Sri Lanka’s capital hit by floods as cyclone death toll nears 200

Hundreds of people still missing after heavy rain and mudslides in country’s deadliest natural disaster for years

Entire areas of Sri Lanka’s capital are flooded after a powerful cyclone triggered heavy rains and mudslides across the island, with authorities reporting nearly 200 dead and dozens more missing.

Officials said the extent of the damage in the country’s worst-affected central region was slowly becoming clear on Sunday as relief workers cleared roads blocked by fallen trees and mudslides.

Chelsea v Arsenal buildup, Slot under pressure, Frank angry at fan boos – matchday live

• News and discussion as we build up to the day’s action

• Chelsea determined to stay grounded | Get in touch

Krishna gets in touch: “Isn’t the match involving Manchester United no longer about the result but how many minutes before the first misplaced pass, when will Ruben disintegrate looking like a cook who forgot his recipe AND missing a key ingredient and which comic event will lead to the first red card?”

Ruben Amorim has been doing his usual Mr Motivator act.

Things do not get any easier for Wolves and Rob Edwards. After being outclassed by Crystal Palace last weekend, on Sunday they face a trip to their in-form Midlands rivals Aston Villa. Then it is Nottingham Forest, Manchester United, Arsenal and Brentford before Christmas. Wolves lost to each of the promoted clubs this season and surely even the most optimistic Wolves supporter can be forgiven for wondering: where are the points coming from? A section of Wolves supporters tempered their anger at Molineux last time out but any grace period afforded to Edwards, a personable former player and coach, will soon fade. Even so he has to maintain belief. “When we take these jobs we all back ourselves – there’s a belief and ego we all have: ‘I can be the one who can stick around for a while,’” he said. “I haven’t joined this club to be gone within a few months.”

‘I sang karaoke with Novak Djokovic – a surreal experience’: Jacob Collier’s honest playlist

The musical prodigy discovered Stevie Wonder aged two and danced to Brazilian jazz at a Grammys afterparty. But what song does he think is the best in the world?

The first song I fell in love with
So many songs hit me as a child, they were like windows opening up new worlds. But the first I truly loved was Did I Hear You Say You Love Me, by Stevie Wonder, which I remember clearly when I was around two years old.

The first single I bought
I bought an iTunes single by Take 6 when I was 13. They are a six-part a cappella, gospel, jazz group, and they completely exploded my creative imagination. The song, He Never Sleeps, has the most unbelievable harmonic journey.

Bridge to the past: JR to wrap Pont Neuf again, 40 years after artistic forebears

Exclusive: French artist planning to cover bridge over Seine in tribute to Christo and Jeanne-Claude

The enigmatic French artist JR will undertake what he says is his biggest ever challenge next year when he “wraps” Pont Neuf, the oldest standing bridge across the Seine River in Paris, in a tribute to a monumental art project by Christo and Jeanne-Claude.

For three weeks next June, the 232-metre (761ft) long bridge will be wrapped in fabric, 40 years after the married artists known for their large-scale, site-specific environmental installations did the same thing.

Head ready to open again in second Ashes Test and says flexible batters will be key

• Australian opener ‘preparing for anything’ in Brisbane

• Agrees with Pat Cummins that batting order ‘overrated’

Having swushbuckled Australia to victory after vaulting to the top of the order in the first Ashes Test, Travis Head arrived in Brisbane on Sunday to begin his preparations for the second, saying that the future of Test cricket lies in the hands of batters who can flex into a variety of positions. Head described pliable positions as “where the game’s going to”, proposing that Australia could already “use these players in a range of different ways to win games of cricket”.

Last month Pat Cummins, Australia’s currently-injured captain, described the concept of batting orders as “pretty overrated”, insisting quality players “can bat wherever” – an opinion Head echoed.

11/29: Saturday Morning

President Trump announced that he’s canceling all executive orders that former President Joe Biden signed with an autopen, as authorities are looking for motive after National Guard member Sarah Beckstrom died from being fatally shot in Washington, D.C. Plus, take a trip back through history at the Delta Flight Museum and meet Japan's rising sushi star.

Japan ‘One Piece’ singer stopped mid-performance as Japan-China relations sour

Axing of Maki Otsuki performance in Shanghai the latest in spate of cancelled cultural events involving Asia’s two biggest economies

Japanese “One Piece” singer Maki Otsuki was forced to halt her performance on stage in Shanghai, her management said, one of the latest events hit by a diplomatic spat between Tokyo and Beijing.

Otsuki, known for the theme song of the popular anime, had been slated to perform for two days from Friday at the Bandai Namco Festival 2025 in the Chinese city.

‘He massages Trump’s basest instincts’: why is Fifa’s Gianni Infantino cosying up to the US president?

For a man who insists football isn’t political, the Fifa boss is putting a lot of effort into into courting the most divisive politician on Earth

Gianni Infantino was 18 years old the first time he ran for office. It was a presidential election at FC Brig-Glis, the local amateur football club in the small Swiss town where he grew up. Running against two older men, and with no discernible footballing record of his own, the little red-haired kid with freckles was, unsurprisingly, the rank outsider in the race.

But he had a vision. He had a ferocious work ethic, boundless enthusiasm, well-established networks in the town’s Italian immigrant community. And even at this tender age, he had a flair for an eye-catching scheme. To the shock of many veterans at the club, Infantino surged to victory: partly on the back of his pledge to attract new sponsors and revenue streams, and partly on something more tangible. Infantino promised that if he won, his mother Maria would wash all the players’ kits, every week, for as long as he was president.

Failure to diagnose treatable male infertility leading to unnecessary IVF, experts say

Men represent 50% of all infertility cases but poor understanding among GPs means it is often untreated

Couples are needlessly going through IVF because male infertility is under-researched, with the NHS too often failing to diagnose treatable causes, leading experts have said.

Poor understanding among GPs and a lack of specialists and NHS testing means male infertility is often left untreated in couples struggling to conceive, despite men accounting for 50% of all infertility cases.

‘It was soul destroying’: men on the struggle to get answers about infertility

Failure by GPs to diagnose treatable causes had huge time, money and mental health costs for these men

After six years of trying for a baby and two failed rounds of IVF, Toby Trice found himself at his “lowest ebb”, feeling “lost, lonely and alienated from society”.

“We were in this dark phase of not knowing where we were at. All our friends and family around us had children and we were constantly reminded we couldn’t. It was soul-destroying.

China is bearing down on Taiwan – enabled by Trump’s weakness and vacillation | Simon Tisdall

The US hasn’t just left Ukraine vulnerable; it is also provoking Xi’s intensifying attitude towards what he considers a renegade province

Sheer ignorance, fed by malign intent, historical prejudice and mutual misunderstanding, is often the crucial spark that ignites simmering international conflicts. If Adolf Hitler, remarkably ignorant of the US, had grasped the true extent of American industrial might, would he still have fatefully declared war on Washington in 1941?

When the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979, it evidently had no idea what it was getting into. Humiliating defeat contributed greatly to its subsequent disintegration. In 1990, Iraq’s Saddam Hussein attacked Kuwait, convinced he had a green light from the White House. In all these cases, stupidity produced disastrous misjudgments that proved fatal.

Simon Tisdall is a Guardian foreign affairs commentator

Store receipt provides alibi for Utah man eyed in murder 500 miles away

Weeks before Kristil Krug, a married mother of three, was found murdered in her Colorado garage, she told police she and her husband Dan Krug had received threatening texts and emails from a stalker who she believed was an ex-boyfriend.

The Setup Murder of Kristil Krug

A stalker sends menacing messages to a young mother before she is murdered. The investigation reveals a sinister setup. "48 Hour" correspondent Peter Van Sant reports.

Shopping for Christmas bargains? Beware the ‘spray and pay’ parcel delivery fraud

Criminals send thousands of texts about an undelivered bargain buy and ask for a redelivery fee in a bid to mine your data and bank details

You have landed a lot of bargains in the run-up to Black Friday and most of your Christmas shopping is done.

So when a text arrives about a delivery, it’s no surprise. A quick click on a link and you have paid the £2 redelivery charge it’s asking for.

Lessons not learned after Georgia Barter driven to suicide by abuse, says her mother

Family ‘saddened’ by minister’s response to London coroner’s concerns over police database access

• Georgia’s story: how a domestic abuse victim’s suicide was ruled an unlawful killing by her partner

The family of a woman judged to have been unlawfully killed by her partner after she took her own life following years of domestic abuse has said “lessons have still not been learnt” after the government indicated it would not make changes to how officers use the police national database.

An inquest earlier this year found that Georgia Barter, 32, experienced years of abuse at the hands of Thomas Bignell.

• In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email [email protected] or [email protected]. In the US, you can call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org

4 dead and 10 wounded in shooting at banquet hall in Stockton, California

Four people were killed and 10 wounded in a shooting during a family gathering at a banquet hall in Stockton, sheriff's officials said Saturday.

All the president’s millions: how the Trumps are turning the presidency into riches

From Vietnam to the Balkans, Donald Trump’s family has launched a global dealmaking blitz since his re-election

A crusading prosecutor in the Balkans comes under pressure to drop a big case. Vietnamese villagers learn they are to be evicted. A convicted crypto kingpin in the Gulf receives a pardon.

All have one thing in common: they appear to be connected to the Trump family’s campaign to amass riches around the world. Since Donald Trump’s re-election a year ago, warnings that his use of presidential power to advance personal interests is corroding American democracy have grown ever louder. What is less understood – and perhaps even more dangerous – is the damage this is doing everywhere else.

Water shortages could derail UK’s net zero plans, study finds

Tensions grow after research in England finds there may not be enough water for planned carbon capture and hydrogen projects

• Revealed: Europe’s water reserves drying up due to climate breakdown

Tensions are growing between the government, the water sector and its regulators over the management of England’s water supplies, as the Environment Agency warns of a potential widespread drought next year.

Research commissioned by a water retailer has found water scarcity could hamper the UK’s ability to reach its net zero targets, and that industrial growth could push some areas of the country into water shortages.

‘We need to speak collectively’: can parliament solve the problem of ‘deprivation bingo’ in the UK’s seaside towns?

Labour knows it needs to win over the ‘sea wall’ cohort of coastal voters in the next election. But as anger over inequality grows, time is running out

It is a lovely sunny autumn day in Ramsgate on Britain’s Kent coast, and quintessential seaside chippy Peter’s Fish Factory is doing a roaring lunchtime trade. Across the road, at the entrance to the town’s pier, local MP and chair of the newly reformed coastal parliamentary Labour party (PLP), Polly Billington, is having her photo taken.

In between shots she shows us the community art project that adorns the fence along the entrance to the pier. It is made up of pictures, drawn primarily by local children and young people, of the 65 little ships that set sail earlier this year from Ramsgate to commemorate the 85th anniversary of the Dunkirk evacuation.

At least four killed in shooting at child’s party in northern California, officials say

San Joaquin County sheriff’s office says juveniles were among the victims in possible ‘targeted’ attack on a banquet hall in Stockton

Four people have died after 14 people were shot at a family gathering in northern California on Saturday night, police said.

The victims, who range from “juveniles to adults”, were taken to local hospitals, Heather Brent, a spokesperson for the San Joaquin County sheriff’s office, said. “What we have confirmed at this time is that there was a banquet hall where a family was celebrating.”

Don’t filter your dates by age and hobbies, ask them how they shop | Polly Hudson

Big deal-breakers are all very well, but the seemingly small things often tell in the end. How do they feel about sell-by dates? Will they walk out of a bad film? Not asking will come back to haunt you

A friend of mine once declined a date with a kind, funny, clever man because she hated his shoes. When she relayed this to our group of twentysomethings, it didn’t warrant comment or discussion, because it was such a rational decision, which we all would have made. I mean, come on – you can’t go out with someone with bad trainers, can you?

Fortunately for the continuation of the human race, today’s daters appear to be a little less fastidious. A recent report on relationships by the dating app Plenty of Fish not only failed to mention footwear, but showed that people are keen to skip the small-talk phase, so weighty conversation topics such as life goals and dealbreakers are now brought up straight away.

Can you have a community without craic? Scholars of Ireland’s pubs warn of declining numbers

Two new books analyse what makes the ‘perfect pub’ and both come to a sobering conclusion: Irish pubs are in trouble

Like triple-distilled whiskey, Irish pubs appear to have timeless appeal. They are staple setting in films, books and plays, draw tourists to Ireland, replicate themselves around the world and induce social media quests for the perfect snug and the perfect pint.

Scholars have now bestowed academic imprimatur on this cultural treasure status by examining – and celebrating – pubs through the lens of history, sociology, architecture, psychology, design, art and literature.

Investigation into woman's murder exposes an elaborate stalking plot

Kristil Krug told police in Broomfield, Colorado, that she and her husband, Dan Krug, were receiving threatening texts and emails from an ex-boyfriend. Two months later she was dead, but her alleged stalker had an alibi.

Rising Tide protest: climate activists stop three ships from entering world’s largest coal port in Newcastle

NSW police arrest 141 people as campaigners demand federal government cancel planned fossil fuel projects and tax existing operations at 78%

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Activists have blocked two more coal ships from entering the Port of Newcastle on the fourth day of the Rising Tide protest, bringing the total number of ships turned around by campaigners this weekend to three.

Thousands of people have gathered at Rising Tide’s annual climate protest at the world’s largest coal port. The blockade began on Thursday and will continue until Tuesday. Hundreds have kayaked into the port, with many more watching on from the beach.

11/29: CBS Weekend News

Major storm blasts Midwest, impacting travel on holiday weekend; From takeoffs to kickoffs, game day pressure hits an unexpected place: The airport

Anger mounts in Hong Kong over apartment fires as Beijing warns against ‘anti-China disruptors’

Police on Saturday detained one person who was part of a group that launched a petition demanding accountability

Anger over a deadly blaze at a Hong Kong high-rise apartment complex simmered on Sunday as Beijing warned against attempts to use the disaster to disrupt the city, while people across the financial hub continued to mourn for the more than 128 victims.

Police on Saturday detained one person who was part of a group that launched a petition demanding government accountability, an independent probe into possible corruption, proper resettlement for residents, and a review of construction oversight, two sources familiar with the matter said.

From takeoffs to kickoffs, game day pressure hits an unexpected place: The airport

The Athens Ben Epps Airport has to almost double its flight operations around college football game day. Skyler Henry has the story.

Acclaimed playwright Tom Stoppard dies at 88

Acclaimed playwright Tom Stoppard has died at 88. Stoppard won the Oscar for his 1998 screenplay "Shakespeare in Love."

Pope Leo pushes for peace and unity at Blue Mosque in Turkey

Pope Leo celebrated mass in Istanbul with Turkey's Catholic community on Saturday. He also visited the famous Blue Mosque to address peace and unity across faiths. Chris Livesay has more.

U.S. airlines report short-term disruptions amid Airbus software issue

Airbus recommended an emergency software update to the A320 family of aircraft.

Americans expected to spend over a trillion dollars for the first time this holiday season

Americans spent a record $12 billion online on Black Friday this year, according to Adobe Analytics. Ali Bauman reports on how rising prices are impacting shoppers.

Deadly Russian air assaults hit Ukraine as negotiators head to U.S. for peace talks

Negotiators for Ukraine are headed to Florida for further peace talks with Trump administration officials. The visit comes amid new deadly air assaults across Ukraine. Elizabeth Palmer reports.

Major winter storm impacts post-Thanksgiving travel for millions

Winter storm warnings and advisories extended from Montana to Ohio, the National Weather Service said. Forecasters warned there could be airport delays and slowed traffic with snow falling at more than an inch per hour in some areas.

Trump declares Venezuela's airspace closed

President Trump intensified his pressure campaign on Venezuela on Saturday. He posted that the airspace around the country is "closed in its entirety." Weijia Jiang has more details.

Messi to meet Müller in MLS Cup with Inter Miami set to host Vancouver Whitecaps

• Tadeo Allende hat-trick leads Miami to 5-1 win over NYC

• Early Vancouver goals sink expansion San Diego FC

• MLS Cup matchup repeats Concacaf semi-final

Lionel Messi will play for another trophy. Jordi Alba and Sergio Busquets clearly aren’t ready to begin their retirements, either.

Tadeo Allande scored three goals – Alba and Busquets, a pair of longtime Messi teammates who will retire when this season ends, had the assists on his first two – and Inter Miami topped New York City FC 5-1 on Saturday night for the Eastern Conference title and a berth in the MLS Cup final.

This week on "Sunday Morning" (Nov. 30)

A look at the features for this week's broadcast of the Emmy-winning program, hosted by Jane Pauley.

Major storm blasts Midwest, impacting travel on holiday weekend

Approximately 24 million people across the U.S. are under winter storm alerts. Dave Malkoff and Andrew Kozak have the details on this holiday weekend's forecast and the impact.

Ukrainian naval drones strike two Russian oil tankers in Black Sea

Kyiv tries to pile pressure on Russia with attack on empty vessels on way to load up with oil for foreign markets

Ukrainian naval drones hit two tankers operating under sanctions in the Black Sea as they headed to a Russian port to load up with oil destined for foreign markets, an official said on Saturday, as Kyiv tries to pile pressure on Russia’s vast oil industry.

The two oil tankers, identified as the Kairos and Virat, were empty and sailing to Novorossiysk, a major Russian Black Sea oil terminal, the official at the security service of Ukraine told Reuters.

Working the land but rarely owning it: life for New Zealand’s young farmers

A country built on agriculture is seeing the sector change as the number of farms shrinks and it becomes harder for young people to buy land

On a farm south of Auckland, Cam Clayton breeds sheep and cattle – working alongside the dogs he’s trained since they were puppies. There, he looks out on knobbly hills and tree-filled gullies in Waikato, close to where he grew up.

“I have the best office, with the best views,” says Clayton.

European football: Olmo double takes Barca top; Díaz fires up Bayern’s late rally

• Dortmund hold on to beat Bayer Leverkusen

• Leão strike gives Milan 1-0 win over Lazio

Barcelona recovered from an early setback to secure a 3-1 victory over Alavés, with first-half goals from Lamine Yamal and Dani Olmo and a late second for the latter sealing the win at the Camp Nou.

The win lifts the defending La Liga champions to the top of the table on 34 points, two ahead of second-placed Real Madrid, who have a game in hand at Girona on Sunday.

Vision, instinct and tenacity: Stanway shines as Lionesses lay down a marker | Sophie Downey

Midfielder’s three goals illustrate the different attributes that have made her the player she is today

England laid down a marker at Wembley on Saturday evening as they waltzed to victory over China with a scintillating show of attacking force. Among the many eye-catching performances, Georgia Stanway stood out, joining Beth Mead and Aggie Beever-Jones by becoming the third Lioness to score a hat-trick at Wembley. Her three goals and assist formed part of a midfield display that was right up there with the best the national stadium has witnessed over the years.

The 26-year-old has been one of the first names on Sarina Wiegman’s team sheet since the Dutchwoman took over as manager in 2021. Famous for her long-range finishing and tenacious tackling, she is emblematic of the fight and quality that this England team possess. When in top form, she and Keira Walsh form one of the best midfield partnerships out there, complementing each other’s attributes. She is one of the leaders of this team, unafraid to stand up and be counted on and off the pitch when things go wrong and at the core of their success when they go right.

Northwestern settles with Trump administration in $75M deal to regain federal funding

The university will pay $75 million over three years to end the Trump administration's investigations into antisemitism on its campus and to have millions of dollars in federal funding restored.

What Rosa Parks can teach us about resistance today | Jan-Werner Mueller

Rosa Park’s story is about courage. But, lest one forget, it is also a story about breaking the law

It was 70 years ago when four African Americans were sitting in the fifth row of a bus in Montgomery. As one white man had to stand towards the front, the driver asked the four to get up and move towards the back of the bus. Three did; one did not – the rest is history. Or so many American kids might think when they first read the story of Rosa Parks in school.

It is a story of courage, but, lest one forget, it is also a story about breaking the law. And the question for us today is what civil disobedience means in an era when the federal government is signaling its readiness severely to punish even perfectly legal dissent.

Organizers admit ‘no plan B’ if hockey arena not ready for 2026 Olympics

• New 16,000-seat venue running behind schedule

• Test events pushed to January with no backup option

• First Olympic hockey game still set for 5 February

There is no backup stadium if the main ice hockey arena for the Milan Cortina Winter Games is not ready on time.

Construction on the arena that is set to welcome NHL players back to the Olympics for the first time in more than a decade is behind schedule and its completion is going right down to the wire.

England v Brazil? This World Cup draw must offer us glimpses of glory not the grotesque | Jonathan Wilson

Top-four seeding shows Fifa prioritising marketing over sporting integrity once again but even best-laid plans can flop

The plastic balls rumble around the glass bowls of destiny. Portentous music plays. There is a sense of possibility, as though the inner workings of the universe have suddenly been laid bare, a door opening to reveal the three Fates sitting by their spinning wheel, measuring rod and shears in hand.

A World Cup draw is a moment of perfection, a platonic vision before reality has had time to intervene. Everybody is fit and in form. Every nation is playing as an ideal version of itself – no injuries, no disputes over bonuses, no concerns about fatigue or the temperature or whether a player might be distracted by a possible transfer; it’s the World Cup as pure potential. With Friday’s draw, next summer will suddenly feel a lot closer.

FDA to raise hurdles for vaccines, faulting COVID shots for 10 kids' deaths

Food and Drug Administration officials say they will ratchet up requirements for vaccine studies, citing concerns about COVID shots for kids. But public health experts question the agency's analysis.

Venezuela denounces ‘colonialist threat’ as Trump orders airspace closed

President made declaration in a social media post, after FAA last week warned airlines of ‘worsening security situation’

The Venezuelan government has responded defiantly to the heightened pressure by the US government, including Donald Trump’s recent statements on Saturday that the airspace above and surrounding Venezuela is to be closed in its entirety.

In a statement, the Venezuelan government said Trump’s comments are a “colonialist threat” against their sovereignty and violate international law. The government also said it demanded respect for its airspace and would not accept foreign orders or threats.

Piastri pips Norris to Qatar GP pole after victory in sprint race closes title gap

• Norris slips up in final lap to give rival advantage

• Max Verstappen third on grid; Hamilton 18th

Oscar Piastri knew going into the weekend of the Qatar Grand Prix he would have to be at his best to keep his world championship ambitions alive and, with a battling performance, he did exactly that, by claiming victory in the sprint race and then pole position for the grand prix at the Lusail circuit.

Both were significant but pole was crucial in the tense title fight with his McLaren teammate Lando Norris, who lines up alongside him on the front row of the grid, and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who starts from third, with the three contenders set to go head to head into turn one on Sunday.

American Airlines says all planes impacted by Airbus glitch have been fixed

American Airlines said Saturday that aircrafts impacted by an Airbus recall have received the software fixes necessary to resume flying.

A major winter storm disrupts travel as millions head home after Thanksgiving

The storm will spread through the Midwest and Great Lakes regions over the weekend with "widespread heavy snowfall and hazardous travel conditions," the National Weather Service said.

The moment I knew: it was tender but complicated – then we decided not to hide any more

When mountaineer Allie Pepper met Mikel Sherpa at Manaslu base camp in Nepal, their romance began with stolen kisses and whispered conversations

• Find more stories from the moment I knew series

I discovered a passion for mountaineering in 2000 on a technical climbing course in New Zealand. For two decades I dedicated my life to the mountains, climbing some of the world’s highest peaks including Everest.

In early 2022 my marriage ended and I threw myself completely into my dream of climbing the world’s 14 highest peaks without supplemental oxygen. By September I reached Manaslu base camp in Nepal. I was focused on the mountain ahead, not on love.

Fran Lebowitz: ‘Hiking is the most stupid thing I could ever imagine’

The US author and orator on leaf blowers and Labubus, the weirdest thing she has done for love and struggling with contemporary novels

I would like to ask your opinion on five things. First of all, leaf blowers.

A horrible, horrible invention. I didn’t even know about them until like 20 years ago when I rented a house in the country. I was shocked! I live in New York City, we don’t have leaf problems. We have every other kind of problem. When I was a kid, we had leaf raking. Which is quiet. Leaf blowers are the stupidest thing I’ve ever seen. First of all, they are incredibly noisy. And second of all, 10 minutes after you use it, that big leaf blower in the sky blows them all back. It’s a very stupid invention.

‘Desire in one of its rawest forms’: what do we know about limerence?

For everything from pop music to poetry, overwhelming infatuation offers inspiration and storylines. But when might this tip over into something a little less healthy?

For months after her relationship ended, Anna* couldn’t stop thinking about him.

Each morning she’d wake with a jolt of grief; an intense, almost physical feeling that morphed into thoughts of him that consumed nearly every waking hour.

White House launches website to excoriate media for ‘biased’ stories

Trump administration lists reporting it objects to in latest escalation of attacks on US journalism

The White House rolled out a new section of its official website on Friday that publicly criticizes and catalogs media organizations and journalists it claims have distorted coverage.

At the top of the page, the text reads: “Misleading. Biased. Exposed.” The feature names the Boston Globe, CBS News and the Independent as “media offenders of the week”, accusing them of inaccurately portraying Trump’s remarks about six Democratic lawmakers who released of video encouraging military members to not follow illegal orders.

Acclaimed playwright Tom Stoppard dies at 88

Tom Stoppard is remembered as a playwright whose wit and curiosity reshaped modern theater.

Experts say strict new FDA protocol for vaccine approval is ‘dangerous and irresponsible’

Lead FDA vaccine regulator announced new approval process after claiming Covid vaccine had killed 10 children

The leading vaccine regulator at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced a far stricter course for federal vaccine approvals, following claims from his team that Covid vaccines were linked to the deaths of at least 10 children.

Experts suggest the announcement will make the vaccine approval process significantly more difficult.

Officials told to pause all asylum decisions in wake of National Guard shooting

The Trump administration on Friday directed officials to pause all asylum decisions in the wake of the shooting of two National Guard soldiers in Washington, D.C.

Radical Reeves? The chancellor’s mansion tax is a small but brave step forward | Phillip Inman

The high-value council tax surcharge may only raise £400m but it’s the best opportunity for a bigger, fairer tax on wealth

Rachel Reeves won little credit last week for lifting the lid on one of the most heated tax debates of the past three decades.

Who in their right mind would consider engaging in the fight that would inevitably lead to some of the richest people in the land calling for your head?

White House blasts Boston Globe, CBS News and The Independent for coverage of 'illegal orders' video

Last week, six Democrats with military or national security experience, released a video reminding service members they have the right to refuse illegal orders.

Trump keeps insulting female journalists | Arwa Mahdawi

Trump has a disconcerting tendency to attack the press – but especially female reporters, whom he holds in particular ire

There was a time when it would have been a scandal for the president of the United States to call a journalist “ugly” or a politician “retarded”. Now it’s just another day in America. During a holiday when many Americans were gathering with family and reflecting on what they were grateful for, Trump was crouched over his keyboard slinging insults at his perceived enemies.

On Thanksgiving day, for example, Trump posted a rant on Truth Social about immigration. He called Tim Walz, the governor of Minnesota, an ableist slur, and then made an Islamophobic jab at “the worst ‘Congressman/woman’ in our Country, Ilhan Omar, always wrapped in her swaddling hijab”.

Your Party conference thrown into chaos as Zarah Sultana boycotts first day

Sultana skips Saturday’s proceeding in solidarity with delegates expelled over links to other parties

Zarah Sultana has boycotted the first day of Your Party’s inaugural conference, throwing the party’s first official gathering into chaos amid disagreements with co-founder Jeremy Corbyn over how the party should be run.

Corbyn confirmed to journalists on Saturday that he preferred a single leader and is likely to stand for the role but Sultana said she would vote for collective leadership and that she did not believe parties should be run by “sole personalities”.

How big tech is creating its own friendly media bubble to ‘win the narrative battle online’

At a time when distrust of big tech is high, Silicon Valley is embracing an alternative ecosystem where every CEO is a star

A montage of Palantir’s CEO, Alex Karp, and waving US flags set to a remix of AC/DC’s Thunderstruck blasts out as the intro for the tech billionaire’s interview with Sourcery, a YouTube show presented by the digital finance platform Brex. Over the course of a friendly walk through the company offices, Karp fields no questions about Palantir’s controversial ties to ICE but instead extolls the company’s virtues, brandishes a sword and discusses how he exhumed the remains of his childhood dog Rosita to rebury them near his current home.

“That’s really sweet,” host Molly O’Shea tells Karp.

Louisiana prison "father-daughter dance" restores family bonds behind bars

The prison picked nearly 30 inmates to participate in the "father-daughter" dance at the Louisiana State Penitentiary.

Hangovers and skullets: welcome to schoolies week 2025

The rite of passage for many Australian teenagers at Surfers Paradise has changed since the first party at Broadbeach in the 1970s

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It’s 9pm on Friday at Surfers Paradise and a DJ on the main beach is playing a club mix of Reel 2 Real’s I Like to Move It as teenage boys wearing sunglasses shuffle enthusiastically on the sand.

This is the last night of schoolies and it’s going to be large. The evening’s official costume theme is “good, evil, iconic”, which is open to wide interpretation. Someone is dressed as the Lorax, another as a Christmas tree.

Night falls over the beach

Zelenskyy faces ‘mini-revolution’ as Yermak’s fall reshapes Ukraine’s wartime power system

Exit of Zelenskyy’s most powerful aide could also have impact on Kyiv’s negotiating position in talks over ending war

Ukraine’s political system is bracing for a “mini-revolution” as the county’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, is forced to adapt to life without his closest adviser, chief enforcer and most loyal associate, Andriy Yermak, who resigned on Friday after his apartment was searched as part of a widening anti-corruption probe.

Yermak’s resignation could have tremendous consequences for domestic governance, as well as for Ukraine’s negotiating position in talks over ending the war with Russia, where he had served as the head of Ukraine’s delegation to peace talks with the White House.

These Zika mothers went to battle — and their cry was heard

After the Zika outbreak ended in Brazil, many families faced a new reality: a child whose life was irrevocably altered after the mother contracted the virus while pregnant. Here's what happened next.

Israel has ‘de facto state policy’ of organised torture, says UN report

Committee highlights allegations including dog attacks and sexual violence, raising concern about impunity for war crimes

Israel has “a de facto state policy of organised and widespread torture”, according to a UN report covering the past two years, which also raised concerns about the impunity of Israeli security forces for war crimes.

The UN committee on torture expressed “deep concern over allegations of repeated severe beatings, dog attacks, electrocution, waterboarding, use of prolonged stress positions [and] sexual violence”.

Impasse over EHRC single-sex spaces guidance ‘distracting from other issues’

Staff at human rights body said to be ‘desperate for regime change’ over inertia after court’s legal definition of a woman

The ongoing impasse over guidance from the UK’s human rights watchdog on access to single-sex spaces is distracting from other pressing issues, including the rise of the far right, insiders have told the Guardian.

Some members of staff at the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) are described as “desperate for regime change” ahead of the new chair, Mary-Ann Stephenson, taking up her post in December.

Toddler given just 3 years to live after strange symptoms makes full recovery

Meghan Jenkins' son was 2 years old when he was diagnosed with cancer in 2021. His prognosis was grim, but aggressive treatment saved his life.

Opinion: My kind of holiday song

NPR's Scott Simon explains why The Pogues' "Fairytale of New York" is a holiday song for those who have troubles and heartache.

Rage rooms: can smashing stuff up really help to relieve anger and stress?

Venues promoting destruction as stress relief are appearing around the UK but experts – and our correspondent – are unsure

If you find it hard to count to 10 when anger bubbles up, a new trend offers a more hands-on approach. Rage rooms are cropping up across the UK, allowing punters to smash seven bells out of old TVs, plates and furniture.

Such pay-to-destroy ventures are thought to have originated in Japan in 2008, but have since gone global. In the UK alone venues can be found in locations from Birmingham to Brighton, with many promoting destruction as a stress-relieving experience.

‘We had to swim to safety. I didn’t think we would make it out alive’: the people fleeing climate breakdown – in pictures

Photographers Mathias Braschler and Monika Fischer capture the families, farmers and fishers who have been forced to leave their homes by extreme weather – and the landscapes they left behind. Introduction by Dina Nayeri

In 2009, Swiss photographers Mathias Braschler and Monika Fischer set out to document the people suffering the first shocks of the climate crisis. They had just returned from China, where rapid, unregulated development has ravaged the natural landscapes. Back home, though, the debate still felt strangely theoretical. “In 2009, you still had people who denied climate change,” Braschler recalls. “People said, ‘This is media hype.’” So the couple, working with the Global Humanitarian Forum in Geneva and supported by Kofi Annan, began The Human Face of Climate Change, a portrait series that showed the people on the frontline of a warming world.

Sixteen years later, climate change is no longer up for debate; the urgent discussions now revolve around solutions. Braschler and Fischer, too, have shifted their focus. “This is going to be one of the central issues for humanity,” says Braschler, “and we want to make sure that people know that the major effect of climate change will be displacement.”

Pope's visit to Lebanon sparks hope but also frustration

As Pope Leo prepares to visit northern Lebanon, Christian border villages in the south feel abandoned and struggle to rebuild after the war with Israel.

Sarah Akinterinwa on surviving sickness season – cartoon

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Tom Gauld on ordering books online – cartoon

As the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season ends, the future of forecasting is AI

Meteorologists are surprised that the weather model that did the best job forecasting hurricanes this year was a new one, introduced by Google. AI may be the beginning of a new era of forecasting.

Where things stand with the National Guard shooting in D.C.

The Trump administration has halted the processing of immigration requests from Afghans, and D.C. police will accompany National Guard members patrolling the city.

‘If I was American, I’d be worried about my country’: Margaret Atwood answers questions from Ai Weiwei, Rebecca Solnit and more

Democracy, birds and hangover cures – famous fans put their questions to the visionary author

After the ­phenomenal global success, not to mention timeliness, of the TV adaptation of The Handmaid’s Tale in 2017, Margaret Atwood has been regarded as “a combination of figurehead, prophet and saint”, the author writes in her new memoir Book of Lives. Over 600 pages this “memoir of sorts” ranges from her childhood growing up in the Canadian backwoods to her grief at the death of her partner of 48 years, the writer Graeme Gibson, in 2019, with many friendships, the occasional spat and more than 50 books (including Cat’s Eye, Alias Grace and the Booker prizewinning The Blind Assassin and The Testaments) in between.

The author, who turned 86 last week, always likes to take the long view, often from a couple of centuries’ distance. As Rebecca Solnit notes below, she now has a long view of our times. Age and the freedom of being a writer (as she says, she can’t get sacked) make her fearless in speaking out.

What could be putting young women off marriage? It really isn’t that much of a mystery | Naoise Dolan

Survey data suggests more and more girls can’t imagine getting married, while their male counterparts are keener. That disparity holds a clue

According to recent data, marriages in England and Wales are down by nearly 9% after a post-pandemic spike, while civil partnerships have risen by almost the same percentage. This downward trend is also reflected in the US. The Vatican has piped up in defence of the institution, releasing a 40-page doctrinal note, Una Caro (One Flesh): In Praise of Monogamy: Doctrinal Note on the Value of Marriage as an Exclusive Union and Mutual Belonging. Sworn celibates would not be my personal first port of call when seeking relationship advice, but to each their own – exclusively and indissolubly, if the Catholic church is to be believed.

Among the younger crowd, gendered expectations about marriage are changing, at least according to a survey by the University of Michigan, which found that only 61% of high-school girls want to be married one day, compared to 74% of the boys. Perhaps this is behind the burgeoning genre of opinion pieces in which a rightwing man complains that women don’t want to date him. Often enough, he is an avowed libertarian, leaving it a mystery why he does not simply accept the workings of the free market.

Naoise Dolan is an Irish writer and the author of Exciting Times and The Happy Couple

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.

Revealed: Europe’s water reserves drying up due to climate breakdown

Exclusive: UCL scientists find large swathes of southern Europe are drying up, with ‘far-reaching’ implications

Vast swathes of Europe’s water reserves are drying up, a new analysis using two decades of satellite data reveals, with freshwater storage shrinking across southern and central Europe, from Spain and Italy to Poland and parts of the UK.

Scientists at University College London (UCL), working with Watershed Investigations and the Guardian, analysed 2002–24 data from satellites, which track changes in Earth’s gravitational field.

Blind date: ‘I hadn’t been on a date for nearly 15 years and it showed’

Sarah, 53, a psychologist, meets Russell, 61, a behaviour officer

What were you hoping for?
A romantic connection. Failing that, getting to know someone I might not otherwise have crossed paths with.

Preparing for (nuclear) winter: the Becky Barnicoat cartoon

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Stranger Things to Blue Moon: the week in rave reviews

The supernatural drama inches closer to the end, while Ethan Hawke fully encapsulates Lorenz Hart in Richard Linklater’s Broadway breakup drama. Here’s the pick of the week’s culture, taken from the Guardian’s best-rated reviews

Meera Sodha’s recipe for Christmas aubergine and rice timbale | Meera Sodha recipes

A stunning but simple festive vegetarian centrepiece for the whole table to enjoy

Last year I wrote about how I lost my food fandango, got it back, and now simplify matters, especially in the kitchen. This means I no longer do feasts with lots of elements, even at Christmas, but I still adore a showstopper, especially one that the whole table, irrespective of dietary requirements, can enjoy together. This year’s offering is such a centrepiece, an aubergine timbale (timbale means drum) packed to the gunnels with vegetables, rice, nuts, fruit, spices and, should you wish it (you should), one of the finest cheeses to come out of Normandy: Boursin.

Celebrity crib sheet: Katy Perry has spent all year in the headlines – here are the six things you need to know

She made a short, and much-ridiculed, trip to space. She tried to buy a house and fell foul of public opinion. And she’s found love, apparently, with Justin Trudeau. Time to get up to speed before this singer next hits the headlines

Do you ever feel like a plastic bag, drifting through the wind, wanting to start again? No? Just Katy Perry then. Seven months since her sense-defying jaunt into space, life on planet Earth hasn’t let up for the embattled hitmaker. She’s back in the headlines this week, implied to be raiding the pockets of a “disabled veteran” while facing scrutiny for her somewhat inexplicable new romance with Justin Trudeau. Yes, that Justin Trudeau. Shall we?

1. Perry wins in court, but loses online
By one metric, such as “relative to the rest of 2025”, this might have been a good week for Katy Perry. Since 2020, she has been embroiled in a legal battle against Carl Westcott, who sold her an eight-bedroom, 11-bathroom mansion in Montecito for $15m. Westcott then attempted to renege on the deal, claiming to have been incapacitated by painkillers (prescribed after a back operation) when signing the paperwork. A judge ruled in Perry’s favour in May last year, finding that Westcott was sound of mind when the sale went through. This week, another judge ruled that Perry was owed $1.8m in damages. This sounds like a win, you might think – except Perry had pushed for Westcott to pay $4.7m, and it’s been widely written up as Perry money-grubbing from an “85-year-old disabled veteran”. To give military.com’s headline, from earlier in the dispute in 2023: “Katy Perry Is Fighting a Dying, Elderly Veteran to Force Him to Sell His Home.” It is true that Westcott served in the 101st Airborne Division, is 85 years old and seriously ill with incurable Huntington’s disease. But the insistent framing may say more about Perry’s unenviable position as pop culture’s preferred punching bag.

What is an autopen and why can’t Trump stop talking about it?

The first autopen was patented in the 1800s and has been used by many American presidents

On Friday, Donald Trump claimed that he will reverse everything that Joe Biden has signed with an autopen.

The automated signature machine has been a tool used by presidents at the White House for decades.

National Guard member killed in D.C. remembered as someone who "liked to laugh"

Army Spc. Sarah Beckstrom worked for behavioral health agency, Seneca Health Services, as a community engagement specialist before her deployment.

Trump says he will pardon former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez

In March of last year, Juan Orlando Hernandez was convicted in U.S. court of conspiring to import cocaine into the U.S. He had served two terms as the leader of the Central American nation of roughly 10 million people.

Suspect in custody after U.S. man killed in Tobago, police say

A local police report identified the victim as Christopher Brown, a builder from Colorado.

The week around the world in 20 pictures

The Hong Kong tower block fire, Russian drone strikes in Kharkiv, floods in Thailand and Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York: the past seven days as captured by the world’s leading photojournalists

The Guardian view on Ukraine peace talks: Putin is taking Trump for another ride on the Kremlin carousel | Editorial

Russia’s president is only interested in a deal on Moscow’s terms. Equipping Kyiv with the resources to fight on is the quickest route to a just settlement

As Donald Trump’s Thanksgiving Day deadline for a Ukraine peace agreement came and went this week, the Russia expert Mark Galeotti pointed to a telling indicator of how the Kremlin is treating the latest flurry of White House diplomacy. In the government paper Rossiyskaya Gazeta, a foreign policy scholar close to Vladimir Putin’s regime bluntly observed: “As long as hostilities continue, leverage remains. As soon as they cease, Russia finds itself alone (we harbour no illusions) in the face of coordinated political and diplomatic pressure.”

Mr Putin has no interest in a ceasefire followed by talks where Ukraine’s rights as a sovereign nation would be defended and reasserted. He seeks the capitulation and reabsorption of Russia’s neighbour into Moscow’s orbit. Whether that is achieved through battlefield attrition, or through a Trump-backed deal imposed on Ukraine, is a matter of relative indifference. On Thursday, the Russian president reiterated his demand that Ukraine surrender further territory in its east, adding that the alternative would be to lose it through “force of arms”. Once again, he described Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s government as “illegitimate”, and questioned the legally binding nature of any future agreement.

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.

The Guardian view on Turner and Constable: radical in different ways | Editorial

Capturing the changing landscapes of the 18th century, the rivals transformed British art. The climate emergency gives new urgency to their work

JMW Turner appears on £20 notes and gives his name to Britain’s most avant garde contemporary art prize. John Constable’s work adorns countless mugs and jigsaws. Both are emblematic English artists, but in the popular imagination, Turner is perceived as daring and dazzling, Constable as nice but a little bit dull. In a Radio 4 poll to find the nation’s favourite painting, Turner’s The Fighting Temeraire – which even features in the James Bond film Skyfall – won. Constable’s The Hay Wain came second. Born only a year later, Constable was always playing catch-up: Turner became a member of the Royal Academy at 27, while Constable had to wait until he was 52.

To mark the 250th anniversary of their births, Tate Britain is putting on the first major exhibition to display the two titans head to head. Shakespeare and Marlowe, Mozart and Salieri, Van Gogh and Gauguin – creative rivalries are the stuff of biopics. Mike Leigh’s 2014 film shows Turner (Timothy Spall) adding a touch of red to his seascape Helvoetsluys to upstage Constable’s The Opening of Waterloo Bridge at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition of 1832. Critics delighted in dubbing them “Fire and Water”. The enthralling new Tate show is billed as a battle of rivals, but it also tells another story. Constable’s paintings might not have the exciting steam trains, boats and burning Houses of Parliament of Turner’s, but they were radical too.

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.

‘Sexy and a little daring, but never too much’: sheer skirts hit the sweet spot

If ‘naked dressing’ is a stretch too far, sheer fabrics can provide a real-life friendly compromise

Fashion loves nothing more than an extreme trend, one difficult to imagine transferring to most people’s everyday lives. See naked dressing, where stars on the red carpet wear transparent and sometimes barely there gowns.

This party season, however, there appears to be a real-life friendly compromise. Enter the sheer skirt.

These two products sold at Walmart have been recalled over safety concerns

A tabletop camping stove sold by Walmart and children's helmets sold by Walmart and Amazon.com are under recall.

Down on dating? Here are five couples who fell in love this year

From ICU meet-cutes to holiday sparks, readers share the unexpected moments that brought them lasting love this year

Ask someone who is single about their dating life, and the answer might sound like Oliver singing “Where is love?”

According to the headlines, nobody knows how to flirt, dating is dead, sex is over, and so is love.

Virginia Giuffre’s sons deny unsigned document is their mother’s will

After Jeffrey Epstein abuse victim died intestate, sons reject claim that documents presented by her lawyer and carer represent her final intentions

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An unsigned will has emerged as the crux of the battle over the estate of Virginia Giuffre, one of the most prominent victims of disgraced US financier Jeffrey Epstein.

Details of the document surfaced on Friday as hearings began in Western Australia’s supreme court, where her sons, her longtime lawyer and her former carer are all vying for control of the assets.

The warehouse real estate sector is seeing a rebalance. Here's what to watch for

After a pandemic-driven surge and subsequent pullback, warehouse real estate supply and demand is finally starting to come into balance.

New film adaptation of Camus’s L’Étranger opens old colonial wounds

François Ozon’s handling of classic novel draws both praise and criticism, including from the author’s daughter

More than 80 years after it was published, Albert Camus’s L’Étranger remains one of the most widely read and fiercely contested French books in the world.

Until now, few attempts have been made to adapt the novel, published in English as The Outsider, for television or cinema: it is considered problematic and divisive for its portrayal of France’s colonisation of Algeria.

Fewer one night stands, more AI lovers: the data behind generation Z’s sex lives

Shaped by lockdown and two Trump presidencies, gen Z are grappling with a lot in love, dating and the bedroom

The sex lives of gen Z are of great interest – to politicians, to parents, to influencers and dating app executives and to you, apparently. Are gen Z so lonely they are falling in love with AI robots? Are they forming polycules across the US? Are they having enough sex? Are they having sex at all?

Gen Z is defined roughly as young Americans aged 13 to 28. This generation came of age with information about sex readily available to them, for better (the internet provides both sex education and community) and arguably for worse, too (in 2022, 54% of US teens reported first seeing online pornography at age 13 or younger). They are more likely to embrace non-traditional identities and are progressive on issues such as abortion rights and same-sex marriage – especially gen Z women.

Stock futures resume trading after a halt caused by 'cooling issue' at data center

A technical problem obstructed futures trading at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange in the early hours of Friday morning.