4 h. ago Get into the Christmas spirit with a shopping and foodie staycation in Marylebone Village, London

As the iconic lyrics from a screaming Noddy Holder boldly suggest, 'It's Christmas!' And it definitely feels like it now after a fun and festive-filled weekend of shopping, eating and making merry in the heart of the Big Smoke.

Economics

8 h. ago Versace creative director leaves shortly after fashion house’s $1.4bn sale to Prada

Dario Vitale exits after one season, having taken the helm from Donatella VersaceVersace has announced its creative director is leaving, less than nine months after taking on the role and two days after the deal to sell the brand to rival Italian fashion house Prada.Dario Vitale exits after just one season, having taken the helm from Donatella Versace. Prada said it would announce a replacement “in due course”. Continue reading...

Economics

9 h. ago Pope Leo dissolves one of Francis’ final acts in major reversal

The Vatican reported its first budget surplus last month after years of deficits

Politics

10 h. ago How Pope Leo has become a quiet hero amid Trumpian attempts to warp the Christian message

Donald Trump and his followers, and the “woke” Pope Leo and his church appear to be engaged in an undeclared battle over who gets to define ‘Christianity’

Politics

10 h. ago Creative director Dario Vitale exits Versace two days after Prada's acquisition

Creative director Dario Vitale is leaving Italian fashion brand Versace only eight months after he was appointed, the company said in a statement Thursday

Politics

10 h. ago Experts weigh in: You’re definitely giving yourself brain rot

Growing rates of ADHD in the US heighten concerns that heavy short-form videos leads to ‘brain rot’

Politics

11 h. ago Luxury fashion firms asked for documents as part of Italian labor abuse probe

Italian prosecutors have asked 13 high-end fashion firms to provide documents on governance, internal controls and audits

Events

12 h. ago ‘We miss having a dog but it’s the price you pay’: the village that banned pets to save wildlife

Australian eco community is a sanctuary for native animals and a showcase of sustainable livingBill Smart has never heard the word “solarpunk”. But the softly spoken 77-year-old lights up when given the definition from Wikipedia: a literary, artistic and social movement that envisions and works towards actualising a sustainable future interconnected with nature and community.Solar refers not just to renewable energy but to an optimistic, anti-dystopian vision of the future. Punk is an allusion to its countercultural, do-it-yourself ethic. Continue reading...

Economics

12 h. ago Will it be a White Christmas this year? Met Office explains official definition

Are you dreaming of a White Christmas this year?

Politics

13 h. ago From Otis Redding to Booker T, Steve Cropper was a strong yet subtle force that shaped so many soul classics

The guitarist for Booker T & the MGs defined the sound of original R&B, co-creating soul anthems and proving himself one of the most influential musicians of the 60sSteve Cropper, legendary guitarist for Booker T & the MGs, dies aged 84Steve Cropper stood at the side of musical legends and toiled in the shadows of the studio, never a star. But his work with his fellow musicians and singers at Stax Records in Memphis, Tennessee, established him as one of the most creative and influential musicians of the 1960s.Actually, pretty much every rock icon of that fabled decade looked up to Cropper, who has died aged 84. The Beatles seriously considered recording at Stax, and the Stones covered songs he played on and emulated his crisp rhythm and lead guitar playing. As a jobbing musician in 1964, Jimi Hendrix drove from Nashville to Memphis to meet Cropper (they chatted about guitars and jammed), while Janis Joplin insisted her new band play Stax’s Christmas party so as to rub sh...

Politics

14 h. ago A diving prince, sunken treasure and snared by the Titanic: Joe MacInnis on his ‘rip

At 88, the Canadian reflects on a golden era of underwater discovery and how shipwrecks and the cruel sea are the ‘greatest of all teachers’Joe MacInnis admits there are simply too many places to begin telling the story of life in the ocean depths. At 88, the famed Canadian undersea explorer, has many decades to draw on. There was the time he and a Russian explorer and deep-water pilot, Anatoly Sagalevich, were snagged by a telephone wire strung from the pilot house of the Titanic, trapping the pair two and a half miles below the surface.Another might be the moment he and his team stared in disbelief through a porthole window at the Edmund Fitzgerald, the 222-metre (729ft) ship that vanished 50 years ago into the depths of Lake Superior, so quickly that none of the crew could issue a call for help. MacInnis and his team were the first humans to lay eyes on the wreck.MacInnis diving in Lake Huron, off Tobermory, Canada, in 1969. Photograph: Don Dutton/Toronto Star/Getty Images Contin...

Politics

14 h. ago Four dating trends that will take over as singles remain 'hopeful' for 2026

Tinder's Year In Swipe has been released and it shows that singles should remain 'hopeful' for 2026. Let's take a look at the four trends that will define next year

Politics

15 h. ago ‘It’s absolute anarchy’: Oxygen therapy chambers have led to horrific deaths. Why are Maha elite raving about them?

Touted as a cure for everything from wrinkles to autism, the treatment has been hyped by Robert F Kennedy Jr and various celebrities. Experts say it needs to be regulatedWarning: this article contains distressing contentIt was the kind of cold, damp morning that makes it hard to get out of bed, much less get a child out the door. The sun had not even risen when five-year-old Thomas Cooper and his mother, Annie Cooper, arrived for an appointment on 31 January at the Oxford Center in Troy, a northern suburb of Detroit, Michigan.Thomas was an exuberant child with a button nose and pinchable cheeks – a little kid who loved running fast, playing Minecraft and watching Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, according to a GoFundMe set up by his family. He had just received money in a special red envelope for lunar new year, and he planned to spend it later that day with his little brother. But first, he was going to receive hyperbaric oxygen therapy for his attention deficit hyperactivity dis...

Events

16 h. ago Oscar Piastri to miss Abu Dhabi GP session in defining F1 weekend

Oscar Piastri will not be behind the wheel of his McLaren car in FP1 at the Championship-defining Abu Dhabi Grand Prix due to an F1 rule

Politics

16 h. ago Ruby Wax reveals the definitive truth about Shona McGarty and Aitch's showmance

Ruby Wax has revealed she spoke to both Aitch and Shona about a potential romance between them while in the Jungle and what they had to say on the matter.

Politics

16 h. ago Nedim Bajrami defiant on Rangers future as he reveals unseen Danny Rohl summit

The Albania international was the hero for his side as he netted from the penalty spot to rescue a point against Dundee United

Politics

17 h. ago See how every judge voted in the 100 best female footballers for 2025

We publish the full breakdown of the 104,140 votes cast this year plus a chance to search for any player who has ever received a pointAitana Bonmatí has been voted the best female footballer in the world 2025 by the Guardian’s panel of experts. We asked 127 people in total, including players, coaches and journalists from all over the globe to create our definitive list for the year.We asked the judges to choose 40 names each and rank their selection in order from 1-40, No 1 being their choice of the best player. The No 1 choice of each judge was awarded 40 points, No 2 given 39pts, down to 1pt for their No 40 choice. All the votes were added together to give a raw score. To minimise the influence of outliers in the list, the highest score awarded to a player was then deducted to give a final score. Continue reading...

Politics

18 h. ago ‘Biggest band that ever lived’: inside the Grateful Dead art show

As the band celebrate their 60th anniversary, a California exhibition draws attention to the unique psychedelic artwork that has long told their storyArtist Bill Walker is one of those guys who always seems to be in the right place at the right time. Having met Phil Lesh, the Grateful Dead bassist and avant-garde classical composer, as a student at Nevada Southern University (now the University of Nevada, Las Vegas), Walker was invited in 1967 to make an album cover for the band’s second album, Anthem of the Sun. This experience led to an epic LSD and ayahuasca trip in the Valley of Fire outside Las Vegas over New Year’s Eve and when Walker returned to San Francisco, he painted Anthem of the Sun, complete with figures he came across in the desert.The Anthem of the Sun painting visually demonstrates the intense innovation that happened in the psychedelic revolution, when music was electrified and LSD became central to the burst of culture that defined the 1960s. The Grateful Dead enc...

Events

21 h. ago ‘They rose out of the ground!’: Scotland’s brutalist beauties – in pictures

The imposing concrete buildings that defined British postwar architecture held a vision of the future – but many fell into disrepair. A new book finds the finest examples Continue reading...

Politics

28 h. ago Wes Streeting orders review of mental health diagnoses as benefit claims soar

Health secretary has asked experts to investigate whether normal feelings have become ‘over-pathologised’The health secretary, Wes Streeting, has ordered a clinical review of the diagnosis of mental health conditions, according to reports. Streeting is understood to be concerned about a sharp rise in the number of people making sickness benefits claims because of diagnoses for mental illness, autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), the Times reported. He has asked leading experts to investigate whether normal feelings have become “over-pathologised”, the newspaper said, as he seeks to grapple with the 4.4 million working-age people now claiming sickness or incapacity benefit. The figure has risen by 1.2 million since 2019, while the number of 16 to 34-year-olds off work with long-term sickness because of a mental health condition is said to have grown rapidly in the same period. Streeting told the Times he knew from “personal experience how devastating it can be ...

Science