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Posted by Shrai Popat

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2025/dec/10/trump-us-politics-live-updates

Richard M Berman cites passage of Epstein Files Transparency Act, which requires the DoJ to release all Epstein records by 19 December

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has signed a $140m contract to buy a fleet of six Boeing 737 planes to carry out deportations, according to a report by the Washington Post.

The Post cites two officials familiar with the contract and records reviewed by the outlet, who note that the funding for the commercial aircraft is coming from the $170bn injection that DHS received after the One Big Beautiful Bill Act was signed into law.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2025/dec/10/trump-us-politics-live-updates

Posted by Jakub Krupa

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2025/dec/10/volodymyr-zelenskyy-ukraine-election-russia-europe-latest-news-updates

European leaders confirm that they spoke with the US president earlier today about ‘the state of talks’

Jørgen Watne Frydnes, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, is now delivering his opening speech.

It’s a damning verdict on Maduro’s authoritarian rule in Venezuela, as he talks about a number of figures facing repression and torture from the regime.

“As we sit here in Oslo City Hall, innocent people are locked away in dark cells in Venezuela. They cannot hear the speeches given today – only the screams of prisoners being tortured.”

Venezuela has evolved into a brutal, authoritarian state facing a deep humanitarian and economic crisis. Meanwhile, a small elite at the top – shielded by political power, weapons and legal impunity – enriches itself.

“A quarter of the population has already fled the country – one of the world’s largest refugee crises.

Those who remain live under a regime that systematically silences, harasses and attacks the opposition.”

“Venezuela is not alone in this darkness. The world is on the wrong track. The authoritarians are gaining.

We must ask the inconvenient question:

“Authoritarian regimes learn from each other. They share technology and propaganda systems. Behind Maduro stand Cuba, Russia, Iran, China and Hezbollah – providing weapons, surveillance and economic lifelines. They make the regime more robust, and more brutal.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2025/dec/10/volodymyr-zelenskyy-ukraine-election-russia-europe-latest-news-updates

Posted by Chandra Brown

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/dec/10/whale-ecosystem-death-anchorage-alaska

A fin whale washed ashore in Anchorage and was left there for months. Then a self-described ‘wacko’ museum director made a plan

When a whale dies, its body descends to the bottom of the deep sea in a transformative phenomenon called a whale fall. A whale’s death jump-starts an explosion of life, enough to feed and sustain a deep-ocean ecosystem for decades.

There are a lot of ways whales can die. Migrating whales lose their way and, unable to find their way back from unfamiliar waters, are stranded. They can starve when prey disappears or fall to predators such as orcas. They become bycatch, tangled in fishing lines and nets. Mass whale deaths have been linked to marine heatwaves and the toxic algae blooms that follow.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/dec/10/whale-ecosystem-death-anchorage-alaska

Posted by Jonathan Liew

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/dec/10/luke-littler-pdc-world-darts-championship-darts

Defending champion is a phenomenon and the indisputable titan of the game with a sense of inevitability at the Alexandra Palace extravaganza

You will be seeing plenty of Batman and Wonder Woman over the coming weeks; Spiderman, Mr Incredible, perhaps even a Ninja Turtle or two. Yes, Christmas at Alexandra Palace is always a good time for spotting superheroes. But only one of them will not be wearing a costume.

In fact, it is when he is in his normal human clothes, doing normal human things, that Luke Littler looks at his most incongruous. Standing with his fellow Manchester United fans in the away end at Molineux. Proudly brandishing a fresh driving certificate after finally passing his test. And it is in these more unguarded moments that you remember that the man they call The Nuke, the phenomenon who has detonated the sport of darts, is really still just a kid, a regular lad from Warrington with a deeply irregular talent.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/dec/10/luke-littler-pdc-world-darts-championship-darts

Posted by Katherine Butler, associate editor, Europe

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/dec/10/donald-trump-europe-leaders-this-is-europe

The White House has formalised its contempt for ‘decaying’ Europe with an ominous plan to undermine the EU and boost the far right

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Almost half of EU citizens regard Donald Trump as an enemy of Europe, a new survey across nine countries revealed last week. The poll, conducted for the French debate platform Le Grand Continent, found that across Europe, Trumpism is considered “a hostile force”.

The new US foreign policy doctrine published by the White House on Friday will have heightened these respondents’ worst fears. The 30-page National Security Strategy landed like a bombshell in Europe. And citizens may have been out in front of their political leaders in figuring out what Trump’s worldview could mean for Europeans.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/dec/10/donald-trump-europe-leaders-this-is-europe

Posted by Erica Jeal

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/dec/10/ariodante-review-dysfunctional-royals-and-designer-dresses-in-handel-with-a-disjunct

Royal Opera House, London
There’s a top-notch cast and detailed work from all involved in Jetske Mijnssen’s production that reframes Handel’s opera as a modern family psychodrama.

Handel was at the top of his game when he composed Ariodante, pushing gently at the boundaries of operatic convention, and writing some of his most captivating music. It had its premiere in 1735 at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden, where the Royal Opera House now stands. Then it was positively demanded that composers and librettists magic up a happy ending from even the most tragic story, sending audiences away uplifted, and Handel duly delivered. However, audiences for the Royal Opera’s new production – surprisingly, its first since that premiere, unless you count a streamed concert during lockdown – might come away with more contradictory feelings.

The director Jetske Mijnssen, making her Covent Garden debut, is not convinced by that forced happy ending – which, after her staging of Wagner’s Parsifal at Glyndebourne this summer, won’t come as a big surprise. Like the latter piece, here again is a dysfunctional royal family. We’re in the modern palace of a besuited, ailing king; the five children playing at weddings around the dining table during the overture reappear as adults, becoming his two daughters and their three suitors.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/dec/10/ariodante-review-dysfunctional-royals-and-designer-dresses-in-handel-with-a-disjunct

Posted by Luke McLaughlin

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/dec/10/leicesters-parling-backs-crackdown-on-escort-defenders-as-pretty-positive

• Tigers head coach welcomes impact of refereeing changes

• Move to more kicking has ‘opened up the game’

Geoff Parling, the Leicester head coach, has defended the crackdown on escort defenders, saying the impact of refereeing changes that promote more kicking has been “pretty positive”.

Parling’s comments come after Ross Byrne attacked the revised law interpretations around contestable kicks on Monday. The Gloucester fly-half argued a potential knock-on effect would be for international coaches to convert second-rows into wings for the next men’s Rugby World Cup in 2027.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/dec/10/leicesters-parling-backs-crackdown-on-escort-defenders-as-pretty-positive

Posted by Jon Henley Europe correspondent

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/dec/10/afd-responds-to-trump-erasure-claims-with-call-for-nationalist-revival-in-europe

Continent’s other nationalist parties wary of echoing sentiments of US president due to his unpopularity

• Europe live – latest updates

Germany’s far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) has responded to US claims that Europe faces “civilisational erasure” by saying it backs efforts for a nationalist revival on the continent – but other nationalist parties in the EU are far more cautious.

“The AfD is fighting alongside its international friends for a conservative renaissance,” the party’s foreign policy spokesperson, Markus Frohnmaier, said on Wednesday, adding that he would meet Maga Republicans in Washington and New York this week.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/dec/10/afd-responds-to-trump-erasure-claims-with-call-for-nationalist-revival-in-europe