49 m. ago Add to playlist: the bullish confidence and versatility of JayaHadADream and the week’s best new tracks

A breakout star of the underground rap scene shows vulnerability and wit in her genre-bending tracksFrom CambridgeshireRecommended if you like Manga Saint Hilare, Kojey Radical, Little SimzUp next Happiness from Agony out now“One of the coldest writers but man don’t say it ’cause I’ve got vagina,” JayaHadADream raps on her recent track Bug, calling out those who underestimate her talent – and laying bare her lyrical confidence. In a fertile underground rap scene, the Jamaican-Irish, Cambridge-via-Nottingham artist has cut through thanks to her command and vulnerability, as well as a sharp eye for bullshit. The track Main Characters (featuring Big Zuu), also from her recent mixtape Happiness from Agony, is a critique of the fake love and hollow posturing that saturates the music industry. Continue reading...

Politics

49 m. ago Best movies of 2025 in the US: No 1 – One Battle After Another

Leonardo DiCaprio is a former revolutionary searching for his daughter in Paul Thomas Anderson’s exhilaratingly audacious counterculture epic• The best movies of 2025 in the US• More on the best culture of 2025Paul Thomas Anderson’s countercultural drama-thriller One Battle After Another, inspired by Thomas Pynchon’s novel Vineland, is a formal enigma that has perplexed, provoked and entranced, and the year ends with no definitive consensus as to its exact meaning. A rare naysayer is screenwriter and film-maker Paul Schrader, who commented tersely online: “Film-making at level A+, but try as I might I couldn’t muster up an ounce of empathy for Leo DiCaprio or Sean Penn. I kept waiting for them to die.”But that’s why the film is gripping: there is indeed no empathy for its two unlovely leading males, and their mortality and vulnerability has a kind of unwinding, entropic energy. They are heading for disaster. And yes, the film-making is A+ or A++; it is supercharged with pleasure at ...

Events

59 m. ago Four months of music, podcasts and audiobooks for free? This deal ends soon

A generous free trial is offering months of ad-free music, podcasts and audiobooks, but the window to sign up is closing fast

Economics

73 m. ago The 9 best health books of 2025 to help you feel your best self in the new year

If you want to go into 2026 with health and energy then look no further than these books written to keep the doctor at bay

Politics

81 m. ago KT Tunstall reflects on the ‘unwelcome side’ of her early fame

Appearing on the ‘Good Vibrations’ podcast, the Scottish artist reflected on the 20th anniversary of her debut album ‘Eye to the Telescope’ and how she was perceived at the time

Politics

1 hour ago 'Quality' wireless headphones cheapest we've ever seen with triple discount

One buyer said that they were as good as his Beats at a quarter of the price

Politics

2 h. ago Lancashire hit by second earthquake in two weeks as Brits feel 'jolt' and 'thunder noise'

A 2.5-magnitude earthquake struck Silverdale in the early hours of December 19, following a bigger 3.3-magnitude quake on December 4

Events

2 h. ago Scottish portrait gallery unveils Christmas tree inspired by Jacobite hero

The heroine aided Bonnie Prince Charlie's escape after the Battle of Culloden.

Politics

2 h. ago Eat to beat stress: Foods that can help you feel calmer, according to experts

Diet shapes how the body responds to stress, influencing blood sugar control, inflammation, sleep quality and appetite - all of which affect how resilient or depleted we feel when life gets busy.

Politics

2 h. ago Simon Cowell says he ‘always tried’ to look after X Factor contestants

Music mogul’s comments arrive after several former talent show contestants hit out at ITV series

Culture

2 h. ago Grief inspired so much of the year’s best music – and that’s something AI won’t ever feel

As AI generated ever more pop slop, reflective songwriting by artists from Clipse to CMAT drew its power from its very humanityThe most acclaimed albums of 2025 make for impressively eclectic listening. Surveying them does not reveal much in the way of obvious musical trends. There’s very little similarity between Rosalía’s heady classical approach to pop on Lux and Lily Allen’s conversational disclosures on West End Girl. You could broadly group CMAT’s Euro-Country, Bon Iver’s Sable, Fable and the Tubs’ Cotton Crown together as alternative rock but they don’t sound anything like each other. And the year’s best-of lists are sprinkled with albums that brilliantly defy classification: Blood Orange’s Essex Honey leaps from old-fashioned indie to Prince-y funk; on Black British Music, Jim Legxacy sees no reason why UK rap can’t coexist with distorted guitars, pop R&B and acoustic bedroom pop.But it’s hard not to notice how similar they are thematically: a large swathe of the Guardia...

Politics

3 h. ago 12 of the most unusual Christmas traditions around the world

Here are some of the weird and wonderful ways that countries around the world celebrate the festive season

Politics

3 h. ago Ed Sheeran unveils muscular transformation and the reason for his lifestyle overhaul

The “Bad Habit” singer has lost 14kg in recent years thanks to a routine that includes reformer pilates

Politics

4 h. ago I've seen Madness live so many times but their Cardiff Christmas gig was extra special

Madness returned to Cardiff's Utilita Arena on Thursday night with a festive performance as part of their latest tour

Politics

4 h. ago Lionesses Chloe Kelly, Hannah Hampton and Lucy Bronze reveal the role models who shaped their success (cloned)

England Lioness stars Chloe Kelly, Hannah Hampton and Lucy Bronze have revealed who has inspired them the most in their sporting careers.

Politics

4 h. ago Stranded review – this Italian crime show is like Agatha Christie, Lost and The White Lotus all at once

A hotel’s worth of rich guests cut off by snow, a dead body, the mafia and some supernatural antics there’s a banquet of melodrama to feast on in this soapy foreign-language seriesThe snow is crisp and even, up in the Italian Alps: how lucky the protagonists in the new Walter Presents series Stranded are to be spending Christmas at a four-star spa resort in the beautiful Vanoi Valley! The welcome is warm, the hot chocolate is decadent and the hotel building, bedecked with giant baubles, looks like a greetings card painting. But wait! Threatening music? Characters staring anxiously into space, because they clearly have a big dark secret? A guest in a witness protection programme, and another who recognises her as the witness in the forthcoming trial of his secret mafia brother? Attenzione! This Italian-made Green, Red and White Lotus might not be such a paradise. Bad stuff is about to go down.Specifically, this is several thousand tons of snow and the side of a nearby mountain. One a...

Events

4 h. ago Best films of 2025 in the UK: No 1 – One Battle After Another

Leonardo DiCaprio is a former revolutionary searching for his daughter in Paul Thomas Anderson’s exhilaratingly audacious counterculture epic• The best films of 2025 in the UK• More on the best culture of 2025Paul Thomas Anderson’s countercultural drama-thriller One Battle After Another, inspired by Thomas Pynchon’s novel Vineland, is a formal enigma that has perplexed, provoked and entranced, and the year ends with no definitive consensus as to its exact meaning. A rare naysayer is screenwriter and film-maker Paul Schrader, who commented tersely online: “Film-making at level A+, but try as I might I couldn’t muster up an ounce of empathy for Leo DiCaprio or Sean Penn. I kept waiting for them to die.”But that’s why the film is gripping: there is indeed no empathy for its two unlovely leading males, and their mortality and vulnerability has a kind of unwinding, entropic energy. They are heading for disaster. And yes, the film-making is A+ or A++; it is supercharged with pleasure at i...

Events

4 h. ago SCO & Peter Whelan, Edinburgh review: 'full of festive spirit'

This was a joyful, celebratory afternoon of music from Peter Whelan and the SCO, writes David Kettle

Politics

5 h. ago Mum, 39, battling cancer hits out at 'cruel' Manchester Airport after she tried to get through security

Kelly Grigg, who has bowel cancer, says she was humiliated and made to feel 'like a villain' at security

Events

5 h. ago ‘You don’t want to spoil anyone’s Christmas’ The reality of grief over the holidays

‘The death of my dad felt incomprehensible... I felt disoriented, sad, and completely out of my depth’

Politics