‘Undermines free speech’: Labour MP hits back at US government over visa ban on UK campaigners

Chi Onwurah speaks out after Marco Rubio accused five Europeans, including two Britons, of ‘seeking to suppress American viewpoints they oppose’

A senior Labour MP has accused the Trump administration of undermining free speech after Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, announced sanctions against two British anti-disinformation campaigners.

Chi Onwurah, the chair of parliament’s technology select committee, criticised the US government hours after it announced “visa-related” sanctions against five Europeans, including Imran Ahmed and Clare Melford.

Published: December 24, 2025, 4:26 pm

‘A gamechanger’: 200,000 UK small businesses sign up to TikTok Shop

Big brands such as Sainsbury’s and M&S also selling directly in app through links in videos and livestreams

It is better known for its viral dances and for making hits out of forgotten songs, but the social media site TikTok is becoming a force to be reckoned with as a shopping platform.

Major retailers such as Marks & Spencer, Samsung, QVC, Clarks, and Sainsbury’s are now selling their wares on the site’s e-commerce service, TikTok Shop, alongside more than 200,000 UK small and medium businesses.

Published: December 24, 2025, 7:00 am

Former EU commissioner and activists barred from US in attack on European tech regulators

State department accuses group of pressuring tech firms to censor or suppress American viewpoints through regulation of disinformation

The state department has barred five Europeans from the US, accusing them of leading efforts to pressure tech firms to censor or suppress American viewpoints, in the latest attack on European regulations that target hate speech and misinformation.

Secretary of state Marco Rubio said the five people targeted with visa bans – who include former European Commissioner Thierry Breton – have led “organized efforts to coerce American platforms to censor, demonetize, and suppress American viewpoints they oppose.”

Published: December 24, 2025, 12:54 am

Visa ban for European critics of online harm is first shot in US free speech war

Legislation that seeks to curb harmful content is viewed as a threat to Silicon Valley by many Maga politicians

• UK politics live – latest updates

For Maga politicians, European tech regulation hits hard in two areas: at the economic interests of Silicon Valley and at their view of free speech.

The action against five Europeans who are taking on harmful content and the platforms that host it has had an inevitable feel to it, given the increasingly vociferous reactions to the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) and the UK’s Online Safety Act (OSA). Both pieces of legislation require social media firms to protect users or face the threat of sizeable fines. Indeed, Elon Musk’s X has been fined €120m (£105m) this month for breaching the DSA.

Published: December 24, 2025, 4:25 pm

The video games you may have missed in 2025

Date a vending machine, watch intergalactic television and make the most out of your short existence as a fly. Here are the best games you weren’t playing this year
• The 20 best video games of 2025
• More on the best culture of 2025

PS5, Xbox, Switch, PC
Have you ever wanted to romance your record player? Date Everything! offers players the chance to develop relationships with everyday objects around your house, in a fully voiced sandbox romp featuring over 100 anthropomorphised characters. Wonderfully meta; you can put the moves on the textbox, or even “Michael Transaction” (microtransaction – get it?) himself. Meghan Ellis

Published: December 25, 2025, 10:00 am

The video games readers couldn’t switch off in 2025

In this week’s newsletter: Pushing Buttons readers on their favourite games of the year, from Death Stranding 2 and Arc Raiders to Ghost of Yōtei and more

Happy holidays, Pushing Buttons readers! Once again, we are approaching the cherished time of year between Christmas and New Year when we might actually have the time to play some video games. I hope Santa brought you something new to play, instead of taking one look at all the unplayed games in your Steam library and putting you straight on the naughty list.

Over the past few weeks you have been sending in your favourite games of the year. I maintain that you readers have excellent taste: there’s crossover with our own Guardian games of the year list, but also plenty here that I haven’t played myself. Thank you to everyone who sent in a recommendation, and I hope you find yet another game to add to your pile of shame among the following suggestions. I’ll be back next week with a year-in-review issue – in the meantime, go enjoy yourselves!

Published: December 24, 2025, 3:00 pm

‘I plugged in Zelda and everything changed’: developers share their fondest Christmas gaming memories

From a family showdown on Guitar Hero III to the winter levels in Diddy Kong Racing, the designers of some of today’s top titles recall the gifts and moments that lit up their childhoods

There is a viral video that tends to get passed around at this time of year. It’s an old home movie showing a boy and a girl on Christmas morning eagerly unwrapping a present that turns out to be an N64 console – the boy is, to put it mildly, extremely pleased. It’s a scene a lot of us who play games will recognise: the excitement and anticipation provided by that big console-sized parcel, or the little DVD-shaped package that could be the latest Super Mario adventure. Although I never got a games machine at Christmas, I remember one year being given Trivial Pursuit on the Commodore 64 and the whole family gathered around the TV to play. It was one of the few times my mum and my sisters showed any interest in the computer, and I loved getting them involved.

Veteran designer Rhod Broadbent of Dakko Dakko recalls the Christmas of 1992, when his father, a programmer who had previously looked down on games consoles, bought him Mario Kart and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. “Zelda was completely unknown to me at the time,” he recalls. “I think Dad was probably expecting me to be more excited. But after I had spent the morning in Mario Kart, I plugged in Zelda and everything changed. From the title music, through the intro and into that beautiful initial thunderstorm, everything was so polished and smooth and unlike the video games I’d played before. It didn’t leave the cartridge slot for weeks. I remember that Christmas morning like it was yesterday …”

Published: December 24, 2025, 10:00 am

Cracker jokes and custard chemistry: ways to smuggle science into Christmas

Researchers share the easy ways to uncover moments of festive discovery, proving you don’t need a lab coat to experiment this Christmas

Christmas may seem like a time for switching off and suspending disbelief but there are plenty of ways to introduce a little science into the celebrations.

We asked experts for their top home experiments to challenge friends and family.

Published: December 24, 2025, 9:00 am

The medieval Oxford friar who worked out the makeup of planets and stars

Richard Fishacre used his knowledge of light and colour to argue against ‘fifth element’ theories of the day

About 800 years ago, Richard Fishacre, a Dominican friar at the University of Oxford, challenged the scientific thinking of the day, using his understanding of the behaviour of light to show that stars and planets are made of the same elements as found on Earth. Though he faced heavy criticism at the time, Fishacre would probably have been delighted to learn that very similar principles are being used to make discoveries today.

During his lifetime it was believed that Earth was made up of four elements – fire, water, earth and air – while the stars and other planets were made from a special transparent and unchanging fifth element.

Published: December 24, 2025, 6:00 am

Nosy researcher’s quest to map the world’s ‘smellscapes’

We can share images and sounds, so why not smells? Dr Kate McLean-MacKenzie hopes her new atlas will make scents

Christmas may be associated with the aromas of oranges and mince pies but our towns and cities also boast special scents during the rest of the year. Now, one researcher is publishing an atlas attempting to capture these quirky “smellscapes”.

Dr Kate McLean-MacKenzie, a designer and researcher at the University of Kent, said she first became intrigued by the sense of smell 15 years ago.

Published: December 25, 2025, 5:00 pm

Blood test could predict who is most at risk from common inherited heart condition

Exclusive: Scientists find a way to forecast hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, which affects millions worldwide

Scientists are developing a simple blood test to predict who is most at risk from the world’s most common inherited heart condition.

Millions of people worldwide have hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), a disease of the heart muscle where the wall of the heart becomes thickened. It is caused by a change in one or more genes and mostly passed on through families.

Published: December 25, 2025, 1:00 pm

Concerns about ageing society ignore huge opportunities, says population expert

Sarah Harper says society must create new ways of living and working amid potential ‘silver economy’

Concerns over an ageing population are overblown and society should learn to celebrate and capitalise on its “massive cohort of healthy, active, older, creative adults”, a leading population expert has said.

While pundits and pressure groups have raised concerns over falling fertility rates, highlighting the challenges for the economy and healthcare, others are more upbeat, arguing the rise of the “silver economy” brings new opportunities for growth.

Published: December 25, 2025, 12:00 pm

Throwing out flame-retardant furniture can reduce toxic chemicals in blood, study finds

Flame retardants commonly used in furniture are linked to serious health issues, including cancer and thyroid disease

Removing old furniture made with flame retardants from people’s homes can significantly reduce the amount of the toxic chemicals in blood, a new 10-year, peer-reviewed study by California regulators and public health groups has found.

The drop that researchers found was a “super big deal”, said Arlene Blum, the director of the Green Science Policy Institute who has for decades worked to reduce the level of flame retardants in consumer goods.

Published: December 24, 2025, 2:00 pm

Revisited: is curiosity the key to ageing well? – podcast

Psychologists have typically believed that we become less curious as we age, but recent research has shown curiosity actually becomes more targeted and specific in our later years. In this episode from September, Madeleine Finlay hears from Dr Mary Whatley, an assistant professor of psychology at Western Carolina University, and Dr Matthias Gruber of Cardiff University’s Brain Research Imaging Centre to find out why we change in this way, and how maintaining broad curiosity into older age can help keep our brains young

Support the Guardian: theguardian.com/sciencepod

Published: December 25, 2025, 5:00 am