Package includes medium-range missiles, howitzers and drones, and has drawn an angry response from China

• The maps that show how China’s military is squeezing Taiwan

The Trump administration has announced a massive package of arms sales to Taiwan valued at more than $10bn that includes medium-range missiles, howitzers and drones, drawing an angry response from China.

The state department announced the sales late on Wednesday during a nationally televised address by president Donald Trump, who made scant mention of foreign policy issues and did not speak about China or Taiwan at all. US-Chinese tensions have ebbed and flowed during Trump’s second term, largely over trade and tariffs but also over China’s increasing aggressiveness toward Taiwan, which Beijing has said must unify with the People’s Republic of China.

It is clear that the FCC is not an independent agency, but an instrument of the president’s political agenda

The Federal Communications Commission chair, Brendan Carr, admitted at a Senate hearing on Wednesday that there had been a political “sea change” and he no longer viewed the FCC as an independent agency. Commissioners, he says, serve at the pleasure of the president.

In his case, that president is Donald Trump, whose face Carr wears as a lapel pin, whose agenda he loudly embraces, and who often publicly demands that Carr censor his critics, including revoking their broadcast licenses.

Seth Stern is the director of advocacy at Freedom of the Press Foundation and a first amendment lawyer. Clayton Weimers is the executive director of RSF USA, the North American branch of Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

The no-nonsense comic actor and author further cements her status as a national treasure with her trademark gobby one-liners

A lot of terrible things happen to Kathy Burke in her memoir, though you won’t find her mired in self-pity. Burke was a toddler when her mother died from stomach cancer, meaning she has no memory of her. In the Islington council flat where she grew up, she shared a bedroom with her alcoholic dad who would give up booze only to fall off the wagon and, at his worst, became violent. When a stranger on the estate called her ugly in front of her friends, she cannily deflected the insult with laughter. “I’m the best dancer at the ugly bug ball though,” she hooted, and did a little dance.

Burke would find her tribe on London’s punk scene and, in her teens, got the acting bug and a place at London’s Anna Scher Theatre school. This put her on the path to a brilliant and varied acting and writing career that saw her appearing in comedy sketches with Harry Enfield and French and Saunders, being called a genius by Peter Cook and taken by Luc Besson’s private jet to collect the prize for best actress at Cannes film festival for Gary Oldman’s 1997 film Nil By Mouth. There, much to her chagrin, she found herself “accepting a bellini cocktail from Harvey fuckface Weinstein”.

Lawsuit alleges that Larry Bushart’s first amendment rights were violated when he was arrested and jailed for 37 days

A former law enforcement officer in Tennessee is suing his county and sheriff after he was jailed for more than a month for posting a meme on Facebook related to the 10 September assassination of the conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

According to the new 30-page lawsuit filed this week, 10 days after Kirk’s killing, Larry Bushart, 61, shared a post in the comments of a Facebook post about a vigil for Kirk in Perry county, Tennessee.

The US-Ireland Alliance will give the actor the Oscar Wilde award at the event’s 20th anniversary in Los Angeles in March

After a varied career in which he has played a psychopath, a romcom heart-throb, an intergalactic warlord and a plucky newspaper editor among others, Domhnall Gleeson has won his first Hollywood award.

The US-Ireland Alliance announced that Gleeson will receive the Oscar Wilde award at the event’s 20th anniversary in Los Angeles in March in the run-up to the Oscars. It honours a body of work rather than a particular performance.

Equity says vote signals strong opposition to AI use and readiness to disrupt productions unless protections are secured

Actors have voted to refuse digital scanning to prevent their likeness being used by artificial intelligence in a pushback against AI in the arts.

Members of the performing arts union Equity were asked if they would refuse to be scanned while on set, a common practice in which actors’ likeness is captured for future use – with 99% voting in favour of the move.

Digital facilities that track wastage down to the gram have brought about behavioural change among users

Min Geum-nan walks towards a metal bin beneath her apartment block in Gangdong district, eastern Seoul carrying a small bag of vegetable peelings. She taps her resident card on the reader, the lid swings open, she empties the contents and scans again and a digital screen flashes: 0.5kg.

“You have no choice but to pay attention because you can see exactly what you’re wasting,” says Min, who has lived in the complex for 15 years and watched the system arrive in 2020.

Bremen lawyers say three unnamed people charged with crimes relating to bankruptcy and misrepresentation of bank’s finances

German prosecutors have brought criminal charges against three people involved in running Greensill Bank for their role in the 2021 collapse of the lender.

The Bremen public prosecutor’s office said the unnamed people were charged with crimes related to the bankruptcy, as well as the misrepresentation of the German bank’s finances.

Study finds dropping an expletive can raise confidence and help people push harder during physically demanding tasks

It may not be in keeping with the festive spirit, but if you find yourself dropping the F-word while wrestling a Christmas tree up a flight of stairs, scientists say you could be on to something. A study has found that swearing can enhance physical performance by lowering inhibitions and pushing the brain into a “flow state”.

“In many situations, people hold themselves back – consciously or unconsciously – from using their full strength,” said Dr Richard Stephens, a psychologist at Keele University who led the research. “Swearing is an easily available way to help yourself feel focused, confident and less distracted, and go for it a little more.”

You could try showing them the depths of what they don’t know, says advice columnist Eleanor Gordon-Smith. Knowing what they’re missing could be a path to mutual respect

• Read more Leading questions

How do I talk to grown grandsons who have different political beliefs and dismiss mine as fuzzy thinking, since I am old?

They are conservative and believe they “pulled themselves up by their bootstraps”. They didn’t. They had parents and family and help with university. They are lovely men and kind to me, but I cannot converse with them on the issues of the day.

They have had setbacks, but nothing that makes them realise how very difficult life can be. I want to tell them that they cannot always control life, and also that I disagree with them. What can I say?

The reader’s letter has been edited for length

Furiously angry and uproariously witty, the Irish singer’s third album was a high-water mark for pop, inspiring a TikTok dance craze and a triumphant set at Glastonbury

• The 50 best albums of 2025
• More on the best culture of 2025

The making of CMAT’s third album was a fraught business. Holed up in New York, writing and recording the follow-up to 2023’s Crazymad, for Me – which, despite critical acclaim and a Mercury nomination, was pronounced unsatisfactory by the singer herself – Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson suffered what sounds like a pretty terrifying breakdown. “I started actually hallucinating,” she said earlier this year. “I didn’t realise for the first two months that was what was happening, but I basically imagined the entire apartment I was staying in was crawling with insects … I went to the doctor and showed him my bites, and he said: ‘Those are stress hives; you’re mental.’”

One assumes that wasn’t exactly what he said, but you get the gist. And yet, despite its author comparing its recording to “a toxic relationship”, Euro-Country does not sound like it was challenging to make. On the contrary: it sounds like the supremely assured work of a songwriter whose powers have reached a new peak. It is, by turns, poignant, moving, furiously angry, uproariously funny and packed with incredible tunes. It strides confidently away from the country-infused style she minted on her 2022 debut If My Wife New I’d Be Dead, into territory that touches on jazz (Janis Joplining), raging alt-rock (The Jamie Oliver Petrol Station) and soul-kissed pop (Running/ Planning; Take a Sexy Picture of Me) without losing the essence of what made her successful in the first place.

Scientists say government must prepare for unlikely but ‘plausible’ 4C rise in temperature and a 2-metre rise in sea levels

The worst-case impacts of the climate crisis for the UK have been laid bare by scientists, ranging from a scorching 4C rise in temperatures to a 2-metre rise in sea level. Another scenario sees a plunge of 6C in temperature after the collapse of key Atlantic Ocean currents, massively disrupting farming and energy needs.

The impacts, some of which are linked to climate tipping points, are seen as low probability but plausible. The researchers said the scenarios filled a gap in forecasting that had left the UK unprepared for extreme outcomes.

Second ‘exemplary’ success for 85-year-old who had already rumbled bogus police officer demanding €60,000

An 85-year-old Bavarian has managed – twice – to ensnare phone fraudsters trying to shake him down for cash and valuables.

The German pensioner received an apparently urgent call on Tuesday from a man posing as a police officer telling him a family member was in distress – a common trick used to dupe elderly people.

• Manchester United or Atlético Madrid will take on Bayern

• Real Madrid to play Barcelona if they beat Paris FC

Arsenal, the defending European champions, will face Chelsea in the Women’s Champions League quarter-finals if they progress past OH Leuven in February’s knockout phase playoffs.

Manchester United, who will meet Atlético Madrid in their playoff tie, are in the opposite half of the draw and would take on Bayern Munich if they go through.

President Lula has indicated he will veto legislation but conservative lawmakers likely to overturn his decision

Brazil’s congress has approved a bill to reduce the prison term of Jair Bolsonaro, the former president who was sentenced to more than 27 years in prison for masterminding an attempted coup to overturn the 2022 elections.

Approved last week by the lower house and late on Wednesday by the senate, the bill now goes to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who has 15 working days to sign or veto it.

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

Thailand and Cambodia have been locked in a border dispute for more than a century, which exploded again in the summer of 2025. Peace efforts have had mixed results and fighting continues.

Guardian journalist Oliver Holmes looks at how colonial maps, simmering nationalism, Donald Trump and tourists all have a part to play

• A visual guide to the historical maps and temples at the heart of the Thailand-Cambodia conflict

Regulator received thousands of complaints over treatment of Shakira Khan by other female contestants on ITV series

ITV’s Love Island has proved a hit for the broadcaster, but the reality dating show has also dominated a more unwelcome chart – comprehensively winning the title of this year’s most complained about programme.

The treatment of Shakira Khan, a contestant many viewers believed had faced bullying, was the main issue ensuring the show took all three top spots in a list of TV output provoking the most protests to Ofcom, the broadcasting regulator.

Even losing seems to involve doing so without the qualities that were supposed to make England win

It’s a cruel, cruel summer. By the close of play in Adelaide, on the kind of superheated afternoon when just going outside basically involves setting fire to your own hair, it was clear this was the day the music finally died for England’s Ashes tour; even if that music has long since faded, like the tinkle of a haunted pianola in an empty house.

The start of day two had presented a familiar challenge. Here was another occasion where it was necessary to bat properly. And yes, it is always this day. The bat properly day. Do it. Do the batting. The proper batting. By now this seems to raise some very basic existential questions.

A country known for welcoming newcomers has reversed policy as immigration becomes increasingly a partisan issue

• Canada sees large drop in population amid international students crackdown

Standing in Canada’s House of Commons in 2023, the then-prime minister, Justin Trudeau, gave an impassioned speech on the value of welcoming newcomers.

“Canadians know that immigration is one of our greatest assets. It helps us compete,” he said. “If we want to boost our economic success significantly, we need to boost immigration.”

White elephant parties – in which people are invited to steal each other’s gifts – are the last thing we need right now

Happy forced frivolity season! We have once again arrived at the eye of the storm for the holidays, where cheerfulness is mandatory and lack of goodwill towards people is punishable by stoning in the town square. Surely, I don’t have to tell you that such quaint human emotions as “happiness” and “hope” are in short supply these days. This year, of all years, no one should be blamed for plugging their ears any time Mariah Carey comes on in the lobby of the unemployment office. And yet, we carry on with the rituals of joy that seem more and more incongruous, when life feels like some never-ending episode of MTV’s Ridiculousness, where God comments on clips of the human race getting hit in the face with a plastic baseball bat.

I’m certainly making an effort to put on a pleasant facade. I’ve cobbled together some nice gifts for my friends and family. I say hello to strangers, even the ones that look like they might want to deny me my basic rights as outlined in the US constitution. And I say yes to just about every holiday party invite – save for one massive exception.

Dave Schilling is a Los Angeles-based writer and humorist

Streams of soil turn sand and surrounding water red, creating sharp contrast with blue waters of Persian Gulf

Rainfall on Iran’s Hormuz Island briefly transformed the coastline of its Red Beach into a striking natural scene this week, as red soil flowed into the sea and turned the water shades of deep red.

The beach is known for its vivid red sand and cliffs, created by high concentrations of iron oxide.

Sainsbury’s, Barclays and University College London have all drawn on themes created by IWD site run by London business with no link to UN

Nobody owns International Women’s Day, but if you asked the 193 countries, countless businesses and NGOs that mark it each year, they would probably agree it has been popularised, defined and formalised by the United Nations.

The owner of the website “internationalwomensday.com”, a London-based marketing firm, disagrees. By selling merchandise, promoting a £160 lunch to awaken attenders’ “inner goddess” and creating a series of corporate partnerships, it has also seeded its annual themes with British brands and institutions that appear to have mistaken the site for the UN, the Guardian can reveal.

Justice department must release most documents by Friday, and failure to do so would provoke a firestorm

In less than 48 hours, Donald Trump’s justice department must release most of the files related to Jeffrey Epstein in its possession. Last month, Congress passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which required the release of those materials by 19 December, except in narrow cases where they would jeopardize current investigations, harm national security or foreign policy goals, or reveal information about Epstein’s victims.

Since Trump signed the legislation, his administration has been silent on its progress. Earlier this month, a bipartisan group of lawmakers asked Pam Bondi, the attorney general, for a briefing on the department of justice’s progress, but she did not provide one. Two Democratic senators among that group subsequently pledged to block some civilian nominees, because they were concerned the administration “is gearing up to disregard the law we led the fight in the Senate to pass, which overwhelmingly passed both chambers of Congress”.