The 15 US gifts to give the women in your life

From a silk sleep mask to Google’s smart speaker, here are the sentimental and practical presents for your mom, sister, wife or friend

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

If you’ve got a lucky lady in your life – be it a partner or a family member – chances are you’ve already racked your brain trying to choose the perfect holiday gift. Maybe you’re close to giving the tried-and-true beauty product she already orders on repeat, or yet another fleece throw to add to the growing pile on the couch. Don’t give in. This season calls for something a little more out of the (gift) box.

To shop for your favorite woman, think not only about what they already use, but what they’ve mentioned they’ve wanted in passing. Everyone scores peppermint bark-flavored brownie points around the holidays for proving they actually listen.

Published: November 27, 2025, 3:15 pm

Eating Thanksgiving dinner at dinnertime is ludicrous. Here’s why | Dave Schilling

Dining at 3pm allows for an ideal holiday schedule. Let’s retire the term ‘dinner’ from our Thanksgiving lexicon

Without question, my favorite holiday is Thanksgiving. I relish the opportunity to appreciate all the wonderful things about life. I also love that it is simultaneously a holiday all about complaints, criticism and arguments. Every holiday should contain such multitudes. I might be feeling grateful for my blessings while also wishing the gravy had more salt in it. There’s something uniquely American about turning a holiday that’s meant to be a joyous celebration of abundance into a chance to vehemently disagree about something trivial.

Of course, I love arguing about trivial things. In fact, that might be what I’m most grateful for. Thanksgiving traditions are fertile ground for arguments. What to eat and, even more crucially, when to eat. Every year, someone in your life – a family member, friend, know-it-all writer – will tell you they have settled the eternal debate about when to commence Thanksgiving dinner. Some (wrong) people think the word “dinner” should be taken literally, in the American sense. These strict constitutionalists can see no nuance in the holiday traditions and believe (falsely) that the meal should begin between 5pm and 7pm, when it’s properly dark outside.

Dave Schilling is a Los Angeles-based writer and humorist

Published: November 27, 2025, 1:00 pm

NFL on Thanksgiving: Lions v Packers updates before Cowboys v Chiefs – live

• Week 13: Detroit v Green Bay from 6pm GMT, 1pm local

• Dallas v Kansas City starts at 9.30pm GMT, 3.30pm local

Lions 0-3 Packers 4:01, 1st quarter

That sack Goff didn’t take on 3rd down in the previous drive, he just took it on this one. Green Bay’s defensive line is dominating so far. Micah Parsons and Kingsley Enagbare share the QB takedown. Punt.

Published: November 27, 2025, 8:35 pm

Face transplants promised hope. Patients were put through the unthinkable

Twenty years after the first face transplant, patients are dying, data is missing, and the experimental procedure’s future hangs in the balance

In the early hours of 28 May 2005, Isabelle Dinoire woke up in a pool of blood. After fighting with her family the night before, she turned to alcohol and sleeping tablets “to forget”, she later said.

Reaching for a cigarette out of habit, she realized she couldn’t hold it between her lips. She understood something was wrong.

Published: November 27, 2025, 11:00 am

‘Adults think with their mouths open’: five modern aphorisms to help us make sense of 2025

In his new book The World in a Phrase, author James Geary shares aphorisms from David Byrne, James Baldwin and more that speak to the modern day

When it comes to aphorisms, the biggest hits are familiar: “a penny saved is a penny earned”, “a picture is worth 1,000 words”, the one about why teaching fishing is better than fish donations. These phrases have been around so long they can feel as old as language itself.

But aphorisms aren’t just historical artifacts. People regularly come up with new ones, and even if they haven’t come from the pen of Confucius or Emily Dickinson, they can shed light on the modern human experience with just a few words. In fact, “the aphorism is, in some ways, perfectly suited to the digital age: the oldest form of literature finds its ideal vehicle in the most modern short modes of communication,” writes James Geary in The World in a Phrase: A Brief History of the Aphorism.

Published: November 27, 2025, 3:00 pm

Facing burnout, she chased her dream of making pie - and built an empire: ‘Pie brings us together’

She left Silicon Valley to master pie, became Hollywood’s baker and now films its healing power

Thanksgiving may be a holiday steeped in myth and controversy – but there’s still something Americans largely agree on: there’s nothing wrong with the holiday’s traditional dessert. So says Beth Howard, expert pie maker, cookbook author, memoirist, and now documentary film-maker.

“No matter what, pie brings us together. Pie is love,” says Howard, who never tires of talking about anything with a flaky crust and filling. She’s spent the last few months at community screenings – over 100 and counting – of her new documentary – Pieowa – that’s Pie + Iowa (her home state). The film chronicles the history of pie and how it brings people together. It’s full of church ladies, blue ribbon winners, home bakers, expert pie makers and cyclists, which is where Iowa comes in.

Pieowa is now screening in Iowa and across the US, find out more info at https://theworldneedsmorepie.com/pieowa/

2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour (plus approximately 1/2 cup more for rolling)

1/2 cup butter, chilled

1/2 cup vegetable shortening or lard

1/2 tsp salt

Ice water (fill one cup but use only enough to moisten dough)

3lbs Granny Smith apples, peeled (approx. 7 or 8 apples depending on size)

*It’s also okay to use a variety of apples. Try Braeburn, Jonathan and Gala. Avoid Fuji or Delicious as they’re too juicy and not tart enough.

3/4 cup sugar (or more, depending on your taste or tartness of apples)

4 tablespoons flour (to thicken the filling)

1/2 teaspoon salt (you’ll sprinkle this on so don’t worry about precise amount)

1 to 2 teaspoons cinnamon (or however much you like)

1 tablespoon butter (put dollop on top before covering with top crust)

1 beaten egg (you won’t use all of it, just enough to brush on pie before baking)

Published: November 27, 2025, 3:00 pm

Suspect in Washington DC national guard shooting had ties to CIA, agency confirms

Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, worked with agency-backed military units during US war in Afghanistan

• Washington DC national guard shooting: what we know so far

The suspected shooter of two national guard members in Washington DC on Wednesday worked with CIA-backed military units during the US war in Afghanistan, the agency has confirmed.

The alleged gunman, identified as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, came to the US in September 2021 under an Operation Allies Welcome program that gave some Afghans who had worked for the US government entry visas to the US. He was granted asylum in April this year, under the Trump administration, Reuters reported.

Published: November 27, 2025, 8:34 pm

Hong Kong police say unsafe scaffolding and foam may have spread fire that killed at least 83

Three construction employees arrested as firefighters battle to reach trapped people, with more than 250 still missing

• Hong Kong fire – latest updates

• How the fire unfolded – visual guide

Hong Kong police have alleged unsafe scaffolding and foam materials used during maintenance work may have been behind the rapid spread of a devastating fire at a group of residential tower blocks that has killed at least 83 people and left more than 250 missing.

Firefighters were still battling to reach people who could be trapped on the upper floors of the Wang Fuk Court housing complex on Thursday due to the intense heat and thick smoke generated by the fire. Late in the day, a survivor was rescued from a stairway on the 16th floor of one of the towers, the South China Morning Post reported.

Published: November 27, 2025, 4:45 pm

Putin insists Ukraine has to surrender territory for any deal to be possible

Russian president says latest draft peace plan ‘can be basis for future agreements’ if Kyiv gives up unspecified areas

Vladimir Putin has said that the outline of a draft peace plan discussed by the US and Ukraine could serve as a basis for future negotiations to end the war – but insisted Ukraine would have to surrender territory for any deal to be possible.

“In general, we agree that this can be the basis for future agreements,” Putin said, noting that the version of the plan discussed by Washington and Kyiv in Geneva had been shared with Moscow.

Published: November 27, 2025, 6:12 pm

Palestinian-American teenager held in Israeli prison freed after nine months

Israeli soldiers had taken Mohammed Ibrahim from his home in a night raid when he was only 15 years old

A 16-year-old American citizen was freed on Thursday after spending nine months in an Israeli prison.

Mohammed Ibrahim, a Palestinian-American teenager from Florida whose case was first exposed by the Guardian in July, was released following a guilty plea and suspended sentence, according to his family. Relatives said he was taken to a hospital for intravenous therapy and blood work immediately after his release, and noted he is severely underweight, pale and is still suffering from scabies contracted during his detention. Ibrahim had lost a quarter of his body weight in detention, his family said.

Published: November 27, 2025, 3:04 pm

Florida professor may have solved mystery of Peru’s Band of Holes

Charles Stanish surmised indentations were rudimentary market place and later adapted as accounting and storage system

A Florida archaeologist’s decades-long persistence has helped solve one of Peru’s most puzzling geographical conundrums: the origin and purpose of the so-called Band of Holes in the country’s mountainous Pisco Valley.

Charles Stanish, professor of archaeology at the University of South Florida, and an expert on Andean culture, spent years studying the more than 5,200 curious hillside shallow pits known to local residents as Monte Sierpe - serpent mountain.

Published: November 27, 2025, 5:01 pm

Fuzzy Zoeller, two-time major winner haunted by racist Tiger Woods joke, dies aged 74

• Masters champion in 1979 and US Open winner in 1984

• Post-career reputation marred by remarks about Woods

• Trump pays tribute to ‘remarkable person and player’

Fuzzy Zoeller, the two-time major champion whose genial public persona was overshadowed by a racially insensitive joke about Tiger Woods that came to define the latter part of his career, has died aged 74.

No cause of death was immediately available. Brian Naugle, tournament director of the Insperity Invitational in Houston and a longtime colleague, said Zoeller’s daughter notified him of the death on Thursday.

Published: November 27, 2025, 7:13 pm

Venezuela bans six international airlines as tensions with US escalate

Carriers accused of joining ‘actions of state terrorism promoted by US’ after they suspended flights to Venezuela

Venezuela has banned six international airlines, accusing them of “state terrorism” after the carriers suspended flights to the country following a warning from the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

Venezuela’s civil aviation authority announced late on Wednesday that Spain’s Iberia, Portugal’s Tap, Colombia’s Avianca, Chile and Brazil’s Latam, Brazil’s Gol and Turkish Airlines would have their operational permits revoked for “joining the actions of state terrorism promoted by the United States government and unilaterally suspending air commercial operations”.

Published: November 27, 2025, 6:38 pm

Robert AM Stern, architect dubbed ‘King of Central Park West’, dies aged 86

Stern, credited with designing 15 Central Park West, sought to design buildings that invoked pre-war splendor

Robert AM Stern, an architect who fashioned the New York City skyline with buildings that sought to invoke pre-war splendor but with modern luxury fit for billionaires and movie stars, has died at the age of 86.

Dubbed “The King of Central Park West” by Vanity Fair, Stern was credited with designing 15 Central Park West that, in 2008, was credited as being the highest-priced new apartment building in the history of New York.

Published: November 27, 2025, 8:35 pm

US midwest and north brace for storm as nearly 82m people travel for holidays

Several flights are delayed and parts of Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan could see six to 10 inches of snow

Parts of the US midwest and the Great Lakes region are bracing for a strong storm this weekend, as an estimated 82 million Americans travel to gather in celebration of Thanksgiving.

Some parts of the country are expecting cold, snowy conditions, and the weather has already caused some travel delays. On Thursday morning more than 800 flights were already delayed, most in the northern states.

Published: November 27, 2025, 6:55 pm

US will no longer commemorate World Aids Day, reports say

State department has told employees and grant recipients to not publicly promote or make event on 1 December

For the first time since 1988, the US government will no longer commemorate World Aids Day, according to reports.

The state department has directed its employees and grant recipients not to use US government funds to mark the event – which falls annually on 1 December – and not to promote the day publicly. The news was first reported by the journalist Emily Bass and confirmed in an email viewed by the New York Times.

Published: November 27, 2025, 6:01 pm

National guard shooting will likely make Trump crack down even harder

The attack makes the troops’ Washington DC exit less likely and offers a convenient data point for rightwing narratives

“Washington DC is considered a safe zone,” Donald Trump declared on Tuesday, veering off topic at the national Thanksgiving turkey pardoning ceremony at the White House. “This was one of the most unsafe places anywhere in the United States. It is now considered a totally safe city.”

A day later, two national guardsmen from West Virginia were shot in a busy area a few blocks from the White House in downtown Washington. The ambush took place outside the Farragut West Metro railway station within sight of the Guardian’s office (I had been in the station three hours earlier and witnessed national guard troops milling around).

Published: November 27, 2025, 11:00 am

Denmark sets up ‘night watch’ to monitor Trump after Greenland row

US president’s threat to seize territory prompts intelligence briefings reminiscent of Game of Thrones patrol

The Danish government has set up a “night watch” in the foreign ministry, not to keep out the wildlings and White Walkers like the Night’s Watch of Game of Thrones, but rather to monitor Donald Trump’s pronouncements and movements while Copenhagen sleeps.

The night watch starts at 5pm local time each day and at 7am a report is produced and distributed around the Danish government and relevant departments about what was said and took place, the Politiken newspaper reported.

Published: November 27, 2025, 1:14 pm

South Africa hits back at ‘punitive’ Trump move to bar it from G20 meeting in Florida

Diplomatic row worsens after US president says member state will not be invited to 2026 summit

Donald Trump has said that South Africa will not be invited to G20 events in the United States when it presides over the forum next year, a measure the African nation described as “punitive”.

The US president repeated widely discredited claims that South Africa is “killing white people”, extending a diplomatic row between the countries after the US boycotted the summit in Johannesburg last weekend.

Published: November 27, 2025, 9:50 am

Macy’s Annual Thanksgiving Day Parade 2025: in pictures

The 99th annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, one of the largest in the world, dazzled crowds in Manhattan, New York, on Thursday. Thirty-two balloons, three giant balloons, 27 floats, four special units, 33 clown groups, 11 marching bands, performance groups, and music stars parade to welcome ‘Santa Claus and the holiday season’

Published: November 27, 2025, 7:04 pm

ICE detains Texas father as son’s health declines: ‘Don’t forget about me’

Maher Tarabishi was arrested at a routine visit despite decades in the US, leaving his son with Pompe disease

A 62-year-old father named Maher Tarabishi visited the ICE field office in Dallas, Texas, on 28 October as he has done each year for 17 years. Tarabishi, originally from Jordan, is in the US on a supervision order. Even though his asylum claim was denied, the US government allowed him to remain in the country because he is the primary caretaker for his son, Wael, who was diagnosed at four years old with a progressive muscle disorder called Pompe disease.

Tarabishi’s mandatory annual visits to ICE were never eventful; he’d arrive, an official might ask about Wael’s condition, and then he would leave. This time was different.

Published: November 27, 2025, 3:00 pm

‘Nature feeds us more than it floods us’: Asheville after-school program teaches kids to forage

In the wake of Hurricane Helene, No Taste Like Home aims to rebuild trust between students and the land

Juniper Stewart just turned 12. She wears a cropped orange sweater and her ginger curls in a bob. She used to like Taylor Swift, but now she’s more into the Cranberries and other indie rock.

Juniper also knows how to identify a Pilobolus mushroom, which grows on “cow poop”, according to Juniper. She can confidently harvest plantain leaf, a ubiquitous wild plant that’s tasty in salads and sautées, and useful as a poultice on stings and poison ivy. She has paper bags full of sourwood leaves drying at home to make tea, and she’s delighted by the fact that when you touch jewelweed seed pods, they explode.

Published: November 27, 2025, 1:00 pm

‘We like it a lot’: how Romania created the largest deposit return scheme in the world

In the two years since the system was launched, beverage-packaging collection and recycling has risen to 94%

In the Transylvanian village of Pianu de Jos, 51-year-old Dana Chitucescu gathers a sack of empty polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles, aluminium cans and glass every week and takes it to her local shop.

Like millions of Romanians across cities and rural areas, Chitucescu has woven the country’s two-year-old deposit return system (DRS) into her routine.

Published: November 27, 2025, 12:00 pm

Soft seat cushions, AirTags and travel adapters: 20 Black Friday deals that readers love the most

From a chef-approved spatula to steeply discounted JBL earbuds, here are the picks readers have been snagging like hotcakes

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

• The very best US Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals, curated and vetted

At this point, you don’t need me to tell you that Black Friday and Cyber Monday sale season is under way. We wanted you to enter the 2025 holiday sales season with a game plan, which is why we’ve already rounded up the best early Black Friday deals, shared strategies to avoid buyer’s remorse and put together a holiday gift guide of 163 items vetted by Guardian US staff and shopping experts.

And you must have all taken notes, because you’ve been buying the deals we’ve found. We’re learning that Guardian readers’ most frequently shopped items range from a chef-approved spatula to a steeply discounted pair of noise-cancelling headphones.

Published: November 27, 2025, 5:52 pm

You’re gonna need a bigger boat: the 20 best films set on water – ranked!

As L’Atalante is re-released, we count down the best movies set largely on ships, boats, barges, yachts, steamers and trimarans. Submarines banned, as they’re under water

Stephen Sommers’ sci-fi horror pulp follows a bunch of scene-stealing character actors playing mercenaries hired to destroy the cruise ship Argonautica for insurance purposes. But a giant mutant octopus has got there first! Among the potential cephalopod fodder are Treat Williams, Kevin J O’Connor, and Famke Janssen as a jewel thief.

Published: November 27, 2025, 1:26 pm

Peaches: ‘We need lube to smooth out the friction of the world’

The Canadian electroclash icon on No Lube So Rude, her first album in a decade, the state of global politics, the ‘punk energy’ of the older generation and her love of ping-pong

Why is your forthcoming album your first in over a decade and who is/are the “you” in comeback single Not in Your Mouth None of Your Business? k4ren123
I’ve been very busy – touring, working with dance troupes, performance art, sculptures, playing the lead role in a production of Bertolt Brecht’s The Seven Deadly Sins in Stuttgart, and on and on. Then, finally, I started on new music. The “you” in the single are people who feel they have the right to have autonomy over other people’s bodies and make it unsafe for people to be who they want to be. I’m especially talking about queer and mostly trans rights. The song’s like a mantra or chant, a way to empower people in only a few sentences.

As a fan of your concert costume design as much as your music, what can we expect from the upcoming tour? Kelechica
I was thinking about sustainability and went to a costume sale at the Berlin opera and bought a bunch of opera costumes. I’m working with Charlie Le Mindu, who is transforming them into weird new creations. In the video for Not in Your Mouth, I’m wearing my sister’s leather jacket. It’s just been the fifth anniversary of her passing, and I wanted to keep something of her, so I kept her leather jacket that she wore the crap out of since the 90s. So, in a way, she’ll be in the show.

Published: November 27, 2025, 3:00 pm

‘It was no longer a gift for my husband. It was all for me’: four women on how boudoir photography changed their lives

Now a hugely popular photographic genre, many women pay thousands to have intimate portraits taken of themselves by a professional. What do they get out of it?

A few hours into Brittany Witt’s boudoir shoot, with the mimosas kicking in and the music going strong, the photographer asked: “How do we feel about some completely nude photos?” Witt was lying on the bed in lingerie, in a studio in Texas, and hadn’t considered nudity an option. “I was like: ‘OK, we’re on this trust path.’” She undressed. The photographer, JoAnna Moore, covered Witt with body oil and squirted her with water, then asked her “to crawl across the floor with my full trust,” Witt says. “I did so. The pose was nude, and it was completely open. I wasn’t covered with a sheet. It was all out, it was all open, and it brought that worst level of self-doubt. I was terrified.”

Witt, 33, has come to see that terror as an important part of her experience. She used to be a competitive weightlifter. “I had a very masculine aura. I showed up in strength,” she says. At school and work – in the construction side of the oil and gas industry – she was “type A – scheduler, planner, had everything together, kind of led the group”. A turbulent home life when she was growing up led her to develop robust protection mechanisms which, in adulthood, acted as a block to relationships – issues she had been addressing with a life coach. But in that moment, on all-fours in Moore’s studio: “I felt those protections stripped away. There was nothing to hide behind, literally, figuratively.”

Published: November 27, 2025, 10:00 am

The US government ruins Thanksgiving: it’s a South Park holiday special

Idiotic US war secretary Pete Hegseth launches an attack on a turkey-based festivity in frustration at his inability to outsmart a buffoonish police detective. A wild season finale looms

Tonight’s South Park is something of a breather in what has been their most story-driven season (or seasons, as it turned out) ever. There is some advancement to the overriding plot of Donald Trump attempting to kill the unborn baby he’s expecting with his lover, Satan, before it can unleash the prophesied apocalypse – a plot that involves master manipulator (and new Trump sex partner) JD Vance and billionaire/self-proclaimed antichrist expert Peter Thiel (recently incarcerated by South Park’s finest for kidnapping Eric Cartman). But tonight’s instalment, Turkey Trot, focuses more on the goings-on in the titular town than in Washington DC.

As Thanksgiving approaches, South Park finds its annual holiday marathon in jeopardy. None of its regular sponsors – Stan Marsh’s Tegridy Weed Farms, recently shuttered, and City Asian Popup Store, beset by high tariffs – can afford to pay for it. Desperate for a solution, the town reaches out to the one entity that has plenty of money to spend in America: the kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Published: November 27, 2025, 12:31 pm

Zohran Mamdani is re-writing the political rules around support for Israel | Kenneth Roth

If support for Israel is no longer de rigueur in New York, it may soon not be obligatory in Washington. That is good news for Palestinians

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu should be quaking in his boots at the decisive victory of Zohran Mamdani in the 4 November New York City mayoral election. Not because of absurd allegations of antisemitism for which there is no evidence, but because Mamdani has broken the longstanding taboo for successful New York candidates against criticizing the Israeli government. And he has only reinforced his approach in the month since his election.

New York has the largest Jewish population in the United States – and the second-largest of any city in the world after Tel Aviv. The longstanding assumption was that many Jewish voters prioritized the defense of the Israeli government over other issues, so criticism of Israel would set them against a politician.

Published: November 27, 2025, 11:00 am

Food is medicine, and that’s a fact. Why we all need Native American foodways

Ecologically sound farming and land stewardship can change individual, collective and planetary health

Within Indigenous communities across North America and beyond, we have long known that food is medicine. This isn’t just theory; it’s fact. We understand that seasonal, regionally specific and culturally relevant foods are vital for nurturing, nourishing and healing both our people and our planet. And it’s high time we all embrace the Native American concept of food as medicine.

Our ancestral wisdom has ensured our survival for millennia, even in the face of unthinkable circumstances like colonialism, genocide and ongoing oppression. This ever-relevant knowledge will ensure our collective survival amid today’s unthinkable circumstances here in the United States, such as political instability, climate change and rising health issues.

Published: November 27, 2025, 2:00 pm

How Amazon turned our capitalist era of free markets into the age of technofeudalism | Yanis Varoufakis

Amazon Web Services owns the basic infrastructure for other businesses to operate online, turning even governments into its serfs. But now some people are fighting back

For the past six years, every Black Friday – that made-up carnival of consumption – Amazon workers and their allies have mobilised across the world in coordinated strikes and protests. At first glance, these disputes look like the standard struggle between a giant capitalist employer and the people who keep it running. But Amazon is no ordinary corporation. It is the clearest expression of what I call technofeudalism: a new economic order in which platforms behave like lords owning the fiefs that have replaced markets.

To appreciate Amazon’s extraordinary power, we must recall the system it is helping to bury. Capitalism relied on markets and profit. Firms invested in productive capital, hired workers, produced commodities and lived or died by profit and loss. But the emerging order is one in which the most powerful capitalist firms have exited that market altogether. They own the digital infrastructure that everyone else must use to trade, work, communicate and live.

Yanis Varoufakis is the leader of MeRA25 and the author of Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism

Published: November 27, 2025, 5:20 pm

I’m always on my phone, my girlfriend would rather communicate via woodland creatures. Somehow we make it work | Rebecca Shaw

She has read 57 books this year, whereas I have watched all of Selling Sunset. But we listen to each other – and enjoy it

There are some pretty big differences between me and my girlfriend. She is from Aotearoa, I’m from Queensland. She is 10 years younger than me. She loves Marmite and loathes Vegemite; I hold the reverse and correct opinion.

But probably our biggest difference is in our attitude to the internet. We are in what is called an offline/online gap relationship. She hates her phone so much. She treats it like a sometimes food, often has no idea where it is and, when she does have it, it’s not charged and has a haunted aura. In her dream world she wouldn’t have to own a phone and could just communicate via telepathy or little birds and woodland creatures passing occasional messages. Often her loved ones get in touch with her via me, and I often am messaging friends she is with to get a message to her.

Published: November 27, 2025, 2:00 pm

If Epstein’s survivors don’t receive justice that is a ticking time bomb | V (formerly Eve Ensler)

Millions of sexual violence survivors will not live a day longer with this torturous injustice

It began as I finished Nobody’s Girl, the torturous and devastating account of Virginia Giuffre’s life. It was what I can only describe as a kind of corporeal attack, an existential clutch followed by days of such powerful anxiety my body was taken in bouts of uncontrollable shaking. A sense of not mattering, a virulent dread and dissolving into an all-encompassing nothingness impossible to shake. How many times as a child, after being abused by my father, had I experienced this sense of erasure and disappearance?

Feeling that no matter what I did, what I accomplished, how hard I tried to lift my head above the parapet I would be cast out forever. This attack lasted days. Perhaps it was Virginia’s story, parts of which felt much like my own. Raped as a child by her father, then raped by her father’s good friend, then raped when she ran away, then the years of being raped by Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein, then being sexually trafficked to powerful and sadistic men to be raped again.

Published: November 26, 2025, 11:00 am

The Guardian view on city living: an urban species is still adapting to our new environment | Editorial

UN figures show that four-fifths of the global population now live in major settlements. We’re still figuring out how to cope

Cities have existed for millennia, but their triumph is remarkably recent. As recently as 1950, only 30% of the world’s population were urban dwellers. This week, a United Nations report suggested that more than 80% of people are now urbanites, with most of those living in cities. London became the first city to reach a million inhabitants in the early 19th century. Now, almost 500 have done so.

Jakarta, with 42 million residents, has just overtaken Tokyo as the most populous of the lot; nine of the 10 largest megacities are in Asia. The UN report revealed the scale of the recent population shift to towns and cities thanks to a new, standardised measure in place of the widely varying national criteria previously used. The urbanisation rate in its 2018 report was just 55%.

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

Published: November 27, 2025, 6:35 pm

The Super Bowl Shuffle at 40: how a goofy rap classic boosted the Bears’ title run

A new documentary charts how a song that featured a 335lb rapper and bad dancing went viral in the pre-internet era

The Chicago Bears are 8-3 and soaring in this season’s NFL standings. For a fanbase that’s grown accustomed to looking up at the division rival Green Bay Packers and looking ahead to the next season’s prospects, it’s reason to smell the roses and indulge in some light strutting. But even as fans find themselves looking forward to the Bears’ first playoff berth in five years, something that once seemed unthinkable with a second-year quarterback and a rookie head coaching helming a squad that managed only five wins last year, no fan is thinking the 2025 Bears have a Super Bowl run in them – not without a rap song to lay the marker down.

Before the 1985 edition of the Bears romped to victory in Super Bowl XX, they tempted fate by recording The Super Bowl Shuffle. Although the song only peaked at 41 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts, the accompanying video came to rival Michael Jackson’s Thriller for popularity as it popped up endlessly on TV during the Bears’ title run. “The Super Bowl Shuffle went viral in an age where there was no viral existence like we know it today,” the song’s recording engineer, Fred Breitberg, says. “It was a phenomenal entity as well as being a good record.”

Published: November 27, 2025, 10:00 am

Curry limps off with quad bruise in NBA Cup loss as Warriors brace for MRI

• Warriors star exits late in loss with bruised quad

• Team says MRI will determine severity of injury

Stephen Curry limped away from the bench late in Golden State’s 104-100 loss to the Houston Rockets on Wednesday night after bruising his right quadriceps.

He will undergo an MRI exam on the injury to determine his status.

Published: November 27, 2025, 2:06 pm

Champions League review: Arsenal erupt, PSV stun Liverpool and Benfica revive

Arsenal rout Bayern to stake a claim as Europe’s best, Liverpool spiral again, Benfica revive under Mourinho, and Estevão dazzles on a crowded week of stars

• Bayern Munich’s unbeaten run and claim to be the best team in European football were both punctured at the Emirates. Arsenal were rampant against an opponent who have handed them so much pain in the past. The Gunners opened the scoring through their habitual set-piece goal, Jurriën Timber fulfilling the role of the absent Gabriel Magalhães. Lennart Karl, the 17-year-old, showed off his chops with a fine goal; from within Bayern have found the player they desired when they were thwarted in moving for Florian Wirtz. After that, Declan Rice and Eberechi Eze took control in midfield, Noni Madueke and Gabriel Martinelli scoring the goals, the latter a humiliation of Manuel Neuer’s sweeper-keeper stylings. Amid the fug of the extended Champions League group-stage format, where matches between elite clubs are routine rather than novelty, this was still a statement victory. “I think they had an incredible match against, in my opinion, the best team in Europe,” Mikel Arteta said of his players. That status surely now lies with his team: Arsenal top the group-stage table with a 100% record.

Published: November 27, 2025, 12:46 pm

Lando Norris insists nothing has changed in title fight after Vegas shambles

• Leader lost valuable points after disqualification

• McLaren insist they did not take ‘excessive risk’

Lando Norris has insisted nothing has changed in terms of his focus on sealing his first Formula One world championship after both he and his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri were disqualified from the Las Vegas Grand Prix, a result that catapulted Red Bull’s Max Verstappen back into contention for the title. McLaren’s team principal, Andrea Stella, has denied the team took “excessive risks” with their car in Las Vegas.

The race in Nevada last weekend was won by Verstappen but Norris took a strong second and Piastri fourth. However, four hours afterwards, following an investigation by the FIA, both were disqualified after the skid blocks on the floor of their cars were found to have been worn down below the 9mm limit defined in the rules.

Published: November 27, 2025, 3:02 pm

Can Arne Slot revive this Frankenstein’s monster of a Liverpool side? | Barney Ronay

New players have come in, too many of them, and that has meant a dilution of the collective will instilled by Klopp

Before this game Arne Slot had announced that he was “almost confused”. Which does at least raise some tantalising questions. Mainly, what is this Liverpool team going to look like when he gets there, when a state of full confusion is finally attained, when even Slot’s confusion stops being confusing and reveals its diamond-cut final form.

Published: November 27, 2025, 6:30 am

Belfast youth football coach expelled after posting cocaine prices on league group chat

List detailed times and costs for ‘proper pure bags’ and specified cash payment

A Northern Ireland football club has removed a coach who posted an apparent menu of cocaine prices in a group chat for a youth league.

The list of prices for “proper pure bags” detailed times and meeting locations and specified cash payment.

Published: November 27, 2025, 1:26 pm

Molly McCann: ‘I’m a scouse female gay athlete who supports Everton – it’s like my cards are marked already’

Britain’s most successful female UFC fighter on knowing when to stand her ground, why she won’t box in Saudi Arabia and aiming to win a world title in the next year

“I give my hidings and I take my hidings and so they have seen me with snapped ligaments in my knee, broken feet, broken toes, broken hands, stitches, broken legs,” Molly McCann says of the damage she has endured as a fighter and the impact it has had on her mum and her partner, Fran Parman. “It’s traumatic for Fran and even more traumatic for my mum. I’m 35 and I’ve been in the gym since I was 12. I had my first fight at 16. I’ve spent most of my life fighting.”

McCann boxed as a teenager and she won an ABA title. But, at a time when women’s boxing was still undermined, she turned to mixed martial arts and eventually became the most successful female British fighter in the UFC. McCann retired in March after 14 savage UFC bouts; but, within days, she became a professional boxer. On Saturday night she will have her second contest in boxing’s paid ranks.

Published: November 27, 2025, 6:30 am

Pope Leo warns of risk from ‘piecemeal’ world war in first overseas trip

Leo welcomed by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as he begins six-day itinerary that will also include visit to Lebanon

A new world war is being fought “piecemeal” and is endangering the future of humanity, Pope Leo has warned, as he arrived in Turkey for his first foreign trip since becoming head of the Catholic church.

Speaking in Ankara, where he was welcomed on Thursday by the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Leo said the world was experiencing “a heightened level of conflict on the global level, fuelled by prevailing strategies of economic and military power”.

Published: November 27, 2025, 5:25 pm

Peru’s ousted ‘president of the poor’ gets 11-year sentence for rebellion

Pedro Castillo was sentenced by the supreme court for trying to disband Congress and rule by decree in 2022

Peru’s supreme court on Thursday sentenced the former leftwing president Pedro Castillo to 11 years, five months and 15 days in prison for trying to disband Congress and rule by decree in December 2022.

Labelled Peru’s first poor president, the former rural schoolteacher, who had never held elected office before winning the presidency, was impeached by Congress and jailed on the same day after his attempted power grab.

Published: November 27, 2025, 7:43 pm

US navy accused of cover-up over dangerous plutonium in San Francisco

Advocates allege navy knew levels of airborne plutonium at Hunters Point shipyard were high before it alerted officials

The US navy knew of potentially dangerous levels of airborne plutonium in San Francisco for almost a year before it alerted city officials after it carried out testing that detected radioactive material in November last year, public health advocates allege.

The plutonium levels exceeded the federal action threshold at the navy’s highly contaminated, 866-acre Hunters Point Naval Shipyard. It was detected in an area adjacent to a residential neighborhood filled with condos, and which includes a public park.

Published: November 27, 2025, 1:00 pm

Partisan X posts boost political polarisation among users, research finds

Study shows small changes to tone of posts in ‘for you’ feed increase unfavourable feelings towards political opponents

Small changes to the tone of posts fed to users of X can increase feelings of political polarisation as much in a week as would have historically taken at least three years, research has found.

A groundbreaking experiment to gauge the potency of Elon Musk’s social platform to increase political division found that when posts expressing anti-democratic attitudes and partisan animosity were boosted, even barely perceptibly, in the feeds of Democrat and Republican supporters there was a large change in their unfavourable feelings towards the other side.

Published: November 27, 2025, 7:00 pm

Celebrity Traitors star Ruth Codd recovering after second leg amputation

Irish actor, who had first amputation after football injury, reveals new wheelchair in TikTok video

The actor and The Celebrity Traitors star Ruth Codd has announced that she is recovering after a second leg amputation operation.

The 29-year-old Irish performer had her first amputation six years ago after injuring her foot playing football as a teenager, which led to years of surgeries and chronic pain.

Published: November 27, 2025, 3:09 pm

Arrest warrants issued for Miss Universe co-owners in latest twist in pageant saga

Raúl Rocha Cantú is under investigation for drug, gun and fuel trafficking while Jakkaphong Jakrajutatip is accused of fraud

This year’s edition of Miss Universe, with its onstage injuries, dramatic walkouts and allegations of vote rigging, was already one for the ages.

But it turns out the drama had barely begun: just days after Fátima Bosch was crowned Miss Universe in Thailand, the co-owners of the organisation are both facing arrest warrants.

Published: November 27, 2025, 2:39 pm

Soup firm Campbell’s dismisses executive over alleged ‘poor people’ comments

Senior figure allegedly referred to customers buying ‘highly processed food’ and denigrated Indian employees

• Business live – latest updates

Campbell’s has dismissed an executive who allegedly referred to the soup company’s products as being made for “poor people” and denigrated its Indian employees.

Martin Bally, who was the vice-president of Campbell’s information technology department, was recorded making the alleged comments by another employee.

Published: November 27, 2025, 2:27 pm

Wild turkeys off the menu in Maine after ‘forever chemicals’ found in birds

Contamination of wildlife with Pfas, which can increase risk of cancer, a growing problem in US

Hunters in Maine have been warned not to eat wild turkeys in parts of the state, after the birds were found to contain “forever chemicals” that can cause an increased risk of cancer.

Maine officials warned that high levels of Pfas – per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances – have been detected in wild turkey and deer killed and harvested in areas in the south-west of the state.

Published: November 27, 2025, 11:00 am

Mark Carney reaches deal with Alberta for oil pipeline opposed by First Nations

Prime minister says deal ‘sets the state for an industrial transformation’, but project is likely to face wide opposition

Mark Carney has agreed an energy deal with Alberta centred on plans for a new heavy oil pipeline reaching from the province’s oil sands to the Pacific coast, a politically volatile project that is expected to face stiff opposition.

“It’s a great day for Alberta and a great day for Canada,” the prime minister said on Thursday as he met the Alberta premier, Danielle Smith. He said the agreement “sets the state for an industrial transformation” and involved not just a pipeline, but nuclear power and datacentres. “This is Canada working,” he said.

Published: November 27, 2025, 6:05 pm

Cuddling capybaras and ogling otters: the problem with animal cafes in Asia

A boom in places offering petting sessions is linked to a rise in the illegal movement of exotic and endangered species, say experts

The second floor of an unassuming office building in central Bangkok is a strange place to encounter the world’s largest rodent. Yet here, inside a small enclosure with a shallow pool, three capybaras are at the disposal of dozens of paying customers – all clamouring for a selfie. As people eagerly thrust leafy snacks toward the nonchalant-looking animals, few seem to consider the underlying peculiarity: how, exactly, did this South American rodent end up more than 10,000 miles from home, in a bustling Asian metropolis?

Capybara cafes have been cropping up across the continent in recent years, driven by the animal’s growing internet fame. The semi-aquatic animals feature in more than 600,000 TikTok posts. In Bangkok, cafe customers pay 400 baht (£9.40) for a 30-minute petting session with them, along with a few meerkats and Chinese bamboo rats. Doors are open 12 hours a day, seven days a week.

Published: November 27, 2025, 6:00 am

Protests, tears and a baby: five key images that tell the story of Cop30

Emotions ran high at the UN climate summit in Brazil, which was hit by its first major protest in four years

It was a tense moment. A group of about 50 people from the Munduruku, an Indigenous people in the Amazon basin, had blocked the entrance to the Cop30 venue in protest, causing long lines of delegates to snake down access roads, simmering in the morning heat.

Published: November 26, 2025, 3:26 pm

John Kerry urges Australia to take ‘hard-nosed’ approach with world’s biggest fossil fuel-producing countries at Cop31

Exclusive: Former US secretary of state calls for more demanding steps from Australia as it takes over presidency of next year’s UN climate summit

• Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

Australia’s government, which will preside over the next UN climate summit, should gather the world’s 25 biggest greenhouse gas emitting countries and push them to draw up a roadmap to end the era of fossil fuels, former US secretary of state John Kerry has said.

Only by “hard-nosed” confrontation with fossil fuel producers, and reducing their consumption in major economies, would the world be able to tackle the climate crisis, he said.

Published: November 26, 2025, 4:00 pm

Estate of Johnny Cash suing Coca-Cola for using tribute act in advert

The company is being sued under the new Elvis act, which protects a person’s voice from exploitation without consent

The estate of Johnny Cash is suing Coca-Cola for illegally hiring a tribute act to impersonate the late US country singer in an advertisement that plays between college football games.

The case has been filed under the Elvis Act of Tennessee, made effective last year, which protects a person’s voice from exploitation without consent. The estate said that while it has previously licensed Cash’s songs, Coca-Cola did not approach them for permission in this instance.

Published: November 27, 2025, 10:30 am

‘Stay tuned’: new Anne Rice film could foretell release of unpublished work by late author

Documentary series of Interview with the Vampire writer available to stream with potential for further releases

The worst heartbreak and most riveting triumph of Anne Rice’s life happened in relatively quick succession, each beginning when the US novelist’s daughter – Michele, then about three – told her she was too tired to play.

Rice had never heard such a comment from a child that age, and subsequent blood tests ordered by a doctor revealed that her beloved “Mouse” had acute granulocytic leukemia, considered untreatable for her.

Published: November 27, 2025, 10:00 am

California prosecutors’ office used AI to file inaccurate motion in criminal case

Filing contained errors known as ‘hallucinations’, with attorneys arguing prosecutors’ office used AI in other cases

A California prosecutors’ office used artificial intelligence to file a motion in at least one criminal case, which contained errors known as “hallucinations”.

A prosecutor at the Nevada county district attorney’s office in northern California “recently used artificial intelligence in preparing a filing, which resulted in an inaccurate citation,” district attorney Jesse Wilson said in a statement to the Sacramento Bee. “Once the error was discovered, the filing was immediately withdrawn.”

Published: November 26, 2025, 10:00 pm

‘Traitor’: US representatives call for Trump envoy Witkoff to be fired after leaked Kremlin call

Republicans and Democrats warn Witkoff ‘cannot be trusted’ after reportedly advising officials on peace plan

A handful of US representatives have reacted furiously to a leaked recording in which the special envoy to Ukraine reportedly coached Moscow on how to handle Donald Trump, but most have so far remained mute on the revelation that American officials were advising a US adversary.

Don Bacon, a Republican representative, called for Steve Witkoff’s immediate dismissal. “For those who oppose the Russian invasion and want to see Ukraine prevail as a sovereign & democratic country, it is clear that Witkoff fully favors the Russians,” the Nebraska lawmaker wrote on X.

Published: November 26, 2025, 4:39 pm

‘There were eight of us, only two are alive’: the growing crisis of arsenic in Argentina’s water

In some of the country’s poorest, driest areas, people rely on water contaminated with arsenic 60 times over safe limits, causing crippling illnesses in families

It’s a cloudy winter’s day in El Chañaral, an old Indigenous Wichi community now inhabited only by the Bustamante family. It lies nine miles from San José del Boquerón and near Piruaj Bajo, in Argentina’s northern Copo department.

As Batista Bustamante and Lidia Cuellar drink mate tea, their seven-year-old daughter, Marcela, climbs on to her purple bicycle and heads into the scrubland. She reaches a reservoir – a puddle of greenish-brown water – and pulls a pink pair of scissors from her pocket, which she drives into the earth to extract chunks of mud.

Published: November 27, 2025, 2:00 pm

Experts warn of ‘global crisis’ as number of women in prison nears one million

Number of women incarcerated around the world rising at nearly three times the rate of men, with female prisoners often subjected to sexual violence and forced labour

• Explainer: How many women are in prison and on death row around the world? – in charts

Up to a million women worldwide are facing sexual violence and forced labour in prisons, where they are overlooked and forgotten, in what is being called a growing global crisis.

The number of incarcerated women is rising much faster than men and is expected to surpass one million on current trends. While on average women account for between 2% and 9% of national prison populations, since 2000 the number imprisoned has grown by 57%, compared with a 22% increase in the men’s prison population.

Published: November 27, 2025, 7:00 am

Italy’s rape law stalls as Matteo Salvini claims it could be used for ‘vendettas’

Parliament delays debate over law defining sex without consent as rape, after comments by far-right deputy PM

Italy’s parliament has delayed a debate over a landmark law that would define sex without consent as rape amid a rift within the ruling coalition.

The measure, the result of a rare pact between the far-right prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, and her main political opponent, the centre-left leader, Elly Schlein, passed in the lower house last week and had been expected to get final approval in the senate this week.

Published: November 27, 2025, 1:35 pm

Archaeologists say they have proof humans carved huge pits near Stonehenge

Research team uses range of novel methods and equipment to analyse ‘extraordinary’ Durrington pit circle

The presence of an extraordinary circle of yawning pits created by Neolithic people near Stonehenge has been proved thanks to a novel combination of scientific techniques, a team of archaeologists is claiming.

The architects of Stonehenge may have had the heavens in mind when they built the great stone monument in Wiltshire, but the team believes the makers of the Durrington pit circle were more interested in an underworld.

Published: November 27, 2025, 2:02 pm

Stranger Things season five review – this luxurious final run will have you standing on a chair, yelling with joy

The kids growing up might have changed this show’s appeal, but they manage to go out in a flame-throwing, bullet-dodging blaze of glory – while still being more moving than ever before

Time’s up for Stranger Things. The fifth and last season arrives almost three-and-a-half years after a fourth run that felt like a finale, not least because it seemed the kids had grown up. Having originally aped beloved 1980s films where stubbornly brave children avert apocalypse, the franchise now starred young adults and had adjusted plotlines and dialogue accordingly. Life lessons had been learned. Selves had been found. Adolescent anxieties – as personified by Vecna, the narky telekinetic tree-man who rules a parallel dimension adjacent to the humdrum town of Hawkins, Indiana – had been put aside.

But Stranger Things now belatedly returns, with the cast all visibly in their 20s. This is a problem. The whole point is that it’s fun to watch kids outrun monsters by pedalling faster on their BMX bikes, or ignoring their mum calling them to dinner because they’re in the basement with their school pals, drawing up plans to bamboozle the US military using pencils, bubblegum and Dungeons & Dragons figurines. If everyone looks old enough to have a studio apartment and a stocks portfolio, none of the above really flies.

Published: November 27, 2025, 1:01 am

Luigi: The Making and the Meaning by John H Richardson review – sympathy for a devil?

This nebulous study of Luigi Mangione veers close to romanticising him as a latter-day Robin Hood

On 5 December 2024, the New York Times ran the headline “Insurance CEO Gunned Down In Manhattan”. The newspaper then noted that Brian Thompson was “shot in the back in Midtown Manhattan by a killer who then walked coolly away”. The murder in broad daylight was indeed both cold and shocking. But many Americans had a different response: for those who had been denied health insurance or faced exorbitant healthcase costs, the news felt cathartic. Social media blew up. One post read: “All jokes aside … no one here is the judge of who deserves to live or die. That’s the job of the AI algorithm the insurance company designed to maximize profits on your health.”

Five days later, Luigi Mangione, a good-looking, 26-year-old University of Pennsylvania graduate with a master’s in computer science, was apprehended at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania. He awaits trial on federal and state charges of murder, with prosecutors seeking the death penalty. So who is Mangione? And what might have motivated the alleged crime? These are the questions John H Richardson attempts to answer in an investigation that explores broader themes, too.

Published: November 27, 2025, 9:00 am

The Beatles Anthology: the flammed together ‘new episode’ feels totally pointless

The TV equivalent of raiding a bare cupboard, the supposed extra hour here is cobbled together from previous DVD extras – but you can’t miss the tension between Harrison and McCartney

There’s no doubt that the arrival of The Beatles Anthology in 1995 was a big deal. The TV series was broadcast at prime time on both sides of the Atlantic, and ABC in the US even changed its name to ABeatlesC in its honour. The three accompanying albums (the first time the Beatles had allowed outtakes from their recording sessions to be officially released) sold in their millions. Its success helped kickstart the latterday Beatles industry, a steady stream of officially sanctioned documentaries, reissues, remixes, compilations and expanded editions, predicated on two ideas: that the Beatles’ archive contains fathomless bounty; and that the band’s story is so rich there’s no limit to the number of times it can fruitfully be retold in fresh light.

For a while, those ideas seemed to hold true, but recently, it’s been hard not to think the Beatles’ Apple Corps might be trying to feed an insatiable appetite for content from an increasingly bare cupboard. You can marvel at the highlights of Peter Jackson’s TV series Get Back and still wonder whether the director wasn’t stretching his material a little thin; whether nearly eight hours of it – plus a separate Imax film of the Beatles’ final live performance on the roof of Apple’s London HQ, and a reissue of the original 1970 Let It Be documentary – might have been rather too much of a good thing.

Published: November 26, 2025, 1:54 pm

After bringing back Rush Hour, which franchise might Trump resurrect next?

The president’s bizarre insistence that the dead Jackie Chan-Chris Tucker series should return resulted in a shock announcement this week. Maybe there’s more to come …

So far, Donald Trump’s control of the media has involved a lot more stick than carrot. Thanks to a combination of outbursts and indiscriminate legal threats, the powerful figures at the centre of a rapidly consolidating industry find themselves with little option but to bend to the president’s every demand. Unfortunately, what he’s demanding is Rush Hour 4.

Just a few days ago, this seemed like a weird overreach, like when Trump used a keynote speech at a McDonald’s to demand more tartare sauce on Filet-O-Fish sandwiches. But in this case it really happened. Trump told majority Paramount Skydance shareholder Larry Ellison that he wished someone would make Rush Hour 4, and now Rush Hour 4 is being made.

Published: November 26, 2025, 2:56 pm

Jimmy Kimmel: ‘Thankful that we only have five weeks left in this year’

Late-night hosts talked Trump’s rambling turkey pardoning speech and Paramount reviving Rush Hour 4 at his request

Late-night hosts recapped Donald Trump’s especially weird address at the annual Thanksgiving turkey pardon.

Published: November 26, 2025, 4:03 pm

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery review – Josh O’Connor excels in another deadpan delight

Daniel Craig is joined by a sparkling array of talent including O’Connor, Glenn Close and Josh Brolin in this latest murder mystery with a religious undercurrent

Rian Johnson’s delectable new Knives Out film is a chocolate box: mouthwateringly delicious on the first layer and … well, perfectly tasty on the second. Daniel Craig returns as private detective Benoit Blanc, in a slightly more serious mode than before, with not as many droll suth’n phrases and quirky faux-naif mannerisms, but rocking a longer hairstyle and handsomely tailored three-piece suit.

Blanc arrives at a Catholic church in upstate New York to investigate the sensational murder of its presiding priest, Monsignor Jefferson Wicks, a ferocious clerical alpha male played by Josh Brolin, thundering his reactionary views from the pulpit. (That “Monsignor” title can only be bestowed by the pope incidentally: presumably Benedict XVI or John Paul II, not milksop liberals like Francis or Leo XIV.) And prime suspect is the sweet-natured, thoughtful junior priest Father Jud Duplenticy, amusingly played by Josh O’Connor, who was upset by the Monsignor’s heartless attitudes and was caught on video threatening to cut him out of the church like a cancer. Atheist Blanc faces off with the young priest, a worldview culture-clash which leads to an extraordinary encounter with the Resurrection itself.

Published: November 26, 2025, 7:00 am

The Durutti Column: The Return of the Durutti Column review – fragile classic that echoes far beyond its time

(London)
The delicate experimentation of the band’s debut may not have chimed with the post-punk 1980s, but its durability makes this deluxe reissue thoroughly deserved

The Durutti Column’s debut album does not have an auspicious origin story. The band whose name it bore had split acrimoniously just before they were supposed to record it. Their guitarist Vini Reilly was so poleaxed by depression that he was virtually unable to leave his house: 12 different attempts were made to section him over the course of 1979. Believing that Reilly was “going to die”, Factory Records boss Tony Wilson intervened, buying him a new guitar, then suggested he visit a studio with the label’s troubled but visionary producer Martin Hannett as “an experiment”. The sessions were a disaster. Hannett ignored Reilly in favour of tinkering with a vast amount of cutting-edge electronic equipment he had brought with him. Reilly fitfully played something on the guitar, but eventually stormed out with the words: “I’m fucking sick of this.” He did not return.

Unaware that he was making an album, Reilly was “mortified” when Hannett handed over a finished product, and “absolutely hated” what he heard. The solitary upside, as he saw it, was his sense that it would never find a wider audience. The music on 1980’s The Return of the Durutti Column bore no relation to the workmanlike post-punk that the original band had contributed to the label’s compilation EP A Factory Sample, put together the previous year. (Although Reilly thought they were “complete and total rubbish”, too.) Grasping for comparisons, the music press likened it to the atmospheric jazz of the German label ECM and Reilly’s guitar playing to that of Mike Oldfield and the Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia – neither of them having much musical cachet in the post-punk world of 1980. Even a positive review in the NME suggested listeners would consider The Return of the Durutti Column “hippy noodling”.

Published: November 27, 2025, 2:49 pm

Beethoven & Brahms: Violin Concertos album review – as supple and coherent as ever as the ACO celebrates 50

Tognetti/Australian Chamber Orchestra
(ABC Classic)
Under Richard Tognetti the ACO has established itself as world-class and this 50th anniversary live recording of these two great concertos are a wonderful souvenir of a remarkable group

Over the past quarter of a century the Australian Chamber Orchestra has become a regular visitor to Europe, establishing itself as one of the world’s foremost chamber bands. The group was founded in 1975, and this pairing of perhaps the two greatest violin concertos in the repertory is being released to mark the ACO’s 50th birthday. The soloist and conductor in both works is Richard Tognetti, who has been the orchestra’s leader and artistic director for the past 35 years.

Both recordings are taken from concerts given in Sydney’s City Recital Hall, the Beethoven concerto in 2018, the Brahms last February. The close recorded sound very faithfully reproduces the intensely involving approach of the ACO when heard in the flesh, with its amalgam of modern playing techniques with the use of historical instruments (gut strings, period wind). For both concertos the orchestra’s permanent core of 20 players was more than doubled with guest instrumentalists from other Australian orchestras, but the suppleness and coherence of its textures are as persuasive as ever.

Published: November 27, 2025, 3:05 pm

A Particularly Nasty Case by Adam Kay audiobook review – a wayward doctor turns detective

Andy Serkis revels in his narration of the first murder mystery from the author of This Is Going to Hurt, which showcases Kay’s signature pitch-black humour

Dr Eitan Rose is stark naked in a gay sauna when he is called upon to perform CPR on an elderly man and fellow patron who is having a heart attack. When arriving paramedics ask Eitan for his details, he declines to give his real name, instead giving them the name of his work supervisor and nemesis, Douglas Moran. Eitan is a hard-partying consultant rheumatologist who has just returned to work after several months off following a mental health crisis, and who uses liquid cocaine secreted into a nasal inhaler to get through the working day.

When Moran dies in unexpected circumstances, Eitan suspects foul play and sets about finding the culprit. Soon he is performing illicit postmortems and impersonating a police detective so he can cross-examine a suspect. But when he tries to blow the whistle, his colleagues and the police decline to take his claims seriously. Eitan may work among medical professionals, but they are not above stigmatising a colleague diagnosed with bipolar disorder and taking his outlandish claims as evidence of his instability.

Published: November 27, 2025, 3:00 pm

Service by John Tottenham review – comic confessions of a grumpy bookseller

Working in a bookshop while failing to write a novel, the narrator admits to being a ‘living cliche’ in this bitter black comedy

“I had become a living cliche: the cantankerous bookseller,” the narrator declares a third of the way through John Tottenham’s debut novel. “No book or movie that included a scene set in a bookstore was complete without such a stock ‘character’.” That’s one way to pre-empt criticism, and Sean Hangland is just such a stock figure. Embittered, rude, apathetic, resentful of the success and happiness of others and intellectually snobbish, he’s a 48-year-old aspiring writer who makes ends meet, just about, working in an independent bookshop in a gentrifying part of LA.

He worries about turning 50 having made nothing of his life. He notes, lugubriously, that he barely seems to get any writing done and that – having no gift for plot, characterisation or prose – the novel he claims to be trying to produce will be lousy anyway. He keeps bumping into old friends whose books are being published by hip independent presses or who have acquired nice girlfriends, or both. His teeth are in bad shape.

Published: November 26, 2025, 9:00 am

T​he era-defining Xbox 360 ​reimagined ​gaming​ and Microsoft never matched it

Two decades on, its influence still lingers, marking a moment when gaming felt thrillingly new again

• Don’t get Pushing Buttons delivered to your inbox? Sign up here

Almost 20 years ago (on 1 December 2005, to be precise), I was at my very first video game console launch party somewhere around London’s Leicester Square. The Xbox 360 arrived on 22 November 2005 in the US and 2 December in the UK, about three months after I got my first job as a junior staff writer on GamesTM magazine. My memories of the night are hazy because a) it was a worryingly long time ago and b) there was a free bar, but I do remember that DJ Yoda played to a tragically deserted dancefloor, and everything was very green. My memories of the console itself, however, and the games I played on it, are still as clear as an Xbox Crystal. It is up there with the greatest consoles ever.

In 2001, the first Xbox had muscled in on a scene dominated by Japanese consoles, upsetting the established order (it outsold Nintendo’s GameCube by a couple of million) and dragging console gaming into the online era with Xbox Live, an online multiplayer service that was leagues ahead of what the PlayStation 2 was doing. Nonetheless, the PS2 ended up selling over 150m to the original Xbox’s 25m. The Xbox 360, on the other hand, would sell over 80m, neck and neck with the PlayStation 3 for most of its eight-year life cycle (and well ahead in the US). It turned Xbox from an upstart into a market leader.

Published: November 26, 2025, 3:00 pm

Kirby Air Riders review – cute pink squishball challenges Mario for Nintendo racing supremacy

Nintendo Switch 2; Bandai Namco/Sora/HAL Laboratory/Nintendo
It takes some getting used to, but this Mario Kart challenger soon reveals a satisfyingly zen, minimalist approach to competitive racing

In the world of cartoonish racing games, it’s clear who is top dog. As Nintendo’s moustachioed plumber lords it up from his gilded go-kart, everyone from Crash Bandicoot to Sonic and Garfield has tried – and failed – to skid their way on to the podium. Now with no one left to challenge its karting dominance, Nintendo is attempting to beat itself at its own game.

The unexpected sequel to a critically panned 2003 GameCube game, Kirby Air Riders has the pink squishball and friends hanging on for dear life to floating race machines. With no Grand Prix to compete in, in the game’s titular mode you choose a track and compete to be the first of six players to cross the finish line, spin-attacking each other and unleashing weapons and special abilities to create cutesy, colourful chaos.

Published: November 26, 2025, 10:00 am

Netflix crashes within minutes of releasing Stranger Things series five

Viewers unable to watch episodes of long-awaited final series on TV when the streaming service briefly froze

When Netflix crashed within minutes of releasing Stranger Things series five, it felt like a plot twist worthy of the sci-fi show itself.

Viewers were left unable to stream the opening episodes of the long-awaited final series, with many voicing their frustration on social media platforms.

Published: November 27, 2025, 8:53 am

God, gears and gun jewellery: Route 1 revisited – in pictures

Anastasia Samoylova took a photographic journey up the US east coast – and found herself in America’s unreconciled past just as much as its fragmented present

Published: November 27, 2025, 7:00 am

Apple TV series The Hunt postponed due to plagiarism allegations

French thriller starring Benoît Magimel has been accused of stealing its story from a 1976 action film

A new Apple TV thriller has been pulled from the schedules because of accusations of plagiarism. French drama The Hunt was due to be released on 3 December, but it has been hit by allegations of similarity to a 1976 film adaptation of a novel, Shoot.

The Hunt stars Cannes and three-time César award winner Benoît Magimel and two-time César winner Mélanie Laurent, who has featured in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds. But press releases about The Hunt, as well as its official trailers, have now been removed from Apple’s site.

Rex is an uber-macho hunter who, together with four equally testosterone-addled buddies, embarks on a hunting trip in the Canadian wilderness. But their weekend is cut short by a rival band of hunters they encounter in the forest, one of whom inexplicably takes a potshot at Rex’s party and grazes the head of one of his buddies. Another of Rex’s friends returns fire, killing the shooter. From there Rex and company scurry off and head back to civilisation. Rex, however, becomes convinced that the dead man’s companions are going to come after him and his friends.

Published: November 26, 2025, 1:21 pm

Secrets of the cow-skulled scarecrow: did one man’s cruel tales inspire Paula Rego’s best paintings?

When the great artist saw a shocking play by Martin McDonagh about the torture of children, she asked him for more dark stories. As the vivid, extraordinary works they triggered go on show, the playwright looks back

In the summer of 2004, Paula Rego wrote to Martin McDonagh asking for permission to name some pictures after his play The Pillowman. His shocking investigation into the relationship between art and life featured two brothers under interrogation for the torture and murder of children. One is a writer whose stories are summarised by an investigator as: “A hundred and one ways to skewer a fucking five-year-old.”

Rego, then a 69-year-old grandmother as well as a world famous artist, had been taken to see the play at the National Theatre in London by one of her daughters, who knew it would resonate with her. “The brutality and beauty and humour rang very true and like something I had known all my life,” she wrote to McDonagh. “I am actually Portuguese, although I have lived in London for 50 years, and our stories are brusque and cruel like yours.”

Published: November 26, 2025, 4:30 pm

The best Lego gift sets to click together a creative Christmas

Lego sets featuring Star Wars, Harry Potter and Fortnite would all make excellent gifts for superfans of all ages – or opt for some build-it-yourself decor

• The 163 best holiday gift ideas for 2025, vetted by the Guardian US staff

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

Like puzzles, Lego sets are a delightfully tactile way to unplug and reconnect with the physical world. By snapping a few bricks together, you can build just about anything you can imagine, from Disney princess castles to Formula 1 racecars. It doesn’t matter how old or talented you are: you can buy Lego Duplo sets for kids as young as two, or 2,883-piece Lego Technic sets that will challenge even mechanical engineers.

As an adult Lego fan, I have been building for six years and own about three dozen sets, including stunning technical builds, showcase-worthy end products, and even functional sets that act like working toys. Whether you’re looking to spend a few afternoons stacking blocks, or dedicate entire days to the hobby (I have done both), I picked some of my favorite sets to share – some from my collection, and a few I can’t wait to add to it.

Published: November 26, 2025, 6:30 pm

The 30 gifts for kids in the US under five, as picked by parents and family members

From foam blocks to a karaoke machine to a mess-free coloring set, here’s a list of fantastic gift ideas for little ones

• 28 of the best gifts for US kids five to eight, picked by kids themselves

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

Who doesn’t love seeing the excitement on a young child’s face when they tear open wrapping paper to reveal a colorful new toy? It makes the time you spend searching for the perfect gift worthwhile.

Parents naturally love to shop for their kids and babies, but gifting is where grandparents, aunts and uncles shine as well. We polled adults with kids and close family members aged five and younger to find out what they have already bought or plan to buy the little ones this year and why. The result? Fantastic gift ideas for little ones, from toddlers to pre-schoolers.

Published: November 26, 2025, 9:30 pm

Why jigsaw puzzles may be the missing piece to your holiday relaxation

In a time of digital distraction and shredding attention spans, jigsaw puzzles offer the ultimate digital detox for defragmenting your mind

• The six best US jigsaw puzzles for adults and kids

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

Whether it’s TikTok or Instagram Shorts or the upcoming Vine reboot, modern social media seems ever-more intent on shredding whatever is left of your attention span. Making the most of your free time and protecting your mental health is absolutely vital, and the key might be the age-old hobby of jigsaw puzzles.

My wife, Amanda, and I have both turned to jigsaw puzzles as a sort of digital detox and meditation-in-motion at the end of long, stressful days. It’s also a perfect activity for the holidays. Imagine cosying up at your table with a mug of something warm, free from work or school obligations, as the colder days turn to dusk outside.

Published: November 26, 2025, 3:30 pm

You be the judge: should my partner stop compressing the coffee in the moka pot?

Hamad thinks his method enhances the flavour. Lucia says he’s breaking all the sacred rules. Who needs to wake up and smell the coffee?

• Find out how to get a disagreement settled or become a juror

Hamad’s method isn’t the way it’s supposed to be done. I’m Italian – I know all about good coffee

Pressing down the grounds improves the flavour. Lucia is just being a coffee snob

Published: November 27, 2025, 8:00 am

Pam Hogg obituary

Fashion designer whose idiosyncratic mix of glam and DIY couture was worn by Björk, Siouxsie Sioux and Taylor Swift

The designer Pam Hogg stayed faithful for life to the principles, practices, provocations and politics of the art school, music and club scene of her youth around 1980. The fashion industry metamorphosed over the decades since, but she went on believing in individuality and drama, painstakingly achieved. Debbie Harry, Siouxsie Sioux, Rihanna, Björk, Lady Gaga, Lily Allen, Kylie Minogue and Taylor Swift, among others, bought her garments, which were auditorium-dominating mixes of sex, eccentricity and intellect. Hogg’s catsuits in Latex and PVC became the glam workwear of the rock and pop stage. They never dated. When a star strides on stage in one, the audience knows the action is about to kick off.

Yet to the end of her life, Hogg, who has died, aged perhaps 66 (she refused to reveal her age publicly), remained a struggling artist. She hoped to arrive at the same safe destination as her long-term friend Vivienne Westwood, with an atelier equipped with pattern cutter and couture seamstresses, plus financial backing for a ready-to-wear line that would not betray her nonconforming philosophy of dress.

Published: November 27, 2025, 5:08 pm

Feeling lonely? Six ways to connect with friends – even when busy

If you aren’t getting the quality time or intimacy you need, try these connection experiments to shake up interactions

Lately, life has felt like Groundhog Day: work, gym, sleep, repeat. Between a punishing work schedule, the grim weather and my desire to hibernate, my social life has suffered. I feel dissatisfied, restless and isolated. But I have plenty of friends and active group chats – I can’t be lonely, surely?

Wrong!

Published: November 26, 2025, 5:00 pm

A moment that changed me: I adopted a koala, he bit me – and I remembered something important about myself

As I watched the news about Australia’s devastating bushfires in 2020 I felt compelled to help. It was the start of a new relationship with nature, and a reminder of my childhood joie de vivre

As hookup sites go, it was in another league. I was looking for a different kind of soulmate and I was spoilt for choice. Would it be Floyd, “a stylish poser and a winner of hearts”? Or Bobby, “who loves cuddling and is a bit of a showoff”? Or could it be the “beautiful and incredibly sweet Morris with a gentle nature”? One stood out. Not only was he “very affectionate” but he was also “a bit of a troublemaker – always exploring and often found sitting on the rocks”. Just what I was looking for; I swiped right. That’s how I met Jarrah. My koala.

A month before, in 2020, I’d seen a newsflash about the bushfires in Australia. The effect on the continent’s wildlife was devastating. An estimated 61,000 koalas had been killed or injured among 143 million other native mammals. There were two things I felt I could do from the UK: one was to make koala mittens to protect their burnt paws (following a pattern I found online); and two, I could adopt a koala and send monthly donations to protect them in the wild. So I joined the Australian Koala Foundation, which is dedicated to the marsupials’ survival.

Published: November 26, 2025, 6:55 am

How to be a good party host (or guest) | Zoe Williams

From picking your guests (always add a random) and your outfit, to coping with drunks and nudity, this is what you need to know

When I was young, I thought the worst thing you could do, as a host, was to run out of booze. Then, when I was less young, I thought it was to not have enough food, and now I am perfectly wise, I know that those things don’t matter at all, because you can always go to the shop. The important thing is not to look harried, and to not look that way, you need to not be that way.

Published: November 26, 2025, 3:00 pm

The death of the living room: ‘It’s hard to invite people over – not everyone wants to sit on a bed’

The number of rental properties without a lounge is surging, and people are having to eat and socialise in kitchens, bedrooms and stairwells. How can you relax and build community without a communal area?

‘Without a living room, your world becomes quite small,” says Georgie, a 27-year-old climbing and outdoor instructor. When she moved into a house-share with four strangers in 2023, she wasn’t worried about the lack of a living room. “I kind of thought it would be fine – I didn’t have that many options, and the house was by far the cheapest.”

The property she rented was in Leeds, and what had once been a lounge had gradually been turned into an inaccessible storage space. To make things worse, the kitchen was tiny: “By the time you put a table against the wall, you couldn’t sit or stand without getting in the way of the sink or the oven.”

Published: November 26, 2025, 10:00 am

Coupling up: how to avoid money worries in your relationship

From joint bank accounts and pooled savings to mortgages and tax allowances, talk about money for a happy financial future together

There’s no one-size-fits-all answer for whether you should manage your finances jointly, separately or somewhere in the middle.

Published: November 26, 2025, 7:00 am

Quiet divorce: why people are checking out of their marriage emotionally – without telling their partner

Are you ready to ‘go zombie’ in your relationship, lowering your expectations of it, forging your own separate life, but staying wed? You’re just one of many who are ‘subconsciously uncoupling’

Name: Quiet divorce.

Age: Ancient, probably.

Published: November 26, 2025, 3:03 pm

Danish delight: Tim Anderson’s cherry marzipan kringle recipe for Thanksgiving

These iced Danish pastries stuffed with nuts and jam are a speciality of Tim’s hometown of Racine, Wisconsin

Kringles are a kind of pastry that’s synonymous with my home town of Racine, Wisconsin. Originally introduced by Danish immigrants in the late 19th century, they’re essentially a big ring of flaky Viennese pastry filled with fruit or nuts, then iced and served in little slices. Even bad kringles are pretty delicious, and when out-of-towners try them for the first time, their reaction is usually: ”Where has this been all my life?”

We eat kringles year-round, but I mainly associate them with fall, perhaps because of their common autumnal fillings such as apple or cranberry, or perhaps because of the sense of hygge they provide. I also associate kringles with Thanksgiving – and with uncles. And I don’t think it’s just me; Racine’s biggest kringle baker, O&H Danish Bakery, operates a cafe/shop called “Danish Uncle”. But I also think of Thanksgiving as the most uncle-y American holiday, geared towards watching football and snoozing on the couch.

Tim Anderson is the author of the 24 Hour Pancake People newsletter and Hokkaido: Recipes from the Seas, Fields and Farmlands of Northern Japan, published by Hardie Grant at £28. To order a copy for £25.20, go to guardianbookshop.com. Rachel Roddy is away.

Published: November 26, 2025, 3:00 pm

Inside the rise and fall of Podemos: ‘We believed we had a stake in the future’

The leftist party exploded out of Spain’s anti-austerity protests in 2011 and upended Spain’s entrenched two-party system. I was instantly captivated – and for the next decade, I worked for the party. But I ended up quitting politics in disappointment. What happened?

• This article originally appeared in Equator, a new magazine of politics, culture and art

I never expected to retire in my 30s, but I suppose politics is the art of the impossible: what it promises, what it extracts. A decade at the heart of Spain’s boldest modern political experiment aged me in ways I’ve only just begun to fathom.

In May 2014, just four months after it was founded, the leftwing Spanish party Podemos (“We Can”) won five seats in the European parliament. As a recent university graduate who had been part of a local Podemos group (or círculo, as they were known) in Paris, I was hired to work for these MEPs. We arrived in Brussels as complete tyros and had to learn everything on the job. But we were motivated by the promise of doing what we used to call “real politics” – that is to say, not the internal power struggles and ideological weather patterns of the movement (which were always abundant), but the actual issues, such as gender discrimination and unemployment.

Published: November 27, 2025, 5:00 am

Who leaked Witkoff’s call advising Kremlin on how to get Trump on side?

Bloomberg publishes extraordinary transcripts of secret discussions, but their provenance remains unclear

Bloomberg’s scoop showing how Trump aide Steve Witkoff coached the Kremlin on the best way to get into Trump’s good graces is extraordinary for what it tells us about Witkoff’s dubious loyalties and the Kremlin’s potential influence over US negotiation efforts. But equally interesting is the leaked material itself and where it may have come from.

The story covers two intercepted phone calls: one between Witkoff and top Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov, and another between Ushakov and Kirill Dmitriev, who has been deeply involved in negotiations with the Trump White House.

Published: November 26, 2025, 2:49 pm

‘I didn’t even know this type of attack existed’: more than 200 women allege drugging by senior French civil servant

In a case echoing the Pelicot trial, dozens of women allege they were given hot drinks mixed with a diuretic to make them urinate. Three of them speak out here

When Sylvie Delezenne, a marketing expert from Lille, was job-hunting in 2015, she was delighted to be contacted on LinkedIn by a human resources manager at the French culture ministry, inviting her to Paris for an interview.

“It was my dream to work at the culture ministry,” she said.

Published: November 26, 2025, 1:49 pm

Tell us about the worst behaviour you’ve witnessed on a flight

As Sean Duffy has urged passengers to mind their manners, we would like to hear about the worst breaches of airline etiquette that you’ve seen

The US transportation secretary Sean Duffy has started a “civility campaign” for air travel, urging passengers to dress smartly instead of wearing PJs and slippers, keeping children’s behaviour in check and remembering their manners.

With this in mind, we would like to hear about the untoward airline behaviour you’ve witnessed. What is the worst breach of aeroplane etiquette you’ve seen?

Published: November 27, 2025, 10:41 am

Renaissance paintings and a gingerbread exhibition: photos of the day – Thursday

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

Published: November 27, 2025, 1:11 pm