‘It’s an open invasion’: how millions of quagga mussels changed Lake Geneva for ever

The molluscs are decimating food chains in Switzerland, have devastated the Great Lakes in the US, and this week were spotted in Northern Ireland for the first time

Like cholesterol clogging up an artery, it took just a couple of years for the quagga mussels to infiltrate the 5km (3-mile) highway of pipes under the Swiss Federal Technology Institute of Lausanne (EPFL). By the time anyone realised what was going on, it was too late. The power of some heat exchangers had dropped by a third, blocked with ground-up shells.

The air conditioning faltered, and buildings that should have been less than 24C in the summer heat couldn’t get below 26 to 27C. The invasive mollusc had infiltrated pipes that suck cold water from a depth of 75 metres (250ft) in Lake Geneva to cool buildings. “It’s an open invasion,” says Mathurin Dupanier, utilities operations manager at EPFL.

Mathurin Dupanier indicates the water cooling systems that were blocked by the invasive quagga mussels. Photographs: Phoebe Weston/the Guardian; École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

Published: December 18, 2025, 5:00 am

What’s going on with Donald Trump’s health? | Moira Donegan

The president’s appearance and schedule have sparked speculation – perhaps fueled in part by his political fortunes

Is Donald Trump OK?

Recently, he’s looked tired. His famous fake tan is a bit more sallow than usual and seems painted on more thickly and clumsily than it was before. He appears to nod off in front of cameras more and more often, including in cabinet meetings and press events in the Oval Office. His public schedule is light: he is often at his golf clubs, has traveled around the country less frequently than at this point in his first term, and now only rarely holds the stadium rallies that once defined his preferred style of politics. He tends to sit, even when others are standing, and has shortened his daily schedule, often not conducting official duties before noon. A New York Times report found that his public appearances have declined by nearly 40% compared to his first year in office. He sometimes disappears from public view for days as he did in the late summer, and he and his administration have released unclear and conflicting information about his health. His right hand seems to be experiencing frequent injury or discoloration – it will often be covered with a band-aid or smeared with makeup; the White House has claimed, implausibly, that he is bruised from shaking too many hands. In some images, his ankles are visibly swollen.

Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist

Published: December 18, 2025, 11:00 am

Emily in Paris season five review – Minnie Driver is just what this campy masterpiece needed

TV’s greatest guilty pleasure is back – and it’s still a total hoot! Prepare to gorge yourself silly on it over the holidays along with the mince pies. You know you want to …

‘Turn off your brain and jump!” So says London geezer Alfie (Lucien Laviscount) to ex-girlfriend Emily’s best pal Mindy (Ashley Park), as they flirt their way through a racy dance scene. It could, of course, be an instruction to viewers of season five of Emily in Paris, too. Once pilloried for its Anglophile tendencies and surface-level commitment to la culture française, the fluffy dramedy about an American in Paris helmed by Lily Collins has – over the past five years – become one of TV’s greatest guilty pleasures: a fancy fever dream of great clothes, strapping love interests and a constant karaoke soundtrack courtesy of Park, a Broadway star whose contract clearly dictates that she sing at least five times per episode. The clothes are less outlandish this time around, but still aspirational – lending the show a strand of Sex and the City DNA (they also share a creator, Darren Star).

But, unlike SATC – whose spinoff And Just Like That devolved into a mindless mess – Emily in Paris is free of any baggage, and at liberty to be as silly as it fancies. Much of season five doesn’t even take place in Paris, as our leading lady continues to mix business and pleasure in Rome with cashmere heir Marcello (Eugenio Franceschini). “Ciao and ni hao!” says Mindy, who has rejected a job as a judge on Chinese Popstar (“I’d rather be judging people in real life than on TV”) and is now headed to Italy, just in time to help Emily and her crack marketing team with some #sponsoredcontent (read: singing inside a giant martini glass). Also in town is Alfie: cue an inadvisable fling between the two that instantly breaks all the rules of girl code.

Published: December 18, 2025, 8:01 am

‘Collusion does not require a dictatorship’: István Szabó on his Nazi actor masterpiece Mephisto

As his 1981 film is rereleased, the director talks about his Oscar-winning fable about an actor’s Faustian pact with the Nazi party – and its new relevance

At the 54th Academy Awards, in 1982, Chariots of Fire was imperial, and Katharine Hepburn broke records. Less remembered today is a darkly brilliant European film about a stage actor in Nazi Germany that went home from the ceremony with the best international feature prize. Mephisto, directed by István Szabó, was the first ever Hungarian film to do so.

“The moment took me by surprise,” remembers Szabó, 87, four decades later. “I didn’t expect it.” Visibly elated on the live broadcast as he took to the stage, Szabó today says that he “knew this award wasn’t just mine, but also Brandauer’s”, meaning the film’s electrifying lead actor, and the largely Hungarian crew “who contributed with their talent to the making of the film”.

Published: December 18, 2025, 6:00 am

‘Pretty birds and silly moos’: the women behind the Sex Discrimination Act

In the 50 years since equal rights for women were enshrined in UK law, the campaigners have been reduced to caricatures, or forgotten. But their struggle is worth remembering

Celia Brayfield was at her desk in the Femail section of the Daily Mail’s Fleet Street office when an editor called her over. It was July and Wimbledon had started. “He said: ‘We want you to go down and get into the women’s changing rooms and report on lesbian behaviour.’ One didn’t normally swear at that time but I declined. That was the attitude then,” she told me.

From the late 1960s until the early 70s, Brayfield was one of a small group of female journalists working on women’s pages in newspapers. “We were dealing with everyday sexism on an unbelievable scale,” she said. “You learned to wear trousers or take the lift because if you took the stairs someone would try to look up your skirt. But then you couldn’t go to a lot of press conference venues in trousers. In the Savoy, for example, women in trousers weren’t allowed.”

Published: December 18, 2025, 5:00 am

Film-maker Mstyslav Chernov: ‘I kept seeing Ukraine as a victim of this invasion – I wanted to tell another story’

The documentary-maker on new film 2000 Meters to Andriivka (the Guardian’s No 2 film of 2025), being on the Oscar circuit with 20 Days in Mariupol and filming on the frontline

Adrian Horton: I know you were showing your prior film, 20 Days in Mariupol, to western audiences when you began working on this film. What brought you back to the frontlines?
Mstyslav Chernov: What brought me back was not speaking to the audiences, even, but just coming out of Mariupol, we were so devastated and so scarred by what happened. And then we went off to Bucha, where we saw more war crimes. And then I went to Kharkiv, my home town, which was bombed every day, just as Mariupol was. So even when we were starting to edit 20 Days in Mariupol, I was already looking for a story that would be, in a way, a response to that feeling I had, of devastation and helplessness. I kept seeing Ukraine as a victim of this brutal invasion, and I wanted to tell another story which would have an opposite direction – to show some sort of agency, some sort of strength and response to that violence, when Ukrainians push back.

AH: And that was when Mariupol was already out? What was that dissonance like for you – being on the Oscar circuit, then filming on the frontlines?
MC: That was when the theatrical release started in July. It was the same time as Barbie and Oppenheimer, and it was the same time when we had dozens and dozens of Q&As for the wider public. It was when the first receptions and red carpets started. But of course, at the same time, the frontline was on fire. Ukraine was fighting this counteroffensive. And I would go from those places in the United States, in the UK, in Europe, these beautiful, peaceful cities, back to Ukraine – fly to the border, get a car, get a train, get another car, get in a trench. And in that trench, I would see a world that was so different. It would be like another planet, or 100 years backward in time. That collision of two worlds – I just tried to express it. I tried to comprehend it, how we live in a world where both war and peace and humanity and violence exist. And so 2000 Meters to Andriivka naturally became a film about distances, not just about the reality of war, not just about the humanity of people who are pinned down in those foxholes. But also about the distance between Europe and Ukraine, between Ukrainian society and people in the trenches. Hopefully that comes through.

Published: December 18, 2025, 9:35 am

UnitedHealth reduced hospitalizations for nursing home seniors. Now it faces wrongful death claims

The company says it is protecting nursing home residents by curbing unnecessary hospital transfers. Whistleblowers allege cost-cutting tactics have endangered the elderly

Three nursing home residents died because employees of the American healthcare giant UnitedHealth Group helped delay or deny them critical hospital care, two pending lawsuits and a complaint to state authorities have alleged.

The three cases involve a UnitedHealth partnership initiative that places medical staff from the company’s direct care unit, Optum, inside nursing homes to care for residents insured by the company’s insurance arm.

Published: December 17, 2025, 5:50 pm

EU told to choose between ‘money today or blood tomorrow’ as leaders debate giving Russian assets to Ukraine – Europe live

Poland’s Donald Tusk issues warning to European leaders before Brussels summit as Zelenskyy says no deal would pose ‘big problems for Ukraine’

Germany’s chancellor Friedrich Merz confirms his support for the EU’s reparations loan, saying he sees “no better option.”

He diplomatically acknowledges Belgium’s concerns, and says he hopes “we can address them together” to “send a signal of strength and resolve … towards Russia.”

Published: December 18, 2025, 11:38 am

Americans’ view on their mental health at record low, according to new poll

Drop is cause for public health concern, but news isn’t all bad as acknowledging struggles is ‘a good sign’, experts say

A record low proportion of Americans rate their mental health as “good” or “excellent” according to a Gallup poll released on Thursday.

The percentage of Americans polled who rated their mental health as “excellent” dropped below 30% for the first time this year while the number who rated their mental health as either “good” or “excellent” also dropped to a record low 72%.

Published: December 18, 2025, 11:00 am

US strike on alleged drug boat in Pacific kills four, as Trump accuses Venezuela of taking ‘our oil’

The announcement from Pete Hegseth comes a day after Trump issued a blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela

The US military carried out a lethal strike on a vessel it said was engaged in drug trafficking in the eastern Pacific, according to defense secretary Pete Hegseth, as Trump further ratcheted up pressure on Venezuela, accusing the country of taking US oil.

On Wednesday Hegseth said the “lethal kinetic strike” on a vessel engaged in “narco-trafficking operations” had killed four people. The latest strike in the Pacific brings the death toll to 99 since the US began its campaign of striking alleged drug-trafficking boats in September.

Published: December 18, 2025, 5:29 am

Rob and Michele Reiner’s cause of death released by medical examiner

The Reiners’ bodies were discovered on Sunday at their home in Los Angeles. Their son Nick was later arrested and charged with two counts of first-degree murder and has since appeared in court

The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner has released reports stating the cause of death of the film director Rob Reiner and his wife, the photographer Michele Singer Reiner.

Both are listed on the organisation’s website with the cause given as “multiple sharp force injuries” and “homicide” stated as the manner of death. The date of death, which had been the subject of some speculation, is given as Sunday 14 December.

Published: December 18, 2025, 10:36 am

2025’s AI boom caused huge CO2 emissions and use of water, research finds

Study’s author says society not tech companies paying for environmental impact of AI and asks if this is fair

The AI boom has caused as much carbon dioxide to be released into the atmosphere in 2025 as emitted by the whole of New York City, it has been claimed.

The global environmental impact of the rapidly spreading technology has been estimated in research published on Wednesday which also found that AI-related water use now exceeds the entirety of global bottled-water demand.

Published: December 18, 2025, 11:15 am

French court finds ‘twisted’ anaesthetist guilty of killing 12 patients

Former top medic described as ‘Dr Death’ by prosecutors poisoned 30 people ranging in age from four to 89

A French anaesthetist described by prosecutors as “Dr Death” has been found guilty of intentionally poisoning 30 patients and killing 12 over almost a decade as a top medic.

Frédéric Péchier, 53, once seen by colleagues as a “star anaesthetist”, was sentenced to life in prison on Thursday after state prosecutors said he was “one of the biggest criminals in the history of the French legal system”.

Published: December 18, 2025, 9:44 am

Saudi-backed forces gather on Yemen border as separatists face pressure to pull back

Southern Transitional Council, backed by UAE, told it could face airstrikes after its recent huge territorial gains

As many as 20,000 Saudi-backed forces are gathering on the border of Yemen as the separatist Southern Transitional Council comes under pressure to withdraw from the huge territorial gains it has made in the last month in the vast, oil-rich governorate on Hadramaut in eastern Yemen.

The STC is using its advance to raise its demand for Yemen to revert to two states, north and south, as it had been until 1990.

Published: December 18, 2025, 11:05 am

Jane’s Addiction call it quits after a tumultuous 15 months: ‘The legacy will remain’

US alt-rock band announce they are finally parting ways, following fisticuffs, accusations and lawsuits

US alt-rock band Jane’s Addiction has announced they are parting ways after a tumultuous 15 months of fisticuffs, accusations and lawsuits.

The veteran Californian group, who have a history of drama, dust-ups and bust-ups, prematurely terminated the US leg of their reunion tour in September last year after an onstage altercation in Boston between frontman Perry Farrell and guitarist Dave Navarro led to blows and, ultimately, a $10m lawsuit.

Published: December 18, 2025, 3:18 am

Trump attacks Democratic foes in White House presidential portraits

New plaques on ‘Presidential Walk of Fame’ scorn ‘divisive’ Obama and ‘by far the worst’ Biden – but Reagan is praised

White House officials on Wednesday revised what they call the “Presidential Walk of Fame,” installing plaques beneath portraits of former presidents that reflect Donald Trump’s own views, including branding former president Joe Biden as “the worst president in American history”.

The changes are part of Trump’s broader effort to reshape the White House environment to match his preferences. Along the colonnade, portraits of past presidents now feature expanded text that permanently records Trump’s assessments of their records.

Published: December 17, 2025, 8:44 pm

Trump’s ‘Bah! Humbug!’ address suggests he is feeling the chill of opinion polls

Primetime speech – delivered with shouty spirit but no cheer – betrayed a figure dogged by a cost of living crisis and the looming release of the Epstein files

It will go down in history as the “Bah! Humbug!” address.

Surrounded by Christmas trees and garlands before a fireplace, Donald Trump on Wednesday gave a convincing rendition of Ebenezer Scrooge, the elderly miser who despises Christmas and blames everyone but himself.

Published: December 18, 2025, 5:55 am

Susie Wiles interview might be a useful distraction from how poorly things are going for Americans

The incendiary quotes don’t disguise how dissatisfied people are about jobs, inflation or the cost of living

• This was originally published in This Week in Trumpland; sign up to receive it in your inbox every Wednesday

So it appears Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff, agrees with many of us: she thinks Donald Trump’s cabinet is bonkers.

From that bombshell Vanity Fair interview, which featured some truly terrifying close-up photos, we learned that Wiles considers JD Vance to have been “a conspiracy theorist for a decade”. She believes Elon Musk to be an “odd, odd duck”. Russell Vought, head of the Office of Management and Budget, is, in Wiles’ view, “a right-wing absolute zealot”.

“If we’re judging by these numbers, Americans are completely dissatisfied with the way things are happening in this country.”

Published: December 17, 2025, 6:00 pm

FBI deputy director Dan Bongino to step down in January

Former podcaster Bongino confirms departure after Trump tells reporters ‘I think he wants to go back to his show’

The FBI deputy director, Dan Bongino, confirmed on Wednesday that he is stepping down in January.

In a statement posted on social media, Bongino thanked Donald Trump, Kash Patel, the FBI director, and Pam Bondi, the attorney general he reportedly clashed with over her decision not to release files from the federal investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, the late sex offender who socialized with Trump for more than a decade.

Published: December 17, 2025, 11:47 pm

How climate breakdown is putting the world’s food in peril - in maps and charts

From floods to droughts, erratic weather patterns are affecting food security, with crop yields projected to fall if changes are not made

Experts have warned that the world’s ability to feed itself is under threat from the “chaos” of extreme weather caused by climate change.

Crop yields have increased enormously over the past few decades. But early warning signs have arrived as crop yield rates flatline, prompting warnings of efficiency hitting its limits and the impacts of climate change taking effect.

Published: December 18, 2025, 7:00 am

Shackled, alone and scared: the grim reality for women forced to give birth in prison

Across the world, incarcerated pregnant women are often held in deplorable conditions, leading some to miscarry or give birth alone inside a cell, say campaigners

• Read more in our Women in prison series

Dina Hernández was 35 weeks pregnant when she was arrested near her home in San Salvador in March 2024. The 28-year-old human rights activist, who was with her five-year-old son, was accused of “illicit association” with gang members and jailed without evidence.

Three weeks later, her family received a call from the prison authorities to collect the body of her newborn baby. The cause of death has not been investigated and the family has no idea what happened, or whether Hernández – who is believed to remain in prison – received any postnatal care.

Published: December 18, 2025, 11:00 am

How to eat, drink and be merry – while pregnant – at Christmas

Some traditional treats may be off the menu, but there are plenty of alternatives for a festive feast

For a festival with childbirth at its religious heart, it is perverse how much of our traditional Christmas spread isn’t recommended for pregnant women. Pre-pregnancy, this was not something I’d clocked. I was the soft cheese supremo, canape queen – at my happiest with a smoked trout blini in one hand and a champagne flute in the other. Then one day in October, two blue lines appeared on a test result and everything started to change: my body, my future and most pressingly my Christmas.

Don’t get me wrong: no present under the tree can match the gift I’ve got in store. But as a food writer who loves this season, I can’t think of a worse time to be nauseated, exhausted and forbidden by the NHS to eat, drink or do my favourite things to eat, drink or do in winter. I have no alternatives for saunas, skiing and hot baths. I do, however, know enough chefs, bartenders, retailers and producers to create a Christmas feast that is full of wonder, joy and within the NHS guidelines.

Published: December 18, 2025, 11:00 am

The 50 best TV shows of 2025: No 4 – The Studio

Seth Rogen’s warm, Emmy-winning comedy about a Hollywood movie company is exquisitely excruciating – and more fun than anything else on TV

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

Oh, The Studio – how do I love thee? Let me count the ways. Or at least allow me to gaze, rapt, from behind an ornamental palm tree as your vintage convertible hurtles towards yet another catastrophic Hollywood assignation.

The Emmy-winning creation of Seth Rogen and long-term writing partner Evan Goldberg, The Studio follows Matt Remick, an idealistic film executive who finds himself unexpectedly promoted to head of Continental Studios. “This could be my time!” he gasps, cock-a-hoop to find himself in charge of the company to which he has devoted the last 22 years of his life. He is, unfortunately, correct. “Film is my life,” he splutters during his tearfully grateful acceptance speech to CEO Griffin Mill (Bryan Cranston). Mill – an oleaginous sod with a spray tan the colour of a 70s ski lodge – smiles thinly. “At Continental, we don’t make films. We make movies. MOOOOVIEEEEES that people wanna PAY to see,” he explains, tightly, and Matt’s face proceeds to sink like a souffle. And it continues to sink over 10 exquisitely excruciating episodes, as his hopes for a new era of intelligent, auteur-helmed blockbusters are repeatedly marmalised by a system both frightened and angered by anything that can’t be deposited in a Swiss bank account.

Published: December 18, 2025, 9:58 am

‘Criminally below the radar’: readers on their best underrated Christmas films

After Guardian writers picked their favourite lesser-known festive movies, readers shoutout Klaus, The Ref and more

I thought a real modern hidden gem is All Is Bright starring Paul Rudd and Paul Giamatti as two down-on-their-luck Christmas tree sellers. It’s perfectly played by both, with Rudd putting in, not his usual “puppy dog everyone wants to be your mate” role but a sarcastic turn, complementing Giamatti’s Christmas grinch. More a black comedy (by Hollywood standards), it’s an excellent film. Andyouwillknowme

Published: December 18, 2025, 10:04 am

Dogs, drones and tight trunks: LensCulture Street Photography awards – in pictures

From aerial footage of an Indian pilgrimage to portraits of Romanians in bear costumes, this year’s awards featured stunning images from the streets of 23 countries

Published: December 18, 2025, 7:00 am

How many big names have paid the price for being linked to Jeffrey Epstein? Fewer than you might think | Emma Brockes

Remarkably, most of the men connected to the convicted sex offender have barely experienced any fallout. That says as much as the scandal itself

A couple of weeks ago, the annual DealBook Summit got under way in New York. It’s a series of public talks billed as conversations with “the world’s most consequential people”, and is part of that circuit of live events in which the worst people on Earth gather on stage to address the second-worst people on Earth, their paying audience. Hosted by Andrew Ross Sorkin, the conference was a characteristically starry affair, but in a lineup that included Charlie Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, the US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, and “changemaker” Halle Berry, it was Ehud Barak, the former prime minister of Israel and a former associate of Jeffrey Epstein, who really caught the eye.

My first thought about Barak’s appearance was: Larry Summers must be spitting. Summers, the former president of Harvard and another Epstein associate, was very much not on stage at the DealBook Summit, nor is he anywhere else in polite society right now. One can only imagine how bitter he must be feeling about the variance in fortunes of the men – and occasional woman – with known connections to Epstein. Of this list, two are dead (Marvin Minsky and Jean-Luc Brunel), one is in jail (Ghislaine Maxwell) and one has lost his house, his title and his invitation to the family Christmas (Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor). But for the rest of the prominent associates, email correspondents, birthday-card signatories, grant recipients and dinner companions of the late convicted paedophile – all of whom insist that, while in Epstein’s orbit, they remained in total ignorance as to the man’s true nature – the cancellation fairy’s aim has been predictably inconsistent and wide.

Emma Brockes is a Guardian columnist

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

Published: December 18, 2025, 8:59 am

Do World Cup teams really need a 50% prize money hike after tickets furore? | Paul MacInnes

Fifa has made big mistakes over 2026 tournament but it can afford to slash prices and even give some tickets away

Who is the World Cup for? Fifa appeared to share some of its thinking on this topic in the past week. On the one hand, there was the revelation that spectators are being asked to pay more than twice as much for match tickets than they were in Qatar. On the other, the news that prize money for competing teams is to rise by more than 50% on four years ago. Stakeholders are doing good! Fans? Not so good.

It hasn’t taken long for some of those watching to wonder whether things could be done differently. Tom Greatrex, the chair of the Football Supporters’ Association, which represents fans in England and Wales, argued that the ability to pay expanded prize money, itself a result of expanded revenue, showed “there is no need to charge extortionate ticket prices to the supporters who bring the vibrancy to the World Cup”. You could go so far as to say there was never a real need to do it in the first place.

Published: December 18, 2025, 8:00 am

I want my sons to know masculinity can be kind – and my daughter to live without fear | David Lammy

Violence against women is a national emergency. As a minister, but also as a father, I see Labour’s new strategy as a matter of the highest priority

• David Lammy MP is the deputy prime minister, lord chancellor and secretary of state for justice

In the year leading up to March 2025, one in eight women in England and Wales had been a victim of domestic abuse, sexual assault or stalking. Almost 200 rapes are recorded every day. And on average, three women are killed by men in the UK every single week. Just pause and consider that.

There has been plenty of tough talk on violence against women and girls over the past decade – but too little action. We will deploy the full power of the state in the largest crackdown on violence perpetrated against women and girls in British history. This violence is a national emergency. And as a dad to a daughter, it terrifies me. But as a dad to two sons, it drives home that we can’t keep doing things the same way.

David Lammy MP is the deputy prime minister, lord chancellor and secretary of state for justice

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 18, 2025, 7:00 am

Want to understand the sickness of Britain today? Look no further – a novel explained it all 20 years ago | Aditya Chakrabortty

The racism, the predatory politics, the banality and cruelty: we struggle to make sense of it, but JG Ballard foretold everything we are living through now

An Englishman drives into a new town and can’t see the warning signs. Richard Pearson is visiting Surrey to close down his late father’s home and settle his affairs and, everywhere he looks, the flag of St George is flying “from suburban gardens and filling stations and branch post offices”. How nice, he thinks, how festive.

Soon he learns the truth.

So runs the opening not of a recent piece of journalism, but a novel by JG Ballard, Kingdom Come, which despite being almost 20 years old anticipates today’s Britain with eerie precision. In the mid-2000s, Pearson reads up on his new surroundings, only to find the same headlines that assail us in the mid-2020s: “Every day the local newspaper reported attacks on an asylum hotel, the torching of a Bangladeshi takeaway, injuries to a Kosovan youth thrown over the fence into an industrial estate.”

Aditya Chakrabortty is a Guardian columnist

Published: December 18, 2025, 8:00 am

Thanks for asking after my health, but actually I’m doing just fine

Friends, family and assorted strangers have been sending thoughts and prayers about my ‘cancer journey’. It is, in the nicest possible way, a lot

I wrote a piece a few weeks ago railing at the app-heavy facelessness of dealing with the NHS about what I believe is known as one’s care pathway. My point was that it might be efficient if reducing head count in admin departments is what counts as efficiency, but not if clear communication is the aim. The whole palaver of the comms around the journey to diagnosis was more of a drama than the diagnosis itself, which was for a very mild variant of skin cancer. As fond as I am of a wallow in self-pity and catastrophisation, even I couldn’t get myself into a panic over this. So I certainly wasn’t courting sympathy or concern by making too much of it, and I was as careful as possible to get this across.

But then a couple of media outlets ran clickbait-type headlines along the lines of AC REVEALS HE HAS CANCER. And everything went nuts; thoughts and prayers came streaming in from all quarters. There were family and friends – to whom I’d not mentioned it because I didn’t think it merited a mention. There were people I’d not heard from in years.

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 18, 2025, 11:00 am

The Guardian view on Australia’s social media ban: dragging tech companies into action | Editorial

Children under the age of 16 needed protecting and the moral argument wasn’t winning. Government regulation can change the terms of debate

On 10 December, the world watched as Australia enacted the first social media ban for under-16s. Whether it will have the desired effect of improving young people’s lives we are yet to find out. But what the ban has achieved already is clear.

Many politicians, along with academics and philosophers, have noted that self-regulation has not been an effective safeguard against the harms of social media – especially when the bottom line for people like Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk depends on keeping eyes on screens. For too long, these companies resisted, decrying censorship and prioritising “free speech” over moderation. The Australian government decided waiting was no longer an option. The social media ban and similar regulation across the world is now dragging tech companies kicking and screaming toward change. That it has taken the force of the law to ensure basic standards – such as robust age verification, teen-friendly user accounts and deactivation where appropriate – are met shows the moral argument alone was not enough.

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 17, 2025, 6:39 pm

The Guardian view on another green U-turn in Brussels: going slow on car-industry targets is a road to nowhere | Editorial

The European Commission’s proposals to water down a 2035 ban on new petrol and diesel cars will store up major problems for the future

Two years ago, the European Union’s adoption of a 2035 ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars was hailed as an act of global leadership, and a declaration of faith in the journey to net zero. That the home of BMW, Renault and Fiat should decisively reverse away from the internal combustion engine was seen as a symbolic moment.

This week, Brussels proposals to water down that ban have sent a very different kind of message. Electric vehicles might be the future. But after intensive lobbying by German and Italian manufacturers, the European Commission has proposed a reprieve for new CO₂-emitting cars that would allow them to be sold after the former cut-off date. According to the EU’s industry commissioner, Stéphane Séjourné, this U-turn offers a “lifeline” to an ailing car industry that has struggled to cope with Donald Trump’s trade wars and Chinese competition.

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 17, 2025, 6:40 pm

If he never returns, Terence Crawford’s legacy as one of boxing’s greats is secure | Bryan Armen Graham

The ring’s standout problem-solver steps away from ‘competition’ on his own terms and with an unblemished record across five divisions

Terence “Bud” Crawford has always fought like a man who wanted to leave no room for argument. Not simply to win, but to win so cleanly that dissent collapses on contact. So his retirement announcement on Tuesday didn’t feel like a sudden fade-out so much as the closing of a file: tidy, decisive, signed in his own hand. Three months after scaling two weight divisions to outclass Canelo Álvarez in Las Vegas and become the undisputed super-middleweight champion, Crawford says he is stepping away “on his own terms”. In the cruellest sport, that is rarer than a perfect record.

Boxing is purpose-built to keep you in. To lure you back with one more payday, one more belt, one more chance to settle a score that only exists because the promoters or the public insist it should. The hurt business has never been conducive to happy endings. The preferred vernacular is violent or sad or compromised: a stoppage you don’t see coming, a dubious decision, a diminished version of yourself preserved forever in high definition.

Published: December 17, 2025, 6:52 pm

The Knicks have a trophy and Wembanyama has a chip on his shoulder: Five NBA Cup takeaways

New York got a championship while a high-stakes meeting between the Thunder and Spurs showed where the NBA, and the NBA Cup, is today

After toppling the defending champion Boston Celtics in a shocking upset in the Eastern Conference semi-finals this spring, The New York Knicks immediately became the favorites to represent the conference in the NBA Finals. The Indiana Pacers, a team that will no doubt go down as having one of the most compelling Cinderella stories in modern NBA history, had other plans.

Published: December 17, 2025, 2:37 pm

Miami Dolphins to bench QB Tua Tagovailoa after missing playoffs

• Rookie Quinn Ewers will be starter, says Mike McDaniel

• Tagovailoa will be ‘emergency’ QB behind Zach Wilson

The Miami Dolphins are benching quarterback Tua Tagovailoa and will start rookie Quinn Ewers on Sunday against the Cincinnati Bengals, head coach Mike McDaniel announced on Wednesday.

The Dolphins (6-8), eliminated from postseason play, signed Tagovailoa to a four-year, $212m extension in July 2024 after he led the NFL in passing yards in 2023 with 4,624.

Published: December 17, 2025, 5:14 pm

World Cup prize money increased by 50% as Fifa offers $50m for 2026 winners

• All 48 competing nations to get minimum of $10.5m

• Fifa Council approval comes amid ticket price row

Fifa has announced a 50% increase in World Cup prize money for next year’s tournament, with the champions set to take home $50m (£37.5m) as a reward for their success.

The news comes days after there was widespread public outrage over the price of seats at the tournament, to be held in the US, Mexico and Canada. Fifa this week announced a limited number of discount tickets for fans of participating countries.

Published: December 17, 2025, 1:31 pm

Lewis Miley heads dramatic late winner as holders Newcastle edge Fulham

To remedy a local let down, enter the local hero. After 56 years without a trophy before glorious victory at Wembley in March Newcastle were never going to let go of the Carabao Cup without a fight, but few of the impressionable children walking up Barrack Road for a pre-Christmas treat imagined their heroes having to hang on to the silverware this grimly before Lewis Miley’s stoppage-time winner.

The Magpies had dominated without often threatening the killer blow, with the constant threat of their own doubt undermining them after the miserable derby defeat at Sunderland that cast a cloud of gloom over St James’ Park well before the Wednesday afternoon rain set in.

Published: December 17, 2025, 10:20 pm

‘Cool Hand’ to ‘Panda Man’: the power or pitfalls of a darting nickname

Some monikers are a perfect fit for the audience and reflect a player’s style of play; others are just too hot for TV

It’s September 2017, and a humble Challenge Tour quarter-final at the Robin Park Leisure Centre in Wigan is about to change the course of darting history. Luke Humphries and Martin Lukeman are two promising young throwers making their way on the Professional Darts Corporation’s second-tier tour, dreaming of the big time. But there’s one problem.

Humphries has styled himself “Cool Hand”, based on the 1967 Paul Newman film that to date he has still never watched. Lukeman, meanwhile, has decided to call himself “Cool Man”: less catchy, doesn’t really scan, but still just about works. And though the pair are firm friends, when the draw in Wigan pits them against each other, they decide that this best-of-nine match will settle matters once and for all. Winner gets the nickname. Loser has to think of something else.

Published: December 17, 2025, 8:00 am

Alex Carey’s sparkling Ashes century steadies Australia after England strike early in heat

• Third Test, day one: Australia 326-8

• Usman Khawaja digs in for 82 while Archer has 3-29

After the pandemonium of Perth and Brisbane’s pink-ball palooza came a more familiar opening day at Adelaide Oval. It was also roasting hot out in the middle – 35C on the mercury – and when the toss went against Ben Stokes and his embattled England players, they could easily have melted.

Instead, despite some sloppiness and Alex Carey’s magical century on the ground he calls home, the tourists kept plugging away with the fight that Stokes called for at 2-0 down. At stumps Australia were 326 for eight from 83 sapping overs – runs on the heritage-listed scoreboard, granted, but short of ambitions when the returning Pat Cummins got the choice first thing.

Published: December 17, 2025, 7:29 am

US government admits negligence in helicopter-plane collision that killed 67

Official response to lawsuit filed by victims’ relatives admits FAA and army failures played role in Washington DC crash

The US government admitted Wednesday that the Federal Aviation Administration and the army played a role in causing the collision in January between an airliner and a Black Hawk helicopter near the nation’s capital, killing 67 people in the deadliest crash on American soil in more than two decades.

The official response to the first lawsuit filed by one of the victims’ families said that the government is liable in the crash partly because the air traffic controller violated procedures about when to rely on pilots to maintain visual separation that night. Plus, the filing said, the army helicopter pilots’ “failure to maintain vigilance so as to see and avoid” the airline jet makes the government liable.

Published: December 18, 2025, 2:28 am

Bondi terror suspects spent whole Philippines visit in city and rarely left hotel, staff and police say

Philippine police dismiss speculation Naveed and Sajid Akram underwent training during four-week stay in Davao City

• Victims of the Bondi beach shooting

• Ten minutes of terror: how the Bondi mass shooting unfolded in real time

• Follow the latest live updates

The Bondi terror attacks suspects spent their entire four-week visit to the Philippines in Davao City, rarely leaving their hotel except for an hour or so at a time, and never talking to any other guests or receiving visitors, according to Philippine police and hotel staff.

The initial police investigation casts more light on the four-week trip by the alleged gunmen, the father and son Sajid and Naveed Akram, amid speculation that they went to the Philippines to receive military training from Islamist groups believed to operate in the country.

Published: December 17, 2025, 2:36 pm

Waterstones and Barnes & Noble owner looks to list booksellers on stock market

US hedge fund Elliott thought to prefer IPO in London over New York, which could be welcome boost to UK stock market

• Business live – latest updates

The owner of Waterstones and Barnes & Noble is reportedly preparing to list the booksellers on the stock market.

Elliott Investment Management, the hedge fund that owns the most popular bookstores in the US and the UK, has spoken to potential advisers about an initial public offering (IPO), the Financial Times reported.

Published: December 18, 2025, 9:32 am

Four Republicans join Democrats to force vote on bill that would extend Obamacare subsidies

Major setback for Mike Johnson as rebellion underscores GOP anxiety over rise in healthcare costs before midterms

In a major setback for Mike Johnson and the House GOP, four Republicans have joined with the Democrats to sign a petition forcing a vote on legislation that will extend for three years premium tax credits for Affordable Care Act healthcare plans.

The rebellion underscores the nervousness among Republicans over an increase in healthcare costs before the 2026 midterm elections, in which the party will be defending its slim control of the House.

Published: December 17, 2025, 7:07 pm

Congress passes $901bn defense bill that includes support for Ukraine and Europe

Senate advances 2026 National Defense Authorization Act, which White House says Trump will sign into law

The US Senate voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday to advance a $901bn bill setting policy for the Pentagon, sending the big piece of legislation to the White House, which has said Donald Trump will sign it into law.

The fiscal 2026 National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, is a compromise between separate measures passed earlier this year in the House of Representatives and Senate. It authorizes a record $901bn in annual military spending, with a 4% pay raise for the troops, purchases of military equipment and efforts to boost competitiveness with US archrivals China and Russia.

Published: December 17, 2025, 6:14 pm

Peter Arnett, Pulitzer prize-winner who reported on Vietnam and Gulf wars, dies aged 91

Arnett won 1966 Pulitzer Prize for international reporting for his Vietnam War coverage for the Associated Press

Peter Arnett, the Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter who spent decades dodging bullets and bombs to bring the world eyewitness accounts of war from the rice paddies of Vietnam to the deserts of Iraq, has died at 91.

Arnett, who won the 1966 Pulitzer Prize for international reporting for his Vietnam War coverage for the Associated Press, died on Wednesday in Newport Beach, California, and was surrounded by friends and family, said his son Andrew Arnett. He had entered hospice on Saturday while suffering from prostate cancer.

Published: December 18, 2025, 3:02 am

Morocco accused of ‘horrific’ abuse of detained gen Z protesters

As country prepares to host Africa Cup of Nations, families and rights groups tell of police brutality, with hundreds still held

The arbitrary detention of hundreds of gen Z protesters in Morocco and alleged “horrific” beatings have been condemned by human rights groups, as the country prepares to host the Africa Cup of Nations on Sunday.

A wave of youth-led demonstrations swept across Morocco in late September and early October – the biggest since the 2011 Arab spring – in protest at underfunded healthcare and education.

Published: December 18, 2025, 6:00 am

China to hike tax on condoms in attempt to boost falling birth rate

From 1 January, contraceptives will be subject to a 13% VAT rate – part of a carrot-and-stick approach by the government to increase births

China is set to impose a value-added tax (VAT) on condoms and other contraceptives for the first time in three decades, as the country tries to boost its birthrate and modernise its tax laws.

From 1 January, condoms and contraceptives will be subject to a 13% VAT rate – a tax from which the goods have been exempt since China introduced nationwide VAT in 1993.

Published: December 18, 2025, 12:51 am

Fani Willis defends Trump prosecution at contentious Georgia hearing

Fulton county DA hits back at Republican opponents who investigated her over relationship with special prosecutor

Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis testified on Wednesday at a combative Georgia state senate committee about her prosecution of Donald Trump for election interference.

The state senate created the special committee in early 2024 to investigate Willis after the revelation that she had a romantic relationship with Nathan Wade, special prosecutor in the Trump case, which ultimately derailed the prosecution of the now-re-elected president.

Published: December 17, 2025, 9:05 pm

Trump administration to dismantle key climate research center in Colorado

Governor Jared Polis warned that breaking up Boulder’s NCAR would put ‘public safety at risk’

The Trump administration is breaking up a research center praised as a “crown jewel” of climate research after accusing it of spreading “alarmism” about climate change.

Russell Vought, the director of the White House’s office and management budget, said the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado, would be dismantled under the supervision of the National Science Foundation.

Published: December 17, 2025, 4:59 pm

Heart attacks increased after Los Angeles wildfires, study finds

Researchers at Cedars-Sinai say rates of heart attack and respiratory illness ‘matched worst years of Covid’

In the first 90 days after the devastating Palisades and Eaton fires that destroyed entire Los Angeles neighborhoods, there was a 46% increase in ER visits for heart attack symptoms at LA’s Cedars-Sinai hospital, according to a newly released study.

“Rates of heart attacks in January 2025 actually surpassed heart attack rates during all the prior Januaries, even during the Covid years,” Dr Susan Cheng, director of public health research at Cedars-Sinai and the study’s senior author, told the Guardian.

This story was amended on 17 December 2025 to correct a misprint in the journal study. The was a 118% increase in blood-test abnormalities after the January wildfires.

Published: December 17, 2025, 10:55 pm

Scientists log rare case of female polar bear adopting cub: ‘They’re really good moms’

Canadian researchers tracking bear known as X33991 noticed she had gained a second cub who likely needed help

Scientists in Canada have documented a rare case of female polar bear adopting a new cub, in an episode of “curious behaviour” that highlights the complex relationships among the apex Arctic predators.

Polar Bears International, a non-profit conservation group, said on Wednesday that when they first placed a GPS collar on a female polar bear in the spring, she had one young cub. But when she was spotted with two cubs of roughly the same age last month, they realized they were witnessing an exceedingly rare case of adoption.

Published: December 17, 2025, 5:20 pm

Greek tragedy: the rare seals hiding in caves to escape tourists

Greece is hoping that protected areas will help keep daytrippers away and allow vulnerable monk seals to return to their island habitats

Deep in a sea cave in Greece’s northern Sporades, a bulky shape moves in the gloom. Someone on the boat bobbing at a distance offshore passes round a pair of binoculars and yes! – there it is. It’s a huge Mediterranean monk seal, one of the world’s rarest marine mammals , which at up to 2.8 metres and over 300kg (660lbs), is also one of the world’s largest types of seal.

Piperi, where the seal has come ashore, is a strictly guarded island in the National Marine Park of Alonissos and Northern Sporades, Greece’s largest marine protected area (MPA) and a critical breeding habitat for the seals. Only researchers are allowed within three miles of its shores, with permission from the government’s Natural Environment and Climate Change Agency.

Published: December 17, 2025, 12:00 pm

In Durham, North Carolina, neighbors are protecting neighbors from ICE: ‘We care for each other’

Community members have stepped up with carpools, food deliveries, school patrols and policy advocacy

Before the school bell rang on the morning of 19 November, dozens of parents – mostly dads – huddled outside schools all around Durham, North Carolina. Bleary-eyed from late-night meetings and dinging group chats, they passed out whistles and gloves before dispersing to stand along school perimeters.

The parents had formed ad hoc welcoming committees for students being dropped off for school – and to serve as a united group of watchdogs against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and US Customs and Border Protection (CBP). A week before Thanksgiving, federal immigration agents had descended upon the city as part of a massive statewide campaign that included Charlotte and smaller communities. For almost a month, masked agents, often in tactical vests or fatigues and some carrying rifles, patrolled quiet neighborhoods and vibrant shopping centers around North Carolina. ICE doubled its North Carolina arrests in 2025 from the previous year, totaling 3,400 arrests from 20 January through 15 October.

Published: December 17, 2025, 5:00 pm

Former Trump prosecutor Jack Smith defends investigation in House testimony

Ex-special counsel tells House panel US president’s actions alone underpinned now-dropped prosecutions

Jack Smith, the former US justice department special counsel who brought two now-dropped criminal cases against Donald Trump, has defended his investigation before a House of Representatives panel, telling lawmakers that the basis for the prosecutions “rests entirely with President Trump and his actions”.

Smith gave private testimony to the Republican-controlled House judiciary committee following months of disclosures from Trump appointees at the justice department, and Republican lawmakers intended to discredit Smith’s investigation and bolster Trump’s claims that the cases were an abuse of the legal system.

Published: December 17, 2025, 7:37 pm

FCC chair suggests agency is not independent amid fears of Trump power-grab

Brendan Carr’s declaration raises concerns amid Trump efforts to exert greater control over independent agencies

The Federal Communications Commission is not an “independent” agency, its chairman suggested on Wednesday, as the word was scrubbed from its online mission statement.

Brendan Carr’s declaration to senators raised concerns of a further power-grab by the White House, amid concerns surrounding efforts by Donald Trump and his officials to exert greater control over independent agencies since his return to office in January.

Published: December 17, 2025, 7:15 pm

Warner Bros Discovery urges shareholders to reject Paramount’s $108.4bn takeover bid

After WBD accused Paramount of misleading investors, the network assured it had ‘all necessary financing’ for the deal

Warner Bros Discovery has urged shareholders to reject a $108.4bn hostile takeover offer from Paramount Skydance, branding it “inadequate” amid an extraordinary corporate battle to control the legacy media conglomerate.

WBD agreed to sell its storied movie studios, HBO cable network and streaming service to Netflix in a $82.7bn deal earlier this month, setting the stage for a seismic shift in Hollywood’s industrial landscape.

This article was amended on 17 December 2025 to include comment from Paramount and its chair, David Ellison

Published: December 17, 2025, 12:49 pm

Alan Cumming named as host of 2026 Bafta film awards

The Scottish actor and presenter – who hosted the Bafta TV awards this year – will take over from David Tennant at the February ceremony

The Scottish actor and presenter Alan Cumming has been named as the new host of the Bafta film awards, taking over the reins from David Tennant.

Cumming, who hosted the Bafta TV awards earlier this year and captivated audiences worldwide as host of The Traitors US, will take the stage at the Royal Festival Hall for the ceremony on 22 February 2026.

Published: December 18, 2025, 9:00 am

MPs warn that UK agreements with Donald Trump are ‘built on sand’

Exclusive: UK government’s ‘naive belief’ that Trump is a good faith actor ‘could cost UK taxpayer billions’, says health select committee chair

Ministers and senior MPs have warned that the UK’s agreements with Donald Trump are “built on sand” after the Guardian established that the deal to avoid drug tariffs has no underlying text beyond limited headline terms.

The “milestone” US-UK deal announced this month on pharmaceuticals, which will mean the NHS pays more for medicines in exchange for a promise of zero tariffs on the industry, still lacks a legal footing beyond top lines contained in two government press releases.

Published: December 17, 2025, 7:42 pm

Antony Price, ultra-glam designer for Duran Duran, Bowie and Roxy Music, dies aged 80

The great maverick image-maker, who was praised for inventing ‘result-wear’ yet only staged six shows, was adored by stars and Queen Camilla – and cut Mick Jagger’s Gimme Shelter trousers in his first job

Antony Price, the maverick British designer and theatrical “image maker” has died aged 80. He was among the first to combine music, theatre and fashion, helping to craft Roxy Music’s glam rock aesthetic and designing Duran Duran’s yacht rock tailoring a decade later. More recently, he became Queen Camilla’s go-to designer.

Often described as the greatest designer you’ve never heard of, Price only ever staged six shows – or “fashion extravaganzas” – in his 55-year career but just last month returned to the London catwalk for the first time in more than 30 years with a show in collaboration with 16Arlington. There, Lily Allen created headlines by modelling a black velvet “revenge dress”.

Published: December 17, 2025, 6:03 pm

Parents of sextortion victim sue Meta for alleged wrongful death

Exclusive: Lawsuit is the first UK case of its kind, with Ros and Mark Dowey accusing Meta of ‘putting profit before our young people’

The parents of a 16-year-old who took his own life after he fell victim to a sextortion gang on Instagram are suing Meta for the alleged wrongful death of their son, in the first UK case of its kind.

Murray Dowey died in December 2023 at his family home in Dunblane, after being tricked into sending intimate pictures to an Instagram contact. He thought it was a girl his own age, but it turned out to be overseas criminals involved in financially motivated sexual extortion.

Published: December 17, 2025, 7:52 pm

Karts, cakes and karaoke: the eight best party games to play with family this Christmas

Whether your household is in the mood for singing, driving, quizzing or shouting, here are our top choices for homely holiday fun

Multiplayer hand-to-hand combat games are ridiculously good fun and there are plenty to choose from, including the rather similar Gang Beasts and Party Animals. I’ve gone for this one, however, which lets everyone pick a cake to play as before competing in food fights and taking on mini-games such as roasting marshmallows and lobbing fruit into a pie. If you ever wished that the Great British Bake Off was ever-so-slightly more gladitorial, this is the game for you.

Published: December 18, 2025, 11:00 am

Au Pairs frontwoman Lesley Woods: ‘We were the antithesis to all that boy-meets-girl stuff’

Her post-punk trailblazers were a key influence on riot grrrl. Now, after decades working as a lawyer, she is taking the name – though, contentiously, not the rest of the band – back on the road. ‘I haven’t given the best of me yet’, she says

At the height of her music career in the early 1980s, Lesley Woods got accustomed to dealing with irate men. As the singer and guitarist of Au Pairs, the Birmingham post-punk four-piece, she recalls “guys being aggressive purely because you were a woman on stage”. At one show, the band were on the bill with UB40 and the Angelic Upstarts, only the latter didn’t turn up. “So the audience, who were 95% skinheads, were gobbing at us and throwing anything they could get their hands on – which included a bin.” Was she scared? “No, I was bolshie back then. I just went to the front of the stage and said: ‘You missed.’”

After the band split in 1983, Woods hoped her days of dealing with overt misogyny were behind her. But then she retrained and became a lawyer. “When I came to the bar [in the 1990s], women couldn’t even wear trousers. I used to get men saying: ‘What colour knickers are you wearing today, Lesley?’ It’s better now, but back then law was way worse than music in how it treated women.”

Published: December 18, 2025, 8:00 am

Best movies of 2025 in the US: No 3 – The Ice Tower

Lucile Hadžihalilović’s kaleidoscopic fable, starring Marion Cotillard as a haughty, damaged diva, is a cautionary tale about the perils of fantasy

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

Lucile Hadžihalilović is a good bet for the most underrated director on the planet. She’s only made four features in 20 years, but with obsessive consistency each time: an exquisitely controlled hermetic world that exudes weird biological and psychological anxieties – from the pre-pubescent prep school of 2004’s Innocence, to the island hospital nurturing impregnated boys in 2015’s Evolution. These microcosms, governed by their own internal laws, seem to exist in some far-off arthouse realm indifferent to regular cinema.

But her new film, The Ice Tower, makes the coyest of glances towards commercial territory by rooting itself in Hans Christian Andersen. “Vast, immense, glittering like ice was the realm of the Snow Queen,” lullabies Marion Cotillard in the preamble; the story is the preferred bedtime reading of teenage orphan Jeanne (Clara Pacini), who escapes from her foster home, heads down the mountain, and stows away on a film production of the fairytale. The queen is being played by imperious diva Cristina van der Berg (who is played for us by none other than la Cotillard).

Published: December 17, 2025, 12:00 pm

Fallout season two review – this postapocalyptic thriller is absolutely hilarious

The video game-derived thriller series should be terrifying, but it’s often side-splitting. Its second outing adds excellent guest spots from Justin Theroux, Kumail Nanjiani and Macaulay Culkin

The west doesn’t get much wilder than in Fallout. The show takes place 200 years into a post-nuclear apocalypse where most humans are scratching out an existence in a stricken wasteland California of sand dunes, outlaw gangs and mutated monsters. Resources are scarce. Life is cruel. Death is a constant. It should be terrifying. Instead, it’s often hilarious.

A wicked sense of humour elevated the first season of Prime Video’s well-received, no-expense-spared adaptation of the long-running video game franchise. An early episode opened with one faction dumping newborn pups into an incinerator – in case you were wondering who the bad guys were – and those flashes of satirical glee gave Fallout an edge over gloomier post-apocalyptic shows such as The Walking Dead or The Last of Us.

Published: December 17, 2025, 5:00 am

Omniscient Reader: The Prophecy review – life gets gamified in one-note Korean sci-fi

Big K-pop stars and a teen-skewed subtext aims this squarely at a particular audience but this fantasy never really levels up

Starring the actor (Ahn Hyo-seop) who voiced the lead boy-band bad guy in KPop Demon Hunters, and one of the singers (Kim Ji-soo, also known mononymically as Jisoo) from real-world girl-band Blackpink, this Korean sci-fi-fantasy feature feels very skewed towards the young on all counts. Superficially, it appears to be about a guy named Kim Dok-ja (Ahn) who finds that the web novel he’s been following for years is turning into reality. That means the whole world becomes gamified, as if everyone has been turned into players compelled to kill to survive, while plagued by CGI monsters and puckish digital dokkaebi (demons) which explain things when the rules change.

But under the surface, this film is really about being popular, coping with traumatic childhood experiences such as being forced to beat up your best friend, getting a pimple, and building up enough gumption to tell authority figures – older people, your boss, the author of the book you’ve been a fan of for ages – that they suck.

Published: December 17, 2025, 7:00 am

The 50 best albums of 2025: No 3 – Blood Orange: Essex Honey

Dev Hynes’ deeply personal response to his mother’s death embodied the many unexpected shades of grief in pastoral hymnals and post-punk

• The 50 best albums of 2025
• More on the best culture of 2025

There’s a lot of grief across the best albums of this year. It’s unsurprising: 2025 has felt like a definitive and dismal break with government accountability, protections for marginalised people and holding back the encroachment of AI in creative and intellectual fields, to cherrypick just a few horrors. Anna von Hausswolff and Rosalía reached for transcendence from these earthly disappointments. Bad Bunny and KeiyaA countered colonial abuse and neglect with writhing resistance anthems. On a more personal scale, Lily Allen and Cate Le Bon grappled with disillusionment about mis-sold romantic ideals. For Jerskin Fendrix, the Tubs, Jennifer Walton, Jim Legxacy and Blood Orange, grief was, straightforwardly, grief for lost loved ones.

Each of those albums was as distinctive and profound as any personal experience of loss always is. Dev Hynes’ fifth album as Blood Orange felt uniquely keyed into the fragmented, distracted headspace that comes after someone passes, in his case, his mother. Essex Honey’s restive nature was summed up in its painful opening lines, which you could read as the dying’s acceptance of death starkly contrasting the living’s ability to meet them on those terms: “In your grace, I looked for some meaning,” Hynes sings on Look at You. “But I found none, and I still search for a truth.”

Published: December 17, 2025, 2:00 pm

Even Happy Birthday has a dark side: my quest to tell the history of the world in 50 pieces of music

The Nazis adopted Beethoven’s Ode to Joy. Happy Birthday hides a tale of corporate greed. And Putin uses Shostakovich’s Leningrad symphony as a call to arms. That’s why I put them in my soundtrack to the complexities of human existence

The idea was always a ludicrous one: to reduce millennia of human musical history – not to mention billennia of the Earth’s sonic geology – into a book of 50 pieces of music. And yet that’s the challenge I decided to take on. The most pressing question was: why? To which my answer was: the inevitable failures and gaps of the project are precisely where its interest lies.

The next concern was how. Called A History of the World in 50 Pieces, the book is not a digested history of music, nor a list of my favourite songs, performances or recordings. Instead, it’s centred on the definition of a “piece of music”. This is a democratic principle – a belief that works don’t belong only to their creators but are shared and reinterpreted by generations of musicians at distances of time, geography and technology, in ways their original composers and performers could not imagine.

Published: December 17, 2025, 4:04 pm

The 50 best albums of 2025

The year’s finest LPs as decided by 30 Guardian music writers – from a slip’n’slide through British club culture to a New York garage rock band in their 20s
• More on the best culture of 2025

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Published: December 17, 2025, 2:25 pm

Freezing Point by Anders Bodelsen review – a prescient classic of cryogenics

This resurrected Danish novel about a man who is ‘frozen down’, awaking in an Orwellian dystopia two decades later, is inventive, funny and all too timely

In the Danish author’s uncannily prescient novel, first published in 1969, the year is 1973 and Bruno works as a fiction editor for a popular weekly magazine; his talent for generating story ideas makes him indispensable to his authors. Invited for dinner at the home of one of them, Bruno finds himself seated next to a woman named Jenny, a struggling ballet dancer with a gloomy aspect and no sense of humour. Bruno is drawn to her nonetheless, and finds himself inventing stories about her. The following day, he is admitted to hospital to undergo tests: a small lump on the side of his neck has raised some concerns. Bruno cannot help feeling the two events are somehow connected.

It comes as little surprise to Bruno when he learns he has cancer. The doctor in charge of his case, Josef Ackerman, offers a choice: he can either undergo the gruelling and fallible radiotherapy currently prescribed for his disease, or he can become a pioneer in a new, radically experimental treatment programme in which patients are “frozen down”, remaining in a state of suspended animation until such time as medical science has advanced sufficiently to offer a cure.

Published: December 18, 2025, 7:00 am

Are we falling out of love with nonfiction?

In the early 2020s, readers flocked to books to explain political turbulence. But is the world now too grim to read about – and are podcasters taking the place of authors?

In the decade leading up to the pandemic, nonfiction seemed unstoppable. Readers flocked to books that explained a world upended by Brexit, Trump, #MeToo and climate upheaval. Titles such as Timothy Snyder’s On Tyranny, Caroline Criado-Perez’s Invisible Women, and Robin D’Angelo’s White Fragility soared up the charts. It felt as though reading itself was part of the civic response, a way to understand what was happening, and perhaps influence what might happen next.

Fast forward to the present day, and the picture is starting to look different: a recent report from NielsenIQ found that trade nonfiction sales have slipped sharply. In volume terms, the category is down 8.4% between last summer and the same period this year – nearly double the decline in paperback fiction – and down 4.7% in value. Though there have been some exceptions, such Chloe Dalton’s Raising Hare and Want by Gillian Anderson, 14 out of 18 nonfiction subcategories have contracted.

Published: December 17, 2025, 3:41 pm

Bog Queen by Anna North review – a tale that could dig deeper

This story of a teenage druid whose body is discovered in a peat bog has memorable moments – but its evocation of time and place is unconvincing

Anna North’s fourth book, Bog Queen, is a stranded or braided novel. First “a colony of moss” speaks – or rather, does not speak, but “if such a colony could tell the story of its life”, here’s some of what it might say. Then we have Agnes in 2018, American, tall, awkward, expert in forensic pathology and uncertain about everything else, including much of life in England. And then, in the first person, there is an iron age teenage girl, the druid of her village, riding towards a Roman town with her brother Aesu and friend Crab: “I had been druid for two seasons at that point and everyone said I was doing very well.”

Agnes has a post-doctoral fellowship in Manchester, from which she is summoned to the discovery of a body in a peat bog in Ludlow. The story shadows that of Lindow Man, found by peat harvesters in a bog near Wilmslow in 1984. In this novel, “Ludlow” is a town in which “the steel mill has closed down” leaving nothing but “[a] few shops, a Tesco, a Pizza Express”. It’s “the Gateway to the north” and a bus ride from Manchester. Novelists may of course invent time and place as they see fit, but it’s an odd choice to borrow the location of a bourgeois satellite town of Manchester and give it the name of a pretty medieval market town in the Welsh Marches, with a history that belongs to neither.

Published: December 17, 2025, 9:00 am

Virginia Roberts Giuffre: Epstein accuser’s memoir sells 1m copies in two months

Giuffre’s family calls the success of her posthumous memoir, Nobody's Girl, ‘bittersweet’ after her death in April

A posthumous memoir by one of Jeffrey Epstein’s best-known accusers, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, has sold 1m copies worldwide in just the two months after its release.

Publisher Alfred A Knopf announced on Tuesday that more than half the sales for Nobody’s Girl came out of North America; in the US, the book is now in its 10th printing after an initial run of 70,000 copies. Giuffre’s book, co-written by author-journalist Amy Wallace, was published in early October.

Published: December 17, 2025, 2:14 am

Inside Fallout, gaming’s most surprising TV hit

With ​a blend of retro-futurism, moral ambiguity and monster-filled wastelands, Fallout became an unlikely prestige television favourite. Now there is something a bigger, stranger and funnier journey ahead

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The Fallout TV series returns to Prime Video today, and it’s fair to say that everyone was pleasantly surprised by how good the first season was. By portraying Fallout’s retro-futuristic, post-apocalyptic US through three different characters, it managed to capture different aspects of the game player’s experience, too. There was vault-dweller Lucy, trying to do the right thing and finding that the wasteland made that very difficult; Max, the Brotherhood of Steel rookie, who starts to question his cult’s authority and causes a lot of havoc in robotic power armour; and the Ghoul, Walton Goggins’s breakout character, who has long since lost any sense of morality out in the irradiated wilderness.

The show’s first season ended with a revelation about who helped cause the nuclear war that trapped a group of people in underground vaults for a couple of centuries. It also left plenty of questions open for the second season – and, this time, expectations are higher. Even being “not terrible” was a win for a video game adaptation until quite recently. How are the Fallout TV show’s creators feeling now that the first season has been a success?

Published: December 17, 2025, 3:00 pm

Simogo Legacy Collection review – remember when phone games were this wonderful?

PC, Nintendo Switch/Switch 2; Simogo
A suite of iOS classics is lovingly preserved in this collection from the Swedish developer, early standard-setters of the meaningful smartphone game

Fifteen years ago in Malmö, Sweden, animator Simon Flesser and programmer Magnus “Gordon” Gardebäck left their jobs at the now-defunct games studio Southend Interactive to strike out on their own. Tired of the fussy nature of console development, the pair would stake their claim on Apple’s App Store, which in 2010 was regarded as one of the most exciting frontiers in games. Mashing their names together to form a portmanteau, Flesser and Gardebäck became Simogo, and a consistently wonderful and forward-thinking games studios was born.

Simogo Legacy Collection represents the Swedish indie studio’s first seven games, released across its first five years. Originally released for iPhone and iPad from 2010 to 2015, Apple’s constantly changing standards meant that Simogo, like all iOS developers, had to either regularly update their games to comply with the latest specifications, or see their games rendered unplayable. The only solutions are either to perpetually issue updates, or find a way to bring the mobile game experience to other platforms.

Published: December 17, 2025, 11:52 am

Melania: first trailer released for Amazon’s documentary on the first lady

The $40m film – directed by Brett Ratner, who has been accused of sexual misconduct – follows Melania Trump in the days before the 2025 inauguration

Amazon has released the first trailer for next year’s documentary on Melania Trump.

The film will follow the first lady in the 20 days before the 2025 inauguration and has “unprecedented access” with promises of “exclusive footage capturing critical meetings, private conversations, and never-before-seen environments”.

Published: December 17, 2025, 4:02 pm

Oscars to move over to YouTube starting in 2029

Exclusive global rights to the year’s biggest night in film will move to the video platform for a four year period

The Oscars will be moving from broadcast to online as part of a multi-year new deal with YouTube.

From 2029, the video platform will have exclusive global rights to Hollywood’s biggest night, including the ceremony but also red carpet coverage, behind-the-scenes content and Governors Ball access. The deal will run until 2033.

Published: December 17, 2025, 6:19 pm

‘A cave complex worthy of Batman!’ Mind-boggling buildings that showed the world a new China

Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montreal
The birth of the People’s Republic is seen as a time of drab buildings. But this dazzling show, featuring a factory in a cave and a denounced roof, tells a wildly different story

In 1954, an issue of Manhua, a state-sponsored satirical magazine in China, declared: “Some architects blindly worship the formalist styles of western bourgeois design. As a result, grotesque and reactionary buildings have appeared.”

Beneath the headline Ugly Architecture, humorous cartoons of weird buildings fill the page. There is a modernist cylinder with a neoclassical portico bolted on to the front. Another blobby building is framed by an arc of ice-cream cone-shaped columns. An experimental bus stop features a bench beneath an impractical cuboid canopy, “unable to protect you from wind, rain or sun”, as a passerby observes. “Why don’t these buildings adopt the Chinese national style?” asks another bewildered figure, as he cowers beneath a looming glass tower that bears all the hallmarks of the corrupt, capitalist west.

Published: December 17, 2025, 3:30 pm

Take that Santa! This is me upside-down and naked in a fireplace – Brooke DiDonato’s best photograph

‘I wanted to make a perfect square with my body. My back hurt for days afterwards. People often want to know if the kitten is real’

I’ve thought a lot about the time I made this image. In my 20s, I was living in New York. Then I broke up with my long-term partner in 2019 and I sort of didn’t really know how to cope any more. I didn’t feel creative – my whole experience of living in New York was tied to that relationship, and I felt I needed to go somewhere else and start over. I moved to Austin, Texas – I thought I’d give it a go for a bit.

I was doing a lot of tinkering at home, and I started doing a lot more self-portraits and let my psyche run wild. At this point, in 2021, one of my friends, Mike, was living in a 1940s building in East Austin, with old popcorn ceilings, really cool mouldings and outlet covers and original details, including the fireplace. It was inspiring to be there.

Published: December 17, 2025, 2:47 pm

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

For often-underfunded non-profits, merch can help raise funds and visibility – here are gifts that support animal conservation, civil liberties and public media

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Last year, when my daughter opened her axolotl stuffed animal from her grandmother, I admit I was slightly peeved. Did we really need yet another stuffy? But this one had a purpose: it came from World Wildlife Foundation, a conservation non-profit that sends 85% of proceeds toward conservation work and has a four-star rating on Charity Navigator.

My daughter loved it, and given the state of our climate, I appreciated a gift that supports animal and land conservation.

Published: December 17, 2025, 8:29 pm

You be the judge: should my husband stop calling all sweet things ‘buns’?

Parveen doesn’t know if she’s getting a sponge cake or a burger bap, but Joe thinks she needs to embrace his northern-isms. You decide who is sweet and who is sour
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Joe says ‘buns’ covers all sweet things in the north, but I worry he’ll bring me home a burger bun

Regional differences in language are all part of the fun – plus, surely sugar is sugar?

Published: December 18, 2025, 8:00 am

Why west Cornwall is the perfect place to mark the winter solstice

With ancient standing stones and modern midwinter festivals, the West Penwith peninsula is a land of magic and mystery

The light is fading fast as I stand inside Tregeseal stone circle near St Just. The granite stones of the circle are luminous in this sombre landscape, like pale, inquisitive ghosts gathered round to see what we’re up to. Above us, a sea of withered bracken and gorse rises to Carn Kenidjack, the sinister rock outcrop that dominates the naked skyline. At night, this moor is said to be frequented by pixies and demons, and sometimes the devil himself rides out in search of lost souls.

Unbothered by any supernatural threat, we are gazing seawards, towards the smudges on the horizon that are the distant Isles of Scilly. The clouds crack open and a flood of golden light falls over the islands. My companion, archaeoastronomer Carolyn Kennett, and I gasp. It is marvellous natural theatre which may have been enjoyed by the people who built this circle 4,000 years ago.

Published: December 18, 2025, 7:00 am

How to become a good and thoughtful gift-giver

Choosing the right gift can feel difficult, but it is possible to buy something meaningful that will please your loved ones – and stay out of the trash

My family members are incredible gift-givers. Every birthday and holiday, they manage to select exactly what the recipient wanted – or didn’t know they wanted.

I didn’t inherit this gene.

What do people talk about when they’re not trying to impress you? What are their genuine interests, passions and concerns?

Notice their lifestyle, Maso says: “How they live, what they value, where they unwind.”

Choose something that “reflects their world, not yours”. Did I want a Lego orchid? Yes. Did my father? No.

Add a touch of the unexpected. “The best gifts always have a little, ‘I didn’t know I needed this, but it’s so me!’ moment,” Maso says.

Published: December 17, 2025, 5:00 pm

Worried about winter? 10 ways to thrive – from socialising to Sad lamps to celebrating the new year in April

The temptation is to sit at home and hibernate, but beating the winter blues can be done. Here’s how to embrace the coldest and arguably most beautiful season

Stephanie Fitzgerald, a chartered clinical psychologist, used to dread winter. Like many, she coped by keeping busy at work and hibernating at home, waiting for the cold, dark days to be over. But this approach wasn’t making her happy. So she sought out the science that would help her embrace the winter months, rather than try to escape them. In her resulting book, The Gifts of Winter, she writes: “I fell deeply in love with winter … It is a captivating and truly gorgeous season.”

How did she change her mindset – and can the 42% of us who say summer is our favourite season learn to love winter too?

Published: December 17, 2025, 5:00 am

Falling sales at Stella McCartney fuel fears over fashion label’s future

Directors blame ‘challenging market conditions’ as losses widen from £25m in 2024 to £33m

Sales at Stella McCartney’s fashion label sank by more than a quarter last year tipping it further into the red and adding to fears it could run out of money by 2028.

Pre-tax losses at the British brand led by the daughter of former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney widened to £33.6m in 2024 from £25m the year before, while sales fell 27% to £16m, according to accounts filed at Companies House.

Published: December 17, 2025, 2:49 pm

Jess Cartner-Morley on fashion: my top tips for gifting clothes this Christmas

Clothes can be tricky presents to pick, but follow my simple rules and you’ll have your shopping all wrapped up

Once upon a time, Christmas shopping meant grabbing the newest album release or an old-favourite DVD box set, wrapping it in glitter paper, depositing it under the tree and putting your feet up with a highlighter pen to annotate the Radio Times. Now that music and film lives in the cloud, we’ve turned to clothes as the new go-to gift. But choosing them for another person is a high-risk endeavour. How can we boost our chances of getting it right?

Because we do really, really want to get it right. Kids just want Santa to bring them the swag, but one of the things that happens when you become a grownup is that you care more about whether other people like the gifts you’ve given them than you do about what you receive. And fashion is more difficult to get right than many think. After all, if how to dress well was self-evident, then I wouldn’t have a job.

Published: December 17, 2025, 2:00 pm

Sali Hughes on beauty: fancy a fringe? Read this before you go for the chop

Clip-in fringes are easy to use and trying one first could save tears and regrets

That quote about the definition of insanity being the repetition of the same behaviours with the expectation of a different result is often wrongly attributed to Einstein. Whoever it really was, I’m certain it was someone who had decided to get another fringe – and I relate.

Despite occasionally catching sight of one of my several former fringes in a photo album and always thinking how bloody awful I look (only my husband disagrees), I am seemingly never far from a decision I’d definitely regret. As was proved when I saw a recent photograph of Demi Moore, all yard-long black hair and short, scruffy fringe that looked to be artfully cut with a pair of old nail scissors. She looked exquisite, obviously, in a way that my rational brain knows to be absolutely unattainable, but nonetheless I found myself sending hairdresser Hadley Yates a WhatsApp asking if he’d do the deed.

Published: December 17, 2025, 10:00 am

The magical life of Toni Basil: how she taught Elvis, enchanted Bowie – and had a smash hit with ‘Mickey’

The woman Quentin Tarantino called ‘the goddess of go-go’ is one of the most connected and accomplished in Hollywood. At 82, she recalls working with Tina Turner, Bette Midler, Frank Sinatra, David Byrne, Margot Robbie, Leonardo DiCaprio – the list goes on – and the time Bing Crosby made a pass at her

If your knowledge of Toni Basil begins and ends with her cheerleader-chanting smash hit Mickey, that’s just the tip of a very deep iceberg. By the time Mickey topped the US charts 43 years ago this week, in 1982, Basil had already spent four decades in the entertainment industry. The deeper you go, the more places you realise she was. When Elvis Presley sings “See the girl with the red dress on” in his 1964 movie Viva Las Vegas, and points across the dancefloor, the gyrating girl in the red dress is Basil. When Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper take LSD at the end of Easy Rider with two sex workers, one of them is Basil. When dance troupe the Lockers show​case their pre-hip-hop street dance moves on Soul Train in 1976, it’s six guys and … Basil. By the time of Mickey she had already worked with everyone from David Bowie to Tina Turner to Talking Heads, with more to come.

Basil has been-there-done-that in so many places, for so long, and over the course of our two-hour conversation she’ll casually drop asides such as “… so I went to see Devo with Iggy Pop and Dean Stockwell” or “… me and Bowie had just come from dinner with Bob Geldof, Paula Yates and Freddie Mercury” or “I was just at Bette Midler’s 80th birthday party, what a bash!” She’s now 82 years old but on Zoom, from her dance studio in Los Angeles, she doesn’t look much older than she did in the video for Mickey – and she looked like a teenager in that, even though she was 38 at the time. Her memory is perfectly sharp, too, and her energy levels are as high as ever, as she shares her packed life story with animated diction. If she has a secret to eternal youth, it’s that she has danced her whole life, and she still does, she says. “Dance is my drug of choice. You get high from it, and it gives you community.”

Published: December 17, 2025, 10:00 am

A moment that changed me: a pigeon fell out of the sky – and she led me to a secret underground rescue network

I had no idea what to do with the injured bird I named Belinda. But suddenly 3,000 Mancunians were happy to help, giving me a whole new appreciation of my home town

The plane pushed through wall after wall of sleet on its descent into Manchester. I’d had a sinking feeling during the flight that only deepened as I shuffled through the terminal. I resented having to be back in the city where I had grown up, after living on the other side of the world for what had felt like a lifetime.

After a few days, I headed out to get a haircut. My mind was miles away, back across an ocean, when I heard something hit the pavement. I looked down to see a pigeon on its back, spatchcocked, and twitching.

Published: December 17, 2025, 6:55 am

Thursday news quiz: AI mishaps, fan fury and a tiny baby hippo

Test yourself on topical news trivia, pop culture and general knowledge every Thursday. How will you fare?

Welcome to the final Thursday news quiz of the year – a small festive tradition involving the news, a handful of jokes, and the knowledge that somewhere there are 1,057 pedants limbering up to find something to nitpick. And it is a bumper 20-question edition. Thank you for quizzing throughout the year, for your comments, corrections and good-natured quibbles, and most of all for the kind messages literally hundreds of you sent the quizmaster during the Great Thursday Quiz Hiatus of 2025™, when he was off sick. It really meant a lot. Allons-y!

The Thursday quiz will return in the new year and wishes you a Merry Christmas, a great festive holiday period and all the best for 2026. Sign up for First Edition to get a Thursday quiz-style quiz of the year in your inbox on Christmas Day.

Published: December 18, 2025, 6:30 am

Jeremy Lee’s recipe for almond, chocolate and prune tart

Marcona almonds from Spain, walnuts, dark chocolate, Agen prunes from France and a few decades of love go into this sumptuous, boozy frangipane tart

A recipe box was rifled through, but, alas, much like shopping for a present last minute, nothing leapt to the fore. Out of the corner of an eye I spied an old folder of pudding menus, all stained and tattered. A wonder at how this might have escaped notice was soon dispelled – unsurprising, really, given the usual state of my desk and shelves – and the page on which it fell open revealed the scribbles for a midwinter pudding menu. And, just like that, as if the scent rose from the page itself, came a memory of an almond, chocolate, walnut and prune tart being lifted from the oven, all mahogany hued and with a few bubbles bursting from the pieces of chocolate among the prunes peeking out.

My appetite for almond tart has never waned; be it in a restaurant kitchen or at home, an almond tart is nigh-on inevitable. When I was younger, almond tarts were often made with ready-ground almonds and usually invigorated by a drop or two of almond essence, because they were often shy of flavour. But then bags of whole marcona almonds from Spain began to arrive, and quickly usurped any notion of baking with any other almond. Shaped like teardrops and almost milky in colour, delicate, buttery and freshly ground, these almonds imbue a tart with a superb quality and flavour. The benefit of not having to blind bake a tart case balanced the need to bake the tart on a rack sat in a tray to catch any butter and almond oil-infused tears released while baking.

Jeremy Lee is chef/co-owner of Quo Vadis in London, and author of Cooking: Simply and Well, for One or Many, published by HarperCollins at £30. To order a copy, visit guardianbookshop.com.

Published: December 18, 2025, 6:00 am

The chaotic life of an immigration lawyer in Trump’s America: ‘Some days you break down in tears’

The Guardian followed immigration attorney Milli Atkinson as she pivoted from case to case – and tried to keep herself sane. This is what her typical day looks like

It’s been a chaotic year in San Francisco immigration court. At least 88 asylum seekers have been arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at their court hearings. More than half of the immigration judges have been fired. A climate of fear and uncertainty pervades.

At the center of it all, immigration attorney Milli Atkinson has been holding things together. She leads the San Francisco Bar Association’s Attorney of the Day program, which provides people from all over Northern California with free legal advice when they show up to immigration court. She also leads San Francisco’s Rapid Response Network, finding legal representation for anyone in the city arrested by ICE.

Published: December 17, 2025, 12:00 pm

‘Everything is worse since Drax came here’: US residents say wood-pellet plant harming their town

Residents of Gloster, Mississippi, are suing plant that exports wood pellets to UK and Europe. Company says it is reducing emissions

When Helen Reed first learned about the bioenergy mill opening in her hometown of Gloster, Mississippi, the word was it would bring jobs and economic opportunities. It was only later that she learned that activity came with a cost: the Amite Bioenergy mill, opened in 2014 by British energy giant Drax, emits large – and sometimes illegal – quantities of air pollutants, including methanol, acrolein and formaldehyde, which are linked to cancers and other serious illnesses.

“When I go out, I can’t hardly catch my breath,” Reed said. “Everything is worse since Drax came here.”

Published: December 17, 2025, 4:00 pm

These migrants grow the US’s Christmas trees. Trump’s wage cuts may keep them away

Legal temporary farm workers also worry about the H-2A visa program and Trump’s anti-immigration regime

This article is a collaboration between the Guardian and Enlace Latino NC, an independent bilingual publication. Read this article in Spanish.

On a cold December afternoon, about 10 workers load the season’s final Christmas trees onto a truck at Wolf Creek Tree Farm and Nursery in Cullowhee, North Carolina. Nearby, another group takes a break, warming up around a barrel fire. More workers are out in the fields, a half-hour’s drive up further into the mountains.

Published: December 17, 2025, 2:00 pm

Ice sculptures, evictions and strikes: photos of the day – Wednesday

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

Published: December 17, 2025, 12:47 pm