Exclusive: Ministers face pushback over potential changes to asylum seekers’ rights before Council of Europe meeting

Human rights groups have warned UK ministers against weakening protections against torture or other mistreatment for asylum seekers before a crucial European summit this week on how to respond to migration.

David Lammy, the justice secretary, is expected to help lead arguments at the Council of Europe meeting on Wednesday on how the European convention on human rights (ECHR) could be reinterpreted to limit the scope of rights under article 3, which prohibits torture and “inhuman or degrading treatment”.

Backlog delaying ‘shovel-ready’ ventures will be cleared with aim of building virtually zero-carbon power system by 2030

Britain’s energy system operator is pulling the plug on hundreds of electricity generation projects to clear a huge backlog that is stopping “shovel-ready” schemes from connecting to the power grid.

Developers will be told on Monday whether their plans will be dismissed by the National Energy System Operator (Neso) – or whether they will be prioritised to connect by either the end of the decade or 2035.

There is a bread and circuses feel to this scandal. A wise public would see red flags; instead it sees entertainment

One upside of adversity is art, inspiring cultural output that seeks to process and channel suffering. “I’ll say one thing about Thatcher, some fantastic songs were written during her reign,” said the Irish singer Christy Moore once – before belting out a goosebump-raising rendition of Ordinary Man by Peter Hames, a song about the 1980s recession. That is, so far, the only upside of the publication of Olivia Nuzzi’s book American Canto, an affliction to journalism, politics and publishing: there has been some fantastic writing since it all kicked off.

Masterful reviews . Very funny commentary . Scathing analysis . But first, a summary of events for readers of this column, most of whom I assume are well-adjusted, offline people, with better things to do with their time than follow what can only be described as a niche beef . Nuzzi is (or perhaps was, keep reading) a celebrated US political journalist who had a “digital affair” with Robert F Kennedy Jr while he was running for president, broke all sorts of journalistic rules while doing so, and was fired from her job at New York magazine. RFK Jr went on to become Donald Trump’s anti-vaccine health secretary, Nuzzi has published a book about the whole affair, and her ex-fiance Ryan Lizza – another political journalist – has been dripfeeding revelations about how she cheated on him, and a litany of other personal and professional transgressions. There are no heroes here.

Nesrine Malik is a Guardian columnist

Observers in dark locations away from street lighting can expect to see more than 100 meteors an hour

The Perseid meteor shower in August often catches the headlines because of the warmer conditions associated with watching the display, but to many astronomers the Geminids put on the better show.

The Geminids have been active since 4 December and they reach their climax this week with the peak of the shower taking place on the night of 13-14 December. The chart shows the view looking south-east from London at midnight as 13 December becomes 14 December.

A rich, buttery crumb, a hint of bittersweet coffee, a spot of icing and a cherry on top … better gift them before you scoff them

These festive cookies are inspired by The Nutcracker’s Land of Sweets sequence, in which coffee and sugar plums are two of the flavours used to conjure a fanciful world of decadent diversion. Anything from a hard candy to a candied fruit can qualify as a “sugar plum” and, in the case of these cookies, the sugar plum is represented by the amarena cherry . Coffee’s bitterness balances the sweetness of the fruit and the rich butteriness of the dough, while the oat flour adds a dash of shortbread-like delicateness.

Brian Levy is the author of the Formal Assignment newsletter and Good & Sweet, published by Avery at £35.99. To order a copy, visit guardianbookshop.com

A rich, buttery crumb, a hint of bittersweet coffee, a spot of icing and a cherry on top … better gift them before you scoff them

These festive cookies are inspired by The Nutcracker’s Land of Sweets sequence, in which coffee and sugar plums are two of the flavours used to conjure a fanciful world of decadent diversion. Anything from a hard candy to a candied fruit can qualify as a “sugar plum” and, in the case of these cookies, the sugar plum is represented by the amarena cherry . Coffee’s bitterness balances the sweetness of the fruit and the rich butteriness of the dough, while the oat flour adds a dash of shortbread-like delicateness.

Brian Levy is the author of the Formal Assignment newsletter and Good & Sweet, published by Avery at £35.99. To order a copy, visit guardianbookshop.com

Observers in dark locations away from street lighting can expect to see more than 100 meteors an hour

The Perseid meteor shower in August often catches the headlines because of the warmer conditions associated with watching the display, but to many astronomers the Geminids put on the better show.

The Geminids have been active since 4 December and they reach their climax this week with the peak of the shower taking place on the night of 13-14 December. The chart shows the view looking south-east from London at midnight as 13 December becomes 14 December.

A rich, buttery crumb, a hint of bittersweet coffee, a spot of icing and a cherry on top … better gift them before you scoff them

These festive cookies are inspired by The Nutcracker’s Land of Sweets sequence, in which coffee and sugar plums are two of the flavours used to conjure a fanciful world of decadent diversion. Anything from a hard candy to a candied fruit can qualify as a “sugar plum” and, in the case of these cookies, the sugar plum is represented by the amarena cherry . Coffee’s bitterness balances the sweetness of the fruit and the rich butteriness of the dough, while the oat flour adds a dash of shortbread-like delicateness.

Brian Levy is the author of the Formal Assignment newsletter and Good & Sweet, published by Avery at £35.99. To order a copy, visit guardianbookshop.com

Observers in dark locations away from street lighting can expect to see more than 100 meteors an hour

The Perseid meteor shower in August often catches the headlines because of the warmer conditions associated with watching the display, but to many astronomers the Geminids put on the better show.

The Geminids have been active since 4 December and they reach their climax this week with the peak of the shower taking place on the night of 13-14 December. The chart shows the view looking south-east from London at midnight as 13 December becomes 14 December.