Christmas dinner with family can sometimes feel tense, especially when topics like immigration or politics come up. While it’s tempting to shut down a difficult conversation or lead with facts alone, this can often lead to further resentment and division. We spoke to Who Is Your Neighbour?, a charity with fifteen years of experience in facilitating non-judgmental conversations. They suggest that meeting people with empathy and asking curious questions can be more effective than simply walking away. This year, the Guardian charity appeal is supporting grassroots organisations that work to heal social division and nurture hope in our communities. From refugee welcome initiatives to local youth clubs these charities provide a powerful antidote to hate and distrust.

Click here to donate.

More moderate alcohol habits rather than total abstention appear to have driven fall

People in Britain are drinking less alcohol than in previous years, according to reports.

The average UK adult consumed 10.2 alcoholic drinks a week last year, the lowest figure since data collection began in 1990 and a decline of more than a quarter from the peak of 14 two decades ago, according to figures published in the FT from research company IWSR.

Hate crimes are rising around the UK, after a summer of flags going up on lamp-posts across the country and racist riots in 2024. Taj Ali is a Muslim journalist who has been collating evidence of these attacks. Even in big diverse areas there is a sense of fear, but what is life like for smaller ethnic minority communities in smaller towns? On his journey with video producers Christopher Cherry and Maeve Shearlaw he finds a sense of anger about the loss of community but people everywhere determined to roll up their sleeves and make things better. 

• Back on the Map, featured in this video, is part of the Guardian's charity appeal which is raising money for grassroots charities that are connecting communities and building solidarity, pride and hope across the country. Donate to our appeal here

BMA calls on Wes Streeting to be equally positive and says 11th-hour talks before five-day stoppage came too late but were encouraging

Resident doctors have said they will approach talks with Wes Streeting with a “can-do spirit� to avoid further strikes in the new year, as their five-day action ended on Monday morning.

The British Medical Association called on the health secretary to come to the table with the same “constructive� attitude, saying the tone of 11th-hour talks before their stoppage had been encouraging but too late to avoid the strike in England.

Survey adds to experts’ concern about addiction risk and highlights support for plan to ban sales to under-18s

One in eight teenagers aged 14 to 17 have used nicotine pouches, a survey has found, adding to health experts’ concern about their growing popularity.

Users hold the small sachets, which look like mini-teabags and are often flavoured, in their mouths to enjoy the release of the nicotine they contain. They are also known as “snus�.

Exclusive: Warning from Social Mobility Commission chair comes after UK report found ‘entrenched disadvantages’

Keir Starmer has no coherent strategy to tackle entrenched inequalities harming the life chances of millions of people, the government’s social mobility commissioner has said.

A report warned last week that young adults in Britain’s former industrial heartlands were being left behind as a result of failed or abandoned promises by successive governments.

A study finds that as pressure increases, UK parents are more likely to put on a brave face – risking family wellbeing

Advent calendars, check. Tree and decorations, check. Teachers’ presents, nativity costumes and a whole new ticketing system for the PTA’s Santa’s grotto, check. But the Christmas cards remain unwritten, the to-do list keeps growing, and that Labubu doll your child desperately wants appears to have vanished from the face of the earth.

If you’re feeling frayed in the final days before Christmas, you’re not alone. But research suggests this festive overload doesn’t just leave parents tired and irritable – it may also make it harder to be emotionally honest with their children.

For this year’s Guardian charity appeal we are asking readers to donate to Citizens UK, The Linking Network, Locality, Hope Unlimited Charitable Trust and Who is Your Neighbour?

• Donate to our charity appeal here

It has been an unsettling year of social division, anger and unrest in the UK and beyond. Extremist violence and rhetoric are escalating, with the demonisation of migrants reaching a fever pitch. Far-right activists march in the streets. NHS nurses, care workers and charities face abuse amid a resurgence of “1970s-style racism�.

Against this toxic backdrop, the Guardian is launching its 2025 charity appeal on Friday. This year’s theme, unapologetically, is hope. We are supporting grassroots charities, which, through their vital work at the heart of local neighbourhoods, nurture community pride and positive change, and provide a powerful antidote to polarisation, distrust and hate.

When his book Notes on Being a Man was released last month, it raced to the top of the bestseller lists. The US author, tech entrepreneur and podcaster explains his theories on dating, crying – and the rise of Donald Trump

It takes balls to title your book Notes on Being a Man. And, superficially, Scott Galloway could easily be lumped in with a dozen other manosphere-friendly alpha-bros promising to teach young men how to find their inner wolf. He is, after all, a wealthy, healthy, white, heterosexual, shaven-headed, 61-year-old Californian who made his name and fortune as a successful investor and podcaster.

But in reality, he is almost the opposite: liberal, left-leaning and surprisingly sensitive. The guy who advises his readers on “how to address the masculinity crisis, build mental strength and raise good sons� has been described as a “progressive Jordan Peterson�, or “Gordon Gekko with a social conscience�.

The council is rolling back Thatcher’s flagship policy by buying stock from private landlords. Other local authorities should take note

On a windswept housing estate by the Channel, Jacob Taylor surveys the latest addition to his property empire: a mixture of one-, two- and three-bedroom flats, built on the playing fields of an old private school.

They might not look like much but these neat rows of redbrick homes are an important acquisition – not for an offshore investor or a real-estate mogul, but for the Labour-run Brighton and Hove city council, where Taylor, its deputy leader, is taking a trailblazing approach.

Economists on all sides agree: rather than incremental changes, this deeply unfair market needs a ‘big bang’ moment

• Josh Ryan-Collins is professor of economics and finance at the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose

The UK’s property tax system is both inefficient and unfair. There is consensus among all political parties that something needs to be done. On the efficiency side, stamp duty is the main culprit: as a lump sum tax on property wealth paid at point of purchase, it discourages people to move as frequently as they should. It prevents people from realising their full economic potential by finding the right job, in the right area, or moving into a home suitable for their household size.

In combination with high interest rates and sluggish growth, tax is contributing to UK property transactions reaching near record lows. Meanwhile, over a third of English households live in homes defined by the government as “under-occupied�, with two or more spare bedrooms; 90% of these are homeowners. Reforming stamp duty to free up some of these under-occupied properties – mainly concentrated in the baby-boomer generation now hitting retirement – could enhance growth, productivity and, potentially, the affordability crisis.

Josh Ryan-Collins is professor of economics and finance at the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose

From HIV to TB, scientists and doctors made breakthroughs in treatment and prevention of some of the world’s deadliest diseases

With humanitarian funding slashed by the US and other countries, including the UK, this year’s global health headlines have made grim reading. But good things have still been happening in vaccine research and the development of new and improved treatments for some of the most intractable illnesses.

Cutting-edge therapies exist, but the market cannot deliver them cheaply. Britain must build NHS capacity so that cures become collective goods, not expensive products

Just a small fraction of our 20,000 genes can cause disease when disrupted – yet that sliver accounts for thousands of rare disorders. The difficulty is: what can a doctor do to treat them? In a common condition such as type 2 diabetes, the underlying biology is similar for millions of patients. The doctor can prescribe metformin. But with a genetic disorder, the mutation might only affect a small number of people worldwide. In many cases, doctors won’t even know which mutation is responsible, let alone how to fix it.

Novel gene-editing breakthroughs are making headlines. But therapies are expensive and complex to develop. The cost of bringing any new drug to patients is now around $2bn, in part because, as Brian David Smith notes in New Drugs, Fair Prices, the “success rate, from discovery to market, is tiny� and there are approved treatments for “less than 10% of the 8,000 diseases that affect humans�. Commercial incentives, he argues, skew innovation towards lucrative cancer drugs and long-term treatments for large populations. Complex gene therapies for very rare conditions are seen as too costly to develop and too small to profit from.

Peter Botha sings the praises of the Stuttering Foundation website’s ‘celebrity corner’ pages

What a great piece by Ross Coleman about embarking on his speech therapy programme for stammering (My cultural awakening: Jonathan Groff inspired me to overcome my stammer, 6 December). Coleman was inspired by the example of Jonathan Groff, who is not a stammerer, tackling something head-on.

The McGuire Programme that Coleman signed up for seems to have helped many people. While Groff served as his inspiration, there are no shortage of actual stammerers who have compelling stories to motivate people as they navigate the choppy waters caused by their speech.

Health secretary’s comments push further than government’s position on EU in wide-ranging interview

A deeper trading relationship with the EU would be the best way of growing Britain’s economy, which has an “uncomfortable� level of tax, Wes Streeting has said.

The health secretary said it would not be possible for any partnership with the EU to “return to freedom of movement�, but his comments appeared to leave the door open to the idea of a customs union.

Actor says comments from teachers and schoolmates about her size resulted in her barely eating at 19 years old

Kate Winslet has described being shamed over her appearance as a young actor by schoolmates and teachers.

The actor, whose directorial debut film Goodbye June was released this month, recalled being told by a drama teacher that she would have to settle for “fat girl parts�.

Senior officials face criticism after review found systemic failings plunged hundreds of thousands of unpaid carers into debt

Senior officials who oversaw a flawed benefits system that plunged hundreds of thousands of carers into debt are under mounting pressure over their “misleading� response to the scandal.

Prof Liz Sayce, the chair of a scathing review into the government’s treatment of unpaid carers, last week called for an overhaul of management and culture at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

House of Lords report says tools such as raising pension age and increasing immigration will not be adequate

Young people will suffer most from the government’s failure to take seriously the unsustainable pressure on public finances and living standards created by the UK’s ageing population, according to the findings of a House of Lords inquiry.

The report, Preparing for an Ageing Society, by the economic affairs committee, also found successive governments’ inaction on adult social care “remains a scandal�.

For her directorial debut, Winslet assembled a cast including Toni Collette, Timothy Spall, Johnny Flynn and Andrea Riseborough to tell a story inspired by her own family’s bereavement. The actors talk mourning, immortality and hospital vending machines

In 2017, Sally Bridges-Winslet died of cancer. She was 71. It was, her youngest daughter said, “like the north star just dropped out of the sky�.

It would have been even worse, says Kate Winslet today, had the family not pulled together. “I do have tremendous amounts of peace and acceptance around what happened because of how we were able to make it for her.�

Information regulator reminds council leaders of need for compassion when releasing files on childhood care

The UK’s information commissioner has raised alarm over the “lengthy, traumatic and often demoralising process� people face when trying to access their care records, writing to local authority leaders to say his office will take action over legal breaches.

The data protection regulator said people who grew up in the care system were waiting up to 16 years for access to their records, and in some cases found their files had been destroyed, lost or were provided only with extensive redaction.

YouGov poll for the Times suggests even 40% of Conservative voters support such a move

Wes Streeting, the health secretary, used an interview with the Observer published at the weekend to suggest that he favours joining a customs union with the EU. This is something that Keir Starmer has ruled out.

But Labour supporters back Streeting on this. According to YouGov polling for the Times, 80% of people who voted Labour at the last general election say a future leader should open negotiations on joining a customs union with the EU.

Party that pledged to cut waste and save money faces criticism after pushing through vote to employ advisers

Reform UK’s “flagship� local authority, Kent county council, has been condemned for pushing through plans to spend tens of thousands of pounds on hiring political assistants.

The move comes after councillors from Nigel Farage’s party in Warwickshire were accused of hypocrisy in July when they voted to spend £150,000 on the advisers, some of whom are being parachuted in by the national party to deal with a litany of issues at Reform-run councils.

A social housing victory at the ‘luxury’ Battersea power station development shows the power of grassroots politics – and holds a lesson for all of our cities

What happens when international capital arrives on your doorstep and threatens to devour your home? The residents of the housing estates surrounding Battersea power station in London, including the Patmore where I was raised, faced that prospect when, in 2012, a consortium of Malaysian investors bought the derelict power station, decommissioned since 1983, for £400m.

Two years earlier, David Cameron had launched the Conservative manifesto in the ruined power station. He promised to increase foreign investment into the UK, and so the international investors came and bought the thing and much more. Over the years, Battersea and the adjacent Nine Elms area was refashioned as a playground for oligarchs and other international elites. The US embassy arrived, a world-first glass sky pool was commissioned, and when Battersea power station shopping centre opened in 2022, it came with Rolex and Cartier stores, luxury private members’ clubs and apartments with multimillion-pound price tags.

From retailers to banks, carmakers to councils, the bold pledges for carbon-neutral economies are being watered down or scrapped

Almost a year since Donald Trump returned to the White House with a rallying cry to the fossil fuel industry to “drill baby, drill�, a backlash against net zero appears to be gathering momentum.

More companies have retreated from, or watered down, their pledges to cut carbon emissions, instead prioritising shareholder returns over climate action.

Exclusive: Executives at body that trained chef Jamie Oliver awarded pay rises and bonuses after sale to private firm – as hundreds of jobs may be offshored

A pair of City & Guilds executives have each been awarded million-pound bonuses and sizeable salary increases after the skills charity’s business was acquired by an international company in October, the Guardian understands.

The payments – which are understood to include a £1.7m award for the chief executive, Kirstie Donnelly, and £1.2m to the finance director, Abid Ismail – have emerged at a sensitive time for the training and qualifications business, as it navigates its first few months in the private sector.

As places such as Walworth Living Room step in to help people in need, charities lament lack of government help

When Fatma Mustafa began attending Walworth Living Room, a community project in south London, a few years ago, she began to feel like it was her second home. The registered “warm space� is designed to feel like a living room: comfy sofas, a communal table, activities and food in a warm environment.

Mustafa, 48, says that on universal credit (UC) it is hard to cover bills and easy to fall into debt. Attending three days a week, she says, cuts costs on energy and groceries.

Who Is Your Neighbour? lets people talk in constructive, thoughtful ways to offer an antidote to division and despair

• Donate to the charity appeal here

It was a filthy day in Rotherham as Storm Bram swept through the town earlier this month. Roads had turned into rivers and sodden St George’s flags flapped from lamp-posts at half mast.

Inside the community centre, the heating was turned up, the bacon butties were on order and the tea was brewing. It was time for some Difficult Conversations. Some of them, it turned out, about those soggy flags.

The 2025 appeal is helping charities that bring divided communities together and promote tolerance

The Guardian’s Hope appeal has raised more than £350,000 for inspirational grassroots charities that bring divided communities together, promote tolerance and positive change, and tackle racism and hatred.

The figure, raised in less than two weeks, includes more than £30,000 donated during the annual telethon last Saturday, when more than 40 journalists including John Crace, Polly Toynbee and Simon Hattenstone were on hand to take readers’ calls.

A masterful introduction to the economics of our most basic asset

‘The landlord is a gentleman who does not earn his wealth … his sole function, his chief pride, is the consumption of wealth produced by others.� It was 1909, and a liberal politician was launching an assault on a class of people who – in the eyes of many – contributed nothing to Britain’s advances in industry while living off its gains.

A little over a century after David Lloyd George’s Limehouse speech, and it feels as though the issue of land has returned to politics: an analysis of MPs’ financial interests revealed that a quarter of all Tory MPs earned more than £10,000 from renting out property, while 44 Labour MPs – 11% – did the same. The winner of the most dazzling political campaign of the past year, New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani made “freeze the rent� his central pledge. On the right, a revolt against property taxes is gathering pace. Journalist Mike Bird’s history of the most basic asset arrives, then, at an opportune moment.

Campaigners decry plan to reduce requirement for improved standards from 100% down to 40% of new homes

Government plans to make huge cuts to targets for accessible new-build homes in England have been labelled a “monumental reversal� by campaigners, who say disabled people have been left feeling “betrayed and excluded�.

In its proposals for changes to the country’s planning system, the government said a minimum of 40% of new-build homes would be built to improved accessibility standards – M4(2) – which include step-free access and wider doorways and corridors.

Long-serving Conservative MP and minister who was an ultra-loyalist during the Thatcher years

John Stanley, who has died aged 83, was one of the longest-serving postwar MPs, representing the Kent commuter belt constituency of Tonbridge and Malling for 41 years, but had a hapless reputation as a minister.

Although he never became a cabinet minister, Stanley played a part in some of the most contentious issues of the Thatcher years. An ultra-loyalist, even before he became an MP he was one of the originators of the policy of selling council houses, and steered the legislation through the Commons as housing minister. Moved to the Ministry of Defence after the Conservatives’ post-Falklands general election landslide in 1983, he became embroiled in the Belgrano affair and the prosecution of the civil servant Clive Ponting.

Move-on period extended from 28 days to 56 days if person recently granted refugee status is at risk of sleeping rough

The UK high court has halted evictions of thousands of new refugees who were at risk of spending Christmas on the streets.

Concern had been mounting among lawyers and human rights campaigners that within days of celebrating being granted refugee status the group could find themselves rough sleeping.