What happened next: the night Led By Donkeys projected Trump and Epstein on to Windsor Castle

The art activists made headlines during the US president’s state visit when they shocked the waiting media with a short documentary – and were quickly arrested

When Donald Trump’s second state visit was announced, and when the finer details for the Windsor banquet on 17 September 2025 became known, there was no way Led By Donkeys was going to let that pass unprotested. It was just so craven, rolling out the red carpet for Trump. Their next art-activist event unfolded like clockwork.

Led By Donkeys made a nine-minute film about Trump’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein which ended: “The president of the United States was a long-time close friend of America’s most notorious child sex trafficker. He’s alleged to be mentioned, numerous times, in the files arising from the investigation into that child sex trafficker … Now that president, Donald Trump, is sleeping here, in Windsor Castle.” (Trump says that he fell out with Epstein years before Epstein was first arrested, and has consistently denied any wrongdoing in relation to Epstein.)

Published: December 22, 2025, 5:00 am

Kimchi, made in China: how South Korea’s national dish is being priced out at home

In the first 10 months of this year, South Korea imported $159m worth of kimchi, almost entirely from China, while exporting $137m

The pungent scent of red chilli powder hangs in the air at Kim Chieun’s kimchi factory in Incheon, about 30km west of Seoul. Inside, salted cabbage soaks in large metal vats in the first stage of a process that Kim has followed for more than 30 years.

But watching over the production line has become increasingly fraught. South Korea imports more kimchi than it exports, and the gap has widened as cheaper Chinese-made products take hold in the domestic market.

Published: December 22, 2025, 12:39 am

Palestinian reporters have paid a terrible price in another horrific year for journalist killings | Jane Martinson

The Al Jazeera reporter Anas al-Sharif was the most prominent name among so many targeted for simply bearing witness to the truth

In January this year, Anas al-Sharif was filmed being lifted into the air after taking off his helmet and flak jacket to celebrate a ceasefire that would prove all too temporary in Gaza. This summer, the Palestinian journalist broke down while reporting on starvation in his home town that is now a war zone. A bystander told him: “Persist, Anas, you are our voice”.

But al-Sharif’s popularity in Gaza made him a target. In July, international agencies warned of the danger he was in as the Israel Defense Forces stepped up online attacks, falsely labelling him a Hamas terrorist. His employer, Al Jazeera, insisted he restrict his reporting to the more protected al-Shifa hospital after his father and many colleagues were killed. In August, a few months short of his 29th birthday, al-Sharif and six others were killed in a direct attack on a media tent next to the hospital. In a posthumous post he said: “If these words reach you, know that Israel has succeeded in killing me and silencing my voice.”

Jane Martinson is professor of financial journalism at City St George’s and a member of the board of the Scott Trust, which owns the Guardian Media Group. She writes in a personal capacity

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 22, 2025, 6:00 am

Childbirth under attack: how women and babies became targets in conflicts around the world

Guardian investigation reveals at least 119 direct attacks on hospitals and delivery wards since start of wars in Ukraine, Gaza and Sudan

Thirty women were sheltering in the Saudi maternity hospital in El Fasher, Sudan, on 28 October when the massacre began. Some had just given birth and others were still in labour.

Working at the hospital that night, lab technician Abdo-Rabo Ahmed, 28, was one of the few known survivors. “I heard the voices of women and children screaming,” he says. “They were killing everybody inside the hospital. Those of us who were able to run, did.”

Published: December 22, 2025, 7:00 am

A mildly subversive gift guide: 10 banned books for curious and rebellious US readers

Gift a banned book to the defiant reader in your life this holiday season. Our picks by Toni Morrison, Alice Walker and others have all faced US challenges or bans

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

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

I live, study and teach writing in a state that is one of the epicenters of book bans in this country. For years, Texas has consistently been a top-ranking state in book ban attempts in schools and libraries, according to the American Library Association (ALA), which publishes annual censorship reports.

In its latest report for 2024, the organization recorded 821 attempts to ban library books and other materials in the US. Many of these books are first challenged before banned, and they are often not from the disgruntled parents you may be thinking of. According to the ALA, most censorship attempts last year came from “pressure groups and decision makers who have been swayed by them”. The most common reasons for book challenges: objections to sexual content and themes around race and racism, LGBTQ+ and other social justice issues.

Published: December 21, 2025, 8:15 pm

The Trump administration is trying to legislate trans people out of existence | Judith Levine

Robert F Kennedy Jr is pushing a plan to block medical treatments, the latest move against bodily autonomy

On Thursday, when Robert F Kennedy Jr announced an effort to block medical treatments for transgender youth, he used the term “sex-rejecting procedures” in place of “gender-affirming care”.

And where transgender advocates and healthcare providers view puberty blockers, hormones and (in rare cases) surgical interventions as suicide prevention measures, the health secretary claimed that these “procedures” will do the opposite: “rob children of their futures.”

Judith Levine is a Brooklyn-based journalist, essayist and author of five books. Her Substack is Today in Fascism

Published: December 21, 2025, 2:00 pm

US justice department restores photo featuring Trump from Epstein files

Department says image was flagged by prosecutors before determining it posed no risk to survivors of late sex offender

The US justice department said on Sunday it had restored an image it had removed a day earlier from the public release of investigative files related to Jeffrey Epstein after concluding that the photograph, which included within it a photo of Donald Trump, posed no risk of public exposure to victims of the late convicted sex offender.

The justice department said the image had been flagged by federal prosecutors in New York for potentially exposing victims of Epstein. Its unexplained removal on Saturday triggered a chorus of accusations from Democrats about evident political interference in favor of the president, a former friend of Epstein.

Published: December 21, 2025, 9:56 pm

Trump administration recalls nearly 30 career diplomats around world

Tenures end for mission chiefs in at least 29 countries, including 13 in Africa, as US reshapes its diplomatic posture

The Trump administration is recalling nearly 30 career diplomats from ambassadorial and other senior embassy posts as it moves to reshape the US diplomatic posture abroad with personnel deemed fully supportive of Donald Trump’s “America first” priorities.

The chiefs of mission in at least 29 countries were informed last week that their tenures would end in January, according to two state department officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal personnel moves.

Published: December 22, 2025, 12:39 am

CBS News delays 60 Minutes segment featuring investigation into El Salvador’s Cecot megaprison

Backlash after broadcaster announces the program, due to air on Sunday night, ‘needs additional reporting’

CBS News is facing a backlash, including from one of its own correspondents, after it cancelled a 60 Minutes investigation into a brutal prison in El Salvador where the Trump administration has deported hundreds of migrants.

The episode of its flagship program about the Cecot megaprison was due to air on Sunday night. However, in an “editors note” posted on X, the broadcaster’s official account announced that “the lineup for tonight’s edition of 60 Minutes has been updated. Our report ‘Inside Cecot’ will air in a future broadcast.”

Published: December 22, 2025, 8:08 am

Russian general killed by car bomb in Moscow, investigators say

Investigative Committee says it is looking into whether Ukraine intelligence services were behind the attack

A Russian general has been killed after an explosive device detonated beneath his car in what Moscow described as a likely assassination carried out by Ukrainian intelligence services.

Lt Gen Fanil Sarvarov, the head of the operational training directorate of the Russian armed forces’ general staff, died of his injuries, a spokesperson for Russia’s Investigative Committee said in a statement.

Published: December 22, 2025, 8:54 am

Police allege Bondi shooters had ‘tennis ball bomb’ and made IS-inspired video manifesto, court documents reveal

Documents released Monday outline allegations against Naveed Akram and his father Sajid over the 14 December attack

New details about the police case against the alleged Bondi terrorists have been released, including details of an alleged video manifesto linked to the Islamic State and the undetonated explosives – including a “tennis ball bomb” – found at the scene.

Naveed Akram, 24, faces charges of murdering 15 people and injuring dozens more in the shooting at a Hanukah celebration on 14 December. His 50-year-old father, Sajid Akram, 50, is the second alleged shooter, and died at the scene.

Published: December 22, 2025, 4:45 am

Jeju Air crash: South Korea sets up independent inquiry into disaster that killed 179 amid delays and acrimony

MPs vote to investigate crash amid accusations from victims’ relatives of cover-ups and delays

South Korea’s parliament has launched an independent inquiry into the deadliest air disaster on its soil amid accusations of investigation delays and cover-ups of last year’s Jeju Air crash.

On 29 December 2024 all but two of the 181 people onboard a Jeju Air Boeing 737-800 died when it crashed at Muan international airport, 288km south of Seoul, after reporting a bird strike during landing.

Published: December 22, 2025, 6:33 am

James Ransone, US actor known for The Wire, dies aged 46

LA medical examiner reports Ransone, who played Chester ‘Ziggy’ Sobotka in the HBO crime drama, died by suicide

James Ransone, the American actor best known for his work in 12 episodes of The Wire, has died in Los Angeles.

Information from the Los Angeles medical examiner indicated Ransone, 46, died on Friday from suicide.

Published: December 21, 2025, 9:37 pm

Gripes and infighting on display as Maga stars gather at Turning Point conference

Figures at event include Tucker Carlson, Steve Bannon and Trump Jr as cohesion of political right shows signs of stress

The stars of the Maga conservatism converged for the four-day AmericaFest conference in Phoenix this weekend amid reports that the cohesion of the political-religious right, a year into Donald Trump’s second presidential term, is showing signs of stress.

The sold-out Turning Point USA event brought together figures from the right including Megyn Kelly, Tucker Carlson, Steve Bannon, Donald Trump Jr, Vivek Ramaswamy, Ben Shapiro and Glenn Beck, to kick around the dominant themes of conservatism.

Published: December 21, 2025, 9:12 pm

Cancelled US comedian Jimmy Kimmel to deliver Christmas message to UK

TV host who came under pressure from Trump government will say: ‘From a fascism perspective, this has been a really great year’

The US comedian whose late-night show was briefly cancelled after pressure from Donald Trump’s government is to urge UK audiences to stand up for free speech.

In a defiant alternative Christmas message on Channel 4, Jimmy Kimmel will liken the first year of Trump’s second administration to the rise of fascism.

Published: December 21, 2025, 10:00 pm

Thanks to Donald Trump, 2025 was a good year … for white-collar criminals

Why would the Trump administration choose to set aside consequences from criminals whose actions threaten the stability of the broader American economy?

When Islamic State needed to move and disguise its money, it turned, US prosecutors said in 2023, to the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange: Binance. So too did al-Qaida, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas, which used the platform to help bankroll its operations in the years leading up to the 7 October attack in Israel. Binance was not accused of directly financing these groups, but prosecutors found that it knowingly allowed its exchange to function as a conduit – enabling extremist organisations to shift funds, evade scrutiny and frustrate investigations.

At the centre of it all was Binance’s founder and chief executive, Changpeng Zhao. By 2024, the self-styled “king” of crypto had fallen from grace, pleading guilty to money laundering charges and entering prison, while Binance agreed to pay a record $4.3bn penalty for its role in facilitating terrorist financing. The case was hailed as a rare victory for regulators willing to take on the industry’s biggest players – and for victims of the violence linked to those financial flows. Among them were the families of US citizens killed on 7 October, who are now suing Binance in a class-action lawsuit accusing the company of “pitching itself to terrorist organisations”.

Published: December 21, 2025, 2:00 pm

‘Teach your daughter to speak Polish’: Ukrainians in Poland face growing resentment

Change in attitudes has been stoked by disinformation, viral videos and the election of rightwing populist president

Valeriia Kholkina was out buying ice-cream with her husband and four-year-old daughter when a man overheard them speaking Ukrainian. “Teach your daughter to speak Polish,” said the stranger. Then he physically assaulted both parents.

The incident, which happened in the city of Szczecin in north-west Poland, reflects an increasingly hostile atmosphere for Ukrainians in the country, a dramatic turnaround from the mood in 2022. Then, in the aftermath of Russia’s full-scale invasion, hundreds of thousands of Poles put on a show of support and hospitality for their neighbours, volunteering at the border and offering up their homes to refugees.

Published: December 22, 2025, 9:13 am

Trump does presidency via Truth Social – what are Americans missing out on?

Since just 3% of Americans use platform Trump owns, public may be unaware of his mental state and performance

When Donald Trump has something to say, he takes to Truth Social.

Trump has used the platform to announce policies on everything from the economy to travel bans, making declarations that are key for Americans seeking information about his government.

Published: December 21, 2025, 2:00 pm

Palaver by Bryan Washington review – a remix of the author’s greatest hits

From exile to family dysfunction, street food to sex, this stylish novel about a mother visiting her estranged gay son in Tokyo explores familiar themes

While we now use it to mean a fuss or convoluted mess, the origins of the word palaver, the title of Bryan Washington’s third novel, lie in the Portuguese term palavra, which simply means “word”. Over time, and possibly coloured by the historical context of Portuguese colonists’ rampages across the globe, “palaver” came to refer to a complex debate or negotiation between two culturally distinct parties.

Culture clashes, conflicted conversations, oppositions and exchanges are principal interests for Washington. His debut novel, 2020’s Memorial, was a sobering but sensitive consideration of a fracturing interracial gay relationship set between Houston and Osaka. This was followed in 2023 by Family Meal, again taking place in Houston, with its pithy observations of a combustible queer love triangle. Palaver centres on the tense relationship between protagonists “the son” and “the mother”. Guarded and prickly, the son is an American who has lived in Tokyo for the best part of a decade, teaching English as a foreign language. Throughout this period, he’s been estranged from his Jamaican-American mother back home in Texas. The novel opens with the equally crabby mother unexpectedly turning up on her son’s doorstep, and mostly covers the week and a half they spend together, moving between their two perspectives. Illuminated by Tokyo’s harsh neon, mother and son edge around reckonings with their bitter past of familial dysfunction, and make their way towards something resembling rapprochement.

Published: December 22, 2025, 7:00 am

Joshua and Paul provide pitiful spectacle and the worst is there’s more to come | Donald McRae

Miami bout was a bleak and blood-flecked affair but both men will find more opponents willing to take the money

Jake Paul’s mouth opened wide, and his eyes became huge glazed saucers, as he sank to the canvas in shock and awe after a pulverising right hand from Anthony Joshua finally ended the circus in Miami late on Friday night. It looked as if Paul was trying to say “Wow!” as the severity of impact registered in his scrambled brain.

Pinned in a corner of the ring midway through the sixth round, Paul could no longer run or cling to Joshua’s legs like a forlorn little boy as the gravity of boxing enveloped him. Instead, as he tried to absorb the punch that broke his jaw in two separate places, Paul was lost in his utterly stunned moment.

Published: December 22, 2025, 8:00 am

Is it true that … you can sweat out a hangover?

It’s the liver – not the skin – that rids the body of the toxins in alcohol, but exercise can help manage the symptoms

Here’s a useful fact to quote to any smug relatives who say they went for a run the morning after their Christmas party: you can’t get rid of toxins by sweating. “Toxins” is a broad term, says Adam Taylor, professor of anatomy at Lancaster Medical School, covering anything that can damage the body – from heavy metals to chemicals found in plastics, as well as the normal byproducts of our own metabolism. The liver is designed to process the toxins in alcohol and either break them down into usable units or get rid of them. The waste products are then filtered from the blood and excreted in urine or stools.

Sweat, on the other hand, has a very different job. Although it can contain extremely small amounts of some metabolic byproducts, its purpose is temperature regulation (and, in some situations, to signal stress or fear). “Sweating is not the means to remove toxins,” says Taylor. “Going for a run or sitting in a sauna after a night of drinking won’t reduce the toxins produced by metabolising alcohol, and it won’t lower your blood alcohol level.”

Published: December 22, 2025, 8:00 am

‘You have to be ready to see it’: Abel Ferrara and Catherine Breillat on why Pasolini’s Salò is a gift that keeps giving

Pier Paolo Pasolini’s notorious film is now 50 years old, and its cavalcade of shocking cruelty and violence still leaves a stark impact on its viewers. Film-makers explain why Pasolini ‘was a saint to us’

Abel Ferrara was there at the beginning. In his new memoir, Scene, the cult director describes his experience at the American premiere of Salò, the hugely controversial final film from Italian director Pier Paolo Pasolini. At the beginning of the film – at which Ferrara and company arrived with wine and cheese, given its length – there were 15 people in the audience. Once the credits rolled, there were eight. “I was standing with like six people,” Ferrara says now. “And you know, two or three of those people I still see.”

When it comes to Salò, it seems that you never forget your first time. The film, which has reached its 50th anniversary in 2025, is known for its seemingly endless cavalcade of cruelty and violence, leaves a stark impact on those who come across it. “We had high expectations, but it went beyond that,” Ferrara says. “He had just died, so he was a saint to us.” But not everyone so readily embraces the film on first viewing. Film-maker Catherine Breillat says that at first, she didn’t like Salò, “regretted seeing it, [and] sort of wished that [I] hadn’t”. For Breillat, “you have to be ready to see Salò. Its like Arthur’s Round Table; it will come to you when you’re ready. There’s a moment where you can sit down with the knights of the Round Table, after following a dangerous path, and you don’t disappear into the abyss.”

Published: December 22, 2025, 7:00 am

The 10 best experimental albums of 2025

Raisa K’s solo album is primitive and intimate, Saeko Killy adds a euphoric touch to her dimly lit sound and Bitchin Bajas get blissed out
• The 50 best albums of 2025
• More on the best culture of 2025

Chicago minimalist trio Bitchin Bajas are experts in crafting the ultimate slow burn, with a discography full of soundscapes that often stretch languorously around or beyond the 10-minute mark. Their latest record follows suit with four winding, blissed-out tracks over a 40-minute run time. But it’s not just overindulgent lounge music: the analogue loops quietly build to transcendental heights, nudged along by wandering sax solos, spritely keys and other cosmic flourishes. It’s a lush, often moving odyssey which, towards the end of the epic 18-minute closer, climaxes in an effervescent flurry.

Published: December 22, 2025, 7:00 am

My weirdest Christmas: I took a family friend to A&E – and he went from peaky to barely responsive on the way

He insisted he was OK, but he didn’t look it, and when he tried and failed to eat Christmas lunch we knew it was time for a mercy dash to hospital

Our family friend has always been a larger than life figure. Witty, unsentimental – and not one to say no to another brandy. At family parties, he’s the one gossiping about the latest scandal to catch up with a local MP, or regaling us with tales of the outrageous philandering of various Sheffield Wednesday players over the past 40 years. He could make anything – a jacket potato, a broken relationship – funny, somehow.

We would often spend Christmas morning with him and his family, before going our separate ways. But, one Christmas, about 10 years ago, when he was supposed to be meeting family abroad, he fell down the stairs, whisky in one hand, suitcase in the other, and broke his ribs. The hospital had patched him up and told him not to fly. So, here he was back with us in Sheffield, making the best of it, but looking increasingly peaky.

Published: December 22, 2025, 5:00 am

Reward countries that toe the line, punish those that don’t: that’s how Trump is exerting control in Latin America | Jordana Timerman

His interference in the region has been aided by the collapse of the leftist forces that once pushed back against US imperialism

For the past generation, Latin America has been a place of unstable stability. Marked on the surface by protests, political pendulum swings and spectacular scandals, most of the region has, since the democratisation of the 1980s and 1990s, remained firmly democratic and free of war between states. Though scarred by the violence of armed groups and increasingly powerful criminal organisations, it has, by and large, lived up to its self-assumed moniker of a “zone of peace”.

Which is why this year has felt so jarring. Throughout 2025, the first year of Donald Trump’s second term, analysts have obsessively parsed potential US military incursions into a hemisphere once defined by its unified defence of national sovereignty. But the fixation on whether Washington’s escalating pressure on Nicolás Maduro presages a physical military invasion of Venezuela has distracted from the real story: the larger shift towards direct intervention has already happened, and it has faced remarkably little resistance. More than 100 people have been killed in US maritime strikes that experts characterise as extrajudicial executions, and the loudest objections have come not from Latin American presidents or regional organisations, but from the US Congress.

Jordana Timerman is a journalist based in Buenos Aires. She compiles the Latin America Daily Briefing and is part of the Ideas Letter’s editorial team

Published: December 22, 2025, 8:00 am

Christmas is a season for forgiveness. But is saying ‘sorry’ enough? | Fatma Aydemir

In Germany, the neo-Nazi terrorist Beate Zschäpe has made a public display of her remorse – but remains silent on key aspects of her crimes

It’s a strange season to talk about forgiveness. While streets glow with fairy lights and shop windows promise that compassion is only a gift-box away, Germany is once again confronted with the unresolved wounds of its recent past. The trap of the season is this: believing that every gesture of regret must be met with mercy. As if forgiveness was a resource available to anyone who is reasonable enough to move on, no matter how atrociously they have been treated.

It is certainly not that simple for the families of the victims of the National Socialist Underground (NSU). During the 2000s, the neo-Nazi terror organisation killed 10 people, nine of them immigrants, mostly small business owners, and one policewoman. Because investigators focused on probing the victims’ families and communities rather than on Nazis, the NSU was able to continue murdering without interference. German media reported on the atrocities as die Dönermorde the kebab murders, as if it was some exotic true-crime phenomenon.

Fatma Aydemir is a Berlin-based author, novelist, playwright and a Guardian Europe 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 22, 2025, 5:00 am

The hill I will die on: ‘Small plates’ are fiddly and cost a fortune – ban them | Jonny Woo

A saucer of pomegranate seeds and something sprinkled with petals? No thanks: just give me dinner

It’s lovely going out for dinner in London. It’s a gastro capital with cuisines from all around the world. One night, Indian, French the next, Peruvian, Ethiopian. You can travel the globe without leaving Hackney.

This time of year, I’m super busy planning the un-Royal Variety show – a punk pastiche of the royal version – and so I can’t be bothered with meal prep and washing up, and find myself eating out an awful lot. Most food trends I can get behind (with the exception of truffle – yuck!). But one pernicious dining trend that refuses to go away and which I detest is “small plates”.

Jonny Woo is a performer, drag artist, writer, and co-owner of The Divine, he will be hosting his Un-Royal Variety at Soho Theatre Walthamstow 26-28 November 2026.

Published: December 22, 2025, 7:00 am

We’re pastors. The fight against Maga Christianity starts locally | Doug Pagitt and Lori Walke

Trump’s movement has used the Christian faith to fuel oppression. Here’s how we are standing against it

Donald Trump wants us to believe that the “war on Christianity” is spreading across the globe. The US president recently sounded the alarm on the “mass slaughter” of Christians in Nigeria while threatening a US invasion of the African nation. We shouldn’t be surprised. This falls right in line with Trump’s ongoing attempts to project Maga Christianity on to the global stage and crack down on religious freedom.

Maga Christianity represents a self-serving, commercialized version of the Christian faith – putting power over service and empathy – and it is everywhere in our federal government. In February, Trump announced a taskforce led by Pam Bondi with the goal of rooting out “anti-Christian” bias. In September, Trump announced his plans to protect prayer in schools. Later that month, he issued a memorandum identifying anti-Christianity as a potential driver of terrorism. These are not just one-off incidents. This is a national effort to push the Maga Christianity agenda on Americans, and we’re already seeing the consequences.

Doug Pagitt is executive director of Vote Common Good. The Rev Lori Walke is the senior minister at Mayflower Congregational United Church of Christ in Oklahoma City

Published: December 21, 2025, 12:00 pm

NFL round-up: Steelers outlast Lions as late penalty negates Goff’s winning TD

• Chiefs down to QB3 as Minshew hurt in loss to Titans

• McCarthy hurt as Vikings hand Giants ninth straight loss

• Chargers close on playoffs behind Herbert surge

The Pittsburgh Steelers pushed the Detroit Lions to the brink of elimination from the playoffs on Sunday, holding on for a 29-24 win when Jared Goff’s touchdown on the final play was negated by an offensive pass-interference penalty on Amon-Ra St Brown.

Goff threw a fourth-down pass to St Brown just short of the goal line. The receiver pushed off cornerback Jalen Ramsey to get free, and before the Steelers could bring St Brown to the ground, he threw the quarterback a lateral to set up an apparent score.

Published: December 21, 2025, 9:50 pm

Chicago White Sox sign Japanese star Munetaka Murakami to $34m deal

• Murakami joins White Sox on $34m, two-year deal

• Former NPB MVP adds power to Chicago rebuild

• Deal includes posting fee, award-based escalators

The rebuilding Chicago White Sox added Munetaka Murakami to their lineup on Sunday, agreeing to a $34m, two-year contract with the Japanese slugger.

Murakami, who turns 26 on 2 February, joins a promising group of young hitters that also includes Colson Montgomery, Kyle Teel and Chase Meidroth. The White Sox finished last in the AL Central this year with a 60-102 record, a 19-game improvement from the previous season.

Published: December 21, 2025, 9:08 pm

Morgan Rogers double sinks Manchester United and keeps Aston Villa on leaders’ heels

On another evening of theatre at Villa Park, it was fitting that the match-winner Morgan Rogers was last to leave the stage. There is simply no stopping this Aston Villa machine, cylinders pumping, handcrafted by Unai Emery, who reacted to ­Rogers’s second goal against Manchester United by launching his jacket into the night sky. “Birmingham, are you listening?” came the chorus from the home support but this was a victory with far wider implications.

Approaching the halfway stage of the season, Villa, third and three points behind the Premier League leaders Arsenal, are ensconced in the title race, two more Rogers goals earning a 10th consecutive win in all competitions and rendering Matheus Cunha’s well-taken equaliser a consolation. The discourse and debate will run wild after this latest Villa win, a seventh in a row in the league, but it was one that undoubtedly belonged to Rogers’s individual brilliance. After his second goal, Rogers spread his arms, screwed up his face and shrugged as if to say: “Well, what am I supposed to do?”

Published: December 21, 2025, 6:44 pm

Jake Paul v Anthony Joshua: boxing, influencers and spectacle collide in Miami – in pictures

Britain’s Anthony Joshua knocked out Jake Paul in the sixth round of their money-spinning heavyweight fight on a surreal Friday night in Miami, where boxing’s oldest realities converged with a new, attention-driven world

• Analysis: Jake Paul’s artless spectacle robbed boxing of its democratic dream

Published: December 21, 2025, 10:06 am

Lindsey Vonn, 41, adds yet another podium to blistering comeback start

• Vonn places third again in super-G at Val-d’Isère

• 41-year-old logs 142nd World Cup podium finish

• Milan-Cortina Olympics firmly in sight for US star

Sofia Goggia finally got the win her fast skiing this season deserved in a World Cup super-G on Sunday and Lindsey Vonn was third for the second straight day.

The two former Olympic downhill champions were split on a high-class podium by runner-up Alice Robinson, who is already a two-time winner this season on the World Cup circuit.

Published: December 21, 2025, 12:38 pm

El Kaabi’s stunning strike caps Morocco’s win over Comoros in Afcon opener

The Africa Cup of Nations hosts, Morocco, overcame a nervy start to beat Comoros in the tournament’s opening game on Sunday after Brahim Díaz and the substitute Ayoub El Kaabi scored second-half goals.

It was a far from convincing showing, however, from highly fancied Morocco who are 97 places above the small Indian Ocean island nation in the world rankings and had to toil hard for the points in the rain at Rabat’s Prince Moulay Abdellah stadium.

Published: December 21, 2025, 9:40 pm

‘We feel excluded’: expensive tickets and Trump’s shadow dampen World Cup excitement in Mexico

The feeling among fans is anticlimatic as ‘businessmen have appropriated the ball that used to belong to the people’

Jonathan Zamora was seven years old the last time Mexico hosted the World Cup in 1986. “I witnessed perhaps one of the most sublime moments in the history of football,” he says, retelling a story that has become a pillar of his life.

Zamora, a Mexican football fan, does not remember how his father, Antonio, got tickets to the 1986 World Cup quarter-final between Argentina and England at the Azteca Stadium in Mexico City. But he does clearly remember the goals: first when Diego Maradona used his “hand of God” to push the ball past England goalkeeper Peter Shilton. And then the “goal of the century”, where the Argentinian went on a slalom run, dribbling past half the England team before scoring.

Published: December 21, 2025, 8:00 am

‘I made such a bond’: Jesse Lingard on life in South Korea and his next challenge

Former Manchester United player discusses culinary and cultural surprises, feeling more mature and how he learned Korean

Jesse Lingard says his Korean is decent, good enough to make himself understood when out for dinner and the shocks do not stop there. The former Manchester United and England midfielder was always going to throw himself into his K-League adventure with FC Seoul and now that it is over after two years, a new chapter beckoning when the January transfer window opens, the 33-year-old certainly has the tales to tell.

It was the little things as much as anything else, the cultural quirks. And the bigger ones, of course – such as the time he watched an octopus squirm in front of him before eating it. “The food is different, obviously, and I tried live octopus,” Lingard says. “It was moving. I was scared at first but it was all right.”

Published: December 21, 2025, 8:00 am

US Coast Guard pursuing another oil tanker off coast of Venezuela

Official indicates vessel is subject to sanctions after Trump’s ‘blockade’ on sanctioned tankers in and out of Venezuela

US Coast Guard officials said on Sunday they were tracking an oil tanker in international waters close to Venezuela, multiple unnamed US officials have told US media, marking the second such action over the weekend – and the third within the past week.

What officials described as an “active pursuit” in the Caribbean Sea took place a day after the coast guard seized another vessel off the coast of Venezuela, as Washington ramps up its pressure campaign targeting the South American nation’s vital oil sector.

Published: December 22, 2025, 3:54 am

‘Slightly haunted but manageable’: new signs cause confusion – and delight – in Christchurch

Six absurdist signs resembling official city council information boards have popped up across New Zealand’s second-largest city

Outside an abandoned building in New Zealand’s second-biggest city, a sign reads “slightly haunted but manageable”. In the middle of a busy shopping strip, pedestrians are warned to keep to a 2.83km/h walking speed. In another part of Christchurch, one piece of signage declares simply “don’t”.

The baffling boards are not an overzealous new council initiative, but a piece of art designed to “play with the way we take authority and signage so seriously”.

Published: December 22, 2025, 2:28 am

Sweden and Germany slash aid budgets to focus on Ukraine and defence spending

Echoing the dismantling of USAID, other countries are changing funding priorities and health and hunger programmes in Africa will lose out

The notion of humanitarian aid being used to combat poverty and hunger is being replaced in Europe with geopolitical “games” as states redirect aid to Ukraine and to defence spending, analysts warn after recent announcements by Sweden and Germany.

Earlier this year, humanitarian groups called for European donors to fill the gap as President Donald Trump dismantled the USAID programme, but instead other nations are further pulling back from their commitments around the world.

Published: December 21, 2025, 2:00 pm

‘Miracle’ of Zealandia: chick is born to rare takahē pair thought to be infertile

Unexpected arrival is a boon for birdlife in New Zealand, where there are only 500 takahē left

A pair of rare native New Zealand takahē birds who were believed infertile have stunned staff at the world’s largest urban eco-sanctuary, after hatching a “miracle” chick.

The roughly seven-week old chick was discovered inside Zealandia, a fully fenced eco-sanctuary 10 minutes from Wellington’s city centre, in November, but its arrival has been a closely guarded secret to ensure its safety.

Published: December 21, 2025, 6:00 pm

Kate Winslet tells of being body shamed and told to do ‘fat girl parts’ when young

Actor says comments from teachers and schoolmates about her size resulted in her barely eating at 19 years old

Kate Winslet has described being shamed over her appearance as a young actor by schoolmates and teachers.

The actor, whose directorial debut film Goodbye June was released this month, recalled being told by a drama teacher that she would have to settle for “fat girl parts”.

Published: December 21, 2025, 2:18 pm

Élysée Palace staff member accused of stealing tableware worth up to €40,000

Silver steward is one of three people arrested in connection with alleged theft from presidential residence

A silver steward employed at the Élysée Palace in Paris has been arrested for stealing silverware and porcelain, amid a wave of thefts from high-profile French institutions.

Investigators arrested the man and two alleged accomplices last week. They are accused of taking the objects from the official Paris residence of the French president and trying to sell them on online auction websites such as Vinted.

Published: December 21, 2025, 2:37 pm

Can Dan Bongino regain his stature in the conservative media world?

Trump says the former podcaster and radio host ‘wants to go back to his show’ after a brief spell as FBI deputy director

After several failed attempts at elected office, Dan Bongino finally found national acclaim as a pugilistic, bare-knuckle conservative media personality, appearing as a contributor on Fox News before hosting an eponymous radio show and podcast.

The Dan Bongino Show, which was hosted by Westwood One, ended abruptly earlier this year when Bongino was plucked out of the conservative media-sphere by another veteran pro-Maga podcaster, Kash Patel, and picked to serve as his second-in-command at the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Published: December 21, 2025, 11:00 am

Danish postal service to stop delivering letters after 400 years

PostNord’s decision to end service on 30 December comes after fear over ‘increasing digitalisation’ of Danish society

The Danish postal service will deliver its last letter on 30 December, ending a more than 400-year-old tradition.

Announcing the decision earlier this year to stop delivering letters, PostNord, formed in 2009 in a merger of the Swedish and Danish postal services, said it would cut 1,500 jobs in Denmark and remove 1,500 red postboxes amid the “increasing digitalisation” of Danish society.

Published: December 21, 2025, 7:00 am

Another 130 kidnapped schoolchildren released in Nigeria

Presidential spokesperson says all those abducted from a Catholic school in Niger state last month are now free

Nigerian authorities say they have secured the release of a further 130 schoolchildren kidnapped from a Catholic school in November, after 100 were freed earlier this month.

“Another 130 abducted Niger state pupils released, none left in captivity,” presidential spokesperson Sunday Dare said on X, in a post accompanied by a photo of smiling children.

Published: December 21, 2025, 8:05 pm

2025 is ‘year of the octopus’ as record numbers spotted off England’s south coast

Milder weather led to a bloom in the invertebrates in south Cornwall and Devon, wildlife charity says

Record numbers of sightings of one of the world’s most intelligent invertebrates over the summer have led the Wildlife Trusts to declare 2025 “the year of the octopus” in its annual review of Britain’s seas.

A mild winter followed by an exceptionally warm spring prompted unprecedented numbers of Mediterranean octopuses to take up residence along England’s south coast, from Penzance in Cornwall to south Devon.

Published: December 22, 2025, 6:01 am

The plants that thrive in salt: could halophytes help save coastal farming?

As rising seas salinise the soils of the Venice lagoon, scientists and chefs are turning to long-forgotten wild herbs

On the scrubby banks of the rural swathes of the Venice lagoon, an evening chorus of cicadas underscores the distant whine of farmers’ three-wheeled minivans. Dotted along the brackish fringes of the cultivated plots are scatterings of silvery-green bushes – sea fennel.

This plant is a member of a group of remarkable organisms known as halophytes – plant species that thrive in saltwater. Long overlooked and found growing in the in-between spaces – saltmarshes, coastlines, the fringes of lagoons – halophytes straddle boundaries in both ecosystems and cuisines. But with shifting agricultural futures, this may be about to change.

Published: December 21, 2025, 10:00 am

Sea change: the drive to restore millions of oysters on the Norfolk coast

The first ever mass deployment of mother reef bricks aims to rebuild habitats – and could reshape the North Sea

Allie Wharf’s career unfolded amid conflict. As a senior foreign producer for Newsnight, she reported on Iraq and Afghanistan. Just two years ago, she was filming mass graves in Ukraine.

But burnt out by wars, and after a detour farming ducks in Tanzania, Wharf has now settled on the quiet north Norfolk coast. Here, alongside her life and business partner, Willie Athill, she has embarked on a different kind of mission: the creation of Europe’s largest natural oyster reef.

Published: December 21, 2025, 1:00 pm

‘He shouldn’t be allowed to hide’: the Golden State Killer’s prosecutor on the relentless search for the mass murderer

Thien Ho considers his book The People vs the Golden State Killer part of a ‘trilogy’ after two books by different authors

Before Joseph DeAngelo, a 74-year-old navy veteran and former police officer, admitted responsibility for his brutal crimes in court, prosecutor Thien Ho had a request for the judge overseeing the proceedings. He wanted the world to see the killer’s face.

It was 2020, the first year of the pandemic, and social distancing and masking requirements were in full swing. But Ho asked that DeAngelo – the man known as the Golden State Killer, who had covered his face during a more than 10-year reign of terror across California – be required to wear a clear face shield as he pleaded guilty.

Published: December 21, 2025, 5:00 pm

Mass power outages affect 130,000 in San Francisco and disrupt traffic

Traffic signals failed in large portions of the California city while Waymo robotaxis stopped in streets and intersections

A widespread power failure plunged San Francisco into darkness on Saturday night, disrupting traffic citywide and forcing numerous self-driving Waymo taxis to stop abruptly in the middle of streets and intersections.

As electricity went out across large portions of the city, traffic signals failed, leaving autonomous vehicles unable to operate as normal. Photos and videos shared by users on X showed Waymo robotaxis frozen in place, backing up traffic and creating hazardous conditions for other drivers.

Published: December 21, 2025, 8:20 pm

Louisiana nursing student speaks out during her six-month ICE detention

Vilma Palacios, 22, tells local outlet ‘I want my freedom back’ as she may be forced to return to Honduras

A recent graduate of the LSU Health New Orleans School of Nursing has been held in an ICE processing center in Basile, Louisiana, for the past six months following her arrest by immigration agents over the summer.

Vilma Palacios had just recently accepted a position at Touro Infirmary when ICE agents arrested her and transferred her to the processing center in Basile. Her detention comes amid a broader immigration crackdown under the Trump administration, including cases involving individuals with no criminal records who are seeking legal residency.

Published: December 21, 2025, 10:36 pm

Officer who fatally shot Tamir Rice fired from West Virginia ranger position

Timothy Loehmann’s firing is fourth known time in seven years that he left a department following public backlash

The former Cleveland officer who fatally shot 12-year-old Tamir Rice in 2014 was fired from his post as a ranger at a West Virginia resort community, the fourth known time in seven years that he left a small department following public backlash.

Timothy Loehmann was fired on Friday from his position at the Snowshoe Resort Community District (SRCD). The district’s board announced Loehmann’s firing in a statement following their emergency meeting.

Published: December 21, 2025, 5:34 pm

Israel approves 19 new Jewish settlements in occupied West Bank

Decision takes the total number of new settlements to 69 in past few years as construction binge continues

Israel has approved a proposal for 19 new Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank as the government pushes ahead with a construction binge in the territory that poses a further threat to the possibility of a Palestinian state.

It brings the total number of new settlements over the past few years to 69, a new record, according to the far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, who has pushed a settlement expansion agenda in the West Bank. The latest include two that were previously evacuated during a 2005 disengagement plan.

Published: December 21, 2025, 4:45 pm

‘We are unbreakable’: defiance marks Bondi attack commemoration after PM is booed

Jewish leaders call for federal royal commission into Bondi beach attack that killed 15 people as huge crowd marks one week anniversary

• Victims of Bondi beach shooting

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

• Follow the latest live updates

Jewish leaders have called for a federal royal commission into the Bondi terror attack, as some members of the crowd booed Anthony Albanese on arrival at the commemoration marking one week since 15 people were killed on the first day of Hanukah.

The president of the NSW Board of Jewish Deputies, David Ossip, said it “cannot be disputed” that a federal royal commission was needed, to loud cheers and applause from the crowd of up to 15,000 people gathered at Bondi, where a minute’s silence was held at 6.47pm, the time the attack began.

Published: December 21, 2025, 9:54 am

Top economists call for halt to Sri Lanka debt repayments after Cyclone Ditwah

Group of 120 experts including Joseph Stiglitz urge fresh debt restructuring plan given scale of destruction

A group of the world’s top economists – including the Nobel prize winner Joseph Stiglitz – have called for Sri Lanka’s debt payments to be suspended as it tackles the devastation caused by Cyclone Ditwah.

More than 600 people were killed and hundreds of thousands of homes destroyed across the island, in what Sri Lanka’s president, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, called the “largest and most challenging natural disaster in our history”.

Published: December 21, 2025, 12:10 pm

‘I feel special, in my heart’: thousands gather at Stonehenge for winter solstice

People, including druids and pagans, come from across world to watch sunrise on shortest day of the year

Thousands of revellers gathered at Stonehenge in the early hours of Sunday morning to celebrate the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year.

Crowds amassed in the dark around the historical site in Wiltshire to watch the sunrise, with some dressed in traditional pagan clothing, just as they did to mark the sun rising on the summer solstice six months ago.

Published: December 21, 2025, 11:33 am

The Land Trap by Mike Bird review – ground down

A masterful introduction to the economics of our most basic asset

‘The landlord is a gentleman who does not earn his wealth … his sole function, his chief pride, is the consumption of wealth produced by others.” It was 1909, and a liberal politician was launching an assault on a class of people who – in the eyes of many – contributed nothing to Britain’s advances in industry while living off its gains.

A little over a century after David Lloyd George’s Limehouse speech, and it feels as though the issue of land has returned to politics: an analysis of MPs’ financial interests revealed that a quarter of all Tory MPs earned more than £10,000 from renting out property, while 44 Labour MPs – 11% – did the same. The winner of the most dazzling political campaign of the past year, New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani made “freeze the rent” his central pledge. On the right, a revolt against property taxes is gathering pace. Journalist Mike Bird’s history of the most basic asset arrives, then, at an opportune moment.

Published: December 22, 2025, 9:00 am

Poem of the week: Down on the canal on Christmas Day by Chris McCabe

A melancholy December vision in Liverpool invokes a Dickensian ghost with more worldly but still warm realism

Down on the canal on Christmas Day

Down on the canal on Christmas Day
a man walks towards me out of water-light,
upright, Cratchit-wrapped, a smile to say:
I know you. Hello Chris. Ghost in a time-ripped landscape
where a low solstice sun spills whisked
through a metallic staircase.
With joy, the man’s smile haunts me for miles —
a long blasted path, where a dead rat’s belly festoons
its purple crinoline Christmas hat.

Published: December 22, 2025, 7:00 am

From California to Tehran, this year has been about the films that resist

Films such as One Battle After Another, The Secret Agent and It Was Just An Accident celebrate the importance of fighting back against oppressive forces

On 8 March, Mahmoud Khalil became the first among several college campus pro-Palestinian protesters to be detained by ICE. He was held for three months, missing the birth of his first child, by an administration that smeared his opposition to Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza as cheerleading for terrorism, while abusing immigration policy to silence him.

At the movies this year, I was repeatedly reminded of Khalil, and others who have seen their altruistic activism reframed as violent threats that need to be snuffed out, in characters whose plights followed similar tracts. In Wicked: For Good, Elphaba’s attempts to expose the lies told in Oz are twisted into death threats. In Superman, Kal-El is investigated for being a foreign agent when he defends a community suffering under violent US-backed occupation. Even in Zootopia 2, a bunny cop is framed for attempted murder because she is exposing an attempt to eradicate a marginalized population from their lands and erase their history.

Published: December 21, 2025, 11:04 am

Saturday Night Live: Ariana Grande returns to host a blockbuster episode

The Wicked For Good star hosts for the third time as long-time cast member Bowen Yang makes emotional farewell

The final Saturday Night Live of 2025 kicks off with a national address from Donald Trump (James Austin Johnson). He warns Americans to be vigilant during the Christmas season, when “arctic immigrants are coming into our homes through our chimneys and stealing our milk and cookies”.

He then rambles about all the supposed achievements the administration has pulled off: renaming the Kennedy Center to the Trump-Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, No Homo; invading “Venezuelar” all by himself, “Metal Gear Solid-style”, the economy “getting closer to fine – Indigo Girls!”; and the upcoming Patriot Games (“They’re saying, Sir, you’re doing Hunger Games and you know how that book ends, which of course I don’t because BOOK!”).

Published: December 21, 2025, 1:54 pm

Light Needs review – a blooming lovely meditation on plants and their people

Houseplants appear to make conversation and yearn for lost friends in a witty yet luminous documentary from Jesse McLean

This experimental documentary by Jesse McLean about houseplants inspired me to go around my house and water all my vegetal housemates and treat the mealybug infections afflicting the jade plants in my office. Now I feel better for it in every way, while also basking in the afterglow of this luminous piece of film-making that is cinematic fertiliser for thought.

With a gentle touch that blends wonder and wit, prioritising none of the different voices and viewpoints we hear over any other (and that includes from plants themselves), McLean builds up an audiovisual collage of perspectives on plant-people relations. Some of the humans featured are merely silent subjects, often as still as the potted protagonists themselves. One woman is a bit woo-woo – but persuasively and charmingly so – about how one of her plants seemed to wither away with loneliness after being separated from her mother-in-law’s tongue plant it sat next to for years, only to become rejuvenated when they were reunited.

Published: December 22, 2025, 7:00 am

The weirdest, wildest tales of the World Cup: best podcasts of the week

From Ronaldo’s legendary haircut to Argentina’s improvised 1986 away shirt – the odd stories behind football’s biggest trophy are explored. Plus, a smart series from the makers of Pod Save America

This series from football site Goal dedicates an episode to each one of the last 10 World Cups and pulls out an idiosyncratic moment. Take the story behind the bizarre 2002 haircut of Brazilian striker Ronaldo, or a profile of the shirts Argentina played in during the 1986 tournament, which were bootleg versions of their own shirts. It’s all narrated by commentator Martin Tyler, who has covered the last 12 tournaments. Alexi Duggins
Widely available, episodes fortnightly

Published: December 22, 2025, 7:00 am

The books quiz of 2025 – set by Mick Herron, Bernardine Evaristo, Ali Smith and more

The romantic proclivities of the Shelleys, a notable corpse and a diner delight – test your knowledge with questions posed by favourite authors

• In the mood for more? For all our crosswords and sudoku, as well as our new football game, On The Ball, and film quiz, Film Reveal, download the Guardian app. Available in the Apple App Store and Google Play.

Published: December 21, 2025, 12:00 pm

Last-minute gift ideas for gamers: Minecraft, Roblox, Fortnite and more

Weighing up a present but perplexed by virtual cash? Here’s how to give Minecoins, V-Bucks, Robux and others

While cash or a voucher to spend at a local shop used to be a welcome gift, nowadays many young gamers would rather receive virtual currencies under the tree.

V-Bucks, Minecoins, Robux and FC Points are some of the most popular in-game currencies that players use to unlock different features within popular titles – from “skins” to personalise your player to new buildings to style your online world.

Published: December 21, 2025, 8:41 am

Renate Reinsve on vomit-inducing reviews and 19-minute standing ovations: ‘You feel your face go stiff from smiling so long’

The Norwegian star was considering giving up acting to be a carpenter when Joachim Trier wrote The Worst Person in the World for her. Now the pair have teamed up again – but she refuses to get carried away by all the praise

One day in July 2021, Renate Reinsve got up, read the Guardian and promptly vomited. It was – mostly – a happy kind of hurl. The Norwegian actor was at Cannes, where The Worst Person in the World had premiered the previous evening. Joachim Trier’s film, which follows Julie, a young woman on a capricious yet uncompromising quest for meaning and happiness, was the first Reinsve had ever starred in. During the screening, she decided “this movie is great, but I am shit!” Hours later she was confronting the possibility that she might be one of the greatest actors of her generation. This newspaper’s verdict – “A star is born” – was, she said, “too much to process, so I just started puking. My whole image of myself and what I could do just changed instantly.”

Reinsve went on to win the best actress prize at the festival. Her performance would later be shortlisted for a Bafta and a slew of other awards (the film itself received two Oscar nominations). The accolades certainly helped on the self-esteem front, but the 38-year-old knew she mustn’t let the acclaim go to her head. “I was very overwhelmed and then I sat with it and was like: OK, I need to keep a distance to this somehow,” she recalls, sitting on the sofa in a cavernous hotel suite in Soho, London. “You can’t take criticism too personally and you can’t take praise too personally.” Such affirmation, I imagine, must become addictive. “Yes. And everything in life shall pass. So the aim was to keep everything a little bit even and keep the image I have of myself intact.”

Published: December 21, 2025, 10:00 am

Match the celeb to the panto – and other puzzlers in our bumper Christmas culture quiz

From corny adverts to snowy murder plots, test your knowledge with these seasonal questions

• In the mood for more? For all our crosswords and sudoku, as well as our new football game, On the Ball, and film quiz, Film Reveal, download the Guardian app. Available in the Apple App Store and Google Play.

Published: December 22, 2025, 6:00 am

Stargazing in the Lake District: a new forest observatory opens in Grizedale

There’s no shortage of stunning scenery and daytime activities in the Lakes. Now, an observatory is offering stellar nocturnal events too

A tawny owl screeches nearby in the dark and her mate replies, hooting eerily from the forest below. A white dome floats in the gloaming above a plain black doorway outlined with red light, like a portal to another dimension. I’m in Grizedale Forest, far from any light-polluting cities, to visit the Lake District’s first public observatory and planetarium, which opened in May.

Grizedale Observatory offers immersive films in the planetarium and three-hour stargazing events that go on late into the night. There are sessions on astrophotography and, on moonless nights, dark sky astronomy with the chance to see “a glittering tapestry of stars, galaxies, nebulae and star clusters”. Its director, Gary Fildes, is a veteran in the field, having founded and led three UK observatories over two decades. The goal at Grizedale, he says, is to create “an immersive, year-round astronomy and science destination that brings the beauty of the Lake District skies to visitors”.

Published: December 22, 2025, 7:00 am

‘I’m going to scream!’: how to survive (and maybe even enjoy) your family Christmas

From preparing safe topics to taking silly games, we ask the experts how to avoid falling out with your nearest and dearest – before, during and after the big day

• I threw a potato. Mum brandished a knife – would whole-family therapy save our Christmas?

Plan breaks in your schedule
Spending time with difficult family members requires careful planning, says Katie Rose, a therapist registered with the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) and the founder of TherapEast. “If you’re going to stay with somebody for three or four days, find ways to politely give yourself a break. Go for lunch with friends who live locally, or book a ticket to a museum or a National Trust place so that you have ways of getting yourself out of the house.” Tamara Hoyton, a senior practitioner for Relate at Family Action, agrees that scheduling breaks is a good strategy. “Arrange a trip out, or offer to cook so that you’re away from the living room where everyone else is,” she says.

Published: December 21, 2025, 6:00 am

This is how we do it: ‘Even after 16 years I only have to look at him and I’m ready to go’

Ally and Jason met when she was 25 and he was 47. After more than a decade apart, they’re back together and their sexual connection is stronger than ever

• How do you do it? Share the story of your sex life, anonymously

Ally notices the occasional looks people give us, and her response is to ask me to give her a kiss in front of them

Published: December 21, 2025, 11:00 am

After three years of long-distance, my partner and I aren’t sure if we should stay together

These types of relationships can be challenging – you need to have an honest conversation about what you both want

My partner and I are professionals in our early 30s. We’ve been together for five years, and long-distance for the last three, but have just moved back in together.

While we were long-distance, we both had difficulties in our work. She had important exams, and it’s taken a long time for me to get into my career. Over the last year, our relationship has become strained, and it feels as if we’ve grown apart. Now it feels as if we aren’t friends, let alone partners. This is complicated by our work shifts. Despite now living together, we still barely see each other.

Published: December 21, 2025, 6:00 am

A tape measure, a metal detector and a spirit level: 25 surprisingly useful things you can do with your phone

While many use our phones predominantly to doomscroll, smartphones have a range of little-known functions that could make life better and easier – from heart monitoring to even developing camera film

Our smartphones are magical things – far more than dopamine drip providers and a way to keep in touch with friends and family. Using the built-in features and easily available additional apps, there are plenty of clever things you can do with your smartphone.

Published: December 21, 2025, 12:00 pm

Joe Wicks looks back: ‘When I look at that picture, I think about the care and love a kid needs’

The health and fitness coach on his difficult childhood, why he’s never been single – and doing his first YouTube workout with a broken hand

Born in Epsom in 1985, Joe Wicks is a health and fitness coach and author. He studied sports science at St Mary’s University and started posting recipes and workouts on social media in 2014, while working as a personal trainer. His Lean in 15 videos went viral, leading to a bestselling publishing career. During the pandemic, Wicks hosted daily livestreamed PE lessons, raised more than £1m for charity and earned an MBE. His 13th book, Protein In 15, is out now.

I was always covered in food as a kid – a real messy eater. This was probably readymade spaghetti from a tin. Our family didn’t have the greatest diet – we were on benefits, a lot of our money went on Dad’s heroin addiction, and Mum was young and didn’t know much about nutrition.

Published: December 21, 2025, 2:00 pm

A vegetarian Christmas: Chantelle Nicholson’s French mushroom pie, caramelised pear pud and more

Blue cheese and honey gougeres, roast squash soup with melting brie, mushroom and celeriac pithivier, roast miso brussels sprouts, and a caramelised pear and rosemary pudding

Christmas for me began as a summertime celebration in New Zealand, with long days and warm evenings. Twenty-plus years on, the wintry cosiness of a UK Christmas has taken hold. Now, my essentials include perfectly crisp roast potatoes with plenty of gravy, and sprouts (non-negotiable). Even my young niece and nephew love them, which is a small victory I’m quietly proud of.

Published: December 21, 2025, 6:00 am

Readers reply: what is – or was – the best-ever internet meme?

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical concepts

The dramatic chipmunk, distracted boyfriend, the raccoon with the candy floss or “success kid”, what is – or was – the absolute top, world-beating, best-ever internet meme? Antony Scacchi, Los Angeles, US

Send new questions to nq@theguardian.com. The next new question and replies to this week’s question will appear on Sunday 4 January.

Published: December 21, 2025, 2:00 pm

Extremists are using AI voice cloning to supercharge propaganda. Experts say it’s helping them grow

Researchers warn generative tools are helping militant groups from neo-Nazis to the Islamic State spread ideology

While the artificial intelligence boom is upending sections of the music industry, voice generating bots are also becoming a boon to another unlikely corner of the internet: extremist movements that are using them to recreate the voices and speeches of major figures in their milieu, and experts say it is helping them grow.

“The adoption of AI-enabled translation by terrorists and extremists marks a significant evolution in digital propaganda strategies,” said Lucas Webber, a senior threat intelligence analyst at Tech Against Terrorism and a research fellow at the Soufan Center. Webber specializes in monitoring the online tools of terrorist groups and extremists around the world.

Published: December 21, 2025, 1:00 pm

The US healthcare system hurts poor Americans. It’s about to get worse

As Congress cuts healthcare access to pay for tax cuts and poor Americans die earlier, billionaires invest in anti-ageing

There’s a weird disconnect to the public debate about health in the United States. In January, millions of Americans may drop their health insurance as premiums skyrocket following the Trump administration’s decision to end federal subsidies that helped some 20 million people afford insurance on the Obamacare marketplaces.

Earlier this year, Republicans in Congress agreed to cut more than $850bn from the 10-year budgets of Medicaid, the health insurance program for low-income people, and the Chip health insurance program for children, in order to pay for some tax cuts. Given the US’s budgetary rules, that cut means an additional $500bn in funding for Medicare is at risk.

Published: December 21, 2025, 11:00 am

Santas on a hill and a donkey at the opera: photos of the weekend

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

Published: December 21, 2025, 3:01 pm