Inquiry finds Fabian Picardo was ‘grossly improper’ to protect James Levy from a search warrant
The chief minister of Gibraltar made a series of “grossly improper” and “sinister” interventions to interfere in a live criminal investigation in order to protect his friend, mentor and business partner from the consequences of a search warrant, a public inquiry has found.
The retired England and Wales high court judge and inquiry chair, Sir Peter Openshaw, concluded that Fabian Picardo acted to protect James Levy KC when police were at Hassans law firm, where Levy was a senior partner, with a search warrant.
Can McCullum’s ‘horse-whispering’ still register against a rampant Australia hungry for a series whitewash?
The world famous Boxing Day Test awaits England’s beaten cricketers and we are about to discover whether the mighty coliseum that is the Melbourne Cricket Ground becomes their arena of the unwell; whether pride can be salvaged or it is just another stepping stone for Australia in their pursuit of an Ashes whitewash.
Last year a record 373,691 spectators passed through the turnstiles across five days as Australia overcame India in a slow-burn thriller. This fourth Ashes Test was tipped to top that remarkable figure potentially but that will hinge on it similarly going the distance. It also needs the locals to be energised still by a series that has already been won by their team – even if simply beating the old enemy is usually enough.
Wattimena, Rydz and Meikle all through to third round
Peter Wright’s confidence was wildly misplaced after he crashed out of the world championship on Tuesday. Arno Merk ensured the two-time champion will not be returning to Alexandra Palace after Christmas, winning 3-0 as the Scot averaged just 79.20.
Wright had claimed he was definitely going to win this tournament, but Merk, on debut, was full value for the win and it denied the possibility of a third-round match between Wright and Michael van Gerwen – a repeat of the 2020 final.
Steve Rogers is back … in the 90-second trailer that is now online for all to see
The first official trailer for Avengers: Doomsday has been released online, in the run-up to the next outing from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The brief 90-second trailer shows Chris Evans as Steve Rogers/Captain America riding along a rural road on a motorbike, entering a house and picking up his superhero uniform, then holding a sleeping baby. A title then announces: “Steve Rogers Will Return in Avengers: Doomsday.”
Swift’s six-parter charting her Eras tour began with some riveting revelations – but the drama ebbed away, leaving another piece of mere product for fans
In the behind-the-scenes documentary series Taylor Swift: The End of an Era, the singer Florence Welch ascends to the stage to perform their duet Florida!!! to a crowd of 90,000 people. Welch later reflects on their duet at Wembley Stadium with a mix of awe and bemusement. “Taylor is my friend,” she says. “I know her as this very cosy person, and I came out of that lift and I was like, ‘Oh my God, it’s fucking Taylor Swift.’”
If Swift is a cosy person, The End of an Era – now complete, with its concluding episodes dropping today – is certainly a cosy watch; the sort of lighthearted, low-demand viewing that feels especially welcome in the lazy days leading up to Christmas and stretching towards the new year. Viewers will be familiar with the story. The Eras Tour was great, it tells us. It broke records, burst hearts and boosted the economy. We know she pulled it off. This is only a problem insofar as it means there is almost zero jeopardy in the series, which feels repetitive and thinly stretched over its six hour-long episodes.
Broncos, 49ers and Seahawks also have six selections
Vikings, Saints and Jets have zero Pro Bowlers
Six Baltimore Ravens players have been selected for this season’s Pro Bowl Games despite the team almost certainly missing the playoffs. The Ravens lead the league in Pro Bowl nods, alongside the Denver Broncos, San Francisco 49ers and Seattle Seahawks.
Baltimore’s Pro Bowlers are fullback Patrick Ricard, wide receiver Zay Flowers, center Tyler Linderbaum, linebacker Roquan Smith, safety Kyle Hamilton and punter Jordan Stout. However, they are 7-8 this season and have only a 9% chance of making the playoffs according to Next Gen Stats.
A look back at the biggest tech stories of the year, from the rise and fall of Musk’s Doge to lucrative investments into AI
Hello, and welcome to TechScape. I’m your host, Blake Montgomery, wishing you a happy and healthy end of the year. I myself have a cold.
Today, we are looking back at the biggest stories in tech of 2025 – Elon Musk’s political rise, burst, and fall; artificial intelligence’s subsumption of the global economy, all other technology, and even the Earth’s topography; Australia’s remarkable social media ban; the tech industry’s new Trumpian politics; and, as a treat, a glimpse of the apocalypse offered by one of Silicon Valley’s savviest and strangest billionaires.
Worried about cost, planning – or whether anyone will show up? We asked experts how to bring back parties
Several months ago, staring down another empty weekend, a friend texted me. “Why is no one having parties?” she fumed.
Some people were, we agreed, but not nearly enough. Indeed, in January, the Atlantic’s Ellen Cushing declared that “America is in a party deficit”, quoting a 2023 Bureau of Labor Statistics report that found only 4.1% of Americans attended or hosted a social event on an average holiday weekend. That figure was down a whopping 35% since 2004.
Timing: Daytime or night-time? How long will it last?
Menu: Will there be food? If so, does that mean a sit-down dinner, only appetizers or a buffet? Will you have caterers? “Less is more when it comes to food,” Rhinehart says. “Keeping the menu simple yet delicious goes a long way.”
Bar: If serving alcohol, which kinds? Which non-alcoholic beverages will you have available? Don’t skimp on ice, says Rhinehart: “You can never have enough!”
Kids: Are they invited, or is it an adults-only affair?
The 1997 creature feature gets a self-referential redo that works best when it allows its two stars to lean into silliness
Anyone rightly suspicious of comedies that try to make sure they have plenty of “heart” will rightly get their hackles up during the opening section of Anaconda, which sheds the skin of its 1997 horror-adventure namesake to reveal a self-referential goof on unnecessary reboots. After an absolutely woeful attempt at a horror-movie cold open where it becomes clear that director/co-writer Tom Gormican hasn’t the merest glimmer of talent for establishing mood, building suspense or even properly unveiling a crazy creature, the movie settles in for the true mission of any great broad comedy: uh, building pathos? After years as an aspiring film-maker, Doug (Jack Black) is succeeding-yet-languishing in his compromised hometown job as a wedding videographer. Meanwhile, his childhood bestie, Griff (Paul Rudd), is following the dream by working as an actor out in Los Angeles, but only just barely. We see him fired from a one-line role on a medical show because of his nerves, in a scene written for nagging sympathy first and comedy a distant second.
When the pair reunites for Doug’s birthday, Griff springs a post-party surprise: he has supposedly come into possession of remake rights to Anaconda, an eclectically cast creature feature that they loved as teenagers. Why not seize the opportunity by shooting their own version on a shoestring, and finally make movies together like they always dreamed? Despite a nagging feeling of responsibility to his family, Doug eventually warms to Griff’s idea, and their fellow friends Kenny (Steve Zahn) and Claire (Thandiwe Newton) join the crew. Soon they’re on a boat in the Amazon, dealing with eccentric snake handler Santiago (Selton Mello) and mysterious boat captain Ana (Daniela Melchior).
Walid Saadaoui and Amar Hussein thought ‘zero hour’ had finally arrived until undercover operative thwarted them
When Walid Saadaoui recruited Amar Hussein to join him in a pogrom on the streets of Greater Manchester, Hussein wept with joy.
For years, the two men had been sleeper agents for the Islamic State terrorist group. Each had lived quietly in Britain for years, waiting for the right moment to stage an attack, and for the right person to give them the support to make it happen.
Former Barclays boss and ex-US Treasury secretary named in versions of will of convicted child sex offender
The former Barclays chief executive Jes Staley and the ex-US Treasury secretary Larry Summers were appointed as executors of Jeffrey Epstein’s estate, according to a newly released tranche of documents linked to the deceased child sex offender.
Filings published on Tuesday by the US Department of Justice included various versions of Epstein’s last will and testament, which showed the financier intended to hand responsibility of managing his affairs to associates including the two high-profile men in the event of his death.
Studying chemical chatter as tiny balls of cells embed could shine a light on early pregnancy and glitches that lead to miscarriage
Researchers have created the lining of a womb in a dish, which promises to shed light on the mysterious early stages of human pregnancy and the glitches that can lead to miscarriage and medical complications.
In laboratory experiments, early-stage human embryos donated from couples after IVF treatment successfully implanted into the engineered lining and began to churn out key compounds, such as the hormone that results in a blue line on positive pregnancy tests.
From a show so bananas it could blind people to a classic cartoon that guarantees tears – stars behind the best festive treats on telly reveal what they tune into without fail
Christmas is a time steeped in traditions. And one big tradition that exists in many of our homes over the period revolves around TV: rewatching old favourites, hunkering down for that special you’ve been dying to see or sitting in a post-lunch fugue with a beloved family film. And, as we published last week, there’s a bounty of Christmas telly to get stuck into this year.
But what about people involved in making TV? What do their Christmas viewing habits look like? Here, a variety of actors, writers, directors and comedians – many of whom may be popping up on your screens this year – share their Christmas TV favourites.
Global sales fall by 3% in third consecutive year of decline as distilleries scale back production or expand storage
The Scottish whisky market has slipped into a supply glut as US tariffs and falling demand weigh on the country’s distilleries.
Global scotch sales fell 3% in the first half of 2025, marking the third consecutive year of decline after decades of growth, according to the alcohol data provider IWSR.
Inmates’ escape from DeKalb county jail discovered during routine security check early Monday
Three inmates who escaped from a jail east of Atlanta, including one who was being held on a murder charge, have been apprehended in Florida, a member of a federal fugitive taskforce confirmed.
Eric Heinze, assistant chief inspector with the US Marshals Service Southeast Regional Fugitive Task Force, declined to share further details ahead of a news conference planned in Atlanta later on Tuesday.
Chelsea have made an inquiry about signing Antoine Semenyo from Bournemouth. The winger’s deal contains a £65m release clause in January and he is also a target for Liverpool, Manchester City and Manchester United.
Chelsea were not regarded as a likely destination for Semenyo but have contacted the player’s camp to explore the conditions of a deal. There is optimism at Stamford Bridge that the Ghana international will be interested in joining. Chelsea hope Semenyo, who is from London, will appreciate their long-term project and see an opportunity to make an immediate impact at a top club.
The very same immigrants welcomed to the US after risking their lives to fight the Taliban now fear detention or worse
Ali was 25 and a pilot for the Afghan air force, just like his father before him; he arrived at the special mission wing 777 airbase in Kabul around 11am one day in August 2021.
The moment he stepped through the gates, he sensed something was wrong.
After years of fatalities and bizarre incidents, the Georgia reservoir has spawned countless ghost stories. Are they merely legend or the after-effects of a history steeped in racial trauma?
Kile Glover was the entertainer in the family, the pride of his stepfather, the R&B superstar Usher. He sang, he danced – he burned CDs of his own music, styled the covers with self-made art and was otherwise expressing his creativity in internet videos before it was trendy. “He would’ve been a YouTube sensation by now,” says his mother, the celebrity stylist Tameka Foster. But that future was thwarted on a family trip to Lake Lanier, just outside his Atlanta home town, in July 2012.
Kile was only 11 when he was struck by a speeding jetski while tubing and knocked unconscious. Foster, on the island of Saint Martin at the time, managed to get to Kile’s hospital bedside within hours thanks to Usher sending a private plane – an olive branch that came amid a bitterly public custody battle over their two younger sons. As Kile lay on life support, Foster passed the time Googling for information about Lake Lanier. She is still horrified by what she learned.
Comparing the pictures taken with my camera’s automatic software to those taken with a ‘zero-processing’ app, the results are shocking. Is this a good idea?
I was flicking through a photo album at my grandma’s when I came across a picture of my mum as a child. I took a photo and sent it to her, but on my phone screen, it looked brighter and more vivid than the physical version in my hand.
Adding an Instagram filter is something I would now only do ironically. But is my phone increasing the contrast or making other tweaks without my knowledge? To find out, I downloaded an app with a “zero-processing” feature that claimed to take photos without any software alterations. When comparing the photos my camera takes automatically to the photos taken with this app, the results were shocking. The so-called “raw” photos that lack processing had subtle, muted colours, softer edges – a little grainy – while the processed photos were gorgeous and crisp like the inside of a marble. Why were they so different?
As chief of staff, she has stifled her temptation to intervene time and time again
Susie Wiles has the gimlet eye of an alcoholic’s daughter. She is always on edge, vigilant to the slightest movement, fearful of sudden danger, and has learned to withdraw herself from the chaos in order to survive. She is keenly observant, sees through people around her who are not drinkers to decipher their underlying motives that might flare into unexpected menace, and practiced in passive aggression of which her interview with Vanity Fair is a classic case study.
Wiles defines herself as the child of a raging drunk and it is through that singular lens of her formative experience that she defines her current boss. “I make a specialty of it,” she told the writer Christopher Whipple for his Vanity Fair profile of the Trump White House chief of staff in one of the eleven interviews she granted him. Donald Trump, she stated, “has an alcoholic’s personality,” though he does not drink. She didn’t stop there, but elaborated that “high-functioning alcoholics or alcoholics in general, their personalities are exaggerated when they drink. And so I’m a little bit of an expert in big personalities.” Trump, she said, “operates [with] a view that there’s nothing he can’t do. Nothing, zero, nothing.”
Saying Trump has an “alcoholic’s personality” reveals Wiles’ personal understanding about a megalomaniacal celebrity who fosters pandemonium around himself without any care for others. Her father, Pat Summerall, the great football placekicker and the play-by-play broadcaster of National Football League games on CBS for 40 years, was the original bad daddy. “Alcoholism does bad things to relationships, and so it was with my dad and me,” she said. She remembered him as a mostly absentee father and so drunk he “wouldn’t recognize” his granddaughter, which Wiles thought “horrifying.” Alcoholism, she said, is a “disease that clouds your judgment,” and no one, however smart they think they are can “out think addiction.” In 1992, Wiles and her mother staged an intervention to take him to the Betty Ford Drug Rehab Center. She gave him a letter reading, “Dad, the few times we’ve been out in public together recently, I’ve been ashamed we shared the same last name.” That is what she means when she says someone has an “alcoholic’s personality.”
Sidney Blumenthal, former senior adviser to President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, has published three books of a projected five-volume political life of Abraham Lincoln: A Self-Made Man, Wrestling With His Angel and All the Powers of Earth. He is a Guardian US columnist
Demand for CD players rises 74% this year amid deluxe releases from artists such as Taylor Swift and Pink Floyd
Forget the vinyl revival. CD players and compact discs are back on Christmas lists this year amid a wave of 90s nostalgia and coveted “deluxe” releases from big acts such as Taylor Swift and Pink Floyd.
Demand for compact discs peaked in the mid-00s and many households ditched their systems and libraries as digital music took off. But the distinctive whirr is returning to bedrooms around the country, with retailers and marketplaces experiencing an uptick in appetite for vintage tech and music to play on it.
A disturbing letter that appears to have been written by Jeffrey Epstein and sent to Larry Nassar, the US Olympics gymnastics team doctor convicted of sexual abuse, is included the latest batch of Epstein-related documents released by the US government.
“As you will know by now, I have taken the ‘short route’ home,” the letter, which appears to have been signed from Epstein to Nasser, reads. “Good luck! We shared one thing … our love & caring for young ladies and the hope they reach their full potential.”
Nicolas Jackson scored twice as Senegal strolled to victory over Botswana, while DR Congo also won their Group D opener
1 min Peep peep! Senegal kick off from left to right as we watch.
Full time: DR Congo 1-0 Benin Theo Bongonda’s goal has given DR Congo victory in the opening game of Group D. They play Senegal next on Saturday; Benin will meet Botswana.
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