EU leaders complain Brexit debate is ‘nebulous’ ... Capital punishment in US continues to decline ... Strasbourg suspect is killed by police

Good morning, I’m Tim Walker with today’s essential stories.

Top story: Bipartisan vote deals blow to Trump foreign policy

The Senate has passed a bipartisan resolution demanding an end to US military support for the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, despite the White House lobbying hard against it. The measure, which passed by 56 votes to 41, marks the first time the Senate has invoked the 1973 War Powers Resolution to curb the power of the president. Regardless of whether the resolution makes it through the House and into law, it is a symbolic rebuke to the administration over its support for the Riyadh regime.

Africa policy. The US national security adviser, John Bolton, has unveiled the Trump administration’s Africa policy, which he says is designed to counter the “predatory” approach of China and Russia to the continent.

Inaugural cash. To add to the president’s legal problems, federal prosecutors are investigating evidence of improper spending by Trump’s inaugural committee, the Wall Street Journal has reported.

EU leaders complain about ‘nebulous’ Brexit debate

Facebook Twitter Pinterest May and other EU leaders arrive for a Brexit meeting in Brussels. Photograph: Alastair Grant/AP

EU leaders have sent Theresa May back to London empty-handed, after she begged them to help sweeten her Brexit deal for sceptical MPs in Westminster. At a summit in Brussels on Thursday, the British prime minister asked the EU’s 27 other member states to put a 12-month limit on the controversial Irish “backstop”, but Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European commission, asked the UK to clarify its demands, describing the Brexit debate as “nebulous and imprecise”.

Meaningful vote. MPs were due to vote on May’s Brexit deal this week, but the vote will now be delayed until early January.

No-deal scenario. Businesses and the UK civil service have both begun ramping up preparations for a disastrous, “hard” Brexit.

Capital punishment in the US continues to decline

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Death penalty opponents gather at Riverbend prison in Tennessee. Photograph: Shelley Mays/AP

Despite a slight rise in executions in 2018, a report released on Friday by the nonpartisan Death Penalty Information Center has concluded that capital punishment in the US remains in long-term decline. Twenty-five people were executed across all 30 death penalty states in 2018, compared with 23 last year, making this the fourth year in a row in which there were fewer than 30 executions.

1990s peaks. Forty-two people were sentenced to death in 2018, up from 39 in 2017, but way down from the record 315 death sentences in 1996. Executions peaked in 1999, with 98 deaths.

Strasbourg manhunt ends as suspect is killed by police

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Police patrol the area near Strasbourg’s Christmas market. Photograph: Alain Jocard/AFP/Getty

The man suspected of killing three people and wounding a dozen others at the Strasbourg Christmas market was shot dead by French police at about 9pm local time on Thursday, 48 hours after he fled the scene of the attack. After a manhunt that spread across the border to Germany, 29-year-old Chérif Chekatt was finally spotted by three neighbourhood police officers in the Neudorf area of south-east Strasbourg, where he reportedly shot at them before they returned fire.

Deadly attack. Three of those wounded in Tuesday’s attack are still in a critical condition in hospital. Five people have been arrested in connection with the shootings, including four members of Chekatt’s immediate family.

Crib sheet

The Russian spy Maria Butina has pleaded guilty to a conspiracy to act as an agent of a foreign government, making her the first Russian national to be convicted in relation to meddling in the 2016 election.

A senior Trump administration science adviser has cast doubt on longstanding research that links fossil fuel pollution to health problems, to the dismay of environmental experts.

A Virgin Galactic rocket plane has reached the edge of space, the first US commercial human flight to achieve an altitude of more than 50 miles since the shuttle program ended in 2011.

Kurdish-led forces backed by the US have captured Hajin, the last Syrian town held by Islamic State, observers said on Friday.

Listen to Today in Focus: Is the net closing in on Trump?

Several sometime members of the US president’s inner circle have pleaded guilty as a result of Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation. Jon Swaine lays out what we have learned from the inquiry so far, and what it could mean for Trump’s future.

Must-reads

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Be careful what you wish for: the reverse gift guide. Illustration: Gabriel Alcala

Don’t give the gift of privacy invasion

A home DNA testing kit, a Facebook communications device, a camera drone: they might seem like fun, harmless Christmas gifts, but if your loved ones value their privacy, warns Julia Carrie Wong, they will be better off without them.

The best movie moments of 2018

From Natalie Portman battling a mutant bear to Nicolas Cage duelling a giant chainsaw, this year has had its fill of memorable celluloid sequences. The Guardian’s film writers select their favourite moments.

A mixed-race American in Africa

Alexander Hurst is mixed-race, but when he moved from Ohio to Chad he couldn’t shake off the feeling that he was passing for white, and being privileged as a result. “I couldn’t slip into the well-defined role of being white when it suited me, and then set myself apart from it when it did not,” he writes.

Was the punk turtle saved from extinction?

Thanks to its vivid green “mohican”, the Mary River turtle went viral when it appeared on an endangered species list. But are punk concerts and a campaign ad featuring Cate Blanchett’s voice enough to save this hitherto little-known Australian reptile? Patrick Barkham reports.

Opinion

A year after the violent white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Jocelyn Nicole Johnson attended a public event aimed at educating locals about the town’s bleak racial history. Confronting that past, she argues, could be the only way to build hope for a better future.

Thomas Jefferson penned “all men” with one hand then plundered black bodies with the other, creating children he owned in slavery. At the root of the American problem is our refusal to truly acknowledge this double-edged start.

Sport

Liverpool may be the superior team, but they have nonetheless failed to beat Manchester United in their past eight league meetings. Can Jürgen Klopp’s side change the narrative at Anfield on Sunday? That’s one of 10 things to look out for amid this weekend’s Premier League action.

After breaking up their Legion of Boom defence, the 2018 Seattle Seahawks were little-fancied. And yet here they are, heading for the playoffs, writes Oliver Connolly.

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