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These little wonders will give you a much-needed boost, and this is the perfect time to practice. Go on, you only need 10 minutesI'm a big napper. World class, in fact. I can go from awake to the bottom of the ocean in five minutes flat, like a high diver off a cliff. It's a longstanding talent of mine, but I've noticed, lately, that unlike other facilities that wane with middle age, my napping skills are only growing stronger. Times were when I wouldn't have dared reach for a nap unless I had a clean hour before the next commitment. Now, with even 15 minutes to spare - 10 at an absolute push - I'll risk it. It might look like narcolepsy, but I know the truth: that micro-napping is the key to everything.I mean, not everything, obviously. But it is definitely the key to functionality after 4pm, the second shift when your kids come home from school and you reward them with your frazzled, after-work energy. Too much screen-time happens in my house because the idea of sitting on the floor to play Anarchy Pancakes or Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza with my nine-year-olds feels like a request to put on iron trousers and climb a steep hill. (And, as I've discovered, the only thing worse than not playing is playing in a limp, half-arsed way then calling the game off after one round with a bright that was fun!" that makes everyone scowl.) Continue reading...

There are many challenges facing feminism, but a recent global gathering was a sanctuary and a rallying cryLast month, 3,500 feminists from every corner of the world came together in Bangkok for a conference hosted by the Association for Women's Rights in Development (Awid). Eight years of planning went into the event, years that coincided with some of the most challenging and transformative global moments. The Covid pandemic, for example, ensured that an in-person 14th forum could not be held in 2020.This December's theme, Rising Together, spoke not just to the collective resilience of feminist movements but to the journey I have witnessed over decades of activism: one defined by courage, solidarity and a refusal to give up, no matter the odds. Continue reading...

Carter was a man of extraordinary integrity. No president after him succeeded at doing as much post-White House goodJimmy Carter's presidency has been etched into historical memory as a failure. That judgment is curious, particularly when it comes from American conservatives; many of the right's favorite policies - deregulation and a ruthless fight against inflation, no matter the cost in unemployment - were actually started under Carter. Of course, the more that malaise can be associated with the peanut farmer from Georgia, the shinier becomes his successor, Ronald Reagan, conservatism's greatest 20th-century hero.What should be beyond dispute is that Carter was the most successful ex-president of the postwar period, and perhaps the greatest former president, period. That has a lot do with his sheer integrity. But the fact that no former chief executive after Carter managed to emulate his model - using their skills and access to do genuinely important things in politics, rather than mostly cashing in - says much about our times. Continue reading...

The ex-president was pilloried for his characterisation of the Palestinians' plight but some say an apology is in orderJimmy 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. Continue reading...

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

Charli xcx covered in red wine, Anna Sorokin in an ankle tag on Dancing with the Stars - it has been 12 months marked by chaos, indulgence and messIf culture is the mirror that reflects the state of society, right now we're all looking a little dishevelled - and struggling to find the energy to care. The signs have been there for a while, with rumblings initially picked up by trend forecasters' finely tuned cultural seismometers. In 2021, Sean Monahan coined the term the vibe shift" in his Substack to explain the transition from the self-controlled, self-improvement-obsessed worthiness of the 2010s to the messy decadence of the 2020s. Three years later, it feels like that earthquake has finally hit.The text of the year was, of course, the album Brat by Charli xcx, and the image that summed it all up was from the lead single's music video: the pop star pouring a glass of red wine while standing on a vibrating power plate, spilling it down her white T-shirt and staring defiantly into the camera. In the background, actor Rachel Sennott scrolls on her phone on an exercise ball and actor and model Julia Fox vapes while curling a dumbbell. If not dancing, this is casually leaning on the grave of wellness culture. The message is: It's OK to be a bit messy, physically and mentally, and let's have a good time while we're at it." While accepting a prize at the Wall Street Journal's Innovator awards, the musician said: Luckily for me, the pendulum of culture swung in favour of messiness, personality and the niche."Kirsty Major is a deputy Opinion editor for the Guardian Continue reading...

As France and Germany struggle, Poland's prime minister has the advantage of being well respected on both sides of the AtlanticWith France and Germany hobbled by political crises and Britain sidelined as a result of Brexit, the Polish prime minister, Donald Tusk, may be the last national statesman standing to marshal Europe's response to Donald Trump's impending return to the White House.Buffeted by economic, diplomatic and political threats on all sides, the old continent is ill prepared for a new chapter in which Vladimir Putin is pressing his military advantage in Ukraine before Trump can try to force a peace deal that could damage the interests of Ukrainians and Europeans. Trump, who has spoken of letting Russia do whatever the hell they want" with Nato countries that don't spend enough on defence, is also threatening massive tariffs against his closest allies that could split Europe and trigger a damaging transatlantic trade war.Paul Taylor is a senior visiting fellow at the European Policy Centre Continue reading...

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The ex-president died as Biden, a fellow one-term president heads for the door and chaos agent Trump returns to powerEarly in Mike Bartlett's 2022 stage play, The 47th, the funeral of former US president Jimmy Carter is held at Washington National Cathedral. Joe Biden, Barack Obama, George W Bush and Bill Clinton are all in attendance. Donald Trump is not invited but turns up anyway - and late. He's here to pay his disrespects, and use / A funeral for self-promotion," Kamala Harris observes.Life - or rather death - is about to imitate art as Washington prepares to bid farewell to Carter, who died at home in Georgia on Sunday at the age of 100. He was the longest-lived president in US history and the first Democratic president to die since Lyndon Johnson more than half a century ago. Continue reading...

Jimmy Carter, the 39th president of the United States, broker of peace in the Middle East and a tireless advocate for global health and human rights, has died. Carter took office in 1977 as 'Jimmy Who?', a one-term Georgia governor and devout Christian whose unfamiliarity with the corridors of power in Washington was seen as a virtue after the official betrayals of the Watergate and Vietnam years.

We should remember his fearlessness in the cause of peace, and his faith in the democratic institutions he fought to protectJimmy Carter died on Sunday at the age of 100. The former president's passing followed that of former first lady Rosalynn Carter, to whom he was married from 1946 until her death in 2023. After leaving the White House in 1981, Carter enjoyed by far the longest retirement of any president in history: nearly 44 years.Tributes have invariably described Carter as a decent, dedicated public servant; a longtime Sunday school teacher who built homes with Habitat for Humanity. A humble man who lived modestly and who, unlike his successors, did not enrich himself on the speaker circuit. Continue reading...

US president whose subsequent decades of tireless humanitarian work brought him the Nobel peace prizeThe 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. Continue reading...

Democrats and Republicans commemorate former US president after his death at age of 100

The former US president has died at the age of 100. Born in 1924, he became the 39th president of the United States in 1977, and won the Nobel peace prize in 2002 for his dedicated work for human rights and peacemaking. Here we look back at his life

Former president faced series of economic and foreign policy crises, including Iran hostage affair and Soviet invasion of Afghanistan

Plains, Georgia may seem an unlikely place from which to launch a global campaign of moral influence - but Carter did so

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

Maybe I'm climbing Mount Everest with Greta Thunberg or holding a vigil for a pet slug, but I am never answering this question honestlySome people feel compelled to ride bikes, others mandated to hit the gym. Me? A compulsion to tell myself that I suck to be around.I'm not going to stand here and say that self-hatred is unique to me. It's just that it isn't, until the last week of the year that I don't feel entirely mawkish for admitting it. When I feel that others share my self-loathing, if only briefly. When a simple question leaves even the most lovable Lotharios spinning dark webs of utter BS. Continue reading...

Media mogul launched Home Box Office in 1972 and started the US's first 24-hour cable local news channel in New YorkCharles F Dolan, who founded some of the most prominent US media companies including Home Box Office Inc and Cablevision Systems Corp, has died at age 98, according to a news report.A statement issued on Saturday by his family said Dolan died of natural causes, Newsday reported late on Saturday. Continue reading...

Over the holidays, this column will explore next year's urgent issues. Today, Today, why Europe's key alliance faces a troubling year amid political turmoilWhen Konrad Adenauer and Charles de Gaulle signed the 1963 Elysee treaty of friendship between France and Germany, it was a moving milestone on the road to postwar European integration. But Emmanuel Macron tends to avoid sentimental references to the Franco-German couple" that made the modern EU possible. Ahead of 60th anniversary celebrations of the treaty last year, Mr Macron's aides observed that, for the French president, joint European action is a geopolitical necessity, not a romantic matter".A touch dry and uninspirational perhaps. But a more coldly analytical approach suits the times. The Franco-German alliance was the indispensable force behind the creation of both the EU's single market and the euro. But as Europe struggles to define its place in a multipolar and more threatening world, the bedrock partnership at its core is not what it was. Continue reading...

Doug Harless killed by police officers at home at 511 Vanzant Road despite search warrant intended for 489 Vanzant RoadPolice in Kentucky recently shot a man to death in his home while they executed a search warrant that appears to have been intended for a different address.Doug Harless, 63, lived in London, a southern Kentucky town of about 8,000 residents, and was killed by police officers at his home at 511 Vanzant Road on the night of 23 December. However, audio from local Laurel county emergency dispatchers - and obtained by Kentucky news stations - shows that the search warrant was intended for 489 Vanzant Road, as was repeated multiple times on a recording of the audio. Continue reading...

Colorado man arrested on suspicion of bias-motivated crimes and assault as hostility to journalists risesA Colorado man attacked a TV news reporter while asking if he was a citizen and taunting him that this was life now in the US with Donald Trump's second presidency looming, criminal court documents allege.The man, Patrick Thomas Egan, was arrested on 18 December in Grand Junction on suspicion of bias-motivated crimes, second-degree assault and harassment.The Associated Press contributed reporting Continue reading...

Witnesses say Robert Bobby' Cavanaugh struck with pipe after trying to stop neighbor abusing dog on Christmas EveA reputed animal lover from Michigan was reportedly beaten to death while trying to stop his neighbor from beating a dog on Christmas Eve, according to authorities and people who knew the victim.Robert Bobby" Cavanaugh, 60, was riding his bicycle through his mobile home community in the Detroit suburb of Madison Heights when he noticed a fellow resident physically abusing a dog, neighbors of the men told the local Fox affiliate. Continue reading...

Amid a US mental health crisis, police officers, firefighters and paramedics are flying to Mexico for treatments they say are transformativeIn mid-September, after the fire season in the American west largely went quiet but before hurricanes ravaged the south-east, seven first responders from across the US traveled to Mexico seeking a therapy they hoped would transform their lives.They had embarked on a sort of pilgrimage, journeying thousands of miles to an airy villa outside the humid beachside city of Puerto Vallarta, where over the course of three days a team would guide them through ceremonies with psilocybin, the psychedelic 5-MeO-DMT and tobacco. Continue reading...

National Weather Service says severe storm system is moving east through Alabama and into GeorgiaAt least two people were killed and six more injured as several tornadoes touched down in Texas and Mississippi on Saturday, damaging homes and flipping vehicles as the storm system moved east across Alabama early on Sunday.The US National Weather Service (NWS)'s severe storm tracker indicated the system was moving east through Alabama into Georgia shortly before 4am. The agency issued severe thunderstorm warnings with the possibility of tornadoes in western Georgia and the north-western tip of Florida directly above the Gulf of Mexico. Continue reading...

It all seems like political theatre of the absurd - but the disrupter-in-chief has a habit of making the unthinkable inevitableMerry Christmas," Donald Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Christmas Day with a photo of himself and his wife, Melania. So far, so traditional. But the US president-elect was just getting started.In another post, Trump wished merry Christmas to all including to the wonderful soldiers of China, who are lovingly, but illegally, operating the Panama canal". He poked fun at the Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, and claimed the US could annex Canada as its 51st state. For good measure, he addressed the people of Greenland, which is needed by the United States for National Security purposes and, who want the US to be there, and we will!" Continue reading...

Years torturing yourself before a blank page are followed by months of scrambling for publicity, followed by oblivionThere are only two types of people who make the mistake of writing a book: non-writers, who don't know any better; and writers, who can never be happy and therefore must always seek out pain in order to feel alive. Either way, every book is the product of suffering. The best thing a new author can hope for is to discover that he is a masochist.After two decades as a journalist, I published my first book in 2024. This does not make me special. In the same way that people in relationships often wake up one day married with kids due purely to peer pressure, all professional writers bear the burden of the expectation that they will write a book. With each passing year, those who haven't done so are regarded with increasing suspicion. Typing all those words, but not a single book? Why, don't you have anything to say?Hamilton Nolan is the author of The Hammer: Power, Inequality and the Struggle for the Soul of Labor Continue reading...

As democracy's opponents peddle hate, anger and division, our job is to act like citizens of a better countrySo, 2025... Will you finish us off or just leave us with ineradicable psychic and emotional scarring? Will our hyper-capitalist special economic zones ooze out to meet our hyper-capitalist freeports and offer us exciting new opportunities to be indentured serfs, or work abroad as trafficked persons, or perhaps just lurk dangerously in the depths of the very toxic harbour sludge that provoked our mutation into new, nauseating life forms. I hope I get fangs. I've always wanted fangs. And a tail.Like many of you, I'm unsure if 2025 will be able to scar me emotionally - after the past decade, my soul already looks like Deadpool. That's not the peak cute Ryan Reynolds at the start of the movie, or the snazzy mask and cool moves - I mean the naked wealed and welted freak with the face of a Halloween pumpkin in late December. What's left to scar, 2025?AL Kennedy's new novel, Alive in the Merciful Country, is published by Saraband on 9 January Continue reading...

As Volodymyr Zelenskyy prepares for possible negotiations, friends and neighbours should be gearing up for industrial warfareWhenever I come to Ukraine, I find words that have lost their essence elsewhere swell again with meaning. The fight for freedom" is not a pretentious slogan here, but just what you do every day. Sovereignty" is not a slippery abstraction, but the difference between deciding your own fate or having it decreed in Moscow.It's also in Ukraine that one realises that freedom" and sovereignty" exist in a collaborative relationship with others. Ukraine is now defending its neighbours' freedom from an advancing Russia. Kyiv's resistance is benefiting Taiwan's freedom, too. Meanwhile, without help - especially from America - Ukraine would still fight on but, as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy admits, would find it hard. As speculations about negotiations and potential peace deals loom over 2025, the precise meaning of Ukraine's relationships will need to be defined. What does being an ally" really mean today? What is a true security order"? Will peace just mean, in the words of Olga Myrovych, CEO of the Lviv Media Forum, that Ukraine should rest in peace"? Continue reading...

How can I be a better and more productive parent?I will stop complaining about the task of opening Chupa Chups lollipops whose wrappers were clearly spun from plastic by the T-1000 from Terminator 2. Or the difficulty of reading, and remembering, each of the various all the emails I get from the school about all 136 non-uniform days that take place each calendar year.I will cease moaning about the horrors of parenting while sick myself, in the manner of someone who believes there is a government department that should be swooping in to take my place, or the chore of getting my children to eat anything other than cheesy pasta and cake, and the attendant hardship of having to suffer their constant requests for more pasta and more cake. Continue reading...

Lack of faith in political leaders is leading the socially disaffected to be seduced by violenceTaleb al-Abdulmohsen, the alleged perpetrator of the horror attack on the Christmas market in Magdeburg, does not, Germany's interior minister, Nancy Faeser, observed, fit any existing mould". He had acted in an unbelievably cruel and brutal manner, like an Islamist terrorist, though he was clearly ideologically hostile to Islam".Faeser is not alone in her confusion about how to understand Abdulmohsen.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 250 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at observer.letters@observer.co.uk Continue reading...

Film star's floundering performance in The Tempest exposes flaw in theatreland's reliance on big namesIn 1986, Sigourney Weaver completed her second Alien movie and returned to New York's off-Broadway scene to prove she could do Shakespeare. For Aliens, she received an Academy Award nomination.For Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, she received this review from the New York Times: The Merchant of Venice marks the local Shakespearean debut, in the role of Portia, of Sigourney Weaver and, in all candidness, this is not Ms Weaver's finest three and one-quarter hours... Together, the director and star seem disoriented by Shakespeare." Continue reading...

Firetruck drove around rail crossing arms after waiting for earlier train to pass, according to person briefed on detailsThree firefighters and a dozen passengers were injured in Florida on Saturday after a firetruck drove around rail crossing arms and into the path of a high-speed passenger train after having waited for a previous train to pass, according to a person briefed on what happened.The crash happened at 10.45am in crowded downtown Delray Beach, multiple news outlets reported. In the aftermath, the Brightline train was stopped on the tracks, its front destroyed, about a block away from the Delray Beach fire rescue truck. Its ladder was ripped off and landed in the grass several yards away, the Sun Sentinel reported. Continue reading...

Circle K in Cottonwood, California, where ticket was sold celebrates $1m bonus as winner remains unknownThe new year will ring in brightly for a lucky Mega Millions winner in California: after three months of the top lottery prize rolling over, a ticket worth $1.22bn matched all six numbers in Friday night's drawing, according to the lottery's website.The winning ticket was sold at the Circle K in Cottonwood, a rural town of about 6,000 people roughly 145 miles (233km) north of Sacramento just off Interstate 5 in Shasta county. The winning numbers, including the Mega, were 3, 7, 37, 49, 55 and 6. Continue reading...

Remarks follow social media posts from Tesla and SpaceX CEO, who vowed to go to war' to defend programDonald Trump on Saturday sided with Elon Musk, a key supporter and billionaire tech CEO, in a public dispute over the use of the H-1B visa, saying he fully backs the program for foreign tech workers opposed by some of his supporters.Trump's remarks followed a series of social media posts from Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, who vowed late Friday to go to war" to defend the visa program for foreign tech workers. Continue reading...

Parents believe San Francisco police lack ability to conduct thorough investigation into multifaceted casePoornima Ramarao greeted everyone with a smile as they offered condolences for the death of her son, Suchir Balaji, a former OpenAI researcher and whistleblower who was found dead in his San Francisco apartment on 26 November.I am not grieving," she told a small group of friends at a vigil held for Balaji in Milpitas, California, a city about 50 miles (80km) south-east of San Francisco. I have become numb." Continue reading...

Outgoing representative, whose assessment of campaign now feels prescient, saddened to be vindicatedDean Phillips, the Democratic representative from Minnesota who bucked his party to become the only elected official to challenge Joe Biden for the Democratic primary earlier this year, has said he is saddened" by the accuracy of his prediction at the time that the outgoing president could not win re-election.If what I feel now is vindication, it's awfully unsatisfying," Phillips told Politico, adding: The fact was, he was not in a position to win. The fact was his approval numbers were historically low. The fact was his physical decline was real." Continue reading...

Child had run off from family in a split second' as they admired lava within caldera at sunset on 23 DecemberHawaii national park rangers have reissued warnings about volcano tourism after a small child wandered off and came within feet of a 400ft cliff near the rim of Klauea volcano, whose latest eruption had begun on 23 December.The hazards that coincide with an eruption are dangerous, and we have safety measures in place including closed areas, barriers, closure signs and traffic management," said park superintendent Rhonda Loh in a statement. Continue reading...

Plots and sprigged muslin aside, the author's enduring legacy also lies in her relevance as a foil for modern moresFor some, it will be enough merely to re-read Persuasion, and thence to cry yet again at Captain Wentworth's declaration of utmost love for Anne Elliot. But during the many and various celebrations in 2025 that will mark the 250th anniversary of the birth of Jane Austen, others, it seems, are planning to take a rather more full-hearted approach. Be warned: there will be breeches.In Bath, where Austen took up residence in 1801, a series of costume balls are to be staged, one with a seaside theme inspired by the uncompleted Sanditon. At Chawton in Hampshire, where she lived with her mother and sister Cassandra from 1809, festivals will be devoted to Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility and Emma, the latter to include a Dress Up Day, should you happen to have a sprigged muslin gown hanging at the back of your wardrobe. Continue reading...

Leading FFF teams include Donald Trump's Mad Angry Geezers Athletic (Maga) and Vladimir Putin's Greater Russia United (GRU)It's been a gloomy old year, often reflected in this space - so maybe it's time to inject some festive cheer with an exciting new Swiftian parlour game: Fantasy Football for Fascists (FFF). Ideal for dictators, autocrats, strongmen, neo-Stalinists, far-right nationalist-populists or just students of geopolitics, it's fanatical fun for all the family!Under conventional fantasy football rules, imaginary teams are composed of real-life players from the Premier League. In FFF, the principal players are typically politicians and public figures who exhibit extreme totalitarian tendencies. Leading FFF teams include Donald Trump's Mad Angry Geezers Athletic (Maga) and Vladimir Putin's Greater Russia United (GRU). China has the Xi XI. Continue reading...

President also regrets picking Merrick Garland for attorney general, as he was slow to prosecute Trump for January 6Joe Biden regrets having pulled out of this year's presidential race and believes he would have defeated Donald Trump in last month's election - despite negative poll indications, White House sources have said.The US president has reportedly also said he made a mistake in choosing Merrick Garland as attorney general - reflecting that Garland, a former US appeals court judge, was slow to prosecute Donald Trump for his role in the 6 January 2021 insurrection while presiding over a justice department that aggressively prosecuted Biden's son Hunter. Continue reading...

Judge says coffee giant has no standing in appeal of NRLP finding it illegally fired two workers for trying to unionizeA federal appeals court has largely rejected Starbucks' appeal of a National Labor Relations Board (NRLB) finding that the coffee chain illegally fired two Philadelphia baristas because they wanted to organize a union.The third US circuit court of appeals said the coffee shop giant lacked standing to challenge the constitutionality of administrative law judges of the NRLB, the government agency that is set up to enforce labor laws in the US concerning labor practices and collective bargaining. Continue reading...

Organizers try to pre-empt action by incoming president to constrict or eliminate' labor rightsStudent workers are bracing for the incoming Trump administration to constrict or eliminate" their labor rights, after a surge in union organizing on college campuses.Nearly 45,000 student employees formed unions between 2022 to 2024 between 44 bargaining units. As of earlier this year, an estimated 38% of all graduate student employees in the US were unionized. Continue reading...

It's now time to hold space' for everything that happened in 2024 with a list - so here are 10 of the biggest stories from the year in patriarchy2024 was a very demure, very mindful, very dystopian sort of year. I started last year's annual roundup by noting that it had been the hottest year on record and ... guess what? 2024 has now surpassed 2023 as the hottest year ever. Many of the same extreme themes from last year have also persisted: anti-abortion activists are still trying to roll back reproductive rights in the US and the horrific situation for women in Iran and Afghanistan has only got worse.Meanwhile Gaza is still being destroyed, and - despite the fact that an increasing number of experts are terming the bombardment a genocide" - the US is continuing to enable the destruction and much of the world is still continuing to look away. The civil war in Sudan, which started last April, has also spread catastrophically, with women and girls bearing the brunt of the humanitarian crisis. Continue reading...