A Romanian court has annulled the first round of the country's presidential election after Russia allegedly ran a coordinated online campaign to promote a far-right outsider.

Romanians were due to go to the polls again on Sunday in a second-round run-off vote, but the "momentous" move by the country's constitutional court "effectively voids the national election", said The Guardian.

What's happened?
On Wednesday, Romania's outgoing president Klaus Iohannis declassified intelligence documents that suggested almost 800 TikTok accounts created by a "foreign state" in 2016 suddenly became active last month to back independent far-right candidate Călin Georgescu (pictured above). Another 25,000 pro-Georgescu TikTok accounts began posting two weeks before the first round, which Georgescu won with 23% of the vote.

Romania's intelligence services said the surge in support for Georgescu, who emerged from almost total obscurity, was due to a "highly organised" and "guerilla" campaign. The files also alleged that he illegally benefited from extensive electoral promotion during periods when campaigning was prohibited, and that his campaign had received foreign financial support – despite Georgescu consistently claiming he had spent "zero" on campaigning.

What did the court say?
Judges from the constitutional court met on Friday to consider a string of requests to annul the first round in light of the intelligence reports. In a single-page judgment, the court said that it had unanimously decided to annul the vote and that the government must establish a new date for a rerun of the contest. It was a significant decision from a court that just days before had validated the first round of voting, following a recount of all 9.4 million votes cast.

What has the reaction been?
Georgescu claims he is a victim of a plot by the political elite to keep him out of power. Less predictably, his main opponent, the pro-Western centrist Elena Lasconi, also denounced the court's decision, saying democracy was being "trampled" by the state.

The vote is now due to be rerun, probably in three or four months' time, and President Iohannis will remain in post until his successor is elected.

Russia has been accused of trying to influence votes in Moldova and Georgia, too, although Moscow denies the allegations. But Romania is "the first democracy to cancel an election over alleged Russian interference", said the Financial Times.

Donald Trump's vow to inflict new tariffs on imports from US allies and rivals alike threatens to trigger a series of economic conflicts, but a trade war with China is likely to have the biggest geopolitical impact. And it's not clear which side would be the winner.

With the effects of any renewed trade war set to spread across the world, said The Economist, "sitting out the conflict is no longer much of an option".

'Armed and ready'
Trump initiated a round of "tit-for-tat tariffs" with Beijing in 2018 that the Biden administration largely left in place, said the magazine. The prospect of round two comes at a bad time for China, with the country's economy relying more heavily on manufacturing exports following a crisis in the real estate sector.

But don't be fooled, said CNN, China is "armed and ready for trade war 2.0". The Chinese economy looks "diminished" after the challenges of recent years, but Beijing has worked to reduce the country's dependence on American trade since the first Trump administration.

"China has been preparing for this day for quite some time," said Dexter Roberts, author of the Trade War newsletter. This time around, Beijing may seek to avoid a repeat of the back-and-forth tariffs of 2018, instead targeting individual American companies doing business in China.

'Zero-sum game'
A second round of tough US tariffs could "tip Xi Jinping's teetering economy over the edge", said Melissa Lawford in The Telegraph. Satellite data reveals that the first Trump tariffs caused Chinese factories to literally go dark, as bosses began "operating shorter shifts" and "cutting night-time production".

Trump would also be taking major risks by opening a new trade war, however. "Neither the US nor China can win relentless zero-sum game competitions," said John Milligan-Whyte, chair of the America-China Partnership Foundation, in an article for China Daily. But there is room for optimism. Trump is an "excellent business deal-maker" who is willing to "ignore the entrenched hostile views of China in the US' traditional policy-making establishment". A trade war is a "worst-case scenario": the best-case scenario is the emergence of "a new, mutually beneficial framework for Sino-US relations".

Christmas party season is here but that doesn't have to mean knocking back the booze. A surge in demand for low-alcohol or alcohol-free drinks has seen a slew of bubbly producers coming up with sophisticated fizz that tastes almost identical to the real thing.

Oddbird Blanc de Blancs
Swedish brand Oddbird uses chardonnay and colombard grapes to craft this "exceptional" booze-free fizz in France, said The Times. The sparkling wine is matured for 12 months before being "liberated" from alcohol. Expect "mouth-puckering acidity" and a "frothy head like real champagne".

Community.Co zero alcohol sparkling white
"We were pleasantly surprised by this bubbly alternative to prosecco," said The Independent. Made with sparkling fermented grape juice and green tea, it's a "most drinkable" booze-free option.

French Bloom 0.0% Le Rosé
This "fits the bill for a celebratory occasion", said The Guardian. Made from organic chardonnay and pinot noir grapes, it has delicate notes of "fresh red berries and crisp Pink Lady apples".

Wild Idol alcohol free sparkling wine
With a "proper champagne-style bottle", "straw colour" and "frothy mouthfeel", this is very close to real fizz, said The Times. Little wonder Wild Idol is served at the Dorchester, one of London's fanciest hotels; "this feels like a luxury product".

Della vite zero
Sisters Chloe, Poppy and Cara Delevingne teamed up with a third-generation wine-making family in Italy to launch their vegan prosecco brand in 2020. And their new non-alcoholic rosé version "proves you don't need to skimp on flavour just because you've cut out booze", said The Independent.

Angela Rayner will become the unpopular face of Labour's housing plan
Anne McElvoy on the i news site
Deputy PM Angela Rayner occupies "one of the most exposed roles" in government in her "day job" as housing secretary, writes Anne McElvoy, and delivering on Labour's house-building targets is "her most daunting challenge". There's "no sensible way through our housing shortage" other than drastically increasing supply – "which most of us hope will end up happening somewhere not too close to us". She's become "Angela the Bulldozer", which is not an "edifying position" to be in.

In Germany, a woman is killed every day. That's proof the sexism we all experience is far from 'harmless'
Fatma Aydemir in The Guardian
A reality of my life is that every day, "I'll be humiliated" by a man "shouting a slur" at me, "belittling my work, touching me without consent or making inappropriate remarks", writes Fatma Aydemir. And every day, another woman in Germany is "being killed, most probably by her partner or ex-partner". But "instead of acknowledging femicide as a massive problem", politicians "tend to pay attention only when violence against women serves their political aims", such as "blaming foreigners, especially Muslims".

I resent writing Christmas cards – but I'd resent not receiving them even more
Will Gore on The Independent
The "only fly in the ointment" of the Christmas season so far has arrived through my letterbox in the form of "a bunch of Christmas cards", writes Will Gore. "Churlish though this will sound, my heart sank a little." Yet while responding is "a bit of a chore", I would "resent" not hearing from "those old mates and the relations I rarely catch up with in person", and "if you do not give, you shall not receive".