From Trump’s election to the campus protests over the war in Gaza, revisit five of the best cartoons from Australian political cartoonist Fiona Katauskas

• See more of Fiona Katauskas’s cartoons here

29 August 1921 – 1 March 2024
The fashion designer on inspirational moments spent with his tirelessly creative friend, a visionary stylist and textiles maker

• Read the Observer’s obituaries of 2024 in full

It’s impossible to imagine a person’s absence when it seems, like Iris Apfel, that they were always here. Iris was a woman who understood the transformative and inspiring power of clothing, for herself and for those she encountered. If you knew her well, or observed her closely during quieter moments, the process behind her style was awe-inspiring yet deeply human. Maximalism wasn’t really part of Iris’s raison d’être. Her creative process was much more poetic and conceptual than simply piling on jewellery and bold garments for effect. Like her work as an interior decorator and textile designer, it was about connecting with people and showing them how to find joy in difference and curiosity. Iris loved young people, and they loved her in return. She didn’t preach; instead, she showed them how to creatively express themselves through the way they dressed, without losing their individuality. Much of her unpublicised work, particularly in the last 15 years of her life, involved mentoring and arranging internships for design students in high schools and colleges.

It occurred to me early on in our friendship, which began in 2005, that Iris was a woman who never said no to life. As a teenager, she would sneak off to Manhattan from her birthplace in Queens, New York. Her forays into Harlem, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and other parts of the city became an education for her in the appreciation of beauty, individuality and savoir-faire in the applied arts. It was also a great way for her to develop her eye, as well as her renowned bargaining skills, as demonstrated in Albert Maysles ’s 2014 documentary Iris .

Strategist who aided resurgence after Reagan urges focus on ‘fundamentals’ – but cautions against leftward drift

Republicans jubilant after winning the White House with a candidate who promised to “make America great again”. Democrats lost in the political wilderness, apparently out of touch with working people. America, apparently, shifting inexorably to the right. Not 2024 but 1984, when Ronald Reagan won the presidency in a landslide.

Al From remembers it well. The political strategist responded by launching the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) with a mission to rebuild the party and make it electable again. He succeeded in 1992 when Bill Clinton led the “New Democrats” back into power – and four decades on he has advice for how the party can rise from the ashes of another election defeat.

• Salah, Van Dijk and Alexander-Arnold deals end in 2025
• ‘As long as they keep performing, the head coach is happy’

Arne Slot has praised the trio of players who are out of contract at the end of the season for their focus despite the speculation surrounding their futures and said that talks are ongoing.

Mohamed Salah, Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold can speak to overseas clubs from 1 January and while the Liverpool head coach would not be drawn into how those talks are going he confirmed that the club are still trying to find a solution.

• Amorim: ‘United manager can never be comfortable’
• Manager points out he has only had four training sessions

Ruben Amorim has said he is aware his job will be at risk if he fails to reverse Manchester United’s alarming slide and acknowledged supporters are “tired” of the team’s shortcomings. Amorim said he is very aware of the volatile state of management and is determined to thrive on the pressure.

The coach said he is not immune from danger because United paid €10m (£8.3m) to release him from his contract at Sporting in November and knows he must win to prevent scrutiny from building. Amorim’s successor at Sporting, João Pereira, was sacked this week after eight matches in charge.

Nick Starmer, 60, who had cancer, ‘met all the challenges life threw at him with courage and good humour’, says PM

Keir Starmer has paid tribute to his brother Nick, who had cancer and died on Boxing Day aged 60.

Starmer said in a statement: “My brother Nick was a wonderful man. He met all the challenges life threw at him with courage and good humour. We will miss him very much.

Chris McCausland saved the day! The Olympics made us weep! Danny Dyer had sex by a tree! Here are the year’s wildest bits of television

It’s certainly not been a dull 12 months. From a drama that actually changed the law to a stunning turnaround for Strictly, here’s our selection of the standout events as seen on TV.

Twisty crime drama set in ‘unfailingly friendly’ border city that is finally emerging from Cardiff’s shadow

The Welsh capital is often used as a setting for film and television drama, as are the country’s mountains, forests and coastlines, but a city sometimes seen as Cardiff’s poorer relative is starring in a new Welsh-language Celtic noir drama .

Newport, with its muddy river and post-industrial landscape, is the backdrop for Ar y Ffin (meaning on the edge or on the border), a twisty tale of a magistrate who uncovers a web of criminality, putting her and her family at risk.

The anti-abortion movement is looking at ways to control information about how and where to obtain abortions

The next front in the US abortion wars may be what people are allowed to say about it.

More than two years after the US supreme court overturned Roe v Wade in the case Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization, US abortions are on the rise, thanks in large part to the spread of abortion pills and travel across state lines. This has infuriated anti-abortion advocates, who have proposed policies to help the incoming Trump administration curtail the mailing of abortion pills and targeted individuals and groups that help women get out-of-state abortions . In a sign of how the issue is pitting states against one another, Texas earlier this monthsued a New York-based doctor who allegedly provided a telehealth abortion to a Texan woman.