India has expressed "deep concern" over the arrest of a Hindu monk in Bangladesh and asked its neighbour to "ensure the safety of Hindus and all minorities".

In recent months, India has "repeatedly" raised fears about the safety of Hindus in Bangladesh, said the BBC. The arrest of Chinmoy Krishna Das has "triggered a fresh war of words".

Why was Das arrested?
Das was arrested on sedition charges and accused of "disrespecting Bangladesh’s national flag" at a rally, held in October, protesting against mistreatment of Hindus in the country.

After a court in Chittagong denied him bail this week, police "used batons and tear gas to disperse" the large crowd of supporters surrounding the van taking Das back to prison. One man was killed in the clash, according to the BBC.

What's going on between India and Bangladesh?
Bangladesh and India have "traditionally shared a warm relationship", but relations have been "frosty" since Bangladesh's former prime minister Sheikh Hasina was ousted in August.

The new regime in Dhaka, headed by interim leader Muhammad Yunus, has an "implicit anti-India agenda", wrote Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit in India's The Sunday Guardian, claiming "unabated Hinduphobia" in Bangladesh is now at an "all-time high".

Are Bangladeshi Hindus in serious danger?
Hindus are the largest minority in Muslim-majority Bangladesh, accounting for about 8% of the population, and the government continues to deny that Hindus are unsafe.

But within 10 days of the Hasina government's fall, there were at least 200 incidents of anti-Hindu crime in Bangladesh, wrote Pandit, including "attacks against individuals" and "incidents of vandalism of businesses, properties, Hindu houses and, especially, temples".

Oh, Christmas tree, for as long as we can remember we've marvelled at "how lovely are your branches". But our love affair with you seems to have hit a rough patch.

Between seven and eight million Christmas trees are still sold in the UK each year, according to the British Christmas Tree Growers Association. But environmental concerns and a possible shortage means we might be rocking around them less often in the future.

'Thin as wrapping paper'
Compared with the "mechanised slaughter of turkeys", the cultivation of millions of trees may seem "comparatively benign", said The Telegraph. But it "seems to attract undue angst". And with margins as "thin as wrapping paper", it is an "absurd world" for the Christmas tree farmer.

Wet weather early this year also means good quality trees "may be harder to come by this Christmas", said the Daily Express. The excess moisture can create problems such as fungal disease, so punters who "leave their tree shopping late could end up compromising on quality". Trees are also "likely to be more expensive this year" thanks to the "classic supply and demand" issue.

'Huge environmental cost'
There's a "growing" debate around "whether it's appropriate to put up a Christmas tree at all", said BBC Countryfile. People question whether, "at a time of environmental loss and climate chaos", we should be "cutting down living trees for such a short period of indulgence"?

A YouGov survey in 2022 found that 54% of Britons considered an artificial tree to be more environmentally friendly. But the carbon footprint of a fake tree is seven to 20 times that of a real tree, said the Carbon Trust. A fake tree would need to be used for at least seven years for it to have a smaller carbon footprint than buying a real tree each year.

Nordmann firs are harvested at around 10 years old, when they are about two metres high, but that's not enough time for "complex ecosystems to establish themselves", said Countryfile. If the trees are planted on wildlife-rich grassland or "at the expense of an existing woodland", the environmental cost is "huge".

Languedoc-Roussillon: Pont-Saint-Esprit, Gard
This eye-catching castle, built in 1860, offers panoramic views over five départements. 7 beds, 3 baths, kitchen, 4 receps, chapel, swimming pool, garden, 50 acres, parking. €2.5 million; Knight Frank

Occitanie: Villeneuve, Aveyron
Impressive bourgeois-style property with more than 12 acres of meadows and woodland. 8 beds, 7 baths, kitchen, 2 receps, swimming pool, outbuildings, garden, parking. €1.75 million; Savills

Normandy: Chaulieu, Manche
This pretty Grade II thatched house is set in gardens of more than an acre. 5 beds (1 en suite), 2 baths, kitchen/breakfast room, 3 receps, library, study. OIEO £1 million; Nash Partnership

Occitanie: Alès, Gard Cévennes
A 16th-century castle in a commanding setting, with three towers and more than six acres of parkland. 10 beds, 7 baths, kitchen, 2 receps, self-contained duplex flat, swimming pool, garden, outbuildings, caretaker’s cottage, parking. €2.4 million; Groupe Mercure

Drunk MPs and my pretend G&Ts – Westminster's booze problem has gone too far
Kate McCann on the i news site
"There are lots of things in life that we accept which can even seem normal until we say them out loud," writes Kate McCann, so "let me say mine out loud: my workplace serves alcohol all day long and drinking while at work is generally considered fairly normal". But if it is routine for senior politicians to have "got so drunk at a party with colleagues that they were sick in a recycling bin", it must be time for a change.

My father voted for Romania's ultra-nationalist. I am beginning to understand why
Andrei Popoviciu in The Guardian
"More than 2 million Romanians" voted for the "fringe far-right" candidate Călin Georgescu, and my father told me he used his vote as "a protest against the political establishment", writes freelance journalist Andrei Popoviciu. His belief is not exceptional following Romania’s two dominant parties having "presided over corruption scandals, nepotism, politically connected fraud" and "opaque use of public funds". The result of this election "should be a wake-up call to these parties".

The torture of 'Meet the Rees-Moggs'
Rachel Cooke in The New Statesman
Having watched the first episode, "I’m just a little better prepared" for life in 21st-century Britain, where "some men will always be good chaps whatever they've done", says Rachel Cooke. "Meet the Rees-Moggs" is a "reward" for the part played by the former Tory MP in the "huge and multifarious political failures of the last decade" alongside his "facile, not to say toxic, contribution to the public discourse". All we learn is that "he loves Greggs" and his housekeeper has to "iron his boxers".