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This is from Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, on Nigel Farage’s denial of the FT story. (See .)
A handy reminder that in 2019 Farage did a deal to put Boris Johnson in No10 and push through his disastrous Brexit deal.
But instead of taking responsibility, of course Farage plays the victim.

A federal judge in Eugene has ordered that a suspect in the burglaries that targeted the Asian American community remain in federal custody.34-year-old Derinson ...

The American Jewish tradition of Chinese food on Christmas has now achieved apotheosis in the form of a unique babka from Mamahuhu and Loquat.

Commission unveils €3bn strategy to de-risk and diversify supply chains for critical rare earth metals and elements

The EU is considering legally forcing industries to reduce purchases from China to insulate Europe from future hostile acts, the industry commissioner, Stéphane Séjourné, says.
He made his remarks as the European Commission unveiled a €3bn (£2.63bn) strategy to reduce its dependency on China for critical raw materials amid a global scramble caused by Beijing’s “weaponisation” of supplies of everything from chips to rare earths.

The authorities quickly arrested critics demanding accountability, signaling an expansive use of the security law to silence dissent over nonpolitical tragedies.

Joe Kahn, The New York Times’s executive editor, was asked about how we cover the news and make judgment calls in our reporting and editing.

New date to approve site near Tower Bridge in London aligns with Keir Starmer’s planned visit to Beijing
The government has delayed its decision on whether to approve in London until January, when Keir Starmer is expected to visit Beijing.
Ministers are expected to greenlight the controversial plans after formal submissions by the Home Office and Foreign Office raised no objections on security grounds.

Backed by Sam Altman and Peter Thiel, Brinc founder Blake Resnick is on his way to making his quadcopters the top choice for America’s cops—if only he can get the federal government to ban his primary ...

December brings many early holiday celebrations, from lively concerts held at Cambridge’s Club Passim to Boston’s annual production of “Black Nativity” based on a work by Langston Hughes. There is ...

Hong Kong media mogul has suffered dramatic weight loss and other worrying ailments since being jailed in 2020, Lai’s family say
The children of Hong Kong’s jailed pro-democracy media mogul have voiced new alarm for his health, describing his dramatic weight loss, teeth rotting and nails turning green before falling off.
Lai, who turns 78 next Monday, has been as clamps down on the financial hub to which it promised a separate system when Britain handed it over in 1997.

Report says ‘systemic failures’ led to collapse of trial, but found no evidence of UK government interference
Parliament’s security committee has criticised prosecutors for accused of spying for Beijing, in a damning report that concluded the handling of the case was “shambolic”.
MPs said that a process “beset by confusion and misaligned expectations” and “inadequate” communication between the government and Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) had contributed to the collapse of the trial, while several “opportunities to correct course were missed”.
It was “unclear” why the CPS had concluded that a July 2024 ruling concerning a Bulgarian spy ring “altered the legal landscape so significantly” that they had to change their approach.
It was “surprised” the CPS had deemed the government’s evidence insufficient to put to a jury when it had set out how China “posed a range of threats to the United Kingdom’s national security” that “amounted to a more general active threat”.
The government “did not have sufficiently clear processes for escalating issues where there was a lack of clarity” and “the level of senior oversight” from cabinet ministers and national security advisers “was insufficiently robust”.

A wave of Chinese fast-food and beverage brands is entering the US, chasing growth abroad as competition and falling margins squeeze their home market.