The award-winning designer and architect leaves behind unique buildings all across the world from Dundee to Düsseldorf. He died after a brief respiratory illness at the age of 96 Frank Gehry, legendary Canadian-American architect, dies aged 96 Continue reading...

At a gaudy and gauche World Cup draw, Gianni Infantino went all out to flatter the world’s most precious ego It had about as much drama and suspense as reading a dictionary or watching election results come in from North Korea. To the surprise of no one, Donald Trump won the inaugural Fifa peace prize on Friday at a cheesy, gaudy and gauche World Cup draw expertly designed to flatter the world’s most precious ego. Continue reading...

Dundee Rep This hazily dramatised show is full of pizzazz and features the voice of Brian Cox but in making Jack as cynical as his mum it loses the story’s heart Do not be misled by the title. This is a takeover. Not only has this Jack and the Beanstalk gone from fairy story to panto to musical, but Jack has been relegated to second billing. To be accurate, this “new moooosical” by Jonathan O’Neill and Isaac Savage should be called Caroline and the Beanstalk, Caroline being the name of the highland cow who is adopted by Jack’s family and becomes sole supplier of milk for their Glen and Sherry’s brand of ice-cream. Played by an excellent Suzie McAdam, all ginger hair and stoicism, she is treated as an equal until the business fails. Then, it only takes a few magic beans for her to wind up in the Happy Smiles Petting Zoo, being prodded by unseen children while trying to hatch an escape plan with a hen, a llama and a pig. After some sub-Wallace and Gromit shenanigans, she is back home and ready to sort out the fickle Jack (Ronan O’Hara) and his troublesome beanstalk. At Dundee Rep until 30 December Continue reading...

As Premier League’s most in-form side prepare to host Arsenal their experience is beginning to look like a superpower In a parallel universe somewhere, Unai Emery is still wrestling with his black puffer coat in his dugout at the Amex Stadium, trying to force his hands through the sleeves, fresh from hurling it to the ground in wild celebration. The adrenaline of Aston Villa’s 4-3 comeback win at Brighton on Wednesday has probably only just faded. He made cinematic viewing and triggered memories of Mario Balotelli struggling to put on a warm-up bib and Tim Sherwood, while Villa manager a decade ago, launching his club-branded jacket towards the turf after Christian Benteke equalised against QPR. By the end, Emery was hoarse and Villa had chalked up an eighth victory in nine Premier League matches, 12 out of 14 in all competitions. Across the past 10 league matches, Villa have accrued a division-high 25 points and in that time only Manchester City have scored more goals and Arsenal conceded fewer. This is the same team that failed to win any of their opening six matches and took three points from their first five league games. At that point Emery was concerned and shared his feelings with his squad, insisting his players raise their performance levels at training and in matches. Belief within an experienced squad – at 27.4 years, the average age of players selected in the league this season is the joint-oldest, with Fulham – did not waver. Continue reading...

He has a 12-point lead before Sunday’s Abu Dhabi GP but the British driver vows to ‘crack on’ if the title goes elsewhere The atmosphere at a season-deciding finale in the Formula One world championship is like no other. The paddock positively hums with a febrile, pulsing excitement and sense of expectation that is impossible to ignore. Amid all of which the title favourite, Lando Norris, finds himself at the moment he has dedicated his life toward, destiny lying in his own hands. After a gruelling 23-race trek around the world, the conclusion of all the work, sacrifice and effort will be decided in just an hour and a half on Sunday afternoon in Abu Dhabi. Continue reading...

Ruling compels unsealing of documents from 2006-2007 federal investigation into Epstein in Florida A federal judge in Florida ordered the release of grand jury transcripts from the Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell sex-trafficking cases on Friday, citing the recently enacted federal law that overrides traditional secrecy protections. US district judge Rodney Smith ruled that the Epstein Files Transparency Act, signed into law last month by Donald Trump, overrode federal rules prohibiting the disclosure of grand jury materials. Continue reading...

Steve Clarke’s side also drawn with Haiti in Group C Fifth time Scotland and Brazil will meet at a World Cup Scotland face a mouthwatering reunion with Brazil in their first World Cup campaign since 1998 after being drawn in Group C at Friday’s ceremony. Steve Clarke’s players will also face Morocco and Haiti on their return to the big time, opening their campaign against the latter on 13 June. That curtain raiser will be played in either the Boston area or the MetLife Stadium near New York City. Continue reading...

The architect, whose work included the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in LA, died after a brief illness Frank Gehry, one of the most influential and distinctive talents in American architecture, died Friday at his home in Los Angeles following a brief respiratory illness, his chief of staff confirmed to the New York Times. He was 96. Gehry, the most recognizable American architect since Frank Lloyd Wright, was one of the first to embrace the potential of computer design, and pioneered a distinctively exuberant style of bravura power, whimsical and arresting collisions of form. His most famous work remains the Guggenheim Museumin Bilbao, a fantastical, titanium-clad composition on the Nervión River which received international acclaim upon its opening in 1997, heralding a new era of emotive architecture. Continue reading...

England to play Croatia, Panama and Ghana in Group L France joined by Senegal and Norway in Group I Trump awarded inaugural Fifa peace prize England will face a rematch of their 2018 semi-final in the opening fixture of their World Cup campaign next summer, after they were drawn alongside Croatia in Group L. England will also play Panama, another side they faced at the Russia World Cup, and Ghana. Venues and kick-off times will be announced from 5pm GMT on Saturday but the group’s matches are split across four US cities – Dallas, Boston, New York/New Jersey and Philadelphia – and Toronto. Continue reading...

US politicians and Hollywood guilds have voiced concerns against the proposed $83bn purchase of the studio The news that Netflix has agreed to buy Warner Bros in an $83bn deal has led to backlash among figures in and out of the entertainment industry. Elizabeth Warren, a Democratic senator, called it “an anti-monopoly nightmare” in a statement released soon after the announcement. Continue reading...

Russian airstrikes in Kyiv, floods in Colombo, the cold moon in Gaza and Trump at the World Cup draw: the past seven days as captured by the world’s leading photojournalists Continue reading...

Hundreds of videos on TikTok and elsewhere impersonate experts to sell supplements with unproven effects TikTok and other social media platforms are hosting AI-generated deepfake videos of doctors whose words have been manipulated to help sell supplements and spread health misinformation. The factchecking organisation Full Fact has uncovered hundreds of such videos featuring impersonated versions of doctors and influencers directing viewers to Wellness Nest, a US-based supplements firm. Continue reading...

Testing showing racial bias against black and Asian people prompts watchdog to ask Home Office for explanation The UK’s data protection watchdog has asked the Home Office for “urgent clarity” over racial bias in police facial recognition technology before considering its next steps. The Home Office has admitted that the technology was “more likely to incorrectly include some demographic groups in its search results”, after testing by the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) of its application within the police national database. Continue reading...

Perplexity AI also faces lawsuit from Murdoch-owned Dow Jones and New York Post for its use of copyrighted content The New York Times sued an embattled artificial intelligence startup on Friday, accusing the firm of illegal copying of millions of articles. The newspaper alleged Perplexity AI had distributed and displayed journalists’ work without permission en masse. The Times said that Perplexity AI is also violating its trademarks under the Lanham Act, claiming the startup’s generative AI products create fabricated content, or “hallucinations”, and falsely attribute them to the newspaper by displaying them alongside its registered trademarks. Continue reading...

Several countries are boycotting Eurovision after Israel was cleared to compete in the 2026 song contest despite calls for it to be excluded over the war in Gaza. Lucy Hough speaks to our European culture editor, Philip Oltermann Continue reading...

These deadly US boat strikes are the latest example of a president corrupting both the law and morality The Trump administration looks ever more like a criminal enterprise – and now it seems to have added war crimes to its repertoire. Though even that may be too generous a description. On Thursday, word came that the US military had launched yet another deadly strike on a small boat moving through international waters. This time the attack killed four people, bringing to at least 87 the number of people the US has killed in a series of 22 such strikes on what it says are drug boats – vessels carrying illicit narcotics in the Caribbean or eastern Pacific. Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist Guardian newsroom: Year One of Trumpism: Is Britain Emulating the US? On Wednesday 21 January 2026, join Jonathan Freedland, Tania Branigan and Nick Lowles as they reflect on the first year of Donald Trump’s second presidency – and to ask if Britain could be set on the same path. Book tickets here or at guardian.live Continue reading...

Farage doubts people can remember their abuse from years ago. I’ve never forgotten his – it felt malicious to me Former Dulwich college pupil alleges Farage told him ‘that’s the way back to Africa’ For someone who has waited so long – umming and erring, should I or shouldn’t I – about whether to speak out, it became abundantly clear on Thursday what I had to do. There was Nigel Farage holding a press conference on live television and responding to racism allegations from his teenage years by lambasting the BBC and ITV for giving airtime in the 1970s to the comedian Bernard Manning and the fictional character of Alf Garnett. As a Christian, I could not help but see it as the most amazingly disingenuous example of the phrase “let he without sin cast the first stone”. It was also the final straw. My late parents were born in Nigeria and came to the UK in the 1950s. For the Windrush generation, I am told it was a ship ride of many days. My parents came to serve, as is so typical of immigrants from the Commonwealth at the time. My mum had to undergo “further” training as a nurse despite having already practised as a nurse in Nigeria, while my dad qualified as an osteopath. They both in effect came over here to participate in creating a healthy nation, whether via the NHS or in a private capacity. Continue reading...

Trump praised by Infantino at DC ceremony President’s peace claims disputed by critics Nobel prize ambitions linger over Fifa award Donald Trump has been named the first winner of the newly created Fifa peace prize, claiming “the world is a safer place now” as he recieved the award at the draw for the 2026 World Cup in Washington DC. Gianni Infantino, the Fifa president and one of Trump’s closest sporting allies, presented the honour onstage at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on Friday, saying Trump had been selected “in recognition of his exceptional and extraordinary actions to promote peace and unity around the world”. Continue reading...

Word from the top-tier press conferences, including Maresca singling out Tosin’s gaffes and Paquetá expecting an instant West Ham return Continue reading...

The new strategy has gaps. But ministers have shown that they are serious and capable of listening If the government’s long-awaited child poverty strategy, launched on Friday, was a bit of a damp squib, that is because the best bit had been absorbed by the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, in last month’s budget. The decision to remove the two-child limit, which prevented parents from claiming child-linked benefits for third or subsequent children, is expected to lift 550,000 children out of poverty by the end of this parliament. It is the best welfare decision taken by Labour since they were elected. Ms Reeves was correct to press the point that “potential suffocated by limited life chances” is a blight on society as well as on those who experience it directly. No wonder that Labour ministers and MPs have sounded confident when talking about it. The Conservative decision to make larger families poorer was unjustifiable and damaging. Stories of children lacking the basics of sufficient food and secure housing have become shamefully common. With a record 4.5 million children in the UK in poverty, and 2 million in “deep material poverty” – in households that cannot afford the essentials of life – action was overdue. The Scottish government has already introduced new child payments, putting incomes there on a different trajectory. Continue reading...

An Asian Scrooge, a break-dancing Bob Cratchit and a musical bear – new versions of classics keep stories alive Not even the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come could have foreseen a Bollywood-inspired film or a hip-hop fantasy performance of A Christmas Carol. But these are the latest takes on Dickens’s much-adapted classic: Christmas Karma from Gurinder Chadha, the Bend It Like Beckham director, brings us Mr Sood, a Ugandan Asian refugee (played by Kunal Nayyar), who came to Britain in 1972; Ebony Scrooge transforms the old miser into a Dominican fashion diva at the recently opened Sadler’s Wells East, London. We may think of Scrooge McDuck and the Muppets, but there was deep moral seriousness behind A Christmas Carol. Dickens had intended to write a political pamphlet entitled An Appeal on Behalf of the Poor Man’s Child, but instead decided to bury “the ghost of an idea” in a festive story. A Christmas Carol was written in six weeks and published on 19 December 1843, when Dickens was just 31. By Christmas Eve it had sold all 6,000 copies. By February 1844 there had been eight stage adaptations. Continue reading...

Dr Selby Whittingham considers the ill-treatment of Turner’s mother, while Paul Collins recalls taking one artist to see another’s work. Plus letters from Martin Argles and John Caperon My answer to the pertinent question put by Helen James in her letter (Was JMW Turner’s mother really ‘mentally ill’?, 27 November) is that whatever illness Mary may have had would have been greatly increased by the frustration that she must have felt with her circumstances in the mean lodging in Covent Garden, which her husband lacked the ambition to better. These contrasted with the comfortable Islington home in which she grew up and with the even more prosperous circumstances of her relations. I have discussed those in the Genealogists’ Magazine, the British Art Journal and now in my publication for Turner 250: Happy Birthdays! JMW Turner and Prince George on Richmond Hill. Since I wrote the last, a plaque was erected on the site of the house of the uncle of Turner in Brentford, where he was sent to escape the bedlam at home and where, like Beethoven at a similar age at Bonn, he acquired lifelong cultured friends. Dr Selby Whittingham Secretary, the Independent Turner Society • Regarding artistic rivalries, including that between JMW Turner and John Constable (28 November), in 1969 I met Francis Bacon at a health hydro in Surrey. He claimed to have been sent by his agent to dry out. His unaffected friendliness overcame my awe at encountering the great painter. In my first Mini, I drove him to see the Turners at Petworth House, where there happened to be a William Blake exhibition as well. He was dismissive of Blake as an artist, preferring the poetry. But the surprise was his little concern for the Petworth Turners, which he hadn’t seen before. I prefer Constable, he said. The following day he felt obliged to go to Guildford (by himself) for a glass of burgundy. Paul Collins Horton cum Studley, Oxfordshire Continue reading...

Conflicting advice on whether all men should be tested – and around the test’s reliability – can have heartbreaking consequences, writes Pat Sharpe My husband died of prostate cancer in August, and I read your coverage of the UK National Screening Committee’s recommendations with dread (Expert panel advises against prostate cancer screening for most men in UK, 28 November). I believe the mixed messages being delivered will be deadly for some, as they were for my husband. He delayed having a PSA blood test because he believed it was unreliable and could lead to damaging treatments. He found out too late that he had prostate cancer and that it had spread through his body. He died less than three years after diagnosis aged 68. How did the “harms outweigh the benefits”? Your articles include a wealth of opinion and advice, much of it conflicting. Dr Jayne Spink of Prostate Cancer Research says: “Many men don’t come forward because prostate cancer often has no symptoms in the early stages, and some don’t realise they are at higher risk. This means that we are diagnosing far too many men when their cancer is already advanced and becomes incurable” (What is prostate cancer and should I be worried if I wee a lot at night? 28 November). She is a clear proponent of aiming for early diagnosis. Yet Cancer Research UK “supports” the conclusion that there isn’t enough evidence that screening would do more good than harm, and the chair of the Royal College of GPs is still keen on discussing with patients the “risks and benefits of conducting a PSA [prostate specific antigen] test”. My widow inner-voice asks: what risks and harm outweigh dying unnecessarily? Continue reading...

Domestic gas production must be incentivised if the UK is to avoid damaging shortages, writes Prof John Underhill Nils Pratley is right to bring attention to the warning from the National Energy System Operator (Neso) about secure gas supplies (Report detailing risk to UK gas security was not one to bury on budget day, 2 December). Without secure supplies and adequate subsurface storage, the UK has come close to running out of gas, most notably in March 2013, when we were within hours of doing so. Given that 85% of the roughly 30m homes in the UK currently rely on gas for heating and cooking, pivoting away from the energy source is not going to happen soon. Furthermore, gas provides more than half of our electricity base load on cold, windless and dark days, meaning it’s critical that we have supplies for national security. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Yinka Bankole says he was compelled to speak out after Reform leader’s attempts to dismiss hurt of alleged targets A former Dulwich college pupil who claims a teenage Nigel Farage told him “that’s the way back to Africa” has said he felt compelled to speak out after the Reform leader’s attempt at “denying or dismissing” the hurt of his alleged targets. Yinka Bankole, who claims he had just started at the school when a 17-year-old Farage singled him out for abuse, said he had decided to tell his story in full after watching the Reform leader’s press conference on Thursday. Continue reading...