From the most beautiful show Netflix has ever made to a thriller about a menopausal hitwoman and a dazzling documentary set in outer space, here are some TV gems that may have passed you by this year

In a bizarre move, Netflix released this series by Japanese master Hirokazu Kore-eda – the Palme d’Or winner renowned for movies such as Shoplifters and Nobody Knows – with absolutely no fanfare this year. But Asura was a total knockout – a rich and sumptuously shot drama about four sisters in the 70s who discover that their dad has been having a lifelong affair. It was so good, in fact, that it might even be the most beautiful show they’ve ever released. Talk about selling yourself short. Watch it on Netflix.

Whether it’s an electric toothbrush or the ultimate overnight bag, your favourites make one thing clear: you’re ready for a long nap

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The urge to hibernate through winter is perfectly understandable, but all year? Judging by the products you loved (and bought) most over the past 12 months, you wanted to sleep through 2025. And given that it was the year of Trump 2.0, Kim Kardashian’s acting and the Coldplay kiss cam, we can hardly blame you.

Your favourite item overall was our top-rated mattress, the Otty Original Hybrid. By Otty’s own admission, it’s suffering seasonal delivery delays, so we’ll resist the temptation to spotlight it again here, at least for now. Even without it, the list of your most-loved items reads like a hotel suite inventory, from an electric toothbrush via a silky sleep mask to a sunrise alarm clock – plus an overnight bag to keep them in.

The Guardian sport photographer selects his favourite images he has taken this year and recalls the stories behind them

This is a selection of some of my favourite pictures taken at events I’ve covered this year, quite a few of which haven’t been published before. Several have been chosen for their news value, others purely for their aesthetic value, while some are here just because there’s a nice story behind them.

Sex is an appetite like any other and there is much you can do to make it a priority, from making sure you find the time for it to building your confidence and maintaining intimacy throughout the day

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If you have sex, chances are, you’ll have a good day. But scheduling it makes it feel like a chore. And unlike any other chore or fitness enterprise, you conceive it more as self-indulgence than self-improvement, and as such, even if you’re already in a relationship, it’s hard to find that chin-out determination to get it done. Yet sex is an appetite like any other, a necessity like any other, a nourishment like any other. If you let it go dormant the effect on your relationship might be as if one or both of you are on a permanent diet – and also lonely. That might be fine for both of you, but for many of us, sex is a thing worth prioritising.

At its core, before you introduce any other domestic obstacles, it’s a two-person job, so you have to be attuned to one another; you can’t just decide unilaterally. To take this in ascending order of hurdles; if you’re a childless couple, the main block is going to be each other – not being in the same mood at the same time, not being in the house at the same time. This is true for your entire relationship, not just sex; I once interviewed a fertility doctor, who described working with a couple, trying to find an appointment time for when one was ovulating and both were in the country. They scrolled through several weeks before they managed it. “I felt as if I was beginning to get to the bottom of why they couldn’t conceive,” she said.

Bears are becoming a growing problem in some of Japan’s urban areas as they are forced to venture further in search of food

It came as no surprise, least of all to the residents of Osaki, that “bear” was selected as Japan’s kanji character of the year earlier this month.

The north-eastern town of 128,000 people is best known for its Naruko Onsen hot springs, autumn foliage and kokeshi – cylindrical dolls carved from a single piece of wood. But this year it has made the headlines as a bear hotspot, as the country reels from a year of record ursine encounters and deaths, with warnings that winter will not bring immediate respite.

Cybersecurity experts reveal what they do for high-profile clients targeted by hackers such as Scattered Spider

They call it “stopping the bleeding”: the vital window to prevent an entire database from being ransacked by criminals or a production line grinding to a halt.

When a call comes into the cybersecurity firm S-RM, headquartered on Whitechapel High Street in east London, a hacked business or institution may have just minutes to protect themselves.

MPs reject calls to strip British-Egyptian activist of UK nationality over social media posts from a decade ago

Downing Street has defended its campaign for the release of a British-Egyptian activist and its decision to welcome him to the UK despite his “abhorrent” tweets a decade ago.

Alaa Abd el-Fattah, who arrived in London on Boxing Day after the British government successfully negotiated his release, said he apologised “unequivocally” for his posts after opposition parties called for him to be deported and his citizenship revoked.

Future of Donbas region remains unresolved after Ukrainian president’s talks with Donald Trump in Florida

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Volodymyr Zelenskyy says the US has agreed to offer “strong” security guarantees to Ukraine for 15 years, but acknowledged that the future of the country’s eastern Donbas region was unresolved after his two-hour meeting on Sunday with Donald Trump in Florida.

Speaking on his way back to Europe, Zelenskyy said the US Congress and Ukraine’s parliament would jointly vote on American pledges. These were a key part of a 20-point peace plan discussed with the US president at his Mar-a-Lago residence, he said.

Children’s father tried to break into bedroom from outside to rescue them but was beaten back by flames

A woman and two children aged seven and four were killed in a fire in the early hours of Boxing Day after their father, a serving police officer, desperately tried to save them.

The officer smashed his way out of the stone cottage in the Cotswolds and tried to break into his children’s bedroom from the outside to rescue them but was beaten back by the flames.

Norfolk police say man believed to be driver of one of the vehicles shot by armed officers after leaving scene holding a handgun

A man believed to be carrying a handgun has been shot and killed by police after a two-vehicle collision in Thetford, Norfolk police said.

Officers were called to London Road at about 8.25pm on Sunday after receiving reports of a two-vehicle collision. Police said one man, believed to be the driver of one of the vehicles, left the scene holding what was described as a handgun.