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Kyiv urges stronger action against ‘shadow fleet’ after Russia strikes Ukraine overnight – Europe live

Meanwhile, the country’s prime minister, Yulia Svyrydenko, offered a bit more detail on the power and water supply outages in the aftermath of the Russian attacks overnight. In a short update on Telegram, she said that work was under way to restore power to “more than 500,000 consumers” in Kyiv, after damage to substations, lines and generation facilities. She said “the enemy purposefully attacked district boiler houses – this is energy terror and an attempt to turn winter into a weapon.”

Russia fires hypersonic Oreshnik missile at Ukraine in massive attack

Russia’s military has said it fired its new hypersonic Oreshnik missile at a target in Ukraine during a massive overnight strike. Ukraine confirmed the attack, saying it took place in the west of the country near the European Union border. Moscow said the launch of the intermediate-range ballistic missile was retaliation for a supposed attempted Ukrainian drone attack on Vladimir Putin’s residence late last month – an allegation both Kyiv and Washington have said is false. Ukraine’s foreign minister said the use of an Oreshnik missile so close to the EU and Nato border posed a “grave threat” to European security and called on partners to increase pressure on Moscow. Kyiv also dismissed Russia’s attempts to justify the strike, calling them “absurd”. The governor of Ukraine’s western Lviv region said Russian strikes had damaged a critical infrastructure facility. Unverified social media reports suggested the site may have been a large underground gas storage facility. Russia first used the Oreshnik – named after the Russian word for hazel tree – in November 2024, when Moscow said it struck a Ukrainian military-industrial facility. Ukrainian officials and analysts at the time said the missile carried dummy warheads rather than explosives and caused limited damage. Initial reports suggest the Oreshnik used in Friday’s strike may again have carried inert warheads, indicating the launch was largely symbolic. The strike came days after Ukraine’s European allies agreed to provide key elements of postwar security guarantees in the event of a ceasefire with Russia. President Putin has repeatedly invoked the Oreshnik in recent months as a threat against both Ukraine and the west, warning it could be used against countries that supply Kyiv weapons to strike targets inside Russia with longer-range missiles. The Russian leader has claimed the intermediate-range missile is impossible to intercept because of its speed – which he says exceeds 10 times the speed of sound – and that its destructive power rivals that of a nuclear weapon even when armed with a conventional warhead. Some western analysts have expressed scepticism about those claims, though Ukraine has no air defence systems capable of intercepting the missile. Russian forces also carried out overnight strikes on Kyiv, hitting several districts of the Ukrainian capital. At least one person was killed, according to Tymur Tkachenko, the head of the Kyiv City Military Administration. Five rescue workers were injured while responding to the attacks, Ukraine’s security service said. The Oreshnik launch capped a week in which Ukraine and its European allies said they had made significant progress on plans for postwar security guarantees. On Tuesday, Britain and France said they were prepared to deploy troops to Ukraine following a future peace agreement – a major commitment under discussion for months. Russia’s foreign ministry rejected the idea on Thursday, calling the prospect of western troops in Ukraine a “direct threat”, a position that again casts doubt on the prospects for a negotiated peace.

Friday briefing: Trump tactics could leave office with him – or the US could descend into a rogue state

Good morning. Paramilitary-style troops deployed on the streets of major cities fatally shooting citizens; vessels seized in international waters; a foreign head of state captured; cherished cultural institutions dismantled; a judiciary installed and seemingly in thrall to the regime; and the mooted breaching of presidential term limits. It sounds like the background to a spy thriller about a rogue state. Yet some argue that the Trump administration in the US has done all of these things – and more – in the space of just a year in office. The question is whether these developments are merely episodic flashes of the chaos we have come to associate with Donald Trump, or signs of a deeper, longer-term transformation in the character of American power. For today’s newsletter, I spoke to Peter Trubowitz, professor of international relations and director of the Phelan United States Centre at the London School of Economics and associate fellow at Chatham House, to ask whether the US is genuinely descending into something that can be described as a rogue state – with failing institutions at home and a might-is-right policy abroad that threatens foes and allies alike. Before that, the news headlines. Five big stories UK politics | Thirty-four school contemporaries of Nigel Farage have now come forward to claim they saw him behave in a racist or antisemitic manner, raising fresh questions over the Reform leader’s evolving denials. Minneapolis | The FBI has taken full control of the investigation into the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency officer in Minneapolis. Health | Scientists say they have “rejuvenated” human eggs for the first time in an advance that they predict could revolutionise IVF success rates for older women. Venezuela | The US is receiving full cooperation from Venezuela’s regime and will control the country and its vast oil reserves for years, Donald Trump has claimed. Greenland | Peter Mandelson has accused European leaders including Keir Starmer of a “histrionic” reaction to Donald Trump’s plan to take over Greenland, arguing that without “hard power and hard cash” they will continue to slide into unimportance in the “age of Trump”. In depth: ‘Trump’s not bothering to justify his actions legally – for him, this is about power’ Taking the Trump administration’s decisions together, the issue many commentators are now grappling with is not simply whether individual actions by the US are controversial – or even legal – but whether they point to a broader erosion of democratic norms. Does the country’s domestic and international posture now look less like that of a “respectable western democracy”, and more like something that would be labelled rogue or dysfunctional were it not a nuclear-armed superpower with unparalleled global influence? *** Is this a permanent shift? Peter Trubowitz is cautious about declaring that a settled doctrine is already in place. “I don’t think there is one clear, overarching grand strategy informing the administration’s foreign policy,” he tells me, describing competing agendas jostling for control within Trump’s orbit. One strand, he says, is a renewed focus on asserting US dominance in the western hemisphere – something that helps explain the dramatic intervention in Venezuela. But it sits alongside other, sometimes contradictory, impulses: Wall Street figures seeking to reshape the global order through tariffs and the dollar, and powerful tech interests pushing for a world of weakened states and open borders for capital. That is leaving US policy volatile rather than coherent. Trump himself, Trubowitz argues, has yet to commit fully to any one of these paths. “I don’t think he’s planted his flag permanently in one camp or the other,” he says, adding that for now the administration’s emphasis appears firmly regional. Whether that hardens into a coherent worldview remains, in his words, “TBD”. The timing of the Venezuela operation also mattered. It came at a politically convenient moment for Trump, pushing coverage of the Epstein files off the front pages – even if just 1% of those documents have been released so far. Domestically, the administration has also faced accusations of “vindictive” and “cruel” decision-making after moves to halt more than $10bn in childcare and family assistance funding. *** Saying the quiet part out loud In an opinion piece for us earlier this week, Jan-Werner Müller argued that the Trump doctrine had exposed the US as a mafia state. And for those old enough to remember decades of American military and economic interventions, there is an obvious counter-argument: hasn’t Washington always thrown its weight around – just with nicer rhetoric? Trubowitz largely agrees with that premise, with one important caveat. What marks this moment out is not simply what the administration is doing, but how nakedly it is doing it. “Trump’s not even bothering to try to justify them legally,” he says. “For him, this is about power.” Where previous administrations wrapped interventions in the language of democracy or security – the Bush administration’s case for Iraq, as cynical as it might have been, being the clearest example – Trump is far more explicit. “He knows America has the power and the leverage to get Venezuela’s resources, full stop,” Trubowitz says. “That’s what Trumpism is about.” That bluntness, he argues, is shocking not because it is unprecedented, but because it strips away the diplomatic fictions that once allowed allies to look the other way. *** A post-Trump future Trump will not be in power for ever – even if term limits were abolished, one assumes that nature will eventually take its course – but Trubowitz warns against assuming that US institutions will simply “snap back” once he is gone. Some of the damage, he argues, is likely to be permanent. The gutting of USAID is one example he cites of an institution that may not recover, even if Democrats regain control of Congress or the White House in future elections and increase spending on foreign aid. More broadly, he sees Trump pursuing at home what he practises abroad: the leveraging of power to reshape the system in his favour. (It is, incidentally, well worth having a dig into Charlotte Higgins’s Long read from yesterday, where she looked at Trump’s assault on the Smithsonian as part of his aim to kill off so-called “woke” by tackling art institutions.) “What Trump is really pursuing is the idea of the unitary executive,” Trubowitz says – the belief that the president should enjoy unconstrained authority over domestic and foreign policy alike. The idea itself is not new, having been explored during the Reagan era, but the political conditions now are radically different. The US is far more polarised, making it easier for a president to force party discipline and neutralise internal dissent. Trump, Trubowitz argues, is both a product of that polarisation and an accelerant of it. The consequences extend well beyond the state. Universities, cultural institutions and the corporate US have all shown a willingness to bend the knee, he says – while much of big tech has embraced an agenda of deregulation and a weaker central state. In that context, the spectacle of even prominent Republicans such as Marjorie Taylor Greene briefly standing up to Trump – and then retreating – has only underlined how narrow the space for resistance has become. *** How could the world deal with a rogue US state? I wrote a First Edition featuring our diplomatic editor Patrick Wintour earlier this week, discussing why European leaders are so reluctant to go on record with criticism of Trump’s actions – essentially for fear it will jeopardise US support over Ukraine. That caution looks increasingly understandable. US participation in international institutions is no longer a given. In a presidential memorandum issued this week, Trump withdrew from the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, along with 65 other organisations, agencies and commissions, calling them “contrary to the interests” of his country – a move that cements Washington’s isolation from global efforts to tackle accelerating climate breakdown. Trubowitz, who was at the University of Texas in Austin before joining the LSE in 2013, tells me he has always taught international and domestic policy because to him the two are closely intertwined: “Donald Trump has made that much clearer than previous presidents.” The rest of the world, he suggests, may now have to reckon with a US whose behaviour abroad increasingly mirrors the political logic reshaping it at home. What else we’ve been reading As Israeli bombs continued to annihilate her Gaza homeland, Taqwa Ahmed al-Wawi writes powerfully of her family’s quiet act of rebellion: they planted a garden amid death and destruction. Aamna Torvajanica in Italy had long been a place of sanctuary for the LGBTQ+ community, and now is home to 150 trans women with a history of sex work. Naomi Accardi profiles the place and the people for the Face. Martin I’m really enjoying the Guardian’s series, My favourite family photo. Anita Chaudhuri’s story is particularly poignant, detailing her journey from resisting her father’s photo slideshows to eventually exploring vintage projectors herself. Aamna The Guardian’s Hope appeal has so far raised more than £850,000 thanks to generous readers’ continuing support, and Patrick Butler explains how it is aiming to raise £1m for grassroots organisations tackling extremism and hatred by the time it closes in a few days. You can donate here. Martin Why does Donald Trump want Venezuela’s oil? I thought this video explainer by Jillian Ambrose offered an incisive perspective on this turbulent week. Aamna Sport Cricket | Ben Stokes has backed Brendon McCullum’s continuation as head coach despite England’s 4-1 Ashes thrashing in Australia. McCullum has accepted the need for improvement but said he will push back if he is told what to do. Football | Arsenal failed to take advantage of Manchester City’s Wednesday slip against Brighton as Liverpool held the league leaders to a draw. Figure skating| Two-time defending champion Amber Glenn set the record for a women’s short program at the US Figure Skating Championships on Wednesday night, giving her a narrow lead over world champion Alysa Liu heading into the free skate. Something for the weekend Our critics’ roundup of the best things to watch, read, play and listen to right now TV Girl Taken | ★★★★☆ Though the summary of Girl Taken is a grim tale of a kidnapped teenage girl’s survival against her abductor, the six-part series is much more. Starring Alfie Allen, it focuses on the neglected, quieter and less voyeuristic emotional toll of abduction – the pain of being ripped from your life and the lives of those who love you. The unhurried pace builds the girl’s world, making the subsequent loss keenly felt when she is taken by one man’s will. Lucy Mangan Music The Cribs: Selling a Vibe review | ★★★★☆ The Cribs’ Selling a Vibe exudes confidence. Fans will recognise the signature distorted guitars and sharp, punchy songs. Produced by Patrick Wimberly, it’s more streamlined than Night Network, with a subtle 80s pop influence on tracks such as A Point Too Hard to Make and Rose Mist, but it’s not a radical shift for the band. Strikingly, the songs are uniformly powerful and well written, achieving a perfect balance: nothing feels overworked, yet the melodies soar and the choruses hit faultlessly. Alexis Petridis Film Hamnet | ★★★★★ Chloé Zhao’s film, initially slow, follows Agnes (Jessie Buckley), whose endless wandering in the forest has earned her a witch-like reputation. Buckley is beguiling, giving every expression piercing significance. Her beauty captivates William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal), a would-be poet resentful of joining his abusive father’s glove business; Mescal plays him with intelligent force. Łukasz Żal’s cinematography is pellucid, and Max Richter’s score is pervasive. It is a film that moves because of its absorbing performances. Peter Bradshaw Theatre Woman in Mind | ★★★☆ Sheridan Smith excels as Susan, a disconsolate housewife, in this 40th-anniversary revival of Alan Ayckbourn’s 1985 play. Smith brings whimsical daintiness and vulnerability to Susan, a darkly comic take on the straitjacketed 1950s housewife. While the drama’s shift from domestic drudgery to surreal melodrama and supernatural farce lessens the emotional connection, the play remains a potent critique of married life’s emptiness. Its unsettling journey suggests that fantasy offers no escape, but merely a different version of the same nightmare. Arifa Akbar The front pages “‘Go back home’: now 34 ex-pupils accuse Farage of racist behaviour” is top story at the Guardian. The Mirror splashes with “Where’s Wally?”, in reference to Nigel Farage’s trips abroad. The Telegraph runs “Reeves to climb down on pub tax” and the Mail says “Pub U-turn’s too little too late”. The Times leads on “Top defence chief warns of need for extra £28bn” and the i paper has “Putin’s shadow fleet in UK waters as ministers pledge to use ‘hard power’”. The FT splashes on “Push to reset EU ties excludes financial services as City shuns closer alignment”. “Send writ like Beckham” is how the Sun covers the latest on Brooklyn Beckham and his parents, David and Victoria. Today in Focus Elon Musk’s pervert chatbot The Guardian’s global technology editor, Dan Milmo, talks to Helen Pidd about the latest scandal surrounding Grok and whether Elon Musk, its ultimate owner, is unwilling or unable to stop it. Cartoon of the day | Ben Jennings The Upside A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad Supermarkets could help British consumers to move away from their reliance on mainly imported seafood – the “big five” of cod, haddock, tuna, salmon and prawns – to more sustainable locally caught fish such as sardines and anchovies, researchers say. A study by the University of East Anglia, which confirmed previous research showing consumers do not eat the recommended amount of fish, suggests the UK could improve national health and bolster local economies by embracing its own rich populations of nutritious small fish. Despite an abundance of fish in British waters, more than 80% of seafood eaten in the UK is imported. Sales in supermarkets, where most people buy their seafood, are heavily concentrated on the “big five”, but if retailers provided more locally sourced options it could decrease consumers’ reliance on imported species, the study suggests. Lead researcher Dr Silvia Ferrini said: “Our research shows that curiosity is strong, with 40% of UK consumers saying they would be willing to try these lesser‑known species – especially if they are fresh, locally sourced and reasonably priced.” Sign up here for a weekly roundup of The Upside, sent to you every Sunday Bored at work? And finally, the Guardian’s puzzles are here to keep you entertained throughout the day. Until tomorrow. Quick crossword Cryptic crossword Wordiply

Venezuela begins releasing political detainees to ‘consolidate peace’

Five days after the US seized Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela has announced it is releasing an “important number” of detainees in what the congressional president characterised as a gesture to “consolidate peace”. Former opposition candidate Enrique Márquez was among those released from prison, according to an opposition statement. “It’s all over now,” Márquez said in a video taken by a local journalist who accompanied him and his wife, as well as another opposition member Biagio Pilieri, who was also released. Spain’s foreign ministry also confirmed the release of five Spanish nationals, one of them a citizen with dual nationality, who it said were “preparing to travel to Spain with assistance from our embassy in Caracas”. The ministry called the development “a positive step in the new phase Venezuela is entering”. Spain’s foreign minister, José Manuel Albares, told the public broadcaster RNE that the dual national being released was Rocío San Miguel, a Spanish-Venezuelan lawyer, activist and human rights defender who was detained in February 2024 and accused by the regime of treason, conspiracy and terrorism in connection with an alleged plot to assassinate Maduro. Venezuela’s opposition leader, María Corina Machado, hailed the releases, saying they showed that “injustice” would not prevail in the country. “This is an important day because it shows what we have always known: that injustice will not last forever and that truth, although it be wounded, ends up finding its way,” she said in an audio message published on social media. It is unclear how many people are being freed. Human rights organisations working in the country estimate that Venezuela holds between 800 and 1,000 political prisoners, most of them detained for taking part in protests after the 2024 election, widely believed to have been stolen by Maduro. The head of Venezuela’s national assembly, Jorge Rodríguez, the brother of the acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, said the move was a “unilateral gesture to reaffirm our unbreakable decision to consolidate peace in the republic and peaceful coexistence among all”. As the news of the planned release broke, families of detainees rushed to prisons across the country, seeking information. Pedro Durán, 60, was among those hoping to reunite with his brother Franklin Durán as he waited outside a prison in the town of Guatire, about 43km (25 miles) outside Caracas. Durán said his brother was detained in 2021 on charges of trying to overthrow Maduro’s government – an accusation his family denies. Durán, who has been living in Spain, heard rumours on Wednesday that the government could release a number of detainees and immediately bought a plane ticket from Madrid to Caracas to find his brother. “I don’t have words to express the emotion I’m feeling,” Durán said. “We’re feeling a lot of hope ... We’re just waiting now.” Before Venezuela’s announcement, estimates suggested there were more than 40 foreign nationals detained in the country, including about 20 Spaniards and five US citizens, among them James Luckey-Lange, 28, who disappeared in December and was being held at military counterintelligence headquarters in Caracas. On Tuesday, Donald Trump said Venezuela had “a torture chamber in the middle of Caracas that they’re closing up”, without elaborating. In recent days, speculation has centred on the Helicoide de la Roca Tarpeya, an iconic structure inaugurated in 1956 as an avant garde shopping centre and later turned into a prison and torture site under Chavismo. Martha Tineo, the general coordinator of the NGO Justicia, Encuentro y Perdón (Justice, Encounter and Forgiveness, or JEP), which monitors political detentions in Venezuela, said she had confirmed that some sections of El Helicoide are being vacated. “But the Helicoide complex is vast. It not only houses the prison where political detainees are held, but also administrative offices of the Bolivarian National Police, and those are the areas that are being cleared … So we might assume that over the coming days – hopefully within a week, or however long it takes – we may indeed see the closure of that immense torture centre, but for now, that is not happening,” she added. JEP estimated that there were 1,017 political prisoners before Rodríguez’s announcement. By 10.30pm UK time on Thursday, the organisation had confirmed only “around eight or perhaps 10 political prisoners”, but said it would not disclose names to avoid raising anxiety among families who have been waiting for months – and in some cases years – for news of their loved ones. The announcement of the detainees’ release is being treated with caution by activists. In the days leading up to the US operation, the regime said it would release 187 people – 99 on Christmas Day and 88 on New Year’s Day – but organisations were able to independently verify the release of only a portion of that total. Although she has so far confirmed only a few releases, Tineo remains hopeful. “The information we have is that it is very likely that many releases will take place – or at least that is what has been said [by the regime],” she said, adding that the release process, which involves legal procedures, can take time, potentially days when dealing with large numbers of people. “That is why we have been calling for composure and calm, to keep us united in both hope and vigilance,” Tineo added. Alfredo Romero, the head of Foro Penal, an NGO that estimates there are still 806 political prisoners in Venezuela, posted that by early evening he had only been able to confirm five releases. “We expect the freedom of all political prisoners, not partial and conditional gestures,” he wrote, referring to the fact that many people freed in recent months were granted only conditional liberty, subject to precautionary measures such as travel bans, mandatory court appearances and restrictions on speaking to the media about their cases. At a press conference announcing the decision, Jorge Rodríguez – who many believe is now effectively running the country alongside his acting-president sister – said that “within a few minutes” the public would learn “the nature of the people who are receiving the benefit of release”, something that had still not happened hours later. He added: “In order to contribute and collaborate in the effort that all of us must make for national unity and peaceful coexistence, the Bolivarian government, together with the institutions of the state, has decided to free an important number of Venezuelan and foreign individuals, and these release processes are taking place from this very moment. “Consider this gesture by the Bolivarian government, with its broad intention of seeking peace, as the contribution that all of us must make so that our republic can continue its life in peace and in pursuit of prosperity.”

Whistle, crackle, banned: Dutch set to outlaw fireworks after more new year chaos

Window-rattling explosions turned Yara Basta-Bos’s street into a “war zone” last week, but she was spared from the worst of the new year chaos she had seen in the past. A few years ago, the emergency doctor in Amsterdam had to treat a patient clutching their own eyeball after a firework blew it out of its socket. “It feels like such a waste,” said Basta-Bos, president of the Dutch society of emergency physicians, adding that last week’s revelry resulted in more than 1,200 injuries – one-third of whom ended up in hospital – and two deaths. “Of course, fireworks are nice to look at. But the level of damage it’s causing in the Netherlands right now is just unbelievable.” New year whistles, crackles and bangs may have troubled the Dutch for the last time, however, as a nationwide ban on most consumer fireworks is expected to take effect before the close of 2026. The move would make the Netherlands only the second European nation, after Ireland, to forbid a tradition that critics across the continent argue is wildly dangerous, terrifies pets and chokes cities with toxic fumes. Ines Kostić, an MP with the Party for the Animals, which began pushing for a ban 15 years ago, said the Dutch campaign had gained support as people grew more aware of the victims and the burden placed on emergency services. “I used to set off fireworks myself,” she said. “We all grew up with it; it was completely normalised. But I came to realise how great the societal damage is.” Firefighters received 4,286 fire incident reports during the most recent New Year’s Eve celebrations, a small rise from the year before, and a monumental 19th-century church burned down near Amsterdam’s famous Vondelpark in an evening marred by what police described as unprecedented violence. Jolanda Trijselaar, the chair of the Dutch fire service, said firefighters were attacked with fireworks and even needed the support of riot police. “This has to stop,” she said. “Our staff are there to help, not to be targets of violence.” The Dutch love for fireworks dates back to the 17th century, but the explosive displays only became widespread after the second world war. Defenders of the practice – in the Netherlands and elsewhere in Europe – argue that setting them off on New Year’s Eve has become a much-loved tradition that fun-crushing governments should not curb. Fireworks sellers in the Netherlands, which already has more than a dozen municipal bans, have blamed imports of dangerous and illegal explosives for the chaos. Doctors say these were responsible for just over half of the injuries that sent people to A&E but that legal fireworks were still a serious danger. Jolanda Pen, who with her husband, Frits, owns Dream Fireworks, a company licensed to stage displays and which includes a customer-facing shop, said she expected the ease of buying fireworks in neighbouring countries such as Belgium and Germany to make the ban on consumer fireworks ineffective. “I understand why they do it but I don’t think it will make a difference,” she said. “If you do it for all of Europe, OK – but not just for us in the Netherlands.” Debates around banning end-of-year firework displays have heated up in several European countries. In Germany, which regularly reports firework-related deaths around the turn of the year, calls to ban private sales have gained support from doctors, green groups and police unions – with some environmental groups going further and calling for a ban even on licensed firework displays. In Finland, a citizens’ initiative to ban fireworks that was launched on New Year’s Eve gained the 50,000 signatures needed for lawmakers to debate it in just a few days, according to local media. A poll commissioned by the financial group OP Pohjola last week found that 70% of Finns supported restricting fireworks, with about 25% willing to ban them outright. “There is a clear difference between the genders: 31% of women would ban fireworks entirely in contrast to only 19% of men who would do so,” said Raija Nikander, of Pohjola Insurance. “Thirty-four per cent of men would not restrict their use in any way, while just 14% of women feel the same.” A handful of European capitals have sought alternatives in the absence of national bans. Athens, in Greece, and Nicosia, in Cyprus, rang in the new year with light displays and drone shows that avoided the loudly polluting explosions of previous years. In Brussels, Belgium, a ban on fireworks was partially flouted on a night in which emergency services and public transport workers were pelted with fireworks. Basta-Bos said it was important to offer a safe way to celebrate the closing of the old year and the beginning of the new one through measures such as organised firework displays. “If we don’t offer an alternative, I think chaos will reign,” she said. While the prospect of an EU-wide ban appears distant for now, officials have begun to acknowledge the problems in existing legislation. In September, the European Commission identified safety and environmental “shortcomings” in its pyrotechnics directive, highlighting the widespread availability of dangerous fireworks as well as the circumvention of rules via mail-order sales. Politicians disagree on how to compensate for loss of business. The Dutch ban has been approved by parliament but its entry into force is conditional on reaching a deal to compensate an industry whose sales reached €129m in 2025, up from €118m the year before. The ongoing debate has frustrated campaigners who argue that society has already greatly subsidised the practice through health and environmental costs. Kostić said compensation was an important condition to get a majority to support the ban in parliament and could help avoid legal disputes, even though her party was otherwise a strong supporter of making polluters pay. “It is indeed true that the costs of fireworks are largely paid by society,” she said.

‘Damage is piling up’: has the Netherlands forgotten how to cope with snow?

A week-long winter cold snap that would once have been normal in the Netherlands has caused more than 2,000 flight cancellations, chaos on roads and railways, buildings to partially collapse, and a stream of angry cyclists asking why roads seem better gritted than cycle lanes. Since Saturday, up to 15cm of snow has fallen across the country, with temperatures of -10C (14F) including wind chill, sparking angry commentary over how some nations manage months of snow but the Netherlands, no longer used to it, appears paralysed. According to the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI), snow is becoming less frequent as the climate crisis bites. In 1961, there was snow cover on an average of 23 days a year at the institute’s weather station at De Bilt, near Utrecht; now, it is just three days a year. Wiebe Wieling is a former chair of the Elfstedentocht (11 cities tour) Association, which tries to organise an outdoor ice skating race on natural ice across 11 Friesian cities if the ice is thick enough, something that has not happened since 1997. He said: “We just don’t have the winters that we had in the 20th century. It’s not only my frustration. It’s a Dutch frustration. It’s a climate frustration.” So when snow does come, like it did this week, some worry that Dutch people have forgotten how to cope with it. “Yesterday, I was walking along an important cycle route to various schools in Rotterdam,” an environmental consultant, Vincent Luyendijk, said on social media, sharing photos of children forced into the middle of traffic. “I was blue in the face with frustration.” The national Fietsersbond cycling union is researching the situation after reports of “a lot of inconvenience” from snow-filled lanes in some areas. In Hilversum, some of the union’s members were livid. “We saw that bike lanes were in such a state that you really don’t dare to get on your bike,” a volunteer, Marjolein van Dillen, told Dutch media. “While the road was clean, there was a whole ridge of snow, pushed to one side on the bike lane.” This week, according to the motor trade association Bovag, cars have been skidding off the roads partly because drivers failed to put on their winter tyres in October. The national airline, KLM, had to rush a truck to Germany to get 100,000 litres of de-icing fluid after it ran out, the spokesperson Elvira van der Vis said. ProRail, the rail infrastructure operator, spent much time explaining to angry commuters why trains kept being delayed – while Switzerland was managing just fine. Rico Luman, a senior economist on transport, logistics and automotive at ING, said a calculation of the economic cost of this failure would come later. “Ice days have come down from, let’s say, 10 to three on average a year and that’s part of the problem,” he said. “It’s simply not worth it to invest massively in all those contingency elements to avoid disruptions. But this time it may be different. The damage is piling up and it’s not over yet.” The KNMI has modelled that without global heating the current average snow cover of 5cm would have been 9cm – with some areas getting 22cm. “Our normal conditions would imply westerly winds with relatively mild temperatures because of the nearby North Sea,” said the climate scientist Hylke de Vries. “The Netherlands has never been a country where lots of snow was the norm, but of course with climate change, these cases where temperatures are low enough for snow decrease quite considerably. So when it happens, then everybody is surprised.” It is even more important to prioritise active mobility, according to Meredith Glaser, the chief executive of the Urban Cycling Institute. “We know that climate change doesn’t just mean warmer – it means more extreme and unpredictable weather,” she said. “These very intense cold snaps and snowfall mean that we need to make sure that our mobility networks are resilient. Snow doesn’t necessarily stop people from cycling. But, of course, poor maintenance does. So the city needs to make sure that these main routes are safe and cleared.” Some continue to brave the icy roads, hoping they will not be the last generation to do so. “Funny to see how stubbornly Dutch people (including myself) keep their habit of cycling to work, even in this weather,” wrote Fonger Ypma on LinkedIn alongside a selfie taken at his snow-covered office in Delft. Ypma, the founder of a project to thicken Arctic ice, said: “I see the spirit around me, but the younger generation is not so used to it. It fades away quite quickly if the [snowy] weather doesn’t occur any more.”

‘We can’t take it any more’: thousands flee guerrilla clashes on Colombia-Venezuela border

Alberto’s eyes shifted nervously. His chin trembled. His slender hands fumbled with a manila folder containing his family’s documents, which he was waiting to present to staff of the Human Rights Ombudsman in the north-eastern Colombian city of Cúcuta, in the hope of receiving humanitarian aid. Like more than 2,000 people, Alberto, his wife, and his seven-year-old son arrived in Cúcuta in recent days, fleeing a guerrilla offensive in one of the country’s most violent regions along the border with Venezuela, known as Catatumbo. “We can’t take it any more,” said Alberto, who asked his real name not be used for fear of retribution from the guerrillas that drove his family out of their home in the village of Pacelli. The battle for control of Catatumbo – an area rich with coca crops and cocaine laboratories, and a large porous border with Venezuela – is being waged between two groups: the National Liberation Army (ELN) and a dissident faction of the now demobilised Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) guerrilla group. The most recent offensive has come in the run-up to and aftermath of the 3 January US operation in Venezuela to capture Nicolás Maduro. He now faces criminal charges in New York federal court, including “narco-terrorism conspiracy” for allegedly providing “law enforcement cover and logistical support” to major drug trafficking groups. While the two events are apparently unrelated, the shake-up in Caracas could eventually affect Catatumbo, given the well-established links between the ELN, which operates in both countries, and some elements of the Venezuelan National Guard. “We don’t understand about those things,” Alberto, in his thirties, said as his son slumped in the seat beside him, watching cartoons on a mobile phone. “We just know things in our region are bad. We couldn’t stay.” The Cúcuta city government had registered the arrival of 2,048 displaced people from Catatumbo since 22 December and expects more in the coming days. Residents of the region say many of their neighbours have fled to the city of Ocaña. At the start of 2025, more than 60,000 people were forcibly displaced from the region by combat and selective killings. This time around, both groups are reportedly using armed drones to target their enemies and anyone suspected of collaborating with them. “People tell me they are nervous working their fields, constantly on the lookout for the drones,” said Eliana Zafra, a member of the Permanent Committee on Human Rights in Cúcuta. Juliana, a 50-year-old farmer from a village known as Filo Gringo (Gringo’s Edge) in the municipality of El Tarra, said the humming of the drones kept her and her husband on edge. The pressure, she said, contributed to his fatal heart attack a week ago. A few days later members of the Farc dissident group ordered her to leave her parcel of land immediately. “I didn’t even have time to pack some clothes,” she said at the ombudsman’s office in Cúcuta next to a door marked with a makeshift sign that read “Victims.” Juliana, who also asked that her real name not be used, said that since the US raid in Caracas, Venezuela’s National Guard troops on the other side of the border would not allow civilians to cross into the neighbouring country. But Javier Flores, a security analyst who monitors the region for the Ideas for Peace thinktank in Bogotá, said he doubted there would be any immediate shift in criminal border dynamics. “Everything changed, but it has remained the same,” he said, noting that the majority of Maduro’s government team is still in place, with his vice-president, Delcy Rodríguez, stepping in as interim president, with Trump’s blessing. “They [the ELN] have clear communication with [Venezuelan] officialdom, and that officialdom is still in place,” Flores said. In mid-December the ELN ordered civilians in areas under its control to stay home for three days to carry out military exercises in response to “intervention” threats from Donald Trump. With a force of about 6,000 combatants, the ELN is present in more than a fifth of Colombia’s more than 1,100 municipalities, according to Insight Crime. Its presence in neighbouring Venezuela spans eight of the country’s 24 states, the thinktank found in a recent report. Though it claims to be driven by leftist, nationalist ideology, the ELN is deeply involved in the drug trade and has become one of the region’s most powerful organised crime groups. While in Colombia it is considered an insurgent group, its support for the Maduro government has led some analysts to call it a paramilitary force there. InSight Crime, an organised crime research centre, says that the Venezuelan ELN provides territorial, social, and political control in return for access to criminal rents from illegal mining, drug trafficking and cross-border trade. The ELN has taken part in failed peace negotiations with Colombia’s last five governments. Two years of talks with the government of the current president, Gustavo Petro – Colombia’s first-ever leftist leader – were suspended after the rebels intensified armed attacks in parts of the country. However, peace talks with the broader 2,500 strong dissident group that includes the 33rd Front, known colloquially as “Calarcá’s dissidence” for the nom de guerre of its leader, continue. In November the government announced a partial agreement that includes a temporary zone of concentration in Catatumbo. “The 33rd Front has strengthened with the negotiations, and what we see now is them trying to retake control of Catatumbo,” said Flores. He said that if the US decides to pressure the leadership in Caracas to crack down on ELN presence in Venezuela, it might drive its fighters back over the border, making an already volatile region even more dangerous. “Whatever happens, this won’t be good for the civilian population of Catatumbo,” said Zafra. “The conflict is going to intensify even more.”

As climate crisis threatened her home, Alolita was offered a chance at a new life in Australia

On a suburban street in eastern Melbourne on a cool summer’s day, Alolita Tekapu sits on the couch feeding her one-month-old son, Philip, while her three older boys play outside. Her husband folds laundry nearby, pausing occasionally to check on the children. It’s an ordinary domestic scene. But the reason this family are in Australia is far from ordinary. Alolita and her family come from Tuvalu, a Pacific nation of about 10,000 people whose low-lying atolls are among the most vulnerable in the world to rising seas. They are part of a historic group of Pacific Islanders arriving in Australia under a new deal offering permanent residency to Tuvaluans, many of whom are on the frontlines of climate change. Climate change has had a profound impact on daily life in Tuvalu, which lies roughly halfway between Australia and Hawaii and whose highest point sits less than 5 metres above sea level. Alolita remembers navigating king tides and intense storms in her Pacific home. She describes flood waters rising to knee height at her workplace, seawater pushing farther inland each year, and an airstrip that would turn muddy and waterlogged during high tides. “The land is eaten by the sea little by little,” Alolita says. “I worry about how we are going to live for the next decade.” The migration deal – part of a sweeping bilateral agreement signed between Australia and Tuvalu two years ago – allows up to 280 Tuvaluans a year to live, work and study permanently in Australia. The agreement, known as the Falepili Union, commits the two countries to cooperation in other areas including climate adaptation, disaster response and security guarantees. The migration opportunity has proven hugely popular. More than 8,750 people registered for July’s ballot, which randomly selected those eligible to migrate to Australia. Alolita waited until the final days before applying. She was unsure whether leaving Tuvalu was the right decision, cherishing the freedom and ease of life in her island home. Her husband was already in Australia as a temporary migrant, working long shifts at an abattoir under the Pacific labour scheme. He had decided he did not have time to enter the ballot himself on behalf of his family. In the end, Alolita put her own name forward quietly, without telling anyone else. A week later, she was at work singing happy birthday at a colleague’s celebration when her phone buzzed. It was an email from the Australian government. She had been selected as part of the inaugural cohort to migrate under the deal. “In the middle of the song I was shouting out and happy,” she says. “I’m so thankful to God.” Her colleagues crowded around to congratulate her. Then, one by one, they reached for their own phones, searching for the same message. “Some people, I could tell they were jealous,” Alolita says. “I feel so lucky [considering] how many people applied.” Pregnant and keen to give birth in her newly adopted country, Alolita fast-tracked the move and arrived in Australia with her children last September, becoming one of the first successful ballot recipients to make the journey. Since then, others have followed, including a dentist, a pastor and Tuvalu’s first female forklift driver, Kitai Haulapi. “I applied to Falepili because I learned about the many opportunities it offers particularly in employment,” Haulapi said in a video shared by Australia’s foreign affairs department. “The wages are very good and would enable me to support my family back home.” The Tuvaluans’ migration is part of a global push for countries to address climate-driven displacement. In July 2025, the International Court of Justice issued an advisory opinion recognising population displacement as part of a list of “severe and far-reaching” consequences to climate change, which poses an “urgent and existential threat”. Nevertheless, there is still no obligation under international law for countries to accept people displaced by climate change. Celia McMichael, a professor specialising in climate change-related migration at The University of Melbourne, therefore describes the Australia-Tuvalu agreement as a “landmark initiative” in a landscape where climate migration across borders is largely unsupported. “Migration can offer a pathway for people to adapt to climate change,” McMichael says. “It allows people to move away from places exposed to climate change risk and to send back money that can support local climate adaptation and resilience.” The government of Tuvalu has pushed back against interpretations that the treaty allows an escape route for so-called “climate refugees”. McMichael says countries like Australia don’t just have a responsibility to provide migration pathways for Pacific islanders, but also to cut emissions and fund adaptation within places like Tuvalu. “The government of Tuvalu, and many residents, do not support relocation as a solution to the climate crisis,” she says. “There are also concerns that Tuvalu could lose the very people who have the labour and skills that are needed to support climate adaptation and resilience.” Alolita also recognises the responsibility that wealthier countries like Australia have to limit greenhouse gas emissions. “Big countries affect small countries,” she says. These days, though, she’s focused on more immediate concerns, like housing, healthcare and schooling for her young sons. She’s received some support from community organisation, AMES Australia, which is drawing on Tuvaluan community members to assist new arrivals. The transition remains a struggle – Alolita’s family is now sharing a unit with a friend. She has modest hopes for the new year in this new country, including finding a house, putting her children in school, and securing a job to support her husband’s income and their growing family. Often, she finds herself missing the languid rhythm of life in Tuvalu. “But we needed to think about the future of our kids,” she says. “My responsibility is now for them.”