Our panellists are installed behind big red buckets. What will they pluck from within them? And whose destiny will be decided by their fickle fingers of fate?
All Black legend Dan Carter recalls seeing the first RWC as a seven-year-old and going on to play in four tournaments.
For a limited time only, buy a fine art print featuring a standout selection of Tom Gauld’s cultural cartoons from 2025. This exclusive, two-week drop is your opportunity to own a collectible piece straight from the Guardian’s celebrated Book section. Available until 17 December
Tom Gauld was born in 1976 and studied at Edinburgh College of Art and the Royal College of Art. He draws weekly cartoons for the Guardian and New Scientist magazine. He has created a number of comic books and a picture book for children. He lives in London with his family.
Fertilising arable land with human waste leaves array of toxins that could re-enter food chain, study finds
More than 520 chemicals have been found in English soils, including pharmaceutical products and toxins that were banned decades ago, because of the practice of spreading human waste to fertilise arable land.
Research by scientists at the University of Leeds, published as a preprint in the Journal of Hazardous Materials, found a worrying array of chemicals in English soils. Close to half (46.4%) of the pharmaceutical substances detected had not been reported in previous global monitoring campaigns.
Gloria Swanson is extraordinary as faded film-star Norma Desmond in Billy Wilder’s cameo-packed self-referential masterpiece about tinseltown ghosts and delusions
Billy Wilder’s film starring Gloria Swanson as a reclusive former silent movie star, and William Holden as a young wannabe writer who becomes her kept man, more than ever looks not merely like tinseltown satire or LA noir, but a ghost story. It’s the ultimate film about how the screenwriter is always the loser and the chump. You can tell that Norma Desmond (Swanson) is washed up because she has actually written a screenplay – which is, however, more than Joe (Holden) ever achieves in the course of this film.
Sunset Boulevard’s own script, co-written by Wilder with Charles Brackett and DM Marshman Jr, is of course superb. And after 75 years, we can appreciate the movie’s sober judgment about the dangers of cinephilia and Hollywood ancestor worship. The street name itself, with its dying fall, is an occult omen of the eerie and macabre things that happen here. David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive had the same chill. The street name is about the final ending, and this is one of the very few films of any sort with a really satisfying ending: the way in which the delusional old celebrity, her eyes pinwheeling, is finally induced to come placidly down the stairs to surrender to the authorities. She grimaces and gurns directly into the lens at the very last, rather like Anthony Perkins in Psycho – a film that incidentally was very much influenced by this one.
Exclusive: Brazil’s environment minister talks about climate inaction and the course we have to plot to save ourselves and the planet
Soon after I returned home to Altamira from Cop30, I found myself talking about dinosaurs, meteors and “ambassadors of harm” with Brazil’s environment minister, Marina Silva.
No one in government knows the rainforest better than Marina, as she is best known in Brazil, who was born and raised in the Amazon. No one is more aware of the sacrifices that environmental and land defenders have made than this associate of the murdered activist Chico Mendes. And no one worked harder to raise ambition at Cop30, the first climate summit in the Amazon, than her. So what, I asked, had it achieved?
It contains enough steel to go round the world twice – and even has a fake breeze to flutter the stars-and-stripes flag in its lobby. If this colossus is just the first of a new breed of bulky supertalls, is Britain next?
Among the slender needles and elegant spires of the Manhattan skyline, a mountainous lump has reared into view. It galumphs its way up above the others, climbing in bulky steps with the look of several towers strapped together, forming a dark, looming mass. From some angles it forms the silhouette of a hulking bar chart. From others, it glowers like a coffin, ready to swallow the dainty Chrysler building that trembles in its shadow. It is New York’s final boss, a brawny, bronzed behemoth that now lords it over the city with a brutish swagger.
Fittingly, this is the new global headquarters of JP Morgan, the world’s biggest bank. The firm enjoys a market capitalisation of $855bn (£645bn), more than Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Citigroup’s combined, and it looks as if it might have swallowed all three inside its tinted glass envelope. Last year, for the first time, it made more than $1bn a week in profits. Chairman and chief executive Jamie Dimon likes to boast of its “fortress balance sheet”, and he now has an actual fortress to go with it – built at a cost, he revealed at the opening, of around $4bn. He has certainly made his mark. It would be hard to design a more menacing building if you tried.
Steve Smith hints bowler may be late call-up in Brisbane
Josh Inglis favoured to replace injured Usman Khawaja
The challenge for England could be set to increase amid a growing belief that Pat Cummins will be given the green light to return for Australia this week in the second Ashes Test at the Gabba.
Cummins, 32, was absent from the series opener in Perth as he underwent the final stages of rehabilitation from a lower back stress injury that was first detected back in July. Steve Smith stepped up to captain as the hosts secured a 1-0 lead with an eight-wicket victory inside two days.
“Has any player been shown a second yellow card while being substituted for not leaving the pitch correctly?” wonders Ken Foster.
They have indeed, Ken. Let Robin Horton take you back to a bitter January in 1980, when Stoke City were the visitors to Burnley in the FA Cup third round. “Stoke’s Denis Smith, already on a yellow card, limped towards the touchline with an injured ankle, only to linger on the touchline as substitute Paul Johnson was not properly warmed up,” Robin recalls. “Referee Kevin McNally therefore sent Smith off for time-wasting. McNally was not in Stoke’s good books; Burnley won the tie via a penalty, and Stoke’s Ray Evans also got his marching orders, for what manager Alan Durban described as ‘heavy sarcasm’.” That’s as good a reason for a dismissal as we can remember.
Fifa has been unable to sell TV rights to its first global women’s club competition, the Champions Cup, which is taking place in London from 28 January. The Champions League holders, Arsenal, will represent Europe in the competition that features the winners of the continental championships.
The situation has echoes of Fifa’s struggle to sell TV rights to the men’s Club World Cup this year, bought by the global streaming platform Dazn, which sold a $1bn stake to the Saudi Arabian vehicle SURJ Sports Investment.
Tarantino has called Dano a ‘weak, weak uninteresting guy’, ‘the giant flaw’ in There Will Be Blood – and the main reason it is not his favourite film of the 21st century
How does the saying go? Opinions are like arseholes? Arseholes like opinions? Anyway: Quentin Tarantino went on The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast this week to announce his 20 favourite films of the 21st century – a list that starts with Ridley Scott’s Black Hawk Down at No 1 and finishes on Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story at 20, by way of a few surprises (Toy Story 3 in second spot, Midnight in Paris at 10).
But the wildest of wild takes was revealed in his No 5 pick, There Will Be Blood, when Tarantino declared Paul Dano was the film’s “giant flaw”.
President Lee praised South Koreans for overcoming ‘an unprecedented democratic crisis in world history’ but some fears its society is becoming increasingly polarised
South Korea’s President Lee Jae Myung has marked the anniversary of an attempt to impose martial law by declaring that those behind the bid to topple its democracy must face justice, while adding that the fight to secure the country remains unfinished.
“Investigations and trials of those who participated are still ongoing,” Lee said in a televised address. He pledged that “righteous unity” would be possible only once accountability was delivered.
Pillion, which explores a relationship between leather dom Ray (Alexander Skarsgård) and submissive Colin (Harry Melling), has just opened in UK cinemas. But how realistic is its portrayal of a group little seen in mainstream cinema?
In her portraits from an overcrowded Venezuelan detention centre, Ana María Arévalo Gosen captures the frustration of women desperate for news from their lawyers and families
This photograph was taken inside the Poli-Valencia detention centre, where I began to understand what imprisonment means for women in Venezuela. The room had once been an investigation office, converted into a cell after authorities decided to move the women out of the main area, where they had been held alongside male detainees.
When I returned a year later, the space had been transformed. The women had made it their own, covering the walls with names, phrases and small drawings of hearts, even taping up a poster of the Colombian singer Maluma. What had once been a sterile office now held traces of their presence, their effort to hold on to a sense of identity in a place meant to erase it.
Jack Lueders-Booth has been racing, repairing and photographing motorbikes for decades. His new book captures those people who crave the risk and romance of the road
By avoiding the famous hotspots and travelling in December, we enjoy culinary delights and historic charms without the summer crowds
The copper pot is filled with a custard so golden it looks like liquid sunshine. Our waiter carefully ladles the sugary, egg-yolk elixir, zabaglione, into two bowls for dunking warm pansarole doughnuts. Our conversation stops, a silent competition to nab the last one. We are literally living la dolce vita.
This dessert is a tradition in Apricale, a fairytale-like village in Liguria, Italy’s crescent-shaped region that hugs the Mediterranean. It’s a far cry from crowded Cinque Terre and posh Portofino to the east. This western edge, on France’s south-eastern border, feels more authentic and calmer in the winter, with more local people than tourists. Unburdened from competing with others for reservations, you are free to live in the present. Let spontaneity be your guide – or, in my family’s case, our appetites.
After my dad died, I tried to cope by keeping busy: a day job, a side hustle, socialising and working out. But I kept bursting into tears in public. At a Quaker meeting, it was as if someone had turned down the volume of the world
It was 2022, and my dad had just died from a rare blood disease. In the aftermath, I quit my PhD and moved back to London from Brighton. I coped by keeping incredibly busy. I regularly informed friends “I’m fine, actually”, as I threw myself into a new job in communications, went clubbing every weekend, picked up a side hustle selling secondhand clothes and got suspiciously invested in my gym routine. If I could just keep busy, I thought, perhaps I could drown out the growing tidal wave of grief.
And it worked, until it just didn’t any more. I began to burst into tears randomly – during a work meeting, at the gym, on my commute – and everyone around me would politely pretend they didn’t notice the 28-year-old man weeping on the tube at 8.30am. I tried to push through it, but my ability to keep up with my own life was faltering, and all of it – the clubs, the job, the gym – suddenly felt unbearably loud and overwhelming.
The UN office on drugs and crime said in a report the growth underscores Myanmar’s position as the world’s main known source of illicit opium
Opium poppy cultivation in war-torn Myanmar has surged to its highest level in a decade, according to the UN, rising 17% in the past year as conflict and economic hardship push more farmers into the illicit trade.
From the threat of superintelligent AI to the secrets of a longer life; plus the evolution of language and the restless genius of Francis Crick
This felt like the year that AI really arrived. It is on our phones and laptops; it is creeping into digital and corporate infrastructure; it is changing the way we learn, work and create; and the global economy rests on the stratospheric valuations of the corporate giants vying to control it.
But the unchecked rush to go faster and further could extinguish humanity, according to the surprisingly readable and chillingly plausible If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies (Bodley Head), by computer scientists Eliezer Yudkowsky and Nate Soares, which argues against creating superintelligent AI able to cognitively outpace Homo sapiens in all departments. “Even an AI that cares about understanding the universe is likely to annihilate humans as a side-effect,” they write, “because humans are not the most efficient method for producing truths … out of all possible ways to arrange matter.” Not exactly cheery Christmas reading but, as the machines literally calculate our demise, you’ll finally grasp all that tech bro lingo about tokens, weights and maximising preferences.
Failings of legal system mean 97 people were unlawfully killed, but no one will be held accountable
When the Independent Office for Police Conduct published the final report on its mammoth investigation into the Hillsborough disaster, the response from bereaved families and survivors was conflicted.
Some of the IOPC’s findings could be regarded as historic, in particular that 12 former officers would have had cases to answer for gross misconduct, including Peter Wright, the chief constable of South Yorkshire police at the time of the 1989 disaster.
Incarceration should be a last resort, yet this broken and brutal system punishes marginalised women, most of whom are inside for non-violent crimes
‘When you imprison a woman, you imprison a family,” a young woman in Sierra Leone told me, cradling her small baby in a damp cell. My mind flashed back to being a teenager, hearing my mother sob after receiving a phone call to say that my father had been arrested in Zambia for political reasons.
I understand how children are collateral damage of imprisonment, and over 20 years as a lawyer, I know that is even more true when women – primary caregivers – are arrested.
Tesla privately warned the UK government that weakening electric vehicle rules would hit battery car sales and risk the country missing its carbon dioxide targets, according to newly revealed documents.
The US electric carmaker, run by Elon Musk, also called for “support for the used-car market”, according to submissions to a government consultation earlier this year obtained by the Fast Charge, a newsletter covering electric cars.
Three Italian light bites to get you started on the big day: pinzimonio crudites, chilled prawns with boozy mayo, and a delicate frittata that you can stud with artichoke, radicchio or celery
I am evolving as a host, and coming to realise that those rich dishes that crown our festive tables shine brightest when surrounded by contrasting and lighter bites – before, around and after, rather than just on the day itself. I do enjoy angels and devils on horseback, devilled eggs, little sausages wrapped in bacon, mince tarts crowned with goose liver, fried breads and cheesy pizzette, buffalo wings, paté en croute, crab beignets, oysters Rockefeller, shrimp tostadas and rich tamales, but, for the most part, I save these for the parties earlier in December. For Christmas day itself, I start with lighter bites, as better preparation for the rich meal ahead. A trio of dainty, grazing canapes served alongside sparkling Alta Langa…
The Guardian aims to publish recipes for sustainable fish. Check ratings in your region: UK; Australia; US.
Shopping for a Swiftie, a Brat or a Short n’ Sweet superfan? We’ve rounded up the ultimate pop-girlie gifts of 2025, inspired by everyone from Chappell Roan to Olivia Rodrigo
From Olivia Rodrigo headlining Glastonbury to Chappell Roan winning a Grammy for best new artist, 2025 has been yet another slay for the pop girls. And with recently released albums from Taylor Swift, Olivia Dean and Sabrina Carpenter (and one on the way for Charli xcx), there’s no sign of them slowing down.
So, whether you’re shopping for a loved one who’s clinging on to Brat summer or in need of a present for a Swiftie, we’ve rounded up thoughtful gifts inspired by their favourite artists. From a blush used to create Sabrina Carpenter’s rosy cheeks to a Polaroid camera for taking snaps at concerts, you’ll find something on this list to delight the pop girlie in your life.
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