‘Ofcom needs to inject more urgency into its approach, and explain the steps it is taking.’ Photograph: Björn Steinz/Panos Pictures

In Ñspel: The Guardian view on Ofcom versus Grok: chatbots cannot be allowed to undress children

Donald Trump and Peter Mandelson, who said in the Spectator this week that ‘Trump has the means and the will and they [Europe and the UK] do not’. Photograph: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images

In Ñspel: The Guardian view on the new global disorder: Britain and Europe must find their own path

Police talk to a protester in London, November 2025. Photograph: Carl Court/Getty Images

Fṛm Đ Gardịn: Slowly but surely, a state can repress its people. Why is the UK channelling Viktor Orbán’s Hungary?

Alicia Vikander as Ava in Ex Machina. ‘Anthropomorphising AI may not be such a clever idea.’ Photograph: TCD/Prod.DB/Universal/DNA Films/Film4/Alamy

In Ñspel: The Guardian view on granting legal rights to AI: humans should not give house-room to an ill-advised debate

Donald Trump, Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron at the White House in August 2025. The US president sees no value in America’s historic alliances. Photograph: Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/AFP/Getty Images

In Ñspel: The Guardian view on Britain and Europe: time to move together, faster and further

Donald Trump and Keir Starmer shake hands as they hold a press conference at Chequers, Aylesbury, UK, on 18 September 2025. Photograph: Leon Neal/Reuters

Fṛm Đ Gardịn: Is Starmer’s reluctance to criticise Trump smart tactics – or the sign of a man without a plan?

‘From 2028, universities must pay a new flat tax, or “levy”, of £925 for every international student that they recruit.’ Photograph: Kumar Sriskandan/Alamy

In Ñspel: The Guardian view on universities: Labour needs a clearer plan

El Palito refinery in Puerto Cabello, Venezuela. ‘Oil has been Venezuela’s curse as well as its blessing.’ Photograph: Jesús Vargas/Getty

In Ñspel: The Guardian view on Trump’s raid in Caracas: oil matters, but it’s not the whole story

‘Obesity deepens inequality, with the prevalence of childhood obesity in the most deprived areas around twice as high as in the wealthiest ones.’ Photograph: Getty

In Ñspel: The Guardian view on the junk food advertising ban: shaping tastes is a job for government

‘Sir Keir, whose evasions and obfuscations on the matter up to now have been painful to witness’: Starmer speaks to Laura Kuenssberg on the BBC’s Sunday political television show, 4 January. Photograph: Brook Mitchell/BBC/AFP/Getty

In Ñspel: The Guardian view on Europe’s response to ‘America first’ imperialism: too weak, too timid

Donald Trump at an airbase in Doha in May. Photograph: Win McNamee/Getty Images

Fṛm Đ Gardịn: Made in America by Edward Stourton, review – why the ‘Trump doctrine’ is no aberration

The Guardian, 5 January 2026: The weightlifting champion jailed by Russia for ‘plotting sabotage and assassinations’

Francopomes: WEIGHING THINGS UP

Zohran Mamdani and his wife, Rama Duwaji, at his swearing-in ceremony in New York on 1 January. Photograph: Richard Swafford/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

In Ñspel: The Guardian view on Zohran Mamdani’s task: a high-stakes test case for progressive ambition

Donald Trump monitors US military operations in Venezuela, 3 January. Photograph: Molly Riley/AP

In Ñspel: The Guardian view on the US seizure of Maduro: Trump has turned the world’s superpower into a rogue state

A child at al-Bureij refugee camp, Nusairat, Gaza Strip. Photograph: APAImages/Shutterstock

In Ñspel: The Guardian view on Gaza’s winter: the world must take heed as Palestinian suffering deepens again

‘This is the world we now live in – the world according to Donald Trump.’ Photograph: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images

Fṛm Đ Gardịn: Today an illegal coup in Venezuela, but where next? Donald Trump talks peace but he is a man of war

Recent reforms will not solve all of the problems. Photograph: Simon Dack Archive/Alamy

In Ñspel: The Guardian view on care leavers: responsibility for looked-after children does not end at 18

‘Reading, like storytelling itself, is a gift handed from generation to generation.’ Photograph: Getty

In Ñspel: The Guardian view on the National Year of Reading 2026: time to start a healthy habit for life

‘Although mRNA vaccines proved their efficacy against Covid, the next frontier remains an open question.’ Photograph: SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images

In Ñspel: The Guardian view on mRNA vaccines: they are the future – with or without Donald Trump

‘The country’s vast network of voluntary organisations face formidable headwinds and an ominous financial crunch.’ Photograph: Horst Friedrichs/Alamy

In Ñspel: The Guardian view on hard times for Britain’s charities: struggling to do more with less

‘Synthetic drugs, which are mainly or fully lab-created, are constantly in development, but often run up against the iron laws of chemistry.’ Photograph: Getty

In Ñspel: The Guardian view on antibiotics: recent breakthroughs are great news, but humanity is losing the bigger race

‘Mr Trump appears unperturbed by stronger Chinese and Russian spheres of influence.’ Photograph: Yuri Gripas/EPA

In Ñspel: The Guardian view on the new Monroe doctrine: Trump’s forceful approach to the western hemisphere comes at a cost

President Donald Trump talks to the media as he walks to Marine One from the White House, Friday, Dec. 19, 2025, in Washington. Photograph: Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP

Fṛm Đ Gardịn: As the US media floundered this year, I couldn’t help but think: ‘Thank God I’m at the Guardian’

The Nasa Nova-C lunar lander, part of the Intuitive Machines IM-2 mission, lifts off on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Photograph: Cristóbal Herrera/EPA

In Ñspel: The Guardian view on the new space race: humanity risks exporting its old politics to the moon

The aftermath of Hurricane Melissa in Catherine Hall, Montego Bay, Jamaica, on 4 November 2025. Photograph: Ina Sotirova/The Guardian

In Ñspel: The Guardian view on adapting to the climate crisis: it demands political honesty about extreme weather

The Public Domain Review: W. W. Denslow’s Illustrations for the Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900)

Francopomes: BAH! HUMBUG!

Poetry International: Profile

About Poets: CHRIS McCABE