The Guardian
Arsenal v Liverpool: Women’s Super League – live
⚽ WSL updates from the 12pm GMT kick-off in London
⚽ Scores | Table | Get Moving the Goalposts | Mail Emillia
A cheeky shout out to my sister-in-law Sarah at her first football match today with my nephew Cillian and their friends Sarah and Lola.
In response to the reporting on Arsenal’s dressing room culture, manager Renee Slegers said she didn’t agree with it but didn’t deny the claims of difficulties, stressing that high performance environments can be “very challenging” and that not “single sports team in the world has things being run perfectly every single day”.
Continue reading... 6th December 2025 12:14
The Guardian
Aston Villa v Arsenal: Premier League – live
⚽ Premier League updates from the 12.30pm GMT kick-off
⚽ Live scores | Table | Villans on the rise again | Mail Barry
Referee: Peter Bankes
Assistants: Eddie Smart and Blake Antrobus
Fourth official: Adam Herczeg
VAR: Darren England
Assistant VAR: Mark Scholes
Continue reading... 6th December 2025 12:09
The Guardian
Gunmen kill at least 11 people including three-year-old in hostel in South Africa
Police launch ‘manhunt’ after 25 people are shot in early morning Saulsville township attack
Gunmen have stormed into a hostel in South Africa’s capital and killed at least 11 people, including a three-year-old child, and injured more than a dozen others.
Police said they had launched a “manhunt” for three people and were investigating whether the killings were linked to a bar selling alcohol illegally. The attack is the latest in a series of mass shootings in the country of 63 million people, which has one of the highest murder rates in the world.
Continue reading... 6th December 2025 12:03
The Guardian
The truth about the ‘gender care gap’: are men really more likely to abandon their ill wives?
It’s one thing facing a major diagnosis; it’s quite another dealing with your partner pulling away. But does the stereotype match the reality?
Jess never dreamed that she was going to get sick, nor did she consider what it would mean for her love life if she did. When she first started dating her boyfriend, they were both in their late 20s, living busy, active lives. “Sport was something we did a lot of and we did it together: we worked hard, played hard, we went for bike rides and went running and played golf together.”
But around a year into their relationship, all that stopped abruptly when Jess was diagnosed with long Covid, the poorly understood syndrome that in some people follows a Covid infection. For her, it meant “a general shutdown of my body: lungs, heart, stomach, really bad brain fog”. She went from being a sporty, independent 29-year-old with a successful career to sleeping all day and relying on her boyfriend for everything.
Continue reading... 6th December 2025 12:00
The Guardian
Pressure grows on ‘reckless’ Hegseth as twin scandals engulf Pentagon chief
Defense secretary defiant but allegations of war crimes and blistering watchdog report increase calls for him to go
Pete Hegseth is facing the most serious crisis of his tenure as defense secretary, engulfed by allegations of war crimes in the Caribbean and a blistering inspector general report accusing him of mishandling classified military intelligence. Yet despite the long list of trouble and as lawmakers from both parties call for his resignation, Hegseth shows no signs of stepping down and still holds Donald Trump’s support.
The twin crises have engulfed the former Fox News personality in separate but overlapping allegations that lawmakers, policy experts and former officials say reveal a pattern of dangerous recklessness at the helm of the Pentagon. Democratic legislators have reignited calls for his ouster after revelations that survivors clinging to wreckage from a September boat strike were deliberately killed in a “double-tap” attack, while a defense department investigation released on Thursday concluded he violated Pentagon policies by sharing sensitive details via the Signal messaging app hours before airstrikes in Yemen.
Continue reading... 6th December 2025 12:00
The Guardian
Gen Z office survival guide: how to overcome telephobia and get up early
Experts advise younger workers to practice phone calls with friends and embrace adventure of small talk
If you are a millennial, part of gen X or a boomer, you probably do not give a second thought to picking up the phone to talk to someone or chit-chatting beside the office water cooler. But for gen Z, those common workplace moments are a huge source of anxiety.
According to a study released this week, early mornings, working with older colleagues and making small talk are just some of the things employees born between 1997 and 2012 dread.
Continue reading... 6th December 2025 12:00
The Guardian
Sun setting on England’s Ashes dream as Australia close on second Test triumph
Tourists collapse under lights, still trailing by 43
England wilted in the Brisbane heat, their top order collapsing under the lights to leave hopes of securing the Ashes in tatters on day three of the second Test at the Gabba.
England slipped from 90 for one to 134 for six as Australia’s attack snared the wickets of Ben Duckett, Zak Crawley, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook and Jamie Smith.
Continue reading... 6th December 2025 11:48
The Guardian
Russia launches attacks across Ukraine as Miami peace talks continue
Targets of more than Russian 650 drones and 51 missiles include western regions with sirens sounding in eastern Poland
Russia launched a massive drone and missile attack on Ukraine in the early hours of Saturday as US and Ukrainian officials continued talks in Miami which the White House hopes will bring an end to the conflict.
Russia used more than 650 drones and 51 missiles overnight, Ukraine’s armed forces said, with drones targeting locations across the country, including in western regions hundreds of miles from the frontline. Warning sirens also sounded in parts of eastern Poland, close to the Ukrainian border.
Continue reading... 6th December 2025 11:07
The Guardian
Warner Bros Disaster? Netflix deal for Hollywood giant follows string of flops
David Zaslav, CEO of Warner Bros Discovery, promised ‘everyone’ would win by combining the storied Hollywood studios with his reality TV giant. Instead, many lost
It’s less than five years since David Zaslav, CEO of Warner Bros Discovery, negotiated what looked like the deal of his career. Now as Netflix plans a landscape-changing takeover of Warner Bros, he’s in the middle of an even bigger one.
Zaslav, or Zaz, is a hard-charging, well-connected executive who cut his teeth inside NBC, and ascended into New York’s media elite as he transformed Discovery Inc from a nature- and science-focused cable broadcaster into a reality TV giant.
Continue reading... 6th December 2025 11:00
The Guardian
‘I climbed a building to get this shot of Egyptian fishermen with sardines’: Ahmad Mansour’s best phone picture
How the photographer captured this split image of sardine fishermen taken from above
Freelance photographer Ahmad Mansour was visiting Al Max, a fishing neighbourhood in Alexandria, Egypt, when he took this image on his mobile phone. Mansour was there with friends, documenting the area and the fishermen who resided there.
“The sun was bright and it was very loud; the water was running strongly and the men were shouting,” Mansour says. “I climbed a small building to reach this vantage point above the men with the sardines. I love the top view angle; I’d been inspired by another image that was split that way and it suited the colours to balance them like this, too.”
Continue reading... 6th December 2025 11:00
NPR Topics: News
Sudanese paramilitary drone attack kills 50, including 33 children, doctor group says
Thursday's attack is the latest in the fighting between the paramilitary group, the Rapid Support Forces, also known as the RSF, and the Sudanese military, who have been at war for over two years.
6th December 2025 10:50
NPR Topics: News
Russia unleashes drone and missile attack on Ukraine as diplomatic talks continue
Russia unleashed a major missile and drone barrage on Ukraine overnight into Saturday, after U.S. and Ukrainian officials said they'll meet on Saturday for talks aimed at ending the war.
6th December 2025 10:36
The Guardian
Why are diagnoses of ADHD soaring? There are no easy answers – but empathy is the place to start | Gabor Maté
Some say it’s overdiagnosis, others say it’s greater recognition. But it’s clear we must think about how our society is impacting human development
Gabor Maté is the author of The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness and Healing in a Toxic Culture
Does the rise in diagnoses of ADHD mean that normal feelings are being “over-pathologised”? The UK’s health secretary, Wes Streeting, seems to suspect so. He is said to be so concerned about a sharp rise in the number of people claiming sickness benefits that he has ordered a clinical review of the diagnosis of mental health conditions, and autism and ADHD.
I was diagnosed with ADHD (ADD, as it was then most often called) decades ago, in my early 50s. As I wrote in my book on the subject, Scattered Minds, it “seemed to explain many of my behaviour patterns, thought processes, childish emotional reactions, my workaholism and other addictive tendencies, the sudden eruptions of bad temper and complete irrationality, the conflicts in my marriage and my Jekyll and Hyde ways of relating to my children … It also explained my propensity to bump into doorways, hit my head on shelves, drop objects, and brush close to people before I notice they are there.”
Gabor Maté is an international public speaker and retired physician. His most recent book is The Myth of Normal: Illness, Health and Healing in a Toxic Culture
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.
Continue reading... 6th December 2025 10:00
NPR Topics: News
West Virginians question National Guard deployments after attack on 2 of their own
Army Specialist Sarah Beckstrom was fatally shot in Washington, D.C., while Air Force Staff Sergeant Andrew Wolfe was seriously wounded. Trump says the deployments are necessary to fight crime, but others disagree.
6th December 2025 10:00
NPR Topics: News
Takeaways from the latest special election and what it means for control of the House
There was yet another sign this week of a potential 2026 wave that could hand control of the House of Representatives to Democrats.
6th December 2025 10:00
The Guardian
The New Yorker at 100: Netflix documentary dives inside a groundbreaking magazine
Film-maker Marshall Curry pulls back the curtain on the beloved institution in a revealing and celebratory new film
When young film-makers ask Marshall Curry what makes a documentary idea, he tells them: “There are some stories that make great New Yorker articles, but they’re not movies.” It was only a matter of time before the director found himself testing his own wisdom with The New Yorker at 100, a new Netflix film about the magazine. “Somebody said to me that trying to make a 90-minute movie about the New Yorker was like trying to make a 90-minute movie about America. Ken Burns does that with one war.”
The film pulls back the curtain on the mystical media shop. Curry and his crew spent a year rummaging through the archives, listening in on production meetings, shadowing famous bylines – none more venerated in the industry than editor David Remnick, the magazine’s abiding leader. Curry had hoped to make a meal out of staffers pushing to meet the February 2025 publishing date, the magazine’s centennial anniversary issue, but the scenes he found didn’t quite approximate anything from the boiler room-centered dramas of film fiction or even The September Issue doc on Anna Wintour’s clannish Vogue operation. “I wanted to see people running around each other and saying, ‘We’ve got to get this thing done before the deadline!’” Curry says. “But they don’t do that.”
Continue reading... 6th December 2025 09:03
The Guardian
The best books of 2025
New novels from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Ian McEwan, plus the return of Slow Horses and Margaret Atwood looks back … Guardian critics pick the must-read titles of 2025
The Guardian’s fiction editor picks the best of the year, from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Dream Count to Thomas Pynchon’s return, David Szalay’s Booker winner and a remarkable collection of short stories.
Continue reading... 6th December 2025 09:00
The Guardian
Harbadus attacks Andvaria: cyber war game tests Nato defences against Russia
Power blackouts, public chaos and loss of communication with space were all thrown at troops in seven days
Russia and China were barely mentioned, but they were the threats in everyone’s minds in Tallinn this week, where Nato hosted its largest ever cyber war game.
The goal of the war game, conducted 130 miles from the Russian border in Estonia, was to test the alliance’s readiness for a rolling enemy assault on civilian and military digital infrastructure.
Continue reading... 6th December 2025 09:0012/5: CBS Evening News
Shift in decades-long guidance on hepatitis B vaccine; Lowe's employees go above and beyond to find beloved cat that disappeared onto freight truck
6th December 2025 08:30
The Guardian
‘They can’t take away your imagination and creativity’: Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe on how sewing helped her in Iran jail
Zaghari-Ratcliffe made clothes for her daughter while waiting for her eventual release. Now, the idea of creativity as a form of resistance is the theme of a new collaboration between London’s Imperial War Museum and the fabric department of Liberty.
When Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe returned home to London after six years of arbitrary detention in Iran, she brought back with her a small patchwork cushion. Pieced together from scrap material and made with the single sewing machine available in the prison, it was the product of a communal craft circle.
“It’s something very, very precious to me,” she said. So precious, in fact, that she has worked on a new collaboration between London’s Imperial War Museum (IWM) and the fabric department of Liberty, creating three new prints that explore experience as a prisoner.
Continue reading... 6th December 2025 08:01
The Guardian
Five years on: rugby’s brain damaged players wait and wait for the help they need
In 2020 Steve Thompson revealed he could not remember winning the Rugby World Cup and since then his case and others have been caught up in a warren of legal argument
The Royal Courts of Justice are a warren. They were built piecemeal over 125 years of intermittent construction, wings were added, blocks were expanded and then joined by a web of twisting staircases and long corridors. You navigate your way to whichever corner of it you have business in by checking the tiny print on the long daily case lists that are posted in the lobby early each morning, when the building always seems to be full of people hurrying in the other direction. For the last three years, three separate sets of legal action about brain damage in sport have been slowly making their way through here, lost in the hallways.
One is in football, one is in rugby union, one is in rugby league. The same small firm, Rylands Garth, is behind all three. Sometimes these hearings take place in the modern rooms of the east block, where the carpet is peeling and the roofs are gap-toothed with missing panels, and sometimes they take place in the cold old stone rooms off the great hall, which are wood-cladded, and contain rows and rows of heavy leather-bound books. Progress is slow. Events often go unreported.
Continue reading... 6th December 2025 08:00
The Guardian
BBC showing tennis’s new Battle of the Sexes will just offer up opportunity to belittle women’s sport | Barney Ronay
The match between Aryna Sabalenka and Nick Kyrgios opens up a direct channel between the BBC of old and a world of toxic internet hatred
It’s always best to take a sceptical view of the constant flow of BBC-bashing newspaper stories, which are often simply bogus outrage expressed for commercial gain. Even the war-on-woke, cod-ideological stuff – Clive Myrie INSISTS hamsters can breastfeed human robots – the bits that make you want to smear your face with greengage jam and weep for England, our England, with its meadows, its shadows, its curates made entirely from beef. Even these come from a hard, transactional place.
Basically, it’s the licence fee. The BBC is free at the point of delivery, but paid for by a national levy. The BBC is also a direct commercial competitor to every other form of legacy media, all of which are trying to find ways to survive and recoup revenue.
Continue reading... 6th December 2025 08:00
The Guardian
What links Amy Adams, Teri Hatcher and Margot Kidder? The Saturday quiz
From Cecil at Waitrose and Slinky at Tesco to an app designed to be deleted, test your knowledge with the Saturday quiz
1 In 1932, Australia declared war on which bird?
2 What became the world’s tallest church in October?
3 Matthew Streeton is the voice of which much-maligned rail announcement?
4 Which recent US president’s mother was called Stanley?
5 In which country has the TV crime drama Tatort run since 1970?
6 Which football club’s new stadium contributed to a loss of world heritage status?
7 Which app’s makers claim it is “designed to be deleted”?
8 Four-month-old Spencer Elden appeared on which album cover?
What links:
9 Amy Adams; Kate Bosworth; Rachel Brosnahan; Teri Hatcher; Margot Kidder?
10 Boardwalk; Rue de la Paix; Schlossallee; Shrewsbury Road?
11 Hasbani, Banias and Dan rivers; Sea of Galilee; Dead Sea?
12 Dian Fossey; Biruté Galdikas; Jane Goodall?
13 Christopher Wren; John Houblon; Matthew Boulton and James Watt; Alan Turing?
14 Cecil at Waitrose; Cuthbert at Aldi; Slinky at Tesco; Wiggles at Sainsbury’s?
15 King John (2); Henry VIII (3) and (2); John Mortimer (2); Ben Affleck (2)?
The Guardian
Nick Cave’s Veiled World: the starry tale of how sometimes the devil doesn’t have the best tunes
This documentary on the musician interviews everyone from Flea to … Rowan Williams. It’s a thoughtful take on his songs and Christianity
Devouring the new Nick Cave documentary on Sky, I am reminded how critics go wild for arty musicians who constantly change direction and dabble in everything. This is its own kind of myth. I know plenty of artists who keep moving – one week they’re sewing fish scales on to jackets, the next they’re painting mirrors or putting seahorses in samovars. The problem is, no one cares. If poet and ceramicist Nick Cave didn’t also write classic songs, he’d just be a local weirdo. I definitely wouldn’t buy a hardcover transcription of conversations he’d had with a mate about God. I’m glad I did, though.
The documentary, Nick Cave’s Veiled World (Saturday 6 December, 9pm, Sky Arts), is timed to promote the TV adaptation of his filthy novel The Death of Bunny Munro. It’s a glorious opportunity to revisit his early, intense masterpieces: electric chair confessionals, murderous duets with pop princesses, profane love songs. They’re still in my head, days later. It’s also a reminder that, in a joyfully perverse career, the assertion of his Christian faith has been his most divisive move. Audiences love biblical imagery in rock songs, provided the singer doesn’t actually believe.
Continue reading... 6th December 2025 07:00
The Guardian
Swedish navy encountering Russian submarines ‘almost weekly’ – and more could be on the way
Moscow ‘continuously reinforcing’ its presence in the region, says Swedish chief of operations Capt Marko Petkovic
The Swedish navy encounters Russian submarines in the Baltic Sea on an “almost weekly” basis, its chief of operations has said, and is preparing for a further increase in the event of ceasefire or armistice in the Ukraine war.
Capt Marko Petkovic said Moscow was “continuously reinforcing” its presence in the region, and sightings of its vessels were a regular part of life for the Swedish navy. Its “very common”, he said, adding that the number of sightings had increased in recent years.
Continue reading... 6th December 2025 07:00
The Guardian
My cultural awakening: Jonathan Groff inspired me to overcome my stammer
Watching the Broadway actor’s joyous energy, along with his calmness and openness, I was convinced that I could step out into the world and be myself
My first encounter with Broadway actor Jonathan Groff was innocuous. Stuck in the wilds of Donegal for two weeks as part of teacher training, I listened to Broadway musicals while the rest of the lads watched the Gaelic fixtures and got drunk. I stumbled upon the recent production of Merrily We Roll Along with Jonathan Groff and Daniel Radcliffe and like most of the internet, I became obsessed.
Afterwards, I went down a Groff rabbit hole tracking down interviews and cast recordings. I was drawn to how bubbly he was, how smiley he was. Groff had a joyous energy that was infectious. His voice was like melted chocolate. I both loved – and envied – his calmness and his openness to the world.
Continue reading... 6th December 2025 07:00
The Guardian
‘Bloodshed was supposed to stop’: no sign of normal life as Gaza’s killing and misery grind on
The term ceasefire ‘risks creating a dangerous illusion life is returning to normal’ for Palestinians squeezed into the remaining 42% of their land behind Israel’s ‘yellow line’
When Jumaa and Fadi Abu Assi went to look for firewood their parents thought they would be safe. They were just young boys, aged nine and 10 and, after all, a ceasefire had been declared in Gaza.
Their mother, Hala Abu Assi, was making tea in the family’s tent in Khan Younis when she heard an explosion, a missile fired by an Israeli drone. She ran to the scene – but it was too late.
Continue reading... 6th December 2025 06:00
The Guardian
Forget festive schmaltz, the best Christmas film this year is a gay biker dom-com | Kitty Grady
Die Hard isn’t a Christmas film, claims the British public. But Pillion reminds us that the finest festive films reflect the complexities of the season
Can Die Hard – the 1988 action movie starring Bruce Willis as an NYPD detective hoping to reconcile with his estranged wife on Christmas Eve – be called a Christmas film? The annual debate had officially reached my street WhatsApp group when a happily married couple decided to launch a poll. With 18 votes against four, the result from my road was a landslide “yes”. One neighbour even shared a picture of their Die Hard tree baubles to prove the point.
But an official poll by the British Board of Film Classification has now asserted the contrary – with 44% deciding that Die Hard should not be designated a Christmas movie, against 38% in favour. To some, even with the odd tinsel-strewn tree thrown in, the gun fights, violence and hostage-taking just don’t feel festive. For an admirable 5% of respondents, it remains their favourite Christmas film of all time.
Continue reading... 6th December 2025 06:00
The Guardian
‘True activism has to cost you something’: Bridgerton’s Nicola Coughlan on politics, paparazzi and parasocial fandom
The diminutive Derry Girls star isn’t afraid to speak her mind, even if it costs her fans and followers
Back in 2008, when Nicola Coughlan was at drama school, a guy in her class swaggered over and, with all the brimming confidence of young men in the noughties, asked her, “Do the Irish think the English are really cool?” Coughlan, born in Galway, mimes processing the question. “Well,” she said, “it’s quite complicated. Like, there’s a lot of history there, between the two countries. Like, there’s a lot going on.”
Today, people are more knowledgable about the history of the English in Ireland. Coughlan is happy about that. She’s also happy about the explosion of Irish storytelling in popular culture – Normal People, Trespasses, Small Things Like These, not to mention the series that made her name, Derry Girls. And she’s proud of young Irish actors – Paul Mescal, Barry Keoghan and Lola Petticrew, to name a few. She listens to bands such as Fontaines DC, CMAT and Kneecap. “It’s such a small country and the amount of creativity that comes out of Ireland is really extraordinary.”
Continue reading... 6th December 2025 06:00
The Guardian
Meera Sodha’s recipe for Friede’s grandma’s zimtsterne | Meera Sodha recipes
When you try these festive, chewy German almond biscuits, you’ll see why people have kept making and gifting them at Christmas for more than 500 years
The thing I love most about these chewy, crisp, star-shaped, cinnamon-and-almond Christmas biscuits from Germany is that they date back to the 1500s. Which, much like spotting Mars in the night sky or visiting the pyramids of Egypt, makes me feel hugely insignificant in the grand scheme of things, but simultaneously awe-inspired by the power of a simple biscuit to provide joy and underpin celebrations across centuries. This particular recipe belongs to my friend Friede’s grandma, Hadmuth, and is worth continuing, I think, for at least another 500 years.
Continue reading... 6th December 2025 06:00
The Guardian
Blind date: ‘The waiters wanted an on-the-spot review of what we thought of each other’
Amanda, 56, a performance assessor, meets Paul, 53, a networks manager
What were you hoping for?
An adventure, engaging company, good food.
The Guardian
Bombed Chornobyl shelter no longer blocks radiation and needs major repair – IAEA
Drone attack that Ukraine blamed on Russia blew hole in painstakingly erected €1.5bn shield meant to allow for final clean-up of 1986 meltdown site
The protective shield over the Chornobyl disaster nuclear reactor in Ukraine, which was hit by a drone in February, can no longer perform its main function of blocking radiation, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has announced.
In February a drone strike blew a hole in the “new safe confinement”, which was painstakingly built at a cost of €1.5bn ($1.75bn) next to the destroyed reactor and then hauled into place on tracks, with the work completed in 2019 by a Europe-led initiative. The IAEA said an inspection last week of the steel confinement structure found the drone impact had degraded the structure.
Continue reading... 6th December 2025 05:52
The Guardian
Jailbreak after US prisoners chip away weak concrete wall
Escape of three inmates in Louisiana comes after 10 broke out of another prison in same state this year by crawling through a hole behind toilet
Two inmates accused of violent crimes including attempted murder went on the run after escaping from a Louisiana jail by removing pieces of a deteriorated wall and using sheets to scale another wall, officials said.
A third inmate from the breakout killed himself after he was tracked down.
Continue reading... 6th December 2025 05:29
The Guardian
Rory McIlroy’s Australian Open on a slippery slope after bizarre banana mishap
World No 2 hits double bogey after playing under peel
McIlroy five-under after third round at Royal Melbourne
The luck of the Irish has deserted Rory McIlroy, with Royal Melbourne tossing up a banana peel in the latest obstacle to his second Australian Open title.
The world No 2 was hoping to maintain the momentum of three birdies late in his second round when he arrived on course for an early tee time on Saturday, seven shots off the pace.
Continue reading... 6th December 2025 05:25
The Guardian
‘We have to end the melancholy’: the French leftwing MP intent on resisting the far right
Clémentine Autain believes only a leftwing alliance united behind one leader can fend off the threat of a far-right president
At a busy market in Sevran, a low-income suburb north of Paris, the local MP, Clémentine Autain, was shaking hands and posing for selfies, arguing that only a left alliance could stave off the threat of a French far-right president being elected in less than 18 months.
“The French far right is high in the polls and riding an international Trumpian wave,” said Autain, 52. “Without the left uniting behind a radical project, we can’t beat them.”
Continue reading... 6th December 2025 05:00
The Guardian
Why is Timothée Chalamet suddenly everywhere? Seven things you need to know – from Oscars to puppies
The 29-year-old star is getting his best reviews ever for the upcoming film Marty Supreme – but he’s also making waves with his idiosyncratic approach to celebrity and maintaining his status as the internet’s boyfriend
Everybody’s talking about Timothée! The gen-Z French-American heart-throb and original “internet boyfriend” is receiving the best reviews of his career for Josh Safdie’s frenetic ping-pong flick Marty Supreme, while also making waves for his idiosyncratic approach to celebrity in an age somewhat lacking in star power. He has even got Gwyneth Paltrow’s seal of approval. Here are seven reasons why “Chalamania” is back.
1. He seems a cert for an Oscar
Continue reading... 6th December 2025 05:00
The Guardian
How to buy the greatest gifts: personal shoppers on their 17 rules for perfect presents
December can bring huge stress, as people struggle with budgetary pressures, organisation and what to give the person who has everything. Here’s a guide to getting it right, every time
The festive shopping season is upon us and there is usually someone who is hard to buy for on the list. How can you avoid the stress of last-minute panic buying? Personal shoppers share their tips on how to treat your loved ones to something that they will cherish.
Continue reading... 6th December 2025 05:0012/1: CBS Evening News
Midwest snowstorm triggers crashes, flight chaos; Cafés still struggling after coffee tariffs lifted.
6th December 2025 03:28Texas flood disaster 911 calls released: "Some callers did not survive"
Kerrville Police Chief Chris McCall warned that the 911 calls received by dispatchers during the Texas floods are distressing.
6th December 2025 03:09Map shows more than 1,800 measles cases across U.S.
CBS News is tracking a record number of measles cases around the country after an outbreak in West Texas that led to the deaths of two children.
6th December 2025 02:04National Guard member is "slowly healing" after D.C. shooting, governor says
West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey said the family expects Andrew Wolfe to be in acute care for another two to three weeks.
6th December 2025 01:37CDC panel votes to stop recommending birth dose of hepatitis B vaccine
The CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, with members appointed by RFK Jr., voted to change longstanding recommendations on the hepatitis B vaccine.
6th December 2025 01:37When a Lowe's store cat disappeared, staff pulled out all the stops to find her
When Francine the cat went missing from her Richmond, Virginia, store, employees determined she must have wandered onto a freight truck bound for a distribution center 85 miles away in North Carolina.
6th December 2025 01:05
The Guardian
Zootopia 2 bucks trend for Hollywood releases in China as it breaks records for foreign animation
Now China’s highest-grossing foreign animation, the films, known as Zootropolis in some countries, comes amid a boom for domestic productions
A comedy about animal cops investigating a reptilian mystery has become the highest-grossing foreign animated film ever in China, bucking the trend of declining interest in overseas productions that has resulted in Hollywood films struggling in the Chinese box office.
Zootopia 2 (called Zootropolis 2 in some European countries), a hotly anticipated and widely marketed sequel to 2016’s Zootopia, was released in China last week. In its first seven days, it made about 2bn yuan (£213m) in ticket sales, making it one of the best-performing films of the year.
Continue reading... 6th December 2025 01:00Netflix to buy Warner Bros. in a deal valued at $82.7 billion
Netflix on Friday said it will acquire Warner Bros., including its film and television studios, HBO Max and HBO.
6th December 2025 00:55Indiana House GOP advances 9-0 congressional map, sending plan to state Senate
President Trump has led the charge to create more GOP-friendly congressional districts in the 2026 midterm elections.
6th December 2025 00:49What Netflix's $82.7 billion deal to buy Warner Bros. means for viewers
Netflix said it is buying Warner Bros. in a deal valued at $82.7 billion, merging the biggest streaming service with a storied studio that has produced films such as "Casablanca" and the "Harry Potter" franchise. Elaine Quijano has more on what it means for those watching at home.
6th December 2025 00:38911 calls released from deadly Texas flooding
The Kerrville Police Department released nearly 200 calls from deadly flooding that happened on July Fourth. Jason Allen reports.
6th December 2025 00:21Millions facing sub-freezing temperatures as Arctic blast grips U.S.
In much of the country, it was yet another day of record cold -- and there is more Arctic air on the way. Tom Hanson reports, and Lonnie Quinn has the forecast.
6th December 2025 00:18Shift in decades-long guidance on hepatitis B vaccine
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's vaccine advisory panel voted to change the recommendation for when children should get their first dose of the hepatitis B vaccine. Meg Oliver has more.
6th December 2025 00:15SpaceX aims for $800 billion valuation in secondary share sale, WSJ reports
Elon Musk's SpaceX is reportedly launching an insider share sale that could value the company as high as $800 billion.
6th December 2025 00:08
NPR Topics: News
Trump official signals potential rollback of changes to census racial categories
Trump officials are reviewing changes to racial and ethnic categories that the Biden administration approved for the 2030 census and other federal government forms, a White House agency official says.
5th December 2025 23:51Report finds Afghanistan mission was "two-decade long effort fraught with waste"
The final report this week from the special inspector general for Afghanistan identified $26 billion in waste, fraud, and abuse in U.S. reconstruction spending in Afghanistan since 2009.
5th December 2025 23:342 Louisiana inmates on the run after escape through damaged jail wall
Officials in Louisiana say two inmates accused of violent crimes are on the run after escaping from jail by removing pieces of a wall and using sheets to scale a wall.
5th December 2025 22:49Officials expand probe into Waymo over robotaxis driving around buses
Federal regulators are investigating multiple Texas incidents in which the robotaxis drove around stopped school buses.
5th December 2025 22:45
NPR Topics: News
HHS changed the name of transgender health leader on her official portrait
Admiral Rachel Levine was the first transgender person to be confirmed by the Senate to serve in the federal government. Her official portrait at HHS headquarters has been altered.
5th December 2025 22:38
The Guardian
Professor visiting Harvard arrested by ICE agrees to leave country
Carlos Portugal Gouvea, charged with firing a pellet gun on eve of Yom Kippur outside a synagogue, has said he was not aware of the holiday or that he was shooting next to one
US immigration authorities arrested a visiting professor at Harvard law school after he was charged with discharging a pellet gun outside a Massachusetts synagogue the day before Yom Kippur, the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said on Thursday – and he agreed to leave the country.
Carlos Portugal Gouvea, a Brazilian citizen, was arrested on Wednesday by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after his temporary nonimmigrant visa was revoked by the state department following what the Trump administration labeled an “anti-semitic shooting incident” – a description at odds with how local authorities have described the case.
Continue reading... 5th December 2025 22:35
The Guardian
Thomas Frank faces Brentford reunion not knowing his best Spurs team
Frank up against former club Brentford on Saturday
Dane urges team to ‘be calm’ if they concede first
Thomas Frank has admitted he is still to decide on his best Tottenham team but promised his players would not panic should they concede another early goal in Saturday’s meeting with his former club Brentford.
Spurs suffered their record-equalling 10th home defeat of 2025 against Fulham last Saturday after going 2-0 down in the sixth minute and a section of supporters booed the goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario after his mistake for the second. But a spirited performance at Newcastle in midweek in which Cristian Romero equalised with an overhead kick in added time has lifted spirits after three successive losses.
Continue reading... 5th December 2025 22:30
The Guardian
Fackham Hall review – Downton Abbey spoof is fast, funny and throwaway
Period drama parody has some decent and often smart gags and benefits from a game cast including Damian Lewis and Thomasin McKenzie
Perhaps it’s the feeling of end times in the air: after years of inactivity, spoofs are making a comeback. This summer saw the resurgence of the lighthearted genre, which at its best sends up the pretensions of overly serious genre with a barrage of pitched cliches, sight gags and stupid-clever puns. The Naked Gun, starring Liam Neeson and Pamela Anderson in a spoof of a buddy-cop spoof, opened to moderate box office success; the hapless rock band dialed it back up to 11 in Spinal Tap II: The End Continues. Reboots of the horror spoof gold-standard Scary Movie and the Mel Brooks Star Wars rip Spaceballs were greenlit, and there were rumors of a return for international man of mystery Austin Powers. Unserious times, it seems, beget appetite for knowingly unserious, joke-dense, refreshingly shallow fun.
The latest of these goofy parodies, which premieres on the beyond-parody day that Fifa awarded Donald Trump an inaugural peace prize and Netflix announced its plan to buy Warner Bros, is Fackham Hall, a Downton Abbey spoof that pokes at the very pokeable pretensions of gilded British period dramas. (Yes, Fackham rhymes with a crass kiss-off to the aristocracy.) Co-written by British Irish comedian and TV presenter Jimmy Carr and directed by Jim O’Hanlon, Fackham Hall has plenty of material to work with – the historical soap’s grand finale just premiered in September, 15 years after Julian Fellowes’s series started going upstairs-downstairs with ludicrous portent – and wastes none of it. From ludicrous start (servants rolling joints for the household and responding to calls from the “masturbatorium”) to ludicrous finish (someone manages to marry a second cousin rather than a first!), this enjoyable silver-spoon romp packs all of its 97 minutes with jokes and bits ranging from the puerile to the genuinely funny, proving that there may yet be more to wring from eat-the-rich satire.
Continue reading... 5th December 2025 22:28
The Guardian
People flee DR Congo fighting one day after peace deal signed in Washington
Hundreds driven into Rwanda as M23 militia battles Congolese army and Burundian soldiers for border town of Kamanyola
Fresh fighting in eastern DR Congo has forced hundreds to flee across the border into Rwanda, a day after a peace deal was signed in Washington DC.
Thursday’s agreement was meant to stabilise the resource-rich east but it has had little visible effect on the ground so far, in an area plagued by conflict for 30 years.
Continue reading... 5th December 2025 22:17
The Guardian
World Cup draw: group-by-group analysis for the 2026 tournament
How each team qualified, who will be favourites to progress to the knockout stage and which games to look out for
The opening game in the Azteca will be a repeat of the opener in 2010 when South Africa drew 1-1 with Mexico in Soccer City, Soweto. Mexico have won one knockout game at the World Cup, beating Bulgaria last time they hosted, in 1986. Their manager, Javier Aguirre, was a forward in that side and will be targeting their third quarter-final as hosts. South Africa, coached by the veteran Belgian Hugo Broos, qualified for their first World Cup since hosting, finishing above Nigeria and Benin, despite having a game against Lesotho they appeared to have won awarded against them for fielding a suspended player.
Continue reading... 5th December 2025 22:09For Gen Zers, finding work after college is often a painful slog
"It's very discouraging," said one young job-seeker as employers pull back on hiring entry-level workers.
5th December 2025 22:01Frank Gehry, renowned architect, dies at age 96
Frank Gehry was known for designing the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in Spain and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles.
5th December 2025 21:59
NPR Topics: News
Trump's 'garbage' comment met with disappointment in Somalia
In Somalia, people are pushing back and pointing to the positives after President Trump disparaged their country.
5th December 2025 21:312026 FIFA Men's World Cup groups revealed; Team USA learns its opponents
The 2026 Men's World Cup will be held across the United States, Canada and Mexico next summer.
5th December 2025 21:20
The Guardian
Frank Gehry, legendary Canadian-American architect, dies aged 96
The architect, whose work included the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in LA, died after a brief illness
Frank Gehry, one of the most influential and distinctive talents in American architecture, died on Friday at his home in Los Angeles following a brief respiratory illness, his chief of staff confirmed. He was 96.
Gehry, the most recognizable American architect since Frank Lloyd Wright, was one of the first to embrace the potential of computer design, and pioneered a distinctively exuberant style of bravura power, whimsical and arresting collisions of form. His most famous work remains the Guggenheim Museumin Bilbao, a fantastical, titanium-clad composition on the Nervión River which received international acclaim upon its opening in 1997, heralding a new era of emotive architecture.
Continue reading... 5th December 2025 20:38Meta acquiring AI wearable company Limitless
Meta has acquired the startup Limitless, which makes a small, artificial intelligence-powered pendant.
5th December 2025 20:33Supreme Court to hear case on Trump birthright citizenship order
The U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment had been understood to grant citizenship to children born in the country, even if their parents are not citizens.
5th December 2025 20:28Supreme Court to decide constitutionality of Trump's birthright citizenship order
The Supreme Court said Friday it will decide the legality of President Trump's executive order that seeks to end birthright citizenship.
5th December 2025 20:25Here's where minimum wage increases are set to kick in next year
Minimum wages are set to rise in 22 U.S. states and 66 cities and counties next year, even as the federal baseline wage remains at $7.25.
5th December 2025 20:17
The Guardian
Norris’ date with F1 destiny arrives as he aims to keep Verstappen and Piastri at bay
He has a 12-point lead before Sunday’s Abu Dhabi GP but the British driver vows to ‘crack on’ if the title goes elsewhere
The atmosphere at a season-deciding finale in the Formula One world championship is like no other. The paddock positively hums with a febrile, pulsing excitement and sense of expectation that is impossible to ignore. Amid all of which the title favourite, Lando Norris, finds himself at the moment he has dedicated his life toward, destiny lying in his own hands.
After a gruelling 23-race trek around the world, the conclusion of all the work, sacrifice and effort will be decided in just an hour and a half on Sunday afternoon in Abu Dhabi.
Continue reading... 5th December 2025 20:00Judge orders unsealing of grand jury transcripts from Epstein case in Florida
A federal judge granted a Justice Department request to unseal grand jury transcripts from a federal investigation in Florida into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
5th December 2025 19:58
NPR Topics: News
Putin and Modi expand India-Russia economic ties in talks in New Delhi
India gave Russia's leader a warm welcome in his first visit since his country invaded Ukraine. The visit in part signaled India's defiance of the U.S., which has punished New Delhi for buying Russian oil.
5th December 2025 19:37Trump admin views Netflix and Warner Bros. deal with 'heavy skepticism': Senior official
Paramount Skydance, whose CEO David Ellison is friendly with the Trump administration, wanted to buy WBD outright, making several bids for its full portfolio.
5th December 2025 19:31David Ellison's hunt for WBD made David Zaslav richer — and it may not be over
Paramount is considering taking an offer to WBD shareholders, thinking its deal has a better chance of gaining regulatory approval than Netflix's, sources said.
5th December 2025 19:30
The Guardian
The week around the world in 20 pictures
Russian airstrikes in Kyiv, floods in Colombo, the cold moon in Gaza and Trump at the World Cup draw: the past seven days as captured by the world’s leading photojournalists
Continue reading... 5th December 2025 19:19Jan. 6 pipe bomb suspect Brian Cole confessed, said he supports Trump and has anarchist views: MS NOW
Cole spoke to the authorities for "more than four hours" after his arrest, the government told a judge during the suspect's initial court appearance.
5th December 2025 19:15
The Guardian
AI deepfakes of real doctors spreading health misinformation on social media
Hundreds of videos on TikTok and elsewhere impersonate experts to sell supplements with unproven effects
TikTok and other social media platforms are hosting AI-generated deepfake videos of doctors whose words have been manipulated to help sell supplements and spread health misinformation.
The factchecking organisation Full Fact has uncovered hundreds of such videos featuring impersonated versions of doctors and influencers directing viewers to Wellness Nest, a US-based supplements firm.
Continue reading... 5th December 2025 18:45
The Guardian
Former Dulwich pupil says Farage told him: ‘That’s the way back to Africa’
Exclusive: Yinka Bankole says he felt compelled to speak out after Reform leader’s attempts to ‘dismiss’ hurt of alleged targets
A former Dulwich college pupil who claims a teenage Nigel Farage told him “that’s the way back to Africa” has said he felt compelled to speak out after the Reform leader’s attempt at “denying or dismissing” the hurt of his alleged targets.
Yinka Bankole, who claims he had just started at the school when a 17-year-old Farage singled him out for abuse, said he had decided to tell his story in full after watching the Reform leader’s press conference on Thursday.
Continue reading... 5th December 2025 18:17
NPR Topics: News
For the first time this century, child deaths under age 5 will likely rise. Why?
A dramatic drop in mortality for youngsters under age 5 has been one of the great accomplishments in global health. But estimates suggest that in 2025 child deaths will go up.
5th December 2025 18:12
The Guardian
The Trump administration sinks to a new low – opening fire on drowning men | Jonathan Freedland
These deadly US boat strikes are the latest example of a president corrupting both the law and morality
The Trump administration looks ever more like a criminal enterprise – and now it seems to have added war crimes to its repertoire. Though even that may be too generous a description.
On Thursday, word came that the US military had launched yet another deadly strike on a small boat moving through international waters. This time the attack killed four people, bringing to at least 87 the number of people the US has killed in a series of 22 such strikes on what it says are drug boats – vessels carrying illicit narcotics in the Caribbean or eastern Pacific.
Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist
Guardian newsroom: Year One of Trumpism: Is Britain Emulating the US?
On Wednesday 21 January 2026, join Jonathan Freedland, Tania Branigan and Nick Lowles as they reflect on the first year of Donald Trump’s second presidency – and to ask if Britain could be set on the same path.
Book tickets here or at guardian.live
NPR Topics: News
Appeals court hands Trump a victory, OK'ing firings of two independent agency heads
The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2 to 1 that President Trump's firings of Democratic members of the Merit Systems Protection Board and the National Labor Relations Board were lawful.
5th December 2025 18:05Core inflation rate watched by Fed hit 2.8%, delayed September data shows, lower than expected
The delayed core personal consumption expenditures price index for September was expected to show a 2.9% annual increase.
5th December 2025 17:55
The Guardian
Trump awarded inaugural Fifa peace prize at World Cup draw in Washington
Trump praised by Infantino at DC ceremony
President’s peace claims disputed by critics
Donald Trump has been named the first winner of the newly created Fifa peace prize, claiming “the world is a safer place now” as he received the award at the draw for the 2026 World Cup in Washington DC.
Gianni Infantino, the Fifa president and one of Trump’s closest sporting allies, presented the honour onstage at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on Friday, saying Trump had been selected “in recognition of his exceptional and extraordinary actions to promote peace and unity around the world”.
Continue reading... 5th December 2025 17:53
The Guardian
The Guide #220: The best things we watched, read and listened to this year – that weren’t from 2025
In this week’s newsletter: We revisit forgotten noirs, rediscovered albums and retro games that stole the year
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We’ve just inched into December, which of course means Christmas list season. Already, five days in, plenty of publications have shared their cultural best-ofs for 2025 – you can read the Guardian’s best books and songs of the year right now, with our countdowns in TV, film and music coming very soon.
Meanwhile, many of you will have been bombarded on social media by screengrabs of your colleagues/friends/enemies’ Spotify Wrapped playlists (though Mood Machine author Liz Pelly has written pretty convincingly about why you shouldn’t share yours). This year’s Wrapped includes a “listening age” feature, which uses the release dates of the music you streamed to determine how horribly out-of-date your tastes are – revealing to some users that they are, in fact, centenarians.
Continue reading... 5th December 2025 17:00
The Guardian
Former doctor charged with sexual assaults against 38 patients in his care
Nathaniel Spencer, from Birmingham, is accused of 45 offences, including some against children under 13
A former doctor has been charged with carrying out sexual assaults against 38 people who were patients in his care.
Nathaniel Spencer, from Birmingham, is accused of dozens of acts of sexual assault, some of them against children younger than 13, between 2017 and 2021.
Continue reading... 5th December 2025 15:48
The Guardian
What would you write in a very last letter and why?
If you had the chance to write just one last letter, to whom would you send it?
The Danish postal service will deliver its last letter at the end of this month to focus on packages, citing the “increasing digitalisation” of society.
While the public will still be able to send letters through the distributor DAO, it made us think about how we would use that last chance to send a letter.
Continue reading... 5th December 2025 15:23
The Guardian
German MPs rubberstamp military service plan amid school pupil protests
All 18-year-old men to be screened for suitability for armed forces, but proposal falls short of conscription
The German parliament has rubberstamped a new model for military service that aims to boost its armed forces as thousands of school pupils demonstrated across the country against the plans.
The change will include the obligatory screening of all 18-year-old men to gauge their suitability to serve in the military from 1 January, but does not include conscription, as favoured by some conservative politicians.
Continue reading... 5th December 2025 15:17
The Guardian
I spent hours listening to Sabrina Carpenter this year. So why do I have a Spotify ‘listening age’ of 86?
Many users of the app were shocked, this week, by this addition to the Spotify Wrapped roundup – especially twentysomethings who were judged to be 100
“Age is just a number. So don’t take this personally.” Those words were the first inkling I had that I was about to receive some very bad news.
I woke up on Wednesday with a mild hangover after celebrating my 44th birthday. Unfortunately for me, this was the day Spotify released “Spotify Wrapped”, its analysis of (in my case) the 4,863 minutes I had spent listening to music on its platform over the past year. And this year, for the first time, they are calculating the “listening age” of all their users.
Continue reading... 5th December 2025 15:07
The Guardian
Horror game Horses has been banned from sale – but is it as controversial as you’d think?
Pulled by Steam and Epic Games Store, indie horror Horses shook up the industry before it was even released. Now it’s out, all the drama surrounding it seems superfluous
On 25 November, award-winning Italian developer Santa Ragione, responsible for acclaimed titles such as MirrorMoon EP and Saturnalia, revealed that its latest project, Horses, had been banned from Steam - the largest digital store for PC games. A week later, another popular storefront, Epic Games Store, also pulled Horses, right before its 2 December launch date. The game was also briefly removed from the Humble Store, but was reinstated a day later.
The controversy has helped the game rocket to the top of the digital stores that are selling it, namely itch.io and GOG. But the question remains – why was it banned? Horses certainly delves into some intensely controversial topics (a content warning at the start details, “physical violence, psychological abuse, gory imagery, depiction of slavery, physical and psychological torture, domestic abuse, sexual assault, suicide, and misogyny”) and is upsetting and unnerving.
Continue reading... 5th December 2025 15:04
The Guardian
Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair – what does the new Tarantino cut offer?
The director’s two-part revenge saga has now been released as one mammoth movie with several tweaks and additions
Quentin Tarantino and his epic revenge saga Kill Bill had, as the vengeful lead character in the movie keeps saying, unfinished business. Actually, Tarantino mostly finished the business of re-integrating two volumes of Kill Bill into a single feature as early as 2006, just a couple of years after the release of Kill Bill: Vol 2. But while that version played at Cannes and had a few more recent runs at Tarantino-owned theaters in Los Angeles, it never reached home video (though some bootlegs attempted to recreate it) or a wide theatrical release. That’s all changed with this weekend’s debut of Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair, a four-and-a-half-hour version of the movie hitting over 1,000 screens across North America.
Tarantino made long movies before and after Kill Bill; features that run over two and a half hours make up the vast majority of his filmography. But in the early 2000s, Kill Bill represented a major pivot for the film-maker, away from his then-signature crime dramas with healthy helpings of black comedy. Tarantino and his Pulp Fiction star Uma Thurman cooked up the character of the Bride – “Q & U” are named as providers of the source material in the credits – as a pregnant ex-assassin who becomes the victim of a vicious wedding-eve attack from her ex-boss/lover (that would be Bill) and their lethal colleagues (those would be the other four on her “death list five”, a phrase whose rhythm recalls Fox Force Five, the fictional TV pilot Thurman’s character in Pulp Fiction once starred in). The Bride unexpectedly survives the shooting, goes into a coma, and wakes up years later desperate for revenge, forming the backbone of a movie that pays extensive tribute to the kung fu, exploitation and revenge movies of Tarantino’s youth – and his dreams, if the vividly colorful look of the film is any indication.
Continue reading... 5th December 2025 14:43
The Guardian
‘He’s the new Daniel Day-Lewis’: Margot Robbie defends Jacob Elordi’s Heathcliff in Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights
Robbie addresses backlash to casting Elordi as a character described by Brontë as ‘dark-skinned’, while Fennell praises her female star’s ‘big dick energy’
Margot Robbie has come out in defence of Emerald Fennell’s new adaptation of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, in which she is playing Cathy opposite Jacob Elordi’s Heathcliff.
Despite being months away from release, the film has attracted criticism for its casting as well as alterations that Fennell has made to the characters. In an interview with Vogue magazine, Robbie said: “I get it … there’s nothing else to go off at this point until people see the movie.”
Continue reading... 5th December 2025 14:35
The Guardian
The best music books of 2025
From an enraging indictment of Spotify to Del Amitri frontman Justin Currie’s account of Parkinson’s and a compelling biography of Tupac Shakur, here are five titles that strike a chord
Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist
Liz Pelly (Hodder & Stoughton)
Enraging, thoroughly depressing, but entirely necessary, Mood Music offers a timely, forensically researched demolition of Spotify. In Pelly’s account, the music streaming giant views music as a kind of nondescript sonic wallpaper, artists as an unnecessary encumbrance to the business of making more money and its target market not as music fans, but mindless drones who don’t really care what they’re listening to, ripe for manipulation by its algorithm. Sharp business practices and evidence of its deleterious effect on the quality and variety of new music abound: the worst thing is that Pelly can’t really come up with a viable alternative in a world where convenience trumps all.
Men of a Certain Age: My Encounters With Rock Royalty
Kate Mossman (Bonnier)
There’s no doubt that Men of a Certain Age is a hard sell, a semi-autobiographical book in which the New Statesman’s arts editor traces her obsession with often wildly unfashionable, ageing male artists – Queen’s Roger Taylor, Bruce Hornsby, Steve Perry of Journey, Jon Bon Jovi among them – through a series of interviews variously absurd, insightful, hair-raising and weirdly touching. But it’s elevated to unmissable status by Mossman’s writing, which is so sparkling, witty and shrewd that your personal feelings about her subjects are rendered irrelevant amid the cocktail of self-awareness, affection and sharp analysis she brings to every encounter. In a world of music books retelling tired legends, Men of a Certain Age offers that rare thing: an entirely original take on rock history.
The Guardian
Russell Crowe’s 20 best roles – sorted!
With Nuremberg out in Australian cinemas, we cast an eye over Rusty’s eclectic, varied and downright impressive oeuvre. Are you not entertained?
Russell Crowe’s hair-raising performance as Hermann Göring in Nuremberg is the latest example of the veteran actor’s high-risk, high-reward approach. He has a knack for taking on difficult, baggage-laden roles that could have gone spectacularly badly – only to deliver the goods and make you want to stand up and yell “bravo!” You’ll struggle to find many other actors working today with an oeuvre as eclectic, varied and downright impressive as the Wellington-born star’s. Here are his 20 greatest performances.
Continue reading... 5th December 2025 14:00
The Guardian
Maximum protein, minimal carbs: why gym bros are flocking to Australia’s charcoal chicken shops
From El Jannah’s webpage dedicated to ‘health-conscious individuals’ to Habibi Chicken’s ‘Gym Bro’ pack, businesses are catering to the post-leg day crowd
Popularised in Australia by Balkan and Lebanese immigrants, charcoal chicken has long been part of our comfort-food canon. But recently, the humble chicken shop has had a renaissance – driven by fresh takes on the classics, the expansion of longstanding chains and a surge of protein-conscious gym goers.
In June, charcoal chicken chain El Jannah, which has more than 50 stores, launched a page on its website dedicated to protein and macros – complete with recommendations for the best post-leg day order – a clear nod to the fitness crowd.
Continue reading... 5th December 2025 14:00
The Guardian
‘I’ve had all the luck you can get’: Michael Caine retires for the fourth time
The 92-year-old actor made the announcement again as he received an award at the Red Sea international film festival in Saudi Arabia
Michael Caine has offered an update on his possible retirement from acting at the Red Sea international film festival in Saudi Arabia, appearing to call time on his career for the fourth time.
Taking to the stage to accept a lifetime achievement award, the actor said: “I kept going until I was 90, which was two years ago, and I thought to myself I’m not going to do anything else because I’ve had all the luck you can get.”
Continue reading... 5th December 2025 13:11CDC panel to vote Friday on hepatitis B vaccine for newborns
The CDC's vaccine advisory panel meets Thursday and Friday to discuss recommendations for the hepatitis B vaccine and the schedule of childhood shots.
5th December 2025 13:11
The Guardian
California pesticide agency could loosen restrictions on most toxic rat poisons
The anti-coagulant rodenticides also unintentionally harm wildlife across the state, including endangered species
The administration of Gavin Newsom, the California governor, is moving to loosen restrictions around the most toxic rat poisons, even as a new state report shows the rodenticides are unintentionally poisoning wildlife across the state, including endangered species.
Blood-thinning, anticoagulant rodenticides were significantly restricted when a 2024 state law approved after 10 years of legislative wrangling required the California department of pesticide regulation to limit the substances’ use unless data showed species collaterally harmed or killed by it had rebounded.
Continue reading... 5th December 2025 13:00