© Illustration by Vahram Muradyan
© Photo Illustration by Shannon Lin/The New York Times
These gentle, hydrating toners impart the glassy look popularised by Korean skincare – and I can’t do without them
I wouldn’t say it was rare that the beauty industry invents a whole new product category, but my own willingness to adopt another step certainly is. Ten years ago, I’d have told you not to bother with toner unless you particularly enjoyed using it, which is as good a reason as any in a world on fire. And yet over the past couple of years, the new “milky toners” have, to me at least, become so functional as to be indispensable.
These are cloudy fluids, thicker than a toner but thinner than a moisturiser, usually containing gentle, universally skin-pleasing ingredients like glycerine, ceramides and peptides.
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© Photograph: Kellie French/The Guardian
© Photograph: Kellie French/The Guardian
© Photograph: Kellie French/The Guardian
From a family showdown on Guitar Hero III to the winter levels in Diddy Kong Racing, the designers of some of today’s top titles recall the gifts and moments that lit up their childhoods
There is a viral video that tends to get passed around at this time of year. It’s an old home movie showing a boy and a girl on Christmas morning eagerly unwrapping a present that turns out to be an N64 console – the boy is, to put it mildly, extremely pleased. It’s a scene a lot of us who play games will recognise: the excitement and anticipation provided by that big console-sized parcel, or the little DVD-shaped package that could be the latest Super Mario adventure. Although I never got a games machine at Christmas, I remember one year being given Trivial Pursuit on the Commodore 64 and the whole family gathered around the TV to play. It was one of the few times my mum and my sisters showed any interest in the computer, and I loved getting them involved.
Veteran designer Rhod Broadbent of Dakko Dakko recalls the Christmas of 1992, when his father, a programmer who had previously looked down on games consoles, bought him Mario Kart and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. “Zelda was completely unknown to me at the time,” he recalls. “I think Dad was probably expecting me to be more excited. But after I had spent the morning in Mario Kart, I plugged in Zelda and everything changed. From the title music, through the intro and into that beautiful initial thunderstorm, everything was so polished and smooth and unlike the video games I’d played before. It didn’t leave the cartridge slot for weeks. I remember that Christmas morning like it was yesterday …”
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© Photograph: VisualField/Getty Images
© Photograph: VisualField/Getty Images
© Photograph: VisualField/Getty Images
Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news
Is the Christmas shopping period more of a whimper than a bang for Britain’s retailers this year?
Shopper traffic yesterday remained “stubbornly muted”, according to the latest footfall data from Sensormatic Solutions, which shows that visits were 13.1% lower than a year ago.
“After an unsettled start to the festive period - defined by shaky consumer confidence and spending hesitancy – retailers will be left feeling frustrated that footfall remains stubbornly muted, after many were pinning their hopes on a surge in store traffic yesterday.”
“With consumers leaving purchases right up to the wire, some retailers have released Boxing Day deals early to try and unlock that, so far, elusive consumer spending.”
“What we’ve seen over the past week is a combination of position squaring in thin markets, after last week’s breakdown failed to gain traction, coupled with heightened geopolitical tensions, including the US blockade on Venezuela and supported by last night’s robust GDP data.”
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© Photograph: Brendan McDermid/Reuters
© Photograph: Brendan McDermid/Reuters
© Photograph: Brendan McDermid/Reuters
As crowds attack newspaper offices and violence has killed 184 people, the optimism around Sheikh Hasina’s overthrow has dimmed
The sounds of a mob were already audible when Zyma Islam hit send on her article for Friday’s edition of Bangladesh’s Daily Star newspaper. She quickly headed out, hoping to avoid the crowd that had already burned down the offices of Prothom Alo, another of Bangladesh’s most prestigious newspapers. But when she reached the door, they were already there.
The rioters were angered by the assassination of Sharif Osman Hadi, a prominent leader from the pro-democracy movement that unseated the former prime minister Sheikh Hasina in August 2024. Hadi’s killers were Hasina loyalists who had escaped to India, according to the authorities. The crowd that had rapidly gathered on the night of 18 December was ready to lash out at anyone they saw as linked to the previous government.
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© Photograph: Abdul Goni/Reuters
© Photograph: Abdul Goni/Reuters
© Photograph: Abdul Goni/Reuters
Film that follows a Milwaukee married couple as they rise to fame with a real-life band called Lightning and Thunder is undeniably entertaining
Here is a startlingly strange, undeniably entertaining true-life story from the heartland of American showbusiness; a lovable crowdpleaser whose feelgood flavour won’t prepare you for the way the plot repeatedly and savagely twists like an unsafe fairground ride. I actually had my eyes closed and mouth open at certain key points, and was grabbing the seat in front of me with both fists. It also may yet prove that, yes, Hugh Jackman really is the greatest showman (his role here is much more interesting than his bland impersonation of PT Barnum) and his co-star Kate Hudson brings just the same performance megawattage.
Mike and Claire Sardina, terrifically played by Jackman and Hudson, were a Milwaukee married couple with kids from previous relationships who in the 90s formed a cheesy Neil Diamond tribute act called Lightning and Thunder; they became a cult hit in their home state and even opened for Pearl Jam whose guitarist Eddie Vedder good-naturedly joined them on stage for an encore. But things were not easy for them, and this film broods on how tough it is when the lightning of ill fortune strikes more than once.
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© Photograph: Focus Features/Shutterstock
© Photograph: Focus Features/Shutterstock
© Photograph: Focus Features/Shutterstock
A thought-provoking examination of the literary stars who became Catholic – from Evelyn Waugh to Muriel Spark
In the five decades between 1910 and 1960, more than half a million people in England and Wales became Catholics. Among them were a clutch of literary stars: Oscar Wilde, Evelyn Waugh, Muriel Spark and Graham Greene. But there was a whole host of poets, artists and public intellectuals less known to us today, whose “going over to Rome” provoked envy and dismay.
In this thoughtful though brisk book, Melanie McDonagh, a columnist for The Tablet, gives us 16 case histories of Britons who went “Poping” during the scariest decades of the 20th century. At a time when reason and decency appeared to have been chased out by political extremism and global warfare, it was only natural to long for something solid. Writing in 1925, Greene confided to his fiancee “one does want fearfully hard for something firm and hard and certain, however uncomfortable, to catch hold of in the general flux”.
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© Photograph: Frank Monaco/REX/Shutterstock
© Photograph: Frank Monaco/REX/Shutterstock
© Photograph: Frank Monaco/REX/Shutterstock
Researchers share the easy ways to uncover moments of festive discovery, proving you don’t need a lab coat to experiment this Christmas
Christmas may seem like a time for switching off and suspending disbelief but there are plenty of ways to introduce a little science into the celebrations.
We asked experts for their top home experiments to challenge friends and family.
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© Photograph: Michelle O’Kane/Getty Images
© Photograph: Michelle O’Kane/Getty Images
© Photograph: Michelle O’Kane/Getty Images
Archer ruled out for rest of series with side strain
Pope dropped for MCG Test with Bethell and Atkinson in
Ben Stokes has called for the public and the media to show “empathy” towards his embattled England players. It comes as their Ashes campaign threatens to fully unravel in response to a guaranteed series defeat and allegations of excessive drinking during a mid-tour break in Noosa.
Sitting 3-0 down going into the Boxing Day Test, England have been hit by reports that their downtime in between the defeats in Brisbane and Adelaide was akin to a “stag do”. The emergence of footage appearing to show Ben Duckett drunk and slurring his words on a night out has heightened things.
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© Photograph: Gareth Copley/Getty Images
© Photograph: Gareth Copley/Getty Images
© Photograph: Gareth Copley/Getty Images
Police say incident a ‘domestic violence situation’ and suspect, who also died, was ex-partner of teenager’s mother
A 13-year-old British boy has died after being stabbed at his home in Portugal in an incident that police described as a “domestic violence situation”.
Authorities said the alleged perpetrator, who also died, was the former partner of the boy’s mother.
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© Photograph: Filipe Amorim/AFP/Getty Images
© Photograph: Filipe Amorim/AFP/Getty Images
© Photograph: Filipe Amorim/AFP/Getty Images
© Kevin Frayer/Getty Images
My research on social media shows high levels of misinformation and disconnect. Here’s how to talk to kith and kin this week without tears and tantrums
Dr Kaitlyn Regehr is the programme director of digital humanities at University College London
December: a time of cultural rituals around food, gathering and taking to TikTok to bemoan bigoted relatives. Indeed, this new cultural ritual is now a social media staple that sweeps across our feeds over the festive period. We post about intergenerational debates on politics; stomaching “wokeness” jokes; and the now near-mythical “uncle” character – the older male holding court at the table – exemplified by tweets that go something like: “My uncle just went on a 10-minute rant about [insert topic]. The turkey is dry and so is his take.”
In these situations, many of us are torn between the impulse to call out harmful speech and our (or more often, our mother’s) longing for family harmony. These micro-yuletide tensions are played out at dinner tables across the country and are indicative of broader cultural and political polarisation. Polarisation is amplified by the social media-driven information silos in which we all now live.
Be proactive, not reactive. Start conversations organically, rather than in reaction to a comment or event. This will set an objective tone. Make conversations short and often, rather than one big event.
Think “big picture”. Focus the conversation on the overarching structures at play, perpetuated by the attention economy. Where possible, inspire agency around these topics by offering information about online processes and then let them do the critical thinking.
Focus on the positive. For young people in particular, focus on positive examples, role models and narratives. This is often much more powerful than talking about the negative examples. Talk to older children and teens about what they can be rather than what they can’t.
Dr Kaitlyn Regehr is programme director of digital humanities at University College London, lecturing on digital literacy and the ethical implications of social media and AI. She is also the author of Smartphone Nation: Why We’re All Addicted to Screens and What You Can Do About It
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© Photograph: Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto/Shutterstock
© Photograph: Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto/Shutterstock
© Photograph: Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto/Shutterstock
FA Cup-winning manager and former King of the Jungle has live hopes of landing the big Boxing Day prize at Kempton with Jukebox Man
He has been a professional footballer, an FA Cup-winning manager and the King of the Jungle over the storied course of the past 60 years, but as Harry Redknapp talked about The Jukebox Man, his King George VI Chase contender, at Ben Pauling’s stable last week, he was the East End kid whose nan was a bookie’s runner and would be astonished to see where life and luck have taken her grandson.
“She wouldn’t believe it,” Redknapp says, suddenly back in Poplar in the 1950s. “It’s a far cry from the East End of London, [when she was] getting slung in the back of a police van every other day for collecting the bets.
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© Photograph: Alan Crowhurst/Getty Images
© Photograph: Alan Crowhurst/Getty Images
© Photograph: Alan Crowhurst/Getty Images
Have you followed the football, rugby, basketball, NFL, cycling, F1, tennis, horse racing, sumo, athletics and golf?
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© Composite: Arsenal FC/Getty Images; Augusta National/Getty Images; Getty Images
© Composite: Arsenal FC/Getty Images; Augusta National/Getty Images; Getty Images
© Composite: Arsenal FC/Getty Images; Augusta National/Getty Images; Getty Images
Portland Fire are set for their debut season in the WNBA. Their coach has completed an unlikely journey to the top of his sport
As an aspiring basketball coach in his teens and early 20s, Alex Sarama was often met with snickers when he talked about the game he loved. For the British-born Sarama, who on 28 October was named the head coach of the WNBA’s newest expansion team, the Portland Fire, people doubted him before he even put two sentences together.
“There was a lot of skepticism,” he tells the Guardian. “A lot of coaches heard the accent and they’d say straight away this Alex guy can’t coach!”
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© Photograph: Portland Fire
© Photograph: Portland Fire
© Photograph: Portland Fire
© Tyler Hicks/The New York Times
Victoria Beckham has shared a glimpse into her life after son Brooklyn Beckham reportedly blocked the entire family.
© Getty Images
One officer was injured by the explosion as police in Tomar responded to a suspected domestic violence alert
© AFP via Getty Images
© Norad Tracker
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