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Headlines

  • A drone view shows the crash site.

    Russia-Ukraine war live
    Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko pardons 20 people jailed for ‘extremism’

  • Joe Biden waves.

    Joe Biden
    President reportedly regrets ending re-election campaign and says he’d have defeated Trump

    • France
      At least 15 men in Gisèle Pelicot rape and assault trial appeal against convictions

    • Starbucks
      Court rejects coffee giant’s challenge to US labor board ruling that it illegally fired baristas

    • Black Sea
      Russia warns of severe environmental damage from huge oil spill

    • South Korea
      Mass rally staged to demand removal of Yoon Suk Yeol

    • Film
      Olivia Hussey, star of 1968 Romeo and Juliet film, dies aged 73

    • Somalia
      UN authorises new mission against al-Shabaab

In focus

  • Sinister looking Trump

    The year in political books
    Mapping an astonishing moment in US history

  • bottles of water

    ‘Anti-woke’ dog food and pro-America lipstick
    US sees rise in rightwing stores

    A number of marketplaces have sprung up seeking to make use of anti-establishment fervor – are they here to stay?
  • Easter Island moai.

    ‘We need dramatic social and technological changes’
    Is societal collapse inevitable?

    Academic Danilo Brozović says studies of failed civilisations all point in one direction – today’s society needs radical transformation to survive

Spotlight

  • a man standing amid a lush orange tree.

    Environment
    I figured out how to use two-thirds less water — and it only took a week to set up

    Setting up a rainwater and greywater conservation system wasn’t hard, and the whole project took about a week
  • Portrait of Kieran Culkin in grey chunky sweater with his hair sticking up

    ‘Us siblings, we’re already cooked’
    Kieran Culkin on pranks, parenting and why his famous family doesn’t need therapy

  • Sea turtles swim in water

    Marine life
    ‘They’re stuck’: Cape Cod seeing more whale, turtle and dolphin strandings

    Changing tides have led to an increase of beached marine life, whom rescuers scramble to save before they die
  • Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris at night

    Notre Dame
    ‘Ludicrous’: bitter row erupts over plan to replace original cathedral windows

    Fury as President Macron reveals the new ‘contemporary gesture’ for cathedral devastated by 2019 fire
    • Yellow skull with bugs for eyes and the numbers 2000 for a mouth, against black background

      Y2K bug
      ‘All people could do was hope the nerds would fix it’: the global panic over the millennium bug, 25 years on

    • Zadie Smith, Lionel Richie, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Han Kang, Bill Gates and Pope Francis

      From Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie to Pope Francis
      The books to look forward to in 2025

    • Polly Atkin shot for OM

      Self and wellbeing
      How owls helped me conquer my fear of the dark

    • A pair of rhinos standing side by side

      ‘We have to change our attitude’
      Wildlife expert says rhino horn trade must be legalised

Opinion

  • Pride and Prejudice (Mini Series) Year: 1995 UK Director: Simon Langton Alison Steadman. Image shot 1995. Exact date unknown.<br>2F3NX6R Pride and Prejudice (Mini Series) Year: 1995 UK Director: Simon Langton Alison Steadman. Image shot 1995. Exact date unknown.

    The Observer view on Jane Austen’s 250th anniversary: Once more unto the breeches

    Plots and sprigged muslin aside, the author’s enduring legacy also lies in her relevance as a foil for modern mores
  • Composite of six images

    The year in patriarchy: coconut trees, ‘childless cat ladies’ and crimes against humanity

    Arwa Mahdawi
    It’s now time to ‘hold space’ for everything that happened in 2024 with a list – so here are 10 of the biggest stories from the year in patriarchy
    • Microsoft Excel in use as a call log at a UK doctor’s surgery, 2014.

      How will AI reshape 2025? Well, it could be the spreadsheet of the 21st century

      John Naughton
    • Illustration by Dominic Mckenzie.

      Forget Risk, play Fantasy Football for Fascists: grudge matches, foul play and violent conduct guaranteed

      Simon Tisdall
    • Illustration by Alex Mellon

      McCarthyism stalked my family. Its paranoia contains a lesson for Trump’s second term

      Richard Sennett
    • Nuclear explosion created by American atomic bomb.

      Editorial
      The Guardian view on arms control: essential to prevent the total devastation of nuclear war

Sports

  • Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting (left) and Imane Khelif of Algeria

    Olympics
    After the show: what happened next to gender row boxers?

    The futures of Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-ting remain in doubt
  • Jessie Diggins of the United States celebrates the victory in the sprint of the FIS World Cup Cross-Country Tour de Ski Toblach on Saturday in Toblach Hochpustertal, Italy.

    Skiing
    Diggins opens Tour de Ski with first sprint win in three years

  • Scottie Scheffler on the golf course.

    Golf
    Scheffler has surgery after Christmas dinner injury

    The American golfer cut hand on broken glass during the festive period and will now miss the first tournament of season in Hawaii
  • Paul Bamba’s death was confirmed in a joint statement from Ne-Yo and Bamba’s family.

    Boxing
    Puerto Rican boxer Paul Bamba dies aged 35, six days after last fight

    Puerto Rican boxer Paul Bamba has died at the age of 35, his manager, the R&B singer Shaffer ‘Ne-Yo’ Smith, announced Frida
    • Sportscaster Greg Gumbel, left, and journalist Bryant Gumbel attend the 2014 Unichef Book Party at the Lamb's Club in New York.

      Sports media
      Trailblazing CBS sportscaster Greg Gumbel dies from cancer aged 78

    • Left to right: Genoa's Mario Balotelli, Yang Min-hyeok of Tottenham Hotspur and Brighton & Hove Albion signing Diego Gomez.

      Men’s transfer window
      All deals from Europe’s top five leagues

    • Sofie Junge Pedersen with her award

      'We wanted to send a message’
      The Guardian Footballer of the Year Sofie Junge Pedersen

    • Mike Brown compiled a 107-88 record in two-plus seasons in Sacramento with a winning record in both of his full seasons.

      NBA
      Struggling Kings fire Mike Brown after 13-18 start to season

Weekly for now

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Climate crisis

  • A man uses a branch to extinguish a fire during a wildfire in Nea Penteli near Athens in August 2024.

    Environment
    Climate crisis exposed people to extra six weeks of dangerous heat in 2024

  • A picture of demonstrators, a man looking for Japanese knotweed, an Orangutan and her baby and a palm oil farm

    Environment
    Dirty water, sentient trees and hope in a climate crisis: 10 environmental long reads

  • A doe and two fawns run across a soya bean field

    The alternatives
    ‘The dead zone is real’: why US farmers are embracing wildflowers

  • Two shaggy musk oxen, with big curved horns, look at the camera from a ridge

    The age of extinction
    They lived through the ice age. Can the mighty musk ox survive the heat?

Across the country

  • A group wearing winter clothes outside court house hold up signs such as 'denial of medical care = violence' and 'ask yourself: who are they really protecting?'

    Brian Thompson shooting
    Many believe US healthcare industry was to blame in CEO killing, poll reveals

  • three men in black uniform stand by a man in green uniform seated on bed

    New York
    Body-camera video released of beating preceding New York prisoner’s death

    • TikTok
      Trump asks US supreme court to pause ban-or-divest law for social media app

    • Havana syndrome
      US Senate report finds CIA mishandled employee cases of Havana syndrome

    • ‘Heart of cruelty’
      Trump border chief condemned over migrant policy

    • Jay-Z
      Judge denies Jay-Z’s efforts to dismiss case accusing him of raping girl, 13

    • US weather
      Severe weather threatens US flights during one of busiest travel weekends

    • Los Angeles
      Morrison hotel featured on Doors’ album cover burns in Los Angeles fire

Around the world

  • Composite image of medical staff at the MSF Mowasah hospital in Amman, JordanAmman, Jordan Xmas appeal for Tracy

    ‘Bullets can make a real mess of bones’
    Jordanian hospital where the wounded put their lives together

    At MSF’s pioneering cntre in Amman, Jordan, the dedicated team deal with lives that have already been saved. Here they make those lives worth living
  • Tower of London viewed from the other side of the River Thames with skyscrapers of the City of London in the background

    Call to arms
    ‘Illegally smuggled’ cannon at Tower of London subject of dispute with Ireland

  • A Russian self-propelled multiple rocket launcher fires towards Ukrainian positions in Russia’s Kursk border region this month

    Ukraine war briefing
    ‘Human wave’ of North Korean troops being sent to their deaths by Russia, says US

  • Hussain Bisad at home in north London

    UK
    Former world’s tallest man calls for more compassion for vulnerable

    • Artificial intelligence
      ‘Godfather of AI’ shortens odds of the technology wiping out humanity over next 30 years

    • China
      Driver behind China car ramming attack that killed 35 is sentenced to death

    • India
      India mourns former PM Manmohan Singh with Delhi state funeral

    • Kazakhstan
      Azerbaijan Airlines says there was ‘external interference’ before crash

    • Children
      Almost one in five children live in conflict zones, says Unicef

    • Chess
      Chess: Carlsen disqualified in New York after refusing to change out of jeans

Podcasts

Podcasts

  • Palestinian journalist Ahmed Alnaouq

    Today in Focus
    One man on his grief for Gaza

  • Jeff Goldblum portrait with orange flowers. Photographer: David Vintiner

    Weekend
    Revisited: actor Jeff Goldblum, eccentric as ever at 71; and America’s top pronatalists on having ‘tons of kids’ to save the world – podcast

  • TOPSHOT-FBL-ENG-PR-LIVERPOOL-LEICESTER<br>TOPSHOT - Liverpool's English midfielder #17 Curtis Jones celebrates scoring the team's second goal during the English Premier League football match between Liverpool and Leicester City at Anfield in Liverpool, north west England on December 26, 2024. (Photo by Paul ELLIS / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or 'live' services. Online in-match use limited to 120 images. An additional 40 images may be used in extra time. No video emulation. Social media in-match use limited to 120 images. An additional 40 images may be used in extra time. No use in betting publications, games or single club/league/player publications. / (Photo by PAUL ELLIS/AFP via Getty Images)

    Football Weekly
    After a Boxing Day bonanza, is title now Liverpool’s to lose? - Football Weekly

  • Shelf life … Amanda Giles and Terry Curran in the children’s section of Battle library, Reading. Photograph: Christian Sinibaldi/The Guardian

    The Audio Long Read
    Best of 2024: ‘If there’s nowhere else to go, this is where they come’: how Britain’s libraries provide much more than books – podcast

  • Donald Trump holds the UFC heavyweight championship belt as a crowd at Madison Square Garden, including Elon Musk, applaud. Credit: Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC

    Politics Weekly America
    UFC, boxing and golf: what is Donald Trump’s relationship with sport? – podcast

  • Khalil Ayaz and Detective Chief Inspector Sue Hill photographed in the Car Park in Richmond where Mohammed Ayaz's body was found. 01/07/2024 Richmond,

    Today in Focus
    Revisited: The man who fell to Earth – podcast

Best of culture 2024

  • Refusing to respect the rules of automotive engineering … What the Car?

    Games
    The video games you may have missed in 2024

  • Kristen Stewart and Katy O’Brian in Love Lies Bleeding

    Film
    And the 2024 Braddies go to … Peter Bradshaw’s film picks of the year

  • Brandon Wilson in Nickel Boys, centre, nears the top spot.

    Film
    The 50 best movies of 2024 in the US

  • Oozing self-possession … Charli xcx.

    Music
    The 50 best albums of 2024

Culture

  • That'sAWrapOn Line

    ‘I appear on my own top 10 three times .. every stream helps!’
    What music stars were really listening to in 2024

    Spotify’s end-of-year summary (other streaming services are available) is our chance to show off how much cool stuff we listened to this year. So what do the stars’ top track lists look like?
  • Alexei Navalny, 2020.

    The Observer's obituaries of 2024
    Alexei Navalny remembered by Yevgenia Albats

  • Dune Part Two, Mr Loverman, and FKA Twigs

    Culture
    Our readers on their pick of 2024’s best films, music, TV shows and podcasts

  • A portrait of Isabel Allende with blonde hair and wearing a richly patterned yellow, Japanese-style jacket over a black top

    Isabel Allende
    ‘My most expensive purchase? A Tesla for my former husband. He didn’t deserve it’

  • That Beautiful Atlantic Waltz

    Book of the day
    That Beautiful Atlantic Waltz by Malachy Tallack review – the joys of country music

  • Better Man

    Better Man review
    Robbie Williams monkeys around in a raw and emotional biopic

Lifestyle

  • Bride Alice, centre, shares a celebratory shot of gin with bridesmaids Katherine Fraser and Nita Zhao during a ShotGin wedding at Unexpected Guest Distillery

    Weddings
    Six hours, six weddings and a schnauzer: inside a pop-up love party

  • Ammar Kalia sitting down, reading his phone

    The overwhelm
    How I beat overwhelm: I deleted my email app – and my sleep suddenly improved

    Checking my emails at every possible opportunity had become distracting and draining. So I set myself new boundaries
  • Alexandra and Jake

    This is how we do it
    ‘I struggle to fully enjoy sex because I’m so conscious of what I look like’

    Alexandra and Jake contend with insecurities, but are slowly discovering sexual intimacy

Well actually

  • people smiling at a table

    Well actually
    Why some people are spending the holidays sans family: ‘My friends are more fun than my relatives’

  • black-and-white illustration of person's ear with red soundwaves going across

    Health
    I thought I was a bad listener. Turns out, I couldn’t hear

  • An illustration of someone taking a photo of a woman on a cellphone

    Ask Ugly
    Photos of myself make me shudder in horror. Does that mean I’m hideous?

  • an old photo of a man distorted graphically

    Men
    ‘He kept going until he couldn’t’: why do boomer men refuse to slow down?

documentaries
Documentary link

King of the Fells

Shepherd Joss Naylor set the endurance running world on fire with his epic, unbeatable record and unconventional approach

Watch now16.13

Take part

  • What’s a New Year’s resolution that stuck?

    Life and style
    What’s a New Year’s resolution that actually stuck?

  • Pattern of variety fresh of organic fruits and vegetables and healthy vegan meal ingredients on beige background. Healthy food, clean eating, diet and detox, eco friendly, no plastic concept . Flat lay, top view

    People in the US
    How do you eat a climate-friendly diet on a budget?

  • family eating celebrity meal at festive Christmas tablewoman holding antique gravy boat for christmas roast on festive decorated table

    Life and style
    Will you be spending the holidays with family who have different political views?

  • Syrians gather at Umayyad Square to celebrate the collapse of 61 years of Baath Party rule in Damascus.

    Syria
    Share your reaction to the fall of Assad

From our global editions

  • Iyake lake in southwestern Nigeria is believed to be one of two naturally suspended lakes in the world.

    Nigeria
    Beaches, beer and a rare suspended lake … why can’t Nigeria attract more tourists?

  • Katie in 2022 with husband Graham and son Ralph, who was diagnosed with liver cancer.

    Organ donation
    ‘Selfless parents gave their child’s organs to save my son. I’m in awe of them’

  • A group of older people in swimming caps in a swimming pool

    Mexico City
    ‘Living proof that you can spend money on the poor’: Utopia comes to Mexico City

  • Composite image featuring a building split in two

    UK
    Revealed: 1.5m children in England studying in unfit school buildings

In case you missed it

  • Female abortion rights protester with 'second-class citizen' written on mask

    Roe v Wade
    Why speech could be a target for the anti-abortion movement in 2025

  • Timothée Chalamet as Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown

    Bob Dylan
    ‘It’s full of things that didn’t happen – but it feels right!’ Inside the making of Bob Dylan film A Complete Unknown

    The creative team behind the new film explains their process – and what Dylan makes of it
  • Han Duck-soo leaves the government complex in Seoul: he is walking out of a dark corridor with overhead lighting and a red carpet, and wears a dark overcoat

    Analysis
    South Korea’s second impeachment in two weeks is latest twist in political saga

    Removal of acting president Han Duck-soo is part of a rancorous battle for the country’s constitutional future
  • Lily-Rose Depp as Ellen Hutter in Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu.

    Film
    ‘I had to make the vampire as scary as possible’: Nosferatu’s Robert Eggers on how folklore fuelled his film

  • Mrs Kamimoto holding an orange cat standing on a pier, photographed from behind.

    Japan
    Japan’s ‘cat island’ falls victim to demographic crisis

  • A soldier in the snow

    Russia
    ‘I thought it was fake news’: secrecy around North Koreans fighting in Kursk

  • President Salome Zourabichvili holds up her hands to talk to a crowd

    Georgia
    ‘Let’s see who will be leaving’: Georgia’s presidential standoff nears crunch point

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In pictures

  • June Whitfield and others celebrated by the ceramicist Horace Lindezey.

    Ceramics
    A personal take on commemorative blue plaques

    Horace Lindezey celebrates people who have meant something to him by focusing on life’s central milestones
  • Rose Matafeo photographed by Perou for the Observer New Review. Styling by Sam Deaman. HMU by Sara Fagan.

    Best images from the past month
    Original Observer Photography

  • A man sells fruit and vegetables in front of a damaged tank in Homs, Syria

    Twenty photographs of the week
    Russian airstrikes, the aftermath of the fall of Assad, and the anniversary of the Indian Ocean tsunami

  • Newlyweds pose for photos on Brooklyn Bridge in Manhattan, New York.

    Photos of the day
    Newlyweds in Brooklyn and mourners in Mexico City

  • A picture perfect robin framed in holly puts on a show for the Christmas season in Ipswich, UK

    The week in wildlife
    A seasonal robin and newborn lion cubs in Bedfordshire

  • FHH ultimate - The Music Room, Earsham

    Fantasy house hunt
    Ultimate fantasy homes for sale in Great Britain – in pictures

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What readers are clicking on

  1. Putin apologises for Azerbaijan plane crash without admitting Russia at fault

  2. Elon Musk pens German newspaper opinion piece supporting far-right AfD party

  3. Ukraine war briefing: ‘Human wave’ of North Korean troops being sent to their deaths, says US

  4. Biden reportedly regrets ending re-election campaign and says he’d have defeated Trump

  5. Live
    Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko pardons 20 people jailed for ‘extremism’

  6. This is how we do it: ‘I struggle to fully enjoy sex because I’m so conscious of what I look like’

  7. Trump’s threat to defund all US public media has NPR and PBS on the back foot

  8. ‘Godfather of AI’ shortens odds of the technology wiping out humanity over next 30 years

  9. Across the west, the centre right is collapsing – and with it, any notion of what is ‘too extreme’

  10. ‘We need dramatic social and technological changes’: is societal collapse inevitable?

Deeply read

What readers are spending time with (Learn more)

  1. Blind date: ‘The glare of the Christmas lights made his eyes look really beautiful and I just had to tell him’

  2. Isabel Allende: ‘My most expensive purchase? A Tesla for my former husband. He didn’t deserve it’

  3. The year in stuff – from chicken wine to cucumbers and mini mullets

  4. Kieran Culkin on pranks, parenting and why his famous family doesn’t need therapy: ‘Us siblings, we’re already cooked’

  5. Elon Musk pens German newspaper opinion piece supporting far-right AfD party

  6. Olivia Hussey, star of 1968 Romeo and Juliet film, dies aged 73

  7. From Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie to Pope Francis: the books to look forward to in 2025

  8. ‘The impact has been out of this world’: the stranger who gave away a £100,000 inheritance to his neighbours

  9. ‘Heart of cruelty’: Trump border chief condemned over migrant policy

  10. Many believe US healthcare industry was to blame in CEO killing, poll reveals