The plan would leave Ukraine’s democracy in jeopardy and its sovereignty compromised

For a moment, Donald Trump seemed to have seen the light on Ukraine. After promising “severe consequences” in August if Vladimir Putin continued to obstruct ceasefire talks – but then doing nothing as Putin did just that – Trump finally on 22 October imposed significant sanctions on Russia’s two largest oil companies, Rosneft and Lukoil, seriously compromising Putin’s ability to finance his invasion. But now, with his 28-point peace plan for Ukraine, drafted by US and Russian officials without Ukrainian or European participation, Trump has reverted to his pro-Putin norm.

Trump’s plan would reward Putin for invading Ukraine while leaving Ukraine’s democracy in jeopardy. The plan’s ringing proclamation that “Ukraine’s sovereignty will be confirmed” rings hollow when so much of the plan compromises that sovereignty. A Kremlin dream, the plan would be a Ukrainian nightmare.

Kenneth Roth, former executive director of Human Rights Watch (1993-2022), is a visiting professor at Princeton’s School of Public and International Affairs. His book, Righting Wrongs: Three Decades on the Front Lines Battling Abusive Governments, is published by Knopf and Allen Lane.

Experts infuriated by president accusing Democrats of ‘sedition’ for urging soldiers to refuse illegal orders

Veterans have condemned the politicization of the military after Donald Trump accused Democratic lawmakers of “sedition, punishable by death” after a small group of them released a video in which they urged US soldiers not to follow any “unlawful” orders.

The extraordinary exchange was sparked after Democratic lawmakers with military or national security backgrounds – the Congressional representatives Maggie Goodlander, Jason Crow, Chris DeLuzio and Chrissy Houlahan, and the senators Mark Kelly and Elissa Slotkin – posted a video on Facebook addressed to US service members.

The abject obedience of GOP members for the president has not augured well in the 4 November elections

The elections of 4 November were the end of a grandiose illusion. After his 2024 victory Donald Trump claimed he had an “unprecedented and powerful mandate”, that his “mandate” was “massive”, and that his “Maga movement” was irresistible, the wave of the future. It lasted 10 months, in which he had betrayed his chief promise to lower inflation, turned the public against him on every issue and Republicans at last faced a battering by voters.

Trump’s image of omnipotence has rested upon a pyramid of dread. His ability to maintain the servility of the Republican Congress, whose members are intimidated by the danger that if they defy him he would support primary opponents to run against them, has been the political foundation for all the other forms of fear he incites throughout American institutions. Trump could not have leveraged himself as “dictator on day one” without congressional abdication. The Republicans immediately fell into lockstep. But within two weeks of the 4 November elections, only one Republican in the House voted against the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files which Trump had called a “hoax” before he felt compelled to bend in the cyclone to sign the bill – and yet still suppresses the files.

Sidney Blumenthal, former senior adviser to the president Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, has published three books of a projected five-volume political life of Abraham Lincoln: A Self-Made Man, Wrestling With His Angel and All the Powers of Earth. He is a Guardian US columnist

The Indian photographer captured a quiet moment at the popular Maha Kumbh Mela religious festival in Prayagraj

Divyanshu Verma regards the north Indian city of Prayagraj as deeply special: not only is it home, it is also where he began his journey into street photography. This image was taken in the Sangam area during the huge Hindu purification festival Maha Kumbh Mela – maha meaning great because this was the 12th in a row of the ritual that takes place once every 12 years.

“It’s a massive spiritual gathering and the energy is entirely unique,” Verma says. “The place was incredibly crowded with people who had travelled from far and wide, all drawn by faith, but there was a strange sense of calm within the chaos. I wandered through the crowds with my phone, observing rituals and soaking up the powerful atmosphere.”

Politician reportedly taken from his villa into custody at a federal police base about 7 miles from presidential palace

Brazil’s former far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, has been arrested at his villa in the capital, Brasília.

In a brief statement, federal police confirmed officers had executed a preventive arrest warrant at the request of the supreme court. Brazilian media reports said the politician had been taken to a federal police base, seven miles from the presidential palace Bolsonaro occupied from 2019 until 2022, when he lost the election and tried to launch a military coup.

‘No deal is perfect, but it must be done sooner rather than later,’ says US army secretary in sombre meeting

US officials have told Nato allies they expect to push president Volodymyr Zelenskyy into agreeing to a peace deal in the coming days, under the threat that if Kyiv does not sign, it will face a much worse deal in future.

The US army secretary Dan Driscoll briefed ambassadors from Nato nations at a meeting in Kyiv late on Friday, after talks with Zelenskyy and taking a phone call from the White House. “No deal is perfect, but it must be done sooner rather than later,” he told them, according to one person who was present.

• 1st Test, D2: Australia, 132 & 205-2, bt England, 172 & 164

• Opener’s devastating 123 seals eight-wicket victory

The news from Perth is that the catalogue of great English calamities in Australia has a brand new entry. For the first time in 104 years an Ashes Test match has been wrapped up inside just two days and England, on the receiving end of an eight-wicket thumping, may already be broken.

Ben Stokes will doubtless push back at that notion, such is his refusal to ever throw in the towel. But as Travis Head cut and carved his way to a breathtaking 69-ball century, vaporising a target of 205 in just 28.2 overs, the psychological blow landed by the hosts felt greater than their 1-0 lead.

The haircut of the moment is ‘The Claudia’, but not everyone has the luscious locks of la Winkleman. Not a problem. Fake fringes are everywhere – and I tried one out

The 70s had “the Fawcett.” In the 90s it was all about “the Rachel.” But now there’s a new era-defining hair cut. “The Claudia.” Yes, the glossy inky-black block fringe that mostly shrouds the face of its owner, the presenter Claudia Winkleman, has become a seminal moment on and off TV screens.

It is a fringe that has spawned memes, online forums dedicated to debating its length and a fan account on X. “Thoughts and opinions from the highest paid fringe on the BBC” reads the bio. Alan Carr has described it, not Winkleman, as a national treasure.

Trend is adding to ‘waste crisis’ owing to individual packaging and potential for unwanted items, campaigners say

The trend for Advent calendars aimed at adults is “superfluous consumerism” that adds to excessive and wasteful consumption, according to environmental groups.

While once children excitedly opened a door each day to see what festive picture lay behind it, adults can now count down the days to Christmas with calendars containing everything from luxury beauty products to instant mashed potato.

The singer on being a school bully, having a panic attack on stage, and ‘fearless bitch’ Elton John

Born in Washington state, Brandi Carlile, 44, released her self-titled debut album in 2005. She went on to win 11 Grammy awards and is part of the country supergroup the Highwomen. She has collaborated with Joni Mitchell and this year released the album Who Believes in Angels? with Elton John. Their song Never Too Late was Oscar nominated. She has published a memoir, and established the charitable Looking Out Foundation. Her eighth studio album, Returning to Myself, was released last month. Carlile lives in Washington state with her wife and two daughters.

When were you happiest?
I’m the happiest right now. I can see that I’m in a kind of sweet spot: my parents are alive, my kids are little, my wife is hot and my body doesn’t hurt.

In the 90s my mum embarrassed me with her rejection of ultra-processed foods – but the growing body of evidence about them is vindicating her

A very specific childhood experience arose from being a “weird-lunchbox kid” growing up in the 90s with a food-conscious mother. It was the sense of palpitating trepidation felt when opening your school lunchbox, knowing that what lay within was going to be seen as “weird” in comparison with the sliced-white-bread-plastic-ham sandwiches, cheesy Wotsits and Club biscuits everyone else was gobbling.

What’s that?” your classmate would ask, their nose wrinkling as they took in yesterday’s veggie curry, crumbling homemade falafel or – my mother’s speciality – a “deconstructed sandwich” of doorstop-thick fresh bread, filling of some kind (often cucumber) and attendant crumbs floating freely in the bag. (Why bother assembling at all?, my father asked once, when you could simply throw in all the elements and shake?)

Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett is a Guardian columnist

Some teachers and pupils voice concerns about pilot programme after government’s agreement with OpenAI

Secondary school teachers in Greece are set to go through an intensive course in using artificial intelligence tools as the country assumes a frontline role in incorporating AI into its education system.

Next week, staff in 20 schools will be trained in a specialised version of ChatGPT, custom-made for academic institutions, under a new agreement between the centre-right government and OpenAI.

Acquisition likely to trigger in-depth investigation by regulator after agreement between DMGT and Redbird IMI

The owner of the Daily Mail has struck a £500m deal to buy the Telegraph titles, in a move that will create a right-leaning publishing powerhouse.

Lord Rothermere’s Daily Mail & General Trust (DMGT) has entered a period of exclusivity with RedBird IMI, which has been seeking a buyer since being forced to put the papers up for sale last spring, to complete the terms of the transaction.

The Age of Disclosure is a new film featuring high-ranking government officials who claim proof of extraterrestrial life has been covered up

Director Dan Farah grew up with aliens. As a child of the 80s and 90s, pop culture was awash with extra-terrestrial sightings. “How can you be a kid watching movies like ET and Close Encounters, TV shows like The X Files, and not end up curious about whether or not we’re alone in the universe?” he said in an interview with the Guardian. “And whether or not the US government does, in fact, hold secrets from the public.”

Farah’s exposure to otherworldly beings in fiction kickstarted an interest that’s now morphed into a professional quest, and the subject of his documentary debut The Age of Disclosure. Here, Farah makes the case that the United States has been hiding, for decades, a font of information related to UAP (unidentified anomalous phenomena) – the acronym rebrand of the stigma-ridden UFO.

On the border with Lebanon, communities have started to return and rebuild – even though some are in no hurry to return

Noam Erlich looks out over what was his beer garden. Beyond the disordered chairs and tables and the sign instructing neighbours and friends to “pay whatever you like”, the ridge falls away to fields, then a fence, then hills littered with the skeletal ruins of shattered Lebanese villages.

The 44-year-old brewer is standing in front of the house his grandfather built when the Manara kibbutz was founded in the 1940s in the very far north of Israel. The building was hit repeatedly by missiles fired by Hezbollah during the conflict, which ended a year ago, and will now almost certainly be demolished, along with most of the neighbouring houses.

Exclusive: Kanak leader Christian Tein, who was freed from prison in June, says France is ‘deliberately dragging out’ re-issue of his passport

A pro-independence leader from the French overseas territory of New Caledonia has accused the French government of “deliberately dragging out” his passport application, preventing him from flying home after his release from prison.

Christian Tein, an Indigenous Kanak leader, was arrested in New Caledonia in June 2024 over allegations that he had instigated the deadly pro-independence protests that had taken place on the island a month earlier.

The Norwegian author on his autofictional epic, moving to London, and the psychopath at the heart of his new novel

Fifteen years ago, discussing the success of his six-volume autofictional work My Struggle on Norwegian radio, Karl Ove Knausgård said he felt as if he had “actually sold my soul to the devil”. My Struggle had become a runaway success in Norway – a success that would subsequently be repeated across the world – but the project provoked anger in some quarters for its portrayal of friends and family members. This was a work of art that came at a price. Hence, for its creator, its Faustian aspect.

That experience lies at the root of Knausgård’s latest novel, The School of Night, the fourth volume in his Morning Star sequence, in which his typical character studies and fine-grained attention to the minutiae of daily life are married to a compelling supernatural plot involving a mysterious star appearing in the sky and the dead returning to life. Volumes one and three, The Morning Star and The Third Realm, cycled between the same group of interconnected characters, while the second book, The Wolves of Eternity, moved back to the 1980s and told the story of a young Norwegian man and his discovery of a Russian half-sister. Only towards the end of its 800 pages did the novel intersect with the events of The Morning Star. The School of Night, perhaps frustratingly for some, again moves backwards instead of forwards, this time to 1985 London, and follows the art school career of a young Norwegian, Kristian Hadeland, who is pursuing his dream of fame as a photographer. Kristian, events reveal, is someone who will sacrifice anything, and anyone, to succeed. Charting Kristian’s rise and fall is an addictive and eerie reading experience.

Five multiple-choice questions – set by children – to test your knowledge, and a chance to submit your own junior brainteasers for future quizzes

• ​Submit a question

Molly Oldfield hosts Everything Under the Sun, a podcast answering children’s questions. Do check out her books, Everything Under the Sun and Everything Under the Sun: Quiz Book, as well as her new title, Everything Under the Sun: All Around the World.

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Barney Ronay on Cristiano Ronaldo’s visit to the White House to meet Donald Trump ahead of next year’s World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

It is worth being totally clear on what was happening here. This was, first of all, a state visit and a significant refresh of US-Saudi relations. But it was also a kind of executive benediction. First for Ronaldo, who hadn’t been photographed in the US since the leaking in 2017 of allegations of sexual assault, which he denies and have never been proven.

Not being in the US has cost the Ronaldo brand millions. A final pension-pot World Cup is looming. With Trump in the White House and MBS at his back, it seems this is now a safe space. The quid pro quo is obvious. CR7 is huge among young men on the internet. He’s the most winningest World Cup mascot. He’s a tall handsome guy. This is where we are, why Trump is up at his dais saying the word “Roonnnallldoo” in those sensuous cooing tones, like he’s whispering into the ear of his favourite doughnut.

A pension-pot World Cup looms and with Trump in the White House and a crown prince at his back, it is now a safe space

It was hard to choose one favourite photo from football’s double-header at the White House this week. In part this is because the pictures from Donald Trump’s state dinner with Mohammed bin Salman and his in-house hype men Cristiano Ronaldo and Gianni Infantino were everywhere, recycled feverishly across the internet, dusted with their own drool-stained commentary by the wider Ronaldo-verse.

Mainly there were just so many jaw-droppers. Perhaps you liked the one of Trump and Ronaldo strolling the halls of power, Ronaldo dressed all in black and laughing uproariously, like a really happy ninja. Or the one of Ronaldo and Georgina Rodríguez standing either side of a weirdly beaming Trump at his desk, holding up some kind of large heraldic key as though they’ve just been presented with their own wind-up wooden sex-grandad.

Defeat of Argentina in 2000 was important stepping stone for Clive Woodward’s side on way to winning ultimate prize

It is exactly 25 years since the most fraught pre-match buildup in the history of English international rugby union. In this same week in November 2000 a pay row led to the entire national side walking out on strike, prompting Clive Woodward to threaten that an alternative team of lower-league amateurs would be chosen if his players did not return to training by 11am the following morning.

After a tense standoff they duly did so, a grudging truce was agreed and the weekend game against Argentina went ahead with England winning 19-0. Three years later all but two of that matchday squad (the exceptions were David Flatman and Matt Perry) were lifting the Rugby World Cup in Australia. The moral of the “strike” story? The darkest hour can be the springboard to a spectacular golden dawn.

Cristhian Mosquera, Piero Hincapié or Riccardo Calafiori could start against Spurs, but none can replicate what the Brazilian offers in defence and attack

Sometimes it is not just about the numbers. Mikel Arteta probably put it best when he was asked to summarise how influential Gabriel Magalhães has been to his Arsenal side so far this season prior to their meeting with Crystal Palace last month. “His belief is tremendous,” said the manager. “I can tell him to go and run to the first post, and he does it with conviction, energy and attitude. The team’s belief in those moments is really high, and Gabriel is at the heart of that. He gives everything for the team and that sets the tone for everyone else.”

So Arteta must have feared the worst when the 27-year-old trudged off with his shirt over his face in Brazil’s win over Senegal at the Emirates Stadium last weekend. And before Sunday’s north London derby, he could not hide his disappointment when confirming a thigh injury that will be assessed further next week means Gabriel is set for an extended spell on the sidelines.

A moment of peril demands a new approach – on everything from funding to the BBC charter

• Pat Younge is the chair of the British Broadcasting Challenge

We have not been here before. The BBC is used to coming under pressure from political parties, well-funded pressure groups and powerful newspaper publishers. But the threat of a lawsuit from the US president is unprecedented.

This latest furore is dangerous because it comes at a time when democracy faces an information crisis. The foundations of informed democratic debate are under attack across the globe from a combination of AI-generated deepfakes, hostile state propaganda and algorithms that amplify divisions through social media. We have already seen how Elon Musk, the wealthiest man on the planet, is prepared to use his own social media platform, X, to interfere in the affairs of other countries and exert a chilling influence on democracies.

Pat Younge is the chair of the British Broadcasting Challenge, whose recommendations are contained in the report Renewing The BBC