55 m. ago ‘Freedom is a city where you can breathe’: four experts on Europe’s most liveable capitals

From Copenhagen’s cycle lanes and Vienna’s shared parks to Barcelona and London’s unfulfilled potential, better living is close at handThe angry rumble of a speeding SUV. The metallic smog of backlogged traffic. The aching heat of sun-dried neighbourhoods baking in an oven of concrete and asphalt.For most people, the mundane threats that plague our environments are likely to annoy more than they spark dread. But for scientists who know just how dangerous our surroundings can be, the burden of knowledge weighs heavy each day. Across Europe, environmental risks cause 18% of deaths from cardiovascular disease and 10% of deaths from cancer. Traffic crashes in the EU kill five times more people than murders. Continue reading...

Politics

1 hour ago F1 2025 awards: Best driver, biggest disappointment and top overtake

Lando Norris won the 2025 drivers’ world championship, but who else impressed? Formula 1 correspondent Kieran Jackson picks through the good, the bad and the ugly of an entertaining and dramatic season on track

Events

2 h. ago Gary Lineker is Hearts believer as Celtic 'bad run' sparks honest title question

The league leaders are six points clear at the summit and their form has caught the eye of Lineker

Politics

5 h. ago Flight attendant shows secret area 'no passenger is allowed' with beds and TV

Travelling on a long-haul flight can feel exhausting, but with all the on-board entertainment and round-the-clock meals, then it doesn't seem so bad after all...

Culture

5 h. ago Dancing! Fighting! Impregnating! The best movie moments of 2025

From Sinners to F1 to Highest 2 Lowest, Guardian writers pick the scenes that stuck with them the most this yearSpoilers aheadDisclosure: I covered auto racing for years and still follow Formula One skeptically. I definitely went into F1: The Movie knowing what I was in for, an answer to the hypothetical: what if the bougiest sport on God’s green earth was turned into a western? But you can’t help going along for the ride once Brad Pitt starts filling the frame with his blue-eyed winks, wry smiles and Butch Cassidy swagger. I should’ve been more indignant about this martinet sport making a literal hero out of the biggest rogue on the grid. But I left disbelief in parc fermé as Pitt’s Sonny Hayes bumped and nicked his way to the season finale at Abu Dhabi to much consternation before his wingman (Damson Idris) takes up the ticky tactics at Yas Marina circuit and winds up sacrificing himself and producer Lewis Hamilton (not again!) to help Sonny win his first race and thwart a hostile...

Culture

5 h. ago Why are drug prices so high in America? Trump doesn’t have the right answer | Susi Geiger and Théo Bourgeron

Americans are not paying high prices because of other western countries. Pharmaceutical companies are to blame When Donald Trump spoke about drug prices on 19 December, he struck a familiar note. Americans, he said, were paying far too much for medicines – and it was everyone else’s fault.There would be no talk of reining in private insurers or pharmaceutical profits. Instead, Trump blamed foreign governments for getting a better deal. Countries like France, Germany and Japan, he argued, were piggybacking on the United States by keeping their drug prices low.Susi Geiger and Théo Bourgeron are the authors of Peak Pharma: Toward a New Political Economy of Health (Oxford University Press) Continue reading...

Politics

5 h. ago England's nightmare Ashes tour takes new twist as Ben Stokes handed fresh blow

Jofra Archer has been ruled out of England's remaining Ashes Tests after being diagnosed with a left side strain as things go from bad to worse Down Under

Politics

9 h. ago Here's what Derek McInnes will be telling Hearts stars about the title he won't say in public yet – Ryan Stevenson

Stevo believes McInnes' answer on whether Hearts are challengers is only for public consumption

Politics

10 h. ago ‘I think I was relatively astute in The Traitors!’ Nick Mohammed on magic, TV mayhem and why he turned on Joe Marler

He stole our hearts in The Celebrity Traitors – then it all went wrong. The actor and comedian opens upWhen I catch up with Nick Mohammed, he is on the set of War, a new HBO series. Full of legal eagles, tech-bro hot shots and ugly divorces, it’s a punchy, slick enterprise, nothing at all like The Celebrity Traitors – except for the high drama, unbearable tension and the fact that Mohammed is reunited with Celia Imrie. Traitors was filmed in April and May and this started in September, so they both knew exactly what had happened in the castle, but were still in their chamber of deadly secrecy. Mainly, Mohammed was happy just to kick about with Imrie again. “She’s wonderful,” he says. “Everything you think she might be, she absolutely is – she’s just brilliant.”Which brings us to the root of the problem, the answer to the question: “What the hell happened, Nick?” Spoiler alert: we intend to talk about exactly what went down in the most infuriating Traitors final since, well, the last...

Politics

16 h. ago 'It does worry me': David Walliams feared his 'very bad taste' WhatsApp messages could emerge as he now faces harassment allegations

David Walliams said he feared that his 'very bad taste' WhatsApp messages could emerge just months before he was axed by his publisher.

Events

16 h. ago We need to quiz Andrew, said FBI: How the US asked Britain to put ex

Hundreds of documents concerning paedophile Jeffrey Epstein were released by the US government as part of its transparency drive, and some give Andrew further questions to answer.

Events

20 h. ago Aliens will be discovered within 50 years but won't look like ET, says space scientist

Dame Maggie Aderin-Pocock, a space scientist at University College London and BBC presenter, predicts alien life will be found by 2075 but likely as 'grey sludge'

Science

21 h. ago The Guardian view on the festive season: a suffering world needs messages of peace, hope and goodwill | Editorial

The fracturing multilateral order has led to a new age of insecurity. But acts of courage and solidarity can point the way to a better futureIn one of his last sermons, the great Christian theologian and philosopher Paul Tillich asked: “Do we have a right to hope?” As an army chaplain to German forces during the first world war and a refugee from Nazi Germany, Tillich had witnessed first-hand some of the horrors of the 20th century. But his answer to the question he posed in 1965 was yes. Nobody could live without hope, Tillich told his Harvard audience, even if it led “through the narrows of a painful and courageous ‘in-spite-of’”.Sixty years on, a similar spirit of defiant optimism is needed to navigate our own era of conflict and anxiety. The fourth anniversary of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is approaching, and dark political forces menace the social fabric of western liberal democracies. More widely, a fracturing multilateral order is delivering a more unstabl...

Politics

23 h. ago Christmas Quiz: How well do you know these popular Christmas songs? Finish the line

How many of these can you answer correctly?

Culture

24 h. ago Scientists create replica human womb lining and implant early

Studying chemical chatter as tiny balls of cells embed could shine a light on early pregnancy and glitches that lead to miscarriageResearchers have created the lining of a womb in a dish, which promises to shed light on the mysterious early stages of human pregnancy and the glitches that can lead to miscarriage and medical complications.In laboratory experiments, early-stage human embryos donated from couples after IVF treatment successfully implanted into the engineered lining and began to churn out key compounds, such as the hormone that results in a blue line on positive pregnancy tests. Continue reading...

Politics

24 h. ago The 'picky bits' you should never serve as part of your Christmas spreads according to top chefs

Party food tends to be vulnerable to trend-ification, with retailers doing their utmost to cram as many of the year's biggest food trends into their picky bits offerings.

Politics

25 h. ago 'Europe's answer to Hawaii' is just 4 hours from UK with flights from £40

Often dubbed 'Europe's answer to Hawaii', this region boasts dramatic landscapes, volcanic black sand beaches and crystal-clear waters, making it perfect for a winter getaway

Economics

26 h. ago ‘I wouldn’t answer Stephen Graham’s calls’: Erin Doherty on dreams, danger and ghosting Adolescence’s creator

She won an Emmy for her electric performance in the Netflix smash hit, but the casting process wasn’t exactly hiccup-free. The actor opens up about a year of success, struggle – and how she nearly became a footballerFor a while, Erin Doherty ignored Stephen Graham’s calls. Not deliberately, she stresses with a laugh. “I’m just really bad at my phone. I’m such a technophobe, and he knew that,” she says. They had made the Disney+ show A Thousand Blows together, in which Doherty plays an East End crime boss in Victorian London, and Graham had talked about an idea he wanted to dramatise, about a teenage boy who is catastrophically radicalised by online misogyny. A couple of months after they’d wrapped A Thousand Blows, Graham and his wife and producing partner, Hannah Walters, kept trying to get in touch. “I was getting voice notes from him and Hannah being like, ‘Erin, pick up your phone!’” Doherty’s girlfriend told her to ring him back and Graham offered her the role in Adolescence. S...

Politics

26 h. ago Bruno Fernandes leaves Alan Shearer worried as 'really bad' situation unfolds at Man United

Bruno Fernandes is set for a spell on the sidelines for Manchester United through injury with Alan Shearer issuing his verdict

Politics

27 h. ago Striking a cord: the return of wired headphones is restoring friction to our convenience

From Zendaya to zoomers, listeners are forgoing the convenience of wireless headphones to plug in again. Is it just a retro affectation – or does this physical connection strengthen our relationship to music?AirPods changed my life. I was previously a user of excellent but somewhat cumbersome Audio Technica over-ears, but Apple’s wireless headphones – dinky in their construction, finicky in their setup, temperamental in their ability to actually work – liberated me from cords. My listening habits are, at best, frustrating for the people around me: when you write about music, you have to listen to the same things over and over, and sometimes those things are very bad. Suddenly I could listen to a terrible new pop record or an ominous drone piece while making breakfast or folding laundry late at night without fear of disturbing my housemates by listening from a speaker. I kept my Audio Technicas but built out my collection of AirPods; now I use the wireless in-ear ones while commuting...

Events