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.

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.

A pub that wants to be a old-school boozer and a cool restaurant both at the same time

While perched inside what felt like a repurposed bookshelf at the draughty back end of the Shaston Arms, sitting next to the dumb waiter and waiting for the ping to herald the arrival of my £16 plate of red mullet with squid ink rice, I had time to consider yet again the so-called “pub revival” in cool modern hospitality. Old boozers are reclaimed, reloved and restored, and the great tradition of going down the pub is celebrated. The Devonshire in nearby Piccadilly is, of course, the daddy, the Darth Vader of this trend, winning plaudits, TikTok adoration and celebrity fans aplenty. So it’s no wonder that myriad other hospitality operators have cast an eye over their local neglected fleapit and thought: “Let’s buy some Mr Sheen, give that old hovel a polish and start serving duck à l’orange and flourless chocolate tart. It’s all the rage! Gen Z loves it!”

Whether Gen Z really does love anything about the pub experience as it was in the 20th century is debatable, however, because inside these poshed-up spit-and-sawdust boozers, all the phlegm and fag ash has gone – as have the dartboards, pool tables, punch-ups, topless women on KP peanut pub cards and the ever-present bar-fly alcoholic drinking himself yellow while droning on about his marital problems. “It’s a pub just like pubs used to be,” proclaim many of these places, of which the Shaston near Carnaby Street is a great example. But those old pubs had jukeboxes blaring problematic ballads by Tom Jones, and a snug bar with a shag tartan carpet where the womenfolk could nestle with their glass of Dubonnet because we weren’t quite welcome in the saloon bar, and especially not if we asked for a pint.

Ussu fled imprisonment and torture, only to find himself treated like a liar and outcast in the UK. Here’s how he survived homelessness and horrific injury in almost two decades without a decision

The outcome for those involved in military coups can be unpredictable at the best of times. In Ussu’s case, he was captured and tortured before making a bold escape. But after breaking out of the compound where he was jailed, and coming to Britain, a very different kind of fight lay ahead – one that lasted almost two decades.

Ussu grew up in a small and unstable African country, a former Portuguese colony that was no stranger to attempted coups (the country is not being named to protect Ussu’s identity). A good student, he dreamed of going to university to train to become a doctor, but he was required to complete two years of military service first. Once he was in the army, though, his superiors refused to release him. Years passed and there was still no sign of an exit route. He became increasingly dismayed by the actions of his government.

Whether it’s panicking about the mess, forgetting drinks orders or frantically asking if people are having fun, I’m no fun at parties. How do the bon vivants do it?

Being a bad friend is presumably like being a narcissist – wondering whether you are one probably means that you’re not. However, a writer for the US magazine People questioned this topic just this week, with an article asking if she was letting down her mates by refusing to host Friendsgiving. (For the unfamilar, this is Thanksgiving you spend with friends rather than family, and is increasingly popular in the UK.) She has a good reason though. “I simply don’t want people in my house.”

After mentioning “the foot traffic, the proximity to my stuff, the general vibes of it all”, she admitted, “there is a rhythm and reason to the way my fruit bowl is organised, how my coffee table books are placed and how my cushions lie on the sofa. I would hate to be half-cooking, half-monitoring my guests to make sure no one has their feet on my coffee table and everyone is using coasters. (I’ve seen those types of hosts, and they are the type guests talk about on their way back home!).”

Two out of five illegal streamers have fallen prey to fraud, likely via a ‘modded’ USB stick that exposes users to data theft and cybercrime

The big fight is on TV on Saturday night but you really don’t want to shell out to watch it on pay-per-view. Luckily, you bought a cheap Amazon Fire Stick online that gives you access to all the sports you want as well as TV streaming services.

While the quality of the picture is not brilliant, you are saving on monthly subscriptions and the one-off fees to watch big sporting events. The stick was a bargain – or so you think.

Files show then PM was walking dog, riding motorbike and hosting guests as pandemic planning stalled in ‘lost month’

Boris Johnson took four days off from official government business during a key period in the UK’s Covid preparation when the NHS was bracing to be “overwhelmed” by the virus.

Official disclosure for the period in February 2020 – described by the Covid inquiry as a “lost month” in the country’s crisis response – reveal Johnson enjoyed an extended break during the half-term holidays at Chevening, a governmental estate in Kent, where he spent time walking his dog and taking motorcycle rides.

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.

Exclusive: Member of homeland security group says anti-terrorism Prevent scheme risks being overwhelmed by Palestine advocates

The anti-terrorism Prevent programme risks being overwhelmed because of the government’s ban on Palestine Action and could lead to people being wrongly criminalised, a member of the Home Office’s homeland security group has warned.

The official said there was already confusion among counter-terrorism police, officials and in schools and hospitals as a result of the proscription of the direct action group, which makes being a member of – or showing support for – it a criminal offence under the Terrorism Act.

US president signals potential room for adjustments after Zelenskyy says proposals force Ukraine to choose between national dignity and losing the US

Donald Trump said on Saturday that his Moscow-drafted “peace plan” was “not my final offer”, after a furious backlash from Ukrainians who described it as reminiscent of Neville Chamberlain’s 1938 Munich agreement with Adolf Hitler.

The US president told reporters during brief remarks at the White House: “We’d like to get to peace. It should’ve happened a long time ago … we’re trying to get it ended, one way or the other we have to get it ended.”