Innholdsfortegnelse for 4 December 2025 i You South Africa

THIS time of year, with the festive season fast approaching, is a good time to say thank you. Thank you to you, dear reader, for supporting YOU in 2025. Thank you to everyone who shared their stories with us. Thank you to our advertisers, printers, distributors, retailers and managers. And thank you, also, to the wonderful team I work with. To the journalists, who do their interviews with so much compassion and write their stories with so much feeling. The content and copy editors who weigh every word and check every detail. The photo team who sifts through hundreds, thousands of photos. The layout artists who design such striking pages. The digital team that brings our content to life online. Our production people who ensure things run smoothly. Our puzzles…

A PACKED sports stadium isn’t exactly the kind of place where a secret can remain hidden – at least, not when you’re one of the best-known guys in world rugby. In an era where everyone with a cellphone is a photographer, you’re bound to be noticed and snapped by someone. And at a recent high-profile tennis match someone did indeed spot Siya Kolisi in the crowd, and the moment was quickly captured and shared online. The occasion: the semifinal of the Nitto ATP Finals. The players: Carlos Alcaraz and Felix Auger-Aliassime. The venue: the Inalpi Arena. The result: Alcaraz won. But the match is hardly what everyone has been talking about. Siya, dressed in a white shirt, beard neatly trimmed, yellow watch on his wrist, was joined by pal Eben…

SHE thought her family was complete with the five-year-old son, seven-year-old twin girls and a 14-year-old daughter who made every day beautifully chaotic. But when Victoria LaBrie discovered she was pregnant again, the joy was overwhelming. The baby would be her first with her 37-year-old partner, Bobby, and their excitement grew with every scan. “Her eyes were wide open on the ultrasound and we would always just talk about how cute it was. Like, wow, who gets to see that? Not many people,” says Victoria (31). “But when she was born and her eyes were still wide open, I knew something wasn’t right.” The little girl, who they named Hazel, was diagnosed with Moebius syndrome – a rare neurological condition affecting fewer than 25 000 people worldwide. The syndrome impairs…

GET IN TOUCH WITH US EMAIL puzzles@you.co.za WITH ANY FEEDBACK, SUGGESTIONS OR QUERIES > SPIRAL Keyword clue: REGION IN AFRICA Starting with clue No 1, fill in the grid in a clockwise direction with four-letter words working your way to the centre of the spiral puzzle. The last letter of each word becomes the first letter of the next. If you have correctly filled in the grid there should be a seven-letter keyword reading across from clue No 8. 1 Snake sound2 Quick, quick, . . . (salsa rhythm)3 Uterus4 Be in the same . . . (situation)5 Connections6 Saddle or sofa7 School year section8 Soft, greyish limestone9 Part of TMI10 Colony of bees11 Side12 Black-. . . Susan (plant)13 Dull14 . . . carotene (carrot pigment)15 Curved doorway16 Microwave…

WE TALK ABOUT Glue guns and broken bones A REPURPOSED glue gun has been used by scientists in South Korea to help repair broken bones in rabbits. Instead of a regular glue stick, the device contains a material that helps bones heal. Certain breaks in bones need a little help to mend, and surgeons sometimes use a piece of bone from elsewhere in the body to make what’s called a bone graft. Or they use a synthetic (man-made) material made to fit with a 3-D printer. The glue gun method doesn’t require taking a piece of bone from elsewhere in the body, nor does it require images of the fracture so a synthetic graft can be designed and then manufactured with a 3-D printer. The modified glue gun can simply…

WHEN she was elected as Japan’s first female prime minister, she knew the spotlight would be brutal. From day one, there was no room for error, no time to ease into the role. She hit the ground running, racing between international summits and hosting world leaders, determined to show both critics and supporters she was more than ready for the challenge. But just weeks into the job, Sanae Takaichi is making headlines for all the wrong reasons. The 64-year-old recently called aides to her office for a 3am meeting to prepare for a budget committee hearing, sparking fears the new leader is setting a dangerous example. Critics are particularly alarmed because workplace burnout is so widespread in Japan it has its own word – karoshi, or death from extreme work…

1 CLAUDIA’S CURVY MINI-ME Claudia Schiffer’s 21-year-old daughter CLEMENTINE VAUGHN (centre) recently shared photos from a Wild West-themed party in New York City, showing off her striking resemblance to her supermodel mom. Dressed in a white corset top with coordinated bottoms, Clementine is clearly ready to embrace a more public persona. 2 KATE’S ROYAL ENCOUNTER KATE WINSLET recently recalled her first meeting with KING CHARLES at the 1996 royal premiere of Sense and Sensibility when she was 20. She shared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! that she hadn’t planned for the encounter and was wearing a sheer lace outfit. Thankfully, a coat saved her from immodesty when she greeted the then Prince of Wales. 3 KNOX IN THE PINK Angelina Jolie’s teenage son KNOX (17) turned heads at the Lazy Acres…

POSSIBLE CHEMICAL POISONING FAMILY DIE ON HOLIDAY IN TÜRKIYE AGERMAN family of four died while on holiday in Istanbul in what authorities are now investigating as a possible case of chemical poisoning. Officials say Servet Böcek (36), his wife Cigdem (27) and their two children, Kadir (6) and Masal (3), died within five days of each other while staying at a hotel in Istanbul’s Fatih district, a busy and popular tourist area. The family had travelled from Hamburg and checked into Harbour Suites Old City hotel on 9 November, according to Anadolu, Türkiye’s state news agency. Although they lived in Germany, relatives told Turkish media the family were of Turkish origin and returned to the country every summer. Initial investigations focused on suspected food poisoning as the family had spent…

OVER the years he’s put up with many questions about his vast brood and yes, he admits, they used to make him feel uncomfortable. “Men kind of look at me like, ‘He’s crazy – how much does it even cost?’ and women, they think there’s something sexy about it. ‘He must be doing his thing’,” he says. But Eddie Murphy doesn’t let raised eyebrows and comments get to him anymore. It is what it is and he just rolls with it. Still, he says, it wasn’t his plan to reach the age of 64 and be the father to 10 children ranging from six to 36 from five different relationships. It just kind of happened, he says – and he’s so glad it did because being a dad has brought…

1 WHAT’S IN THE BAG? Dress up brown paper bags with festive décor and simply write the date on each one. Stack them on a table or hang them up on string using pretty pegs. 2 BITS & BOBS Collect a variety of crafty bits from around your home on which to write the daily surprise leading up to 25 December. This one is especially great for activity-related calendars. 3 UNDERCOVER Cover up new or old baubles and attach numbers to each one to place on your tree or a table for unwrapping daily. 4 LET THERE BE LIGHT Use paint-marker pens (check that they’re non-flammable) to draw the countdown dates on candles. Keep the look simple by using the same size and colour candle, or go wild with various…

LOOKING back at how transport has developed over the past few hundred years, it is easy to see how animals inspired some of the ways we travel today. Looking at birds, we invented airplanes with wings that could fly us around the world. Carriages and trains became almost like strong horses which could travel long distances without resting – if you had enough fuel. And what about exploring beneath the waves? That’s where fish came in – perfectly sleek, speedy and silent, they showed us how to move underwater using submarines. These amazing vessels can travel underwater for long stretches of time. Sometimes they’re exploring or researching and sometimes they’re even defending their countries. ➧ HOW DO SUBMARINES GO UNDERWATER? The force that allows objects to sink or float is…

HIS voice is as smooth as whipped cream. “Good morning, everybody,” Lionel Richie says as he walks into the hotel meeting room and stretches his arms out wide. It’s 6.20pm here in Budapest where he’s on tour, but the singer-songwriter is operating on rock-’n-roll time and has just got up. “That bed was saying to me, ‘Stay here, Lionel, you’re looking goooood’.” He introduces me to his girlfriend Lisa Parigi, a Swiss entrepreneur. Lisa is in her mid-thirties, gorgeous, friendly and young enough to be his daughter – or granddaughter at a push. To be fair, though, Lionel (76) looks fabulous. As a young man he was all chin and ’tache. Now he’s just regular handsome, surprisingly tall, with a bearing that verges on the military. Lisa leaves us to…

AUSTIN BUTLER (34) has broken his silence on romance rumours with EMILY RATAJKOWSKI (34) following their dinner date in New York City. “The true answer is that I have a lot of friends, and that we’re friends and we had dinner,” the actor said, insisting that he’s single. In September, Austin and Emily were spotted looking cosy at the Waverly Inn in New York, sitting in a central booth and enjoying a two-hour chat. While witnesses described them as “giggly and cute”, they didn’t exhibit much PDA. Rumours first started doing the rounds in August at an after-party for Austin’s new movie, Caught Stealing. Both Austin and Emily have been in high-profile relationships – he split from model Kaia Gerber in January, and Emily was last linked to musician Shaboozey…

IT WAS a case that beggared belief – an elderly woman drugged into unconsciousness and raped over and over again by her husband and the hordes of men he brought into his depraved den. Gisèle Pelicot (72) earned the world’s admiration when she waived anonymity, giving evidence at her husband Dominique Pelicot’s trial that not only sent him to jail for 20 years but gave hope to other survivors of sexual abuse. Silence and secrecy would only continue the vicious cycle, she believed – speaking out might make a difference. “Shame must change sides,” she said. Now, almost a year after the trial, a team of police officers from the small French town of Carpentras have spoken for the first time about how they cracked the case – and how…

IT’S a progressive disease, and we now know that the first subtle signs of Alzheimer’s start emerging up to 18 years before people receive a formal diagnosis. But medical experts say one of the main challenges is distinguishing between temporary cognitive issues and real warning signs of this debilitating disorder. Up to 25% of over-65s who meet the criteria for mild cognitive impairment see their issues resolve a year later, says Dr Peter Rabins, founder of the geriatric psychiatry division at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore in the US – and this kind of cognitive decline is more due to natural ageing. When he first began researching Alzheimer’s in the late 1970s, the brain disorder was mistakenly viewed as an inevitable part of the ordinary ageing process. However,…

SUBMARINES (or “subs” for short) have been around for hundreds of years, with the first simple designs appearing in the 1600s. Today, most are used by the military, but they also help with science, search-and-rescue and exploration. In the military, subs can spy, protect coastlines and attack other boats. They must remain very quiet so enemies can’t hear them. Because of all these abilities, subs can explore places humans can’t go and do important jobs deep beneath the waves. Six savvy systems 1. Power Nuclear subs use a nuclear reactor for energy; diesel subs use diesel and electric motors. 2. Life support Submarines extract oxygen from seawater and remove carbon dioxide to create breathable air. 3. Ballasts They control whether the submarine dives, rises or stays at one depth. 4.…

ON 19 November 1997 something truly extraordinary happened: seven tiny babies were born, making history as the world’s first surviving septuplets. Front pages of newspapers featured pictures of the newborns and their slightly shellshocked parents, 27-year-old Bobbi and 29-year-old Kenny McCaughey, and TV screens flickered with footage of the impossibly small bundles. The McCaughey septuplets weren’t just babies – they were proof miracles can happen. Kenny Jnr, Alexis, Natalie, Kelsey, Nathan, Brandon and Joel are no longer the swaddled sensations the world marvelled over but thriving adults who recently celebrated their 28th birthday. “Everybody is doing what they said they would do,” Kenny Jnr, the firstborn septuplet, said in a recent interview. He works as a carpenter in Dallas Center, Iowa, and in 2022 shared the news that he and…

REBECCA GAYHEART is putting past tensions behind her to be there for her estranged husband ERIC DANE (53) as he faces a serious health battle. Despite their complicated history, the 54-year-old actress is supporting him as he battles the neurodegenerative disease ALS, which causes worsening muscle weakness, paralysis and ultimately respiratory failure. In a recent episode of the Broad Ideas podcast, Rebecca admitted that while things are “super-complicated”, she’s choosing to show up for Eric to be a good role model for their daughters, BILLIE (15) and GEORGIA (13). “[I tell them,] ‘No matter what, he is our family and he is your father’,” she said. “We show up, and we try to do it with some dignity and some grace and just get through it the best we can.”…

SHE’S the heiress to a multibillion-dollar hotel chain, yet PARIS HILTON reckons she’s completely “self-made”. The DJ and reality TV star caused jaws to drop when she declared to the UK’s Sunday Times that “no one’s ever given me anything in my entire life – I’ve done this all on my own”. Her comments have been called “delusional” and sparked controversy online, with many questioning whether she truly understands her own privilege. Paris (44) is the daughter of designer KATHY HILTON (66) and businessman RICHARD HILTON (70). She’s also the great-granddaughter of Hilton Hotels founder Conrad Hilton. While she may have been referring specifically to her entertainment company, 11:11 Media, which is worth roughly $1 billion (R17bn) and employs 25 people, critics weren’t having it. “If you weren’t a Hilton…