WeekDay AM: 10 Things you need to know this morning
China concerns, mystery drones, and eclipses 'on demand'

 
today's politics story

Starmer resists push to declare China a threat

What happened
Keir Starmer is facing pressure from MI5 to designate China a threat to national security in the wake of the unmasking of alleged Chinese spy Yang Tengbo, who has been linked to Prince Andrew. But the government reportedly fears that doing so would have unintended political and economic consequences.

Who said what
MI5 has urged the prime minister to place China on a new enhanced list of countries that could pose a security risk to the UK, said The Times. Yesterday senior Conservatives used an emergency question in the Commons to demand an immediate declaration of China as a threat in a move that is also "supported by some Labour MPs", according to The Daily Telegraph.

But, during a trip to Norway to sign a new energy deal, Starmer defended seeking closer relations with China, arguing that it is "better to engage, to challenge, than to stay aside".

What next?
The foreign influence registration scheme, which is due to start next year, will require anyone in the UK acting for a foreign power or entity to declare their activities. An "enhanced tier" targets hostile, state-linked work, with non-compliance punishable by two years' imprisonment.

Tom Tugendhat, a Conservative MP and former security minister, told the Commons yesterday that the "advice from MI5 was very, very clear: if China isn't in the enhanced tier, it's not worth having".

 
 
today's international story

Concerns continue over mystery drone sightings

What happened
For the past several days residents of the US state of New Jersey have been unnerved by a sudden proliferation of supposed drones hovering in the sky. The mysterious lights have prompted demands for a federal investigation and speculation about the unmanned aerial vehicles has run rampant along the eastern seaboard – and around the world.

Who said what
There exists "no evidence at this time" that the drones "pose a national security or public safety threat, or have a foreign nexus", said White House National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby last week. Nevertheless, "something's going on", said Washington Township Mayor Matthew Murello on Good Morning America.

What next?
Biden administration officials have begun acting on requests from local politicians, including New York Governor Kathy Hochul. Her "calls for additional resources" have prompted federal officials to send a "drone detection system to New York", wrote Hochul on X. Still, she added, Congress "must pass a law that will give us the power to deal directly with the drones".

 
 
Today's religion story

Archbishop of York faces pressure to resign

What happened
The Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, is facing calls to step down over his handling of a sexual abuse case.

A BBC investigation revealed that, as Archbishop of Chelmsford, Cottrell allowed priest David Tudor to remain in his diocese "despite knowing he had been barred by the Church from being alone with children and had paid compensation to a sexual abuse victim".

Tudor was banned from ministry for life in October after admitting to historic abuse involving two girls.

Who said what
The Bishop of Newcastle, Rt Rev Helen-Ann Hartley, told the BBC that Cottrell should have done more. "It completely undermines his credibility that this case was not acted on. How can you have the moral and ethical authority to lead an institution with that?"

For his part, Cottrell claimed there were "no legal grounds" to act earlier.

What next?
Cottrell is set to become the temporary leader of the Church of England while a successor to Justin Welby, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, is appointed.

 
 

It's not all bad

Rapid action has curbed the spread of the invasive Asian hornet in the UK, a study by the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology has found. Surveillance and nest removals have prevented it from establishing itself since the hornet's first sighting in 2016. The species, which preys on bees, threatens pollinators and has devastated colonies in Europe. Public vigilance and the effective response by authorities are credited with limiting its impact.

 
 
under the radar

Eclipses 'on demand' mark a new era in solar physics

Human beings have long lived in awe of the vast and starry skies – particularly during a solar eclipse, wherein the very laws of nature feel inverted. Before modern astronomy, solar eclipses were often assigned mythological or theological significance, which likely contributed to our enduring fascination with them.

That fascination took a seismic step forward this month with the European Space Agency's launch of its Proba-3 mission. The ground-breaking project will enable researchers to create artificial solar eclipses for study – on demand. Comprised of the twin satellites Occulter and Coronagraph, Proba-3 will see the pair working in tandem to create a "precisely controlled shadow from one platform to the other", said the ESA, opening "sustained views of the sun's faint surrounding corona".

Scientists hope that by artificially generating eclipses they can study the "counterintuitive" temperature of the sun's corona, which is approximately 200 times hotter than the star's actual surface, said Gizmodo. The corona also "drives solar wind and coronal mass ejections", which can affect certain technologies both in orbit around, and on, the Earth. But ultimately it is Proba-3's extraordinary precision in orbit that "may end up being the mission's most lasting legacy", said Space.com.

Lessons from the project could someday "be extended to larger pairs of satellites" that would then be able to "block out starlight and allow scientists to go planet hunting", said The Washington Post. "Imagine multiple small platforms working together as one to form far-seeing virtual telescopes or arrays," added the ESA. Proba-3 scientists expect the project will begin pushing out its eclipse observations "in about four months".

 
 
on this day

17 December 1903

Orville and Wilbur Wright, mechanics from Ohio, made the first successful sustained flights in an aeroplane. Recently one of the Wright brothers' planes has become mired in controversy after an owner's heirs demanded its return from a Philadelphia museum, which in turn claimed the aircraft had been donated as a gift.

 
 
Today's newspapers

The Chinese "spy" scandal has "deepened for the glum Duke" and there are now "fears over the growing network of Beijing spooks at large", says the Daily Mirror. Yang Tengbo became "Prince Andrew's man in Beijing", says The Times. Lord Robertson, who is leading the Government's Strategic Defence Review, has told Keir Starmer he must choose between slashing 20,000 troops or increasing defence spending, the Daily Express reports. Meanwhile, The Telegraph leads on Nigel Farage criticising the "two-tier justice" system after an OnlyFans model who threw milkshake at him avoided jail yesterday.

See the newspaper front pages

 
 
tall tale

The puffball that kept on giving

A woman from Buckinghamshire fed her entire family for a week after coming across the mushroom hunter's ultimate prize: a giant puffball. Alissimon Minnitt found the 5kg calvatia gigantea mushroom during a walk through the Aylesbury countryside and has since cooked up a range of dishes including "mushroom schnitzel, mushroom meatloaf, mushroom curry" and even a mushroom pizza base, said The Times. "That was a really weird one," said Minnitt of the latter. "I wasn't expecting it to be nice, but it was amazing."

 
 

Morning Report was written and edited by Arion McNicoll, Harriet Marsden, Sorcha Bradley, Devika Rao and Chas Newkey-Burden, with illustrations by Julia Wytrazek.

Image credits, from top: Stefan Rousseau / Pool / AFP / Getty Images; Gary Hershorn / Getty Images; Ian Forsyth / Getty Images.