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Trump’s approach to Africa: more trade deals, less democracy and human rights

When he convened the leaders of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to sign a peace deal in early December, Donald Trump promised an end to decades of fighting in the latter nation’s volatile east, and open up opportunities for businesses in all three countries “to make a lot of money”. But Trump took a wildly different approach to conflict resolution weeks later, when he announced that the US military had carried out Christmas Day strikes on targets he said were linked to the Islamic State (IS) in north-west Nigeria. “I have previously warned these Terrorists that if they did not stop the slaughtering of Christians, there would be hell to pay, and tonight, there was,” the president wrote in a social media post that warned of further attacks to come. It was a clear encapsulation of the US president’s approach to sub-Saharan Africa in his second term, in which human rights and democracy promotion have been de-emphasized in favor of a stated focus on trade and ending wars – though how that squares with the nascent air campaign in Nigeria remains to be seen. The shift became apparent early in Trump’s second term, when Troy Fitrell, then a top state department official for the continent, said during a March visit to Côte d’Ivoire: “We no longer see Africa as a continent in need of handouts, but as a capable commercial partner. ‘Trade, not aid,’ a slogan we’ve seen thrown around for years, is now truly our policy for Africa”. Fitrell did not respond to a request for comment. In a statement, White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said Trump “has treated Africa not as a charity case, but as a powerhouse partner. Under his leadership, American capital, technology, and diplomacy are helping African nations secure peace, build real energy independence, and turn their natural wealth into jobs and opportunity for their people.” It’s a consequential pivot, but African experts say it’s too soon to tell what it will amount to, or whether it can survive the personal touch Trump brings to diplomacy with the continent, in which he has also feuded with longstanding US partners and insulted Africans themselves. “The organizing principle is, if it’s in the long-term or short-term interest of the United States, as I see it, then I’m going to do it,” said Ebenezer Obadare, a senior fellow for Africa studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. The first big decision Trump made towards the continent was the dismantling of USAID, which had been heavily involved in development and emergency assistance in sub-Saharan Africa. With it gone, a study published in the Lancet forecasts an additional 14m deaths globally by 2030, with many of those likely to occur in Africa. He has also singled out African governments and nationalities for restrictions and criticism. Trump is feuding with the government of South Africa, has publicly railed against Somalis, cracked down on visas for citizens from more than two dozen African countries and halted refugee admissions – with the exception of a small group of white South Africans. The global tariff barrage he unleashed has hit businesses in African nations who have depended on US markets, such Lesotho’s textile manufacturers, and the Republican-controlled Congress hardly made a peep when the African Growth and Opportunity Act, a longstanding measure to facilitate trade between the United States and the continent, lapsed in September. While Barack Obama made four trips to the continent during his presidency and Joe Biden would go on to make one, Trump never visited sub-Saharan Africa during his first term. His best known foray into African affairs came when he sparked official fury by dubbing its 54 nations “shithole countries” in a widely reported private remark, which Trump recently confirmed he had indeed uttered. Murithi Mutiga, the program director for Africa at the International Crisis Group, a non-profit focused on addressing global conflicts, said all signs indicate that disinterest will continue in his second term. “Africa clearly runs dead bottom in his list of priorities, not just for Trump, but for the administration in general,” he said. Mutiga pointed to the national security strategy the Trump administration released last month, in which Africa was given three paragraphs at the very end of the 29-page document. “The United States should instead look to partner with select countries to ameliorate conflict, foster mutually beneficial trade relationships, and transition from a foreign aid paradigm to an investment and growth paradigm capable of harnessing Africa’s abundant natural resources and latent economic potential,” it reads. Trump’s visa restrictions against African nations and coarse language towards its people “will accelerate trends that were already there in terms of young people increasingly looking to the east for opportunities, particularly for higher education”, Mutiga warns. Trump’s dispute with South Africa appears to have been influenced by his erstwhile ally Elon Musk, who was born there and has alleged that the white Afrikaner minority is being persecuted. That led to the United States boycotting the G20 leaders summit last month in Johannesburg, and Trump vowing to stop South African delegates from attending next year’s meeting in Florida. Redi Tlhabi, a veteran South African journalist living in Washington DC, said that Pretoria’s case before the international court of justice alleging genocide by US ally Israel was a major factor driving the animosity. But the narrative of a “white genocide” happening in South Africa also “aligns beautifully now in Trump’s second term with US political culture and the idea that diversity is not welcome, it’s a threat”, she added. A similar fight seemed to be brewing with Nigeria in November, when Trump threatened to cut off aid and send the military in “guns-a-blazing” after saying its government “continues to allow the killing of Christians”. That collided with the complicated reality in Africa’s most-populous nation, which is about evenly divided between Christians and Muslims and riven with security crises that have killed and displaced people of both religions. Clement Nwankwo, executive director of the Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre thinktank in Nigeria’s capital Abuja, said Trump’s words had the potential to spur change among Nigerian leaders who have long been viewed as unable to stop, or even complicit in, the violence. “The Nigerian government appears to be saying the right things in recent weeks, since President Trump made his threat,” Nwankwo said. “And for a lot of Nigerians, seeing the Nigerian government becoming responsive to this threat is what was needed in the first place.” After the Christmas airstrike, Nigerian government officials said they had approved the US intervention, and may collaborate on further attacks. Trump has made no secret of his desire to win a Nobel peace prize, and joined forces with Qatar to mediate the conflict in the eastern DRC, while sending an envoy to negotiate a resolution to Sudan’s disastrous civil war, so far without success. While the Congo deal appears to have been broken right away, Mutiga said it “helps to at least introduce a degree of diplomacy and a channel outside the battlefield”. “I think we need to give some credit to the US, even if they’re probably impelled by extractive interests, at least it’s better than nothing,” he added. Obadare characterized the new US approach as similar to those of its rivals Russia and China, who have deepened their involvement in the continent in recent decades. “It’s a long overdue recognition of African agency, and to that extent, it represents, at least at the level of symbols, taking Africa very seriously,” he said. Tlhabi predicted that in practice, the new approach will mean, “an African country that doesn’t have anything to put on the table … is not on his radar.” “The engagement that we are talking about in the second Trump administration, I don’t think it’s aimed at spreading the milk of human kindness, as it were, it is about a transactional posture towards Africa,” she added.

‘It’s not a hen party hellscape’: Dublin’s Temple Bar strives to shake off its bad reputation

When Ireland redeveloped a swathe of central Dublin in the 1990s, the idea was to create a version of Paris’s Left Bank, a cultural quarter of cobbled lanes, art and urban renewal. Planners and architects transformed the run-down Temple Bar site by the River Liffey into an ambitious experiment that drew throngs of visitors and won awards. Three decades later, there are some withering verdicts on what happened next. “It seems that Temple Bar is becoming a violent post-apocalyptic place,” a judge said last year after sentencing a man who bludgeoned a victim with a can of cider. “It’s shocking to see it, that people can’t be safe down there. It makes it a no-go area for people.” Frank McDonald, who writes about urban planning for the Irish Times, recalled how he moved into the area in 1995, full of optimism, but fled in 2022 amid hordes of pub-crawlers and thumping nightclub music. “I feared that our home would become uninhabitable,” he wrote in July. Since then, there have been more grim headlines, including the alleged mugging of a visiting NFL quarterback and an assault on an English tourist who later died. A study of online reviews rated Temple Bar the world’s third biggest tourist trap, reinforcing the perception of a raucous, brawling district best left to stag parties. It adds up to a crushing indictment of the original vision: instead of art and culture, crime and overpriced Guinness. There is, however, an alternative view that Temple Bar is a victim of outdated stereotyping and that a renaissance is under way, making the area a vibrant and a worthy home for organisations such as the Irish Film Institute, Project Arts Centre, Smock Alley Theatre and Graphic Studio Gallery. “It is Dublin’s cultural quarter,” said Martin Harte, the chief executive officer of the Temple Bar Company, a business association. “The era of massive drinking – it’s not that now. Temple Bar is an entirely different place. It’s the front room of Dublin city.” Violent incidents garnered publicity but set against an annualised footfall of 24m visits they were very rare, said Harte. “To say Temple Bar is unsafe is not accurate. Walk around, it has everything from small art galleries to coffee shops, tattoo parlours, vintage clothes shops, hotels. It’s where people come, it gives it that electricity.” Tom Roo, 39, and Heather Mitchell, 28, a couple from Leeds, agreed. “I was expecting young lads and drinking everywhere but it’s really nice to walk around, it’s relaxed,” said Roo. Mitchell found the pubs picturesque – more so even than their images on Instagram. In the 1980s, much of this web of lanes and streets was derelict and due to become a bus terminus. Instead, in 1991 the government decided to channel Dublin’s year as European city of culture into a showcase project driven by a state agency and tax incentives. Renovated historic buildings and new contemporary structures and art installations created a landmark in urban renewal. The decade also brought cheap flights, laddish culture and superpubs that turned Temple Bar into a boozing destination. “That’s where it got its initial stripes, its brand,” said Harte. “You had to queue behind 30, 40 people to get in anywhere to have a drink.” The supposed culture hub was nicknamed the Temple of Bars and likened to Ibiza. Bacchanalia continued through the 2008 economic crash and prompted another judge – ruling in a 2017 assault case – to brand Temple Bar a vomit-splattered “disgrace to Ireland”. The Covid pandemic brought more challenges. Gangs marauded through under-policed streets, stealing and vandalising. “All the zombies came out,” said Ángel Luis González, director of PhotoIreland, which runs exhibitions and a bookshop called The Library Project. However, improved policing has restored safety, confidence and an eclectic vibe, said González, echoing a widespread view among stakeholders. People who come to take selfies outside famous pubs end up visiting galleries and discovering artists. John Cullen, who runs a jewellery shop and stall in a refurbished square, said the outdoor market drew in families with children. “It civilises the place.” Pubs such as the Palace, Gogarty’s and the Norseman still drew big crowds but the number of late night licences – which allow venues to serve alcohol until 3am – had plunged from 25 to seven and fine dining was making inroads, said Harte. “Every single pub now serves food. People are still drinking but nowhere near at the old levels.” Will Wollen, who moved to Temple Bar two years ago to run the Gaiety School of Acting, said the area’s reputation for excess was unfair. “There is an energy but it’s not a hen party hellscape. It’s a pub culture with warmth and friendliness.” Stephen Kennedy, who runs the Copper and Straw cafe and chairs the Aston Quay and Temple Bar Business and Residents’ Alliance, said there were plans for more street art, seating, lighting and perhaps an outdoor cinema. “I would tell any tourist coming to Dublin that Temple Bar is a must.” Other Dubliners, in contrast, urge visitors to steer clear unless they like crowds, price gouging and ersatz Irishness. Critics also accuse platforms such as Airbnb of driving up rents and driving out people. Perry Share, a sociologist and co-editor of a book on Irish pubs, said Temple Bar was a “pub theme park” that offered a degree of authenticity. “Tourists come to replicate an Irish pub experience they have perhaps seen online. The music and drink is essential to that.” A vox pop of early evening drinkers last week yielded toasts to Temple Bar. “TikTok said it was too touristy but the buzz is great,” said Tom Salter, 22, from London. Dave Howard, from Derbyshire, had a caveat. “It can be quite fun watching a stag party. But not for the locals, obviously.”

Cyprus pledges ‘different mindset’ as it assumes EU presidency

Cyprus says it will bring “a new approach to the table” when it assumes the EU presidency on Thursday, as defence, migration and Ukraine continue to top the agenda at a time of acute geopolitical uncertainty. As one of the bloc’s smaller member states, Cyprus will tackle its six-month stint at the EU’s helm with discipline and dedication but also “a different mindset”, the Cypriot foreign minister, Constantinos Kombos, said. “We believe that small states have a lot to offer in these kind of situations,” Kombos told the Guardian, the gold-starred flag of Europe on prominent display in his office. “It’s a very different mindset that one can bring to the table, a different approach. As a small state, we are dedicated. We don’t see [the presidency] as something we have to do; we want to do it in the best possible way.” As the conflict in Ukraine enters a fourth year, the foreign minister said the EU’s focus would remain on the wartorn country and Russia’s aggression. More than 50 years after the Turkish invasion – launched in response to a coup aimed at union with Greece – Cypriots knew only too well what military strife and occupation meant, he said. Even if the eastern Mediterranean country had once enjoyed close ties with its fellow Orthodox state Moscow, with high net-worth Russians including oligarch allies of Vladimir Putin seeking refuge on its shores, he said Cyprus was particularly sensitive to the Ukrainians’ plight. “The agenda is rightly about Ukraine and it will remain so,” said Kombos, an academic before he was appointed to the post. “But we want to bring into the mix issues relating to the wider Middle East region because we see Cyprus as being part of that region as well.” Cyprus has spent more than two years preparing for a role it last held in 2012. EU diplomats describe the dossiers it wants to push through as highly ambitious. Buildings and roads in Nicosia, the partitioned capital, have been spruced up, with “Cyprus EU presidency” bunting greeting visitors upon arrival at the island’s international airport. But the island’s continued division between the internationally recognised Greek Cypriot south and breakaway Turkish Cypriot north has raised concerns. There are worries, voiced openly by officials, that perennial tensions with Turkey could obstruct military cooperation with Ankara at a time when closer alignment is seen as key to stability by Brussels. Nicosia, like Athens, has blocked the Nato member’s participation in the EU-funded defence procurement programme, Safe, with the Cypriot president, Nikos Christodoulides, ruling out the move, citing the presence of Turkish troops in the north as occupation of EU territory. The quest to reunite the country poses further complexity. Long regarded as a graveyard for peace mediators, Cyprus is the west’s longest-running diplomatic dispute. In his interview, Kombos insisted Nicosia would not “get in the way” of the bloc’s ties with Ankara. “The president has said very publicly that he would like to see President [Recepp Tayyip] Erdoğan attend the informal council meeting in April,” he said. “We are not going to use the presidency to raise national issues.” In the stewardship role, the 1.2 million-strong country will oversee the EU’s legislative agenda and the course of diplomatic negotiations. Christodoulides has pledged to prioritise security and defence readiness to shore up the union’s strategic autonomy. The Cyprus presidency’s motto is “an autonomous union, open to the world”, a nod, Cypriot officials say, to the country’s determination to apply policies aimed at augmenting the bloc’s independence and global engagement. In that spirit, Kombos added, emphasis would be placed on mining the potential of regions that often go under the radar with decisive action being taken to address the EU’s outreach. “Normally this part of the world is associated with crises and Europeans get engaged when they have a crisis to manage,” he said, listing Syria, Gaza, Lebanon and the Red Sea. “But this is also a region of opportunities.” As the Trump administration’s tariffs upend global trade, Cypriot officials say there has never been a more opportune moment for the EU to look for alternative markets. Kombos vowed that with the bloc’s competitiveness also high on the agenda, Cyprus would use its presidency to forge a free trade zone between India and the EU. “We want to open up the EU towards the Middle East, towards India,” said Kombos. “The EU is a success precisely because it has managed to go through all the different crises that it has had to navigate. Despite all the despair and complaining about how it works, all of its deficiencies, it surprises us all because it always moves forward, always evolves.”

France fears ‘era of Trumpism’ as public broadcaster comes under fire from right

The French public broadcaster is at the centre of a political row as a parliamentary inquiry examines the “neutrality, workings and financing” of state TV and radio, while the media are expected to play a significant role ahead of the 2027 presidential election. The rightwing UDR party, an ally of Marine Le Pen’s far-right the National Rally (RN), set up the inquiry amid far-right claims that public TV and radio has a bias against them. Le Pen, whose party is expected to reach the final round of the presidential race, has said “there is a clear problem with neutrality in the public service broadcasting” and that she would like to privatise it. The French parliamentary inquiry, which will run until March, comes amid tension over public broadcasting in Europe – with Trump suing the BBC for up to $10bn over cuts to a 6 January speech, and unions at the Italian public broadcaster saying Giorgia Meloni’s rightwing government had too much control. The backdrop to the inquiry is the rising dominance in France of the private media empire owned by the Catholic conservative industrialist Vincent Bolloré, which critics say is giving a platform to reactionary voices and boosting the rise of the far right. Bolloré’s CNews is the most watched news channel on TV and is highly critical of the state broadcaster. The parliamentary commission was set up after two journalists were secretly filmed having a coffee with Socialist party officials. The video clip was released in September by a rightwing magazine and shown on Bolloré’s channels amid allegations that the journalists were colluding with the left to damage the right. The journalists – Patrick Cohen, who broadcasts on politics on public radio and TV, and Thomas Legrand, a former radio journalist, now a political columnist for the daily Libération – said having coffee with politicians was part of their job and the video was misleadingly edited. They have filed a legal complaint for invasion of privacy. Questioned at the inquiry, Cohen said the video clip was referenced in 853 news sequences on CNews over a two-week period, and was “amplified by a propaganda operation without limits, aimed at denigrating and destroying the public service that I represent”. Legrand told the inquiry: “France has entered an era of Trumpism.” The parliament hearings have been heated. The Socialist MP Ayda Hadizadeh, sitting on the inquiry panel, said it was turning into a “tribunal” by politicians who wanted “to kill public broadcasting”. The far-right RN MP Anne Sicard said her party was “treated like the enemy” by the state broadcaster. Jérémie Patrier-Leitus, of the centre-right Horizons party, who is heading the proceedings, said the inquiry was not “against” state TV and radio. The public broadcaster France Télévisions, which includes four national TV channels and 24 regional channels, is a key financier of films, drama and documentaries and is the top French media outlet. Radio France has several national and local stations and dominates podcasting. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has been critical of the public broadcaster in the past and scrapped the TV licence fee, while a long-term funding model remains to be defined. In December, Macron began to distance himself from Bolloré’s CNews. The Élysée Palace published a social media video criticising the channel for what it called “disinformation” over Macron’s support for media certification. Alexis Lévrier, a media historian at the University of Reims, said: “In Europe, public broadcasting is being attacked in a way that seeks to weaken it as a counterpower … The specificity in France is that we now have a political-media empire [owned by Bolloré] of unprecedented strength … this group is now at the heart of the media space and it has an agenda. In that agenda, the public broadcaster is a target.” Bolloré, in a senate hearing in 2022, denied political or ideological interventionism. Adèle Van Reeth, the head of state radio station France Inter, told the parliamentary inquiry: “The preservation of French public broadcasting is a sign of a democracy in good health.”

Wednesday briefing: What St Albans tells us about Britain’s changing pub culture

Good morning. It is New Year’s Eve, a time when thoughts turn to the future and what 2026 might have in store for us. Also, the question looms: what the hell are we going to do tonight that doesn’t give us FOMO, thinking that we could be doing something better? Going to the pub on NYE used to be a staple, but in the UK the hospitality industry is being battered by cost-of-living rises, younger people drinking less alcohol, and – on this particular evening – the tyranny of Jools’ Annual Hootenanny. For today’s newsletter I travelled to St Albans with my Guardian colleague Sammy Gecsoyler. We met curator David Thorold from St Albans Museum, who is behind a new exhibition on the city’s pubs and inns, and we visited local landlords Sean Hughes and David Worcester to talk about the state of the industry. Naturally, as an old-fashioned hack visiting some pubs, I had a few drinks along the way. Before you find out about all that, here are the headlines. In depth: The city where pubs refuse to die More than 400 pubs closed in England and Wales in 2024, and back in October Sammy interviewed two landlords about the current landscape. They told him the industry has shifted from all-week reliable trade to fragile, unpredictable nights, squeezed by soaring costs and a generation that still goes to pubs but drinks far less alcohol – leaving landlords fighting to stay afloat even as they reinvent what a pub is for. We chose St Albans because the local museum there has a new exhibition covering the history of the pubs and inns in the city. In 1884, an incredible 92 pubs were packed into a one-kilometre radius – a density more like a festival map than a city centre. Thorold joked that any old building in St Albans most likely is, was, or will be a pub at some point. *** Why did St Albans specifically develop so many drinking establishments? Thorold explained that St Albans has always been defined in part by its proximity to London. Being one day’s ride from the capital meant huge demand for inns and stabling for the coaching industry. A political will to encourage people to drink beer rather than gin shaped the early 19th century. The Beerhouse Act 1830, he said, led to an explosion in the number of pubs. “It allowed anybody, for a fee of about two guineas, to set up an establishment that sells beer. But you could only sell beer, not spirits or wine. St Albans went from about 40 pubs in 1840 to about 90 in 1880. That was the impact.” The exhibition was originally planned to run until March but is already being extended so it will be open when the Campaign for Real Ale (Camra) hold a gathering there in April. One inspired highlight is a set of beer pumps which, when pulled, play audio stories. *** How is St Albans bucking the national trend? One of the reasons so much is known about the city’s pubs is because of an 1880’s song listing all 92 of them. About a third are still going concerns, including The Boot, opposite the city’s famous Clock Tower – the only surviving medieval town belfry in England. It’s where we met landlord Sean Hughes. “This place is quite unique,” he told us, “because we get local residents and we get tourists and visitors – it’s a bit of a meet-in-the-middle for everything.” He said the city’s pubs survive partly because people “are very, very protective of their pubs. They want to be proud of their local places.” There is also an active Save St Albans pubs campaign, stressing their slogan “a pub is for life, not just for Christmas”, and a strong mutual support network among the publicans. “We really work hard together to make St Albans special,” Hughes said. “When you see the WhatsApp chats, it’s unbelievable – any issue, everyone knows, and if someone needs a keg or whatever, we’ll drop it round. It became a real support group during Covid – a really bleak time to be living above an empty, shuttered pub – and it makes for a better experience for everyone now.” In The Boot we also met Ralph, a dog of significant charisma, who will absolutely be making an appearance as a future guest dog in the Thursday news quiz. Willow has been warned. *** Younger people are said to be drinking less – what impact is that having? Sean suggested that St Albans is bucking another perceived national trend: the idea that young people aren’t going out as much. “Weekends are getting younger here. You look around St Albans on a Friday or Saturday night and it’s a young crowd.” I thought it would be best to hear from Sammy, a real life young person. SG:As someone in the final years of their 20s, I have seen the boom and bust of Gen Z drinking first-hand, as well as the recent signs of an alcoholic resurgence among the young and young(ish). For me, and I know we’re sick of talking about it, but the impact of Covid really cannot be overstated. I had a good few years of hitting the town before the pandemic hit and most of us just wanted to get wasted and we fit that noble aim around everything else. Early shift the next day? Solider through it. Want to get hench at the gym? A regular, alcohol-fuelled cheat day won’t hurt. But when the world locked down, and we were stuck indoors stone-cold sober, something shifted. Other hobbies like gaming and fitness became (arguably unhealthy) obsessions and the appeal of stumbling around town waned. Mental health plummeted (one study found that cases of depression increased 8.5% for those who attended secondary school during the pandemic v 0.3% who were students pre-pandemic) and the idea of getting drunk in a public space lost its shine. And for me, well, being stuck indoors made me a bit tired. With the pandemic behind us by a few years, we’re seeing young people entering adulthood whose lives were less marked by Covid, and some of the older Gen-Zs who are finally finding their financial footing, which is leading to an alcoholic renaissance among the young. This can be seen in other places too. Fun and hedonism is making a comeback (‘brat’ summer is in, clean girl aesthetic is seemingly out) and BuzzBallzs (the premixed cocktail that comes in a ball-shaped can) have seen booming business. Young drinkers are coming back. MB: Thorold says that pubs have adapted to the change in drinking culture among younger patrons – it’s now totally commonplace to see people ordering non-alcoholic beers, at the pub, and not just for dry January. But for this middle-aged First Edition writer, it’s the full fat version, thanks. Over my career I have published a lot of pictures of politicians posing behind bars with a pint in their hands, looking as if they’ve never seen beer before – and my own gormless pint picture is joyfully dedicated to you (with Thorold on the left and Hughes on the right). *** What are the pressures on the hospitality business in 2025? Hughes said the biggest issue for the industry is taxation. “We’re one of the most heavily taxed industries in Europe,” he said. “The duty on beer and wine here is miles above what our neighbours pay. And when a pub closes, the Treasury loses out too. A typical pub is paying about £200,000 a year in tax; when it shuts, that disappears overnight. It’s a huge loss for the community and for the government.” When it comes to the bottom line, Sammy says it puts young punters off. SG: To be honest, pubs have just become too expensive. I never really was a pub-dweller, but they were a good place to have a few, cheap drinks before a night out. Now, you spend nearly as much for a drink in a pub as you would in a club. I think this has changed how they’re used by young people. Instead of being a pre-drinking hub where pints and cocktails are flowing, they’ve become a place to catch up with a friend over a drink or two, maybe a meal, and then call it a night. MB: But there are still lots of people that feel that the loss of a pub and pub culture is a thing to be mourned. At the Lower Red Lion (which is the next stop on our pub tour) owner David Worcester says that what comes up again and again in conversation is how much pubs matter socially in a place like St Albans. “It’s a community,” Worcester says. “People talk to each other here who wouldn’t meet anywhere else.” *** Last orders for 2025 By the time we got to our third stop, The Peahen, our little party was very much proving a point Hughes had made earlier, that the era of heavy lunchtime boozing has disappeared. It was only me on the hard stuff. Everybody else had switched to soft drinks, non-alcoholic options, or water. They all had to go back to work, of course, whereas I was just heading for a train back to London. For what it’s worth, Sammy commented that I only had a slight sway in my walk as I departed towards the station at the end of our pub crawl. I am down on the rota to be live blogging New Year’s Eve tonight, but even at this late stage, I am still somewhat tempted to see if I could get away with doing it on my laptop in a cosy corner of a lively pub up in St Albans. Whatever you end up doing, do have a happy New Year’s Eve, and remember, please drink responsibly. See you in 2026. If you are reading this on the app, over the Christmas period the headlines and sport will not appear. To get the full First Edition experience in your inbox every morning please sign up here.

Ten English fire services tackled record number of grass, forest and crop fires in 2025

Ten English fire services tackled a record number of grassland, woodland and crop fires during what was the UK’s hottest spring and summer on record, figures show. In total nearly 27,000 wildfires were dealt with by fire services in England during the prolonged dry weather of 2025, according to analysis by PA Media. One fire chief said the summer was one of the most challenging that crews had ever faced and the frequency and intensity of the wildfires was putting a strain on resources. The figures, obtained through freedom of information requests, show that at least 12,454 grassland, woodland or crop fires were recorded by fire services in England in the three months from March to May 2025. This is more than four times the 2,621 incidents logged by these services in the same period in 2024 and is the highest spring total for more than a decade. Dorset and Wiltshire fire service recorded 298 incidents between March and May, its highest number for spring since comparable data began in 2011, followed by 459 in June to August during a summer that was “one of the most challenging for wildfires that we’ve ever faced”, according to the service’s chief fire officer, Andy Cole. It was one of 10 fire services that reported a record number of grassland, woodland and crop fires in the spring, according to the analysis. Others include Tyne and Wear, which reported 1,240 such fires, Durham and Darlington (719), Derbyshire (334) and Northumberland (309). At least 14,448 grassland, woodland and crop fires were recorded in England in June to August, one of the highest summer totals in recent years, though not as many as in 2022 (20,858) when a spell of very hot weather pushed temperatures in the UK above 40C for the first time, with 40.3C recorded at Coningsby, Lincolnshire. The highest UK temperature recorded in 2025 was 35.8C in Faversham, Kent. Overall, the Met Office said it was the UK’s warmest spring and summer on record. Spring was also the driest in the UK for more than 100 years and it was the combination of dry soils, little or no rain and above-average heat that sparked so many wildfires. The figures inevitably underestimate the true scale of the outbreaks, as full data was obtained from only 35 of the 43 mainland fire services in England. A fire on Holt Heath near Bournemouth in Dorset in August was declared a major incident and took nearly a week to extinguish fully. Believed to have been started deliberately, it destroyed 72 hectares and required support from services across the UK. Cole said: “Our firefighters worked around the clock in arduous conditions, often for days at a time, to protect lives, homes, and our natural environment.” He said the increased frequency and intensity of wildfires put “a strain on resources, such as equipment and finances”. West Yorkshire fire service recorded 1,094 grassland, woodland and crop fires in the spring, six times the number in 2024, with a further 1,156 incidents in the summer. Mick Rhodes, the wildfire lead at West Yorkshire, said: “Moorland fires can burn for days and require a huge response operationally – they’re also exhausting for our firefighters who tackle them, due to the often-remote nature and hot weather that accompany them.” Kate Saint, the head of prevention at Devon and Somerset fire and rescue service, said there was a “significant increase” in wildfires in 2025, with crews showing “exceptional bravery and professionalism in challenging conditions, using specialist training and equipment to respond quickly and limit damage”. “Preventing these incidents in the first place is the most effective way to protect lives and our landscapes,” she added, as “many wildfires are avoidable and are often caused by everyday activities such as discarded cigarettes, barbecues or fires not properly extinguished.”

Burkina Faso and Mali ban US nationals in retaliation to Trump’s visa decision

Mali and Burkina Faso said they would ban US citizens from entering their countries in retaliation for Donald Trump’s decision to ban Malian and Burkinabe citizens from entering the US. The announcements, made on Tuesday in separate statements by the foreign ministers of the two west African countries, marked the latest twist in the frosty relationship between west African military governments and the US. On 16 December, Trump expanded earlier travel restrictions to 20 more countries, including Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, which are run by juntas and have formed a breakaway association from the regional bloc, the Economic Community of West African States. “In accordance with the principle of reciprocity, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation informs the national and international community that, with immediate effect, the Government of the Republic of Mali will apply the same conditions and requirements to US nationals as those imposed on Malian citizens,” the Malian ministry of foreign affairs said in a statement. Another statement signed by Burkina Faso’s minister of foreign affairs, Karamoko Jean-Marie Traoré, cited similar reasons for the ban on American nationals entering Burkina Faso. The White House noted persistent attacks by armed groups as one of the reasons for the travel ban. The expanded ban imposed by the US represents an intensification of Trump’s crackdown in the aftermath of the shooting of two national guard members in Washington DC on 26 November. The Trump administration highlighted the case to justify further tightening controls on immigration. In announcing the ban earlier this month, which included Mali and Burkina Faso, officials said the restrictions were “necessary to prevent the entry of foreign nationals about whom the United States lacks sufficient information to assess the risks they pose. It is the President’s duty to take action to ensure that those seeking to enter our country will not harm the American people.” Mali and Burkina Faso have struggled to contain armed groups that have spread rapidly in both countries. The juntas vowed to fight the armed groups after deposing civilian governments over the insecurity that has roiled much of the region. With Associated Press

Ukraine war briefing: ‘Attack on global food security’ as Russia hits wheat ships and ports

Russia launched waves of drones to attack the Black Sea ports of Pivdennyi and Chornomorsk with two civilian ships hit as they arrived to load wheat, the Ukrainian navy and government officials said. The Panama-flagged civilian vessels Emmakris III and Captain Karam were struck, said the navy, adding that the attacks on Tuesday “threaten the lives of civilians and undermine global food security. Targeted strikes on civilian objects are a deliberate war crime”. Ukraine is a major agricultural producer and exporter. Oil storage tanks were also hit, said Oleksiy Kuleba, the Ukrainian deputy prime minister, who added that both ports continued to operate. Russia’s continued and intensifying strikes on Ukraine are “an act of defiance” against the US plan to end the Ukraine war, a French presidential source said on Tuesday. Additionally, Moscow’s allegations of a Ukrainian drone attack against a residence of Vladimir Putin are not backed “by any solid proof, including after cross-checking information with our partners”, the source said. The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said: “Regarding the attack on [Putin’s residence at] Valdai, our negotiating team connected with the American team, they went through the details, and we understand that it’s fake. And, of course, our partners can always verify thanks to their technical capabilities that it was fake.” A Ukrainian drone attack damaged port infrastructure and a gas pipeline in Russia’s Black Sea port of Tuapse, the regional administration said on Wednesday, adding no injuries were reported. Tuapse and its refinery comprise one of Russia’s key Black Sea outlets for oil products that Ukraine targets because they are exported to finance the war or used directly to power the Russian military. The port and refinery have been hit repeatedly by Ukrainian drone attacks. Ukraine also launched drone attacks on Tuesday targeting Moscow, parts of western Russia and annexed Crimea, injuring one person near the capital, Russian authorities said. Zelenskyy said Ukraine would convene a meeting with leaders of Kyiv’s allies next Tuesday, 6 January, in France, as diplomatic efforts to end the conflict intensified. The summit would be preceded by a meeting of their security advisers, planned for this Saturday, 3 January, in Ukraine. Germany accepted €10m to drop its investigation of the Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov for alleged EU sanctions violations, prosecutors said on Tuesday. The agreement was made on the basis of the “presumption of innocence”, the prosecutors said. Usmanov is a close ally of Putin and head of the International Fencing Federation. He had been accused of using funds frozen under EU sanctions to pay for two properties in Germany to be monitored by a security company. In a separate investigation, prosecutors in Frankfurt had accused Usmanov of money laundering. That case was settled in November after Usmanov paid €4m. The US meanwhile removed sanctions from Alexandra Buriko, the former chief financial officer of Russia’s state-owned Sberbank, according to a post on the US treasury department website. Buriko was among senior executives and directors who resigned from western-sanctioned Sberbank shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Buriko went to court in December 2024 seeking the sanctions’ removal, arguing she had severed ties with Sberbank. She and the US government were known to have been in negotiations to resolve the case.