The president called immigrants such as Ilhan Omar ‘garbage’ – but this latest racist outburst may be another sign of weakness

Last week, as ICE agents descended on Minneapolis and St Paul, Minnesota’s Twin Cities, and members of migrant communities there retreated into hiding, Donald Trump unleashed a wave of bigotry against the area’s Somali population in a moment of vitriol that was shockingly racist even by his own very low standards. Rousing himself to animation at the tail end of a televised 2 December cabinet meeting during which he sometimes appeared to be struggling to stay awake, the president disparaged Somali immigrants, many of whom are refugees from the country’s long-running civil conflict, as ungrateful and unfit for residence in the United States.

“I don’t want ’em in our country,” Trump said of ethnic Somalis, about 80,000 of whom live in the Minneapolis area. “Their country’s no good for a reason.” The comments echoed recent posts from the president’s powerful adviser Stephen Miller, who has largely taken over immigration policy. Referring to what he called “the lie of mass migration” in a November 27 post on X , Miller cast doubt on the possibility of assimilation, and suggested that immigrants from troubled countries would contaminate America with a kind of genetic or ontological incapacity for democratic governance. “At scale, migrants and their descendants represent the conditions, and terrors, of their broken homelands,” Miller wrote.

Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist

Guardian story helped to draw attention to planned hanging of Goli Kouhkan over death of abusive husband

A child bride who was due to be executed this month in Iran over the death of her husband has had her life spared by his parents, who were paid the equivalent of £70,000 in exchange for their forgiveness.

Goli Kouhkan, 25, has been on death row in Gorgan central prison in northern Iran for the past seven years. At the age of 18 she was arrested over allegedly participating in the killing of her abusive husband, Alireza Abil, in May 2018, and sentenced to qisas – retribution-in-kind.

Nobel peace laureate’s decision to flee on people-smuggling route is highly symbolic, but will her influence wane if unable to return?

• Venezuelan Nobel laureate reunited with family after perilous journey to receive prize

Thousands of Venezuelan migrants have braved the seas off Falcón state in recent years, fleeing their shattered homeland towards the Caribbean islands of Aruba and Curaçao in rickety wooden boats called yolas . Many lost their lives chasing a brighter future after their overcrowded vessels capsized or were smashed apart by rocks.

This week, the opposition leader María Corina Machado got a taste of that perilous journey herself, as the Nobel laureate began her surreptitious 5,500-mile-plus odyssey from her authoritarian homeland to Norway to collect her peace prize.

Chinese online retailer targeted under rules limiting state help to companies

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Temu’s European headquarters in Dublin have been raided by EU regulators investigating a potential breach of foreign subsidy regulations.

The Chinese online retailer, which is already in the European Commission’s spotlight over alleged failures to prevent illegal content being sold on its app and website, was raided last week without warning or any subsequent publicity.

Receiving her first centre pass at London’s Copper Box Arena will be an unforgettable moment for the skipper

A gurgle turns into a squawk, and the early throes of a weary cry – surefire signs that an afternoon nap is required. For much of her life, since her dramatic arrival in the pre-dawn hours of a May morning, seven-month-old Miller has been a regular presence at England netball camps.

Sometimes she sleeps courtside, other times watches from a balcony, or is passed between arms of players and staff members eagerly seeking a cuddle during team meetings. Whatever it takes for her mother, the England netball captain, Nat Metcalf, to get back on court.

From glühwein to lebkuchen, bratwurst to stollen, recreating the delicacies I sampled in the city’s festive markets is wholly achievable. Plus, a new digital cookbook for a good cause

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Without wanting to sound tediously Scrooge-like, the German-style markets that have become seasonal fixtures in many British cities over the last few decades never make me feel particularly festive. What’s remotely Christmassy – or German – about Dubai-chocolate churros and Korean fried chicken, I grumble as I drag the dog (who enjoys all such things) around their perimeters.

Hamburg’s markets, however, which I was myself dragged around last weekend, are a very different story. For a start, the city has many of them, mainly fairly small – and some, such as the “erotic Christmas market” in St Pauli, with a particular theme. What they all have in common is the range of food and drink on offer … though let’s gloss hurriedly over the phallic gingerbread shapes on sale at St Pauli in favour of the eye-opening range of glühwein (white, rosé, kirsch-spiked, blueberry-flavoured), which was far more appealing.

Detectives release images of group after items with ‘significant cultural value’ taken from storage facility in September

More than 600 artefacts from Bristol Museum’s British Empire and Commonwealth collection have been stolen in a “high-value burglary”, police have said.

Detectives with Avon and Somerset police said they wanted to speak to four men in connection with the incident and released CCTV images of the group.

Male one: white, of medium to stocky build, wearing a white cap, black jacket, light-coloured trousers and black trainers.

Male two: white, of slim build, wearing a grey-hooded jacket, black trousers and black trainers.

Male three: white, wearing a green cap, black jacket, light-coloured shorts and white trainers. He appears to walk with a slight limp in his right leg.

Male four: white, of large build, wearing a two-toned orange and navy/black puffed jacket, black trousers and black and white trainers.

Sarah Mullally accused of mishandling abuse complaint against priest in London, where she serves as bishop

The Church of England is reviewing a complaint against the incoming archbishop of Canterbury over her handling of an abuse allegation.

Dame Sarah Mullally is due to take up the role next month, after Justin Welby was forced to resign over the way he dealt with a safeguarding scandal.

Trump and Vance head to South Park in Christmas gear for a big showdown – only for Jesus to show up. At one point, you can almost feel Trey Parker and Matt Stone taking a stand against the US government

Coming off its most controversial and highest rated season in years, South Park had high expectations to meet with its season finale. Given how infamously down-to-the-wire its production schedule is – showrunners Matt Stone and Trey Parker often don’t start writing scripts until the week they’re set to air, working up to the 11th hour to turn in a completed episode (a method that caused them to miss a deadline earlier this year) – there was some question as to whether they would be able to tie everything up at all, let alone in a satisfying manner.

Most viewers were probably anticipating a giant, apocalyptic climax to the various long-running storylines – chief among them Donald Trump’s attempts to kill his and his lover Satan’s soon-to-be-born spawn. Instead, Stone and Parker swerved expectations, delivering an introspective and ultimately melancholy climax, one that managed to balance hope and despair in equal measure, alongside the outrageous shock humour for which they’re famous.