When the president targeted me and my TV show, millions said no. So don’t give up on us – and always remember, we’re not all like him

I have no idea if you know who I am, but I was asked to deliver this year’s alternative Christmas message (which I’ve heard is a big deal) so I hope you do, but if not I host what you call a chatshow (we call it a talkshow) in what you call the colonies, I think? I honestly have no idea what’s going on over there.

I do know what’s going on over here though, and I can tell you that, from a fascism perspective, this has been a really great year. Tyranny is booming over here.

It’s so nice to have the old gang back together – yes, even Olivia Colman. They’re all clearly still friendly, which makes for seasonal TV that’s exactly as comforting as it should be

It’s 22 years since Peep Show began its nine-season run. God, weren’t we all happier then? With the possible exception, ironically, of its beleaguered leads Mark (David Mitchell) and Jez (Robert Webb) – though whether Jez, who made the average whelk look like a philosopher king, ever had the psychological capacity to be beleaguered, I’m not sure. Never mind. Mark was surely beleaguered enough for both of them.

Whatever. Jesse Armstrong, Sam Bain and Andrew O’Connor’s breakthrough show was a joy – however agonisingly painful at times. What’s more, it is lovely to see the old gang again: this time in the spotlessly clean environs of the Bake Off tent instead of a shabby Croydon flat painted various shades of B&Q’s Miasmic Despair range, for The Great Christmas Bake Off.

Strange folk, lost pop, disco oddities and, um, Dido – here are the forgotten tracks that became this year’s most replayed revelations
• The 50 best albums of 2025
• More on the best culture of 2025

I grew up listening to the Mamas and the Papas’ hits but had never heard their albums before this year. I had no idea anything as creepy as Mansions lurked within their sunny oeuvre. Its sound is ominous, its mood one of stoned paranoia, its subject rich hippies sequestered in the titular luxury homes, haunted by the sensation that the flower-power dream is going wrong.

From the Indigenous doctor balancing traditional and western medicine to a father risking death to provide for his family in Gaza, these are some of the people whose determination and bravery stood out

In 2012, Adana Omágua Kambeba travelled 4,000km (2,500 miles) from her home in Manaus, in the Brazilian Amazon, to take up a coveted place to study medicine at the Federal University of Minas Gerais in south-east Brazil. She became the first among her people, the Kambeba, or Omágua, to graduate in the field, still largely dominated by white elites. According to the 2022 census, Indigenous people represented 0.1% of those who graduated in medicine in Brazil.

Adana Kambeba uses the ancestral knowledge of her people alongside conventional medicine in her work. Photograph: Marizilda Cruppe/the Guardian

Midfielder will be part of the conversation for a Ballon d’Or if he continues his ascent with trophies for club and country

Declan Rice likes to call it “clean feedback”, which sounds like a euphemism for a bollocking, though he would probably say that is a misconception. Rather, it is part of the reason why Rice is being discussed as one of the best players in the world.

“You can’t eff and blind, you can’t bully people,” says Terry Westley, the head of West Ham’s academy when Rice was there. “But we should be able to have a conversation and say: ‘Look, that ain’t quite good enough and we want to help you because this is what we need to do.’

It was our first joint family Christmas, and I watched fearfully as my mum walked into the kitchen she had once called hers. The next 48 hours were full of surprises

There are still moments I pinch myself: when, over the remnants of turkey and red wine, my divorced parents regale us all with an in-joke from their previous life. When, on the pre-lunch walk, my dad and stepdad stroll in lockstep and talk about finance and even feelings, occasionally. When we’ve all exchanged gifts, and the most thoughtful gifts are not between husband and wife or parent and child, but ones the divorced and remarried couples have given each other.

We’ve been doing this for 25 years now, this joint family Christmas, complete with step-parents, parents and siblings. But every so often, I remember how weird it all once felt. The first time, when I was 11 years old, I watched fearfully as, on Christmas Eve, my mum walked into the kitchen she once called hers. Despite her initial efforts to pretend otherwise, it was clear she still knew where everything lived – and that the next 48 hours would be easier if she admitted it.

Research suggests fewer than one in 60 public sector workers share leave with partners when they have a baby

• Why shared parental leave is a monumental dud of a policy

Experts have criticised a “lost decade” of progress on parental rights after Guardian research suggested that fewer than one in 60 public sector workers are sharing leave with their partners when they have a baby.

Ten years after the introduction of shared parental leave in the UK, the policy’s architects said it had failed to deliver on its promise of “culture change” and called for bold measures necessary to allow more men – including middle- and lower-earners – to spend time with their babies.

Emergency services launched major search at Budleigh Salterton after reports of people in difficulty in the water

Two men are missing in the water off a beach in Devon, after a number of people were reported to be in difficulty.

Emergency services were called to Budleigh Salterton at 10.25am on Christmas Day following concerns for people in the water.

Sergei Udaltsov, Putin critic affiliated with the Communist party, convicted of justifying terrorism

A court in Russia on Thursday convicted a pro-war activist and critic of Vladimir Putin of justifying terrorism and sentenced him to six years in prison.

Sergei Udaltsov, the leader of the Left Front movement that opposes Putin and is affiliated with the Communist party, was arrested last year.

Monarch urges people to draw strength from community diversity after a year marked by division and violence

King Charles has called for reconciliation after a year of deepening division, saying in his Christmas address that people must find strength in the diversity of their communities to ensure right defeats wrong.

The monarch cited the spirit of the second world war generation, which he said came together to take on the challenge that faced them; displaying qualities he said have shaped both the UK and the Commonwealth.