Former justice department workers sign letter decrying Trump’s ‘near destruction’ of civil rights division – live

Attorneys say they left because the administration ‘turned the Division’s core mission upside down, largely abandoning its duty to protect civil rights’

A federal judge in New York has granted the justice department’s request to unseal grand jury documents in the sex-trafficking case against Ghislaine Maxwell – the companion and accomplice of the late sex-offender Jeffrey Epstein. It comes after the passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which Donald Trump signed last month.

The legislation requires the Department of Justice to release the full tranche of records related to disgraced financier, in a searchable format by 19 December.

Treasury Dept. informs Erika Kirk that Turning Point USA not under investigation

A producer for "The Charlie Kirk Show" podcast said there had been false claims about the finances of Turning Point USA.

DOJ faces call for internal probe into legal opinion on Venezuelan boat strikes

A bipartisan group of former ethics officials is asking for an internal Justice Department investigation into the legal opinion justifying strikes against alleged drug boats.

Trump had two mortgages he claimed were primary dwellings, records show

President did same thing his administration is now calling ‘mortgage fraud’ in case against Fed governor Lisa Cook

Donald Trump signed mortgage documents in the 1990s claiming two separate Florida properties would each serve as his principal residence – the same thing his administration is calling “mortgage fraud” when done by political rivals, records show.

ProPublica unearthed documents demonstrating that within seven weeks of each other in late 1993 and early 1994, the president obtained loans for neighboring Palm Beach homes, pledging each would be his primary dwelling. Instead of living in them, though, he rented both out as investment properties.

Trump lambasts ‘weak’ and ‘decaying’ Europe and hints at walking away from Ukraine

US president recycles far-right tropes on European immigration and presses Zelenskyy to accept his peace plan

• Europe live – latest updates

Donald Trump has hinted he could walk away from supporting Ukraine as he doubled down on his administration’s recent criticism of Europe, describing it as “weak” and “decaying” and claiming it was “destroying itself” through immigration.

In a rambling and sometimes incoherent interview with Politico, a transcript of which was released on Tuesday, the US president struggled to name any other Ukrainian cities except for Kyiv, misrepresented elements of the trajectory of the conflict, and recycled far-right tropes about European immigration that echoed the “great replacement” conspiracy theory.

More than 9,000 children in Gaza hospitalised for acute malnutrition in October, UN says

Aid agencies say Israel is still restricting their aid shipments despite ceasefire announced two months ago

Malnutrition continues to take a toll among Gaza’s young despite a ceasefire declared two months ago, with more than 9,000 children hospitalised for acute malnutrition in October alone, according to the latest UN figures.

While the immediate threat of famine has receded for most of the 2.2 million Palestinians in Gaza after the ceasefire announcement on 10 October, the UN and other aid agencies report continuing Israeli restrictions on their humanitarian aid shipments, which they say fall well below the needs of a population weakened and traumatised by two years of war, homelessness and living in flimsy shelters.

From Llamas to Avocados: Meta's shifting AI strategy is causing internal confusion

Meta’s push to develop its next frontier model, codenamed Avocado, under new AI leadership is creating internal friction as it races rivals OpenAI and Google.

Over 200 ex-staffers decry destruction of DoJ civil rights arm: ‘America deserves better’

Former employees from justice department’s civil rights division accuse Trump administration of purging experts

More than 200 former employees in the justice department’s civil rights division signed a letter released on Tuesday decrying the “near destruction” of the agency that is supposed to enforce US civil rights laws and accused political leadership of waging a campaign to purge career experts from its ranks.

There was a mass exodus of lawyers earlier this year after political appointees removed career managers, detailed employees to menial work, unilaterally dropped cases, and made it clear the division’s focus would be enforcing Donald Trump’s priorities. By 1 May of this year, the department had lost about 70% of its attorneys – a staggering number. The letter was released on Tuesday to commemorate the 68th anniversary of the founding of the civil rights division.

Judge unseals Ghislaine Maxwell grand jury materials, citing Epstein files act

Jeffrey Epstein, a former friend of President Donald Trump, killed himself in jail in August 2019, weeks after being arrested on child sex trafficking charges.

Lionel Messi named 2025 MLS MVP, the second player to win award twice

• Inter Miami star scored 29 goals with 19 assists

• Messi won MLS Cup MVP in South Florida on Saturday

After a season in which he led Inter Miami to the club’s first MLS Cup, Lionel Messi has been named the Landon Donovan MLS Most Valuable Player for the 2025 season. League commissioner Don Garber made the announcement on Tuesday, capping a season in which Messi scored 29 goals with 19 assists in 28 appearances, one short of Carlos Vela’s record for goal contributions in a single season (though Vela’s was done in 31 games).

Messi joins Kansas City Wizards legend Preki as the only players to win the MVP award twice, with Messi being the first to win two such awards consecutively. At 38, Messi is not the oldest MVP in MLS history – that distinction also goes to Preki, who was the oldest MVP in the history of North American professional sports when he won the award at age 40 in 2003.

Pfizer adds to obesity bet with up to $2.1 billion deal to develop Chinese company's pill 

The deal will help Pfizer beef up and diversify its obesity drug pipeline following its $10 billion acquisition of obesity biotech Metsera last month.

More than 75% of homes across the U.S. are unaffordable, study finds

Homeownership can feel like a luxury when only a sliver of the country's housing market is affordable for most Americans, Bankrate analyst says.

What to expect when the Fed announces next interest rate move this week

The Federal Reserve will announce if they will cut rates again in December's meeting — their last meeting of 2025. The decision will determine whether borrowers get more relief on interest rates.

Prosecutors release video of police finding loaded gun magazine in Luigi Mangione's backpack

Prosecutors on Monday released new evidence seized from Luigi Mangione on the day of his arrest. He is accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson a year ago and has pleaded not guilty. Lilia Luciano has more.

Oslo appearance by Nobel peace prize winner María Corina Machado cancelled

Press conference was expected to have been Venezuelan opposition leader’s first public appearance in 11 months

A press conference in Oslo with the Nobel peace prize laureate María Corina Machado, the Venezuelan opposition leader in hiding, has been cancelled, the Norwegian Nobel Institute has said, adding that it was “in the dark” as to her whereabouts.

Machado last appeared in public on 9 January at a demonstration in Caracas protesting against the inauguration of Nicolás Maduro for his third term as president. The press conference, traditionally held by the Nobel laureate on the eve of the award ceremony, had been expected to be the 58-year-old’s first public appearance in 11 months.

Raul Malo, frontman of band the Mavericks, dies aged 60

The musician, who led the Grammy-winning band, had been receiving treatment for colon cancer

Raul Malo, the soulful tenor and frontman of the genre-defying, Grammy-winning band the Mavericks, has died. He was 60.

Malo died on Monday night, his wife, Betty Malo, posted on his Facebook page. He had been diagnosed with cancer. The frontman of the Mavericks had documented his health journey on social media since he disclosed in June 2024 that he was receiving treatment for colon cancer.

New audio of off-duty pilot trying to cut plane's engines mid-flight

Joseph Emerson pleaded guilty to a federal charge of interfering with a flight crew and pleaded no contest to state charges of endangering an aircraft and 83 counts of endangering another person.

Parasite cleanses: why are so many people obsessed with intestinal worms?

Probably the most disgusting online trend of 2025, this has led to pictures of people’s excrement all over the internet. Please make it stop ...

Name: Parasite cleanses.

Age: The earliest written records of what were probably parasitic infections in humans are from Egyptian medicine, between around 3000 and 400BC.

Mace criticizes GOP leaders for "restrictive and ineffective" control of House

Rep. Nancy Mace, a South Carolina Republican, criticized House GOP leaders in an op-ed for what she called their "restrictive and ineffective" control of the chamber.

Jon Stewart on Fifa’s peace prize: ‘An entirely fictitious golden butt plug’

Late-night hosts discussed Fifa’s award to Donald Trump as his administration escalates tensions with Venezuela

Late-night hosts mocked Donald Trump for gleefully accepting the inaugural Fifa peace prize ahead of the World Cup in the US.

Commercial real estate deal volume drops for the first time in nearly two years

Commercial real estate has had a rough year after gaining momentum coming out of the pandemic.

Trump announces $12 billion aid package for U.S. farmers

The new financial aid package is expected to shore up the U.S. agricultural sector, which has been hurt by tariffs and a trade war with China.

Red Bull F1 adviser Helmut Marko retires after successful 20-year stint

• Austrian key to Vettel and Verstappen world title wins

• ‘Now is the right moment,’ says influential 82-year-old

Red Bull’s influential auto racing adviser Helmut Marko is retiring from his role at the age of 82, ending a 20-year stint in which he helped Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen develop into four-time Formula One world champions.

Marko’s departure leaves Red Bull without the two main guiding personalities from its 2005 entry into F1 after the team principal Christian Horner was ousted in July and replaced by Laurent Mekies.

US judge strikes down Trump order blocking wind energy projects

Federal judge declared January executive order unlawful, ruling in favor of a coalition of state attorneys general

A federal judge on Monday struck down Donald Trump’s executive order blocking wind energy projects, saying the effort to halt virtually all leasing of windfarms on federal lands and waters was “arbitrary and capricious” and violated US law.

Judge Patti Saris of the US district court for the district of Massachusetts vacated Trump’s 20 January executive order blocking wind energy projects and declared it unlawful.

Justice department can release Ghislaine Maxwell court materials, judge says

Records could be made public within 10 days under new Epstein Files Transparency Act

The justice department can publicly release investigative materials from a sex-trafficking case against Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime confidant of Jeffrey Epstein, a federal judge said on Tuesday.

Judge Paul A Engelmayer ruled after the justice department in November asked two judges in New York to unseal grand jury transcripts and exhibits from Maxwell and Epstein’s cases, along with investigative materials that could amount to hundreds or thousands of previously unreleased documents.

He was called one of the most violent prison guards in America. He got promoted

Roderick Gadson showed no remorse after beating a man to death. As a new film, The Alabama Solution, shows how the case lays bare a culture of violence the state has long failed to control

The most dramatic moment in the deposition came when Roderick Gadson, an Alabama prison guard, was questioned under oath about an incident in which he and other officers used such devastating force against a prisoner that the man had to be airlifted to hospital to treat his injuries.

Gadson was shown a photograph of the man, Steven Davis. He was lying in an ICU bed breathing through a tube, his cadaverous face bruised and covered with blood, his eyes black and sunken.

Merv review – a dog steals the show in Amazon’s by-the-book Christmas romcom

Charlie Cox and Zooey Deschanel co-parent a depressed dog in a serviceable attempt to appeal to animal lovers during the festive period

It is a truth universally acknowledged, at least in my social circles, that co-parenting a dog is a bad idea. Most will tell you: shared canine custody arrangements prevent exes from moving on. It’s a logistical headache. It causes fights. It’s annoying for all involved (and then some). And apparently, in a revelation worthy of a straight-to-streaming movie, it makes dogs depressed.

Not to minimize the mental health of dogs – I’ve listened to my mother boast about our family chihuahua’s “EQ” enough to know that man’s best friend has the capacity for great emotional sensitivity. (And the ability to convey it on command – for a truly outstanding performance of doggie depression, please see Bing the bereft great dane in 2024’s The Friend.) I have no doubt that a dog like Merv, a wired-hair terrier sort played by Gus the Dog in Merv’s eponymous Amazon movie, would struggle to adjust from life in a single family unit to split homes. Whether or not the ill-advised dog-sharing arrangement can sustain a whole Christmas romcom, however, is a dubious proposition.

Grammy-nominated musician killed by driver with over 100 arrests

Roderick Macleod, 70, was walking his dogs when he was allegedly struck by a driver with dozens of prior arrests.

House Democrats establish AI working group as industry bolsters DC presence

House lawmakers see the commission as a starting point for working with industry on AI policies, issues.

EU opens investigation into Google’s use of online content for AI models

European Commission to assess whether Gemini owner is putting rival companies at a disadvantage

• Business live – latest updates

The EU has opened an investigation to assess whether Google is breaching European competition rules in its use of online content from publishers and YouTube creators for artificial intelligence.

The European Commission said on Tuesday it would examine whether the US tech company, which runs the Gemini AI model and is owned by Alphabet, was putting rival AI owners at a “disadvantage”.

Cheryl Hines says Robert F Kennedy Jr won’t run for president in 2028

The actor’s remark comes amid renewed news coverage and commentary about her husband’s 2024 presidential bid

• US politics live – latest updates

The actor Cheryl Hines has said she does not believe her husband, Robert F Kennedy Jr, will run for the White House after Donald Trump’s presidency.

Hines was asked by Elizabeth Vargas, a NewsNation anchor, on Monday, “Is your husband going to run for president in 2028? And, if so, are you ready for that?”

Passenger who died on cruise ship was served 33 drinks, lawsuit claims

Royal Caribbean crew members "negligently" overserved 35-year-old Michael Virgil "in a matter of hours" while he exhibited obvious signs of intoxication, the lawsuit alleges.

In this age of authoritarians, online abuse of women is soaring – and it’s leading to ‘real-world’ violence | Julie Posetti

Our UN report reveals the link between the online misogyny and offline crimes that are hounding women out of public life

Networked misogyny is now firmly established as a key tactic in the 21st-century authoritarian’s playbook. This is not a new trend – but it is now being supercharged by generative AI tools that make it easier, quicker and cheaper than ever to perpetrate online violence against women in public life – from journalists to human rights defenders, politicians and activists.

The objectives are clear: to help justify the rollback of gender equality and women’s reproductive rights; to chill women’s freedom of expression and their participation in democratic deliberation; to discredit truth-tellers; and to pave the way for the consolidation of authoritarian power.

Dr Julie Posetti is the director of the Information Integrity Initiative at TheNerve, a digital forensics lab founded by Nobel laureate Maria Ressa. She is also a professor of journalism and chair of the Centre for Journalism and Democracy at City St George’s, University of London.

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

Alice Zaslavsky’s festive vegetable terrine – recipe

Using store-bought deli goods, Alice Zaslavsky builds a vegetarian showstopper for the Christmas table – with minimal cooking

• Check out more Alice Zaslavsky recipes

So you’re hosting a festive shindig in December and there are vegetarians in the crowd – or maybe the vego is you? You want to put on a good centrepiece but you’re not feeling the nut loaf vibes. What to do?

Festive catering for vegetarians is far easier in the northern hemisphere, where you can whack on a big chunk of pumpkin or stuff some peppers, and let them bake away while you roast the chestnuts and mull the wine.

Longevity supplements are sold as helping prevent ageing. But do they have any long-term benefits or increase lifespan? | Antiviral

Much of the enthusiasm for these ‘anti-ageing’ products is based on animal studies, mostly involving rodents

There are many acronyms you might find on the packaging of so-called longevity supplements, promoted by influencers for their ability to “repair DNA” and assist in “anti-ageing”.

NRC (nicotinamide riboside chloride) and NMN (nicotinamide mononucleotide) are two of them – both precursors or “building blocks” for NAD (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide), a naturally occurring molecule in the body. Trimethylglycine (TMG) is another and is sometimes added to “support” other ingredients.

Alex de Minaur on his grand slam dream: ‘Some things may happen, some things may not’

The Australian is pragmatic about his chances of winning a major in the Alcaraz-Sinner era but knows he plays his best tennis when he doesn’t put pressure on himself

It’s hard to think of anyone in tennis who works harder than Alex de Minaur, the Australian who next month will once again carry the hopes of a nation as he tries to become the first home winner of the men’s title at the Australian Open for 50 years. No one is faster around the court, no one more diligent off it than the 26-year-old. It’s a work ethic that has helped him to 10 titles so far in his career and he ends 2025 as the world No 7, his highest year-end ranking, and having won the prestigious Newcombe medal for a fourth time.

But in a sport where success at the very top level is ultimately judged by performances at grand slams, De Minaur has so far fallen short. He has made the quarter-finals of a major six times – including five of the past eight – but with Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner having split the last eight majors, opportunities are scarce.

The 50 best albums of 2025

From prog cabaret and joyful jangle-pop to a pop star who will drag you to the club, here are the year’s finest LPs as decided by 30 Guardian music writers
• More on the best culture of 2025

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Teen talks about mother's ICE arrest and fears: "I am afraid of ICE agents just stopping me"

A massive immigration crackdown continues in New Orleans as protestors take to the streets to oppose the operation. Jonathan Escalante's mother was arrested by ICE agents on Monday. The 18-year-old, who is a U.S. citizen, is now the sole caregiver for his 9-year-old sister. He spoke to CBS News about his mom's immigration arrest and his own fears.

Plunging temperatures impact heat costs for families: "Everything's going up"

A blast of winter weather left parts of the South and Midwest blanketed with a fresh coat of snow Monday, Meanwhile, more arctic air is making temperatures feel colder than normal from Minnesota to Maine. Ash-har Quraishi reports.

Shakira fans and an elephant protest: photos of the day – Tuesday

The Guardian’s picture editors select photographs from around the world

What's in Trump's $12 billion aid package for U.S. farmers impacted by tariffs, trade war

President Trump announced on Monday a $12 billion aid package for U.S. farmers who have been hurt by tariffs and the trade war with China. Most of the aid is going to cattle, corn, cotton, rice, soybean and wheat farmers. Ed O'Keefe reports.

Ukraine's last eastern strongholds hang on as Russia fights to take Donbas

Russia is pushing to take over all of eastern Ukraine's Donbas region, where one resident tells NPR that she feels her "life depends on how our guys at the front hold on."

Western carmakers ‘in fight for lives’ against Chinese rivals, says Ford boss

Jim Farley’s comments come as US manufacturer and Renault announce deal to make two smaller electric cars

• Business live – latest updates

The boss of Ford has said western carmakers are “in a fight for our lives” against Chinese competition as the US manufacturer agreed a new partnership with France’s Renault.

The two companies said on Tuesday that they would work together on two smaller electric cars, with the first to go on sale as soon as early 2028. They will also look at producing vans together.

‘I drunkenly hugged him and said I love you, Martin Parr!’ Grayson Perry, Don McCullin and more on Britain’s national photographer

With a sharp eye and saturated colours, Parr’s photographs revealed the world in all its eccentric glory. Here, his friends, peers and collaborators pay tribute to a master

Grayson Perry, artist
I’ve never really been a fanboy, but the first time I saw Martin Parr I ran up and drunkenly hugged him. I said: “I love you Martin Parr!” I couldn’t help it. He was a hero of mine. And over the years he became my best artist friend.

Australia’s world-first social media ban begins as millions of children and teens lose access to accounts

Accounts held by users under 16 must be removed on apps that include TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, X, YouTube, Snapchat, Reddit, Kick, Twitch and Threads under ban

• How is Australia’s social media ban affecting you and your family?

• The social media ban explained: everything you need to know

Australia has enacted a world-first ban on social media for users aged under 16, causing millions of children and teenagers to lose access to their accounts.

Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, YouTube, Snapchat, Reddit, Kick, Twitch and TikTok are expected to have taken steps from Wednesday to remove accounts held by users under 16 years of age in Australia, and prevent those teens from registering new accounts.

Christmas, Again review – laidback tale of a forlorn Christmas tree seller has authentic charm

Charles Poekel’s directorial debut has taken a decade to reach the UK, but its indie take on seasonal cinema brings low-key warmth

This is a New York drama so laidback that it has taken a decade to reach the UK’s cinema screens. First released in the US in 2015, it’s an ultra-low-budget debut from first-time director Charles Poekel, set almost entirely on a 24-hour pop-up Christmas tree stall. Poekel’s style is far too authentic-indie and unaffected to get slushy or sentimental about Christmas; through his lens Christmas tree lights blink like police lights. But in its own low-key way, he pitches his film just right for a little squeeze of festive warmth.

Kentucker Audley stars as Noel (it took someone in the film to joke about his name before I twigged). Noel is back for his fifth year selling Christmas trees in Brooklyn, standing outside in the freezing cold and sleeping in a not-much-warmer caravan parked next to the trees. A few customers ask about the girl working with him last year. But this year Noel is alone, broken-hearted and working the night shift. There’s a documentary feel to a lot of the scenes, customers asking pointless random questions. One woman wants the same Christmas tree as the Obamas (this is 2014). Noel looks frozen to the bone physically and emotionally; he’s weary and disillusioned, though Audley’s subtle performance makes it clear that he wasn’t always like this.

New York City braces for new casinos as gambling surge in US worries experts

Three proposed casinos approved as researchers say they take money from businesses and increase addiction

New York City will probably soon see three new casinos, whose owners could rake in profits because of a recent surge in gambling in the United States that has some campaigners worried.

The New York gaming facility location board last week approved three proposed casinos in the US’s largest city – two in Queens and one in the Bronx – after determining the businesses would create new jobs and generate billions in tax revenue, according to the group’s report.

This article was amended on 9 December 2025 to correct that the New York gaming facility location board approved the casinos last week, not this week as previously stated.

‘After almost destroying the world, our families are friends’: the thrilling podcast from JFK and Khrushchev’s relatives

Their relatives might have been on opposite sides of near-nuclear war, but the US and Soviet leader’s descendants have teamed up for an intimate BBC podcast. They talk humanity, hate – and why Trump is a ‘very limited’ man

In October 1962, the world came closer to destruction than at any other point in modern times. After a US surveillance plane discovered that Soviet nuclear missile sites were being built in Cuba, less than 100 miles from the US mainland, President John F Kennedy responded by ordering the US Navy’s Sixth Fleet to impose a naval blockade around the island. Almost two weeks of impossible tension followed.

The threat was clear. If Kennedy, or his Soviet counterpart, Nikita Khrushchev, fired on their enemy, a chain reaction of global nuclear strikes and counterstrikes would have followed, plunging humanity into all-out ruination.

Elon Musk calls for abolition of European Union after X fined $140 million

Musk's comments come as U.S. government officials step up criticism of the European Union

‘This is a tough league’: Temwa Chawinga on coping without her sibling and starring in NWSL

In an exclusive interview the younger Chawinga sister talks about missing her older sibling Tabitha, her hopes for Malawi and life at Kansas City Current

Kansas City Current’s Temwa Chawinga has doubled up as the NWSL’s top scorer and MVP for the second year in a row – only two years after Tabitha, her elder sister and mentor, was the Golden Boot winner with Internazionale in Italy’s Serie A Femminile. It is no exaggeration to describe the duo, from Malawi, as football’s equivalent of the Williams sisters, Venus and Serena.

“I hope Temwa and I get to meet them someday,” Tabitha says of the tennis legends. Now with French side OL Lyonnes, the 29-year-old insists that her younger sibling will have a more distinguished career despite setting an extremely high bar in the Swedish, Chinese and Italian leagues, in which Chawinga has won several Golden Boot and MVP awards.

Ukraine at 'critical moment' in war as European allies ramp up pressure on Russia

"We all know that the destiny of this country is the destiny of Europe," German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said.

American Canto by Olivia Nuzzi review – insufferable filler that sidesteps the real issues

The reporter’s affair with Robert F Kennedy Jr raised a whole host of questions, few of which get answers in this pretentious memoir

Did he take me seriously?” Olivia Nuzzi wonders in the midst of her infamous affair with Robert F Kennedy Jr. Nuzzi, then Washington correspondent for New York magazine, has just learned that she and the Politician, as she calls RFK in her new book, may overlap during a visit to Mar-a-Lago. Nuzzi, worried Donald Trump will catch on to the relationship and start spreading rumours, convenes an emergency meeting with the Politician to strategise. RFK doesn’t see the big deal.

So, she agonises “Did he take me seriously?” and reflects that she had “little cause to consider the question before now.”

Michael van Gerwen: ‘Of course I love darts, but I love my kids much more’

The former world No 1 shares how a traumatic year has shaped him as a darts player and a father and insists he can recapture his glory days at the world championship

“I can be a miserable bastard sometimes,” Michael van Gerwen says with a grin and a shrug as he tries to explain his new burst of optimism after a horribly testing year. “But I can also be quite positive. If you asked me this question a month ago, and we did this interview then, you would find me a bit different to today. But I feel good now even if, 100%, this has been a very tough year for me both on and off the oche.”

Rather than being miserable, the 36-year-old is amiable company – which seems remarkable as in 2025 he has been through a divorce after 17 years with his wife, Daphne, witnessed the devastating effect of cancer on his father, endured intense scrutiny in the Dutch media, and struggled to regain his once imperious form with the arrows.

Trump to address affordability. And, the significance of Indiana's redistricting fight

Trump travels to Pennsylvania to discuss America's affordability. And, Indiana lawmakers to vote on a congressional map that may eliminate the state's last two Democratic seats.

President Trump expected to address affordability at Pennsylvania rally

President Trump will hold a rally in Pennsylvania Tuesday, where he's expected to talk about his administration's efforts to address two major concerns for voters: the economy and affordability.

‘One of the best actors of his generation’: Daniel Day-Lewis defends Paul Dano after Tarantino criticism

Day-Lewis, who suggested Dano for his part in There Will Be Blood, praised the actor, as did Ben Stiller and Batman director Matt Reeves

Paul Dano’s There Will Be Blood co-star Daniel Day-Lewis has defended the actor after he was criticised by Quentin Tarantino.

The director took issue with Dano’s talents while discussing his list of the best films of the century on Bret Easton Ellis’s podcast. Tarantino said he would have moved Paul Thomas Anderson’s 2007 drama higher than No 5 had a different actor played preacher Eli Sunday.

Two charged over suspected pepper spray attack at Heathrow airport

Men charged with robbery and administering noxious substance over incident at London airport on Sunday

Two men have been charged with robbery and administering a noxious substance after more than 20 people were affected by what was thought to be pepper spray at Heathrow airport.

Tyrone Richards, 31, and Anton Clarke-Butcher, 24, are due to appear at Uxbridge magistrates court on Tuesday.

‘We’re living in terror’: fears in southern Syria over Israel’s growing occupation

Residents say incursions and raids have increased since forces first entered country a year ago after fall of Assad

On the day Bashar al-Assad’s regime fell, Abu Ibrahim and his family went to sleep wondering what sort of future awaited them in the morning. They woke in a panic, to the sound of gunfire and tanks.

The bullets announced the arrival of the Israeli military into the remote southern Syrian province of Quneitra on 9 December 2024. In the place of Assad militias who used to patrol the roads, bulky armoured personnel carriers filled with Israeli soldiers rumbled down the potholed streets, stopping to assure residents that they were there for their protection.

Anybody heard of a rehearsal? Mangling nominees’ names may be traditional – but it’s still embarrassing

Yesterday’s Golden Globes announcement was a masterclass in mispronunciation that threatens to undo every effort to internationalise awards. Why can’t producers just make their presenters practise?

The day after an awards show announces its nominations, the focus typically falls on the nominees. However, yesterday’s Golden Globe nominations were a little different, because all anyone can talk about is how badly the actor Marlon Wayans mangled everyone’s name.

If you didn’t see it, it was a masterclass in getting it wrong. Watching Wayans announce the Golden Globe nominations was like living through one of those anxiety dreams where you’re asked to fly a jumbo jet and realise that you don’t know what any of the controls do. If you did see it, then I’m sure your toes will uncurl eventually.

Are we in a recession? Maybe professional Santas can tell us

Demand for professional Santas and other seasonal workers seems to have cooled. Could that be a sign we're in a recession?

Trump is remodeling Washington to fit his twisted vision of America | Judith Levine

The administration is offloading gems of US architecture while redesigning the city to match the president’s values

While the original architect of Donald Trump’s ever-expanding ballroom steps down and preservationists panic over the fate of New Deal murals inside the Social Security Administration building, the president gushes about painting the granite Eisenhower Executive Office Building white, “fixing” the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, and erecting his own Arc de Triomphe.

To peruse the plans for a Trump-era capital district alongside the General Services Administration’s list of assets identified for accelerated disposition – the federal buildings slated for offloading – is to discern a diagram of Trump’s values.

Judith Levine is a Brooklyn-based journalist, essayist and author of five books. Her Substack is Today in Fascism

Could a drug for narcolepsy change the world? | Zoe Williams

There are apparently breakthroughs on the way for those with sleep disorders – which sent me down a rabbit hole of research...

I met a guy in pharmaceuticals who told me about a bunch of cool breakthroughs in sleep meds: mainly, we may be on the brink of a new Wegovy, but in this case it’s a drug to cure narcolepsy. I suggested the two things are not quite the same, given that obesity is a global epidemic and narcolepsy is fairly rare. He countered that the way the drug works might also have applications for insomnia; similar to the Post-it note having been invented by someone trying to create the world’s strongest glue.

Anyway, in the course of this, I discovered the test for type 1 narcolepsy, which is that you’re put in a room with zero stimulation – nothing to read, no one to chat to, perfect silence, perfect temperature – and timed on how long it takes you to fall asleep. If it’s under eight minutes, you’re narcoleptic. But the average, for a person with no complaints in that area at all, is 22 minutes. I was completely incredulous. This is a grip on consciousness more or less the same as a house cat. Bored? Go to sleep. Even a dog will have a quick look for something to eat first.

Black bear populations are bouncing back. Here's how these Texas towns are coping

Historically, Black bears were the biggest predator to travel the Big Bend area of Texas. But overhunting and habitat loss led to their decline.

David Squires on … Mohamed Salah’s explosive interview and Liverpool chaos

Our cartoonist on the trouble at Anfield after Egyptian’s stinging response to being dropped by Arne Slot

• David’s favourite cartoons of 2025 | Buy one here

• And his latest book, Chaos in the Box: get it now

Nigerian troops held in Burkina Faso after ‘unfriendly’ emergency landing

Unauthorised touchdown comes less than 24 hours after Nigerian forces intervened in attempted coup in Benin

Eleven Nigerian military personnel are being held in Burkina Faso after a Nigerian plane reportedly entered Burkinabé airspace without authorisation on Monday, the latest twist in a region enmeshed in multiple political and security crises.

In a statement on Monday evening, the breakaway Alliance of Sahel States (AES), of which Burkina Faso is a member alongside Mali and Niger, said the C-130 transport aircraft had made an emergency landing in Bobo Dioulasso.

Democrats see Miami mayoral race as litmus test on Trump economy, immigration

National Democrats have deployed resources for County Commissioner Eileen Higgins, while Mr. Trump has endorsed former City Manager Emilio Gonzalez.

Growing pains: the struggle to make a must-see gen Z TV show

Hollywood is still trying to court younger audiences but this year’s crop of new comedies, from Adults to I Love LA, have yet to prove essential

This year, despite not particularly liking the show nor wanting to, I have thought a lot about the opening scene to Adults. The FX half-hour comedy about a group of recent college graduates in New York begins, naturally, on the subway; what seems like an over-studied portrait of early adulthood intimacy – tangled limbs, in-group references, aggressively relaxed banter – quickly devolves into a standoff between a creepy subway masturbator and the group’s instigator, Issa (Amita Rao), trying to out-masturbate him to make a wildly off point about feminism. “Is this the world you want?!?” she shouts at him, hand vigorously in pants.

The moment is intentionally off-putting, perhaps too much so – I’m as ripe as anyone for surprise, but found the try-hardness of this shock memorably irksome. Yet it’s also unintentionally revealing: this, it implicitly screams, is a show to get young people’s attention. A similar anxiety courses through the opening of I Love LA, HBO’s west-coast rejoinder to Adults that is similarly pitched as a zeitgeist-y take on the thrilling chaos of young adulthood. We meet Maia, played by creator and co-writer Rachel Sennott, mid-sex with her boyfriend, heedlessly determined to come before going to work, even if it means ignoring an earthquake.

We asked critics from authoritarian regimes what they wish they’d known sooner. Here’s what they said

Critics from Hungary, El Salvador and Turkey offer advice to the US about what they’ve learned about authoritarians

Donald Trump makes no secret of his admiration for strongmen like Hungary’s Viktor Orbán or El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele. Last month, he praised Orbán’s hardline stance on immigration and urged European leaders to show more “respect” for the president; earlier this year his administration struck a deal with Bukele to send more than 200 detained migrants to a notorious, maximum-security prison in El Salvador.

Many international organizations, experts and historians have sounded the alarm about the United States heading in a similar direction as these authoritarian regimes.

‘There’s no longer a heartbeat’: the couple whose twins were stillborn – and the ‘birth keeper’ they blame

Soon-to-be parents hired a woman they believed would act as a licensed midwife. But she in fact belonged to a radical society that was linked to baby deaths around the world

• Read more of the Guardian’s investigations into the Free Birth Society

Ernesta Chirwa recalls the jarring moment the woman she presumed was her midwife said something unexpected. Caitlyn Collins was driving her to hospital after 6am, on 15 February 2022. “She said,” says Chirwa, who is 30 and lives in Cape Town, “Please don’t mention to the nurses that we were trying to have a home birth.”

Chirwa was in too much pain to speak – she was in active labour. But she remembers feeling surprised. “Why,” Chirwa recalls, “is she asking us not to mention that we were trying to have a home birth?”

Skate Story review – hellish premise aside, this is skateboarding paradise

Sam Eng/Devolver Digital, PC, PS5, Switch 2
An exquisitely fluid game of tricks, grinds and manuals is framed by a story that uncovers the poignancy of the infamously painful pastime

Skateboarding video games live and die by their vibe. The original Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater titles were anarchic, arcade fun while the recent return of EA’s beloved Skate franchise offered competent yet jarringly corporate realism. Skate Story, which is mostly the work of solo developer Sam Eng, offers a more impressionistic interpretation while capturing something of the sport’s essential spirit. It transposes the boarding action to a demonic underworld where the aesthetic is less fire and brimstone than glittering, 2010s-era vaporwave. It is also the most emotionally real a skateboarding game has ever felt.

The premise is ingenious: you are a demon made out of “pain and glass”. Skate to the moon and swallow it, says the devil, and you shall be freed. So that is exactly what you do. You learn to ollie first, a “delicate, precise trick” according to the artfully written in-game text. Then come the pop shuvit, kickflip, heelflip and more.

A 101-year-old runs the largest nutcracker museum in the U.S. Here's a look inside

Arlene Wagner has been collecting nutcrackers for nearly 50 years. Now, she's got one of the largest collections in the world, housed at the Leavenworth Nutcracker Museum in Washington.

The GOP has allowed Trump to expand his authority. Here's where they're pushing back

Republicans in Congress have shown some willingness to push back on President Trump, but it is not clear how far they are willing to push back against the leader of their own party.

Machado to accept Nobel as fight against Venezuelan regime intensifies

As María Corina Machado is set to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, the Venezuelan opposition leader is betting everything on her prediction of an imminent political transition.

Google hit with EU antitrust investigation over use of online content for AI

It's the latest in a string of actions the European Commission has taken against U.S. big tech companies.

Sen. Van Hollen urges Democrats to stand for something — not just be anti-Trump

Democrats have become the party of the status quo, says Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland. He's urging members of his party to craft sharper election messages and back new voices in the party.

‘Food and fossil fuel production causing $5bn of environmental damage an hour’

UN GEO report says ending this harm key to global transformation required ‘before collapse becomes inevitable’

The unsustainable production of food and fossil fuels causes $5bn (£3.8bn) of environmental damage per hour, according to a major UN report.

Ending this harm was a key part of the global transformation of governance, economics and finance required “before collapse becomes inevitable”, the experts said.

This month’s best paperbacks: Emmanuel Carrère, Mary Trump and more

Looking for a new reading recommendation? Here are some brilliant new paperbacks, from a festive mystery to a kaleidoscopic ode to the animal kingdom

12/8: CBS Evening News

Trump responds after Marjorie Taylor Greene discusses their falling out; Altadena brings Christmas Tree Lane back to life after devastating fire.

Trump clears way for Nvidia to sell powerful AI chips to China

Commerce department finalising deal to allow H200 chips to be sold to China as strict Biden-era restrictions relaxed

Donald Trump has cleared the way for Nvidia to begin selling its powerful AI computer chips to China, marking a win for the chip maker and its CEO, Jensen Huang, who has spent months lobbying the White House to open up sales in the country.

Before Monday’s announcement, the US had prohibited sales of Nvidia’s most advanced chips to China over national security concerns.

Emile Heskey: ‘Gone are the times when you just ignore abuse. No. Why should we?’

The former England striker on stepping up to tackle racism, protecting his sons and Liverpool’s woes

Emile Heskey was about 14 years old when he was chased from Leicester City’s old Filbert Street stadium all the way into town by a man shouting racist abuse. He was a Leicester fan who had no idea he was abusing a player who would go on to help his club win promotion to the Premier League and two League Cups before a move to Liverpool for what, at the time, was the club’s record transfer fee.

“Fast forward three years that same guy would’ve been chanting my name in the stadium,” Heskey says now. “This is our reality.”

Sabastian Sawe: the marathon star on a mission to be drug tested as much as possible | Sean Ingle

This year’s London Marathon winner deserves credit for offering more than enough proof he is clean while setting a new standard for other athletes to follow

Last week the world’s best marathon runner, Sabastian Sawe, looked me straight in the eye and told me “doping is a cancer”. Then he insisted he was clean. You hear such oaths and affirmations all the time. But, uniquely, Sawe recently backed up those words by asking the Athletics Integrity Unit to test him as much as possible.

You see, Sawe believed he could break the world record in Berlin in September. And he also understood that Kenya’s abysmal doping record meant that success would be met with more raised eyebrows than a plastic surgeon’s clinic in Hollywood. So the call went into the AIU. Test me. Repeatedly. Throw everything at it. My sponsors, Adidas, will pick up the bill.

Noël, coal and control: Strasbourg’s festive blip strikes again as Rosenior feels heat

English manager says ‘it’s not the time to panic’ but Alsace club want a return on their €100m+ summer investment

By Get French Football News

As one of the few areas of France which celebrate Saint Nicholas Day, Alsace had festive processions and performances taking place across the region last Saturday. The travelling Strasbourg fans, though, were in no mood for a party on their way back from Toulouse after a third consecutive defeat.

“It’s not the time to panic,” Liam Rosenior insisted after his Strasbourg team failed to find a response to Emersonn’s early opener for Les Violets. “We have to stay consistent and keep working hard. I won’t change our style of play, because it’s brought us success.”

Zimbabwe’s only female heart surgeon on medicine, misogyny and making a difference

Despite the challenges of working in a healthcare system in crisis, Kudzai Kanyepi has resisted the temptation to move abroad

When Dr Kudzai Kanyepi qualified as Zimbabwe’s first female cardiothoracic surgeon four years ago, she was filled with pride and anticipation after succeeding in an area long dominated by men. She was only the 12th woman in Africa to qualify in the field – four more have joined her since.

Even now, with 100 operations under her belt, the reality of working in a role in which she confronts misogyny and discrimination daily has not dented Kanyepi’s love of the surgical theatre.

UK households bin 168m Christmas lights and ‘fast tech’ items a year

Consumers spent £1.7bn on festive lighting last year and much of it is treated as disposable

UK households have thrown away an estimated 168m light-up Christmas items and other “fast-tech” gifts over the past year, a study suggests.

The research by the non-profit group Material Focus found about £1.7bn was spent last year on Christmas lighting, including 39m sets of fairy lights.

Australia deporting refugee to Nauru may cause his ‘imminent’ and ‘preventable’ death, court hears

Legal team of man who was part of cohort of non-citizens freed after high court decision argues Nauru’s medical facilities are ‘insufficient’ to treat his severe asthma

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Lawyers for an Iranian refugee Australia wants to deport to Nauru say there is a “real risk he will die” there, setting the stage for a showdown against the federal government’s $2.5bn NZYQ deal.

The case surrounding the Iranian refugee, known as TCXM, who was granted a 30-year visa for Nauru in February and subsequently placed back into immigration detention after being freed by the 2023 high court ruling, was heard in the high court on Tuesday.

Back to their roots: a brief history of trees – in pictures

Over 120 years ago, a monumental work recording more than 500 species of tree in Britain and Ireland was published. A new version focuses on the pioneering images it contained

‘This is the real Santa’s workshop’: a trip to Germany’s toy village

You don’t have to be a child to enjoy Seiffen, the magical ‘home of Christmas’ where they’ve been making traditional wooden toys for hundreds of years

I feel terrible … I’ve left the children at home and Seiffen, nicknamed Spielzeugdorf (The Toy Village), is literally a Christmas wonderland. Every street is alive with sparkling fairy lights and soft candlelight. There are thousands of tiny wooden figurines, train sets and toy animals displayed in shop windows, wooden pyramids taller than doorframes and colourful nutcracker characters. Forget elves in the north pole, this is the real Santa’s workshop. For hundreds of years, here in the village of Seiffen, wood turners and carvers have created classic wooden Christmas toys and sold them around the world.

Near the border of the Czech Republic, Seiffen may be well known in the German-speaking world as the “home of Christmas”, but so far it has been largely missed by English-speaking seasonal tourists. Tucked away in the Ore Mountains, about an hour and a half south of Dresden, it is not the easiest place to get to by public transport – the nearest train station is in Olbernhau, nearly 7 miles (11km) away. Buses are available, but we opt for a hire car and make our way into the hills, arriving the day after the first snowfall of the year. The roads are cleared quickly, but snow clings to the branches of the spruce trees. We half expect to see the Gruffalo’s child, but only spot a rust-coloured fox making its way through a fresh field of snow.

Reform campaign for Farage’s Clacton seat was a ‘juggernaut’, say candidates

Defeated Tory and Labour rivals describe force of Reform ‘machine’ as police assess claims of overspending

The Tory and Labour candidates who Nigel Farage beat to win his Westminster seat of Clacton have described a Reform campaign that felt like a “juggernaut”, as police began assessing claims of overspending by the Reform UK leader.

The candidates spoke after a former aide alleged that Reform UK falsely reported election expenses in Clacton, where Farage won in last year’s general election. On Monday, Essex police said they were assessing a report of “alleged misreported expenditure by a political party” after a referral from the Metropolitan police.

Festive treats: Adriann Ramirez’s recipes for pumpkin loaf and gingerbread cookies

Two easy bakes to share or gift: soft and peppery gingerbread cookies and a ginger and pumpkin loaf with spiced lemon icing

As a self-proclaimed America’s sweetheart (Julia Roberts isn’t using that title any more, is she?) who moved to the UK nearly 10 years ago, there are a few British traditions and customs that I have adopted, especially around Christmas time. However, there are also a few American ones that I hold on to staunchly: one is the pronunciation of “aluminum”, and another is the importance and beauty of a soft cookie. In both of these easy but delicious bakes to share, I use spice and heat to balance the usual sweetness with which the season can often overload us.

Caribbean reefs have lost 48% of hard coral since 1980, study finds

‘Destructive’ marine heatwaves driving loss of microalgae that feed coral, says Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network

Caribbean reefs have half as much hard coral now as they did in 1980, a study has found.

The 48% decrease in coral cover has been driven by climate breakdown, specifically marine heatwaves. They affect the microalgae that feed coral, making them toxic and forcing the coral to expel them.

12/1: Face the Nation

This week on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,"a look at President-elect Donald Trump's controversial decision to top Kash Patel to lead the FBI — although there isn't a vacancy at the top of the FBI. Plus, in the closing days of the Biden administration, the White House tries to secure last-minute diplomatic breakthroughs.

UK households cut spending at fastest pace in almost five years, says Barclays

Bank reports 1.1% drop in card spending despite Black Friday boost for retailers

UK households cut back on spending at the fastest pace in almost five years last month as consumers put Christmas shopping on hold, according to a leading survey.

Adding to concerns that uncertainty surrounding the budget has helped dampen consumer confidence, Barclays said card spending fell 1.1% year on year in November – the largest fall since February 2021.

‘Don’t pander to the tech giants!’ How a youth movement for digital justice is spreading across Europe

Gen Z are the first generation to have grown up with social media, they were the earliest adopters, and therefore the first to suffer its harms. Now they are fighting back

Late one night in April 2020, towards the start of the Covid lockdowns, Shanley Clémot McLaren was scrolling on her phone when she noticed a Snapchat post by her 16-year-old sister. “She’s basically filming herself from her bed, and she’s like: ‘Guys you shouldn’t be doing this. These fisha accounts are really not OK. Girls, please protect yourselves.’ And I’m like: ‘What is fisha?’ I was 21, but I felt old,” she says.

She went into her sister’s bedroom, where her sibling showed her a Snapchat account named “fisha” plus the code of their Paris suburb. Fisha is French slang for publicly shaming someone – from the verb “afficher”, meaning to display or make public. The account contained intimate images of girls from her sister’s school and dozens of others, “along with the personal data of the victims – their names, phone numbers, addresses, everything to find them, everything to put them in danger”.

It’s the world’s rarest ape. Now a billion-dollar dig for gold threatens its future

Tapanuli orangutans survive only in Indonesia’s Sumatran rainforest where a mine expansion will cut through their home. Yet the mining company says the alternative will be worse

A small brown line snakes its way through the rainforest in northern Sumatra, carving 300 metres through dense patches of meranti trees, oak and mahua. Picked up by satellites, the access road – though modest now – will soon extend 2km to connect with the Tor Ulu Ala pit, an expansion site of Indonesia’s Martabe mine. The road will help to unlock valuable deposits of gold, worth billions of dollars in today’s booming market. But such wealth could come at a steep cost to wildlife and biodiversity: the extinction of the world’s rarest ape, the Tapanuli orangutan.

The network of access roads planned for this swath of tropical rainforest will cut through habitat critical to the survival of the orangutans, scientists say. The Tapanuli (Pongo tapanuliensis), unique to Indonesia, was only discovered by scientists to be a separate species in 2017 – distinct from the Sumatran and Bornean apes. Today, there are fewer than 800 Tapanulis left in an area that covers as little as 2.5% of their historical range. All are found in Sumatra’s fragile Batang Toru ecosystem, bordered on its south-west flank by the Martabe mine, which began operations in 2012.

Walking into disaster: the narcotrafficking scandal that blew up the BVI

When the new premier of the British Virgin Islands said he needed an armed security detail, his chief of police knew trouble was on its way

Augustus James Ulysses Jaspert, Gus for short, arrived in Tortola, the largest of the British Virgin Islands, on 21 August 2017, just two weeks away from catastrophe. Jaspert, who was in his late 30s, had recently been appointed governor by Queen Elizabeth II, on the recommendation of the Foreign Office in London. The BVI is an overseas territory of Britain, with only partial independence, and the governor effectively acts as a backstop to the locally elected legislature. For Jaspert, a career civil servant, it would be his first hands-on experience of governing – and his first time in the British Virgin Islands. Any trepidation was outweighed by the prospect of moving to the Caribbean. “If you’re sitting in an office in London and someone says, ‘Go to Tortola,’ you look it up on a screen and think, ‘OK, I can do that,’” Jaspert told me.

While Jaspert, his wife and two sons were settling into their new life, a tropical storm gathered over the Atlantic. At first, forecasters weren’t unduly alarmed, but in the first days of September, the storm transformed into something much worse. In the afternoon of 6 September, Hurricane Irma made landfall in Tortola, which is home to the majority of the BVI’s 30,000-strong population. Irma was one of the strongest hurricanes ever recorded in the Atlantic basin. It scalped buildings, blew out windows and removed entire floors from homes. Shipping containers smashed into the islanders’ fishing boats and the out-of-towners’ yachts.

Jasmine Crockett announces campaign for Texas Democratic Senate primary

Rep. Jasmine Crockett filed paperwork to run for U.S. Senate just hours before the state's deadline — and hours after fellow Democrat Colin Allred dropped out.

12/4: CBS Evening News

Luigi Mangione arrest video played in court as defense fights evidence; $1.6 million raised for 88-year-old man working at grocery store

Trump walks back support for releasing video of second boat strike

Over the weekend, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth declined to commit to releasing video of a September boat strike operation.

Marjorie Prime review – Cynthia Nixon steals sad, and spotty, sci-fi revival

Hayes Theater, New York

The return of the 2014 play, now starring June Squibb as an octogenarian using a tech program to speak to her dead husband, veers between poetry and cliche

When Jordan Harrison’s play Marjorie Prime first premiered in 2014, its vision of synthetic sentience may have felt pretty novel. An old woman, Marjorie, talking to a hologram modeled after her long-dead husband perhaps seemed like a wild, far-fetched idea, that a computer program could somehow closely mimic the cadence of real conversation, could fake intimate knowledge of a person’s life. What a strange and alienating idea.

Just 11 years later (and eight years after a little-seen film adaptation), Marjorie Prime plays far more credibly. We may not have the hologram technology down quite yet, but everything else in Harrison’s AI speculation now seems well within reason. Perhaps that’s why Second Stage Theater decided to revive the play in its Broadway house, an attempt at commenting, and capitalizing, on the excited buzz and nervous chatter surrounding recent technological advancements.

ICEBlock developer sues U.S. government after DOJ demanded Apple remove app from store

The developer of the ICEBlock app sued the U.S. government for alleged free speech infringements.