Struggling with gift ideas? The Guardian’s expert columnists are here to help, with everything from Yotam Ottolenghi’s favourite pans to the only nail polish brand Sali Hughes uses
• 305 best Christmas presents for 2025

Are you in the festive spirit yet? Or, just, well…a bit stressed? This time of year can feel overwhelming, but who better to calm the panic of Christmas gift shopping than the Guardian’s cohort of expert columnists?

Want to know which M&S cardi fashion editor Jess Cartner-Morley has had her eye on that gives “very posh”? Or the chocolate bars chef and author Yotam Ottolenghi is obsessed with? Beauty expert Sali Hughes has got the gifts to make Gen Z’s squeal with excitement, while Gynelle Leon selects the perfect present for the person in your life who prefers gardening to a night out.

Did the talks succeed or fail? The verdict must take account of the geopolitical minefield they took place in

Cop30 in Belém wrapped up on Saturday night more than 24 hours later than planned, and with an Amazonian rainstorm thundering down on the conference centre. The UN structure just about held, as it has done these past three weeks despite fire, savage tropical heat and blistering political attacks on the multilateral system of global environmental governance.

Dozens of agreements were gavelled through on the final day, as the most collective form of humanity worked to resolve the most complex and dangerous challenge that our species has ever faced. It was chaotic. The process very nearly collapsed and had to be rescued by last-ditch talks that went on into the early morning. Veteran observers told me the Paris agreement was on life-support.

The outrage a J Crew jumper has provoked shows that the US right’s sense of masculinity is far more fragile than it would care to admit

A men’s jumper by the all-American preppy label J Crew has sent thousands of Maga Americans into meltdown. From a fashion point of view, it couldn’t be more innocuous. It’s got a crew neck. It’s made from wool. It has a Fair Isle pattern at the upper yoke. There’s nothing asymmetric about it, no fringing or tassels, no slogan blasted across the front; no “Make America Kind Again”. So what’s the big deal? Reader, the jumper is pink.

The main storm broke underneath a tweet by conservative social media commentator Juanita Broaddrick, in which she asked: “Are you kidding me?? Men, would you wear this $168 sweater?” The consensus among her followers was a resounding no, and not because of its price. “No man in my family would wear it!” wrote “MOMof DataRepublican”. “My husband wouldn’t use a pink bathroom towel,” assured another. Another X user was even more passionate: “HELL NO. I’m a man, not gay and won’t be dressing up as a Golden Girl anytime soon.” Tim Burchett, a Tennessee Republican congressman, called the sweater “something a sorority girl would wear in the 80s”. I think he meant it witheringly; I read that and think it sounds quite fun.

Ellie Violet Bramley is a freelance writer

Pageantry and trillion-dollar promises reveal how Washington’s loyalties may be tilting toward the Gulf

The White House welcome bestowed on the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, was the most lavish of the Trump presidency, and a gaudily clear statement of its foreign policy priorities.

It was billed as a mere working visit, but it was more extravagant than any previous state visit. The president greeted the prince on the south lawn, the White House’s biggest stage. There were uniformed men on horses bearing flags and a flypast of fighter jets.

They agree on green energy solutions but fail to see eye to eye on Islamophobia. Can a retiree and a graduate find common ground?

Steve, 64, Canvey Island

Occupation Retired underwriter

When my quest to make a cliche-free film about one of America’s most notorious cold cases fell apart, I ended up investigating something entirely different – our own morbid curiosity

If you think true crime is inescapable when you’re browsing Netflix or making small talk with your co-workers, try working in the documentary industry. As you traipse from one commissioning meeting to the next, pitching your passion project on the history of mime or the secret life of snails, you can almost hear the words before they’re spoken: “Got any other ideas?” Preferably something with a body count.

I had just begun making documentaries in 2015, when the double whammy of HBO’s The Jinx and Netflix’s Making a Murderer brought true crime back to the dead centre of popular culture. Positioned as social justice projects as much as murder mysteries, those shows seemed to herald a new beginning for the genre. Soon enough, though, they gave way to a steady stream of interchangeable offerings, many of them organised into reproducible formats such as Netflix’s Conversations With a Killer franchise, each season of which is built round a long-lost interview with a notorious serial killer, unearthed to order.

Chancellor Friedrich Merz says ‘we are still a long way from that’ as Trump blasts Ukrainian leadership on social media

The Ukrainian delegation has held talks with European security officials in Geneva, according to the head of Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office, Andriy Yermak.

“Overall, a series of meetings in various formats is planned for today. We continue working together to achieve a lasting and just peace for Ukraine,” Yermak wrote in a post on X. “The next meeting is with the US delegation. We are in a very constructive mood.”

Year-long investigation into multimillion-dollar business exposed serious concerns, from dangerous medical claims to FBS-linked stillbirths

• Full story: How the FBS is linked to baby deaths around the world

The Free Birth Society (FBS) is a business run from North Carolina that promotes the idea of women giving birth without midwives or doctors present.

It is led by Emilee Saldaya and Yolande Norris-Clark, ex-doulas turned social media influencers who have gained a global following through the FBS podcast, which has been downloaded millions of times.

Unable to reunite with their families in Gaza due to the closed border, Palestinian workers have spent two years in a refugee camp at Nablus stadium

Inside a dim locker room at the Nablus municipal stadium, in the occupied West Bank, the television rarely goes dark, streaming day and night the relentless news from Gaza. Gathered in front of it are a group of men from Khan Younis. For more than two years, they have lived in this stadium converted into a refugee camp, their lives suspended between exile and the war they watched on a screen.

They are mostly construction workers who were in Israel on the morning of 7 October 2023 when Hamas launched its attack. As Israel rounded up Palestinians from Gaza, they fled to the West Bank, where they remain – cut off from wives and children living in makeshift tents inside the strip. With very few exceptions, civilians are not currently allowed in or out of Gaza.

Chancellor admits economy ‘feels stuck’ for many as she signals intention to freeze income tax thresholds

• You be the chancellor: play our budget game

Rachel Reeves has promised to “grip the cost of living” in the budget as she prepares to scrap the two-child welfare limit and freeze rail fares, while putting forward a multibillion-pound tax-raising package.

The chancellor is preparing to give her second budget on Wednesday after weeks of uncertainty about the scale of the tax rises she will need to impose to plug a financial hole of about £20bn.

Freezing income tax thresholds for an extra two years to 2030, bringing more people into higher tax bands as wages rise.

Making salary sacrifice schemes less generous, including those for pension contributions.

Bringing in higher tax on the most expensive properties, including a surcharge on the highest-value houses.

A pay-per-mile scheme on electric cars to help fill the tax gap from petrol duty as more people opt for green vehicles.