We spoke to protesters in Togo, Kenya, Nepal, Madagascar and Morocco about how their actions helped shape the world in 2025
Mass protests in Nepal and Madagascar toppled both governments this year, even when the young people at the forefront of the demonstrations were faced with heavily armed police and the threat of arrest.
Many called 2025 the year of the protest although the revolution in Bangladesh in 2024 that unseated the authoritarian leader Sheikh Hasina is often credited withinspiring young people to take to the streets across parts of Asia and Africa. Although not all achieved the change they wanted, from Sri Lanka to Timor-Leste they shared a common factor: gen Z was the driving force.
From Carrie Bradshaw cleaning up mess in And Just Like That to Kim Kardashian’s zero-star clanger and Bonnie Blue’s sexcapades, here are the biggest duds of 2025
Where to begin with the love/hate Sex and the City spin-off? The show was plagued with woeful writing, cringe-inducing character development (justice for Miranda!) and just 71 seconds of fan-favourite Samantha. But for a moment there, as the third series started, it looked like And Just Like That had finally hit its stride. Then came an episode all about Seema’s natural deodorant. No wonder creator Michael Patrick King announced that this would be the final series. It ended on a bum note; the closeup of Miranda’s toilet flooded with poo was just way too symbolic. Still, there’s no denying that fans have had a hoot dissecting every single “wtf?” episode. And as Carrie – a single woman once more – danced around her palatial townhouse to Barry White’s You’re The First, The Last, My Everything, who didn’t let out a little sob?
Being blasted into space or taking over Venice no longer cuts it. The rich and famous are being punished for their conspicuous vacuity
When Katy Perry and five other women were launched into space in Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin rocket, no doubt they expected to be celebrated as trailblazers. Cast your mind back to April, and the event was getting wall-to-wall news coverage. The crew, also including Bezos’s then-fiancee Lauren Sánchez and CBS presenter Gayle King, were in space for about 11 minutes, during which Perry sang a rendition of Louis Armstrong’s What a Wonderful World and revealed the setlist for her Lifetimes tour. On their return, the pop star kissed the ground and showed a daisy to the camera – a tribute to her daughter, Daisy.
Well, talk about crashing back down to earth. Instead of being hailed as a giant leap for 21st-century feminism, the voyage turned into a colossal PR failure. It was ridiculed for being tone-deaf, an out-of-touch luxury ride for the super-rich during a time of economic hardship. There were so many mocking memes and hot takes that Perry later admitted feeling “battered and bruised” at being turned into a “human piñata”. “I take it with grace and send them love,” she said, “cause I know so many people are hurting in so many ways and the internet is very much so a dumping ground for the unhinged and unhealed.”
But the Blue Origin backlash reflected a broader cultural shift. As the now-viral refrain from Kourtney Kardashian goes, “Kim, there’s people that are dying.” The public’s tolerance for the promotion of celebrity as an end in itself is disappearing fast. In a world beset by economic uncertainty, political upheaval, wars and environmental breakdown, is it any surprise we increasingly want to see those with big platforms use them for something more than self-promotion?
Of course, Jeff Bezos’s Venice wedding this summer, estimated to have cost £37m, was uber-glamorous, and any A-lister worth their buck was invited. We saw the photos of Leonardo DiCaprio, Oprah Winfrey, Ivanka Trump and the Kardashians boarding water taxis to tour the Venetian lagoon. Once these images would have inspired envy or aspiration; now they arouse anger and feed “eat the rich” narratives.
Our celebrities were once distant figures whose lives functioned as escapism. Social media has eroded that distance, drawing stars into the same feeds, crises and conversations as everyone else. Now, when they appear indifferent, it reads as disdainful.
Nadia Khomami is the arts and culture correspondent at the Guardian
Ice cubes offer a slower form of watering, reducing the risk of soggy soil – but are not suitable for most tropical houseplants
The problem
Many a houseplant is killed with kindness; watering every time you look at them can be terminal. Using ice cubes for watering promises slower, more controlled hydration. But does it work?
The hack
Place one or two ice cubes on the soil. The idea is that as the ice melts it slowly releases water, giving the roots time to absorb it and avoiding soggy soil.
From Stanley Tucci’s imperious tech titan to Lex Luthor’s distractingly hot CEO and Elon Musk-esque blowhards, films this year took us inside the billionaire mindset
Between the slash-and-burn US government reboot led by a dank meme fan and the relentless pushing of AI by venture capital-backed blowhards, 2025 has felt like peak obnoxious tech bro. Fittingly, jargon-spouting, self-regarding digital visionaries also became Hollywood’s go-to baddies this year in everything from blockbusters to slapstick spoofs. Spare a thought for the overworked props departments tasked with mocking up fake Forbes magazine covers heralding yet another smirking white guy as “Master of the Metaverse” or whatever.
With such market saturation, the risk is that all these delusional dudes blend into one smarmy morass. It felt reasonable to expect that Stanley Tucci might sprinkle a little prosciutto on The Electric State, Netflix’s no-expense-spared alt-history robot fantasia. As Ethan Skate – creator of the “neurocaster” technology that quashed an AI uprising then turned the general populace into listless virtual-reality addicts – Tucci certainly looked the part: bald and imperious in retro Bond villain wardrobe. But even the great cocktail-maker couldn’t squeeze much out of sour existential proclamations such as: “Our world is a tyre fire floating on an ocean of piss.”
Elite junior tennis players are flocking to online schools. The model offers flexibility and focus – but raises deeper questions about growth, pressure and childhood
In a major study released recently in Epidemiology, conclusions were drawn – yet again – regarding how shutdowns and online learning were ultimately very damaging to kids’ emotional and mental health (obviously some cohorts of kids were more affected than others with financial security a big part of the calculation). This is no major surprise as parents and students alike weren’t happy with the remote learning environment.
Yet despite this general consensus about online schooling not being as healthy as regular school, a new trend has exploded since Covid: the rapid growth of online schooling for tennis players and other athletes. Parents and their junior athletes feel that by being able to play several hours in the day instead of after school it will accelerate their progress in the sport while still leaving room for academics. And from my perspective, as a parent of a competitive tennis player who attends a “regular” school, it appears to be the rule, not the exception, that most advanced junior players are in online school and not in a physical building. I often find myself bonding with the few other parents whose kids remain in regular school as we’re a rapidly dwindling species.
How do you photograph darkness? A question Sarah Lee considers with her work as the nights draw in: ‘I’ve always been drawn to photographing the darkness as the winter months draw in after the clocks go back and we head towards the solstice. I wondered why that was given that the world itself seems so dark at the moment. I realised this year that it is not the darkness I’m photographing, but, rather, the light. Always the light.’
This terrifying documentary about the Utah life coach convicted of extreme child abuse feels supremely grubby. How about a new year’s resolution not to watch – or make – anything this grim ever again?
We are always aware, I think, of man’s inhumanity to man. The latest true-crime documentary from Netflix is here to remind you that this is an umbrella term. It is undoubtedly rarer, though precisely why is unclear, but women can inflict the most awful suffering too – and here, a pair of them do so on children.
Evil Influencer: The Jodi Hildebrandt Story is the latest offering from Skye Borgman, who is the undisputed queen of the genre, specialising in high-end takes on the most extreme, the most only-in-America stories of depravity you could (not) hope to find. She made her name with 2017’s Abducted in Plain Sight, about the case of Jan Broberg, who was kidnapped not once but twice by Robert Berchtold, a close friend of the Brobergs and a sexual predator who effectively groomed the whole, spectacularly naive family. The Girl in the Picture, five years later, tells the story of a young woman known as Sharon Marshall, found after her death in a suspicious hit-and-run accident to have been living under multiple aliases as the kidnap and rape victim of a fugitive on the run from the FBI for decades. I Just Killed My Dad completed an unholy trinity of films from Borgman, with an examination of why 17-year-old Anthony Templet shot dead his apparently loving father and waited calmly outside for the police to arrest him. Spoiler alert: Templet’s father was nothing like the man he seemed.
Villa have sunk the Gunners’ title hopes in recent seasons but Gabriel’s return ready for Tuesday could be crucial
It may be more than six years since Unai Emery left Arsenal but it’s hard to escape the feeling that the Spaniard still has an inexorable hold over his former club. Ever since Aston Villa ended a four-match losing streak against them with a 1-0 home win in December 2023, Emery has proved to be a thorn in Mikel Arteta’s side.
Villa’s 2-0 victory at the Emirates a few months later ultimately cost Arsenal the title as a relentless Manchester City took advantage by winning their last eight matches. Arsenal had an impressive 2-0 triumph in Birmingham at the start of last season, but Villa’s comeback from two goals down to draw 2-2 in January of this year was symptomatic of Arsenal’s failure to chase down Liverpool in the title race that never was.
Disillusioned by his early EDM success, Alex Young bought hardware, embraced UK dance culture – and reinvented himself
From Washington, DC Recommended if you like Floating Points, Jon Hopkins, Joy Orbison Up next A slew of new music from the vault
It was probably the moment when he was paid $10,000 to DJ a spin fitness class that Alex Young, barely 16 at the time, felt he had lost touch with what music was all about. “At 13, I was like, if I could ever hang out with Skrillex, my life would be complete,” he says, sipping a pilsner on an icy day in Washington DC. “Then by 15, I’m doing it.”
Ben Stokes could take a leaf out of Keira Knightley’s book, Carse and Tongue can hurt Australia again and Crawley must dig in
Keira Knightley may not spring immediately to mind as a source of inspiration for Ben Stokes’ captaincy but her tactics for dealing with the paparazzi at the height of her fame recalled some of Stokes’ early forays with the armband.
For decades, he existed beyond comparison. As he turns 50, even golf’s most dominant figure confronts the one opponent he could never overpower
Talk to any golfer who played against Tiger Woods and there is sure to be at least one story about one shot so sublime they were certain it could not be hit by them or anyone else.
This time of year is the true beginning of winter: the 40 coldest and harshest days of the season. One resident of Gaza City describes the reality for Palestinians living with little shelter and no electricity or heating
It was about 8.30pm on a Thursday when I headed back home in Gaza City. It was windy, and I couldn’t stay out any longer, so I had to walk. At first it was only a light drizzle, but after about 200 metres the rain suddenly grew heavier. That wasn’t surprising. I stopped near a tent to take shelter, rubbing my palms together to draw some warmth. A young boy was sitting outside selling homemade cookies. We exchanged a few words while I stood there, though he didn’t seem interested in talking. I noticed the cookies were loosely wrapped in plastic, already soggy from the drizzle, and I wondered if he’d have enough to sell before the night ended. The cold seeped into everything.
As I walked along al-Wehda Street in Gaza City, tents lined both sides of the road. There were no voices coming from inside them, only the sound of rain pouring down and the whistle of the wind. As I hurried on, trying to dodge the rain, I switched on the torch of my mobile phone to see the road ahead. My thoughts kept returning to those sheltering inside: What are they doing now? What are they thinking? How do they feel? It was bitterly cold. I imagined children curled under wet blankets, parents shifting constantly to keep them warm.
This Nordic city and digital hub is having its moment in the (midnight) sun, offering cultural, arty events and pleasingly eclectic silliness
A floating community sauna on the frozen Oulu River seemed as good a place as any to ask Finnish locals what they think of the European Capital of Culture bandwagon that will be rolling into their city in 2026. Two women sweltering on the top bench seemed to sweat more over my question than over the clouds of sauna steam – the result of a beefy Finn ladling water on the wood-fired coals with a grim determination to broil us all.
“Hmmm, yes, it will bring people to Oulu, which is good, but we don’t really know much about it,” said one of the women. “We know it’s happening, but we haven’t had many details.”
The Netherlands’ guttersnipe answer to French chanson and German schlager is as popular as ever – but has it lost its roots as the defiant voice of the working class? Our writer sways along at the Muziekfeest van het Jaar to find out
‘U doet wat, precies, meneer?’ My chic twentysomething hairdresser throws me a puzzled look: “You’re doing what, exactly, sir?” I am not behaving like an Englishman. I have just told her that I have bought tickets for the Muziekfeest van het Jaar(Music of the Year festival) in Amsterdam’s cavernous Ziggo Dome: a two-night extravaganza that is being recorded to be broadcast on New Year’s Eve as a kind of Dutch equivalent to Jools Holland’s Hootenanny, all dedicated to the brassy, sentimental, often untranslatable and still monumentallypopular Dutch pop known as levenslied.
“Levenslied” roughly translates as “songs about life”, and although popular throughout the land, especially in North Brabant, it is commonly associated with Amsterdam, and specifically the formerly working-class district of the Jordaan. A social and local music, levenslied concerns itself with family, friends and close associates. Stylistically, it has a connection to the 20th-century French chanson réaliste of Edith Piaf and, when in a party mood, finds common cause with German schlager.
Exclusive: CST highlights volume of IS-supporting accounts and says social media firms ‘putting all of us in danger’
Facebook hosted terrorist propaganda that celebrated the murder of Jews and praised Islamic State, a leading anti-hate group has alleged.
The posts included celebrations of the Bondi beach massacre that the Community Security Trust says Facebook has been too slow to take down. The posts were still on Facebook on 16 December, two days after the attack, and received shares and likes.
A vivid and chilling account of the deadly voyage that triggered the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade
Over the nearly four centuries during which the transatlantic slave trade operated, 12.5 million Africans were trafficked by Europeans to the Americas. 1.8 million of them perished on the voyage under scarcely imaginable conditions of overcrowding, filth and disease. Some threw themselves overboard. And others were thrown into the sea.
In The Zorg, Siddharth Kara tells two stories. The first is of a harrowing incident aboard the eponymous slave ship – the murder of 132 Africans by the British crew. The second relates how that event came to play a role in the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade in 1807, in large part through the work of a dazzling array of committed campaigners. One of these was Olaudah Equiano, author of one of the few surviving accounts of the Middle Passage from the perspective of an enslaved person, in which he described it as “a scene of horror almost inconceivable”.
Journalist Don Ng’s debut feature raises interesting questions about the asylum experience – but his film is too sentimental and superficial to truly answer them
This is a film made with the best of intentions – and it has some good insights into the loneliness and isolation of seeking asylum in the UK. But there are a few too many sentimental moments to properly work as social-realism, or anything close to convincing drama, which is disappointing given its creator, Don Ng, is a journalist-turned-director making his feature debut. It’s set in London, where Bosco (a sensitive performance by Yiu-Sing Lam) has arrived from Hong Kong fleeing the government’s crackdown on political freedom, though he doesn’t really talk much about the situation back home.
Bosco is sent to live with other asylum seekers on a military base while his application is processed. Some of the best scenes turn out to be gentle observations of his sense of dislocation: walking around the local corner shop, for example, with its aisles of unfamiliar food. At a bus stop he meets Yasmin (Tsz Wing Kitty Yu), another asylum seeker, who writes letters to her student doctor boyfriend in Hong Kong, in prison for giving first aid to anti-government protesters. Bosco and Yasmin hang out together, though it’s obvious that for him the friendship feels like something more.
Attack signals new escalation in tensions between the kingdom and the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council
Saudi Arabia bombed Yemen’s port city of Mukalla on Tuesday over what it described as a shipment of weapons for a separatist force there that arrived from the United Arab Emirates.
The UAE did not immediately acknowledge the strike.
Caramelised sprouts with onion, thyme and sweet vinegar, served on a crisp open sandwich with soft cheese and pine nuts
Brussels sprouts are perhaps not the first thing you think of when you think about Spanish food, but they do have a little history in my homeland. They arrived in Spain in the 16th century, through trade with Flanders, and were often paired with pork, which we love. Here, however, I caramelise them with onion, thyme and sweet vinegar, then serve on crisp baguette with soft cheese and pine nuts. A small bite with big flavour, and just right with a glass of oloroso – perfect for festive times.
This year saw everyone from Alan Carr to demon sheep run riot on our screens – but there could only be one winner. Here’s our full countdown of the very best television of 2025 • More on the best culture of 2025
As the billionaire retires, he leaves memorable advice from his annual letters that include pithy takes on bubbles, discipline and long-term goals
Warren Buffett, the billionaire investor who is retiring at the end of 2025, has entertained and educated shareholders in his Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate for many years with his pithy annual letters outlining the firm’s performance.
Every year since 1965 he has updated his investors on the journey as Berkshire morphed from a “struggling northern textile business” with $25m of shareholder equity when he took over, to an empire worth more than $1tn.
Though the price I paid for Berkshire looked cheap, its business – a large northern textile operation – was headed for extinction.
My error caused Berkshire shareholders to give far more than they received (a practice that – despite the biblical endorsement – is far from blessed when you are buying businesses).
Woody Allen once explained why eclecticism works: ‘The real advantage of being bisexual is that it doubles your chances for a date on Saturday night.’
When such a CEO is encouraged by his advisers to make deals, he responds much as would a teenage boy who is encouraged by his father to have a normal sex life. It’s not a push he needs.
Andrew destroyed a few small insurers. Beyond that, it awakened some larger companies to the fact that their reinsurance protection against catastrophes was far from adequate. (It’s only when the tide goes out that you learn who’s been swimming naked.)
In our view, however, derivatives are financial weapons of mass destruction, carrying dangers that, while now latent, are potentially lethal.
Participants seeking to dodge troubles face the same problem as someone seeking to avoid venereal disease: it’s not just whom you sleep with, but also whom they are sleeping with.
From this irritating reality comes the first law of corporate survival for ambitious CEOs who pile on leverage and run large and unfathomable derivatives books: modest incompetence simply won’t do; it’s mind-boggling screw-ups that are required.
When downpours of that sort occur, it’s imperative that we rush outdoors carrying washtubs, not teaspoons. And that we will do.
Naturally, I was delighted to attend Mrs B’s birthday party. After all, she’s promised to attend my 100th.
She sold me our interest when she was 89 and worked until she was 103. (After retiring, she died the next year, a sequence I point out to any other Berkshire manager who even thinks of retiring.)
The candidates are young to middle-aged, well-to-do to rich, and all wish to work for Berkshire for reasons that go beyond compensation.
(I’ve reluctantly discarded the notion of my continuing to manage the portfolio after my death – abandoning my hope to give new meaning to the term ‘thinking outside the box’.)
Connexion
