A stylish love letter to the Ukrainian port charts its transformation from exotic mafia capital to beacon of freedom and, now, battered Russian target

In 1994 the writer Julian Evans went on a 10-day cruise down the Dnipro River. Ukraine had won its independence three years before. The journey took Evans along an ancient route used by the “restless Vikings” who established Kyiv. His ship – the Viktor Glushkov – stopped off at Crimea and Yalta. Its final destination was the glittering Black Sea port of Odesa.

Evans was a veteran traveller. Nonetheless, the city was “unlike any place I had visited”, he writes – a “country beyond the back of a wardrobe” where anything could happen. It had merchants’ houses, acacia trees, a dandyish 19th-century opera and ballet theatre, and wide neoclassical boulevards. It was ostentatious and self-made. There was kolorit: exoticism and flash.

An event at the European parliament featuring the French academic Maboula Soumahoro was axed after French MEPs objected

Maboula Soumahoro is a renowned French scholar and public intellectual. The holder of a PhD earned through studies both in France and at Columbia University in the US, she is an associate professor at the University of Tours, a specialist on the African diaspora, and one of France’s foremost academics when it comes to race relations.

So when the European parliament decided to invite her to an internal event last month as part of a dialogue to discuss ways to “promote equality and inclusion in the workplace”, it made perfect sense.

Rokhaya Diallo is a Guardian Europe columnist

Ruth Beckermann’s compassionate documentary is testament to a diverse group of delightful seven-year-olds and the brilliance of their dedicated teacher

There are some big personalities in the class of seven-year-olds in an inner city Vienna primary school in this rather lovely and compassionate documentary. It follows three years in the life of the class, taught for the entire time by one teacher. Ilkay Idiskut is young and dedicated, and she combines the best of teaching styles: a warm and patient listener, but insisting on structure and discipline. The little faces of her pupils look crestfallen when they disappoint her. Ilkay is too good a teacher to have favourites – and the film’s title, Favoriten, is the name of the ethnically diverse district in Vienna where the school is located.

The kids are at that delightful unselfconscious age when they dance like no one is watching, wiggling and wriggling with abandon during the five minute dance breaks to move their bodies in class. Director Ruth Beckermann and her cinematographer Johannes Hammel must have clambered around the tiny, cramped classroom on their knees to get the handheld cameras down at the kids’ level; they don’t miss a thing. Most of the children are from migrant families; many are Turkish and Syrian, 60% have a first language other than German. The school is struggling with finances and staffing, but clearly the kids feel a sense of community.

From Christmassy Regency houses and steam train rides to the best grub and places to stay, here’s how to have a high time in Hants this winter

It is raining and blowing a gale as I flash my UV torch around, searching for lights in the darkness. There, a bright red spider web; here, some luminescent fungi; now a twinkling tortoise, Timothy, sheltering by the wall. I am exploring the gardens of Gilbert White’s House in Selborne, Hampshire, which is holding a light trail with a difference this month.

Gilbert White (1720-1793) is considered the father of ecology, one of the first people to observe living creatures in their own habitats, rather than studying dead specimens. He discovered the role of earthworms; developed the idea of the food chain; and identified species including the harvest mouse, noctule bat, chiffchaff, wood warbler and willow warbler.

Photographer Lisa Barlow was intrigued by the miniature replica of Jerusalem she found in Connecticut. Then she fell in love with the people who lived nearby

The US president-elect will join 50 heads of state for reopening of historic French cathedral, in his first overseas trip since winning the election

US president-elect Donald Trump will attend the reopening celebration for Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris this weekend, his first foreign trip since winning the election.

The historic cathedral is set to reopen on Saturday after more than five years of reconstruction following a devastating fire in 2019 that engulfed and nearly destroyed the soaring Paris landmark. The ceremonies being held on Saturday and Sunday will be high-security affairs, with about 50 heads of state and government expected to attend.

‘Tax wealth, not work’ would be a powerful message for Starmer and Reeves – are they bold enough to pursue it?

Now he’s retired from casting millions of people into poverty, George Osborne has become another flaunting, flamboyant example of a fast-growing phenomenon: the wealth he was born with sticks to him and accumulates.

A “windfall” for Osborne, says the Financial Times. He took a share of the £70m profits last week as partner in a boutique financial advisory firm. But windfall isn’t quite the word. It’s more like a salary, though less taxable: he took his share of £28m last year, £26.5m the year before and so on, alongside a string of other finance jobs, including cryptocurrency.

Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist

The second run of the UK/Irish awards covers adult and children’s fiction, debut novels and nonfiction, with tales that stretch from surreal expeditions to lost sailors and schoolboy lizards

Novelists Donal Ryan, Colin Barrett, broadcaster Zeinab Badawi and children’s and young adult author Patrick Ness are among those shortlisted for this year’s Nero awards.

A total of 16 books were shortlisted across the four categories of fiction, debut fiction, nonfiction and children’s fiction. Winners of each category will be announced on 14 January 2025 and receive £5,000, and an overall winner of the Nero Gold prize will be revealed on 5 March and win an additional £30,000.

• Cleveland Browns 32–41 Denver Broncos
• Jerry Jeudy has 235 receiving yards in losing effort

Ja’Quan McMillian returned an interception 44 yards for a game-sealing touchdown with 1:48 remaining, and the Denver Broncos spoiled career-best performances by Cleveland quarterback Jameis Winston and wide receiver Jerry Jeudy, beating the Browns 41-32 on Monday night.

Winston threw for a franchise-record 497 yards and four touchdowns, and Jeudy had nine catches for 235 yards – the most in NFL history by a receiver against his former team – and a TD. Jeudy played his first four seasons with Denver and was booed every time he caught the ball by the Broncos crowd.

Guardian findings back up research by rights group which reveals ‘shocking behavioural norms’ of Israeli soldiers

Israeli soldiers based in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron have intensified a campaign of arbitrary detentions, beatings and abuse of Palestinians, according to Guardian interviews with affected residents and new research by the rights group B’Tselem.

Three people described being seized on the street while going about their daily business on flimsy pretexts such as photos of Palestinian flags found on their phones or allegations of stone-throwing. They were handcuffed, blindfolded and taken to nearby military posts, where they were subjected to mental and physical abuse for hours. One 60-year-old man, Bader a-Tamimi, said he was hit in the torso and thrown against the wall after asking soldiers to stop destroying the wares in his souvenir shop.

Joan Busquets, 96, suffered torture, forced labour and 20 years in prison under the Franco regime and seeks reparations

One of the last surviving fighters from the guerrilla war waged against the Franco dictatorship in the 1940s is suing the Spanish government for €1m in reparations.

Barcelona-born Joan Busquets, 96, suffered torture, forced labour and 20 years in prison at the hands of the Franco regime. The case comes in response to Spain’s Democratic Memory law, passed in 2022, which offers “moral reparations” to the regime’s victims.

Enjoying a romantic relationship without cohabiting, or ‘living apart, together’, found to be a popular arrangement

It’s known as living apart, together. Being in a serious relationship while remaining at separate addresses has long been a lifestyle more associated with people starting out in life.

But those aged 60 and above who date like people in their 20s enjoy better mental wellbeing, the largest study of its kind has found.

Cruises, fishing boats and even whale-watchers are adding to the din underwater, which biologist Heike Vester says not only masks cetaceans’ communication but can also stop them feeding

From the moment that the biologist Dr Heike Vester presses play, the sound of the static of the fjord fills the room. First comes the constant, steady rumbling of a boat engine. Then, every eight seconds, like a foreboding bass drum, comes the explosion of seismic airguns – extremely loud blasts used in oil and gas exploration that can travel vast distances underwater.

And finally, dancing above it all – and at times drowned out by it – are the soaring vocalisations of whales.

Heike Vester at home in Bodø, Norway. Her love of whales comes partly from her interest in matrilineal societies. Photograph: Marthe Mølstre/The Guardian

Thinktank urges government to be ‘much more ambitious’ as actions so far are not enough to fulfil manifesto pledge

Labour will miss its manifesto target of building 1.5m homes in England before the end of this parliament without more radical reform to the planning system, the thinktank the Centre for Cities has warned.

Keir Starmer put tackling housing affordability at the heart of his pitch to voters, promising to “get Britain building again”.

Ali Clark, who runs Chadkirk dog sanctuary, looks after dogs with behavioural problems that cannot be rehomed

The owner of a sanctuary for traumatised dogs has said up to 17 animals will have to be put to sleep unless she can find a new home for them within three weeks.

Chadkirk dog sanctuary in Stockport was served with an eviction notice by the landlord, which means that the premises will need to be vacated by the end of the year.

In trying to write his accusers off based on their age, sex and class, the TV presenter has made his disdain for people like me plain to see

Gregg Wallace, accused of “inappropriate behaviour”, had stepped away from MasterChef and was keeping his head down while lawyers were engaged – on behalf of the production company, Banijay UK, and for Wallace himself.

Or at least, that is what everyone assumed was happening.

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The musician is back with a live album and as passionate as ever. She discusses fans, failure, muses, misogyny – and why she won’t tolerate bad behaviour

By the third UK lockdown, Tori Amos was wondering if she would ever play live again. At her remote house in Cornwall, where we meet, she began mourning the loss of connection with her audience. When the US singer and songwriter is on tour, giving her famously passionate performances, hundreds of letters pour in every day, requesting songs. “I try to read as many as I can, and we change the show every night, except the bookends. Anything else is up for grabs.”

Her relationship with her fans has always been collaborative. They tell her things. They trust her. In person, she has an open-book quality that immediately draws you in. When I arrive at her place – a detached but unassuming house upfront, and a warren of more recently built workshops at the back, filled with beautiful pianos, a massive mixing desk and the harpsichord she played on her album Boys for Pele – we have lunch with her husband and sound engineer, Mark Hawley. The conversation roams through football, raving, legal training (their 24-year-old daughter Tash is studying law in Washington DC) and how good the pumpkin soup is.

Canonisation has long been a way for the Catholic church to shape its image. The Vatican is preparing to anoint its first millennial saint, but how does it decide who is worthy?

As a child growing up in Milan, Carlo Acutis collected stories of miracles. He wrote about the time when, in 1411, wine turned to blood in a castle chapel in Ludbreg, Croatia; of how, in 1630, a pastor in Canosio, Italy, saved his town from a flood by blessing the raging waters; of how, in 1906, a priest on the island of Tumaco, Colombia, held up a reliquary on the beach to stop an approaching tsunami. Acutis, 11 years old and a devout Catholic, began typing up these stories and posting them on his website, which he styled as a “virtual museum” of miraculous events. A section on the site invited visitors to “discover how many friends you have in heaven”, and to read stories of young saints.

Acutis hoped to one day join their ranks. He was convinced that he would die before he reached adulthood and told his mother, Antonia, that he would perish of “a broken vein in his brain”. He wanted to be buried in the town of Assisi, where his family had a summer home. In the meantime, he devoted his life to the church, which was a surprise to his largely secular parents. As a teenager, he taught catechism classes to young children, and offered them a step-by-step guide to becoming a saint. ““Always remember that you, too, can become a saint!” he would say. Every day, they were to go to mass, recite the Holy Rosary, read the scripture and confess their sins.

What if you could take a pill or a shot that could reduce your blood alcohol level and make you feel better in the morning? That’s the promise of a range of wellness products aiming to be the next big hangover antidote. But what exactly are hangovers, and which methods of preventing them are backed by science? Madeleine Finlay speaks to Dr Sally Adams, an alcohol researcher and associate professor of psychology at the University of Birmingham

Clips: @drinklikecut, @visitourmedia, @thegutgirlie, @settingthebrowlow

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Sanny Rudravajhala and George Elek as the Sky Blues get their man and Chris Wilder’s Blades continue their great form

Rate, review, share on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud, Acast and Stitcher, and join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and email.

On the podcast today; Frank Lampard’s Coventry (as we are duty bound to call them) begin with a draw against Cardiff City. The panel debate whether this is a good appointment.

Actor and comedian Diane Morgan joins Grace for another helping of Comfort Eating. Diane is best known for playing mockumentary historian Philomena Cunk, droll antihero Liz in the critically acclaimed BBC sitcom Motherland, and Mandy in … Mandy. Diane reveals how she keeps a straight face when asking world experts very silly questions, why she was sacked from her waitressing job, and what happened when she tried to introduce hugging to the Morgan family.

If you liked this episode then have a listen to Grace’s conversations with Aisling Bea, Saoirse-Monica Jackson, and Jamie Demetriou

New episodes of Comfort Eating with Grace Dent will be released every Tuesday

Only seven spade-tooth whales have ever been documented, now work is beginning on a specimen that washed ashore in New Zealand in July

A spade-tooth whale – thought to be the world’s rarest whale species – is undergoing dissection in New Zealand, in the first ever examination of a complete specimen.

Spade-toothed whales are a type of beaked whale named for their teeth resembling the spade-like “flensing” blade once used to strip whales of their blubber. Just seven have been documented since the 1800s, with all but one found in New Zealand.