Investors cheer forecast-beating results from chipmaker, as attention turns to delayed US employment report European trade commissioner Maroš Šefčovič has said the decades-old global trading system with secure global supply chains is over. In the wake of the most recent battle between the EU and China over the supply of chips for the auto industry, he told a conference in Brussels “everything could be weaponised”. “Europe for years, kind of relied upon the reliable global supply chains, this is a new situation. And suddenly we might have new tariffs, might have new exports controls. Simply that system, which was built for decades, is not there anymore. Everything could be weaponised. So unfortunately, it became the new tool in this, I would say, geopolitical competition.” Continue reading...

We’d like to hear all about your Secret Santa disasters It’s that time of year again… Whether it’s with family, colleagues or friends, many of us will be asked to take part in a Secret Santa as the festive period approaches. You know the drill: a fixed budget, a random name draw, and a high risk of ending up with something a bit naff. But hey, that’s Christmas, right? Maybe you’ve been lucky, and have done well out of Secret Santas over the years. But we’re looking for stories of when it’s gone really, really wrong. Have you received a gift that had clearly been bought that morning from the office’s nearest corner shop? Or have you given a gift that was intended as a joke, but which didn’t land with the recipient? We want to hear from you! Continue reading...

Only our current tech hellscape could create a comedy so insidiously inoffensive. Prepare to be pummelled into submission as your time is siphoned off by OK entertainment This is a cosy, lighthearted whodunnit about a retired professor who gets a second wind as a private eye. It’s also a bingo card for just about everything that makes streamer-era TV so patronising, uninspiring and mind-numbingly dull. On the surface, A Man on the Inside’s crimes might seem negligible: it’s a little schmaltzy, a little too pleased with itself in that wisecrack-stuffed American comedy way. Yet it’s exactly that inoffensiveness that makes this strain of television so insidious. When the New York Times critic James Poniewozik coined the term “mid TV” to describe the current “profusion of well-cast, sleekly produced competence” that has come to dominate our screens, it wasn’t so much a vicious takedown as a shrug at the blah-ness of it all. The tech giants have pummelled us into submission by siphoning off our time via OK entertainment. Continue reading...

Who knows where this government’s credibility will be after next week’s exceptionally difficult budget By instinct and conviction, Rachel Reeves is a traditionally social democratic, centre-left Labour chancellor. When she delivers her budget next week, though, those qualities will be hard to discern. The reason for that is simple but powerful. She has become hemmed in on every side by avoidably tight commitments on taxation, spending and borrowing. Above all, however, she is hemmed in by Labour politics. It did not have to be this way. Reeves would have had a freer fiscal hand if she and Labour had not ruled out increasing all the three main personal taxes at the 2024 election – a choice the former Conservative minister David Willetts described this week as “catastrophic”. Reeves might also have won herself more elbow room, albeit at some political cost, if the new government had moved very decisively to say that, having studied the figures, the triple-tax pledge was in fact unsustainable. Martin Kettle is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

The former 70s-loving PE teacher has found cult acclaim with his sitcom Mammoth, about a time-travelling 70s PE teacher. The parallels don’t end there, he says, but some things from that era are best left in the past Think growing some fuzz on your top lip for Movember is impressive? Mike Bubbins hasn’t shaved his moustache for 15 years. “Growing up, all the people I admired like Burt Reynolds and Tom Selleck had a moustache,” explains the Welsh actor, writer and comedian. “My stag night had a Welsh 1970s rugby theme; there were some great taches in that era so I grew a moustache just for the occasion. Afterwards, I told a friend that I missed the moustache. He said: ‘Grow it back then.’ I said: ‘I’m not gonna get TV work if I’ve got a moustache.’ He said: ‘But you might get work because you’ve got a moustache.’ It was like Samson’s hair, and I haven’t looked back since …” Bubbins’s love of all things 70s and moustachioed helps explain the idea behind his BBC sitcom, Mammoth. In it, Bubbins plays Tony Mammoth, a 70s Welsh PE teacher who is cryogenically frozen in an avalanche in 1979. When he awakes in 2024, he goes back to a teaching job he technically never left, and in the process is forced to navigate the changes to the modern world since he last lived in it, from same-sex relationships to traffic pollution (“Always keep the engine running” is his outdated advice). Continue reading...

Some say the Border-Gavaskar Trophy is now pre-eminent, but there is nothing more intense than Australia v England If it feels like the buildup to this Ashes series has lasted 842 days that is because it pretty much has. Test cricket’s oldest rivalry resumes on Friday inside Perth’s 60,000-seat thunderdome and with it, mercifully, comes fresh fuel for the ever-raging fire. Because on one level the Ashes never really starts or stops. Since Stuart Broad nicked off Alex Carey at the Oval on 31 July 2023 – the final act of a dramatic 2-2 draw – the sides have been tracking each other, all while their supporters chip away from afar. Continue reading...

FA crackdown has led to the suspension of 149 match officials and more than 1,000 players in push to restore public faith in the game Everything in Turkish football, it seemed, was going too well. Galatasaray have been flying in the Champions League, powered by Victor Osimhen. Arda Güler is soaring at Real Madrid with goals and assists. Even the men’s national team, under Vincenzo Montella, have looked their most promising in years. But it would not be Turkish football without drama and drama is what the hardline president of the Turkish Football Federation (TFF), İbrahim Hacıosmanoğlu, has delivered. Continue reading...

Team president Elkann had revealed his frustrations ‘I think about it when I’m sleeping,’ says British driver Lewis Hamilton has insisted he does not believe he can work any harder to help improve Ferrari’s performance he said in reaction to a rebuke from the Ferrari president John Elkann, who had stated he should: “Focus on driving and talk less.” Hamilton however maintained pointedly that the issues at Ferrari would not be fixed with “the click of a finger”. Hamilton, who has yet to claim a podium for Ferrari in what has been an immensely trying first season with the team, was outspoken after another disappointing race at the last round in Brazil, after which he described his debut year with a Ferrari as “a nightmare”. Elkann, responded equally bluntly with his riposte. Continue reading...

Snow hits UK coasts and worst-affected regions could face travel disruption and power cuts, says Met Office Blizzard conditions are possible in parts of north-east England where an amber warning for snow has come into force, the Met Office has said. Sleet and snow showers continued to hit UK coasts overnight into Thursday, with the worst-affected areas facing disruption to travel and potential power cuts, the forecaster said. Continue reading...

Where better to source what you need for the season than the places with a reputation for making it? From fizz and food to fine art, here’s our festive shopping guide Stock up on festive fizz with a trip to the heart of Kent’s flourishing wine region. Start the tastings at Simpsons’ wine estate, 10 minutes’ drive from Canterbury, then head to Domaine Evremond, Taittinger’s UK vineyard, where its first release, Classic Cuvée Edition I, is available at the Cellar Door shop. Nearby, the medieval village of Chilham makes an ideal stop for lunch at the Woolpack Inn. Back in Canterbury, Corkk is a specialist English wine shop with more than 100 labels to try, and cheese and charcuterie platters to nibble on while you decide what to buy. Stay at the Millers Arms, in the heart of town, with B&B doubles from £93.50. Continue reading...

Benedict Cumberbatch gives an honest performance, but this is too self-conscious to challenge or work through loss with same power as the book This is a painful movie in both the right and the wrong ways; I found something fundamentally unpersuasive and unhelpful in its contrived, high-concept depiction of grief. Adapted by writer-director Dylan Southern from Max Porter’s novella Grief Is the Thing With Feathers, it stars Benedict Cumberbatch who gives a well-intentioned performance as a children’s author and graphic novelist. Living a middle-class existence in London, he is suddenly widowed; one of the movie’s off-target qualities is its refusal to specify the cause of death or even show us clearly what his wife looked like, which in real life would be unbearably vivid facts. Sam Spruell has a quietly sympathetic role as Cumberbatch’s brother. Left to look after their two young boys, he succumbs to a kind of breakdown, and hallucinates a giant nightmarish crow, which after a while the boys can sense too. The crow is derisively voiced by David Thewlis, and resembles the Ted-Hughes-ish illustrations Cumberbatch was working on. It sneeringly, ruthlessly mocks and jeers at his “sad dad” anguish; while everyone else is walking on eggshells around him, perhaps making things worse, the brutal crow jabs its beak into his psychic wound. Continue reading...

This collection of new short stories about Bertie and his valet pays homage to the genius of PG Wodehouse – just in time for Christmas As with most of the giants of late 19th- and early 20th-century English literature, the vast majority of PG Wodehouse’s readers today are non-white. Perhaps it was brutal colonial indoctrination that ensured the modern descendants of the aspirant imperial middle classes from Barbados to Burma, with their tea caddies, gin-stuffed drinks cabinets and yellowing Penguin paperbacks, still devour Maugham, Shaw and Kipling. Perhaps they just have good taste. Wodehouse’s detractors are many – Stephen Sondheim (“archness … tweeness … flimsiness”), Winston Churchill (“He can live secluded in some place or go to hell as soon as there is a vacant passage”), the Inland Revenue – but for millions around the world he remains the greatest comic writer Britain has ever produced. And he clearly still sells here, as this collection of a dozen new officially sanctioned stories by writers, comedians and celebrity admirers, out in time to be a stocking filler, attests. Continue reading...

Magnum photographer Lúa Ribeira worked intensely with young people – shooting them in dystopian landscapes on city limits to reflect their feelings of disconnection Continue reading...

Five who were at Hampden Park or watching from afar share their reactions to the end of a 28-year wait Scotland have qualified for the men’s football World Cup for the first time in 28 years after beating Denmark 4-2 at Hampden Park. Five Scotland fans who were at the game or watching from afar share their reactions to the result. Continue reading...

Test yourself on topical news trivia, pop culture and general knowledge every Thursday. How will you fare? Last week in the comments, someone dared raise the ancient philosophical conundrum: when we say “the first line of a play”, do we mean the first words spoken by a character, or do the stage directions count? The Thursday quiz condemns such quibbling, hair splitting and dramaturgical pedantry – unless of course it’s the quiz making a fuss. Still, the show must go on regardless, so limber up for another 15 questions of topical nonsense and dubious – though entirely correct – general knowledge. Let us know how you get on in the comments. Allons-y! The Thursday news quiz, No 224 Continue reading...

The Death of Bunny Monro is based on a Brighton-set novel about a sex-addict salesman. Plus: Celebrity Race Across the World hits El Salvador. Here’s what to watch this evening 9pm, Sky Atlantic Matt Smith is at his most grotesque in an unsettling drama based on Nick Cave’s scandalous novel of the same name (Cave also executive produces). It’s set in Brighton in 2003, with Smith playing Bunny Munro – a hedonistic sex-addict salesman who manages to charm many around him while enraging others. After the death of his wife, Libby (Sarah Greene), he takes in his sweet, curious nine-year-old kid Bunny Jr (Rafael Mathé). But when social services call in to a flat littered with drugs, booze and cigarettes – plus a naked woman in the hallway – Bunny legs it with his son and together they embark on a wild road trip across southern England. Hollie Richardson Continue reading...

Captain hits out at comments made by Monty Panesar Jake Weatherald gets nod to open in series opener in Perth Australia captain Steve Smith has confirmed his team for Friday’s opening Ashes Test – but the announcement was overshadowed by an extraordinary verbal attack on Monty Panesar after the former England spinner suggested Ben Stokes and his touring team should try to upset him by rehashing the infamous sandpaper ball tampering controversy of 2018. Smith insisted the comments “didn’t really bother me”, but only having apparently demonstrated the opposite – by raking over Panesar’s notoriously miserable appearance on the TV quiz Mastermind in 2019. Continue reading...

Exclusive: union leaders say proposed changes are immoral and could threaten patient safety if there is staff exodus Up to 50,000 nurses could quit the UK over the government’s immigration proposals, plunging the NHS into its biggest ever workforce crisis, research suggests. Keir Starmer has vowed to curb net migration, with plans to force migrants to wait as long as 10 years to apply to settle in the UK instead of automatically gaining settled status after five years. Continue reading...

Study finds new party divide as backing for Labour and Conservatives plunges from 84% in 2020 to 58% in 2025 A new party divide is emerging among British Jews, research has found, with support rising fast for the Greens – buoyed up by younger and “anti-Zionist” Jews – while older Orthodox men turn to Reform UK as trust in the two main parties “collapses”. Support for Labour and the Conservatives among British Jews had fallen to 58% by July 2025 from nearly 84% in 2020, according to a report from the Institute of Jewish Policy Research (JPR), which said it was “the lowest level we’ve ever recorded by some distance”. Continue reading...

Imposing a 1% levy on the super-rich isn’t a policy, it’s pantomime. Tackling inequality in Britain will require much more far-reaching changes By this time next week you will be digesting the budget, you lucky thing. Yet even before Rachel Reeves has commended a single damn thing to the house, her efforts have been written off as a “shambles”, from a “chaotic” government that is Labour in name alone. Which begs the question: what is the leftwing alternative? Because there is one, on which agreement stretches from Labour backbenchers to many of their opponent MPs and far beyond. Whether you listen to Zack Polanski or Zarah Sultana, the TUC or the YouTubers, they all call for a wealth tax – stinging the rich to pay for schools and hospitals. Who could be against such a thing? Aditya Chakrabortty is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Exclusive: Trade agreement means UK is subject to some food labelling rules, with vote on vegetarian food terms this week Calling plant-based food veggie “burgers” or “sausages” may be banned in the UK under the new trade agreement with the EU, the Guardian understands. The Labour government secured a new sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) agreement with the EU earlier this year, which allows British businesses to sell products including some burgers and sausages in the EU for the first time since Brexit. Continue reading...

Slivers of garlicky red pepper on a creamy Balkan white bean dip known as papula This week, I’ve been putting the finishing touches on an interview I recorded with legendary Australian cheesemaker Richard Thomas, the inventor of an ingredient you may not even realise is Australian: marinated feta, AKA “Persian fetta”. An unexpected stop on a trip to Iran in the 1970s gifted Thomas a chance meeting with a Persian doctor and his breakfast: fresh labneh with soft, still-warm lavash. It was a revelation. On his return, Thomas got to work creating a fresh cheese from goat’s milk (similar to chèvre) and from cow’s milk, marinated and preserved in oil, with an extra “t” to avert confusion with the Greek-style feta, that’s still being utilised by cooks and chefs right across the world. Persian fetta is a shapeshifter, capable of remaining both firm and steadfast when crumbled across the top of a platter or salad, and of yielding to a soft, velvety cream, enhancing all manner of dishes from pasta to pesto to whipped dips and schmears – and, of course, as a topping for that Aussie cafe staple, avocado toast. Alice Zaslavsky is a Guardian Australia food columnist Continue reading...

Guo, who pretended to be Filipina to become mayor, found guilty of human trafficking after raid on compound where more than 700 people were forced to run scams Alice Guo, a Chinese national who became a mayor in the Philippines while masquerading as a Filipina, has been sentenced to life in prison along with seven others on human trafficking charges, state prosecutors have said. Guo, who served as mayor of a town north of Manila, was found guilty of overseeing a Chinese-operated online gambling centre where hundreds of people were forced to run scams or risk torture. Continue reading...

President has previously criticised the New York City mayor-elect, labelling him a ‘communist’ and threatening to deport him Donald Trump has confirmed a long-awaited meeting with New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani will happen in Washington this week, setting up an in-person clash between the political opposites who for months have antagonised each other. The sit-down, which Trump said on social media would take place on Friday in the Oval Office, could possibly represent a detente of sorts between the Republican president and Democratic rising star. Continue reading...

The author has been explaining Sichuan cuisine to westerners for decades. But ‘Fu Xia’, as she’s known, has had a profound effect on food lovers in China, too Every autumn in the mid-00s, when I lived in China, my friend Scarlett Li would invite me to Shanghai to eat hairy crab. Named for the spiky fur on their legs and claws, the crabs are said to have the best flavour during the ninth month of the lunar calendar. They’re steamed and served whole, with a dip of rice vinegar spiked with ginger. The most prized specimens come from Yangcheng Lake near Suzhou, which is not far from Scarlett’s home town of Wuxi. She had moved to Hong Kong as a child, attended high school and college in Australia, and returned to China to pursue a career as an entrepreneur. Despite her years abroad, she remained Chinese through and through – and eating hairy crab with her, I became Chinese, too. Beginning in the Tang dynasty in the seventh century, crabs were harvested from the lakes and estuaries of the Yangtze delta and sent as tribute to the imperial court. Twelfth-century Hangzhou had specialised crab markets and dedicated crab restaurants. “I have lusted after crabs all my life,” wrote the 17th-century playwright Li Yu. “From the first day of the crab season until the last day they are sold, I … do not let a single evening pass without eating them …. Dear crab, dear crab, you and I, are we to be lifelong companions?” Continue reading...