Health secretary urges resident doctors to accept pay offer as he warns of pressures on health service from flu cases Wes Streeting has warned resident doctors that strikes and a jump in flu cases over the Christmas period could be “the Jenga piece” that forces the NHS to collapse. The health secretary said the NHS faced a “challenge unlike any it has seen since the pandemic” and urged resident doctors to accept the government’s offer and end their actions. Continue reading...

If anyone knows how to weather a whitewash, it’s the merry band of England fans marking their 30th anniversary at their spiritual home Courage, soldier. Ben Stokes’s England team may be heading into the third Ashes Test already 2-0 down, but not everyone in English cricket is fazed. There is one group tailor-made for this scenario, a crack(pot) unit who can lay claim to be the ultimate doomsday preppers. Have your dreams been shattered? Are you crushed beneath the weight of unmet expectation? Then it’s time to join the Barmy Army, son. Already their advance guard are moving in on Adelaide, the city where they officially formed 30 years ago. England’s most famous – and per capita noisiest – travelling fans will be hoping for an anniversary win-against-the-odds, like the one they witnessed on that 1994-95 tour. And whatever happens on the pitch, off it the parties will be long and loud. Continue reading...

Average 59,000 Sky viewers for last Saturday’s noon game Review planned with main rights holders, Sky and BBC The Women’s Super League will review its broadcast slots at the end of the season amid disappointment at some viewing figures during the first half of the campaign. An average audience of 59,000 watched live Sky Sports coverage of Arsenal’s 2-1 win over Liverpool last Saturday lunchtime, even fewer than the 71,000 people who watched Arsenal v Chelsea on Sky in the same noon kick-off slot last month, leading to criticism from fans about the scheduling of such flagship games. Continue reading...

Have you been following the big stories in cricket, football, motor racing, darts, climbing, athletics and the NFL? Continue reading...

With the US threatening to support ‘patriotic’ parties here, we need better defences, starting with tough new rules about political donations The new threat is so dizzyingly bizarre that Europe, and especially Britain, is slow to believe it. The US declares itself our enemy. Europe emerges as its main adversary in the US national security strategy. Russia is its friend, not us. Everything that looked solid since the second world war is turned upside down; the land of the free becomes the destroyer of democratic values. Appeasement fails. He may ramble, but Donald Trump speaks plainly. He means what he says, and he hates everything European. Except its emerging “patriotic” parties, which he wants to support. His strategy warns of “civilizational erasure”, claiming Europe will soon “become majority non-European” and parroting the racist conspiracy known as the great replacement theory. Describing Europeans as “weak”, “decaying” and “destroying their countries”, with “real stupid” leaders, Trump responded to the question of whether they would still be allies, in a Politico interview, with a hint of threat: “It depends.” Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Marlon Brando was a victim of it, even Princess Diana was caught out by a collar ‘curled like bacon in a pan’. Here are a few ways to avoid their fate • Don’t get Fashion Statement delivered to your inbox? Sign up here It is sometimes, amusingly, known as “bacon neck”, and it is the bane of my life: the loss of elasticity that results in a crinkly, ill-fitting collar. This undulating menace commonly befalls the classic crew-neck T-shirt or sweatshirt, but scoop, polo and V-necks can also be afflicted. Too often, science conspires to transform a smooth neckline into something resembling a failed polygraph test. The term “bacon neck” (not to be confused with “turkey neck”, the disparaging phrase for sagging skin that is almost uniformly levelled at women) was coined, or at least popularised, in a 2010 Hanes commercial featuring the basketball star Michael Jordan. In the clip, Jordan’s seat-mate points out a fellow plane passenger’s worn-out collar: “See how it’s all curled up like bacon in a pan? See how bad this guy looks?” Continue reading...

Norway’s world No 1, 35, lost 0.5-1.5 to the US veteran Levon Aronian, 43, in Cape Town but was already sure of overall victory and a prize of around $500k Norway’s world No 1, Magnus Carlsen, was shocked by a 0.5-1.5 loss to the US veteran Levon Aronian in Thursday’s final of the Freestyle Grand Slam Tour in Cape Town, but still finished the overall winner of the five-event Tour. Freestyle chess is also known as Fischer Random and Chess 960. Pieces start randomly placed on the two back rows, thus drastically limiting opening preparation. Its 2025 season, with a Tour financed mainly by a $12m investment from the venture firm Left Lane Capital, has featured tournaments in Weissenhaus, Karlsruhe, Paris and Las Vegas before the final in South Africa. Continue reading...

This week’s best wildlife photographs from around the world Continue reading...

GDP fell by 0.1% in October as activity failed to regain momentum after cyber-attack on Jaguar Land Rover Britain’s economy unexpectedly shrank in October before Rachel Reeves’s budget, official figures show, as activity failed to regain momentum after the cyber-attack on Jaguar Land Rover. Figures from the Office for National Satistics (ONS) showed gross domestic product fell by 0.1%, after a 0.1% drop in output in September. City economists had predicted a 0.1% rise in October. Continue reading...

Explore a curated selection of images by Guardian photographers from 2025. Available to buy through the Guardian Print Shop. Produced on premium heavyweight fine art paper, the prints are supplied with a Guardian Archive certificate of authenticity Order your print here Continue reading...

Concerns about power imbalance in franchise agreements amid claims over firm’s treatment of small-business owners The government will consider new laws to correct the power imbalance in franchise agreements in response to the “harrowing stories” of small business people running Vodafone stores. The move follows allegations of suicide and attempted suicide among shopkeepers who had agreed to deals to run retail outlets for the £18bn telecoms company, which were revealed by the Guardian on Monday. Continue reading...

In this week’s newsletter:​ The government’s bid to speed up nuclear construction could usher in sweeping deregulation, with experts warning of profound consequences for nature • Don’t get Down to Earth delivered to your inbox? Sign up here When UK prime minister Keir Starmer announced last week that he was “implementing the Fingleton review”, you can forgive the pulse of most Britons for failing to quicken. But behind the uninspiring statement lies potentially the biggest deregulation for decades, posing peril for endangered species, if wildlife experts are to be believed, and a likely huge row with the EU. 2025 ‘virtually certain’ to be second- or third-hottest year on record, EU data shows Just 0.001% hold three times the wealth of the poorest half of humanity, report finds ‘Even the animals seem confused’: a retreating Kashmir glacier is creating an entire new world in its wake Continue reading...

An exuberant, inspiring memoir from the New Yorker writer and author of The Orchid Thief In 2017, 10 years after Susan Orlean profiled Caltech-trained physicist turned professional origami artist Robert Lang for the New Yorker, she attended the OrigamiUSA convention to take Lang’s workshop on folding a “Taiwan goldfish”. I was with her, a radio producer trying to capture the sounds of paper creasing as Orlean attempted to keep pace with the “Da Vinci of origami”, wincing when her goldfish’s fins didn’t exactly flutter in hydrodynamic splendour. It was Orlean in her element: an adventurous student, inquisitive and exacting, fully alive to the mischief inherent to reporting – and primed to extract some higher truth. “When we first met you said something to me I’ve never forgotten,” Orlean told Lang. “That paper has a memory – that once you fold it, you can never entirely remove the fold.” Was that, she wondered, an insight about life, too? Continue reading...

From Essex to Istanbul, and from a soul music bar to a dramatic mountain pass, our tipsters share their personal travel highlights of the year Moments after stepping off the bus, I wanted to text my friend: “What have I done to you, why did you tell me to come here?” As I weaved my way through coach-party day trippers, my initial suspicions dissipated. I came to swim, but Piran offered so much more. Venetian squares provided a delicately ornate backdrop, while cobbled passageways housed bustling seafood restaurants, serving the day’s catch. The majestic Adriatic was made manageable by concrete diving platforms, fit for all ages. Naša Pekarna stocked delightfully crisp and filling böreks, and the bar/cafe Pri Starcu – owned by Patrik Ipavec, a former Slovenia international footballer – married warm hospitality with ice-cold beer and delicious early evening refreshments. Alex Continue reading...

Snuggle up under oak beams in front of a deep inglenook fireplace, stay warm with underfloor heating or enjoy your own wine cellar for festive entertaining Continue reading...

Stand Up to Cancer kicks off with unexpected Hollywood stars … and the beloved ‘hundys’ from The Celebrity Traitors. Plus: all-out luxury (and the best cheeses) at a Mayfair hotel. Here’s what to watch this evening 7.30pm, Channel 4 Davina McCall launches a run of programmes with the fight against cancer at their heart – including a Gogglebox special at 9.10pm with Kieran Culkin and Jazz Charton, Josh Hartnett and Tamsin Egerton, and Nick Mohammed and Joe Marler. Before that, there’s a documentary at 8pm from inside a cancer clinic at Addenbrooke’s hospital in Cambridge, following patients and their families on their journeys through testing, diagnosis and treatment. It aims to offer an insight into the clinical and emotional experience of this disease. Phil Harrison Continue reading...

Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets and the world economy. The important thing about last month’s budget is that we now have certainty, as one FTSE 100 CEO told me last week; no more endless speculation about which taxes might rise, for example. On the data front, this morning’s UK GDP stats are set to show the economy having stagnated in October, largely as a result of pre-Budget uncertainty freezing business investment and consumer spending alike, though the monthly data remains very noisy indeed, with relatively little by way of signal able to be extracted from the report. 7am GMT: UK GDP report for October 7am GMT: UK trade report for October 7.45pm GMT: French inflation report for November 8am GMT: Spanish inflation report for November 1.30pm GMT: US national activity index for September 4pm GMT: Russia’s GDP report for Q3 Continue reading...

Plummeting birth rates mean that without attracting immigration, many countries are sliding towards collapse I know what “civilisational erasure” looks like: I’ve seen the graph. The European Commission published it in March. It’s a chart of total fertility rate: the average number of children born per woman. After a minor bump over the past 20 years, the EU rate appears to be declining once more, and now stands at 1.38. The UK’s is 1.44. A population’s replacement rate is 2.1. You may or may not see this as a disaster, but the maths doesn’t care what you think. We are gliding, as if by gravitational force, towards the ground. Civilisational erasure is the term the Trump administration used in its new national security strategy, published last week. It claimed that immigration, among other factors, will result in the destruction of European civilisation. In reality, without immigration there will be no Europe, no civilisation and no one left to argue about it. George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Not long ago, artists such as Lil Nas X and Olly Alexander were ruling pop. But success has stalled as acts face industry obstacles and rising homophobia. What now? At the turn of the decade, gay male and non-binary pop stars seemed poised to take pop music by storm. Lil Nas X broke out with Old Town Road – which blew up on TikTok, sold about 18.5m copies and remains tied with Shaboozey’s A Bar Song (Tipsy) and Mariah Carey’s All I Want for Christmas Is You as the longest-running No 1 single in US history – and artists such as Sam Smith, Troye Sivan and Olly Alexander from Years & Years were all singing about gay love and sex. But the initial promise has stalled. Lil Nas X’s attempts to build on his smash debut album have fizzled, and he is publicly dealing with mental health issues. In October, Khalid released his first album since being outed by his ex last year but only sold 10,000 copies in the first week in the US. A previous album, 2019’s Free Spirit, sold some 200,000 copies in the first week and led to him briefly dethroning Ariana Grande as the most listened to artist on Spotify. Continue reading...

Our styling editor shares her favourite looks for getting dressed up to the nines • The best flat shoes for party season It’s party season, a time of year that either fills you with sartorial dread or has you screaming with excitement as you get to wear yet another embellished dress to the pub on Friday night (‘tis the season after all). I spend most of the year wearing navy trousers and oversized shirts, but there’s something about a party dress that speaks to my inner J-Lo. Give me applique flowers, cowl necks, asymmetric hemlines and lace edging, perhaps with an oversized blazer or knee-high boots. The options are endless and, in my opinion, during the silly season, the usual rules don’t apply. Here are the best party dress picks for December and beyond. Continue reading...

Levels during boarding and taxiing were far above those defined as high by the World Health Organization A study has revealed the concentrations of ultrafine particles breathed in by airline passengers. A team of French researchers, including those from Université Paris Cité, built a pack of instruments that was flown alongside passengers from Paris Charles de Gaulle to European destinations. The machinery was placed on an empty seat in the front rows or in the galley. Continue reading...

More trains, faster journeys and better reliability promised – but spectre of great timetable fiasco of 2018 looms large Billions of pounds of investment, years of engineering works – and now, the moment of truth. On 14 December a revamped railway timetable goes live across Britain, with the biggest fanfare and radical changes for the east coast mainline, where passengers are promised more train services, faster journeys and a new era of reliability. But the spectre of a previous, disastrous timetable change from May 2018 still looms over the railway. So will Sunday’s revamp be a great gift for passengers that the industry expects – or usher in a bleak midwinter ahead? Continue reading...

Mismatched or holey socks won’t cut it if your host asks you to leave your footwear at the door this party season Continue reading...

Milestone reached as journalists including Polly Toynbee and John Crace prepare for fundraising event on Saturday Donate to our charity appeal here The first week of the Guardian’s Hope appeal has raised more than £200,000 for grassroots charities doing inspiring work to bring divided communities together, promoting tolerance and positive change, and opposing racism and hate. The milestone was reached before the annual fundraising telethon on Saturday. Journalists preparing to take donations over the phone include Polly Toynbee, John Crace, Jonathan Liew, Patrick Wintour and Simon Hattenstone. Continue reading...

Home secretary to order special investigation amid concern inadequate checks during hiring spree may pose criminal risk The home secretary is to order an independent special inquiry into whether the Metropolitan police allowed hundreds of recruits to join without proper vetting amid fears they may pose a criminal risk. The Guardian has learned that the inquiry will be carried out by the policing inspectorate, with concerns centred on 300 new officers hired between 2016 and 2023. Continue reading...