50 m. ago Big Fat Quiz Of 2025 leaves viewers 'disgusted and saddened' just minutes into broadcast

Hosted by Jimmy Carr, the Boxing Day instalment tested a celebrity panel's knowledge of 2025.

Politics

61 m. ago The Royal Scottish Academy at 200: 'Part of the shared lifeblood of Scottish culture'

The RSA will mark its bicentenary in 2026 with a special partnership project that will reach across Scotland and beyond, writes Sandy Wood

Events

65 m. ago Most Europeans think state pensions will become unaffordable, polling shows

YouGov survey finds many say payments are too low and oppose reforms such as raising retirement age or cutsMost Europeans believe their country’s state pension system will soon become unaffordable – but they also think the current scheme is not generous enough, and do not support options for overhauling it such as raising the retirement age.As populations age and fertility rates decline, Europe’s “pay as you go” state pension systems, cornerstones of the welfare state that have always relied on people in work paying the retirees’ pensions, are coming under increasingly heavy pressure. Continue reading...

Politics

65 m. ago ‘Pure euphoric escapism’: why Adventureland is my feelgood movie

The latest in our series of writers highlighting their most rewatched comfort films is an ode to the charming 80s-set comedyWhile casting his knockout quasi-biopic The Social Network, film-maker David Fincher must’ve really dug how eventual Mark Zuckerberg portrayer Jesse Eisenberg handled being dumped on screen. A year before the award-lassoing Facebook drama, which led to an Oscar nomination for Eisenberg, the actor agonised through the dreamy foreground of Adventureland as reluctant carny James Brennan.The parallels between Fincher’s and Greg Mottola’s movies begin and end with their opening unceremonious separations, yet an admittedly romantic logic does allow me to soak in the notion that the great directorial mind behind such zingers as Zodiac and Gone Girl also found solace in this cinematic time machine. Continue reading...

Politics

66 m. ago Liverpool news: Virgil van Dijk admits 'killer' problem as Arne Slot says issue ignored

Liverpool beat Wolverhampton Wanderers 2-1 in their final game of 2025 at Anfield before Virgil van Dijk and Arne Slot both spoke out about their problems

Events

79 m. ago Weather tracker: Polar wind set to end warmth in US south and midwest

Spring-like weather experienced by many Americans to end, while heavy snow in Japan brings deadly conditionsA week of extremes in the US as Arctic air plunges southwards across many states, sweeping away record-breaking warmth from last weekend. With low pressure in the west drawing up warm, humid air from the Gulf of Mexico, much of the south and midwest basked in spring-like weather this weekend with temperatures widely an extraordinary 15-20C above normal for late December.This week, however, most people will ditch their summer clothes for hats and scarves as a ridge pressure builds across the west, allowing for a polar air mass to dive southward, bringing freezing temperatures and the risk of snow. Continue reading...

Events

1 hour ago Country pubs: our favourite rural boozers of 2025, from the Crooked Billet to the Ship Inn

As the weather gets colder, here’s where to grab a beer and a bite to eat

Politics

2 h. ago Country pubs: our favourite rural boozers so far in 2025, from the Crooked Billet to the Falkland Arms

As the weather gets colder, here’s where to grab a beer and a bite to eat

Politics

2 h. ago Nancy Pelosi predicts Democrats will retake US House in 2026 midterms

Former House speaker on ABC News also said congressional Republicans have ceded almost all their power to TrumpDemocrats will retake the US House’s majority in the 2026 midterm elections, the chamber’s former speaker Nancy Pelosi has confidently predicted – and she hopes her party colleagues then seize back the congressional power that Republicans have all but ceded to Donald Trump.Asked Sunday on ABC News’s This Week if she had any doubts over whether Democratic New York congressman Hakeem Jeffries would hold the speaker’s gavel after the elections midway through Trump’s second presidency, Pelosi said: “None.” Continue reading...

Politics

2 h. ago Stork of Hope review – Belarusian Holocaust drama paints a flattering portrait of its citizens

Cliche-ridden, excessively sentimental and lacking in historical rigour, this film is a grave act of nationalist self-soothingNothing says happy Hanukah like a Holocaust-themed movie, especially if it ends on a feelgood note of survival and reunion after a run of tragic deaths and lashings of suffering. But this Israeli-Belarusian co-production is so excessively sentimental, cliche-riddled and arguably hypocritical considering its provenance, it’s not easy to forbear.It opens in contemporary Tel Aviv with an elderly man named Ilya receiving news he can barely believe is true: someone dear to him from his childhood is alive. This prompts Ilya to tell his grandsons for the first time about what happened to him during the second world war. Desaturated cinematography then unfolds his story in flashback, showing young Ilya (Andrey Davidyuk) and his little brother Sasha as preteen Jewish boys living in Minsk with their parents, just as the war starts. Dad goes off to the front and is neve...

Events

2 h. ago The English House by Dan Cruickshank review – if walls could talk

A deep dive into the creation of eight buildings from the 1700s to the 1900s tells some very human storiesHistory used to be about wars and dates, but to the architecture writer and TV presenter Dan Cruickshank, it’s more about floors and grates. In his new book, he takes a keen-eyed tour of eight English houses, from Northumberland to Sussex, dating from the early 1700s to exactly 100 years ago, and ranging from an outlandish gothic pile to one of the first council flats. In Cruickshank’s pages, classical influences from Rome and Greece give way to a revival of medieval English gothic and the emergence of modernism.He is particularly interested in who commissioned and built his chosen dwellings, and how they got the job done. It’s a new spin on the recent fashion for historians to explore the homes of commoners, as opposed to royalty and aristocrats, in order to tell the life stories of their occupants. This probably began with the late Gillian Tindall, who wrote a highly...

Politics

2 h. ago ‘This is the future’: King’s former royal butler predicts big 2026 for William, Kate and their children

The Prince of Wales's former butler has predicted a big 2026 for Prince William, the Princess of Wales, and their children.

Politics

2 h. ago Corriedale 'won't be what fans expect' warns star as characters 'forever changed'

Coronation Street stars Sally Carman-Duttine and Jonathan Howard, who play Abi and Carl on the ITV soap, have teased big twists in the Corriedale crossover fans won't expect

Events

2 h. ago The Standard podcast: The best video games of 2025: from Wanderstop to Clair Obscur

Listen here on your chosen podcast platform.

Politics

2 h. ago Coronation Street villain extends contract to stay on soap amid controversial storyline

A Coronation Street actor has spoken about their future on the show amid a controversial storyline

Politics

2 h. ago Tributes pour in for ‘happy go lucky' man, 84, who dedicated time to hospice

James Haworth was known for putting up poppy emblems on street lamps

Politics

2 h. ago Cyber attacks ‘tipping point’ warning issued after Harrods and M&S targeted

Jaguar Land Rover, Marks & Spencer and Harrods were some of the biggest businesses to be targeted by hackers in 2025

Events

2 h. ago Coronation Street Megan star reveals future on soap after controversial storyline

Coronation Street actress Beth Nixon plays controversial character Megan on the long-running ITV soap

Politics

2 h. ago From Bazball to Fifa, these were the villains of the sporting year

2025 saw its far share of ignominy

Politics

2 h. ago Coronation Street star makes dig at own soap in Emmerdale crossover teaser

Jack P Shepherd was heard teasing what's ahead in the Corrie and Emmerdale crossover, Corriedale, coming to ITV

Politics