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Great to see that Nottingham Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis plans to rename one of the stands at the City Ground in John Robertson’s honour. The Scot passed away on Christmas Day at the age of 72. I’m just about old enough to remember Robertson in his Forest heyday. I have a simple memory: no-one could get the ball off him. Most wingers are hit and miss in possession but with Robertson it always seemed to be this: receive ball, glue it to foot, slow full-back down, shuffle down wing, short five-yard burst, cross. Time after time after time. And no-one could stop him doing it. “That lad is a bloody genius,” said Brian Clough. He wasn’t wrong.
Here’s Ewan Murray’s tribute.
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© Photograph: Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC/Getty Images
© Photograph: Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC/Getty Images
© Photograph: Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC/Getty Images
An initiative linking people across race, class and faith offers an antidote to silence, hate and growing division
As a black woman in Northern Ireland, Maureen Hamblin knows that racism comes in many forms. “It’s not just the smashing in of shop windows,” she says. “It can be quiet, it can be silent.”
Bystanders who hear racist remarks and remain mute, as if oblivious, amplify the hurt and leave victims feeling alone and isolated, a recurring experience that left Hamblin drained. “There was a time when I’d lost a lot of faith in white people, in white men.”
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© Photograph: Paul McErlane/The Guardian
© Photograph: Paul McErlane/The Guardian
© Photograph: Paul McErlane/The Guardian
From Jackson Lamb’s mac in Slow Horses to the queen-bee wardrobe of Wild Cherry, Guardian writers choose the outfits that shaped storylines and revealed personalities in 2025
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Never mind the catwalk shows, the viral glossy advertising campaigns and the endless red carpets. This year, TV was where the best fashion was at. Here, nine Guardian writers pick their favourite looks from the shows that had us hooked over the past 12 months.
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© Composite: Netflix/HBO/Jack English/Apple TV
© Composite: Netflix/HBO/Jack English/Apple TV
© Composite: Netflix/HBO/Jack English/Apple TV
From merrily dismissing climate science, to promoting irresponsible health claims, the podcast was an unintentional warning for our times
Looking back on this crazy year, one event, right at the start, seems to me to encapsulate the whole. In January, recording his podcast in a studio in Austin, Texas, the host, Joe Rogan, and the actor Mel Gibson merrily dissed climate science. At the same time, about 1,200 miles away in California, Gibson’s $14m home was being incinerated in the Palisades wildfire. In this and other respects, their discussion could be seen as prefiguring the entire 12 months.
The loss of his house hadn’t been confirmed at the time of the interview, but Gibson said his son had just sent him “a video of my neighbourhood, and it’s in flames. It looks like an inferno.” According to World Weather Attribution, January’s fires in California were made significantly more likely by climate breakdown. Factors such as the extreme lack of rainfall and stronger winds made such fires both more likely to happen and more intense than they would have been without human-caused global heating.
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© Photograph: Josh Edelson/AFP/Getty Images
© Photograph: Josh Edelson/AFP/Getty Images
© Photograph: Josh Edelson/AFP/Getty Images
Mamady Doumbouya accused of betraying his promise to be the restorer of democracy after leading 2021 coup
In September 2021, a tall, young colonel in the Guinean army announced that he and his comrades had forcibly seized power and toppled the longtime leader Alpha Condé.
“The will of the strongest has always supplanted the law,” Mamady Doumbouya said in a speech, stressing that the soldiers were acting to restore the will of the people.
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© Photograph: Luc Gnago/Reuters
© Photograph: Luc Gnago/Reuters
© Photograph: Luc Gnago/Reuters
Country pulled out of hosting 2015 tournament but has since become central figure within world football
It is hard to conceive that Morocco, now the nerve centre for staging Africa’s marquee football events, was a continental pariah 10 years ago.
Abruptly pulling out of hosting the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations, over fears it would lead to the spread of the Ebola virus in the kingdom, forced the Confederation of African Football to move the tournament to Equatorial Guinea, with less than 90 days to prepare for its staging.
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© Photograph: Paul Ellis/AFP/Getty Images
© Photograph: Paul Ellis/AFP/Getty Images
© Photograph: Paul Ellis/AFP/Getty Images
Sarina Wiegman’s champions took supporters on the most thrilling and nail-biting ride in Switzerland that was in many ways even more enjoyable to cover than their 2022 triumph
Surreal. Utterly surreal. A home Euros in 2022 had provided wave after wave of emotion, England’s win at Wembley the culmination of decades of growth, setbacks, fight and deep longing. Everyone sang from the same hymn sheet for that maiden Euros win: the written press, broadcasters, fans, sponsors, Football Association, players and Sarina Wiegman and her staff. There were tears – lots. Having begun covering women’s football for the Guardian via a weekly column before the 2017 Euros, then gone full-time before the 2019 World Cup, I felt as if I had lived that progression, journeyed with them, contributed, in some small way, to that growth.
The 2025 edition was different, surreal, an almost psychedelic experience. In many ways better than 2022. This was England’s first major tournament win – male or female – away from home. Expectations were high but injuries, retirements and inconsistent performances and results had made most aware that a title defence wouldn’t be a procession. That made it all the more magnificent.
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© Photograph: Eddie Keogh/Getty Images
© Photograph: Eddie Keogh/Getty Images
© Photograph: Eddie Keogh/Getty Images
As a child he performed in the West End and appeared in a Stormzy video. But after his early music career faltered, he began to write about his troubled childhood – and hit a nerve
From Newham, London
Recommended if you like Dave, Bashy, Nemzzz
Up next Debut mixtape planned for spring
It’s a measure of how quickly Keaton Edmund, AKA Kidwild, has speed-run his way through a performing arts career that the rapper describes himself as being in the “comeback part of my life” at age 20.
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© Photograph: Sam Fallover
© Photograph: Sam Fallover
© Photograph: Sam Fallover
World No 1’s clash with Nick Kyrgios is on track to being one of the most inane tennis events ever conceived
2025 was the year of Aryna Sabalenka for so many reasons. She reached three of the four grand slam finals, winning her fourth major title at the US Open and further positioning herself as a generational great. From her humble origins as a volatile, one-note ball-basher, the 27-year-old has admirably evolved into an increasingly complete player. Sabalenka is the best player in the world for a second year in succession.
The fleeting tennis off-season is usually an opportunity for players and spectators alike to reflect on such great feats before the new season is upon them. This year, however, the December discourse has been derailed by the fast-approaching train wreck Sabalenka stands at the heart of.
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© Illustration: David Humphries
© Illustration: David Humphries
© Illustration: David Humphries
In this week’s newsletter: We’ve had our say; now it’s your turn. Overlooked telly gems, unforgettable gigs and albums on repeat – readers share the cultural moments that made their year
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Merry Christmas – and welcome to the last Guide of 2025! After sharing our favourite culture of the year in last week’s edition, we now turn this newsletter over to you, our readers, so you can reveal your own cultural highlights of 2025, including some big series we missed, and some great new musical tips. Enjoy the rest of the holidays and we’ll see you this time next week for the first Guide of 2026!
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© Composite: Des Willie/Channel 4; Pictorial Press Ltd/Alamy; Sam Penn; Sarah Shatz/FX
© Composite: Des Willie/Channel 4; Pictorial Press Ltd/Alamy; Sam Penn; Sarah Shatz/FX
© Composite: Des Willie/Channel 4; Pictorial Press Ltd/Alamy; Sam Penn; Sarah Shatz/FX
New books by Liza Minelli, David Sedaris, Maggie O’Farrell and Yann Martel are among the literary highlights of the year ahead
2026 is already promising plenty of unmissable releases: there are new novels by George Saunders, Ali Smith and Douglas Stuart, memoirs from Gisèle Pelicot, Lena Dunham and Mark Haddon, and plenty of inventive debuts to look forward to. Here, browse all the biggest titles set to hit shelves in the coming months across fiction and nonfiction, selected by the Guardian’s books desk.
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© Illustration: David Newton/Photo by David Levene
© Illustration: David Newton/Photo by David Levene
© Illustration: David Newton/Photo by David Levene
Maggie O’Farrell, Yann Martel and Julian Barnes are among the authors publishing new novels this year
The beginning of the books calendar is usually dominated by debuts, but January 2026 sees releases from some of the year’s biggest authors. Known for his surreally bittersweet short stories, George Saunders has written only one novel so far – but that one won the Booker prize. The follow-up to 2017’s Lincoln in the Bardo, Vigil (Bloomsbury) focuses on an unquiet spirit called Jill who helps others pass over from life to whatever comes next. She is called to the deathbed of an oil tycoon who is rapidly running out of time to face up to his ecological crimes, in a rallying cry for human connection and environmental action. Ali Smith’s Glyph (Hamish Hamilton) is a companion to 2024’s Gliff, and promises to tell a story initially hidden in that previous novel. Expect fables, siblings, phantoms and horses in a typically playful shout of resistance against war, genocide and the increasingly hostile social discourse. And in Departure(s) (Jonathan Cape), Julian Barnes announces his own – this blend of memoir and fiction, exploring memory, illness, mortality and love across the decades, will be his last book. “Your presence has delighted me,” he assures the reader. “Indeed, I would be nothing without you.”
The Hamnet adaptation hits UK cinemas in January, but Maggie O’Farrell’s next novel isn’t out until June. Land (Tinder), a multigenerational saga which opens in 19th-century Ireland in the wake of the famine, is inspired by her own family history and centres on a man tasked with mapping the country for the Ordnance Survey. There’ll be much anticipation, too, for The Things We Never Say from Elizabeth Strout (Viking, May). The ultra-prolific Strout is adored for her interconnected novels, but this story of a man with a secret is a standalone, introducing characters we’ve never met before. In John of John (Picador, May) Douglas Stuart, author of much-loved Booker winner Shuggie Bain, portrays a young gay man returning home from art school to the lonely croft on the Hebridean island where he grew up. And September sees a new novel from Irish writer Sebastian Barry: The Newer World (Faber) follows Costa winner Days Without End and A Thousand Moons in transporting the reader to late 19th-century America in the aftermath of the Civil War.
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© Illustration: David Newton/Photo by David Levene
© Illustration: David Newton/Photo by David Levene
© Illustration: David Newton/Photo by David Levene
Region famed for molecular gastronomy begins video project to collect and share rustic recipes
Catalonia’s avant garde chefs have made a name for themselves with their revolutionary techniques and molecular gastronomy, yet they are fond of saying they are merely paying homage to the simple dishes served at their grandmother’s table.
Maybe so, but now the grannies have been given a chance to show off the real thing under a Catalan government initiative called Gastrosàvies.
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© Photograph: Pablo García/The Guardian
© Photograph: Pablo García/The Guardian
© Photograph: Pablo García/The Guardian
From Benefits Supervisor Sleeping and Hideous Kinky to the “modern Prometheus”, test your knowledge with the Saturday quiz
1 Which US president vomited on the Japanese prime minister?
2 Which literary character was the “modern Prometheus”?
3 What global event began in 2004 as the Bushy Park time trial?
4 Which consecutive digits made up this year’s most perplexing meme?
5 Which medieval coin was worth four pence?
6 What Gascon brandy is France’s oldest?
7 Which wild west gunfighter was a dentist?
8 Which element was used in rat poison and pre-X-ray “meals”?
What links:
9 Appia; Aurelia; Cassia; Flaminia; Salaria; Tiburtina?
10 Jerry and Mike; Carole and Gerry; Burt and Hal; Brian, Lamont and Eddie?
11 Of a large city (magenta); 1977 (grey); 1819-1901 (light blue); 360 degrees (yellow)?
12 Balearic; Cory’s; great; Manx; sooty?
13 Rania; Noor (Lisa); Muna (Toni); Dina; Zein?
14 Yerevan; Minsk; Beijing; Copenhagen; Cairo; Paris; Berlin?
15 Totem and Taboo; War and Children; Benefits Supervisor Sleeping; Hideous Kinky; 1970 jumper?
© Photograph: Alma Grigorita/Getty Images/500px
© Photograph: Alma Grigorita/Getty Images/500px
© Photograph: Alma Grigorita/Getty Images/500px
Too much turkey and Baileys? Blow away the Christmas cobwebs on one of our rambles. And if that doesn’t work, they all end at a pub for a hair of the dog
Distance 7 miles
Duration 5 hours
Start/finish Ditchling village car park
© Photograph: Lemanieh/Getty Images
© Photograph: Lemanieh/Getty Images
© Photograph: Lemanieh/Getty Images
Fear and feelings of intense vulnerability caused me to retreat into my shell, until I saw myself in an unlikely feature in one of the British master’s prints
My thyroid cancer arrived by accident, in the way life-changing things sometimes do. In May of this year, I went for an upright MRI for a minor injury on my arm, and the scan happened to catch the mass in my neck. By the following month, I had a diagnosis. People kept telling me it was “the good cancer”, the kind that can be taken out neatly and has a high survival rate. But I’m 54, and my dad died of cancer in his 50s, so that shadow came down on me hard.
My eldest son was doing A-levels at the time, so we didn’t tell him at first. I felt as if I’d stepped across some irreversible Rubicon that you hear about happening to other people, but never imagine will actually come for you.
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© Illustration: Martin O'Neill/The Guardian
© Illustration: Martin O'Neill/The Guardian
© Illustration: Martin O'Neill/The Guardian
Fourth Test, day 2: Australia 152 & 132, lose to England, 110 & 178-6
Tourists charge to four-wicket win inside two days at MCG
Stop press. Hold the back page. Drag out the dusty bunting and book three more nights in Noosa. England’s men have won a Test in Australia for the first time in nearly 15 years, chasing down 175 runs in Melbourne to win by four wickets and ensure this Ashes series defeat will not end as an Ashes whitewash.
Granted it was not a live victory, England simply dragging the scoreline back to 3-1 and doing so courtesy of a two-day heist on a pitch that made batting a lottery. But given the ordeal of this tour, and that grim run of 18 Tests without a victory on Australian soil, it was not insignificant either.
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© Photograph: Robbie Stephenson/PA
© Photograph: Robbie Stephenson/PA
© Photograph: Robbie Stephenson/PA
With the snow line edging higher, 186 French ski resorts have shut, while global heating threatens dozens more
When Céüze 2000 ski resort closed at the end of the season in 2018, the workers assumed they would be back the following winter. Maps of the pistes were left stacked beside a stapler; the staff rota pinned to the wall.
Six years on, a yellowing newspaper dated 8 March 2018 sits folded on its side, as if someone has just flicked through it during a quiet spell. A half-drunk bottle of water remains on the table.
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© Photograph: Thomas Valentin/The Guardian
© Photograph: Thomas Valentin/The Guardian
© Photograph: Thomas Valentin/The Guardian
Some even celebrated ‘mass killing’ and the president’s ‘resolve’ in attacking Islamic State targets
The US’s Christmas Day strikes against Islamic State targets in Nigeria have been met with praise by Donald Trump supporters who for months had been agitating for the president to respond forcefully to the killings of Christians in the country.
“I can’t think of a better way to celebrate Christmas than by avenging the death of Christians through the justified mass killing of Islamic terrorists,” the far-right political activist Laura Loomer posted on X. “You’ve got to love it! Death to all Islamic terrorists! Thank you.”
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© Photograph: Abdullahi Dare Akogun/Reuters
© Photograph: Abdullahi Dare Akogun/Reuters
© Photograph: Abdullahi Dare Akogun/Reuters
© Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters
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