Since 2008, struggling communities have been told they are in competition with migrants. Only a model that gives them hope will halt the populists

How much does Europe’s future resemble its gruesome past? That question was already pressing before Donald Trump retook the White House, and turned support for the European far-right “patriotic” parties into US policy. That is, of course, what his newly published National Security Strategy means, committing the US to “cultivating resistance” in European nations against the supposed “civilisational erasure” represented by immigration.

With or without US interference, far-right authoritarianism is now an entirely plausible European future, unless there is drastic change. After all, it is already the US’s present reality. American exceptionalism once held that such an outcome was impossible in the world’s oldest continuous constitutional republic, with its system of separation of powers and no history of despotism. Yet the country is now ruled by a self-styled king, centralising executive power, weaponising the justice system, attacking civil society and neutralising the media.

Owen Jones is a Guardian columnist

From the US to Hungary to Argentina, rightwing leaders are praising José Antonio Kast’s win in Chile’s presidential race

José Antonio Kast’s victory in Chile’s presidential election has been widely praised by leaders of the global right, with congratulations coming from the US secretary of state Marco Rubio, Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, Argentina’s Javier Milei and X’s Elon Musk.

The son of a Nazi party member, a father of nine and a staunch Catholic known for opposing abortion and same-sex marriage, Kast won 58.16% of the vote in the runoff – more than 2m votes than the leftist Jeannette Jara, a former labour minister under the current president, Gabriel Boric.

Release of 43-second video comes as senior church figures speak out against dangers of Christian nationalism

The Church of England has released a video in response to a Christmas carols event on Saturday being organised by the far-right activist Tommy Robinson amid calls from a growing number of senior church figures to challenge Christian nationalism.

In the 43-second video, Christmas Isn’t Cancelled, posted on the church’s YouTube channel, more than 20 people from the archbishop of York to schoolchildren speak about the “joy, love and hope” of Christmas. The message is “a simple reminder that Christmas belongs to all of us, and everyone is welcome to celebrate”, the C of E said.

The US made it clear this week that it plans to help the parties of the European far right gain power. Keir Starmer and his fellow leaders have to face this new reality

When are we going to get the message? I joked a few months back that, when it comes to Donald Trump, Europe needs to learn from Sex and the City’s Miranda Hobbes and realise that “He’s just not that into you”. After this past week, it’s clear that understates the problem. Trump’s America is not merely indifferent to Europe – it’s positively hostile to it. That has enormous implications for the continent and for Britain, which too many of our leaders still refuse to face.

The depth of US hostility was revealed most explicitly in the new US national security strategy, or NSS, a 29-page document that serves as a formal statement of the foreign policy of the second Trump administration. There is much there to lament, starting with the sceptical quote marks that appear around the sole reference to “climate change”, but the most striking passages are those that take aim at Europe.

Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist

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Week-long event organised by Brothers of Italy looks like winter wonderland but is chance for PM to flaunt power

When, out of curiosity, Leila Cader and her friends entered the gardens surrounding Castel Sant’Angelo, a prominent Rome monument that once served as a refuge for popes during times of war, they thought they’d chanced upon an enchanting winter wonderland.

With the scent of mulled wine wafting through the air, Santa’s elves wandering around, stalls selling nativity-scene figurines and skaters merrily gliding on an ice-rink, it was beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

With the US threatening to support ‘patriotic’ parties here, we need better defences, starting with tough new rules about political donations

The new threat is so dizzyingly bizarre that Europe, and especially Britain, is slow to believe it. The US declares itself our enemy. Europe emerges as its main adversary in the US national security strategy. Russia is its friend, not us. Everything that looked solid since the second world war is turned upside down; the land of the free becomes the destroyer of democratic values. Appeasement fails.

He may ramble, but Donald Trump speaks plainly. He means what he says, and he hates everything European. Except its emerging “patriotic” parties, which he wants to support. His strategy warns of “civilizational erasure”, claiming Europe will soon “become majority non-European” and parroting the racist conspiracy known as the great replacement theory. Describing Europeans as “weak”, “decaying” and “destroying their countries”, with “real stupid” leaders, Trump responded to the question of whether they would still be allies, in a Politico interview, with a hint of threat: “It depends.”

Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist

Interior ministry will tell 640 people awaiting sanctuary ‘there is no longer any political interest in their being admitted’

• Europe live – latest updates

Hundreds of Afghans previously promised sanctuary in Germany have been told they are no longer welcome, in a stark U-turn by the conservative chancellor, Friedrich Merz‪.

The 640 people in Pakistan awaiting resettlement – many of whom worked for the German military during the US invasion and occupation of Afghanistan – will no longer be taken in, as Merz’s government axes two programmes introduced by its centre-left-led predecessor.

Continent’s other nationalist parties wary of echoing sentiments of US president due to his unpopularity

Germany’s far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) has responded to US claims that Europe faces “civilisational erasure” by saying it backs efforts for a nationalist revival on the continent – but other nationalist parties in the EU are far more cautious.

“The AfD is fighting alongside its international friends for a conservative renaissance,” the party’s foreign policy spokesperson, Markus Frohnmaier, said on Wednesday, adding that he would meet Maga Republicans in Washington and New York this week.

Exclusive: PM calls for members of European convention on human rights to allow tougher action to protect borders

• We must protect our borders to defend our democracies – here’s how

Keir Starmer has called on European leaders to urgently curb joint human rights laws so that member states can take tougher action to protect their borders and see off the rise of the populist right across the continent.

Before a crucial European summit on Wednesday, the prime minister urged fellow members to “go further” in modernising the interpretation of the European convention on human rights (ECHR) to prevent asylum seekers using it to avoid deportation.