This is The Loop, your quick catch-up for this morning's news as it happens.
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Stay up to date with the latest news and analysis
By Brianna Morris-Grant
That's all for The Loop this morning — thanks for following along!
We'll be back tomorrow, but in the meantime, you can stay up to date on the ABC News website and by subscribing to our mobile alerts.
If you're just joining us, here's what you need to know:
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Police say the number of people killed in an apartment building explosion and fire on the English Channel Island of Jersey has risen to five.
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Four children have been taken to hospital in a critical condition, after being rescued from a freezing lake the UK city of Birmingham.
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WNBA star Brittney Griner said she just "wanted to talk" after being released from a Russian prison.
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Three women have been killed in Rome after a gunman opened fire outside an apartment block.
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More photos have been released of the navy mission to rescue NASA's Orion space capsule from the Pacific Ocean.
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Buckingham Palace has released King Charles' first Christmas card photo as monarch.
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At least 13 bald eagles were likely poisoned by scavenging the carcasses of euthanised animals that were improperly dumped at a Minnesota landfill.
Four children in critical condition after falling into frozen lake
By Brianna Morris-Grant
Four children have been taken to hospital in a critical condition, after being rescued from a freezing lake the UK city of Birmingham.
They are believed to have fallen into the water after playing on ice.
Local authorities say the children had been in cardiac arrest when they were rescued.
Crews were told on arrival that up to six people had been in the lake, but police say they're not expecting to find anyone alive.
They blamed the extreme temperature of the water, the age of those who'd entered, and the time they may have been in there.
Germany to tighten gun laws after suspected coup plot
By Brianna Morris-Grant
Germany plans to tighten its gun laws in the wake of a suspected plot by a far-right group to violently overthrow the government and install a minor royal as national leader.
German police last week arrested 25 people suspected of involvement in the plot, which has shocked many in one of Europe's most stable democracies.
Prosecutors allege that many of the suspects were members of the "Reichsbuerger" (Citizens of the Reich) movement, which does not believe in the existence of the modern German state, according to prosecutors.
Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, in an interview with Bild am Sonntag newspaper, warned the Reichsbuerger represented a rising threat to Germany given it had expanded by 2,000 to 23,000 people in the past year.
"These are not harmless crazy people but suspected terrorists who are now sitting in pre-trial detention," Ms Faeser said.
Prosecutors say the suspects included individuals with weapons and knowledge of how to use them. They had attempted to recruit current and former army members and had stockpiled weapons.
"We need all authorities to exert maximum pressure" to remove their weapons, Ms Faeser was quoted as saying, which was why the government would "shortly further tighten gun laws".
Prior to the raids, authorities had already confiscated weapons from more than 1,000 Reichsbuerger members.
However, at least another 500 are still believed to hold gun licenses in a country where the private possession of firearms is rare.
The fact senior civil service members – including former politician and Berlin judge Birgit Malsack-Winkemann - were among those arrested on suspicion of plotting has particularly shaken many in Germany.
Jochen Lober, the lawyer who defended her in a legal case in October where the Berlin government tried to force her to retire as judge, declined to comment on her arrest.
More than a dozen bald eagles poisoned after eating landfill carcasses
By Brianna Morris-Grant
At least 13 bald eagles were likely poisoned by scavenging the carcasses of euthanised animals that were improperly dumped at a Minnesota landfill.
Three of them have since died.
State and wildlife officials are investigating after the birds were found near the Pine Bend Landfill in Minneapolis.
Ten of the birds are in intensive care at the University of Minnesota Raptor Center.
The center's executive director Victoria Hall said she is optimistic those birds will recover.
She said when the eagles were found some of them were lying motionless, face down in the snow, and Raptor Center workers weren't sure if they were still alive.
Veterinarians suspect the eagles that died had eaten part of a carcass of an animal that had been euthanised with pentobarbital.
Investigators confirmed some euthanized animals had been brought to the landfill on December 2.
Ms Hall said chemically euthanised animals are supposed to be disposed of in a manner so that other animals can’t scavenge on them.
Of the 11 eagles brought to The Raptor Center, three also had lead poisoning and one eagle that was found to have bird flu died.
Two other eagles were found dead near the landfill.
King Charles releases first Christmas card as monarch
By Brianna Morris-Grant
Buckingham Palace on Sunday released the photograph for King Charles' first Christmas card as monarch.
The new pic shows the then-heir to the throne with his wife Camilla at the Braemar Gathering in Scotland.
The photo, chosen by Charles and Camilla, was taken on September 3, shortly before he came to the throne.
The Braemar Gathering is a celebration of traditional Scottish games, sports and dancing in Braemar, a village 60 miles west of Aberdeen, which neighbours the King's Balmoral summer residence.
Queen Elizabeth, who missed the event for the first time in her 70 year reign this year, died less than a week later.
Four arrested amid suspected corruption in European Parliament
By Brianna Morris-Grant
Prosecutors in Belgium have charged four people in connection with an investigation into suspected corruption and money laundering at the European Parliament.
The group haven't been named.
The inquiry centres on suspicions that Qatar tried to bribe people at the parliament with money or gifts.
Qatari officials have denied the accusation.
Prosecutors searched 16 houses and seized 600,000 euros ($930,844) in Brussels on Friday as part of an investigation into money laundering and corruption.
Six people were initially detained.
Prosecutors said they had suspected for months that a Gulf state was trying to influence decisions in Brussels.
Twitter's character limit could increase
By Brianna Morris-Grant
Elon Musk is at it again — this time taking to Twitter on early Sunday morning (or Sunday night, our time) to seemingly confirm he plans to increase the site's character limit to 4,000.
How much of this is serious remains to be seen.
But if you had 4,000 characters to craft the perfect tweet: what would you say?
27 people found dead by roadside
By Brianna Morris-Grant
The bodies of 27 men have been found "dumped" by the roadside in the African nation of Zambia.
Police say the men, likely migrants from Ethiopia, died from suspected hunger and exhaustion.
One survivor found "gasping for air" has been rushed to a local hospital.
Preliminary police investigations showed the victims were all males aged between 20 and 38.
Zambia is a transit point for migrants, mostly from the Horn of Africa, who want to reach South Africa.
Ronaldo says his dream of winning World Cup has ‘ended’
By Bridget Judd
In a cryptic social media post, Cristiano Ronaldo says his dream of winning the World Cup with Portugal has ended, but he stopped short of announcing his retirement from international duty.
The 37-year-old left the field in tears after Portugal lost 1-0 to Morocco in the quarterfinals on Saturday.
In his first comments after the elimination, Ronaldo said that it was “time to take stock” without saying explicitly if he wants to carry on being available for Portugal after 19 years in the national team.
“There’s no point in reacting rashly,” Ronaldo wrote on Instagram.
“I just want everybody to know that a lot has been said, a lot has been written, a lot has been speculated about, but my dedication to Portugal has never wavered for an instant.
“I’ve always been just one more (Portuguese) fighting for everyone’s goal. I would never turn my back on my teammates or my country.”
What happened in the 1988 Lockerbie plane bombing?
By Brianna Morris-Grant
The 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103 is the deadliest terror attack ever carried out in the UK.
The alleged bombmaker, Abu Agila Masud, is now in US custody.
Our reporter Lara Smit has pulled together this guide to what happened, who was responsible and the almost four decade-long fight to find the alleged bomber.
- Read the full story here.
NASA releases more pictures from Orion's return to Earth
By Brianna Morris-Grant
More photos have been released of the navy mission to rescue NASA's Orion space capsule from the Pacific Ocean.
The capsule returned to Earth after a 25 day mission around the moon and back.
The US Navy is in charge of bringing the craft back out of the water.
Missing celebrity emus return to country town
By Brianna Morris-Grant
A pair of celebrity emus — perhaps the first time those words have been put together in human history — have reappeared after being banned from an outback pub.
Kevin and Carol became international celebrities when they were barred from the Yaraka Hotel for bad behaviour in 2020.
Obviously offended, they left the town, leaving locals worried for their safety.
But now they're back — and they've multiplied.
- You can read the full story from ABC Far North's Chris Calcino here.
Coming up: Who's up for a Golden Globe?
By Peta Fuller
The nominees are (almost) in — about midnight Australian time, the list goes live.
Who might be on it?
Variety predicts Everything Everywhere All at Once and The Banshees of Inisherin should get a few nods.
The actual winners are almost a month away, with the ceremony on January 10 — and after last year's private ceremony (after a wave of criticism at the Globes over diversity and corruption claims), let's see how this turns out.
Three women killed after gunman opens fire in Rome
By Brianna Morris-Grant
Three women including a friend of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni were killed on Sunday when a man pulled out a gun and opened fire at a meeting of residents of an apartment block in Rome.
Ms Meloni posted a picture of herself alongside Nicoletta Golisano, one of the victims, on Instagram on Sunday evening.
"For me she will always be beautiful and happy like this," she wrote alongside the photograph.
"It is not right to die like this."
Police arrested a 57-year-old man who had been overpowered by other residents after the shooting in a meeting held at a bar in the Fidene district of the city.
The suspect was a local man who had been in a series of disputes with the residents' association, a witness told Rai News.
"He came into the room, closed the door and shouted 'I'll kill you all' and then started to shoot," Italian news agency Ansa quoted another witness as saying.
Four other people were wounded in the shooting, with at least one of them suffering serious injuries.
Ms Meloni said a shooting range from which the suspect had taken the gun used in the attack had been closed and placed under investigation by the authorities.
After 10 months in Russian prison, Britney Griner just wanted to talk
By Bridget Judd
When WNBA star Brittney Griner boarded the US government plane that would ultimately bring her home, she didn't mince words.
“I have been in prison for 10 months now, listening to Russian. I want to talk,” Griner said, according to Roger Carstens, the special presidential envoy for hostage affairs.
According to Carstens, who helped secure the basketball star's release and bring her back to the US last week, Griner then made her way down the plane, shaking hands and "making a personal connection" with crew members onboard.
Ultimately, Griner spent about 12 hours of an 18-hour flight talking with others on the plane, Carstens said.
The two-time Olympic gold medalist and Phoenix Mercury pro basketball star spoke about her time in the Russian penal colony and her months in captivity, Carstens recalled, although he declined to go into specific details.
“I was left with the impression this is an intelligent, passionate, compassionate, humble, interesting person, a patriotic person,” Carstens said.
“But above all, authentic. I hate the fact that I had to meet her in this manner, but I actually felt blessed having had a chance to get to know her.”
Although Griner is undergoing a full medical and mental evaluation, Carstens said she appeared “full of energy, looked fantastic.”
Major rescue operation after people fall into frozen lake
By Brianna Morris-Grant
A search and rescue operation is under way near the UK city of Birmingham, after a number of people were pulled from a lake in freezing temperatures.
Police say they are in critical condition.
Authorities say reports suggest they'd been playing on the ice and fell through.
The Met Office has warned that while frozen ponds are fascinating, they can be a hazard to life.
Multiple children injured after Sydney firework display malfunctions
By Brianna Morris-Grant
An 11-year-old boy is among nine people who had to be treated by emergency services after a Christmas fireworks display malfunctioned on Sydney's Northern Beaches.
Emergency services were called to the Christmas carols event at Allambie Heights Oval just before 10pm last night.
Police said a firework shot into a crowd of people during the event.
Vision of the scene showed people screaming and chaos after the firework discharged.
- You can read the rest of this story here.
Skiing santas take to the slopes
By Brianna Morris-Grant
Just in case you weren't already in the Christmas spirit — hundreds of Santa lookalikes have taken to the ski slopes in the US.
More than 300 jolly ol’ elves — all dressed in red — dashed together down a mountain with white beards and Santa hats flapping in the breeze at the Sunday River ski resort in Maine.
A skiing Grinch and a skiing Christmas tree joined the party.
It wasn't exactly a winter wonderland — there was little natural snow.
Santa Sunday has grown in popularity over more than two decades, raising $7,500 this year for a local charity.
Missing hiker's body found in bushland
By Brianna Morris-Grant
A woman who has been missing for nearly two weeks has been found dead in bushland near Orange.
On November 30, Esther Wallace, 47, was reported to have become separated from a companion while walking at the Mount Canobolas State Recreation Area.
Police found her body on Sunday at 4pm while searching bushland where the woman went walking.
- You can read the rest of this story here.
Jersey explosion death toll rises to five as four people still missing
By Brianna Morris-Grant
Police say the number of people killed in an apartment building explosion and fire on the English Channel Island of Jersey has risen to five.
Authorities say a search of the site is now a “recovery operation” and they no longer expect to find anyone alive.
Chief of Jersey Police Robin Smith says four people are still unaccounted for.
He says the cause of the incident was “likely” a gas explosion, but it's not been confirmed.
