A family classic reborn in a wide open world, a satirical adventure through teenage life and a mystery puzzler for the ages – our critics on the year’s best fun
• More on the best culture of 2025
Ivy Road/Annapurna Interactive; PC, PS5, Xbox
An arena warrior on a losing streak takes refuge in a vast forest where she discovers the joy of working in a cosy teashop. From this simple premise comes a joyful game of mindfulness and social interaction, as Alta learns how to serve up witty conversation and decent hot drinks. Colourful and highly stylised, it is a thoughtful study of burnout and recovery.
© Photograph: Sony
© Photograph: Sony
© Photograph: Sony
Meetings in Gibraltar are the latest twist in worldwide campaign that is enriching the US president’s family
One Friday in November, armed police blocked off the road that runs beside Gibraltar’s medieval city walls to clear the way for a convoy of blacked-out BMWs. The vehicles pulled up at the offices of Hassans, a law firm.
The British enclave in the Mediterranean is a hub for the international ultra-rich, and Hassans counts many of them as clients. But few as highly placed as that day’s visitor: Donald Trump Jr, the man running the family business while his father is in the White House.
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© Photograph: Gibraltar Broadcasting Corporation
© Photograph: Gibraltar Broadcasting Corporation
© Photograph: Gibraltar Broadcasting Corporation
The party’s astonishingly speedy growth disguised shallow roots – and its success has brought a level of scrutiny for which it simply isn’t ready
Imagine a classroom with almost nothing in it, save some hard wooden benches and a stack of Bibles. Imagine the school it is in has only one loo, no canteen, gets freezing cold in winter – oh, and the playground is full of gravestones.
If this sounds to you like the perfect setting to teach the country’s most vulnerable children, then you’re going to love Reform UK’s new Send policy, which involves cutting the bill for taxiing children to far-flung special schools by repurposing nearby “empty churches” (a term that in itself may surprise vicars) as schools on weekdays. But if you have actually met any children, and therefore suspect this idea isn’t going to fly, then read on to find out why Reform looks more beatable at the end of what has undeniably been its breakthrough year than it did at the beginning.
Gaby Hinsliff is a Guardian columnist
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© Illustration: Eleanor Shakespeare/The Guardian
© Illustration: Eleanor Shakespeare/The Guardian
© Illustration: Eleanor Shakespeare/The Guardian
Exclusive Guardian investigation finds companies set up by people sanctioned by US hired Colombian fighters for Rapid Support Forces, widely suspected of war crimes in Sudan
Close to Tottenham Hotspur’s shiny football stadium in London is a squat, nondescript block of flats. It holds a grim secret beyond the unremarkable beige brickwork – a cramped, second-floor apartment in the British capital, linked to murderous atrocities unfolding 3,000 miles south.
The one-bedroom flat off north London’s Creighton Road is, according to UK government records, tied to a transnational network of companies involved in the mass recruitment of mercenaries to fight in Sudan alongside paramilitaries accused of myriad war crimes and genocide.
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© Composite: Antonio Olmos/The Guardian
© Composite: Antonio Olmos/The Guardian
© Composite: Antonio Olmos/The Guardian
Set the seasonal mood with special pieces – from cosy knits to a touch of sparkle
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© Composite: PR
© Composite: PR
© Composite: PR
Red chicory leaves with blue cheese, honey and walnuts; a big jug of caramelised swede and honey soup; a turkey wellington with red wine gravy, cranberry relish and a hispi and sprout slaw; and a showstopping yule log to finish
Christmas lunch in my family is about as traditional as it comes, and is pretty much the same every year no matter who’s house we’re at (including at least three monumental rows about things that happened years ago). Everyone chips in, too, even the kids – well, they’ve got to earn their dinner somehow. Rather than shooing them off to watch cartoons while the adults do all the work, we make sure they’re hands-on in the kitchen alongside us, especially with the annual yule log. Not only is this a valuable life lesson, it also helps develop and strengthen our family culture. The children get to share in that sense of pride at a job well done, too, and everyone feels a part of the occasion. And isn’t that what Christmas is all about?
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© Photograph: Yuki Sugiura/The Guardian. Food and prop styling: Polly Webb-Wilson. Food styling asisstant: Chiara Lancia.
© Photograph: Yuki Sugiura/The Guardian. Food and prop styling: Polly Webb-Wilson. Food styling asisstant: Chiara Lancia.
© Photograph: Yuki Sugiura/The Guardian. Food and prop styling: Polly Webb-Wilson. Food styling asisstant: Chiara Lancia.
Analysis suggests consumption at Northumberland site could be 50 times higher than US operator QTS estimates
The UK’s largest proposed datacentre is understating the scale of its planned water use, according to an analysis.
The first phase of construction for the hyperscale campus in Cambois in Northumberland has been given the go-ahead by the local council. The US operator QTS, which is developing the site, has promoted its “water-free” cooling system as proof of its sustainability.
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© Photograph: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images
© Photograph: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images
© Photograph: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images
Medical professionals and some in conservative circles feel argument of Lee Jae Myung may be a bit thin
South Korean president Lee Jae Myung has instructed his government to consider extending public health insurance to cover hair-loss treatments, arguing that baldness has become a “matter of survival” rather than a cosmetic concern for young people.
The proposal, which has since faced a backlash from medical professionals and conservative figures, was announced during a policy briefing on Tuesday and would expand coverage beyond the limited medical treatments currently available for certain types of hair loss.
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© Photograph: YONHAP/EPA
© Photograph: YONHAP/EPA
© Photograph: YONHAP/EPA
US military declares five alleged drug traffickers killed in Pacific Ocean
The US military said it killed on Thursday five more alleged drug traffickers aboard two vessels in the Pacific Ocean, bringing the divisive campaign’s death toll to over 100.
The Trump administration has carried out such strikes in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean since September but has provided no evidence that the boats are involved in drug trafficking, prompting debate about the operations’ legality.
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© Photograph: U.S. Southern Command via X
© Photograph: U.S. Southern Command via X
© Photograph: U.S. Southern Command via X
Yes things are certainly grim all over but let us take a moment
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© Illustration: First Dog on the Moon/The Guardian
© Illustration: First Dog on the Moon/The Guardian
© Illustration: First Dog on the Moon/The Guardian
In the Peloponnese mountains, the usually hardy trees are turning brown even where fires haven’t reached. Experts are raising the alarm on a complex crisis
In the southern Peloponnese, the Greek fir is a towering presence. The deep green, slow-growing conifers have long defined the region’s high-altitude forests, thriving in the mountains and rocky soils. For generations they have been one of the country’s hardier species, unusually capable of withstanding drought, insects and the wildfires that periodically sweep through Mediterranean ecosystems. These Greek forests have lived with fire for as long as anyone can remember.
So when Dimitrios Avtzis, a senior researcher at the Forest Research Institute (FRI) of Elgo-Dimitra, was dispatched to document the aftermath of a spring blaze in the region, nothing about the assignment seemed exceptional. He had walked into countless burnt landscapes, tracking the expected pockets of mortality, as well as the trees that survived their scorching.
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© Photograph: Ugo Mellone
© Photograph: Ugo Mellone
© Photograph: Ugo Mellone
My heart skipped a beat. I felt quite light-headed. Finally, the moment I dreamed of had arrived
I can’t remember the first time I played the lottery – I was probably quite young. I’m an optimist. If you don’t play, you can’t win, and somebody has to win the big prize. Why not me? To me, winning would mean freedom – leave my job, have no debts and do exactly as I pleased.
I live in Norway, and every few weeks I’d buy a lottery ticket. I’d occasionally win 100 kroner (£7.50), which just covered the cost of the ticket. It kept the dream alive, though.
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© Photograph: Andrea Gjestvang
© Photograph: Andrea Gjestvang
© Photograph: Andrea Gjestvang
Sidelined by Trump, preoccupied with Ukraine and damaged by its immoral stance on Gaza, Europe can still help stabilise its eastern Mediterranean neighbours
A year after the overthrow of Syria’s dictator, Bashar al-Assad, the former jihadi fighter turned Syrian president Ahmed al-Sharaa addressed the Doha Forum earlier this month, deftly parrying questions about his controversial past and outlining his country’s complex journey toward a participatory, rules-based system. As I listened, it struck me that, while Europe’s role in the Middle East has been severely damaged by its immoral stance on the Gaza war and its self-inflicted exclusion from Iran nuclear diplomacy, Europeans still have a role to play when it comes to its neighbours in the eastern Mediterranean.
Europe’s world has been turned upside down by Washington’s alignment with Moscow in the Ukraine war and the transatlantic rift as the Trump administration treats Europe as an adversary. Another dimension of this upheaval is Europe’s growing irrelevance in the Middle East. Only if Europeans accept that the past is behind them can they hope to regain a constructive independent role in the region.
Nathalie Tocci is a Guardian Europe columnist
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© Photograph: Ludovic Marin/AFP/Getty Images
© Photograph: Ludovic Marin/AFP/Getty Images
© Photograph: Ludovic Marin/AFP/Getty Images
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