Saudi Arabia has surpassed its record for the number of executions carried out annually for a second year in a row.

At least 347 people have now been put to death this year, up from a total of 345 in 2024, according to the UK-based campaign group Reprieve, which tracks executions in Saudi Arabia and has clients on death row.

It said this was the "bloodiest year of executions in the kingdom since monitoring began".

The latest prisoners to be executed were two Pakistani nationals convicted of drug-related offences.

Others put death this year include a journalist and two young men who were children at the time of their alleged protest-related crimes. Five were women.

But, according to Reprieve, most - around two thirds - were convicted of non-lethal drug-related offences, which the UN says is "incompatible with international norms and standards".

More than half of them were foreign nationals who appear to have been put to death as part of a "war on drugs" in the kingdom.

The Saudi authorities have not responded to the BBC's request for comment on the rise in executions.

"Saudi Arabia is operating with complete impunity now," said Jeed Basyouni, Reprieve's head of death penalty for the Middle East and North Africa. "It's almost making a mockery of the human rights system."

She described torture and forced confessions as "endemic" within the Saudi criminal justice system.

Ms Basyouni called it a "brutal and arbitrary crackdown" in which innocent people and those on the margins of society have been caught up.

Tuesday saw the execution of a young Egyptian fisherman, Issam al-Shazly, who was arrested in 2021 in Saudi territorial waters and said he had been coerced into smuggling drugs.

Reprieve says that 96 of the executions were solely linked to hashish.

"It almost seems that it doesn't matter to them who they execute, as long as they send a message to society that there's a zero-tolerance policy on whatever issue they're talking about - whether it's protests, freedom of expression, or drugs," said Ms Basyouni.

There has been a surge of drug-related executions since the Saudi authorities ended an unofficial moratorium in late 2022 - a step described as "deeply regrettable" by the UN human rights office.

Speaking anonymously to the BBC, relatives of men on death row on drugs charges have spoken of the "terror" they're now living in.

One told the BBC: "The only time of the week that I sleep is on Friday and Saturday because there are no executions on those days."

Cellmates witness people they have shared prison life with for years being dragged kicking and screaming to their death, according to Reprieve.

The de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman - who became crown prince in 2017 - has changed the country profoundly over the past few years, loosening social restrictions while simultaneously silencing criticism.

In a bid to diversify its economy away from oil, he has opened Saudi Arabia up to the outside world, taken the religious police off the streets, and allowed women to drive.

But the kingdom's human rights record remains "abysmal", according to the US-based campaign group Human Rights Watch, with the high level of executions a major concern. In recent years, only China and Iran have put more people to death, according to human rights activists.

"There's been no cost for Mohammed bin Salman and his authorities for going ahead with these executions," said Joey Shea, who researches Saudi Arabia for Human Rights Watch. "The entertainment events, the sporting events, all of it is continuing to happen with no repercussions, really."

According to Reprieve, the families of those executed are usually not informed in advance, or given the body, or informed where they have been buried.

The Saudi authorities do not reveal the method of execution, although it is believed to be either beheading or firing squad.

In a statement sent to the BBC, the UN's special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Dr Morris Tidball-Binz, called for an immediate moratorium on executions in Saudi Arabia with a view to abolition, as well as "full compliance with international safeguards (including effective legal assistance and consular access for foreign nationals), prompt notification of families, the return of remains without delay and the publication of comprehensive execution data to enable independent scrutiny".

Among the Saudi nationals executed this year were Abdullah al-Derazi and Jalal al-Labbad, who were both minors at the time of their arrest.

They had protested against the government's treatment of the Shia Muslim minority in 2011 and 2012, and participated in the funerals of people killed by security forces. They were convicted of terrorism-related charges and sentenced to death after what Amnesty International said were grossly unfair trials that relied on torture-tainted "confessions". UN human rights experts had called for their release.

The UN also condemned the execution in June of the journalist, Turki al-Jasser, who had been arrested in 2018 and sentenced to death on charges of terrorism and high treason based on writings he was accused of authoring.

"Capital punishment against journalists is a chilling attack on freedom of expression and press freedom," said Unesco's Director-General, Audrey Azoulay.

Reporters Without Borders said he was the first journalist to be executed in Saudi Arabia since Mohammed bin Salman came to power, although another journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, was murdered by Saudi agents at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018.

Last December, UN experts wrote to the Saudi authorities to express concern over a group of 32 Egyptians and one Jordanian national who had been sentenced to death on drugs charges, and their "alleged absence of legal representation". Since then, most of the group have been executed.

A relative of one man put to death earlier this year said that he had told her that people were being "taken like goats" to be killed.

The BBC has approached the Saudi authorities for a response to the allegations but has not received one.

But in a letter dated January 2025 - in reply to concerns raised by UN special rapporteurs - they said that Saudi Arabia "protects and upholds" human rights and that its laws "prohibit and punish torture".

"The death penalty is imposed only for the most serious crimes and in extremely limited circumstances," the letter stated. "It is not handed down or carried out until judicial proceedings in courts of all levels have been completed."

Comedian Bowen Yang is leaving the cast of Saturday Night Live, and will no longer be part of the long-running sketch programme after the latest episode airs.

In a post on Instagram, Yang declined the share the reason for his departure, which comes in the middle of the season, but said he is "grateful for every minute of my time there".

"I loved working at SNL, and most of all I loved the people," wrote Yang, who started in 2018 as a writer for the NBC programme before joining the acting cast.

Yang, 35, is the first Chinese-American staff actor in SNL's history, and has become one of SNL's most prominent cast members in recent years.

In his Instagram post, Yang described the lessons he's learned while working at SNL.

"i learned about myself (bad with wigs). i learned about others (generous, vulnerable, hot)," he wrote.

"i learned that human error can be nothing but correct. i learned that comedy is mostly logistics and that it will usually fail until it doesn't, which is the besssst."

He also thanked other cast members, as well as Lorne Michaels, the long-time producer of the programme.

Yang was behind some of the programme's most memorable characters and parodies, including as the iceberg that sank the Titanic and as disgraced ex-Congressman George Santos.

Yang's final episode, airing on Saturday night, will be hosted by Ariana Grande, one of the stars of the film Wicked: For Good.

Yang also had a role in the film, and has starred in previous films including The Wedding Banquet, Fire Island, Bros and the first Wicked film.

For his work on SNL, he has been nominated for five Emmy Awards. He also co-hosts podcast Las Culturistas and is expected to voice a character in the Cat in the Hat animated film due to be released next year.

Mourners in Australia have fallen silent in honour of the victims of the Bondi beach attack.

The memorial was part of a national day of reflection to mark a week since the shooting in which two gunmen opened fire on an event celebrating the Jewish festival of Hannukah.

A 10-year-old girl, a British-born rabbi and a Holocaust survivor were among the 15 people killed during the attack.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was booed when he arrived at the memorial event - an expression of anger by Australia's Jewish community against his government after a rise of antisemitic attacks over the past few months.

As the sun set over Sydney on Sunday evening, a minute's silence was observed at 18:47 (07:47 GMT) - exactly one week since the first reports of gunfire at the famous beach.

There was heavy security at the memorial event. Some cordoned-off areas were guarded by armed riot squad officers who had their faces covered, while a police patrol boat was visible off the coast of Bondi beach.

For many Australians, this level of security is an unfamiliar sight.

A large crowd - many wearing kippas [the Jewish skullcap] or draped in Australian flags - gathered to listen to speeches after the observing the silence.

Bee balloons floated in the wind in honour of the youngest victim of the attack, Matilda - a reference to her nickname, "Matilda Bee".

And later in the ceremony, the crowd sang Waltzing Matilda, the song for which the 10-year-old was named.

Soon, they were chanting the name of another child - Chaya, a 14-year-old who put herself in the firing line to protect a stranger's children. Shot in the leg, she used crutches to take to the stage and urge the nation to be brave and kind.

"If you guys get inspired by one thing, one thing on all this, be the light in that field of darkness," she said.

The event ended with the lighting of the menorah - something the crowds gathered for Hannukah last week couldn't do.

Sunday's memorial was not limited to Bondi beach - or the state of New South Wales. In a nation-wide gesture of "light over darkness", the windowsills of countless homes were lined with candles.

As Albanese arrived for the ceremony, one person in the crowd shouted: "Blood on your hands."

The prime minister looked startled at the hostility, his wife Jodie Haydon grasping his arm in support.

At least one member of the crowd was tackled by police after moving towards the prime minister.

The Jewish community in Australia has repeatedly said this attack was a shock, not a surprise after a rise in antisemitic attacks in Australia since the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel and the subsequent military retaliation war launched by Israel in the Gaza Strip.

The overwhelming view is that more could and should have been done to prevent the Sydney attack from happening.

Albanese has acknowledged the criticism, saying "I accept my responsibility for the part in that as prime minister of Australia."

More widely, Albanese has been accused by some of siding with the Palestinians over supporting Israel and the relationship worsened when he moved to recognise the state of Palestine earlier this year.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accused him - as well as the leaders of other countries that have recognised a Palestinian state - of rewarding Hamas.

After the Bondi beach attack last Sunday, Netanyahu said Albanese's government "did nothing to stop the spread of antisemitism in Australia".

In contrast to the reception for the Australian prime minister, Chris Minns, the Premier of New South Wales, was praised at the Sydney memorial service as an exemplary leader, partly for the speed with which he admitted government errors in the lead-up to the attack.

He also attended the funerals of several victims this week. Albanese was not invited to some.

"We are deeply sorry." Minns said at the event. "We grieve with you, and with humility, I acknowledge that the government's highest duty is to protect its citizens. And we did not do that one week ago."

The shooting had "highlighted a deep vein of antisemitic hate in our community", Minns said, adding: "This must be confronted."

The president of the New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies, David Ossip, was hailed with loud cheers as he called for a "Royal Commission which goes beyond New South Wales, to get to the bottom of how this catastrophe took place".

Naveed Akram, 24, has been charged with 59 offences, including 15 counts of murder and one of committing a terrorist act. His father Sajid was killed during the attack.

Days after the attack, Prime Minister Albanese announced a raft of measures to crack down on hate speech and incitement to violence.

Before Sunday's ceremonu, he announced a review into the police and national intelligence agencies.

"The ISIS-inspired atrocity last Sunday reinforces the rapidly changing security environment in our nation," Albanese said, using an acronym for the Islamic State group.

He has also said he will reform gun laws and the government has launched a gun buyback scheme - the largest since the Port Arthur massacre in 1996, which left 35 people dead and prompted Australia to introduce world-leading gun control measures.

Trail hunting is set to be banned in England and Wales as part of a new animal welfare strategy to be published by the government on Monday.

The practice sees an animal-based scent trail laid for dogs to follow rather than a real animal, while a group of hunters follows the pack on horseback.

It has remained legal since the 2004 hunting ban came into force, because it does not explicitly involve the killing of animals.

However the government, which made a manifesto commitment to bring in the ban, says the practice is being used as a "smokescreen" for the hunting of wild animals.

• Government 'committed' to banning trail hunting
• Trail hunters call sport 'vital' amid ban threat

Hunting with hounds has been a tradition in parts of the UK for centuries, but the 2004 Hunting Act placed restrictions on the practice.

The act banned the use of dogs to hunt wild mammals - including foxes, hares, deer and mink - across England and Wales.

Trail hunting involves laying a trail using a rag soaked in animal scent which hounds can chase. The intention is to replicate the pursuit across the countryside, without the need to kill animals.

In April, anti-hunting group the League Against Cruel Sports said that nearly 1,600 incidents, including 397 reports of foxes being chased, were recorded nationwide during the last hunting season.

The chief executive of the Country Alliance, Tim Bonner, said revisiting the issue of trail hunting was "completely unnecessary".

He said: "It is unbelievable that the government wants to waste more parliamentary time on hunting.

"This issue was settled 20 years ago as far as Labour was concerned but it does not seem to be able to leave it alone."

Mr Bonner also spoke about the Labour party's relationship with rural constituents, adding: "People across the countryside will be shocked that after Labour's attack on family farms and its neglect of rural communities it thinks banning trail hunting and snares used for fox control are a political priority."

The British Hound Sports Association (BHSA) has previously said trail hunts are "vital" to rural communities as they not only bring in money into the rural economy, but also support mental and physical wellbeing.

Ministers will consult on the details of the ban in the new year.

The minister for animal welfare, Baroness Hayman said the government would start work on implementing the plans.

"In our manifesto we said we would ban trail hunting, and that's exactly what we'll do.

"There are concerns that trail hunting is being used a smokescreen for the hunting of wild animals, and that's not acceptable.

"We are working out the best approach to take the ban forward and will run a consultation to seek views in the new year".

Trail hunting is already banned in Scotland. Hunting with dogs remains legal in Northern Ireland.

More than 800 migrants in 13 boats crossed the English Channel on Saturday, according to Home Office data.

The figure is a record for a December day in recent years, and is believed to be due to a backlog of people wanting to get across to Kent because of recent bad weather.

It takes the total for the year to 41,455 people, surpassing 2024, when there were 36,816 for the entire year.

A Home Office spokesperson said: "The number of small boat crossings are shameful and the British people deserve better."

The 803 migrants were brought ashore at Dover by Border Force and RNLI vessels.

While the number of people making the dangerous journey across the Channel has risen more swiftly in 2025 than recent years, the yearly total has still not surpassed that of 2022, when 45,755 arrived.

The government statement added: "This Government is taking action. We have removed almost 50,000 people who were here illegally, and our historic deal with the French means those who arrive on small boats are now being sent back."

Weather forecasts

Charities supporting migrants in Calais say there was an unusually high number of people in the makeshift camps in northern France for this time of year, wanting to get to the UK.

That follows a recent period of 28 days when no small-boat crossings were possible because of windy conditions in the Channel.

Saturday was extremely calm at sea, and the smugglers - adept at studying the weather forecasts - were quick to load large groups of people onto overloaded dinghies.

The English Channel is one of the most dangerous and busiest shipping lanes in the world.

Many migrants come from some of the poorest and most chaotic parts of the world, and many ask to claim asylum once they are picked up by the UK authorities.

The Government meanwhile continues efforts to grasp the so-called "upstream" causes of the migration crisis, including through work with neighbouring countries.

Just this week, Germany passed a new law which could see people smugglers face up to 10 years in prison for trying to bring migrants to the UK.

The law change, which will come into force before the end of the year, aims to give more powers to law enforcement and prosecutors, and boost information sharing between the UK and Germany.

It follows a deal agreed between the two countries in December last year to tackle illegal migration, including taking action to remove smugglers' advertising on social media.

Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said: "This major change in German law is the result of our close partnership working to tackle illegal migration and organised immigration crime.

"We will continue to ramp up our international co-operation to strengthen our own border security."

Additional reporting by PA Media.

Follow BBC Kent on Facebook, on X, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk or WhatsApp us on 08081 002250.

Mourners in Australia have fallen silent in honour of the victims of the Bondi beach attack.

The memorial was part of a national day of reflection to mark a week since the shooting in which two gunmen opened fire on an event celebrating the Jewish festival of Hannukah.

A 10-year-old girl, a British-born rabbi and a Holocaust survivor were among the 15 people killed during the attack.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was booed when he arrived at the memorial event - an expression of anger by Australia's Jewish community against his government after a rise of antisemitic attacks over the past few months.

As the sun set over Sydney on Sunday evening, a minute's silence was observed at 18:47 (07:47 GMT) - exactly one week since the first reports of gunfire at the famous beach.

There was heavy security at the memorial event. Some cordoned-off areas were guarded by armed riot squad officers who had their faces covered, while a police patrol boat was visible off the coast of Bondi beach.

For many Australians, this level of security is an unfamiliar sight.

A large crowd - many wearing kippas [the Jewish skullcap] or draped in Australian flags - gathered to listen to speeches after the observing the silence.

Bee balloons floated in the wind in honour of the youngest victim of the attack, Matilda - a reference to her nickname, "Matilda Bee".

And later in the ceremony, the crowd sang Waltzing Matilda, the song for which the 10-year-old was named.

Soon, they were chanting the name of another child - Chaya, a 14-year-old who put herself in the firing line to protect a stranger's children. Shot in the leg, she used crutches to take to the stage and urge the nation to be brave and kind.

"If you guys get inspired by one thing, one thing on all this, be the light in that field of darkness," she said.

The event ended with the lighting of the menorah - something the crowds gathered for Hannukah last week couldn't do.

Sunday's memorial was not limited to Bondi beach - or the state of New South Wales. In a nation-wide gesture of "light over darkness", the windowsills of countless homes were lined with candles.

As Albanese arrived for the ceremony, one person in the crowd shouted: "Blood on your hands."

The prime minister looked startled at the hostility, his wife Jodie Haydon grasping his arm in support.

At least one member of the crowd was tackled by police after moving towards the prime minister.

The Jewish community in Australia has repeatedly said this attack was a shock, not a surprise after a rise in antisemitic attacks in Australia since the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel and the subsequent military retaliation war launched by Israel in the Gaza Strip.

The overwhelming view is that more could and should have been done to prevent the Sydney attack from happening.

Albanese has acknowledged the criticism, saying "I accept my responsibility for the part in that as prime minister of Australia."

More widely, Albanese has been accused by some of siding with the Palestinians over supporting Israel and the relationship worsened when he moved to recognise the state of Palestine earlier this year.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accused him - as well as the leaders of other countries that have recognised a Palestinian state - of rewarding Hamas.

After the Bondi beach attack last Sunday, Netanyahu said Albanese's government "did nothing to stop the spread of antisemitism in Australia".

In contrast to the reception for the Australian prime minister, Chris Minns, the Premier of New South Wales, was praised at the Sydney memorial service as an exemplary leader, partly for the speed with which he admitted government errors in the lead-up to the attack.

He also attended the funerals of several victims this week. Albanese was not invited to some.

"We are deeply sorry." Minns said at the event. "We grieve with you, and with humility, I acknowledge that the government's highest duty is to protect its citizens. And we did not do that one week ago."

The shooting had "highlighted a deep vein of antisemitic hate in our community", Minns said, adding: "This must be confronted."

The president of the New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies, David Ossip, was hailed with loud cheers as he called for a "Royal Commission which goes beyond New South Wales, to get to the bottom of how this catastrophe took place".

Naveed Akram, 24, has been charged with 59 offences, including 15 counts of murder and one of committing a terrorist act. His father Sajid was killed during the attack.

Days after the attack, Prime Minister Albanese announced a raft of measures to crack down on hate speech and incitement to violence.

Before Sunday's ceremonu, he announced a review into the police and national intelligence agencies.

"The ISIS-inspired atrocity last Sunday reinforces the rapidly changing security environment in our nation," Albanese said, using an acronym for the Islamic State group.

He has also said he will reform gun laws and the government has launched a gun buyback scheme - the largest since the Port Arthur massacre in 1996, which left 35 people dead and prompted Australia to introduce world-leading gun control measures.

Songs about love, sex, tax and demon hunters ranked among the best music of 2025, according to a "poll of polls" conducted by BBC News.

We compiled more than 30 end-of-year lists from leading music publications to come up with a "super-ranking" of the year's best albums and singles, with artists including Pulp, Lady Gaga and Chappell Roan joined by newcomers like pop singer Addison Rae and indie band Geese.

In total, the critics named more than 200 records among their favourites, although the year's biggest-sellers failed to impress them.

Taylor Swift's blockbuster album The Life Of A Showgirl only picked up a handful of nominations. The year's biggest single, Alex Warren's Ordinary, appeared in just one list of 2025's best songs.

Instead, critics selected music that shifted the tectonic plates of pop... Here's a guide to their favourites.

The 10 best albums of 2025

10) Addison Rae – Addison

After a shaky start in 2021, Addison Rae's music career took flight with this collection of shimmering, trance-like hymns to desire. The desire for touch, the desire for fame, the desire for inner peace.

Unlike most modern pop albums, it's the work of just three people, with Rae and her collaborators Elvira Anderfjärd and Luka Kloser establishing a stylish, spacey and occasionally off-kilter sonic palette all of their own.

Singles like Diet Pepsi and Headphones On felt simultaneously classic and futuristic, marking Rae out as pop's newest It Girl.

Listen to Diet Pepsi: Sensual, hypnotic and calorie-free pop.

9) Lily Allen – West End Girl

Hell hath no fury like a Lily Allen scorned.

West End Girl is a savage and startlingly detailed portrait of a marriage being torn apart. Allen says some of the details have been exaggerated, but her pain is tangible amongst the artful pop beats and faux insouciance.

The dirty laundry triggered an avalanche of press coverage when the album arrived in November, but the songs have lingered as everyone remembers just how well Allen can craft an intoxicating pop hook.

Listen to Madeline: Where Allen confronts her partner's mistress, and recreates their texts.

• Lily Allen is 'vicious' and 'raw' on tell-all album

8) Pulp – More

Pulp's first album since 2001, More, somehow manages to sound as if it was recorded and shelved in their mid-90s heyday.

The lyrics are the only giveaway that this is the work of a band in their late middle age - as Jarvis Cocker sings movingly about stagnation, divorce and mortality. "You've gone from all you that could be to all that you once were," he laments on Slow Jam.

Yet, at 62, he remains stubbornly committed to the transformative power of love. And the reception Pulp received at Glastonbury this summer went a long way to proving him right.

Listen to Spike Island: A spiritual sequel to 1995's Sorted for E's & Wizz.

• Pulp reveal first album in 24 years

7) Dijon – Baby

What a wild year it's been for Dijon Duenas. After contributing to Bon Iver's Sable, Fable and Justin Bieber's acclaimed comeback, Swag, he scored two Grammy nominations for his second album, Baby.

It's a dazzling, harmony-rich R&B record, that channel-hops between genres and moods like a television tuned to the twin spirits of Prince and D'Angelo.

The album's central theme is the ecstasy and chaos of fatherhood, with Dijon addressing the title track to his firstborn, then imploring his wife to expand the family on the subtly-titled Another Baby! Sleepless nights have never sounded so good.

Listen to Yamaha: A swirling 80s funk groove allows Dijon to submerge himself in the bliss of enduring love.

6) FKA Twigs – Eusexua

Eusexua, FKA Twigs has said, is a word that describes "the tingling clarity" you get when you're struck by a new idea, when you kiss a stranger, or even "the moment before an orgasm".

The album attempts to recreate that feeling with a series of abstract, futuristic soundscapes and deconstructed club tracks. Echoing Madonna's Ray of Light (most notably on Girl Feels Good), the hooks are as sharp as the dopamine is addictive.

Listen to Girl Feels Good: A visceral ode to empowerment, femininity and healing on the dancefloor.

5) CMAT - Euro-Country

Coronation Street! Social anxiety! Late stage capitalism! Jamie Oliver! Grief! Road rage!

It's all there on Euro-Country, a riotously enjoyable romp through Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson's inner monologue.

Along the way, she tackles everything from male suicide to the impossible beauty standards that had her "trying to wax my legs with tape" at the age of nine.

Listen to Jamie Oliver Petrol Station: The only song of 2025 to address the need for tolerance through the prism of service station fast food.

• CMAT: I still face abuse over viral song

4) Oklou – Choke Enough

French artist Oklou – aka Marylou Mayniel – described her debut album as a "quest for meaning, of the need to be touched by anything" in a world where our interactions are stripped of humanity and flattened onto a screen.

Co-produced by Charli XCX collaborators AG Cook and Danny L Harle, it couldn't sound less bratty if it tried.

It's an album of intimate, gauzy pop, almost entirely drumless and built around hypnotic musical loops that short-circuit your emotions. Unplug and absorb.

Listen to Blade Bird: The album's swooning climax, based on a Basque poem about the tension between love and possession.

3) Bad Bunny - Debí Tirar Más Fotos

He might be Spotify's most-played artist of the year, but Puerto Rico's Bad Bunny makes no concessions to commercial trends.

His sixth album is a jubilant love letter to the music of his homeland, mixing traditional genres like plena, salsa and bomba with the hip-swaying pulse of reggaeton.

The irresistible grooves dare you not to get up and dance, while the lyrics agonise about gentrification and capitalism stealing the island's old magic.

Listen to DtMF: A lament for the loved ones he's lost, the album's title track translates as, "I should have taken more photos".

• Why Bad Bunny is refusing to tour the US

2) Geese – Getting Killed

A savage and unpredictable record, Getting Killed was apparently recorded in just 10 days.

It finds the four members of Brooklyn-based Geese patchworking the best bits of Radiohead, the Strokes, Captain Beefheart and the Velvet Underground into something entirely new and unpredictable.

Frontman Cameron Winter anchors the chaos with his singular warble, and lyrics that swerve wildly between irreverence and incisiveness.

Listen to Taxes: Defiant, taut and full of swagger, Winter chants: "If you want me to pay my taxes / You'd better come over with a crucifix."

1) Rosalía - Lux

If music brings us closer to God, Rosalía wants her music to bring God closer to us.

The Spanish singer's fourth album is an exhilarating - and profoundly moving - exploration of the human condition, that asks why the earthly and the holy have to be so far apart.

It's a monumental work. She devoted an entire year to the lyrics alone, singing in 14 languages, over music that sits at the lesser explored intersection of classical, flamenco and avant-pop.

In an interview with the New York Times, Rosalía agreed she was "demanding a lot" from listeners, "but I think that the more we are in the era of dopamine, the more I want the opposite".

Accordingly, it's an album that reveals fresh new treasures on every listen, as Rosalía argues we're all capable of grace and beauty. We just have to open our hearts.

Listen to Reliquia: As staccato strings are sucked into a vortex of electronic distortion, Rosalía sings about the sacrifices she's made for art and love, and concludes it's better to contribute to the world than take from it.

• Radical and Riveting: Rosalía's Lux reviewed

The 10 best singles of 2025

10) Wednesday - Elderberry Wine

There's a sense of unease bubbling under this gentle indie rock song, as though singer Karly Hartzman is perpetually on the brink of divulging an uncomfortable truth. Built around the metaphor of elderberries, a fruit that can heal or poison depending on how it's handled, the song captures the tension of staying in a relationship you know is toxic.

9) Kehlani - Folded

Introduced by nostalgic strings, Folded became Kehlani's first Top 10 hit in her native US, blending classic R&B themes of heartbreak and longing with modern production. Using the simple act of folding an ex-lover's clothes as jumping off point, Kehlani captures the emotional push-and-pull of saying goodbye.

8) Addison Rae - Headphones On

Addison Rae is a student of pop, and Headphones On is her master thesis – a hymn to music that whisks you away from the world for three minutes of distracted, hypnotic solace.

7) Amaarae - SMO

A seduction, a come-on, a hedonistic exploration of physicality. "Ginga me," Amaarae sings repeatedly over a throbbing electro groove – referencing the fluid, hip-swaying movements of the Brazilian martial art Capoeira. You'll succumb, and you'll enjoy it.

6) Bad Bunny - Baile Inolvidable

This boisterous, captivating salsa was recorded live with student musicians from Puerto Rico's Escuela Libre de la Música (take that, AI). But the celebratory atmosphere masks a broken heart, as Bad Bunny is reminded of the ex who taught him to dance. "I thought I'd grow old with you," he laments.

5) Huntr/x – Golden

Sometimes a song escapes its origins and goes into orbit. Golden was the last song written for Netflix's hit animation K-Pop Demon Hunters, but its soaring chorus became an anthem for anyone striving to achieve their dreams. An Oscar nomination beckons.

4) Chappell Roan - The Subway

Two things you can expect from Chappell Roan are theatricality and emotional honesty. The Subway delivers both, becoming a map of loss that carries listeners through a breakup on the streets and subways of New York - capturing that confusing limbo of experiencing grief and loneliness, surrounded by hundreds of strangers.

3) Lady Gaga - Abracadabra

A triumphant return to the sound of her debut album, Abracadabra takes all the Lady Gaga tropes – Nonsense lyrics! Demonic synths! Gothic choruses! – and dials them up to 11. An absolute banger.

2) Olivia Dean - Man I Need

Olivia Dean says Man I Need is a song "about knowing how you deserve to be loved and not being afraid to ask for it". The object of her affections just needs a nudge in the right direction, and this playful, soulful melody should easily set the romance on track.

1) PinkPantheress - Illegal

One of pop's most overused clichés is that falling in love is intoxicating, just like drugs!

So it's a credit to PinkPantheress that she's made the idea sound fresh – zoning in on the fraught awkwardness of hooking up, whether it's with a dealer or a potential new partner.

"It feels illegal," she frets, as her heartbeat races with the drumbeat of this smouldering dance-pop anthem.

The methodology

BBC News compiled more than 30 year-end lists published by the world's most influential music magazines and critics - including the NME, Rolling Stone, Spain's Mondo Sonoro and France's Les Inrockuptibles.

Records were assigned points based on their position in each list - with the number one album or single getting 20 points, the number two album receiving 19 points, and so on.

The results were the closest we've ever seen. Just 52 points separated Rosalía's Lux from the number two album, Geese's Getting Killed.

In the singles countdown, PinkPantheress was the runaway winner - but the rest of the field was tightly packed, reflecting a year where there haven't been many universally popular, culturally dominant songs.

The publications we surveyed included: Albumism, Billboard, Buzzfeed, Clash, Complex, Consequence of Sound, Dazed, Daily Mail, Dork, Double J, Entertainment Weekly, Exclaim!, The Fader, Flood, The Forty Five, Gorilla vs Bear, The Guardian, Independent, LA Times, Les Inrocks, Line of Best Fit, MOJO, Mondo Sonoro, NME, New York Times, Paste Magazine, Pitchfork, Pop Matters, Rolling Stone, The Skinny, Slant, Stereogum, The Telegraph, Time Magazine, Time Out, The Times, Uncut and Vulture.

Tinsel, foil garlands, multi-coloured floral lights and a lounge that looks like Christmas threw up all over it are making a return.

Retro-themed decor is in, with trees jam-packed full of bold, mismatching decorations, as more people try to recreate a festive season from their childhood.

The nostalgic shift started last year, say experts, but over-the-top (and tacky to some) has become one of the top decor trends for 2025.

"After a long run of pared-back, neutral or traditional Christmases, people seem much more willing to embrace fun, excess and nostalgia again," says Harry Bradshaw, from events and interiors styling company At Last Events.

Retailers say they're seeing growing demand for decorations that can help recreate that familiar Christmas magic from years gone by.

"Maximalism is making a bold return," says Abi Wilson, head of seasonal and gift buying at Habitat, adding that people are turning to '80s and '90s-style colourful bells and bows, oversized ornaments and paper decorations.

Primark said younger Gen X, millennials, and older Gen Z shoppers were buying decor that reminded them of their childhood.

Marks & Spencer noted strong sales of its tinsel rosettes and tinsel tree skirts this year, while John Lewis said sales of "retro-nostalgic decor" had soared 180% in 2025.

Felicity Hayward is going all out this year to find that Christmas joy.

Back in October, as she browsed the charity shops near where she lives in Margate, Kent, she stumbled across a collection of colourful festive foil stars that reminded her of Christmas at her grandparents' house when she was a child.

The 50p decorations started what became a two-month endeavour, looking for retro baubles, garlands, and anything she could find to recreate those special years growing up in the '90s.

"Christmas always revolved around my grandparents," Felicity, 37, says. The family would spend the day eating homemade cheese straws, listening to Frank Sinatra, watching Christmas movies and playing board games.

"When I think back to Christmas, I think back to their living room, and I think back to their decorations."

Felicity hadn't bothered with any Christmas decorations since 2019. The combination of the pandemic and her grandparents' deaths in 2022 and 2023 had left her feeling far from festive.

But this year, her living room is an explosion of colour, bedecked with foil stars, tinsel and homemade paper chains and ribbon garlands.

Some people might see her decorations as "tacky", but Felicity says that "for me, all of those colours bring me calm".

"I literally cannot wait to get home on a night and turn all my Christmas lights on and lie on the sofa," she says.

Liza Prideaux agrees understated decorations are overrated and has embraced "nostalgic, vintage" decor at Christmas for the last two years.

"There isn't a strict theme, it's more about colour, texture and creating a cosy, lived-in feeling," the 36-year-old from Devon says.

"The colourful incandescent lights are my favourite," she says. "They make everything feel warm and cosy."

How we sprinkle festive magic in our homes is a "physical representation of what we emotionally need from our Christmas celebrations", says Hannah Bartlett, who runs the business The Christmas Insider.

The season is always a "steady anchor" and coming back to the same rituals and traditions each year can help "ground us", she says.

But Ms Bartlett notes that the current "uncertainty" in the world is making people find even more comfort in those traditions that remind them of their childhood. There's a desire to "return to simpler times", she says.

Decorations like tinsel and brightly-coloured lights "take us back", agrees 52-year-old Pandora Maxton from York, an influencer who means business with her elaborate festive displays.

"I think that's why it's having a revival, because it just takes people back to being kids. And that's what Christmas is about, isn't it?"

Holly Langley was born in 1990. But that didn't stop her from hosting an '80s-themed Christmas some 40 years later.

Holly, 34, from Reading, hunted in charity shops and vintage fairs for foil decorations, satin baubles, tablecloths and china. On the day, she served Christmas cocktails and jam roly poly, with '80s music playing and a quiz about the decade.

"Every year we do the same thing, right? Everyone gets out their Christmas pyjamas, we watch the same TV shows, we eat the same food," Holly says. Her '80s-themed Christmas was "a little bit different, a bit quirky, a bit fun".

Want to create your own retro Christmas? Here are Felicity, Holly and Lucy's tips:

• Check charity shops, especially immediately after Christmas when people might be having a clear-out
• Look on resale sites and apps, though be careful buying second-hand electronics like lights
• Make paper chains that you can reuse for other celebrations
• Ask relatives if they have any unwanted decorations
• Play '70s and '80s music videos, films or adverts in the background

So why were decorations so bold and bright in the past?

In 1970s Britain people were looking for a "signal of hope", says vintage decor collector Lucy Scott, in a time of austerity, trade union action and miners' strikes.

It was also the age of flamboyant glam rock - Brits were going crazy for eye-catching style.

But there were also simply fewer options available in the 1970s.

"There wasn't necessarily a massive amount of choice, but the choice was for these kind of bright space age tinsel decorations... the majority from Hong Kong," says Lucy, 45, from Birmingham.

This started to change in the 1980s, when more people owned their homes and retailers like Woolworths and BHS started selling a wider choice of decorations, Lucy says.

But Felicity says she bought most of her decorations second hand. "If you think about it, these tinsels are 20 to 30 years old and they're still intact," she says.

And it's not just a trend for her.

"This won't be a Christmas, this will be my Christmas now forever."