From Seinfeld to Shawshank, Rob Reiner changed Hollywood for ever

Reiner’s own films reshaped modern comedy and drama with their intelligence, empathy and range. But through his company, Castle Rock, he paved the way for Seinfeld, Sorkin and many more

• News: Rob Reiner found dead in apparent homicide

• Gallery: Rob Reiner – a life in pictures

• Meeting Reiner was like a visit from Santa

As a film-maker, Rob Reiner championed humour, civility and intelligence – qualities you suppose would be out of step with the Hollywood of the 1980s where he made his name, and in the 1990s where he scored a series of extraordinary, far-reaching successes. Reiner had a family interest in the workings of on-screen comedy: his father Carl had played a key role on Sid Caesar’s TV shows, which themselves were revolutionary, and helped birth a new generation of screen comics by directing Steve Martin’s film debut The Jerk. Rob had become a household name as Meathead, the liberal foil to Carroll O’Connor’s bigoted Archie Bunker in 70s sitcom All in the Family (the equivalent to Mike Rawlins v Warren Mitchell in the British original, Till Death Us Do Part). But it was as a director and producer that he really made his impact felt.

In 1984, Reiner released This Is Spinal Tap, a “mockumentary” about a fictitious heavy metal band from the UK that rewrote the rules on what comedy could do. It sent up rock’n’roll behaviour and codified its cliches (with Reiner himself doing a hilarious parody of Martin Scorsese’s hosting role in The Last Waltz) and gave us zingers that haven’t lost their comedy power more than 30 years on: “The numbers all go to 11”, “it’s such a fine line between stupid, and er … clever.” Its deployment of improvised comedy was revolutionary for a Hollywood feature, and while Reiner wasn’t the first to use the fake-documentary techniques for comedic purposes (that goes back at least to Woody Allen’s Take the Money and Run), it hugely popularised the mockumentary style; subsequent efforts include Bob Roberts, Fear of a Black Hat, Drop Dead Gorgeous and Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. All these owe Tap a huge debt – as well as the microgenre of star Christopher Guest’s improv-mockumentaries: Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show and A Mighty Wind. Almost incidentally, Spinal Tap became a sort-of-real band, with tours, record releases and a follow-up feature (Spinal Tap II: The End Continues), in which the presence of music industry titans Paul McCartney and Elton John demonstrated the high regard in which the original was held.

Published: December 15, 2025, 1:29 pm

The US supreme court’s TikTok ruling is a scandal | Evelyn Douek and Jameel Jaffer

The decision means TikTok now operates under the threat that it could be forced offline with a stroke of Trump’s pen

Judicial opinions allowing the government to suppress speech in the name of national security rarely stand the test of time. But time has been unusually unkind to the US supreme court decision that upheld the law banning TikTok, the short-form video platform. The court issued its ruling less than a year ago, but it is already obvious that the deference the court gave to the government’s national security arguments was spectacularly misplaced. The principal effect of the court’s ruling has been to give our own government enormous power over the policies of a speech platform used by tens of millions of Americans every day – a result that is an affront to the first amendment and a national security risk in its own right.

Congress passed the TikTok ban in 2023 citing concerns that the Chinese government might be able to access information about TikTok’s American users or covertly manipulate content on the platform in ways that threatened US interests. The ban was designed to prevent Americans from using TikTok starting in January 2025 unless TikTok’s China-based corporate owner, ByteDance Inc, sold its US subsidiary before then.

Evelyn Douek is an assistant professor at Stanford Law School

Jameel Jaffer is inaugural director of the Knight first amendment institute at Columbia University

Published: December 15, 2025, 11:00 am

‘I am not happy with my output!’ Kate Hudson on taking risks, rejecting compromise – and finding her voice at 46

After years as Hollywood’s romcom darling, Hudson is putting music at the centre of her career – and after her show-stealing turn in Song Sung Blue, the Oscar buzz is growing

The first voice I hear when I enter the hotel room to meet Kate Hudson belongs to her 21-year-old son, Ryder, who speaks from the end of a phone: “Love you, Mum!”

Doesn’t everyone? You don’t have to be related to Hudson to consider her a joyous proposition – a great performer who hasn’t yet made a great film. It was a quarter-century ago in Almost Famous, her breakthrough picture, that she first proved she could hoist a movie out of the doldrums while making the task appear as effortless as blow-drying her hair. Without her performance as Penny Lane, the rock’n’roll muse who describes herself as a “band-aid” rather than a groupie, Cameron Crowe’s dopey valentine to the 1970s of his youth would have been Almost Forgettable.

Published: December 15, 2025, 5:00 am

Philip Rivers: how a 44-year-old grandpa nearly pulled off one of the NFL’s greatest comebacks

The Colts quarterback was coaching high school football before his surprise return. And he showed brains are almost important as brawn at his position

Is quarterback the most demanding position in sports? It’s close enough to make no difference: players must memorize a complicated playbook, orchestrate an entire offense, scan for open receivers while 280lb opponents sprint toward them with violent intent, and then thread a pass to a target who could be 30 yards downfield amid a crowd of defenders. Now try doing all that as a 44-year-old grandfather, exactly 1,800 days since you last started an NFL game.

Philip Rivers broke a historic streak for the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday. The longest layoff between games before then belonged to another 44-year-old quarterback who returned to action after years out of the game, and some time in coaching – Steve DeBerg for the Atlanta Falcons in 1998.

Published: December 15, 2025, 8:15 am

Why universal basic income still can’t meet the challenges of an AI economy

Andrew Yang’s revived pitch suits the automation debate, but UBI can’t fix inequalities concentrated tech wealth drives

Universal basic income (UBI) is back, like a space zombie in a sci-fi movie, resurrected from policy oblivion, hungry for policymakers’ attention: brains!

Andrew Yang, whose “Yang Gang” enthusiasm briefly shook up the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020 promoting a “Freedom Dividend” to save workers from automation – $1,000 a month for every American adult – is again the main carrier of the bug: offering UBI to save the nation when robots eat all our jobs.

Published: December 15, 2025, 12:00 pm

US librarians tackle ‘manufactured crisis’ of book bans to protect LGBTQ+ rights

In at least half a dozen states, librarians have joined forces with civil rights groups to oppose book bans, often facing personal and professional repercussions

For decades, libraries served as a safe haven for many queer and marginalized youths in eastern Texas, says former county library director Rhea Young. Unlike the school cafeteria, the library was a space where they could explore and find acceptance in who they wanted to be.

“There were books where they can find characters like them, and realize it’s okay to be who they are,” Young said. “There needs to be more places like that, not fewer.”

Published: December 15, 2025, 12:00 pm

Brown university shooting: hunt for suspect resumes as victims named – live updates

Tributes paid to two people killed as authorities search for a gunman who also injured nine others in Providence, Rhode Island, on Saturday

• Two victims named in Brown University shooting as police continue search for killer

More tributes to Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov came from the American Uzbekistan Association, who said he “was known for his sharp intellect, kind heart, and quiet willingness to help anyone in need”.

The association wrote on Instagram, praising his “humility and compassion” as well as his “curiosity, discipline, and generosity”.

More than a gifted student, Aziz was a beloved son, brother, and friend. He had a future filled with promise, and his life was cut short far too soon. His passing has left an immeasurable void in the hearts of his family, friends, classmates, and the broader Uzbek American community.

On behalf of the American Uzbekistan Association, we extend our deepest and most heartfelt condolences to Mukhammad Aziz’s family during this time of unimaginable grief. We stand with them in mourning and are grateful to all who have offered prayers, messages of support, and solidarity.

MukhammadAziz will be remembered for his kindness, his potential, and the light he brought into the lives of others. His memory will endure.

Published: December 15, 2025, 3:02 pm

Bondi beach terror attack: father and son duo allegedly used licensed firearms in shooting

Naveed Akram previously known to security agencies, prime minister says. His gun-owning father, Sajid, was shot dead by police at the scene

• Victims named so far

• What we know so far about the Bondi terror attack

The alleged gunmen behind the Bondi beach attack are a father-son duo suspected of using legally obtained firearms to commit the massacre, according to police.

Naveed Akram, 24, was arrested at the scene and taken to a Sydney hospital with critical injuries. His 50-year-old father, who the Sydney Morning Herald first reported to be Sajid Akram, was shot dead by police.

Published: December 15, 2025, 3:07 pm

Director Rob Reiner and wife Michele Singer Reiner found dead at home

Authorities investigating ‘apparent homicide’ after 78-year-old director of Stand By Me and The Princess Bride discovered dead at LA home with wife

• Hollywood in shock: ‘One of the greatest filmmakers’

• Gallery: Rob Reiner – a life in pictures

• Reiner changed Hollywod for ever

• Tim Jonze: Meeting Reiner was like a visit from Santa

Rob Reiner, the director of beloved films including When Harry Met Sally, Misery, Stand By Me, The Princess Bride and This is Spinal Tap, has died aged 78 in an apparent homicide, along with his 68-year-old wife Michele Singer Reiner.

Reports first began to emerge on Sunday afternoon that the bodies of a 78-year-old man and a 68-year-old woman had been found by authorities inside a home owned by Reiner in Brentwood, Los Angeles, after a medical aid request was made to the Los Angeles Fire Department.

Published: December 15, 2025, 4:48 am

Congresswoman Ilhan Omar says ICE agents pulled over her son – US politics live

Somali-born Minnesota representative says her son was let go once he produced his ID

German chancellor Friedrich Merz will host other world leaders, including Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron, in a meeting with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday.

The countries are working alongside Ukraine on peace talks. European leaders have previously criticized US proposals to end the war as too friendly to Russia.

Published: December 15, 2025, 2:04 pm

Nancy Pelosi calls female US president in her lifetime unlikely: ‘Marble ceiling’

Former House speaker, 85, expects woman to assume Oval Office this generation but concedes she may not live to see it

Nancy Pelosi, the outgoing congresswoman and former House speaker, has conceded that she may not see a woman be elected US president in her lifetime.

The California Democrat said as much in a USA Today interview published on Sunday with her retirement looming after four decades in Congress – and invoked a turn of phrase referring to a metaphorical barrier impeding advancement in a profession that often confronts women and racial minorities.

Published: December 15, 2025, 10:00 am

‘Just disgraceful’: outcry as Heritage thinktank appoints far-right figure to key post

Scott Yenor, who has offered views on women, marriage and LGBTQ rights, helped to found secretive fraternal order

The Heritage Foundation, an influential rightwing thinktank currently mired in controversy over its president’s apparent apology for extremism, has appointed as a director the founder of a secretive all-male network of Christian nationalist fraternal lodges.

Scott Yenor, appointed as Heritage’s new director of the B Kenneth Simon Center for American Studies, has also recently offered ultra-conservative opinions on women, marriage and LGBTQ rights in recent podcast appearances and speaking engagements.

Published: December 15, 2025, 3:00 pm

Member of far-right AfD party charged with making Nazi salute at Reichstag

MP allegedly greeted a party colleague at German parliament building ‘with a heel click and a Hitler salute’

Berlin prosecutors say they have charged a member of the far-right Alternative für Deutschland party with making a Nazi salute in parliament.

The suspect allegedly “greeted a party colleague … at the east entrance to the Reichstag building with a heel click and a Hitler salute” in June 2023, the prosecutors said in a statement issued on Monday.

Published: December 15, 2025, 2:58 pm

Europe’s housing costs akin to ‘new pandemic’, warns Barcelona mayor

Jaume Collboni and 16 other city leaders urge EU to unleash billions in funding as it prepares to tackle crisis

• The Guardian view on Europe’s housing crisis: time for the EU to get radical

The soaring cost of housing is akin to a “new pandemic” sweeping across Europe, the mayor of Barcelona has said, as he and 16 other city leaders urged the EU to respond to the crisis by unleashing billions in funding for the hardest-hit areas.

The EU is expected to present its first-ever housing plan on Tuesday, after consultations with experts, stakeholders and the public. For months, those on the frontlines of the crisis have warned the problem is too big to ignore.

Published: December 15, 2025, 10:11 am

‘The last bastion before collapse’ – Louvre museum closed as workers begin strike

Crisis-hit Paris institution still reeling from jewel heist is in dispute over staffing, renovations and ticket price rises

The crisis-hit Louvre museum in Paris was closed on Monday as workers began a strike to demand urgent renovations and staffing increases, and protested against a rise in ticket prices for most non-EU visitors, including British and American tourists.

The world’s most-visited museum – which has had a difficult few months after a jewel heist, a damaging water leak and safety fears over a gallery ceiling – could face days of partial or total closure at one of its busiest times of the year if many of its 2,100-strong workforce vote to continue striking this week.

Published: December 15, 2025, 1:15 pm

‘We’re back at stage one’: Trump cuts rock Louisiana town plagued by gun violence

Federal funds helped Bogalusa address the deep roots of crime – but with the grant pulled, has momentum been lost for ever?

Before the street outside her mother’s home filled with gunfire, before panicked partygoers sprinted through the front yard, before she discovered that the body on the ground was a young man she had watched grow up, Khlilia Daniels knew something in Bogalusa had to change.

It was December of 2022, and Daniels had spent the year watching her home town on Louisiana’s border with Mississippi become a steadily more frightening place. Murders, once rare, now seemed to be happening almost every month, shootings every other week, and in a city of just over 10,000 people, that violence felt close, the losses personal. The victims and perpetrators were predominantly Black, usually young and too often cousins, neighbors or the children of friends, people whom Daniels would see around, until suddenly they were gone.

Published: December 15, 2025, 12:00 pm

‘Virality, rumors and lies’: US federal agencies mimic Trump on social media

Variety of agencies now deliberately provocative on social media, further inflaming discourse on serious issues

When Donald Trump posted during his first term on what was then called Twitter, his attacks and rants differed significantly from US federal agency staff’s more cautious and traditional approach on social media.

For example, in January 2017, in response to scrutiny of one of the president’s executive orders, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) posted: “We are & will remain in compliance with judicial orders. We are & will continue to enforce @POTUS’s EO humanely and with professionalism.”

Published: December 15, 2025, 1:00 pm

Google AI summaries are ruining the livelihoods of recipe writers: ‘It’s an extinction event’

AI Mode is mangling recipes by merging instructions from multiple creators – and causing them huge dips in ad traffic

This past March, when Google began rolling out its AI Mode search capability, it began offering AI-generated recipes. The recipes were not all that intelligent. The AI had taken elements of similar recipes from multiple creators and Frankensteined them into something barely recognizable. In one memorable case, the Google AI failed to distinguish the satirical website the Onion from legitimate recipe sites and advised users to cook with non-toxic glue.

Over the past few years, bloggers who have not secured their sites behind a paywall have seen their carefully developed and tested recipes show up, often without attribution and in a bastardized form, in ChatGPT replies. They have seen dumbed-down versions of their recipes in AI-assembled cookbooks available for digital downloads on Etsy or on AI-built websites that bear a superficial resemblance to an old-school human-written blog. Their photos and videos, meanwhile, are repurposed in Facebook posts and Pinterest pins that link back to this digital slop.

Published: December 15, 2025, 3:00 pm

Best movies of 2025 in the US: No 5 – Riefenstahl

Documentary portrait of Hitler’s favourite film-maker is an unsettling parable about what happens when ambition is uncoupled from ethics

• The best films of 2025 in the US
• More on the best culture of 2025

Forget Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein. The monster movie of the year is a historical documentary. Like Mary Shelley’s gothic classic, Andres Veiel’s Riefenstahl is a cautionary tale about the moral responsibility of creators, a parable about what happens when ambition is uncoupled from ethics. It is also a film about beauty and ugliness, and how those who assign moral value to the former over the latter will come to be haunted by their choice.

With films such as Triumph of the Will and Olympia, Helene “Leni” Riefenstahl shaped the cinematic language of Hollywood, advertising and sports broadcasting, pioneering the swooping crowd shot and the sculpture-like stylisation of athletic bodies. That she had a fascination with Hitler, and that Hitler was fascinated by her, is well known – she herself never disputed it.

Published: December 15, 2025, 12:00 pm

The 50 best albums of 2025: No 5 – Lady Gaga: Mayhem

Returning in high style to the operatic electroclash that first made her name, the zest and zip of these songs still sounds truly innovative
• The 50 best albums of 2025
• More on the best culture of 2025

On her sixth album, pop’s queen of the dramatic reinvention did something more shocking than meat dresses and humanoid motorbikes: Lady Gaga looked back.

Unlike the smooth tech-house flavour of its predecessor Chromatica, and diametrically opposed to the dinner jazz of her work with Tony Bennett, on Mayhem she returned to the operatic electroclash that powered her first two albums. There are synths that sound like a Dyson on its last legs. There are the kind of trashy guitars that contractually can only be played by someone sporting a lime mohawk, low-riding leather trousers and nothing else. There is the baby talk of her biggest hit Bad Romance, only where that was “Ro-ma, ro-ma-ma / Gaga, ooh la la” it’s now “Ama ooh na-na / Abracadabra, mutta ooh Gaga”. You can see the difference, right?

Published: December 15, 2025, 2:00 pm

‘A lot of stories but very few facts’: sceptics push back on buzzy UFO documentary

The Age of Disclosure was granted a Capitol Hill screening and has broken digital rental records but does it really offer proof of alien life?

It has been hailed as a game changer in public attitudes towards UFOs, ending a culture of silence around claims once dismissed as the preserve of conspiracy theorists and crackpots.

The Age of Disclosure has been boosted in its effort to shift the conversation about extraterrestrials from the fringe to the mainstream with a Capitol Hill screening and considerable commercial success. It broke the record for highest-grossing documentary on Amazon’s Prime Video within 48 hours of its release, Deadline reported this week.

Published: December 15, 2025, 12:04 pm

‘Oysters are a risk, as is raw meat’: why you get food poisoning – and how to avoid it

Several kinds of bacteria can give you an upset stomach. Here is how to steer clear of the worst offenders, and what to do if they do make it through

Many people in the modern world, it’s probably fair to say, do not take food poisoning particularly seriously. Yes, most folks wash their hands after handling raw chicken and use different chopping boards for beef and green beans – but who among us can honestly say we’ve never used the same tongs for an entire barbecue or left a storage box of cooked rice on the sideboard for a couple of hours? Ignore that rhetorical question for a moment, though – before you comment that of course everyone should do all those things, let’s talk about what’s happening in your body when it all goes horribly wrong.

At the risk of stating the obvious, food poisoning occurs when you eat food contaminated with harmful bacteria, viruses or toxins – but that doesn’t mean it always works the same way. “Some bacteria, such as Bacillus cereus – sometimes found in reheated rice – produce toxins before the food is eaten, meaning they can cause symptoms such as sudden vomiting within hours,” says Dr Masarat Jilani, an NHS specialist who regularly manages children and adults with food poisoning. Bacillus cereus also produces another type of toxin in the small intestine, which can cause diarrhoea. “Others, such as Salmonella and E. coli, act after you’ve eaten and often cause longer-lasting symptoms through inflammation of the gut.”

Published: December 15, 2025, 10:00 am

It’s the media’s job to hold power to account. This year, too many got into bed with it instead | Arwa Mahdawi

The lines between advertising, public relations and journalism have become dangerously blurred

• Funded by readers, the Guardian’s fierce independence is guaranteed. Please help us reach our year-end fundraising goal

Enough time has passed now, I think, that I can safely tell you about one of the stupidest things I have ever done. Almost a decade ago I decided to quit my well-paid job in advertising in order to pursue a precarious career in freelance journalism. The merits of that decision are up for debate but the real stupidity is in how I quit my job: I wrote a rather cringeworthy column for the Guardian about my “meaningless job in advertising” and publicly proclaimed that I’d decided to quit. My boss saw the piece and, well, he obviously wasn’t happy. (Sorry, Sean!)

I bring this embarrassing anecdote up because I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting recently on the reasons why I left advertising. Maybe this sounds twee, but I was sick of selling people things they didn’t need. I wanted to do something meaningful.

Published: December 15, 2025, 12:00 pm

Around the world, anti-Jewish hate is growing. In Bondi, we see the tragic results | Dave Rich

After the latest in a series of deadly attacks on the global Jewish community, Jews are angry. And we have good reason to be

• Dave Rich is director of policy at the Community Security Trust

Heaton Park, Boulder, Washington DC – and now Bondi beach. Add the murders of Rabbi Zvi Kogan in the UAE and Ziv Kipper, an Israeli-Canadian businessman, in Egypt, and Jews have been killed on five continents since the 7 October 2023 attack by Hamas upended the Middle East and unleashed a wave of antisemitism around the world. Anti-Jewish terrorism is now a global problem, as is the hateful extremism that drives it.

The death toll from the appalling atrocity in Sydney is shocking enough: at the time of writing, 15 people killed, including a child, and many more injured. Awful images circulate, as they always do. The mobile phone footage of two gunmen calmly taking aim at families enjoying a Hanukah party is utterly chilling. It takes a special kind of dehumanisation, an ideology of pure hatred and self-righteous conviction, to do that.

Dave Rich is director of policy at the Community Security Trust and the author of Everyday Hate: How Antisemitism is Built into Our World – and How You Can Change it

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

Published: December 15, 2025, 11:30 am

Trump’s approach to Venezuela repeats the mistakes of the past | Austin Sarat

Congress must work to stop the president from leading us further into a South American quagmire

Donald Trump seems determined to have a military confrontation with Venezuela. He has deployed a massive military arsenal in and around the Caribbean Sea and taken a series of provocative actions off the Venezuelan coast, justifying it as necessary to stem the flow of drugs into the United States.

The Council on Foreign Relations says that deployment includes an “aircraft carrier, destroyers, cruisers, amphibious assault ships, and a special forces support ship. A variety of aircraft have also been active in the region, including bombers, fighters, drones, patrol planes, and support aircraft.” This is the largest display of American military might in the western hemisphere since we invaded Panama in 1989.

Austin Sarat, William Nelson Cromwell professor of jurisprudence and political science at Amherst College, is the author or editor of more than 100 books, including Gruesome Spectacles: Botched Executions and America’s Death Penalty

Published: December 15, 2025, 11:00 am

Trump’s takeover of the Kennedy Center should serve as a warning to UK arts institutions | Charlotte Higgins

Culture is not immune from the advances of the hard right – but it isn’t too late for resistance

Into the pale stone wall of the Kennedy Center, above its elegant terrace on the edge of the Potomac river, are carved bold and idealistic sentiments. “This country cannot afford to be materially rich and spiritually poor. To further the appreciation of culture among all the people, to increase respect for the creative individual, to widen participation by all the processes and fulfillments of art – this is one of the fascinating challenges of these days.” Those are the words of John F Kennedy, after whom the US’s national performing arts centre is named. The impulse to build it came from Dwight D Eisenhower; it was given JFK’s name after his assassination; and it opened in 1971, to the music of Leonard Bernstein and the choreography of Alvin Ailey, in the presidency of Richard Nixon. The Kennedy Centre, in short, was designed to be bipartisan, a place of gathering for Democrats and Republicans alike, a proud showcase of the best of America’s dance, opera and music.

For 50 years it carefully trod that line, its board balanced by members of Congress from both sides of the political divide. But it turns out it can take just months to unravel half a century of high-minded purpose.

Charlotte Higgins is the Guardian’s chief culture writer

Published: December 15, 2025, 8:00 am

A potato is for life, not just for Christmas | Emma Beddington

Yes, we love our roasties – but have we really explored the spud’s potential as a gift, an aesthetic, a mood?

All I want for Christmas is … the Nairn Museum potato flask. Showcased as part of the Highland museum’s virtual Advent calendar on Instagram last week, it’s a late-18th-century Staffordshire pottery flask – to be filled with strong drink and used to toast a safe journey for a traveller – shaped like a very realistic, knobbly spud, complete with green bits. The benefactor who donated the flask apparently explained it was so ugly that no one in his family wanted to inherit it.

More than 15,000 Instagram likers beg to differ, including me: I desperately covet this beauteous and useful tuber, surely the ideal emotional support accessory for the season’s more trying social engagements. As the museum’s representative explains, the potato was “seen as a very fashionable vegetable” back then, and I think we need to think hard about that: why isn’t it now? It might be the most valuable player on the Christmas dining table (don’t even think about arguing), but it’s cruelly taken for granted. Have we ever considered the potato as a gift, an aesthetic, a mood?

Published: December 15, 2025, 11:00 am

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

Arsenal and City march on, Sunderland enjoy bragging rights, and Ekitiké gives Liverpool fans a much-needed lift

Mikel Arteta had the option to frame things differently. The Arsenal manager was even teed up to do so with a generous question in the press conference that followed his side’s 2-1 win against Wolves on Saturday. Had his team shown the toughness of champions by recovering from a 90th-minute concession to steal all three points? “That’s something very positive but I don’t put it down to resilience,” Arteta replied. It was of a piece with him essentially reading the riot act to his players. They had not turned up at the start, he suggested, and the less said about the closing stages, the better – apart from the last-gasp winner. It is rare to hear Arteta be so critical but he knew his team had got away with one and he wanted them to know, too. Arsenal have a rare blank midweek before they go to Everton for another 8pm kick-off next Saturday. The standards must be higher. David Hytner

Match report: Arsenal 2-1 Wolves

Match report: Crystal Palace 0-3 Manchester City

Match report: Sunderland 1-0 Newcastle

Match report: Liverpool 2-0 Brighton

Match report: West Ham 2-3 Aston Villa

Match report: Chelsea 2-0 Everton

Published: December 15, 2025, 8:00 am

Pavia sorry for ‘disrespectful’ attack on Heisman voters after losing out on award

• Vanderbilt QB finished second to Fernando Mendoza

• Pavia posted obscene caption after result announced

Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia apologized on Sunday night for his “disrespectful” social media post after finishing runner-up for the Heisman Trophy.

Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza became the program’s first Heisman Trophy winner on Saturday night in New York. Pavia posted a photo of him with his linemen at the ceremony with a message to voters for the trophy.

Published: December 15, 2025, 12:56 pm

NFL roundup: Mahomes tears ACL as Chiefs miss playoff for first time since 2014

• Packers star Parsons also has suspected torn ACL

• Bills overcome 21-0 deficit to beat Patriots

• Myles Garrett closes in on sack record

The Los Angeles Chargers eliminated the Kansas City Chiefs from playoff contention when Derwin James picked off a pass by Gardner Minshew – who had just taken over for the injured Patrick Mahomes – in the closing seconds to preserve victory over the reigning AFC champions.

Published: December 14, 2025, 9:44 pm

Suns’ Brooks ejected as he clashes with LeBron James again in Lakers’ last-gasp win

• Pair have history going back to 2023 playoffs

• Los Angeles blow 20-point lead in fourth quarter

LeBron James made two free throws with 3.9 seconds left, Luka Dončić scored 29 points and the Los Angeles Lakers recovered from blowing a 20-point lead in the fourth quarter to top the Phoenix Suns 116-114 on Sunday night.

Phoenix trailed 99-79 with 7:48 left, but took a 114-113 lead with 12.2 seconds left on Dillon Brooks’s three-pointer over James, who made contact with Brooks after the shot. Brooks bumped James on the way back down the court, earning his second technical foul and an ejection.

More importantly, it gave the Lakers a free throw, but James missed the shot. On the ensuing possession, James was fouled on a three-point attempt by Devin Booker with 3.9 seconds left. The 40-year-old James – who finished with 26 points – missed the first free throw but made the final two to give the Lakers a 115-114 lead. Phoenix’s Grayson Allen got up an awkward shot at the buzzer, but it was blocked by James.

Published: December 15, 2025, 12:46 pm

‘I kept a shotgun next to the bed’: when a Racing Santander duo stood up to Franco

Fifty years on Aitor Aguirre and Sergio Manzanera still share a connection after their protest against executions in Spain in 1975

Amid the clatter of studs and the shouts of encouragement, the players of Racing Santander filed out of the home dressing room and into the tunnel to face their opponents. All of them, that was, except two. The broad-shouldered centre-forward Aitor Aguirre and the winger Sergio Manzanera lingered furtively.

“We said that if we could do something to damage this military regime, we should,” recalls Aguirre on the terrace of the restaurant he ran for many years after his retirement. “But it had to be subtle, or they wouldn’t let us out on the field. So, we slipped into the toilets with a pair of bootlaces. I tied one onto Sergio, and he tied one onto me, so they looked like armbands.”

Published: December 15, 2025, 2:00 pm

Inter go top as Serie A rejects slow and steady in favour of emotional ride

Cristian Chivu’s side are yet to draw a game this season while Milan continue to drop points against the minnows

“The reality is different to the narrative,” declared Cristian Chivu in his press conference just before a 2-1 win away to Genoa sent Inter top of the table. Fresh off back-to-back Champions League defeats, albeit in controversial circumstances, and having lost four Serie A games in the first 14 rounds, his approach to criticism was bullish. “Despite what people say, in my view we are having a great season. We started under a magnifying glass, because people said we were failures and we were finished, but we are still up there.”

Looking at the standings, it is rather hard to disagree with him. Inter are the sole leaders, the first time all campaign they have been in this position. Even with those setbacks against Atlético Madrid and Liverpool, they remain in a strong position to secure a top-eight Champions League spot and will participate in the Supercoppa Italiana in Riyadh this week.

Published: December 15, 2025, 11:07 am

How the Guardian ranked the 100 best male footballers in the world 2025

Didi Hamann, Romário and Dunga were part of our 219-strong voting panel to decide who should make our list this year

If someone, back in 1994, had said that at one point in my life I would work on a project selecting the world’s best footballers together with Romário, I would not have believed them.

That summer I was living in Rosersberg, seeing Sweden make their way to a World Cup semi-final, watching the late games at the local Blå Laguna pizza restaurant. Tommy Svensson’s team finally came unstuck against a Brazil side not only containing the wonderful Romário, but also Bebeto, Dunga, Jorginho and Raí. Brazil went on to win the World Cup, beating Italy on penalties in the final.

Published: December 15, 2025, 10:30 am

Guardiola impressed with fighting spirit as City’s title push gathers momentum

• Head coach praises ‘real leader’ Dias as defence holds firm

• Win at Selhurst Park extends Manchester City’s run to five

Pep Guardiola has warned that Manchester City are growing in resilience after Erling Haaland and Phil Foden secured the side’s fifth win in succession and maintained pressure on the Premier League leaders Arsenal.

City gained revenge for their FA Cup final defeat by Crystal Palace in May with a ruthless 3-0 win at Selhurst Park after they saw off Real Madrid in the Champions League in midweek. It means they have won all five matches since enduring successive defeats against Newcastle and Bayer Leverkusen at the end of November and are back to within two points of Arsenal.

Published: December 14, 2025, 6:44 pm

Assad family live in Russian luxury as Bashar ‘brushes up on ophthalmology’

Family friend, sources in Russia and Syria, and leaked data help give rare insight into life of dictator’s reclusive household

In 2011, a group of teenage boys spray-painted a warning on to a wall in their school playground: “It’s your turn, Doctor.” The graffiti was a thinly veiled threat that Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, a London-trained ophthalmologist, would be next in the line of Arab dictators toppled by the then raging Arab spring.

It took 14 years, during which 620,000 were killed and nearly 14 million displaced, but eventually the doctor’s turn came and Assad was deposed, fleeing to Moscow in the middle of the night.

Published: December 15, 2025, 5:00 am

Hong Kong: Jimmy Lai facing life in prison after conviction on security charges

Rights groups dismiss ‘sham conviction’ of media tycoon on national security offences in city’s most closely watched rulings in decades

• The rise and fall of Jimmy Lai, whose trajectory mirrored that of Hong Kong itself

Jimmy Lai, the Hong Kong pro-democracy media tycoon, is facing life in prison after being found guilty of national security and sedition offences, in one of the most closely watched rulings since the city’s return to Chinese rule in 1997.

Soon after the ruling was delivered, rights and press groups decried the verdict as a “sham conviction” and an attack on press freedom.

Published: December 15, 2025, 12:18 pm

Ukraine-US talks in Berlin end as territorial disputes unresolved – Europe live

Ukraine’s Nato ambitions, the future of the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and elections were also discussed

Separately, the commission’s deputy chief spokesperson Olof Gill has just confirmed that commission president Ursula von der Leyen will attend the Berlin talks this evening.

Not a surprise at all, but good to have it formally confirmed.

Published: December 15, 2025, 3:04 pm

A hurricane destroyed their homes in Jamaica. Now they fear losing the jobs they rely on in the US

Thousands of Jamaican workers who come to the US on an H-2A visa say they aren’t sure if they’ll be able to return from one year to the next

Farm worker Owen Salmon has picked apples in upstate New York for almost a decade, some 1,500 miles (2,400km) from home. In the midst of harvest season this year, Hurricane Melissa, a record-breaking category 5 hurricane, made landfall in Jamaica.

“It was terrifying,” said Salmon, whose wife and two children were at home near Black River, a town on the country’s south-western coast. “For days, I couldn’t hear from them. When I finally did, I heard my roof was completely gone. My wife and kids had to run for their lives, but thank God they’re alive.”

Published: December 15, 2025, 12:00 pm

‘It’s a timebomb’: Ghana grapples with mass exodus of nurses as thousands head to the west

An estimated 6,000 nurses left in 2024 for roles in countries including the US, UK, Canada, and Australia. Three nurses explain what made them decide to leave or stay

When Bright Ansah, a nursing officer in Accra, goes searching for colleagues who have failed to show up for a shift at the overstretched hospital where he works, he knows where to look. “When you see ‘In God we trust’ on their WhatsApp status, that’s when you know they’re already in the US,” he says.

The motto of the US has been co-opted by Ghanaian medical professionals who are leaving the west African nation in droves. Many believe their faith has finally been rewarded when, after years of planning, they reach the promised land of the well-equipped, well-resourced hospitals of the US.

Published: December 15, 2025, 1:00 pm

Women who say they were tricked into servitude for Opus Dei to meet in Argentina

Pope urged organisers to hold conference after 43 women alleged they were exploited as minors by Catholic group

Buenos Aires will on Tuesday host the first-ever international gathering of former Opus Dei members who say they were tricked and trafficked into domestic servitude as minors – allegations that have drawn scrutiny of the powerful, secretive Catholic group. Pope Leo XIV privately urged organisers to convene the conference, the Guardian has learned.

Forty-three women in Argentina say they were lured to Opus Dei schools as children and teenagers under promises of receiving an education. Instead, they say they were forced into working up to 12-hour days, cooking and cleaning for the elite male members, without pay.

Published: December 15, 2025, 12:58 pm

‘Our industry has been strip-mined’: video game workers protest at The Game Awards

Outside the lavish event, workers called out the ‘greed’ in the industry that has left games ‘being sold for parts to make a few people a lot of money’

It’s the night of the 2025 Game Awards, a major industry event where the best games of the year are crowned and major publishers reveal forthcoming projects. In the shadow of the Peacock theater in Los Angeles and next to a giant, demonic statue promoting new game Divinity, which would be announced on stage later that evening, stands a collection of people in bright red shirts. Many are holding signs: a tombstone honouring the “death” of The Game Awards’ Future Class talent development programme; a bold, black-and-red graphic that reads “We’re Done Playing”; and “wanted” posters for Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick and Microsoft CEO Phil Spencer. This is a protest.

The protesters, who were almost denied entry to the public space outside the Peacock theater (“they knew we were coming,” one jokes), are from United Videogame Workers (UVW), an industry-wide, direct-join union for North America that is part of the Communications Workers of America. “We are out here today to raise awareness of the plight of the game worker,” says Anna C Webster, chair of the freelancing committee, in the hot Los Angeles sun. “Our industry has been strip-mined for resources by these corporate overlords, and we figured the best place to raise awareness of what’s happening in the games industry is at the culmination, the final boss, as it were: The Game Awards.”

Published: December 15, 2025, 10:00 am

‘I consider him my first son’: how living with a baby monkey taught me I’m ready to be a dad

I went from selling flats in Paris to being alone in a cabin in Guinea looking after primates. It changed my life, but one relationship marked me like no other

In 2022, I had a job at an estate agents in Paris selling ridiculously expensive flats, and decided I needed to do something more meaningful with my life. I resigned, and six months later arrived in Guinea.

In hindsight I was a young kid, full of anger, not happy with his life. That 26-year-old is definitely not me now – and it was living with primates that changed my life.

Published: December 15, 2025, 10:00 am

Weather tracker: Bushfires ravage Western Australia as temperatures soar

Extreme heat follows blazes in New South Wales, while winds plunge Brazil’s largest city into darkness

Extreme heat and bushfires have ravaged the parched landscape of Western Australia. With temperatures expected to continue soaring above 40C (104F) over the coming days, the Bureau of Meteorology has issued a severe heatwave warning across much of the south-west.

The conditions follow bushfires in New South Wales this month, which resulted in the destruction of homes and loss of life. Severe heatwave warnings have also been issued for later this week in parts of South Australia and New South Wales, as a ridge of high pressure moves eastward, bringing blazing sunshine to much of the region.

Published: December 15, 2025, 8:54 am

Pilot narrowly avoids ‘midair collision’ with US air force plane near Venezuela

JetBlue pilot calls incident ‘outrageous’ and says US military refueling tanker didn’t have transponder turned on

A JetBlue flight from the small Caribbean nation of Curaçao halted its ascent to avoid colliding with a US air force refueling tanker on Friday, and the pilot blamed the military plane for crossing his path.

“We almost had a midair collision up here,” the JetBlue pilot said, according to a recording of his conversation with air traffic control. “They passed directly in our flight path ... They don’t have their transponder turned on, it’s outrageous.”

Published: December 14, 2025, 8:28 pm

Obamacare expiration will have ‘death spiral’ effect on US healthcare – experts

End of subsidies after failed legislation will have serious and damaging impact on entire sector, policy experts say

With subsidies for Affordable Care Act (ACA) health insurance set to expire, Americans who rely on them will probably switch to plans with lower monthly premiums and high deductibles or decide not to purchase any coverage, which will have a serious and damaging impact on the entire sector, according to healthcare policy experts.

The average amount ACA plan enrollees pay annually for premiums is estimated to more than double, from an average of $888 this year to $1,904 in 2026, according to a KFF analysis.

Published: December 14, 2025, 5:00 pm

Manchin urges lawmakers to stop acting in ‘attack mode’ amid political violence

Former senator’s comments echo recent call from Erika Kirk that ‘everyone has responsibility’ to tone down hatred

Politicians should “calm down” and stop approaching one another in “attack mode” amid the US’s climate of political violence, former US senator Joe Manchin said on Sunday.

The West Virginia independent who generally caucused with Senate Democrats echoed similar comments made at a town hall Saturday by Erika Kirk, the widow of conservative political activist Charlie Kirk, who was shot to death in September.

Published: December 14, 2025, 5:43 pm

‘It’s not a coincidence’: journalists of color on being laid off amid Trump’s anti-DEI push

Black and brown former employees from CBS, NBC and Teen Vogue talk about the effects of being let go

Trey Sherman was traveling to work on the New York subway when he received an email from David Reiter, a CBS News executive, about an imminent meeting on 29 October. Sherman, an associate producer of CBS Evening News Plus at the time, suspected that he would be laid off. CBS News’s parent company, Paramount, had closed a merger with the Hollywood studio Skydance in August, and planned to slash more than 2,000 jobs as part of corporate restructuring.

Sherman, who is Black, and Reiter, who is white, had an amicable conversation, according to Sherman. Reiter told Sherman that he was being laid off because his show was being eliminated, Sherman said, and that Reiter was unable to assign the team to other positions. Sherman accepted the news and the two men wished each other good luck.

Published: December 14, 2025, 1:00 pm

‘The frontline is everywhere’: new MI6 head to warn of growing Russian threat

Blaise Metreweli expected to say UK faces new ‘age of uncertainty’ in speech identifying Kremlin as key threat

Assassination plots, sabotage, cyber-attacks and the manipulation of information by Russia and other hostile states mean that “the frontline is everywhere”, the new head of MI6 will warn on Monday.

Blaise Metreweli, giving her first speech in the job, is expected to say the UK faces a new “age of uncertainty” where the rules of conflict are being rewritten, particularly in light of wider Kremlin aggression after the invasion of Ukraine.

Published: December 15, 2025, 12:01 am

Ultra-conservative José Antonio Kast elected Chile’s next president

The son of a Nazi party member and an admirer of Pinochet, Kast built his campaign on a promise to expel tens of thousands of undocumented migrants

The ultra-conservative former congressman José Antonio Kast has been elected as Chile’s next president.

With more than 99% of polling stations counted, Kast took 58.16% of the vote, against 41.84% for the leftist Jeannette Jara, a former labour minister under the current president, Gabriel Boric.

Published: December 14, 2025, 11:40 pm

‘Like a mini Louvre’: two generations of Rothschilds fight over treasure trove of artworks

Baronesses Nadine and Ariane de Rothschild at odds over future of Swiss chateau’s priceless contents

After three generations of genteel discretion bordering on secrecy, the international banking family the Rothschilds has been riven by rival claims to a vast collection of masterpieces that are part of the family’s multibillion-euro fortune.

The battle now playing out in the courts and media has pitched the 93-year-old senior baroness, Nadine de Rothschild – widow of Edmond de Rothschild, the late scion of the French-Swiss branch of the family – against her daughter-in-law, Ariane de Rothschild, the current baroness.

Published: December 14, 2025, 6:00 am

‘They’re trying to get rich off it’: US contractors vie to rebuild Gaza, with ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ team in the lead

Exclusive: group behind notorious Florida immigration detention center created bid for reconstruction deal

Trump administration insiders and well-connected Republican businesses have been jostling to dominate pending humanitarian aid and reconstruction logistics in the shattered Gaza Strip, according to sources and documents reviewed by the Guardian.

With three-quarters of Gaza’s structures damaged or destroyed by two years of Israeli strikes, the rebuilding effort to come – estimated at $70bn by the United Nations – could be a rich prize for companies that specialize in construction, demolition, transportation and logistics.

Published: December 14, 2025, 11:00 am

‘Apocalyptically funny’: why The Mitchells vs the Machines is my feelgood movie

The latest in our series of writers explaining their comfort watches is a celebration of 2021’s acclaimed animated adventure

Animation is a great way of allowing you to experience the world through the eyes of another, complete with the colour, energy, imagination and chaos that this can bring. It’s true whether you’re looking at the world from the perspective of a frustrated and talented teenage girl, or from that of a megalomaniacal rogue AI who dreams of blasting every human on Earth into space in tiny hexagonal pods (with free wifi!). Such is the chaotic and sensational combination of styles that fuels animated road-trip riot The Mitchells vs the Machines, a film that crams a father-daughter conflict, a techno-apocalypse, Olivia Colman, and every colour of the rainbow into a burnt-orange 1993 station wagon.

Phil Lord and Christopher Miller produce with the same kind of free-spirited approach that characterised the likes of The Lego Movie and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. It’s then balanced out by Gravity Falls’ Mike Rianda and Jeff Rowe, who complement the zaniness with a nuanced, gentle and heartfelt story, making it more than just a superficial display of artistry. The Mitchells vs the Machines is not just a story of the relationships people have with one another, but those we have with technology and our past selves.

Published: December 15, 2025, 10:00 am

‘Lunch could last all day – and night’: inside Coco Chanel’s sun-kissed sanctum for art’s superstars

The French fashion designer’s lavish Mediterranean villa was frequented by everyone from Dalí to Garbo to Stravinsky to Churchill. It has now been lovingly restored – with a thrillingly bolstered library

It is the place where Salvador Dalí painted The Enigma of Hitler, a haunting landscape featuring a giant telephone receiver that seems to be crying a tear over a cutout picture of the Fuhrer. Conceived in 1939, the work seems to anticipate war. It is also the place where Winston Churchill penned parts of his multi-volume A History of the English-Speaking Peoples, and painted its dappled-light view. Somerset Maugham would visit, too, as well as novelist Colette, composer Igor Stravinsky and playwright Jean Cocteau, partaking in lunches that lasted all day and night, with debates and discussions around artistic ideas.

This place is La Pausa: the Mediterranean villa in the hills of Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, once owned by husband-and-wife writing duo Charles Norris Williamson and Alice Muriel Williamson, followed by French fashion designer Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel, who had it rebuilt from scratch at the end of the 1920s. She later sold it to an American publishing couple, Emery and Wendy Reves.

Published: December 15, 2025, 11:02 am

Tell Me Softly review – high-school romance of bad boys and blurred boundaries

Social-media fame and sexual intrigue collide in this part-Twilight, part-OC romantic drama whose provocative dramatic set-ups feel as glib as porn scenes

Here is a Spanish YA romance based on a novel by Mercedes Ron, famous (or perhaps notorious) for the My/Your/Our Fault saga. This time, we have Kami (Alícia Falcó), a confident, attractive cheerleader at her local high school with a huge following on social media, and an angry jock boyfriend who is none too pleased when her attention wanders towards a couple of handsome brothers who have just begun attending the school. Younger brother Thiago (Fernando Lindez) is in the same year as Kami, while the older Taylor (Diego Vidales) joins as a coach, and immediately begins behaving in a variety of ways inappropriate to his pastoral role. It quickly emerges that Kami and the brothers have some sort of dark and contentious history, hinted at in flashbacks and gradually revealed in full across the course of the run time.

Coming off like a scrambled-together mix of the love-triangle elements of Twilight with the elite social milieu of The OC, much is made of the idea that Kami is attracted to both brothers, despite Thiago being a sweet lad who is clearly into Kami, and Taylor being someone who is constantly brooding and growling and treating everybody badly. It doesn’t really seem like all that tough of a choice, though the film runs hard with the idea that Taylor’s behaviour, which contains enough red flags to supply bunting to an entire village fete, is justified by the strength of his feelings. Hmm.

Published: December 15, 2025, 1:00 pm

The Christmas Dream review – Thailand’s first musical in decades is big on sentimental spectacle

A festive musical blends fairytale optimism with lush orchestration and Sound of Music sweetness – even if this often overwhelms a thin storyline

Reported to be the first Thai musical in 50 years, The Christmas Dream is directed by Englishman Paul Spurrier, and is an intriguing blend of new and old: a modern Oliver Twist that progresses from the country’s northern hills to Bangkok, with old-school Technicolor trappings and emotionally lush showstoppers aplenty (written by Spurrier and set to an orchestral score by Mickey Wongsathapornpat).

With a Michelle Yeoh-like resoluteness but half her size, Amata Masmalai plays 10-year-old schoolgirl Lek, who is forced to flee after her abusive stepfather Nin (Only God Forgives’ Vithaya Pansringarm) fatally beats her mother (Chomphupak Poonpol). Hitting the road with her one-legged doll Bella for company, Lek has only a strong moral compass to guide her to the new home she is promised by her mum’s ghost. A number of picaresque companions put it to the test, including a spoiled rich girl (Kathaya Chongprasith) desperate for a friend and a quack doctor (Adam Kaokept) hawking dodgy cure-alls.

Published: December 15, 2025, 7:00 am

Saturday Night Live: Josh O’Connor is lumped with a laugh-light episode

Musical guest Lily Allen ends up stealing subpar episode that fails to make the most of rising star’s first time as host

Saturday Night Live opens with Donald Trump (James Austin Johnson) talking to reporters aboard Air Force One. From behind “curtain”, the Ambien and Adderall-riddled commander-in-chief “openly simp[s]” over his press secretary Karoline Leavitt (Ashley Padilla), brags about targeting suspected drug boats and drug planes over the Caribbean (footage from a strike reveals that the military blew up Santa’s sled), bashes the proposed sale of Warner Brothers to Netflix (“I don’t know why anyone would want Warner Brothers, they have one of the worst studio tours in LA”), and admits that “we should all be very worried about my health, I’m very ill”, before having Leavitt sign off with “Live from New York, it’s Saturday Night!” (Padilla, who is quickly becoming one of SNL’s most featured cast members, gets the honors.)

To call this cold open slight is giving it too much credit – Johnson’s Trump remains a winner, but there is just no meat on this bone.

Published: December 14, 2025, 4:07 pm

‘Fans stole my underwear – and even my car aerial’: how Roxette made It Must Have Been Love

‘We had 2,000 people outside our hotel room in Buenos Aires singing our songs all night. David Coulthard later told me that all the Formula One drivers were staying there and were annoyed because they couldn’t sleep’

In my early 20s, I was in the biggest band in Sweden. But after Gyllene Tider [Golden Times] collapsed, I was depressed for two years. At first, Roxette only got together when Marie Fredriksson, our singer, wasn’t busy with solo stuff. To keep her in the band, I needed to make it successful, so I was very motivated.

Published: December 15, 2025, 3:00 pm

A shocking investigation into unaided home births: best podcasts of the week

Sirin Kale and Lucy Osborne tread a delicate line between hard-hitting and empathetic in this profile of the Free Birth Society. Plus, an ode to The Gilmore Girls

A shocking Guardian investigation by Sirin Kale and Lucy Osborne into the Free Birth Society (FBS), a movement that made millions of dollars from encouraging pregnant women to have unaided home births – even as the deaths of babies mounted. Its empathetic interviews with ex-members make for a sensitive, hugely listenable show, treading a delicate line between hard-hitting and extending empathy to the women who fell under FBS’s spell. Alexi Duggins
Widely available, all episodes out now

Published: December 15, 2025, 7:00 am

‘Happy by Pharrell is exceedingly annoying – but I love it’: DJ Roger Sanchez’s honest playlist

The Another Chance star does Journey at karaoke and gets the party started with Daft Punk. But which Stevie Wonder track would he like played at his funeral?

The first song I fell in love with
I grew up in New York City, so the emergence of hip-hop really connected with me when I was a kid. Rapper’s Delight by the Sugarhill Gang started me down the road where I am today.

The first single I bought
Let No Man Put Asunder by First Choice, on 12-inch vinyl from Rock and Soul in New York City, with money I’d saved from working part-time at the grocery store.

Published: December 14, 2025, 9:00 am

Poem of the week: Winter Walk by Lynette Roberts

A journey through a visionary landscape, exceptionally bright in icy weather, conjures a surreal semi-mythical world

Winter Walk

She left the hut and bright log fire at noon
And walked outside on crisp white winter snow
To find the iced slopes shadowed like the moon,
The wild wood desolate and bare below;
The red trees wet, adrift with icy flow,
The evergreens with glassy needled leaves;
A bloodstone veined red and white this view weaves.

Published: December 15, 2025, 10:12 am

Pulse by Cynan Jones review – short stories that show the vitality of the form

The Welsh author vividly captures the solitude, hard labour, dramas and dangers of rural life

In these six stories of human frailty and responsibility, Welsh writer Cynan Jones explores the imperatives of love and the labour of making and sustaining lives. Each is told with a compelling immediacy and intensity, and with the quality of returning to a memory.

In the story Reindeer a man is seeking a bear, which has been woken by hunger from hibernation and is now raiding livestock from the farms of a small isolated community. “There was no true sunshine. There was no gleam in the snow, but the lateness of the left daylight put a cold faint blue through the slopes.” The story’s world is one in which skill, endurance, even stubbornness might be insufficient to succeed, but are just enough to persist.

Published: December 15, 2025, 9:00 am

William Golding: The Faber Letters review – the making of a masterpiece

Correspondence between the Lord of the Flies author and his editor reveals one of the great literary collaborations of the age

When William Golding submitted Lord of the Flies to Faber in 1953 it had already been rejected at least seven times, maybe as many as 20. Charles Monteith could tell from the dog-eared typescript that it had done the rounds, and a reader for Faber called it “absurd and uninteresting … Rubbish and dull. Pointless.” But Monteith, young and new to the job, could see the book’s potential, and suggested ways that Golding – then a Salisbury-based schoolmaster in his early 40s – might improve it. More radically cut and revised than Monteith expected, the novel became a school syllabus classic. Thus began an author-editor friendship that lasted 40 years.

Their early exchanges by post were formal in the extreme: it took two years for Dear Monteith, Dear Golding to become Dear Charles, Dear Bill. But as provincial grammar school boys who both read English at Oxford, the two were attuned to each other. And after the rescue act performed on his first novel, Golding remained humbly grateful for whatever help he could get: “I’m in your hands as usual. I’ve no particular feeling of possession over the book.” Monteith’s touch was gentle for the next few years: enthusiastic, even effusive, he reassured Golding that his drafts of The Inheritors and Free Fall were the finished product. With later novels, such as The Spire and Rites of Passage, editorial feedback was tougher and more extensive. But there were no fallings out. “I’ve always had a feeling of you there, present but not breathing down my neck!” Golding said. He never seriously considered moving to another publishing house.

Published: December 15, 2025, 7:00 am

‘Suddenly, it was everywhere’: why some books become blockbusters overnight

Whether it’s through TikTok buzz, celebrity endorsements or good old-fashioned word of mouth, some titles enjoy a second, more powerful, life. But what unites them – and is there a formula for this type of success?

There is a particular kind of literary deja vu that strikes sometimes. Seemingly out of nowhere, the same book starts appearing across multiple social media feeds. On the bus, you’ll spot two copies of the same title in one day. A friend says, “Have you read this yet?”, to which you respond, “Someone was just telling me about it the other day.”

These are the sleeper hits that seem to materialise without warning. They are not stacked high on the new release tables. They are books that, for one reason or another, have slipped their original timelines and found a second, often more powerful life.

Published: December 14, 2025, 12:00 pm

He wrote the world’s most successful video games – now what? Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser on life after Grand Theft Auto

He rewrote the rule book with Rockstar then left it all behind. Now Dan Houser is back with a storytelling-focused studio to take on AI-obsessed tech bros and Mexican beauty queens

There are only a handful of video game makers who have had as profound an effect on the industry as Dan Houser. The co-founder of Rockstar Games, and its lead writer, worked on all the GTA titles since the groundbreaking third instalment, as well as both Red Dead Redemption adventures. But then, in 2019, he took an extended break from the company which ended with his official departure. Now he’s back with a new studio and a range of projects, and 12 years after we last interviewed him, he’s ready to talk about what comes next.

“Finishing those big projects and thinking about doing another one is really intense,” he says about his decision to go. “I’d been in full production mode every single day from the very start of each project to the very end, for 20 years. I stayed so long because I loved the games. It was a real privilege to be there, but it was probably the right time to leave. I turned 45 just after Red Dead 2 came out. I thought, well, it’s probably a good time to try working on some other stuff.”

Published: December 15, 2025, 12:35 pm

Bluey’s Quest for the Gold Pen: after some misfires we finally have the first good Bluey video game

The new Bluey game is the first made in Australia, the first to involve creator Joe Brumm and the first to respect the kids playing it

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Bluey embodies the talent, heart and character of Australia’s creative industries. But unfortunately, until now, the beloved franchise’s video games had a track record spottier than her friend Chloe the dalmatian.

Some parents treated Budge Studios’ 2023 mobile game Bluey: Let’s Play! with caution, with its $9.99 monthly subscription and persistent adverts for Budge’s other licensed games. Later that same year, Artax Games’ Bluey: The Videogame was widely criticised on release for its barely two-hour run time, technical problems and $60 price tag. In his review, Australian game critic Luke Plunkett called it “a slapdash cash grab that does the bare minimum”.

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Published: December 14, 2025, 2:00 pm

‘The antithesis to Nazi ideology’: how Pippi Longstocking was born to stand up to Hitler

A new documentary explores how Astrid Lindgren’s beloved children’s books about the pigtailed free spirit were written in response to the darkest days of the second world war

She’s the mischievous little red-haired Swedish girl with the pigtails. Since 1945, this waif with no mother or father has rarely been out of the bestseller lists and continues to inspire musicals and movies. Heyday Films, the outfit behind Paddington and James Bond, is now developing an English-language adaptation of her stories.

What isn’t generally known outside her native Sweden are the circumstances in which author Astrid Lindgren created Pippi during the darkest period of the second world war, under the shadow of Hitler and Stalin.

Published: December 15, 2025, 2:57 pm

Anna Christie review – Michelle Williams is miscast in Eugene O’Neill misfire

St Ann’s Warehouse, New York

Oscar-nominated actor struggles to convince in an emotionally inert attempt to resurrect one of the playwright’s lesser-known works

Though it won a Pulitzer prize in 1922, Eugene O’Neill’s social melodrama Anna Christie is not among the venerated playwright’s most famous works. For the better part of a century, ambitious theater artists have endeavored to climb the mountains of Long Day’s Journey Into Night and The Iceman Cometh. Less so for Anna Christie, a strange piece about a supposedly ruined woman trying to get her life back in order.

It’s an interesting choice of vehicle for star Michelle Williams, making her return to the stage after a nine-year hiatus. Anna Christie is an erratic and now quite dated play, one whose moral outlook is hard to parse, its shifts in tone sudden and varied. There’s also the matter that at 45, Williams is about a quarter-century older than O’Neill’s heroine, who is meant to be a hardened and battered young woman trying to start her adult life on new footing.

Published: December 14, 2025, 9:00 pm

The best cordless leaf blowers in the US to cut down time without bothering neighbors

Battery-powered leaf blowers from Ryobi, Ego and Stihl quickly clean up leaves with no gas, no smell, and dramatically less noise

• In the UK? The best leaf blowers: 10 favourites to speed up raking – plus smart ways to reuse your fallen leaves

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Electric leaf blowers are on track to soon outsell their obnoxious gas counterparts, and for good reason. They’re easier to start, require almost no maintenance, and many run quietly enough for early-morning yard sessions without bothering the neighbors.

Cordless models offer the ultimate freedom to roam untethered, but they come with tradeoffs in power, weight, runtime and of course cost. To find the model that balanced these best, I tested seven models across the price spectrum on dry leaves, damp leaves, pine needles, and general yard debris. Throughout testing, I paid close attention to control, comfort and how long each battery maintained usable power.

Published: December 14, 2025, 6:15 pm

Endings are hard, but facing them helps us to heal

I understand the temptation to run away – I have felt it too. Try to stay in the room, and in the moment. You’ll be glad you did

This is my last column for you. I am shocked and delighted that I’ve been allowed to carry on for almost two years, saying such controversial and true things as: the oedipal complex is real and all of us have one; psychodynamic psychotherapy is an effective and vital mental health treatment and we must fight for it in the NHS; and Midnight Run is the best film of all time. It has been a joy and an honour, and, now we are here, I’ve been thinking about the significance of endings.

Because they are significant. Sometimes, having no time left can make it possible to feel and say what was impossible before. They can invite an intimacy and truthfulness and grief that some find overwhelming. It’s not unusual for patients to talk of dropping out, or to skip the final session – to call it a waste of time, to want to leave the room before the end.

Published: December 15, 2025, 11:00 am

The one change that worked: sharing ‘accountability’ notes has made life better for both of us

Would telling a buddy my to-do list was done – before I’d done it – really make it more likely to happen? But leaving her a voice note every day has increased my productivity, and deepened our friendship

When my friend Rosamund suggested we try a productivity technique of leaving each other a voice note every day, I immediately said yes – even if I suspected, deep down, that we might not keep it up for long. I was circumspect because we both lead busy lives, 3,500 miles apart. She lives in London and I’m based in Brooklyn. It is hard to keep in touch sometimes. Even talking on the phone feels tough, what with the time difference and our schedules. Adding another thing to do every day, even a small, two-minute task, felt like a challenge.

The technique is simple enough. You send a friend a voice note in the morning saying what you “did” that day. You always speak in the past tense for accountability. The theory is that once you tell a friend you have “done” something, you will be more likely to follow it through.

Published: December 15, 2025, 10:00 am

This is how we do it: ‘We were childhood sweethearts – and 28 years later we’re still having sex every day’

Sarah and Scott have been together since school, but the sex just keeps getting better
• How do you do it? Share the story of your sex life, anonymously

It took me a while to figure out what turned me on – I was well into my 20s when I first had an orgasm with him

Published: December 14, 2025, 11:00 am

My dad has given my brother 80% of his business and I feel horribly dismissed

You’re reluctant to discuss this with your parents – but doing so might help you shake off the feeling of injustice

I am struggling with the different way my parents have treated me and my brother. My dad started a business when I was five. Now it’s worth several million. My brother was invited by my dad to go into the business when he left university. I was not. By then, the business was well established and my dad stayed on as CEO. My dad gave my brother 80% of it. He will now sell the business and realise millions, meaning he can retire early.

My dad helped me with university fees and house purchases. He’s told me I will inherit the house and whatever money is left when my parents pass away, which is likely to be in about 20 years. I doubt there will be anything left.

Published: December 14, 2025, 6:00 am

Is it true that … wearing heels changes the shape of your feet?

Stilettos are fine for an evening out, but wearing them all day, every day could cause permanent damage

‘If you’d asked me that 15 years ago, I would have said: ‘Absolute nonsense – it’s all genetics and shoes aren’t responsible for any problem,’” says Andrew Goldberg, consultant orthopaedic foot and ankle specialist at the Wellington hospital in London. But viewing 3D scans that show how people’s feet look while standing in their shoes changed his mind completely.

He took two scans of a person’s feet – one barefoot and one in high heels – and the difference was striking. In the high heels, the toes were crowded together, the big toe showed a bunion, and the smaller toes were clawed, gripping for balance.

Published: December 15, 2025, 8:00 am

‘I feel shrink-wrapped’: the reluctant rise of shapewear for men

For years it’s been predicted that the market for male ‘support garments’ will take off … but it hasn’t quite happened. Now M&S is trying again

There is a moment – just seconds into getting dressed – when I think I might panic. The hem of my stretchy top has got rolled up round my ribs before my head has popped out of the neck hole, and with my hands still stuck in the sleeves, I cannot reach round to pull it down. I wriggle helplessly for a minute, but the situation doesn’t improve; the band of rolled-up fabric is taut across my chest, immovable. That’s when I feel the first tingle of rising alarm – so familiar from early childhood – that comes of being trapped in your clothes.

I am trying, for the first time, to put on an item of shapewear for men – an ordinary-looking, highly elasticated long-sleeved workout top that will, I hope, give me the instant slim profile of someone who goes to the gym regularly, instead of not since the pandemic started.

Published: December 14, 2025, 2:00 pm

All I want for Christmas … is to escape and go travelling

Going away for the festive season has left me with unforgettable memories, from a boat trip with Bangladeshi fishermen to exploring Castro’s Cuban hideout

I have made a point of escaping Christmas for as long as I can remember. Not escaping for Christmas, but avoiding it altogether – the stressful buildup, consumer chaos, panic buying, the enforced jollity and parties. When the first festive gifts start appearing in the shops in September, it’s time to confirm my travel plans, ideally to include New Year’s Eve as well.

Sometimes I travel independently, but more often in a group, and while it’s not always possible to avoid the tinsel and baubles – even in non-Christian countries thousands of miles away – I just relish not being at home at this time of year.

Published: December 15, 2025, 7:00 am

The kindness of strangers: I was so ill I couldn’t walk when a man virtually carried me to the toilets

I was determined not to vomit in front of six lanes of traffic, so I started crawling towards a nearby park

• Read more in the kindness of strangers series

When I was 19, I commuted to work every morning on an express bus. It was perpetually crowded and would always be standing room only by the time I got on.

One particular morning, I was feeling quite nauseous as the bus swayed around each corner. I kept telling myself to hold on another few kilometres until the bus got to my stop, and then I could make a mad dash for the nearest public toilet to throw up.

Published: December 14, 2025, 2:00 pm

Joely Richardson looks back: ‘Natasha’s death was life-changing. She was a figurehead to me’

The Nip/Tuck and Downton Abbey star on losing her sister, growing up in a theatrical dynasty, and how she feels about ageing

Born in London in 1965, Joely Richardson is an actor and campaigner. The daughter of actor Vanessa Redgrave and director and producer Tony Richardson, she trained at Rada, and rose to prominence with roles in 101 Dalmatians, Nip/Tuck and The Tudors, as well as in theatre and on Broadway. More recently, she appeared in Guy Ritchie’s The Gentlemen, and Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale. Richardson is working for Save the Children’s annual festive fundraiser, Christmas Jumper Day, and also backing the charity’s new Christmas campaign.

I remember this as a happy day, but my eyes tell a different story. They look a little mistrustful. In my arms is my brother Carlo – we have different fathers; his is Italian actor Franco Nero. That day was Carlo’s christening, and it was obvious from my hand position that I’m not used to standing like that. Someone’s gone: “Put your arms out! We’re taking a picture of you holding the baby!” The whole thing looks awkward.

Published: December 14, 2025, 2:00 pm

The 12 condiments of Christmas

Everyone needs a hand in the kitchen, and in lieu of any sous elves, Claire Dinhut – AKA Condiment Claire – picks the ones that will make your feast sing

Salt, sweet, bitter, acid, umami. While we don’t think to use too much “sweet” before dessert, it can counterbalance and enhance other flavours. Maple syrup is my sweetener of choice during the holidays because it just tastes cozy. Add it to roasted root vegetables or a poultry glaze, and it’s especially tasty in drinks, from hot apple cider to eggnog and even mulled wine.

Published: December 14, 2025, 9:00 am

‘They’re selling everything as trauma’: how our emotional pain became a product | Katherine Rowland

In an economy that rewards confession and self-labeling, pain is no longer something to survive – but something to brand, sell, and curate

In March 2023, Dr Gabor Maté, a retired family physician and among the most respected trauma experts in the world, boldly diagnosed Prince Harry with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), during a live interview.

Having read the Duke of Sussex’s ghost-written memoir, Spare, Maté said that he had arrived upon “several diagnoses” that also included depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder. These were not evidence of disease per se, Maté went on to elaborate. Rather, he said: “I see it as a normal response to abnormal stress.”

Published: December 14, 2025, 3:07 pm

‘A very hostile climate for workers’: US labor movement struggles under Trump

National Labor Relations Board, the federal watchdog for workers’ rights, has been rendered toothless as employees grapple with corporations

On a cold January day in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, workers at a Whole Foods Market store in the heart of the city made history. Organizers won a vote to form a union for the very first time in one of the grocery chain’s 530 US stores.

Whole Foods is owned by Amazon, which has spent years quashing unionization efforts within its sprawling empire. This result amounted to another blow in the tech giant’s armor.

Published: December 14, 2025, 11:00 am

‘I’m going to be heartbroken. This is a landmark’: cherished Times Square dive bar faces eviction

With cheap drinks and friendly locals, Jimmy’s Corner is a New York institution. But a real-estate developer has ordered its closure – can it survive?

Founded by Jimmy Glenn, a former boxer turned trainer, in 1971, Jimmy’s Corner has stood, defiantly unchanged, as Times Square has boomed around it.

The neighborhood bar, a New York City institution which attracts locals and tourists alike, has had the same pictures on the walls for decades – some of the bar’s regulars have been coming almost as long – kept the same furniture, and maintained remarkably low pricing. In a perhaps unintentional nod to its history, there is also several years’ accumulation of dust in some areas.

Published: December 14, 2025, 3:00 pm

Tell us: have you ever had an allergic reaction caused by your clothes?

Synthetic fabrics, particularly from fast fashion retailers, can be treated with a range of hazardous chemicals which can cause an allergic reaction. If you think this is happened to you, we’d like to hear from you

Have you suffered any personal health repercussions you suspect may have been caused by your fashion purchases?

Research has shown that synthetic fabrics, particularly from fast fashion retailers, are often treated with a range of hazardous chemicals - including dyes containing heavy metals such as lead, antimicrobial agents, and anti wrinkle treatments - that can cause allergic reactions such as skin irritation or respiratory issues in some people.

Published: December 15, 2025, 11:41 am

The Nutcracker ballet in Kenya – in pictures

Dance Centre Kenya, one of the leading performing arts schools in east Africa providing opportunities for talented young dancers from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds, has staged The Nutcracker for its 10th-anniversary annual ballet production, at the Kenya National Theatre in Nairobi

Published: December 15, 2025, 7:00 am