President-elect praised Carter as a ‘truly good man’ in U-turn from past rhetoric in their long thorny relationship

Joe Biden said Donald Trump should learn “decency” from Jimmy Carter’s legacy, in remarks delivered hours after the former president’s death on Sunday at age 100.

Speaking to reporters during a family vacation in the US Virgin Islands, the outgoing US president drew sharp contrasts between Carter’s character and that of his predecessor Trump, who is set to take over a second term as commander-in-chief in January.

Authorities announce investigation as shocked citizens enter second day of official mourning

South Korea has launched an emergency safety inspection of the country’s entire airline operations, and a separate check of all Boeing 737-800s, after 179 people died in a Jeju Air crash involving the aircraft on Sunday.

As shocked citizens began a second day of official mourning and flags flew at half-mast, the government said it would carry out the audit of all 101 of the aircraft in domestic operation, with US investigators, possibly including Boeing, joining the inspection.

Electricity cable link to Estonia was damaged on Christmas Day in suspected Russian act of sabotage

Finnish investigators say they have found a seabed trail stretching almost 100km (about 60 miles) around the site of an underwater electricity cable that was damaged on Christmas Day in a suspected act of Russian sabotage.

The ship under suspicion of causing the damage, a vessel called the Eagle S flying the flag of the Cook Islands, is believed to be part of Russia’s so-called shadow fleet, used for transporting Russian oil products subject to embargos after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Two others charged with drug supply in connection with One Direction singer’s fall from Buenos Aires hotel balcony

Three people have been charged with manslaughter, and two others with drug supply, in connection with the death of Liam Payne, who was allegedly seen being “dragged to his room” while unconscious moments before he fell from his balcony in Argentina earlier this year.

The 31-year-old former One Direction singer fell from the third floor of the Casa Sur hotel in Buenos Aires on 16 October.

Retailers already trialling new codes that contain sell-by dates, product instructions, allergens and ingredients

It is the zebra-striped tag that has become ubiquitous over the last 50 years, but the barcode’s days could be numbered. The global organisation overseeing their use has said a more powerful alternative will be readable by retailers everywhere within two years.

New codes that contain sell-by dates, product instructions, allergens and ingredients, as well as prices, will mean that “we will say goodbye to the old-fashioned barcode”, according to GS1, an international non-profit that maintains the global standard for barcodes.

Trial conducted solely against teenager’s parents as their son could not be criminally prosecuted due to his age

A Belgrade court has jailed the parents of a 13-year-old boy after he shot dead nine students and a security guard at an elementary school in Serbia’s capital last year.

The killings, on 3 May 2023, deeply shocked the Balkan state, where mass shootings have been rare despite high levels of gun ownership.

Federal appeals court upholds $5m sexual assault and defamation verdict in setback for president-elect

A federal appeals court has upheld the $5m verdict against Donald Trump for sexually abusing and defaming the magazine writer E Jean Carroll, dealing a legal setback to the president-elect.

The three-judge panel at the second US circuit court of appeals in Manhattan rejected Trump’s arguments for a new trial, ruling that evidence including testimony from other accusers – as well as the infamous Access Hollywood tape that captured him boasting about how it was normal for him to “grab [women] by the pussy” – was properly admitted.

Government spokesperson says freedom of speech ‘covers the greatest nonsense’ after Musk’s endorsements of AfD

The German government has accused Elon Musk of trying to meddle in the country’s election campaign with repeated endorsements of the far-right party AfD.

“It is indeed the case that Elon Musk is trying to influence the federal election,” said the government spokesperson Christiane Hoffmann after Musk’s X posts and an opinion piece published at the weekend backing the anti-Muslim, anti-migration Alternative für Deutschland.

Hogmanay festival organisers cancel outdoor events with high winds and rain predicted to hit city in coming days

Edinburgh’s New Year’s Eve street parties and fireworks display have been cancelled on safety grounds because of storms forecast for the next 36 hours.

The city’s Hogmanay festival organisers said the high winds and rain predicted to hit the city made it unsafe to hold any of the outdoor events planned for Monday and Tuesday nights.

A spate of murders has taken the Caribbean nation’s total to 623 in 2024, of which nearly half were gang related and almost all linked to organised crime, say police

The government of Trinidad and Tobago has declared a state of emergency after a weekend of violence in the Caribbean dual-island nation took the number of murders this year to 623.

Five men were shot overnight in an estate on the outskirts of the capital, Port of Spain, a man killed outside a police station on Saturday, and a 57-year-old woman was shot dead on Friday as she collected her teenage son from hospital in San Fernando.

The 39th president was a Renaissance man who should be celebrated for his environment policy and his work for peace

Jimmy Carter, the 39th president of the United States and a Nobel peace prize-winning humanitarian, died on Sunday in Plains, Georgia, the tiny town where he and his formidable wife and life partner, Rosalynn, were born.

Carter – the longest-lived and longest-married US president – is unlikely to be placed in the first rank of American leaders, but his single four-year term is now seen in a much better light than it was when he was best known for the seizure of American hostages in Iran and for his crushing loss to Ronald Reagan in 1980.

Carter signed treaties to hand over the Panama Canal and criticized Israel, drawing respect and fury past his one term

In May 1989, the former US president Jimmy Carter walked into the lobby of a hotel in Panama and made it known he was determined to be heard in spite of attempts by the country’s military ruler, Gen Manuel Noriega, to shut him up.

Carter was still widely held in contempt in his own country, where his reputation as a one-term president was crucified in the late 70s by interminable gas lines, Iran’s taunting seizure of American hostages and a general perception that he lacked the mettle to lead the free world.

The former US president Jimmy Carter, who has died aged 100, achieved a far more favourable reputation after leaving the White House than he ever secured during his single term of office. Following his electoral defeat in 1980 – when Ronald Reagan beat him by 489 to 49 electoral college votes – his sustained efforts to improve life for the deprived people of the world won him the 2002 Nobel peace prize.

Carter left a mixed heritage from his presidential term. He put human rights firmly on the international agenda, persuaded Congress to cede US control of the Panama canal, demonstrated that peace settlements could be achieved in the Middle East, and completed the second strategic arms limitation treaty with the Soviet Union.

The ex-president was pilloried for his characterisation of the Palestinians’ plight but some say an apology is in order

Jimmy Carter’s terminal illness reignited a bitter dispute over accusations the former president was antisemitic after he wrote a bestselling book likening the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories to South African apartheid.

Prominent American supporters of Israel lined up to denounce Carter and the book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, when it was published in 2006.

Investigators are trying to work out what caused fatal accident in which 179 people died

Jeju Air’s flight 7C2216 crashed on Sunday, killing 179 of the 181 people onboard.

For years reporters at Syria’s state news agency had to toe the line. As life in Syria grew harder, so did the their work

After 21 years, the day Farouk feared had finally come. An envelope sealed with red wax made its way through the faded hallways of Syria’s national news agency, Sana, and landed on his desk. Inside was what employees called a penalty, the contents of which could range from a reprimand from the editors to a summons to one of Syria’s brutal security branches.

“I found a mistake before the article was published and I brought it to the editors’ attention. I thought this would be a good thing but they punished me,” Farouk, a journalist on Sana’s foreign news desk, said under a pseudonym.

Warsaw’s return to the European mainstream with presidency of the EU Council may not be quite what it seems

Germany’s chancellor appears to be heading for defeat; France’s president is mired in crisis. But while Europe’s traditional power duo are in the doldrums, there is a strong, stable and pro-EU leader east of Paris and Berlin – Poland’s prime minister, Donald Tusk.

For European officials, it’s a helpful gift of the calendar that Poland takes charge of the EU Council rotating presidency from 1 January.

From the silliest concept ever to killer thrillers so dull Villanelle would roll her eyes, there have been plenty of televisual duds in 2024. Here are the biggest turkeys

Yes, the Prince Andrew/Emily Maitlis head-to-head was the TV moment of 2019, and it is unlikely that any television interview will ever be as jawdropping again. But why did we need not just one but two screen recreations of it this year? This one came with Maitlis’s blessing, but sadly already existed in the shadow of Netflix’s Scoop. Despite excellent turns by Michael Sheen and Ruth Wilson, it never felt anything other than slight and superfluous.

The average woman in the UK will spend 474 days applying makeup. Without it, I have more time for a life well spent

I am not sure when I gave up wearing makeup. I was never particularly good at it. As a student, I was thrown into an early 2000s performance of femininity that involved thick eyeliner flicks, dyed hair, doll-like blusher and bright pink lips. I felt the pressure of magazines, adverts and other women’s faces pressing me towards cosmetics like a hockey player being clapped into drinking beer out of their own shoe.

The fact that I never had the patience or the money to pull it off didn’t seem to matter. I wore makeup to work and even more makeup to sweat off on the dancefloor when I wasn’t at work. As my 20s slid into my 30s, I still wore mascara most days. I still owned lipsticks and liquid eyeliners and a vintage powder compact. I could still slap it on in the office toilet mirrors, under the arctic glare of a unisex lightbulb.

Their new album Constellations for the Lonely ranks among their best work. But as they prepare to go on the road, the Williams brothers talk about their momentous decision to play without Goodwin

Just over four years ago, Doves were on the crest of a wave. Their first album in more than a decade – The Universal Want – had been rapturously received, helping them notch up their third UK No 1. All set to perform it live, the tour was suddenly cancelled due to frontman Jimi Goodwin’s mental health – he has since said he is in recovery from substance abuse.

The cancellation “was heartbreaking for us because this is all we’ve ever wanted to do,” explains guitarist Jez Williams, who formed Doves with drummer brother Andy and schoolfriend Goodwin in Wilmslow, Cheshire in 1998. Sat alongside him in a Manchester eaterie, Andy explains: “You can get away with that once, but if we had to pull a tour again it would be curtains.” Thus, in late 2023, with a new album on the way, and Goodwin telling them he still wasn’t up to touring, they made the momentous decision to go on the road without him.

A backlash against dating culture and apps accelerated with Trump’s re-election, as many opted for self-sufficiency, fostering friendships and protesting against misogyny

Some call it “boysober”. Others take inspiration from South Korea’s 4B movement. And many just get right to it: they’re celibate.

For Olivia Iverson, a 28-year-old Minneapolis woman, it’s a little more complicated. For the past two years, she hasn’t dated much. She’s not opposed to finding someone, but she’s sworn off the apps and prioritized her existing friendships. “I’m re-centering my values around basically everything other than dating men,” Iverson, who works in marketing, said.

A dazzling exhibition of Pakistan’s art and architecture – some of it never before loaned outside the country – shows how the repressive 11-year regime of Zia-ul-Haq triggered an extraordinary resistance

The 11-year religious dictatorship of General Zia-ul-Haq profoundly shaped the art of Pakistan. After the general’s successful coup in 1977, his regime ushered in martial law, trampled on women’s rights, enforced strict censorship and placed draconian restrictions on artistic expression.

Ascent of Man, an abstract painting by Quddus Mirza, is inspired by the controversial trial and hanging of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the democratically elected prime minister overthrown by the coup. The painting, part of a groundbreaking exhibition of Pakistan’s art and architecture, depicts a man sitting in a chair while a headless body floats in the sky. It blends elements of magic realism with an allusion to the seventh-century martyrdom of Husayn ibn Ali, a grandson of the prophet Muhammad whose death was a major episode in Islam’s history that still resonates today.

Part of their body is hollow, this amplifies the sound. The longer you listen to their sound, the more they seem to sync up

Of all the languages’ words for cicada, Croatian’s might be the best: cvrčak, pronounced: tvr-chak. The sound it makes is tvr-chi tvr-chi. I have a Croatian friend who taught me part of a poem – Cicada – when we were in high school. It is by Vladimir Nazor, who was Croatia’s first head of state. The first stanza includes the satisfyingly low on vowels and onomatopoeic phrase: “cvrči, cvrči cvrčak” (pronounced “tvrchi, tvrchi tvrchak”) – which translates as “chirp, chirp cicada”.

And the cricket chirps, chirps on the knot of the black spruce
Its deafening trochee, its sonorous, heavy iambic …
It is noon. – Like water, it spills out in silence.
A solar dithyramb.

Openings across Africa and Asia offer new cultural experiences in stunning architectural surroundings

From a noisy, performative and unapologetically non-European Yorùbá cultural centre in Lagos, Nigeria, to the much-delayed Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza, 2024 was a big year for museums opening in the developing world. A number of projects will also be inaugurated in 2025, offering an abundance of new museums to visit in 2025. Here are some of the best of them:

The latest in a series of writers paying tribute to their go-to comfort watches is a recommendation of 1992’s satisfying con movie

To quote the late, great Leonard Cohen: everybody knows the dice are loaded, everybody knows the fight is fixed. That’s a cynical outlook, but one to which I fully adhere. Which perhaps explains why so many of my go-to comfort movies are about con artists.

Granted, not every classic con movie makes for a breezy watch – no one throws on The Grifters when they need a pick-me-up – but many do. The Lady Eve, Paper Moon, The Sting, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Ocean’s 11 – with their myriad twists and turns, hip earworm dialog, and stacked casts playing lovable rogues sticking it to the man, they prove endlessly rewatchable.

There is a clear benefit in taking responsibility for mistakes. So why do so many leaders fob off the public with obfuscation?

The Korean chief executive of Jeju Air, Kim E-bae, could not have been more direct. After the crash of one of the airline’s planes he went straight to the microphone, bowed deeply and said, “Regardless of the cause, as CEO, I feel profound responsibility for this incident.” He offered his “deepest condolences and apologies to the families of the passengers who lost their lives”.

The statement seemed unusual. Last week, another plane crash, this time in Kazakhstan, was acknowledged by a man similarly “responsible”, Russia’s Vladimir Putin. In a contorted message to his fellow leader in Azerbaijan, he said how sorry he was about “a tragic incident that occurred in Russian airspace”. He expressed condolences but no responsibility for what has been widely accepted as a Russian missile attack, however unintended. Putin appeared not sorry, but devious.

Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

His rise to the Oval Office was meteoric. But what he did afterwards set the standard for statesmanship and public service

• Gordon Brown was UK prime minister from 2007 to 2010

Though Jimmy Carter was, at the age of 100, the US president who had lived longer than any of the other 45 occupants of the office, he will be remembered for a more important reason. He is, and will be, mourned in every country and continent where civil liberties are valued and peace has proved elusive; revered as the leader who stood with all those who faced imprisonment, torture or persecution for defending democracy and human rights. Carter gave oppressed people hope. I was proud to learn from him and to count him and his wonderful wife, Rosalynn – who was also his closest adviser – as friends.

How to assess such a life? History will probably see Carter’s second act – his work as a former president – as more momentous than his four years in the Oval Office, from 1977 to 1981. In office, despite his negotiation of the landmark peace deal between Israel and Egypt, he was engulfed by intractable problems – the first oil shock, rampant inflation that was to reach 14% in 1980 – and, with the rise of a militant Iran, the destabilisation of the Middle East, problems that condemned him to a one-term presidency.

The US is in urgent need of well-funded, truly independent journalism in 2025. Please make a gift to the Guardian now to help reach our year-end fundraising goal.

As a media critic and longtime journalist, I have serious worries about today’s news environment and its effect on democracy.

I’m concerned about corporate or chain ownership of news outlets that can skew the decision-making and priorities of media leaders. The bottom line seems to loom larger, at times, than tried-and-true journalistic standards do.

If you are able, please support the Guardian before our year-end fundraising deadline. Thank you for helping protect the free press.

The US right is misrepresenting science to support its racist agenda. There’s far more to it than ‘good’ or ‘bad’ genes

Like so many of us, I was dispirited to wake up a few weeks ago to learn that Donald Trump will be back in the White House. This time he was aided by the world’s richest man and professional spaceship-crasher, Elon Musk. Among the many charming aspects of their partnership is a fondness for some highly unsavoury views on genetics. Trump is an enthusiastic advocate of “racehorse theory”, which he shares with white supremacists; the belief that he is personally superior and that this is rooted in his “good genes”. It’s a vapid idea, but it directly informs his toxic views on immigration, where he argues the country needs to be shielded from the “bad genes” of outsiders.

Meanwhile, Musk has his own equally baffling take on genetics, infused with a characteristic messiah complex. Like some of his fellow tech moguls, he is determined to “save humanity” by producing as many offspring as possible, convinced that our future depends on it. This might all be laughable were it not for the fact that Trump and Musk now wield more power than they ever have before. The shared thread running through their rhetoric is genetic determinism: the idea that who you are, and what you can achieve, is all down to your DNA. Nothing else matters.

Jonathan Roberts is a genetic counsellor and academic who researches health inequalities and the accessibility of genetic testing

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

As a doctor, I am now seeing patients who have chosen not to take medication on the advice of online wellness influencers

In the age of the internet, Googling symptoms and treatments has been common practice for patients, and sometimes even doctors. The recent explosion in popularity of podcasts and short-form video content such as TikTok, however, has increased the amount of misinformation in search results to levels we have not seen previously – and this is now having tangible effects in the concerns patients present with in clinics and A&E.

This month’s BBC report around Steven Bartlett’s podcast, The Diary of a CEO, showed it was spreading harmful health misinformation, capturing a wider image of a moment we are currently seeing – people have less trust in health professionals and are increasingly relying on videos and other engaging content they see online.

Ammad Butt is a freelance writer and foundation doctor at University Hospitals Birmingham

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

Our brains are miraculous and weird things, and it turns out everyone has different ways of processing the world

Sometimes I like to start a column by asking myself: should this really be a column that will live on the internet forever, for all and sundry to see? Or is this really an airing of my many neuroses that is better shared privately, with a therapist?

Not infrequently the answer is the latter. But therapy is expensive and comment is free, so I’m afraid, dear reader, that you’re going to have to be my shrink today. And I’ll get straight into my issues: I have a voice in my head that won’t shut up.

Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist

Author of William Hill award-winning book The Racket does not miss life on tour as world No 129 but holds no bitterness towards the game

Conor Niland laughs and, without hesitating, rejects the idea that he misses the intensity of competition which shaped and sometimes deformed his life as a professional tennis player who reached a high of No 129 in the world. “No,” he exclaims. “I found myself waking up with butterflies in my stomach on the morning of the William Hill [Sports Book of the Year award] and thinking: ‘I haven’t felt this in a while, and I don’t particularly miss it.’ I don’t think anyone enjoys butterflies that much.”

Niland scrabbled around on the Futures and Challengers tours, those brutal circuits of hell for players outside the top 100 where intensity is often defined by the need to win a match to earn enough money to pay a hotel bill or book a plane ticket out of Astana or Delhi and fly to the next tournament in the hope of climbing the rankings. The dream of becoming an ATP regular has now been replaced for Niland, who retired from tennis in 2012, by a very different dream which saw him deservedly win the Sports Book of the Year last month for The Racket.

The Aaron Rodgers experiment has been a slow-motion car wreck in New York. After Sunday’s latest catastrophic loss, it’s clearer than ever the Jets must turn the page

The score was 40-0. Buffalo had dominated New York in every sense of the word: offense, defense, special teams, body language, camaraderie. They were probably breathing superior air at that point. Finally, after another three-and-out to start the fourth quarter, interim coach Jeff Ulbrich benched Aaron Rodgers. It should have happened much earlier.

Backup Tyrod Taylor swooped in and immediately ran an efficient offense. The 15-play drive culminated with a nine-yard touchdown pass to Garrett Wilson, placed in a position that screamed: I trust you. Wilson fell to the ground as he caught the ball and stayed there for a few extra seconds. Whether it was cathartic, or Wilson was simply happy to put up the Jets’ first points of the day, the vibe had shifted.

Two interceptions, one of which perfectly illustrated Rodgers’ loss of arm zip

Sacked in the end zone for a safety

Giving up on a fumble recovered chase that Matt Milano took to the house

A late hit penalty (really)

Underthrowing too many short-to-mid range passes that landed at his receivers’ feet and then openly blaming them for the incompletions

If Leicester, Ipswich and Southampton go down this season, that will be 10 of the last 15 promoted sides who have gone straight back down

• Sign up to Soccer with Jonathan Wilson here

And so the year ends, as always seemed likely, with the bottom three places in the Premier League occupied by the three promoted sides. With Wolves and Crystal Palace resurgent and Everton under new ownership and having found the solidity that is always the key strength of Sean Dyche teams, the situation is bleak for the three currently in the relegation zone. Each will have their own reflections on the first half of the season but, more generally, the picture is worrying: the three promoted sides were relegated last season and the gulf between Premier League and Championship is coming to feel almost impossibly wide.

The bottom side Southampton are 10 points from safety. Realistically they probably need to average a point and a half a game from here to stay up – which is to say that they are as good as down. The two games since Russell Martin was sacked have shown an improvement, but even then battling performances at Fulham and Crystal Palace have yielded a single point. Perhaps they would have had a better chance of survival had they not been wedded to a high-risk passing style that kept on surrendering possession in dangerous areas but, in truth, this never looked anything like a Premier League squad. The priority now must be to acquire the six points they need to avoid breaking Derby’s record low of 11 points for the season.

Paulo Fonseca failed to meet his own expectations but was treated poorly by Milan, who have appointed Sérgio Conceição

It was Paulo Fonseca who announced his own sacking shortly after midnight. Driving out of the parking lot at San Siro, he stopped briefly to answer questions from a reporter. “Yes, it’s true, I’ve exited Milan,” he said. “That’s life. Life goes like this. My conscience is calm, because I did everything I could.”

Such phrasing might make it sound like Fonseca took the decision himself. He did not. Milan eventually confirmed they had relieved the head coach of his duties in an official statement published on Monday morning.

The best and worst of 2024 – featuring Sir Jim Ratcliffe, the war on woke and the happiest 34 seconds of the year

Keeper Lewis Patching – saying sorry in March after signing on loan for Rushden & Diamonds, conceding four, headbutting a fan in the bar and being sacked on the same day. “I was disappointed how the game panned out … I’d like to apologise and wish the club/supporter all the best moving forward.”

The Guardian and Observer sport photographer selects his favourite images of the year and recalls the stories behind them

It’s been quite a year, and one totally dominated by the “big three”: the men’s Euros in Germany and the Olympics and Paralympics in Paris. This a personal selection of my favourite pictures, a few of which haven’t been published before. Some have been chosen for their news value; others are here because there’s a nice tale behind them.

• Australia 474 & 234 beat India 369 & 155 by 184 runs
• Hosts take seven final-session wickets for 2-1 lead at MCG

In the end, the dice landed the right way up for the shooter. Had India managed to bat for another hour, another 14 overs, Australia’s tactics would have been sliced up: too conservative in batting into the final day. But Australia’s gamble was about laying off risk on the other half of the equation, all but eliminating India’s chance of a win at the cost of reducing their own. In the end, this time, it worked, when Nathan Lyon snagged the 10th wicket just before half past five Melbourne time; Australia winning the fourth Test and leading 2-1 before the series ends in Sydney.

It was, in the end, a close-run thing, a reminder that you’re often only vindicated in the sporting business if you happen to guess right. Lyon’s 10th-wicket partnership with Scott Boland in the third innings ended up being 61, adding only six of those after resuming on the fifth morning, and costing Australia four overs to do it. That final extension may not have worked out, but the previous evening’s runs made a major psychological difference, taking India’s target from a high 200s score, one that would have felt possible, to 340, that didn’t.

LeBron James’ birthday on Monday will make him the first NBA player to play in his teens, 20s, 30s and 40s. Knowing when to walk away may be the hardest part of his journey

It’s Christmas Day and a scrum of journalists surround a smiling, exhausted LeBron James in the visiting locker room at Chase Center in San Francisco, minutes after the latest installment in a decades-spanning catalog of thrilling battles with his friend and foe, Stephen Curry. James is asked, in light of all the recent hand-wringing about the state of the NBA as an entertainment product, what he thinks the “good stuff” is in the league on a given night. “LeBron and Steph”, he shoots back, grinning. And he’s not wrong. But it’s just a few days out from 30 December, which marks his 40th birthday, and the quadragenarian elephant in the room casts a somewhat melancholy shadow over the joy of the high-level basketball being played. No one, maybe not even James, knows exactly how much time is left in his illustrious NBA career. But it isn’t much.

Since his return from a still-mysterious nine-day excused absence from the Lakers a few weeks ago, James has been playing that aforementioned high-level basketball again following a rocky spell in the beginning of the season. For maybe the first time of note, James showed flashes of true, marked decline during that stretch, putting forth his worst shooting numbers since his rookie season more than two decades ago. His recent return to form calls into question if that regression was less of a bellwether and more of an aberration, perhaps brought forth by fatigue after a summer of intense (and wildly entertaining) Olympic play en route to his third gold medal. But fluke or not, it did shine a light on a topic that has been ominously hanging over every step of James’ trajectory over the last few seasons: his imminent retirement, which he has alluded to coming sooner rather than later on several occasions, and the cavernous, face-of-the-league-sized hole that will be left in his wake whenever he does decide to hang it up.

UN secretary general, António Guterres, says ‘we must exit this road to ruin’ in annual new year message

The world has endured a “decade of deadly heat”, with 2024 capping 10 years of unprecedented temperatures, the UN has said.

Delivering his annual new year message, the UN secretary general, António Guterres, said the 10 hottest years on record had happened in the past decade, including 2024.

Competition named after champion surfer Eddie Aikau is held only when waves in Waimea Bay top 30ft

A rare surfing event, the Eddie, took place in Hawaii last week, thanks to some giant waves.

Formed about a week ago in the north Pacific Ocean, the waves emerged as a low-pressure system produced an exceptionally large swell. They went on to hit Hawaii, enabling the Eddie to take place for just the 11th time in its 40-year history.

Analysis of insurance payouts by Christian Aid reveals three-quarters of financial destruction occurred in US

The world’s 10 most costly climate disasters of 2024 caused $229bn in damages and killed 2,000 people, the latest annual analysis of insurance payouts has revealed.

Three-quarters of the financial destruction occurred in the world’s biggest economy, the US, where climate denier Donald Trump will become president next month.

• Read more from My DIY climate hack, a series on everyday people’s creative solutions to the climate crisis

While droughts are a natural feature of California’s climate, human-induced warming has made them even drier. After Eric Haas, 62, moved to Oakland in 2007, California was in a drought so severe a statewide emergency was declared. After experiencing drought conditions for several years, the California professor had a rainwater and greywater capture system installed at his highly efficient urban home to do his part to conserve water.

***

Exclusive: Structural weaknesses are threatening operating theatres, intensive care units and cancer units

• Leaky ceilings and sinking floors: inside St Helier hospital where staff fear for patient safety

Hospital buildings in England are in such a dilapidated state they risk fires, floods and electrical faults, internal NHS trust documents reveal, with leaders saying conditions have become “outright dangerous”.

Official papers from NHS trust board meetings show how staff and patients are being put at risk by an alarming array of hazards due to weaknesses in hospitals’ infrastructure.

A trade war started by Donald Trump is seen as the biggest risk to market stability next year

• Business live – latest updates

Global stock markets are tipped to keep rising in 2025, led by more gains among US shares, despite anxiety about inflation and fears that Donald Trump could spark a new trade war.

Wall Street analysts are forecasting the S&P 500 will rise by roughly 9% in 2025, taking the index of US companies up to about 6,500 points by the end of the year, according to Bloomberg datar.

Order triggers new wave of displacement and there are reports of damage to two more Gaza hospitals

Israel has issued new evacuation orders for all remaining civilians to leave Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza as part of a blistering three-month-old campaign that Israel denies is aimed at depopulating a third of the Palestinian territory, amid reports Israeli attacks have damaged two more struggling hospitals in Gaza City.

The Israeli army forcibly evacuated Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahia on Friday, leaving the northern third of the strip, which is cut off from the rest of Gaza, with just one small functioning medical centre, al-Awda, in nearby Jabalia. On Sunday, everyone remaining in Beit Lahia was ordered to leave after Palestinian militants launched five rockets from the area that targeted Israeli territory.

Study finds small but significant increase in characters talking about murder or killing over past 50 years

Talk of homicide is on the rise in films, researchers have found, in a trend they say could pose a health concern for adults and children.

A study found that over the past 50 years there had been a small but significant increase in movie characters talking about murdering or killing.

Unesco-listed San Lorenzo de El Escorial was fulfilment of Philip II’s dream of raising monastery in a ‘desert’

Despite perching imperiously on a mountainside near Madrid for the better part of five centuries, the royal monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial has yet to give up all its treasures – or all its secrets.

Forty years after it was included on Unesco’s World Heritage list, Philip II’s austere monument to power, piety and patronage is undergoing a major reorganisation that will allow visitors to enjoy the peace of a previously off-limits monastic patio and to look at paintings once reserved for the royal gaze.

Lawyer says he wishes to spare Gisèle Pelicot a new ordeal after marathon trial convicted all 51 accused

Dominique Pelicot will not appeal against his conviction for drugging and raping his wife and inviting strangers to rape her, his lawyer has said.

Béatrice Zavarro said the former electrician, 72, who was jailed for the maximum 20 years this month, wished to spare his now ex-wife, Gisèle Pelicot, a new ordeal but admitted there was also the risk a new trial in front of a public jury could mean a longer prison sentence.

Finance lead for England and Wales police chiefs says focus on officers gets in way of making better use of budgets

Police forces should be allowed to cut officer numbers and spend more money on technology to boost crime fighting, a police chief has said.

Chief constable Paul Sanford, who leads for police chiefs on finances, said there was an obsession with officer numbers, even though it would often be more effective to have fewer officers supported by better technology.

Match Group’s digital assistant will tailor profiles and search for dates – but critics fear genuine connections are at risk

Fed up with writing dating profiles? Or sick and tired of swiping? Dating apps not really doing it for you? Let a digital sidekick take the strain.

While user fatigue may be setting in – reports suggest a notable decline in usage – the world’s biggest online dating company is launching an artificial intelligence assistant that it claims will “transform” online dating.

Figure is nearly double an estimate from 2000 and means a pack of 20 cigarettes costs a person seven hours on average

Smokers are being urged to kick the habit for 2025 after a fresh assessment of the harms of cigarettes found they shorten life expectancy even more than doctors thought.

Researchers at University College London found that on average a single cigarette takes about 20 minutes off a person’s life, meaning that a typical pack of 20 cigarettes can shorten a person’s life by nearly seven hours.

Hill, imprisoned for 16 years for 1974 pub bombing, set up organisation helping other victims of miscarriages of justice

Paddy Hill, one of six men wrongly convicted for the 1974 Birmingham pub bombings who went on to set up an organisation dedicated to helping others facing miscarriages of justice, has died aged 80.

Cathy Molloy, the recently retired chief executive officer of the Miscarriages of Justice Organisation (Mojo), which Hill founded, said he “died peacefully at his home in Ayrshire, cared for by his wife, Tara, on Monday morning”.

Mizo Games wants players to have a chance to ‘experience war on the tabletop before it reaches us’

As families in Taiwan prepare to gather for lunar new year celebrations in January, a game that will be released that month promises to offer some war-themed fun over the festive period.

The board game 2045, developed by the Taiwanese company Mizo Games, invites players to participate in an imaginary Chinese invasion 20 years in the future. Players are given roles that include Taiwanese army officers, Chinese sleeper agents and volunteer citizen fighters.

5 March 1934 – 27 March 2024
The neuroscientist celebrates the Nobel-winning author of Thinking, Fast and Slow – a psychologist whose elegance of thought helped reveal the foibles of human reasoning

• Read the Observer’s obituaries of 2024 in full

Daniel Kahneman was a brilliant scientist who marvelled at his own errors in thinking. “The essence of intuitive heuristics: when faced with a difficult question, we often answer an easier one instead, usually without noticing the substitution”, he wrote in Thinking, Fast and Slow. He turned that fascination into a career, becoming one of the founders of the field in modern psychology known as judgment and decision making.

I first met Danny when I was a student at Stanford, working in the laboratory of his longtime collaborator Amos Tversky. Danny worked across the bay at University of California, Berkeley, and he and Amos alternated visits on a regular basis, just as they alternated authorship on their papers. It was Danny’s turn to come to Stanford.

The Gavin and Stacey star associates Paul Weller with dolphins and doesn’t think Fleetwood Mac are sexy. But who does she swear along to to in the car?

The first song I fell in love with
Wild Wood by Paul Weller, when I was in the National Youth Theatre of Wales, staying away from home for the first time, spotting dolphins in the sea in Aberystwyth.

The first single I bought
My grampa bought me Joanna by Kool & the Gang and Mickey by Toni Basil from Woolworths in Swansea. When I got older, I bought Push It! by Salt-N-Pepa, which I played on the big silver record player in the living room.

The writer and director worked on a string of successful comedies in the 1980s and 90s, including Private Benjamin and The Parent Trap, frequently with then wife Nancy Meyers

Charles Shyer, the director of Father of the Bride and Baby Boom, who formed a successful comedy film-making partnership with his then wife Nancy Meyers, has died aged 83. His family confirmed his death in a statement to Deadline, and his daughter, film-maker Hallie Meyers-Shyer, told the Hollywood Reporter he died in hospital in Los Angeles “after a brief illness”.

Shyer had a hand in a string of successful comedies made over four decades, often in conjunction with Meyers, whom he married in 1980. The son of studio executive Melville Shyer, he cut his teeth as a writer on the TV series The Odd Couple (starring Tony Randall and Jack Klugman), before breaking into movies with a writing credit on Smokey and the Bandit. He co-wrote the Goldie Hawn comedy Private Benjamin with Myers and his fellow Odd Couple writer Harvey Miller. Directed by Howard Zieff, Private Benjamin was a huge hit on its release in 1980, earning Shyer an Oscar nomination and enabling him to move into the director’s chair.

The first stirrings of revolt behind the Iron Curtain are retold in this intriguing documentary hybrid

If the fall of the Berlin Wall has a prehistory, maybe there is an integral part, or even the beginning: the December 1970 protests in Poland against food price-rises, the brutal suppression of which is here satirically reimagined by film-maker Tomasz Wolski using archive black-and-white footage of the street scenes with ambient sound effects. Wolski intersperses these with stop-motion-animated puppets of the mediocre party apparatchiks in charge, blandly directing the massacre from their smoke-filled rooms, having grumpy and panicky arguments, mouthing in sync to recently recovered audiotapes of their tapped phones; not so much Team America as Team Soviet Poland.

The effect is that of a bad dream, though less of a nightmare than living through it must have been. The protests became a colossal movement in many cities, including Gdańsk, and were brutally suppressed by the Polish authorities who deployed massive amounts of military hardware, killed 44 people and injured more than a thousand, though they finally made concessions by reversing the price-hikes and premier Władysław Gomułka resigned.

The TV personality, chef, musician and author has made her cultural mark, but has faced her fights – racism, violence, grief, poverty as a single mum. How did this nascent national treasure turn trauma into triumph?

There’s a stockpot simmering on Andi Oliver’s stove – for days, the broth has been bubbling. A mugful of the rib-sticking, rich elixir lands in front of me as I’m ushered into her east London kitchen from the cold. She ladles out a flask-full for Garfield, her boyfriend of 30 years, then peers into the saucepan. “I’ve not been well,” says Oliver, “and this has healed me.” She spent the past two months filming in Stratford-upon-Avon, where she always had a similar soup on the go. “It’s giving yourself the care you need. And sharing it with other people doesn’t just fix you, but briefly, the world around you.” Supplies depleted, she begins to rebuild the brew from its bones: pinches of cloves, juniper and star anise are dropped in. A glug of white wine. Taste, then season. No measurements, just instinct. “I started cooking young,” Oliver explains. “To me, it’s everyday magic. Giving you that broth is sharing a little bit of myself – a soul exchange.” Briefly, there’s a moment of serenity.

Scout, the ageing family dog, comes in barking. The phone rings, twice. Unidentified clattering upstairs. Hers is a house that’s lived in. “Just to flag,” Oliver warns, “anyone might just appear. This place is like Piccadilly Circus.” A steady stream of people do wander through. First, Kelly, close colleague and confidante. Garfield next. Then Oliver’s mum pootles through, nonplussed by a stranger’s presence. Soon to turn 88, she moved in a couple of years back. “Oh, and that’s Amanda Mealing,” Oliver says, as the former Holby City star pops her head around the door. “We met doing a play with Paul O’Grady – Lily Savage was one of her son’s godmothers, and I’m the other one.” There might be other houseguests, Oliver can’t be certain.

From a Hitchcockian thriller to a shocking documentary, Guardian writers pick their lesser-known movies of the year

I can’t really blame anyone for not seeing Drugstore June in theaters, considering that scattered, super-limited run lasted just a few weeks. (I caught it in a near-empty cinema, on a weekday-afternoon whim, the day after belatedly seeing the trailer online.) But now that it’s streaming on Hulu in the US, you can check out one of the least-discussed but funniest mainstream comedies in ages. Built around the standup persona of comedian Esther Povitsky, Drugstore June is very much a throwback to a time when any emerging comic figure might be awarded their own thinly conceived vehicle. It wasn’t a great trend – Drugstore June’s director, Nicholaus Goossen, made Grandma’s Boy, to cite one example among many – yet here, revived absent big-studio attention (or maybe just with extra love for the game), it produces an idiosyncratic townie detective comedy, with sheltered, self-centered, snacks-obsessed June (Povitsky) trying to figure out who trashed the pharmacy where she (barely) works. Unlike its many Sandler-crew predecessors, Drugstore June has a genuine sense of place, a playful sense of generational self-satire, and an original persona at its center. It’s all the more miraculous at a time when studios big and small don’t care much for making comedies. Jesse Hassenger

Topped with Charli xcx’s swaggering yet vulnerable Brat, here are the year’s finest LPs as decided by 26 Guardian music writers
• More best music of 2024
• More on the best culture of 2024

***

Jonathan Glazer’s Holocaust drama was chilling, Lily Farhadpour charmed in Iran and Paul Mescal was tremendous in a fantasy-romance as our critics select their standout picks of the year
• The best films in the US
• More on the best culture of 2024

***

Is Avril Lavigne really dead? Can Michael Sheen save us from chemical poisoning? And exactly how X-rated does Lily Allen get? Here are our top picks of the year’s hottest podcasts

It’s almost 40 years since a baby-faced Woody Harrelson ambled into Ted Danson’s bar on Cheers, and despite their differing career paths since – with Harrelson departing the sitcom world for Hollywood’s big leagues – the two remain close pals. This warm and unvarnished interview series saw them reunite creatively, as they caught up with showbiz friends including Jane Fonda, Abbott Elementary creator Quinta Brunson and even Kelsey Grammer (to whom Danson extended a heartfelt apology over an old rift from all those years ago).

Arguments still rage about the decision to strip gymnast Chiles of her bronze medal. But one thing is clear: the Games’ organisers failed to live up to the event’s values

As Rebeca Andrade, Simone Biles and Jordan Chiles stood behind the podium at the medal ceremony for the Olympic women’s gymnastics floor exercise in Paris, the significance of the moment was clear to all. Their collective success marked the first time in history that three black gymnasts had won bronze, silver and gold at the Olympic Games. And after years of pushing the greatest gymnast of all time to the limit, Brazil’s Andrade had finally outperformed Biles.

In the frenetic moments between competition and ceremony, Chiles and Biles agreed that the special circumstances merited a statement. When Andrade stepped up with her arms aloft to collect the gold medal, the two Americans bowed down to the Brazilian. Andrade extended a hand to each gymnast in response. “Not only has she given Simone her flowers, but a lot of us in the United States our flowers as well,” said Chiles after the event, meaning flowers as a metaphor for recognition. “So giving it back is what makes it so beautiful. I felt like it was needed.”

A brilliantly simple canapé of scallop and mushroom topped with herby breadcrumbs and served in half-shells

You can serve these in one of two ways: three scallops, each in large half-shells or small ramekins as a dinner party starter, or if you are lucky enough to have 18 small shells, serve them as canapes – my daughter appropriated my collection into her toy kitchen, so I had to beg for them back: “I’m making fish fingers in a shell!” She didn’t buy it. For anyone who isn’t a toddler, these are a lovely, easy, prep-ahead dish.

The ‘no poo’ movement claims that using a product to clean your barnet makes it less healthy. We ask an expert to come clean on the issue

“Shampoo is definitely not a scam,” says Neil Harvey, chair of the Institute of Trichologists.

He is sceptical of the idea, claimed by the “no poo” movement, that hair can wash itself and that using a product to cleanse it makes it less healthy. In fact, he says that the scalp – with its tens of thousands of follicles and sebaceous glands – needs just as much attention (if not more) than other areas of the body.

A novel approach to a side of gammon, wrapped in fresh bread, may well be your new favourite party centrepiece

As well as being a glorious thing, a well-cured ham is a generous thing, giving many times over. The first is the simmering, which Nigella Lawson describes as “a savoury clove-scented fog” filling the room, poaching the joint and creating a highly flavoured stock for later use. Then comes the second fog of roasting meat and, in the case of this recipe, the bread wrapped around it, which is an idea borrowed from a cafeteria buffet in Trieste.

There is the pleasure of ham itself, too, brought to the table, carved and enjoyed, but only up to a point. When it comes to ham, it isn’t enough to hope that there are leftovers; it is necessary to ensure that there are leftovers, for sandwiches or to go with fried eggs and thin chips. And because a little ham goes a long way, I hope for leftovers of leftovers, which can be cut into small chunks and added to ham stock and pea soup.

He left £60,000 in an account, and now it’s stuck there because they won’t engage with me over the administration of the estate

My father died with a Barclays account balance of over £60,000. My sibling and I were joint executors. The money in the estate was to be divided equally between us and the rest of our siblings.

Unfortunately, the relationship between my sibling and me has broken down and they are not engaging with me, or the administration of the estate.

The stark landscapes of mid-winter are the best time for enjoying the elements on these routes. Our writers tell us the personal stories behind their favourite hikes

You can concertina this walk into a couple of hours, or else pack a lunch, take all day and let it breathe. Its centrepiece is Derwent Edge, a line in the sky running south to north, the preferred direction of travel, past a series of rocks and outcrops with down-to-earth names, like the Wheel Stones, the Salt Cellar and the Cakes of Bread, that don’t do justice to their sculptural mystery.

We would like to hear about the resolutions that you never gave up on

There is something alluring about a New Year’s resolution – the idea that a new year might reveal a newer, better version of yourself. Maybe this is the year you run a marathon or finally learn French.

But setting a goal and sticking to it are two different things. According to a 2023 Forbes poll of US adults, 44% of New Year’s resolutions last two to three months. Only 6% last beyond a year. In the UK, 17% of Brits give up on their resolution within a month, and 11% last a year.

We want to hear how you manage to eat a planet-friendly diet despite soaring food prices and lack of access

• Can everyone eat for the planet? I shopped at Dollar Store for a week to find out

Tackling the climate crisis will require us to think more carefully about what we eat, since our food system accounts for up to one-third of all greenhouse gas emissions.

The best option, according to scientists who developed a climate-friendly food plan several years ago, is to eat more vegetables, legumes and whole grains, and cut back on meat and dairy. Despite the planetary – and health – benefits of this diet, it’s not always easy to eat this way, especially given soaring food prices and lack of accessibility in many parts of the US.

We would like to hear from Syrian refugees, the diaspora and anyone affected by the regime change

Crowds in Syria have been celebrating the end of five decades of dynastic rule following the fall of the dictator Bashar al-Assad who has fled to Moscow.

People waved the Syrian revolutionary flag and pulled down statues and portraits of the president and his father, Hafez. Families have been reunited with loved ones long lost to the dark of the regime’s notorious prison system.

From highway restaurants of surprising quality to wilderness walks that break up long drives, we want to know where you love to pull over

Left off the highway and then first right, and then down that long laneway behind the big car park. It’s only a few minutes off the beaten track but the homemade tomato relish on the bacon and egg roll makes it absolutely worthwhile.

Some road-trippers are very attached to their special little pit stops. Service centres are convenient multipurpose pullovers, but they’re not the only option for breaking up a journey. On Australia’s highways there are some perfectly placed options for pit stops that don’t require a massive detour.

Republican figures are using their influence to sell a variety of goods, preying on people’s political affiliations

If you wanted to, you could smell like Donald Trump. Or you could drink coffee developed by Rudy Giuliani. You could also use a nicotine product developed by Tucker Carlson, read your children a Trump-themed book written by Mike Huckabee, take health pills hawked by Dr Oz and wear T-shirts designed by Kash Patel.

These are only a few of the products that Trump and people in his circle are selling to the American public, as Republicans and the right wing have established an unprecedented culture of grifting – hawking everything from Bibles to scraps of fabric to NFTs in a ruse that has become a multimillion-dollar micro industry.

Bumper grain crop set to weigh heavily as farmers count costs of seed, fertilizer – and effects of possible trade war

Many US midwestern grain farmers will lose money this year after reaping a bumper crop, and the outlook for their future income is bleak.

US farmers harvested some of the largest corn and soybean crops in history this year. Big harvests traditionally weigh on crop prices because of plentiful supply. And those price pressures comes at a time when costs remain persistently high to grow corn and soybeans, the US’s most valuable crops.

Young people in Alameda county, California, reflect on how gun violence has destabilized their lives – and urge local officials to find solutions

By the time Aaliyah Bobina turned 18 she had already seen two people die from gunshot wounds. One was a neighbor who was shot in the apartment complex she lived in. The other was a teenage girl who was shot at a party last summer. She didn’t know the girl, but held her hand as she bled from her chest.

“[The police] came hecka late and she passed away right in front of of us. It was so sad and traumatizing,” Bobina said. “I told her she would be OK and I feel so bad because I couldn’t keep my word.”

Wildlife Victoria expects ‘catastrophic and long-term impacts’ for wildlife, including substantial loss of life, burns, blindness and starvation

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

As fires headed toward her Grampians property in the Australian state of Victoria on Boxing Day, wildlife carer Pam Turner sheltered 20 joeys in her living room.

The animals gathered inside – standing alert from the noise of the sprinklers – are all hand-reared by her after being orphaned through car accidents, fence hangings and shootings.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

I wind my thread around their holes to create sculptures that connect with ageing and time

I have collected hundreds and hundreds of broken shells. I select them by holding them up to the sea, looking at the shape of them and deciding whether I want to work with them – and whether they will work with my thread.

To me, a shell that is broken is more interesting than a shell that is perfect. A broken shell has lived a life. I can see what the sea has done to it, what has happened to it on the rocks and stones. We spend so much of our lives searching for or trying to obtain perfection. But as I’ve got older, I’ve realised that perfection is unattainable – and the search isn’t worth it.

Social monogamy has been observed in less than 10% of mammal species – and birds have been shown to be less faithful than previously believed

• More summer essentials

In 2011 a shock celebrity break-up garnered headlines around the world – not the separation of Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore, nor Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony, but the sudden, inexplicable rupture between Bibi and Poldi, two 115-year-old Galápagos tortoises at Happ reptile zoo in Austria.

After nearly a century as a couple, the female, Bibi, had had enough: one day, she bit a chunk off Poldi’s shell, drawing blood, and continued to attack him until zoo staff moved him to a separate enclosure.

What explains this shift? The answer lies in a combination of physiology, metabolism and strategy

Men are dominant at most athletic events but ultra-endurance sports (exercising for six hours or more) represent a unique domain where the performance gap between men and women is narrowing significantly.

In traditional endurance events like marathons, men consistently outperform women by about 10%.

‘Femcel’ influencers urge their followers to give up on gender equality and use men for financial gain – in the name of feminism

The manosphere, the misogynist internet world populated by influencers such as Andrew Tate, is widely recognised as a toxic space where young men are at risk of radicalisation. Now, say researchers, women and girls are being sucked into potentially dangerous online spaces of their own: the femosphere.

It is a term used by Dr Jilly Kay, an expert in feminist media and cultural studies at Loughborough University, in a paper published earlier this year. Kay has been researching a reactionary turn among young women, and how a backlash against mainstream feminism has created new spaces online. In the femosphere, instead of “incels” – male involuntary celibates – there are “femcels”, and instead of pickup artists there are female dating strategists and so-called “dark feminine” influencers who encourage women to find men to support them financially.

Zla Mavka movement – meaning ‘wicked forest spirit’ – drops fake rouble notes bearing pro-Ukrainian images and shares messages of solidarity

• Russia-Ukraine war live: latest news updates

On 8 March 2023, International Women’s Day, Russian soldiers were handing out tulips and boughs of mimosa to women and girls in the city of Melitopol, southern Ukraine – a move designed to promote friendly relations between the occupiers and the inhabitants.

But the night before, someone had been discreetly sticking posters to walls and lamp-posts. They bore the image of a young Ukrainian woman, dressed in a traditional embroidered shirt, smashing a bouquet over a Russian soldier’s head. “I don’t want flowers,” read the slogan. “I want my Ukraine.”

The new US president will almost certainly bring unpredictability but several themes will dominate the year ahead. Observer writers offer their guide on what lies ahead in politics, film, fashion, sport and more

The only thing that can be predicted with absolute certainty about Donald Trump’s second term as US president is that it will be unpredictable. Trump does not really know what he wants to do on a range of issues. He talks a good game, which is how he got re-elected. But he often seems to decide policy on the basis of what the last person he spoke to told him. Is he serious about mobilising the military to carry out mass deportations of “illegal” migrants? Will he use the justice department to hunt down political enemies and media critics? Will he impose sweeping tariffs on foreign imports and trigger a global trade war? Or will he act with greater circumspection, using these threats as bargaining tools? Who knows? He doesn’t yet.

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Lucy Ward and Troy Townsend as Liverpool beat West Ham 5-0 away from home to go eight points clear at the top of the Premier League

Rate, review, share on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud, Acast and Stitcher, and join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and email.

On the podcast today; Mo Salah continues his unbelievable season and the panel try and think of something new to say about how well he’s playing and figure out just how he took that ball around Konstantino Mavrapanos.

Jimmy Carter, the 39th president of the United States, has died. He was 100 years old. Today, Jonathan Freedland talks to Jimmy Carter’s biographer, Jonathan Alter, about why history should look favourably on the peanut farmer turned politician

The death of Jimmy Carter, the longest-lived US president, has prompted reflections on his extraordinary life and legacy. Carter failed to get re-elected for a second term in 1980 and is usually described as a political failure, but according to his biographer, Jonathan Alter, the verdict of history is likely to be much kinder

Archive: CSPAN, NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN

John Burton was just 27 when he was put in charge of creating Thorpe Park’s biggest-ever project. Once too scared to go on rides himself, how did he become the architect of so many daredevils’ dreams? By Tom Lamont

Mina Smallman’s world fell apart after the murder of her two daughters. Then came a shocking revelation about the police’s behaviour. She explains how she found the strength to fight back

This week we are revisiting some of our favourite episodes from 2024. This episode was first broadcast on 26 July.

Mina Smallman’s life has not been an easy one but she could always find hope somewhere. The first female archdeacon from an ethnic minority background, she was brought up, she says, in “poverty and chaos”. But as a young single parent she went back to school and became a teacher, looking for sparks of potential in even the most unpromising children.

Fast-talking, finger-jabbing Jeff Goldblum on vanity, mortality and becoming a father in his 60s. Elon Musk (father of 11) supports their cause, thousands follow their ideology: to make it easier for everyone to have multiple children. Enter the unsettling world of Malcolm and Simone Collins, America’s premier pronatalists

A new Syria is emerging from the shadow of the brutal Assad regime. The Guardian’s Bethan McKernan and Ayman Abu Ramouz meet people celebrating their hard-won freedom, but also those grappling with a traumatic past. The pair travel to the notorious Sednaya prison, where they meet a former prisoner who was liberated by his family just days before

• Resistance was not a choice’: how Syria’s unlikely rebel alliance took Aleppo

• 'The Syrian regime hit us with chemical weapons: only now can we speak out' – video

• Syria’s disappeared: one woman’s search for her missing father

Pharmaceutical corporations claim high prices are the cost of innovation, but the reality is far more complicated — and troubling. In 2030, the patents of some of the world’s best-selling drugs will expire, an event called the 'patent cliff', and companies are doubling down on tactics such as 'evergreening' patents and pay-for-delay deals to keep prices high and competition out.

In this video, Neelam Tailor uncovers the shocking strategies big pharma use to game the system, explaining how these moves protect profits but hurt patients

A Guardian investigation has found that Israel used a US munition to target and kill three journalists and wound three more in an attack in south Lebanon on 25 October that legal experts have called a potential war crime. The Guardian's reporter William Christou explains what he uncovered when he visited the site of the strike

• Read more about the investigation

Syrian airforce helicopters dropped two cylinders of chlorine gas onto the town of Douma on 7 April 2018. At least 43 people choked to death. For six years, afraid of reprisals, the town has grieved in silence for loved ones lost to chemical attacks and countless others killed by conventional weapons.

But after an astonishing and rapid offensive by rebel forces led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), more than 50 years of Assad family rule collapsed last week, and the residents of Douma are finally free to tell their stories. The Guardian’s Bethan McKernan travelled to the town to listen to them

• Middle East crisis - live updates

• US urges Syrian rebels to form ‘inclusive’ government

• American found in Damascus appears to have been released from Syrian prison

Syrians returned to a mausoleum in Qardaha near Latakia that housed the remains of Hafez al-Assad, who seized control of Syria in 1970. A day after the remains of the former leader were burned by armed Islamist rebels, people fired bullets into the building and visited the charred remains. Assad ruled over Syria until 2000 in what has been described as one of the most oppressive police states in the Middle East. His son, Bashar al-Assad, was ousted and fled the country after rebels captured the capital after a lightning advance completed in just under two weeks

• Middle East crisis live: American freed in Syria after seven months in detention; Iran warns it must live with ‘new realities’

• US urges Syrian rebels to form ‘inclusive’ government

• American found in Damascus appears to have been released from Syrian prison

For years, fighters and displaced people in the north-west of Syria were unable to return home to government-held territories. Thousands were greeted with teary embraces and celebratory gunfire as they reunited with their families in Damascus in its surrounding countryside.

• ‘This is a happy day’: Syrian rebels return home to reunite with family and rebuild

• Who are the main actors in the fall of the regime in Syria?

• Inside the hunt for hidden cells in Sednaya prison, Syria’s ‘human slaughterhouse’

The Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, is believed to have fled the country his family has ruled over for 50 years, after rebels said they had captured the capital after a lightning advance completed in just under two weeks. Footage from the capital, Damascus, showed rebels storming the presidential palace and destroying the Iranian embassy. State television soon declared the end of Assad's rule and celebrations erupted on the streets across Syria. In a matter of hours, queues formed at the Lebanese border with Syria as displaced families began to return to their homes

• Middle East crisis - live updates

• Bashar al-Assad reported to have fled Syria as rebels say they have captured Damascus

A panel of 99 judges have submitted their verdicts on the best female players in the world in 2024. Together their votes determined a list of the top 100 players in the world. Here, Guardian football writer Suzanne Wrack talks through the top 10 players and why they made it to the top of the list this year.

• The 100 best female footballers in the world 2024

On 4 December, Brian Thompson, the 50-year-old chief executive of UnitedHealthcare, was shot and killed in New York near the midtown Manhattan branch of the Hilton hotel. The search for his killer has entered its third day, with police revealing clues about the suspect's identity. However, many details surrounding the shocking shooting remain unclear. Here is a timeline compiled by The Guardian covering the incident and the suspect's escape route

• Brian Thompson: search for shooter continues for third day as police reveal clues

After South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law in the country, thousands of protesters took to the streets alongside the leading opposition Democratic party, urging MPs to head to the national assembly and vote it down. Following a dramatic night in which soldiers attempted to block MPs from entering parliament, lawmakers unanimously adopted a bill rejecting the martial law declaration, prompting the president to backtrack. Here is how the night unfolded in Seoul

• Declaration of martial law awakens ghosts South Koreans thought were laid to rest

• South Korea gripped by uncertainty as MPs defy president’s declaration of martial law

Border walls and fences around European countries have grown by 75% in just 10 years and EU leaders have increasingly been open to making deals with autocrats, creating a virtual border across the Mediterranean to stop migrants arriving on their shores.

The Guardian's senior global development reporter Mark Townsend looks back at a decade in which Europe has become a fortress, militarising its borders and moving away from the commitment to human rights on which it was founded

The pronatalist movement in the US is gathering pace once again, rekindled by Silicon Valley personalities and hard-right conservatives who are becoming increasingly vocal about whether or not women are having enough babies. But it's not just in the US, some governments in other countries have launched marketing campaigns encouraging people to have more children, while others have offered financial incentives. But while many of these policies claim to be about halting population decline, there are other factors at play. Josh Toussaint-Strauss interrogates efforts around the world to boost birth rates, as well as the underlying political motivations, from bodily autonomy to immigration

• Birth rates are plummeting worldwide. Can governments turn the tide?

• When desperate measures to persuade women to have children fail, it’s time for fresh thinking

Russia is engaging in a 'shadow war' with Nato states, which is reportedly part of a deliberate strategy to undermine the alliance’s ability to support Ukraine. At the same time Russia's military industrial complex is producing arms at a formidable rate, and with Nato countries struggling to keep up in term of numbers, the arms race is having a big impact on the frontline. Josh Toussaint-Strauss finds out how Russia is using hybrid warfare alongside boosting its arms industry to outpace Nato, and what this all means for the war in Ukraine

• West’s spy chiefs alarmed at recklessness of Russian counterparts

• Russia to raise defence budget by 25% to highest level on record

• ‘A lot higher than we expected’: Russian arms production worries Europe’s war planners

The Guardian’s picture editors select photographs from around the world

Hostilities are taking place in more than 170 locations across the globe and women are suffering the effects more than at any time since the second world war. Here, female photojournalists reveal personal stories of life under fire

For Lynsey Addario, a celebrated conflict photographer, covering war in 2024 was all about a six-year-old girl from Ukraine. For most of the summer, Addario followed Sonya and her family as they navigated the final stages of her short life in a hospice in Chernivtsi, western Ukraine.

The girl’s treatment for retinoblastoma, an aggressive eye cancer, had been disrupted by the Russian invasion in February 2022 and then lapsed when the family were forced by the fighting to move to Poland as refugees. By the spring of this year, her body was riddled with tumours.

‘Shattering but tender’: a semi-conscious Sonya Kryvolapchuk, six, lies next to her mother, Natalia, 27, at a care centre in Chernivtsi, Ukraine. Photograph: Lynsey Addario for the New York Times

The late feminist artists explored ideas of doubling and twinship, as well as helping to redefine notions of craft skills

The photographer Colleen Kenyon made this new year portrait of her identical twin sister Kathleen in 1977. At the time the two of them were embarking on a shared artistic journey that put them at the forefront of feminist artists interested in reclaiming and redefining “craft” skills, using photomontage and hand-colouring techniques to celebrate and ironise traditionally “domestic” artistic expression, such as scrapbooking. Over the subsequent 25 years the twins, born in 1951, pursued this practice at the Center for Photography at Woodstock in upstate New York, where Colleen became executive director in 1981 and her sister joined her as associate director. Together they developed the exhibition space and a programme of workshops to make the institution a prime mover in the advancement of women in the arts, and for artists of colour.

Their own distinctive photographic ideas developed both individually and in tandem in those years. Colleen focused on intricate print-making techniques and delicate hand-colouring of female portraits, while Kathleen pursued her interest in collage, often manipulating mass-produced images of women to give them a pointed comic or political edge. Frequently, the sisters explored ideas of doubling and twinship – their academic parents had dressed them identically until they were 10, before they each insisted on making their own fashion choices – and their art examines their shared genetics and discrete characters in multiple ways.

For more than 25 years, Horace Lindezey has been making art at Venture Arts, a Manchester-based studio working with learning disabled artists. In his ever-growing collection of ceramic blue plaques, created with the assistance of ceramicist Caroline Tattersall, he celebrates people who have meant something to him – family members, friends, TV personalities and musicians – focusing on life’s central milestones: births, marriages and deaths. “I feel happy with making the plaques,” says Lindezey. “I roll the clay on to the mould, paint it white, then I put the letters on it. I like showing them in exhibitions, in Blackburn and London. I like to see them out there – they are nice memories of some people that have died.”

• A limited edition book of The Blue Plaques (£25), signed by the artist, is available at venturearts.org

The American photographer on capturing a moment of intimacy between himself and his baby son

On a sunny Sunday morning in June, Spencer Ostrander returned from the local hardware store to find his wife, Sophie, gardening in their back yard in Brooklyn, New York. “I handed her the supplies she needed, and a hot coffee, and she handed over our son,” Ostrander says. Their boy, Miles, was six months old at the time.

“As I was taking him inside, I saw the reflection of my son’s back rolls in the glass door.” Ostrander grabbed his iPhone 14 Pro and turned the front camera on. “He was teething back then; not crying, but not his usual pleasant self either. I was juggling a wiggling baby and my phone, so I could only take two frames.”

From Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s ‘life on a plate’ to Rose Matafeo introducing our puzzle special, the best original photographs from the Observer commissioned in December 2024