The Guardian·Sunday, December 21, 2025

The Guardian - Sunday, December 21, 2025

10 stories~15 min

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Another 130 kidnapped schoolchildren released in Nigeria

Presidential spokesperson says all those abducted from a Catholic school in Niger state last month are now free Nigerian authorities say they have secured the release of a further 130 schoolchildren kidnapped from a Catholic school in November, after 100 were freed earlier this month. “Another 130 abducted Niger state pupils released, none left in captivity,” presidential spokesperson Sunday Dare said on X, in a post accompanied by a photo of smiling children. Continue reading...

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Manchester Museum seeks help to uncover hidden histories of African collection

New Africa Hub confronts colonial-era silences by asking visitors to share insights on 40,000 objects It’s a rare thing for a museum to talk about what it doesn’t know. But unanswered questions and archival silences are at the heart of the new Africa Hub at Manchester Museum, north-west England, which is inviting people around the world to help fill the gaps. The museum holds more than 40,000 items from across Africa, many of which were traded, collected, looted or preserved during the era of th

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Sweden and Germany slash aid budgets to focus on Ukraine and defence spending

Echoing the dismantling of USAID, other countries are changing funding priorities and health and hunger programmes in Africa will lose out The notion of humanitarian aid being used to combat poverty and hunger is being replaced in Europe with geopolitical “games” as states redirect aid to Ukraine and to defence spending, analysts warn after recent announcements by Sweden and Germany. Earlier this year, humanitarian groups called for European donors to fill the gap as President Donald Trump dism

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US plan for $1.6m hepatitis B vaccine study in Africa called ‘highly unethical’

Experts decry ‘neocolonialist’ Guinea-Bissau study after Trump administration changed advice for US babies The Trump administration has indicated that it will fund a $1.6m study on hepatitis B vaccination of newborns in the west African country of Guinea-Bissau, where nearly one in five adults live with the virus – a move that researchers call “highly unethical” and “extremely risky”. The news follows an official change in recommendations on hepatitis B vaccines at birth from the US Centers for

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Colombian mercenaries in Sudan ‘recruited by UK-registered firms’

Exclusive Guardian investigation finds companies set up by people sanctioned by US hired Colombian fighters for Rapid Support Forces, widely suspected of war crimes in Sudan Close to Tottenham Hotspur’s shiny football stadium in London is a squat, nondescript block of flats. It holds a grim secret beyond the unremarkable beige brickwork – a cramped, second-floor apartment in the British capital, linked to murderous atrocities unfolding 3,000 miles south. The one-bedroom flat off north London’s C

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US intercepts second merchant vessel off coast of Venezuela in international waters

Vessel does not appear to be on list of US-sanctioned vessels, which would represent escalation in blockade US forces on Saturday apprehended a second merchant vessel carrying oil off the coast of Venezuela in international waters in the midst of an American blockade against the country’s oil, according to the US homeland security department. The stoppage follows the seizure by US forces of another oil tanker off Venezuela’s coast on 10 December. Both vessels were headed to Asia. Continue readi

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Trump and top aides refuse to rule out war with Venezuela

President Nicolás Maduro orders Venezuelan navy to escort oil tankers after seizure by US forces What action is Trump taking against Venezuela’s oil industry? Donald Trump and his top advisers have refused to rule out the potential for open conflict with Venezuela as Nicolás Maduro urged his navy to escort oil tankers defying the largest US fleet deployed in the region in decades. In an interview broadcast on Friday morning, Donald Trump told NBC News that going to war with Maduro’s regime rem

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Santas and elves rob Montreal grocery store to ‘give food to the needy’

Group called Robins des Ruelles later said in statement stunt was intended to highlight cost of living crisis Dressed in red suits and backed by masked elves, a group of Santas marched into a Montreal supermarket, loaded their bags with thousands of dollars worth of groceries and disappeared into the night. The bandit Santas later released a statement saying the food would be distributed to the needy, and saying the Robin Hood-style stunt was intended to highlight the spiralling cost of living

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Seven Colombian soldiers killed in rebel drone attack on base near Venezuela

Colombia’s ELN guerrilla group used drones and explosives in Thursday night attack that also injured at least 30 soldiers Colombia’s ELN guerrilla group has attacked a military base near Venezuela with drones and explosives, killing seven soldiers and wounding 30. Founded in 1964 and inspired by the Cuban revolution, the ELN is the oldest surviving guerrilla group in the Americas, and controls key drug-producing regions of Colombia. Efforts to negotiate a peace settlement have repeatedly stalled

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‘I can’t think of a place more pristine’: 133,000 hectares of Chilean Patagonia preserved after local fundraising

Exclusive: Ancient forests and turquoise rivers of the Cochamó Valley protected from logging, damming and development A wild valley in Chilean Patagonia has been preserved for future generations and protected from logging, damming and unbridled development after a remarkable fundraising effort by local groups, the Guardian can reveal. The 133,000 hectares (328,000 acres) of pristine wilderness in the Cochamó Valley was bought for $63m (£47m) after a grassroots campaign led by the NGO Puelo Patag

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