pivot point. Midlife crisis? No thanks | Emma Brockes

At 50, I find myself in a gazing-up-at-trees phase. What does it all mean? It’s not completely clear – but it’s certainly bothering my kids

According to research undertaken by Stanford Medicine in 2024, adult human beings are subject to two “massive biomolecular shifts” – spikes in ageing, in other words – one at 44 and another at 60, confirming what most of us instinctively know to be true: that we get older in jagged bursts – not with gentle, steady progression. As the new year issues its annual invitation to stocktake, the thing I keep thinking is where we might place the equivalent emotional pivot points, those periods in which, after years of – God willing! – pottering along feeling roughly the same, suddenly, one day, there’s a change.

I bring this up because I seem to be in the middle of one, an inflection point that manifests in the number of times on the walk back from the school drop-off I stop to look at a bird in a tree, or a snail on a wall, or any number of other overwrought visual metaphors that allow me to feel momentarily like I’m inside a poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins. Hard to put one’s finger on what’s going on, but it has to do with the sense of an ending, which, if it’s sad at all, isn’t sad-sad; rather, it occupies that category of sadness I think of as the anticipation of future nostalgia.

Emma Brockes is a Guardian columnist

Published: January 1, 2026, 12:00 pm

Cecilia Giménez’s botched Monkey Christ became a global meme. The real marvel was the humble, graceful woman behind it | Sam Jones

The restorer, who died on Monday, brought unwanted attention to herself – and her small Spanish town. Then, slowly, a small miracle took place

Very few of us find fame quite as late, or quite as brutally, as Cecilia Giménez did in the summer of 2012. The Spanish amateur artist was already 81 when her efforts to restore a decent, if unremarkable, fresco of the scourged Christ brought her a renown that almost destroyed her.

Almost overnight, Giménez, who died on Monday at the age of 94, was stripped of her quiet existence in the north-eastern Spanish town of Borja, and recast as the well-meaning and unwitting creator of what would become known around the English-speaking world as Monkey Christ. In Spain, the meme phenomenon was dubbed Ecce Mono (Behold the Monkey), a play on the painting’s Latin title Ecce Homo (Behold the Man).

Sam Jones is Madrid correspondent for the Guardian

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Published: January 1, 2026, 5:00 am

Trump is wrong: ‘woke’ policies aren’t the real threat to Europe | Nouriel Roubini

The continent’s problems are not caused by immigration or cultural politics but by economic and technological decline

Donald Trump’s new national security strategy offers a misguided assessment of Europe, long regarded as the US’s most reliable ally. Unrestrained immigration and other policies derided by administration officials as “woke”, it warns, could lead to “civilisational erasure” within a few decades.

That argument rests on a fundamental misreading of Europe’s current predicament. While the EU does face an existential threat, it has little to do with immigration or cultural politics. In fact, the share of foreign-born residents in the US is slightly higher than in Europe.

Published: January 1, 2026, 7:00 am

The Guardian view on mRNA vaccines: they are the future – with or without Donald Trump | Editorial

Over the holiday period, the Guardian leader column is looking ahead at the themes of 2026. Today we examine how the White House’s war on vaccines has left the future of a key technology uncertain and up for grabs

The late scientist and thinker Donald Braben argued that 20th-century breakthroughs arose from scientists being free to pursue bold ideas without pressure for quick results or rigid peer review. The rapid development of Covid-19 vaccines seemed to validate his claim: emergency conditions sped up trials, relaxed regulatory sequencing and encouraged scientists to share findings before peer review. Out of that sprang one of the great scientific success stories of our age: mRNA vaccines. These use synthetic genetic code to train the immune system to defend itself against viruses. Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman, whose work enabled the mRNA Covid vaccine, went on to win the Nobel prize. Their breakthrough suggests that loosening traditional constraints could accelerate major scientific advances.

The extensive scientific and logistic infrastructure built during that period is now occupied with turning the technology towards other diseases: flu, HIV and even cancer. Until very recently, the US, which put more than $10bn into mRNA development, appeared primed to reap the scientific and commercial rewards. Despite the deregulatory zeal that birthed mRNA, the second Trump administration has rejected it. Instead, it has been remarkably steady in its commitment to the radical anti-science and anti-vaccine agenda of the US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr. He has spent the past year undermining and outright sabotaging the US’s own success. Over the summer, the US Department of Health and Human Services announced a “coordinated wind-down” of federal funding for mRNA research, cancelling an additional $500m in funding for 22 projects.

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: January 1, 2026, 5:30 pm

Oregon silence Texas Tech in Orange Bowl to reach College Football Playoff last four

• Oregon defense shuts down Texas Tech offense

• CFP bye curse continues under expanded playoff

• Ducks advance to Peach Bowl semi-final

Matayo Uiagalelei forced a fumble that set up an Oregon touchdown, Jordon Davison rushed for two scores and the fifth-seeded Ducks smothered No 4 Texas Tech in a 23-0 win in the College Football Playoff quarter-final at the Orange Bowl on Thursday.

Dante Moore threw for 234 yards and Atticus Sappington kicked three field goals for Oregon (13-1), which will play either No 1 Indiana or No 9 Alabama in the Peach Bowl – a CFP semi-final – on 9 January. The winner will return to Miami Gardens for the national championship game on 19 January.

Published: January 1, 2026, 8:51 pm

Player revolts, owner exits and what breaks next: our bold sports predictions for 2026

On the heels of another sports year that was chock full of surprises, Guardian US contributors make their bold predictions for the months to come

Here are our bold predictions for 2025 in sports. Please note the bold (or should that be bold?) in bold predictions: these are mostly to be taken with a pinch of salt.

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Published: January 1, 2026, 10:00 am

How this strange NFL season broke the Coach of the Year mold | Oliver Connolly

In a season defined by chaos and turnarounds, the award should go not to surprise, but to the coach who solved the hardest problems

The NFL’s Coach of the Year award is simple. It typically serves as a mea culpa. We’re sorry our preseason predictions about your team were wrong.

In theory, it’s a straight line: the coach who oversaw the biggest turnaround is handed the award. In practice, it’s a yearly argument about expectations and whether we’re rewarding actual coaching or just the greatest surprise.

Published: January 1, 2026, 9:00 am

Stubborn Sunderland deny Manchester City to give Arsenal four-point cushion at top

Something had to give and it was not Sunderland’s unbeaten home Premier League record. Instead Manchester City’s winning streak came to a juddering halt as Pep Guardiola’s side spurned a chance to move within two points of Arsenal at the top of the table.

Hats – or should that be chapeaus – off to Régis Le Bris and his clever and courageous Sunderland team for not merely frustrating City but offering Gianluigi Donnarumma scope to remind everyone precisely why he is a world-class goalkeeper.

Published: January 1, 2026, 10:04 pm

Enzo Maresca forgot Chelsea’s golden rule: the manager does not call the shots | Jacob Steinberg

Coach stopped toeing the line at Stamford Bridge with one eye on the Manchester City job, frustrating his employers

It was late on New Year’s Eve when Chelsea’s patience ran out. They knew that Enzo Maresca was attempting to engineer an exit from the club and now they were ready to call his bluff. Midnight was approaching and the fireworks at Stamford Bridge were about to erupt.

A baffling story soon had a familiar, predictable ending. Maresca, who is not the first manager to run out of friends at Chelsea, had taken the provocations too far. There was surprise when he told staff that he did not want to conduct his post-match press conference after the disappointing 2-2 draw with Bournemouth on Tuesday night. The official explanation was that Maresca was too unwell to talk in public, despite having just spent the evening coaching on the Stamford Bridge touchline, but the friction was palpable and it was never going to sit well with the Chelsea hierarchy when it took less than 24 hours for reports to emerge that the sickness line was a red herring and their head coach had actually decided not to meet the media because he needed time to consider his options. It was further confirmation that this was someone who wanted to be sacked. Maresca dared Chelsea to act and will have been the least surprised person in the world to find himself unemployed less than a day into 2026.

Published: January 1, 2026, 7:35 pm

US Olympic men’s ice hockey squad takes shape ahead of Friday’s reveal

• Clayton Keller captained US to world title last May

• NHL players back at Olympics after 12-year absence

• Team USA targets first Olympic gold since 1980

A trio of NHL players – Utah Mammoth captain Clayton Keller, Buffalo Sabres forward Tage Thompson and Florida Panthers defenseman Seth Jones – will make their Olympic debuts with Team USA at February’s Winter Games, ESPN reported on Wednesday.

Olympic rosters had to be submitted by Wednesday. USA Hockey plans to announce its roster Friday morning on NBC’s “Today.” This is the first time in 12 years that NHL players will compete in the Olympics.

Published: December 31, 2025, 11:28 pm

Anthony Joshua discharged from hospital in Nigeria after car crash

• British boxer is released on New Year’s Eve in Ikoyi

• Joshua can ‘recuperate at home’ after treatment

The British boxer Anthony Joshua has been discharged from hospital, Nigerian authorities said on Wednesday night. The two-time former heavyweight champion and 2012 Olympic gold medallist was a passenger in a car accident near Lagos on Monday which killed two of his close associates and team members.

The 36-year-old had been under observation while recovering from minor injuries, his promoter had said on Monday.

Published: January 1, 2026, 12:22 am

Diggins, Schumacher make US cross-country skiing history with World Cup double

• US men and women win World Cup races same day

• Schumacher and Diggins sweep new 5km event

• Tour de Ski milestone for American cross-country

American cross-country skiing reached a milestone on Wednesday when, for the first time, an American man and an American woman won World Cup races on the same day.

Gus Schumacher and Jessie Diggins delivered the historic double at stage three of the Tour de Ski in Toblach, Italy, both prevailing in a newly introduced 5km heat mass start free event that rewarded speed, pacing and collective tactics rather than head-to-head positioning.

Published: December 31, 2025, 6:36 pm

New England Patriots’ Christian Barmore faces domestic assault charge

• Barmore accused in alleged August incident

• Patriots say they informed NFL at the time

• Arraignment scheduled for early February

New England Patriots defensive tackle Christian Barmore is facing a misdemeanor domestic assault charge stemming from an alleged incident on 8 August in Mansfield, Massachusetts.

Barmore, 26, was in a relationship with the alleged victim, according to court documents cited Wednesday by Boston television station WCVB.

Published: December 31, 2025, 7:40 pm

Oil prices record steepest annual fall since Covid pandemic

After biggest loss for producers since 2020 the slide could continue, with global output expected to remain high

Oil markets have recorded their steepest annual fall since the Covid pandemic and could be on track to plummet further as oil producers continue to pump more crude than needed by the global economy.

Oil prices slumped by almost 20% in 2025, marking the biggest annual loss since 2020 and the first time that the oil market has recorded three consecutive years of annual losses.

Published: January 1, 2026, 1:06 pm

Zohran Mamdani is now mayor of New York City. Here’s what he campaigned on

From freezing rents to free buses and municipal grocery stores – a recap of the policies that won Mamdani the office

Zohran Mamdani was sworn into office as New York’s 111th mayor at the stroke of midnight, the first Muslim mayor as well as the first to take office as a Democrat bearing the credentials of a democratic socialist.

The 34-year-old was sworn in by Letitia James, the state attorney general, in a disused subway station beneath city hall that acts as turnaround for the local 5 train, to be followed by a first-of-its-kind public block party along Broadway’s “Canyon of Heroes”.

Published: January 1, 2026, 11:00 am

Cremation pyre in Africa thought to be world’s oldest containing adult remains

9,500-year-old pyre uncovered in Malawi offers rare insight into rituals of ancient African hunter-gatherer groups

A cremation pyre built about 9,500 years ago has been discovered in Africa, offering a fresh glimpse into the complexity of ancient hunter-gatherer communities.

Researchers say the pyre, discovered in a rock shelter at the foot of Mount Hora in northern Malawi, is thought to be the oldest in the world to contain adult remains, the oldest confirmed intentional cremation in Africa, and the first pyre to be associated with African hunter-gatherers.

Published: January 1, 2026, 7:00 pm

Last letters from Denmark: Danes write to Devon artist as postal service ends

Closure of country’s 400-year-old service made headlines and prompted Gillian Taylor to appeal for final missives

Some describe the joy of receiving dispatches from far afield, others speak of the discipline of sitting down to carefully order their thoughts in a letter.

One writer tells of finding a poignant cache of letters after a parent’s death, while another has shared a map of where the postboxes used to be in her town.

Published: January 1, 2026, 1:51 pm

More women reporting abuse in Norway as member of royal family to go on trial for rape

Country’s largest women’s health organisation says case of Marius Borg Høiby encouraging people to seek help

Staff at Norway’s largest women’s health organisation have seen a rise in the number of women reporting abuse and sexual assault at the hands of their partners ahead of the rape trial of a member of the royal family, saying they hope the case helps to “break taboos”.

Marius Borg Høiby, the 28-year-old son of the Norwegian crown princess, is due to stand trial in February on 32 charges including four counts of rape, the domestic abuse of a former partner and the illegal filming of a number of women without their knowledge or consent.

Published: January 1, 2026, 11:05 am

Search for survivors after US strikes on alleged drug boats

US military announces two separate strikes on boats it claims were transporting drugs in the Pacific

The US Coast Guard was searching for survivors of a US military strike against a convoy of suspected drug vessels in the Pacific Ocean, officials said on Wednesday.

In a statement, the US military’s Southern Command said the military had carried out a strike against three vessels.

Published: January 1, 2026, 2:01 am

Documents suggest Kilmar Ábrego García was retaliated against after wrongful deportation

Judge said newly unsealed government documents show ‘some evidence’ of vindictive prosecution by DoJ

A newly unsealed order in the criminal case against Kilmar Ábrego García reveals that high-level justice department officials pushed for his indictment, calling it a “top priority”, only after he was mistakenly deported and then ordered returned to the U.S.

Ábrego García, originally from El Salvador, has pleaded not guilty in federal court in Tennessee to charges of human smuggling. He is seeking to have the case dismissed on the grounds that the prosecution is vindictive – a way for the Trump administration to punish him for the embarrassment of his mistaken deportation.

Published: December 31, 2025, 5:29 pm

‘These trees may not survive’: Jordan’s ancient olive harvest wilts under record-breaking heat

Extreme heat and drought has destroyed 70% of Jordan’s olive crop, endangering livelihoods of 80,000 families and a centuries-old tradition

Abu Khaled al-Zoubi, 67, walks slowly through his orchard in Irbid, northern Jordan, his footsteps kicking up dust from the parched earth beneath centuries-old olive trees. He stops at a gnarled trunk, its bark split and peeling from months of unrelenting heat.

He points out that the branches should be sagging under the weight of ripening fruit, but instead they stretch upward, nearly bare, with only a few shrivelled olives clinging to the withered stems.

Published: January 1, 2026, 3:00 pm

Often brutal, always beautiful: the sea hounds of the Frisian Islands – in pictures

For 10 years, the scientist and photographer Jeroen Hoekendijk has been observing pinnipeds such as seals and walruses on the fragile North Sea archipelago stretching along the Dutch, German and Danish coastline. A remainder of the now-drowned Doggerland, left behind after the ice age, the low-lying islands are an advance warning sign of the warming and rising seas of the climate crisis

• Photographs by Jeroen Hoekendijk, text by Philip Hoare

Published: January 1, 2026, 8:00 am

World is in better place than when Eden Project created 25 years ago, founder says

Tim Smit also says extreme political views will fade when people realise good things around the corner

Sir Tim Smit says the world is in a better place than it was when he co-founded the Eden Project 25 years ago and he believes people are more attuned to the natural world.

Speaking as the project in Cornwall reaches its 25th anniversary, Smit describedextreme political views as the “roar” of people fearful that they cannot control the future but he said they would fade when people realised that good things were around the corner.

Published: January 1, 2026, 5:00 am

How the climate crisis showed up in Americans’ lives this year: ‘The shift has been swift and stark’

Guardian US readers share how global heating and biodiversity loss affected their lives in ways that don’t always make the headlines

The past year was another one of record-setting heat and catastrophic storms. But across the US, the climate crisis showed up in smaller, deeply personal ways too.

Campfires that once defined summer trips were never lit due to wildfire risks. There were no bites where fish were once abundant, forests turned to meadows after a big burn and childhood memories of winter wonderlands turned to slush.

Published: December 31, 2025, 3:00 pm

Trump backs away from deploying national guard in Los Angeles, Chicago and Portland

Decision comes after DoJ stopped contesting California court’s ruling to return control of guard to state’s governor

Donald Trump has staged a sudden climbdown from his attempts to impose federal troops in law enforcement roles on Democratic-run cities, announcing on Wednesday that he was ending attempted deployments from Los Angeles, Chicago and Portland.

The unexpected shift came after justice department lawyers said they were no longer contesting a California court’s ruling that returned the national guard troops to the authority of Gavin Newsom, the state’s governor. It also followed a rare rebuke from the US supreme court, which blocked the White House’s efforts to deploy national guards in Illinois.

Published: December 31, 2025, 10:27 pm

Court allows White House to end Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood in 22 states

Appeals court reversed injunction blocking Trump administration’s defunding of reproductive healthcare giant

A US appeals court agreed on Tuesday to allow the Trump administration to strip Medicaid funding from Planned Parenthood health centers in 22 states and Washington DC.

The order from the three-judge panel of the Boston-based first US circuit court of appeals puts on hold an injunction issued by US district judge Indira Talwani. Talwani’s injunction had blocked the Trump administration from enforcing a provision of its massive tax-and-spending bill that blocks Planned Parenthood from receiving reimbursements from Medicaid, the US government’s health insurance program for low-income people, in the 22 states.

Published: December 31, 2025, 6:07 pm

Wall Street ends 2025 near record highs after year of economic upheaval

US markets buoyed by sustained rise in tech stocks as investors largely shrug off concerns over Trump tariffs

Wall Street finished 2025 near record highs on Wednesday, as ballooning tech valuations and hopes of lower interest rates helped stock markets defy a year of economic uncertainty.

The benchmark S&P 500 rose 16.4% over the course of the year, closing at 6,845.50 on New Year’s Eve in New York, as investors largely shrugged off geopolitical uncertainty and the frenzy around artificial intelligence continued.

Published: December 31, 2025, 9:15 pm

EU’s new ‘green tariff’ rules on high-carbon goods come into force

The ‘border adjustment mechanism’ aims to create a level playing field while also encouraging decarbonisation

The biggest shake-up of green trade rules for decades comes into force today, as companies selling steel, cement and other high-carbon goods into the EU will have to prove they comply with low-carbon regulations or face fines.

But a lack of clarity on how the rules will be applied, and the failure of the UK government to strike a deal with Brussels over the issue, could lead to confusion in the early stages, experts warned.

Published: January 1, 2026, 5:00 am

Kim Jong-un hails North Korea’s ‘invincible alliance’ with Russia in New Year’s message

Kim praised his men fighting in an ‘alien land’, congratulating their ‘heroic’ defence of the nation’s honour and instructing them to ‘be brave’

The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, has praised his troops fighting abroad as forging an “invincible alliance” with Russia in a new year’s message, state media said on Thursday.

Pyongyang has sent thousands of troops to support Russia’s nearly four-year invasion of Ukraine, according to South Korean and western intelligence agencies.

Published: January 1, 2026, 7:08 am

Ukraine war briefing: 10% away from peace, Zelenskyy tells Ukrainians

US intelligence officials persuade Donald Trump that Ukrainians did not target Putin with drones – reports. What we know on day 1,408

Ukraine was “10%” away from a peace deal, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Wednesday, and his country wanted an end to the war but not at “any cost”. The Ukrainian president, in his New Year’s Eve address, said any agreement needed strong security guarantees. “The peace agreement is 90% ready, 10% remains. And that is far more than just numbers.”

As the Russian ruler, Vladimir Putin, pushes for full control of Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region as part of any deal, Zelenskyy said he did not believe Russia would stop there. “Pull out from the Donbas, and it will all be over. That is how deception sounds when translated from Russian – into Ukrainian, into English, into German, into French, and, in fact, into any language in the world.”

Zelenskyy said he would not sign a “weak” peace agreement that would only prolong the war. “What does Ukraine want? Peace? Yes. At any cost? No. We want an end to the war but not the end of Ukraine … Are we tired? Very. Does this mean we are ready to surrender? Anyone who thinks so is deeply mistaken.”

European leaders and allies meeting in Paris on 6 January will make firm commitments towards protecting Ukraine after any peace deal with Russia is brokered, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, said on Wednesday during his New Year Eve’s speech.

Ukrainian long-range drones struck the Temp oil depot in the Russian city of Rybinsk, sparking a large fire, an official from Kyiv’s SBU domestic security service said on Wednesday. In Ukraine, a Russian drone attack hit apartment buildings and the power grid in Odesa, injuring six people, including children. Officials said Wednesday that four apartment buildings were damaged and the power company DTEK reported significant damage to two energy facilities.

US and European officials agree that Ukraine did not target Putin and his house with drones. Donald Trump on Monday appeared to give the Russian claim credence, but on Wednesday the US president shared a New York Post editorial accusing Russia of blocking peace. A source familiar with the issue said on condition of anonymity that Trump had reposted the editorial after being briefed by the CIA director, John Ratcliffe, on the drone attack allegations. US national security officials including the CIA determined that the attack did not happen, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.

On Wednesday, as it tried to shore up its claims, Russia’s defence ministry released video including a Russian serviceman standing next to fragments of a device that he said was a downed Ukrainian Chaklun-V drone carrying a 6kg explosive device that had not detonated. “This is laughable,” said Heorhii Tykhyi from Ukraine’s foreign ministry, “both the fact that it took them two days to produce this, and the fact that the things they try to present as evidence basically shows that they are not serious even about fabricating the story. We are absolutely confident that no such attack took place.”

Kaja Kallas, the EU’s top diplomat, called Russia’s claims “a deliberate distraction … No one should accept unfounded claims from the aggressor who has indiscriminately targeted Ukraine’s infrastructure and civilians since the start of the war.” Reuters said that a Ukrainian briefing paper noted that in the hours after the alleged attack, various Russian officials made extremely similar and likely coordinated comments in public. Residents of a town near Putin’s Novgorod residence heard no sounds of air defences on the night of the alleged attack.

Kim Jong-un hailed North Korean troops fighting in an “alien land” in a new year message to soldiers, state media reported on Thursday. Without mentioning the Ukraine war, the dictator addressed personnel in what state-run KCNA described as “overseas operations units”. North Korea has sent thousands of troops to support Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to South Korean and western intelligence agencies, with at least 600 killed and thousands more injured – all having fought under instructions to kill themselves rather than be taken prisoner.

The US has granted the majority Russian-owned Serbian oil company NIS a reprieve until 23 January from sanctions targeting Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, a Serbian minister said on Wednesday. Petroleum Industry of Serbia (NIS) was forced in early December to shut down Serbia’s sole oil refinery, which supplied about 80% of Serbia’s fuel needs. Washington imposed sanctions on NIS demanding the complete exit of Russian shareholders and preventing the refinery from receiving supplies. But talks over its sale have dragged on.

Published: January 1, 2026, 1:53 am

Our 2026 listening resolutions: from Radiohead to Kendrick Lamar, critics try to get into music they’ve never liked

Streaming’s algorithms make it easy to avoid whole discographies – so in the interest of deeper listening, our writers dedicate time to the ones who might have got away

The first time I heard Joni Mitchell, in 1997, she was looped across the chorus of Janet Jackson’s single Got ’Til It’s Gone. The song’s credits would educate me on the sample’s origins; I had previously assumed Big Yellow Taxi was an Amy Grant original. The second time I heard a Mitchell song was when Travis covered the beautiful River as a B-side.

Published: January 1, 2026, 10:00 am

Dry Cleaning: Secret Love review | Alexis Petridis's album of the week

(4AD)
The standout act in the sprechgesang wave, the four-piece’s newly expansive sound carries singer Florence Shaw’s distinctive tales of mundane lives spiralling out of control

Dry Cleaning’s third album features a lot of strikingly odd lyrics. Take your pick from “alien offshoot mushroom, going the gym to get slim”; “my dream house is a negative space of rock”; or, indeed, “when I was a child I wanted to be a horse, eating onions, carrots, celery”. But it’s an ostensibly more straightforward line, from Cruise Ship Designer, that seems destined to attract the most attention. “I make sure there are hidden messages in my work,” says vocalist Florence Shaw as the track draws to a conclusion, the muscular guitar riff that’s driven it along devolving into a janky, trebly scrabble.

Initially, the lyric appears to characterise what Dry Cleaning do, and Shaw in particular. From the moment they first appeared with the 2018 EP Sweet Princess, the south London quartet have attracted adjectives such as “surreal”, “enigmatic” and “inscrutable”. Most of the British bands who emerged around the same time bearing a roughly equivalent blend of post-punk guitars and spoken-word vocals sounded angry or sarcastic or straightforwardly comedic. Dry Cleaning, on the other hand, seemed mysterious. Shaw’s lyrics were collages of overheard remarks, recycled YouTube comments, lines from adverts and non sequiturs, delivered in a voice that was too icy to sound whimsical. It’s variously been characterised as “anhedonic” and “achromatic”, but might more straightforwardly be described as sounding politely bored. She occasionally shifts from speaking into singing in an untutored voice that brings to mind Stuart Moxham of Young Marble Giants’ line about their understated vocalist Alison Statton sounding “as if she was at the bus stop or something”. It was all intriguingly confusing: here were songs that could indeed contain hidden messages, that seemed like puzzles to be unpicked.

Published: January 1, 2026, 12:00 pm

Run Away review – James Nesbitt and Minnie Driver give us comfort TV at its finest

The twists and turns come thick and fast in this deeply pleasing Harlan Coben thriller, as a father goes in search of his missing daughter. Even a vegan restaurant owner gets in on the act

They come round sooner every time, do they not? I think we’re now the recipients of a new Harlan Coben adaptation every three weeks or so. Who knows what rate will be attained next year? We watch and wait, though possibly in neither case for long.

We are now about a dozen, rating-banking offerings into the bestselling thriller writer’s multi-book deals with Netflix and Amazon. They are generally solid, workmanlike fare that doubtless help fund many passion projects and pay many mortgages along the way. They are comfort TV not just for viewers, but, I suspect, everyone involved.

Published: January 1, 2026, 8:00 am

I’m Chevy Chase and You’re Not review – abundant talent showcased in profile of SNL’s champion insult comic

Archive material shows Chase’s abilities but the times have changed around the self-aggrandising actor and comedian – and not always to his benefit

Feature films and documentaries can sometimes struggle to fasten down viewers’ attention if the central character isn’t sympathetic but maybe we’re a tad more forgiving of anti-heroes in nonfiction as we accept warts and all in real life. But this film about actor and comic Chevy Chase faces an uphill battle given that not only does it report on what an “asshole” – to quote the epithet most often applied to him – he has been in the past, we also witness some assholery first-hand. In the opening minutes, we see him telling the film’s director Marina Zenovich that he’s smarter than her, while he also interrupts her, rolls his eyes at her questions and generally acts the dork.

This is partly the infamous “teasing” Chase has always copped to, of a piece with his comically arrogant comic style which the film’s title encapsulates. (It used to be his catchphrase when he anchored the Weekend Update segment on US sketch show Saturday Night Live.) That self-aggrandisement went hand in hand with the denigration of everyone around him, which ended up turning Chase into the most obnoxious kind of coked-up insult-comic by the 1990s.

Published: December 31, 2025, 9:00 am

‘Being annoying is worse than being evil’: the high-octane, low-culture genius of indie duo Getdown Services

Scatological lyrics, social conscience and a shoutout from Walton Goggins – 2026 is going to be the laptop garage band’s year

It’s a Saturday night in Camden, London, and Getdown Services’ fans are getting the beers in before “Britain’s best band” play one of their final gigs of the year. The Electric Ballroom is heaving, despite this being their second show here in a month. There’s no shortage of twentysomethings with shag hairstyles to explain why the duo live up to their slogan. “They’re fun, which we need right now – life is bleak,” says Dulcie. “And they’re socially aware,” adds her friend Lotte. “Even though they are quite silly, they’re grounded.”

Across the bar, Dylan, 22, says that he finds Getdown Services and their genre-agnostic beats empowering: “They’re a laptop garage band that are having fun doing what they love, and seeing that makes me want to do what I love as well.” His pal James, 29, has returned for a repeat performance. “I came to the other Getdown Services show and I felt more jubilant than I did at Oasis,” he says.

Published: December 31, 2025, 3:00 pm

Lily Allen’s live return, Charli xcx’s Wuthering Heights and Simon Rattle’s Janáček: music to listen out for in 2026

Raye, Deftones and Yungblud do UK tours, Jill Scott returns for more neo-soul, and the classical world gears up to celebrate Hungarian composer György Kurtág at 100

• More from the 2026 culture preview

Seventeen years on from the release of her debut single, Florence Welch finds herself in an intriguingly strong position: while most of her early 00s indie peers are forgotten or in reduced circumstances, she is a major influence on pop, from Ethel Cain to the Last Dinner Party to Chappell Roan. Her recent album Everybody Scream was a strong restatement of her theatrical approach – with more light and shade than you might expect – but it’s on stage that she really comes into her own.
• UK tour begins 6 February at the SSE Arena, Belfast

Published: December 31, 2025, 6:00 am

‘A hell of a lot of fun!’ Your favourite podcasts of 2025

True crime, AI, romantasy and strange stories from a small Welsh town are among your picks of the best podcasts of the year

I stumbled across this podcast a few weeks ago and romped through the first season in short order. My Dad died recently, and I often feel sad. Ill-advised has helped me feel lighter. I have laughed out loud at both the questions and Bill’s dryly-delivered answers. I love the banned word portion (such as “pivot” and “like“, when used as fillers in sentences), while the book suggestions at the end are a perfect closer. Julie Hannaford, 59, librarian, Toronto, Canada

Published: December 31, 2025, 1:00 pm

Googoosh: A Sinful Voice by Googoosh with Tara Dehlavi review – the extraordinary story of an Iranian icon

Her voice soundtracked the 60s and 70s, but the revolution silenced her. The legendary singer finally has her say, in this uneven memoir

If you ask any Iranian to name the most important female pop star in our country’s history, they’ll say Googoosh. Nobody else comes close. Over six decades of revolution, suppression and exile, Googoosh has gone from singer to cultural icon, a symbol of a country’s grief for its murdered, imprisoned, and muzzled artists, and a living link between pre-revolutionary Iran and the diaspora.

Googoosh was just three years old when she started singing in small halls and cabaret venues where her father worked. By her teens she was a film actor and a fashion icon. In the 60s and 70s, when my mother was a teenager, Googoosh was everywhere: on television, in films, magazines, on the radio. She kept recreating herself – her style, her moves, her hair. (My mother and many of her university classmates copied Googosh’s famous wispy haircut.) For a while, this bold, creative young woman shaped how westerners saw Iran, and how a generation of Iranian women understood modernity, femininity and public life.

Published: January 1, 2026, 7:00 am

Roblox, James Bond and a billion-dollar multiplayer – here are our most-read gaming stories of 2025

In this week’s newsletter: The year’s most popular stories reveal how play, power and politics collided in the past 12 months – and what you’re psyched for in 2026

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With the best games of the year duly noted (yours and ours), I’d like to highlight some of the work we’ve done covering them. Reviewing the top-performing articles that we published in 2025, I see a portrait of a conflicted year: plenty of great works and games that captured the imagination and the world’s attention, but also growing anxiety about their place in the real world, and the political circumstances they reflect. And a lot of (justified) hand-wringing over Roblox.

But first: I wanted to extend heartfelt thanks to everyone who reads this newsletter and the rest of our work at the Guardian. If you’ve enjoyed our coverage, do consider supporting us to do more of it – either through a recurring or one-off contribution. Without your support, none of the great journalism we produce would be possible. Thank you for being with us in 2025, and I hope you stick around to watch me slowly lose my mind working overtime in the buildup to Grand Theft Auto 6’s release in November 2026. (Finally).

Published: December 31, 2025, 12:30 pm

NewJeans member Danielle sued for millions after bitter feud with K-pop record label

Ador terminated the Australian-born singer’s contract on Monday and is now suing her, a family member and the band’s former producer

The K-pop record label Ador is suing a former member of megaband NewJeans for millions in damages, it has announced, a day after removing her from the group following a year-long dispute that saw the band allege mistreatment and attempt to leave their contract.

The compensation suit against Danielle Marsh, a 20-year-old Australian-born singer, comes months after a Seoul district court ruled that NewJeans’ five members must honour their contracts with Ador, whose parent company Hybe is also behind the K-pop sensation BTS. The band’s contract runs until 2029.

Published: January 1, 2026, 6:19 am

€1m Picasso portrait up for grabs for €100 in charity raffle

Artwork by one of the most influential artists of 20th century raffled to fund Alzheimer’s research

His work is consistently ranked among the world’s most expensive art, with paintings fetching more than a $100m at auction. But you no longer need to be a multimillionaire to own a Picasso – for €100, anyone in the world has the chance to walk away with a painting by one of the most influential artists of the 20th century.

The French charity Alzheimer’s Research Foundation announced recently it was raffling Picasso’s 1941 portrait, Tête de femme, which is worth more than €1m, to a single winner. Proceeds from the tickets will help fund Alzheimer’s research, one of the leading causes of death and disability worldwide.

Published: December 31, 2025, 3:00 pm

Demon Slayer economics: how the anime juggernaut became a saviour

Once underground art form now props up slumped box office sales and is used by governments to build soft power

An animated drama featuring hordes of carnivorous fiends might not sound like classic box office fodder, but that’s exactly what Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle proved to be in September.

The film set new records for anime – Japanese animated films and series – making more than $70m (£52m) on its opening weekend in the US and £535m so far globally. To put that in context, Ghost in the Shell – an anime classic released in 1995 – made about £2m worldwide.

Published: December 31, 2025, 5:00 am

You be the judge: should my boyfriend change the way he showers?

Audrey thinks Noah doesn’t take bathing seriously enough. He says he’s a ‘quick-shower kind of guy’ but keeps himself clean. You decide whose argument scrubs up best
• Get a disagreement settled or become a YBTJ juror

Noah doesn’t wash himself thoroughly enough – he just rubs a bit of gel around his body

I smell nice and I’m not unclean, so why does showering have to be like a full military operation?

Published: January 1, 2026, 8:00 am

Simple daily rituals for building fun, calm and play into your days in 2026

Breathe, make matcha, don’t eat so fast: these aren’t resolutions, they are simple habits for a more relaxing year

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Whether or not we realize it, all of us practice daily rituals. Maybe you read the news with breakfast, or maybe you always take a long bath on Friday nights. Rituals are simply practices that add some shape to our days. Chosen wisely, they can consistently bring a bit of pleasure, calm and fun into even the most chaotic times.

As a culinary educator and a holistic creativity coach, I have helped dozens of people weave joyful daily rituals into their lives. And the new year is an ideal time to shake things up. Just start with one or two that you love, and work them into your week. Before you know it, you will have fun, calming moments to look forward to every day – and you’ll want to add more.

Published: December 31, 2025, 8:15 pm

What happened next: Valerie the dachshund taught us how to survive – and thrive

We could learn a lot from the pampered sausage dog who became a canine Bear Grylls. Perhaps all of us are capable of more than we might expect

Who among us hasn’t yearned, at least momentarily, to cast off the trappings of our comfortable lives and live wild, unfettered and free? This year someone showed us the way: a charismatic Aussie sausage dog (I believe that’s “snag” in local vernacular). Whether you already carry Valerie the miniature dachshund’s story in your heart or managed, somehow, to miss the pint-sized phenomenon’s incredible journey, join me as we revisit this heart-warming tale.

In November 2023, Valerie was a one-year-old “absolute princess” of a pup – those are the words of her emotional support human, Georgia Gardner, who received the sausage as a graduation gift. A diminutive 15cm high, she needed a ramp to help her get into bed in her New South Wales home and wore a pink sweater in chilly weather, with matching pink collar and lead. But Valerie chose to swap her pampered life of roast chicken and pupuccinos for freedom in the dangerous wilds of Kangaroo Island, South Australia, escaping while Gardner and boyfriend Josh Fishlock were on holiday there.

Published: December 31, 2025, 5:00 am

The perfect evening routine: how to prepare for bed – from blue light to baths

Whether you go for an easy jog or actively limit your screen time, studies show there are tried and tested ways to wind down and be sure of a good night’s sleep

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After a hard day at work, the last thing you want to do is fritter away your precious downtime slumped on the sofa in a dazed doomscroll. Yet, in the absence of a better plan, it happens with depressing ease. How we spend the hours between shutting down the laptop and slipping under the duvet affects sleep quality, mood and how restored we feel the next day. So, how can we reclaim those lost evenings?

According to Jason Ellis, a professor of psychology at Northumbria University and director of the Northumbria centre for sleep research, establishing a regular end-of-day routine sends a signal to your brain that you are making a shift between work mode, and rest and recreation. “It’s about putting the day to bed before you go to bed,” he says. Gretchen Rubin – an author, podcaster and creator of the Happiness Project – agrees. “Habits are the invisible architecture of everyday life,” she says.

Published: December 31, 2025, 11:00 am

Veganuary can be a piece of cake: cooks and dietitians share 12 ways to make delicious plant-based food

Swap chicken for beans and avoid cheeze … From a MasterChef finalist to a maker of ready meals, high-profile vegans give their favourite recipes and tips

This new year, you may be embarking on Veganuary, or have resolved to eat less meat and dairy in 2026. What are some of the simplest switches to make and most nutritious dishes to try with minimum fuss? Vegans share their tips on how to eat a balanced plant-based diet.

Published: January 1, 2026, 11:00 am

January isn’t for reinvention – it’s for dishes we know by heart

There’s something quietly radical about indulging in nostalgia – not because the past was better, but as a counterpoint to all that future planning

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Our friend Bridget is serious about Christmas, and she does it spectacularly: come 1 December, her tree will be up, beautifully lit and decorated, her nearest and dearest (us included, thankfully) will get their bespoke Advent calendar (this year it was a cheesy one for me and a puzzle for Sarit – perfect) and a month of fun activities will ensue, culminating in a magnificent day. She is so serious about it, in fact, that her planning for next year starts now: she hits the January sales for everything that’ll keep for the next Christmas holiday – stocking fillers, festive candy, decorations, jumpers and socks – and it’s all stored neatly in a cupboard in anticipation of another gloriously executed December.

We may not be quite as organised and foresightful as Bridget, but we are looking ahead to the coming year with the usual mix of excitement and angst, and starting to mentally put things in the calendar: maybe you have a spring holiday, or an autumn baby? Maybe there’s a visitor from abroad you’re looking forward to, or tickets for a once-in-a-lifetime gig? Even if there is nothing planned yet, summer is something we are always excited about, and the coming year starts to slot into place, as plans become experiences and, before we know it, memories. Time rushes forward, and suddenly it’s gone.

Published: January 1, 2026, 12:30 pm

Don’t stress, do less: 52 ways to make your life easier in 2026

We asked experts in fields from homes to health to horticulture for advice on tasks we can simply stop doing and problems to take off our worry plates

More summer essentials

The dawn of a new year brings visions of an idealised version of yourself. Fresh-faced, we eagerly pile our to-do lists with things we’ve been putting off and ambitions to aim for. But the energy that comes after a few days off quickly disappears as we settle back into the daily grind of school runs and inbox maintenance.

So instead of adding to your to-do list, why not resolve to take something off it?

Published: December 31, 2025, 2:00 pm

The perfect night out: how to ditch the telly – and have next-level fun

Happiness research has found we get more joy from active, challenging experiences than from passive consumption. So go somewhere new, grab the karaoke mic and leap out of your comfort zone

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‘It’s nice to have a night out that doesn’t revolve around drinking,” says the person next to me as we put the finishing touches to our lino prints of pomegranates, wintry trees, the anime character Totoro (mine) and a martini-drinking cat, which we’ve spent our Friday evenings crafting. There has been wine, but it wasn’t central to the evening – a small block of clay and some inks were.

It’s a different kind of night out from going for dinner and, possibly, having one too many, which is the formula plenty of us fall back on. At best that can be fun and nurturing, but at worst you find yourself on the bus home feeling hollowed out and en route to a hangover. So how else can we let our hair down?

Published: December 31, 2025, 4:00 pm

Grief, fear and fury: the Israeli and Palestinian mothers still standing united against bloodshed

Israeli movement Women Wage Peace and Palestinian group Women of the Sun held a mass rally in October 2023. Three days later a Hamas attack triggered war – leaving the women more determined than ever

On the shores of the Dead Sea, about 1,500 Israeli and Palestinian women had gathered, holding hands and calling for an end to what they called a “vicious cycle of bloodshed”. It was an October evening in 2023 and they had travelled from villages, settlements and refugee camps around the region for a mass peace rally jointly organised by the Israeli movement Women Wage Peace and the Palestinian group Women of the Sun.

Two of the organisers were friends: Yael Admi, 66, an Israeli mother of six, and Reem al-Hajajreh, 43, a Palestinian mother of four. The women had hoped their message would cut through decades of violence and mistrust. But three days later, Hamas launched its deadly attack on southern Israel, killing 1,200 people, followed swiftly by what turned into a genocidal war by Israel on Gaza which left more than 70,000 dead, most of whom were women and children. The fragile hope embodied by the Dead Sea event was overtaken overnight by grief, fear and fury.

Published: January 1, 2026, 5:00 am

Mystery meat and maggot-infested produce: the disturbing reality of US prison food

In Eating Behind Bars, author Leslie Soble details how food is used to further punish incarcerated people in the US

At best you get “mystery meat”. Or “sour-smelling heaps” of macaroni. In the worst cases, it’s undercooked chicken, spoiled milk and maggot-infested produce.

In prisons and jails across the US, people are routinely fed unhealthy, tasteless or inedible meals. Many are left hungry and malnourished, with devastating long-term health consequences. The hidden crisis affecting millions of incarcerated people is the subject of Eating Behind Bars, a new book offering a disturbing account of how correctional institutions punish their residents through the food they provide and withhold.

Published: December 31, 2025, 5:00 pm

‘Not my first rodeo’: meet the 21-year-old serving as Georgia’s youngest state legislator

Democrat Muhammad Akbar Ali joins the Georgia state house as a legislator representing an Atlanta suburb

Muhammad Akbar Ali, a 21-year-old recent college graduate, won a runoff election for a state house seat in Atlanta’s suburbs earlier this month, becoming the youngest Georgia state legislator serving today – perhaps the youngest ever.

The key to the young Democrat’s victory and his strategy moving forward? Experience.

Published: December 31, 2025, 4:00 pm

Tell us: have you trained your AI job replacement?

We’d like to hear from people who are training AI to replace their current roles

Analysis by the International Monetary Fund says Artificial intelligence will affect about 40% of jobs around the world.

We’d like to find out more about the impact of AI on jobs now. With this in mind, we want to hear from people who have been training AI to replace their current roles. What has the experience been like? How do you feel about your future at your company? Do you have concerns?

Published: December 31, 2025, 1:03 pm

New year celebrations and Zohran Mamdani sworn in: photos of the day – Thursday

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

Published: January 1, 2026, 2:38 pm