Talks come after Witkoff led US discussions with Ukraine at weekend amid European concerns that Kyiv will be pressured to make concessions to Moscow

• US-Russia talks may pile pressure on Kyiv to make concessions, says EU foreign policy chief

• See all our Ukraine war coverage

Vladimir Putin has hailed what his commanders told him was the full Russian capture of the eastern Ukrainian town as an important victory after a prolonged campaign, saying it would help Moscow fulfil its wider war aims.

The town’s fall, if confirmed, gives Moscow a platform to drive north towards the two biggest remaining Ukrainian-controlled cities in the Donetsk region: Kramatorsk and Sloviansk.

This work is done with a clear focus on interoperability and being able to act jointly in the face of external threats.

Since last year, Sweden has also assumed the role of the framework nation for Nato’s forward-looking ground force FLF Finland [Nato’s forward land forces], a step in our joint commitment to security in the region.

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© Photograph: Gavriil Grigorov/AP

© Photograph: Gavriil Grigorov/AP

© Photograph: Gavriil Grigorov/AP

Move by BoE’s Financial Policy Committee comes in first review in six years

The number surpassed a previous record of over 3.09 million passengers on June 22, according to statistics shared by the agency.

• Australia opener will not be replaced in the squad in Brisbane

• 38-year-old’s absence paves way for Travis Head to open at the Gabba

Usman Khawaja has been ruled out of the second Ashes Test with his back injury.

The 38-year-old’s place in the XI had been under intense scrutiny since back spasms forced him from the field in the victorious first Test and prevented him from opening the batting.

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© Photograph: Robbie Stephenson/PA

© Photograph: Robbie Stephenson/PA

© Photograph: Robbie Stephenson/PA

For some, the smell brings on nausea and headaches. Others fear ‘forever chemicals’ seeping into the water

• UK and Europe’s hidden landfills at risk of leaking toxic waste into water supplies

“I just kept smelling this horrible, nasty smell … like animal excrement, and I was wondering what it was,” says Jess Brown, from Fleetwood, Lancashire.

Brown’s mother suffers from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and she believes the smells make it worse. She also worries for her eight-year-old daughter, whose asthma worsens when the odour seeps indoors.

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© Photograph: Jess Brown

© Photograph: Jess Brown

© Photograph: Jess Brown

Exclusive: Rising flood risks driven by climate change could release chemicals from ageing sites – posing threats to ecosystems

• ‘I kept smelling a horrible nasty smell’: the risks of England’s old dumping grounds

Thousands of landfills across the UK and Europe sit in floodplains, posing a potential threat to drinking water and conservation areas if toxic waste is released into rivers, soils and ecosystems, it can be revealed.

The findings are the result of the first continent-wide mapping of landfills, conducted by the Guardian, Watershed Investigations and Investigate Europe.

Disclaimer: This dataset may contain duplicate records. Duplicates can arise from multiple data sources, repeated entries, or variations in data collection processes. While efforts have been made to identify and reduce duplication, some records may remain.

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© Photograph: Nature Picture Library/Alamy

© Photograph: Nature Picture Library/Alamy

© Photograph: Nature Picture Library/Alamy

It makes no sense for union leaders to cry betrayal when it will be their members who benefit from these sorely needed reforms

The wall of sound shouting “liar” at the chancellor is a bizarre Westminster frenzy. Stand back from the hysteria and ask this question: how can Rachel Reeves be accused of raising more money than necessary when there is still pitifully little to go round in every department at her cabinet table? It’s a weird Tory ramp that she lied about a black hole when we can see it everywhere in the real world. She could have raised more.

As the prime minister, Keir Starmer, pleads the case for all that was Labour-flavoured in the budget, the week also brought a breakthrough for Labour’s flagship employment rights bill. Shamelessly stymied by the Lords’ Tory majority, the government watered down a clause on so-called day-one rights that would have given workers protection from unfair dismissal from the day they walked into a job. That legal right will now kick in at six months – still a lot better than the current two-year wait. Business has been ferocious, urging Tory peers to hold up and reform the bill with an avalanche of hostile amendments. Compromise was necessary.

Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist

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© Photograph: JLR JaguarLandrover/Jaguar Land Rover

© Photograph: JLR JaguarLandrover/Jaguar Land Rover

© Photograph: JLR JaguarLandrover/Jaguar Land Rover

Mick Herron’s Slow Horses, Belinda Bauer’s obsessive world of bird egg collectors, Uketsu’s innovative Japanese detective mystery – and more

If we get the heroes we deserve, then Jackson Lamb, foul-mouthed and slovenly ringmaster of a circus of failed spies, is truly the man for our times. With Clown Town (Baskerville), the ninth book in Mick Herron’s state-of-the-nation satire/thriller mashup series, hitting the bestseller lists, and the fifth series of the Slow Horses TV adaptation streaming, this has been the author’s year. In the latest outing, Lamb and his stable of “losers, misfits and boozers” are well up to the mark as secrets about an IRA double agent threaten to come to light, exposing the seamier side of state security for a story of loyalty and betrayal.

Complicity and culpability, as well as class and professional ethics, are the subjects of Denise Mina’s The Good Liar (Harvill). When the creator of a revolutionary blood splatter probability scale realises that its flaws may have led to an unsafe conviction, she has to decide what to do about it. Tense and powerful, this is a sobering reminder of how the human element can undermine an apparently objective scientific method. The Confessions by Paul Bradley Carr (Faber) ventures into similar territory to terrifying effect. It takes place in an all-too-plausible future in which the world has become reliant on a decision-making algorithm; things go catastrophically awry when the AI tool begins to feel remorse for some of its decisions, and carnage results.

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© Composite: Debora Szpilman

© Composite: Debora Szpilman

© Composite: Debora Szpilman

Lee Chapman’s photographs document the scenes, signages and family businesses of the postwar Shōwa era Japan. They focus on a unique aspect of Japanese life, and one that in Tokyo in particular is rapidly disappearing: the buildings are long past their natural lifespans, and their occupants are reaching the end of theirs. With most of the country’s new buildings resembling those seen in many other cities around the world, the Shōwa era is now being recognised as visually appealing as well as an important period

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© Photograph: Lee Chapman

© Photograph: Lee Chapman

© Photograph: Lee Chapman

Jon Ridgeon is overseeing World Athletics’ reach for a younger audience but has to battle it out with football and F1

It really is quite the scene. Midnight in Tokyo, Usain Bolt is DJing and the launch party for the World Athletics Ultimate Championships is in full swing. And then the World Athletics chief executive, Jon Ridgeon, walks up to me and says: “I read your recent Guardian column, and I thought it was very unfair.”

Imagine Gary Lineker going in two-footed, having never picked up a yellow card in his career. This is the track and field equivalent. Ridgeon, a former world silver medallist over the 110m hurdles, is one of the smartest and most reasonable people in sport. He is saying, in a polite way, that he is really rather annoyed.

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© Photograph: Paweł Kopczyński/Reuters

© Photograph: Paweł Kopczyński/Reuters

© Photograph: Paweł Kopczyński/Reuters

Your essential guide to Friday’s draw in Washington DC, including where to watch it, who to watch out for and a look at Fifa’s peace prize

The World Cup draw will start at Washington DC’s Kennedy Center at 12pm local time on Friday 5 December (5pm GMT/4am Saturday AEST). Although don’t worry if you tune in late: based on previous draws there will be a few speeches about Fifa being on the verge of bringing about world peace via the medium of football, some interpretive dance about Fifa being on the verge of bringing about world peace via the medium of football, some videos with kids kicking a ball about to show that Fifa is on the verge of bringing about world peace via the medium of football, and then, hopefully, Fifa actually bringing about world peace via the medium of football. And if you miss any of that, don’t worry Fifa will also be awarding a peace prize to the person most likely to bring about world peace in the next few months (more on that zinger later). At some point in all of that, they’ll place teams into groups and at long last give this expanded tournament an actual schedule.

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© Composite: Guardian Picture Desk

© Composite: Guardian Picture Desk

© Composite: Guardian Picture Desk

A woman has appeared in court charged with walking the 'wrong way' on a railway station escalator.

Abdul Carter was benched for a second time during the Giants' loss to the Patriots on Monday.

In Indonesia, 3.2 million people have been affected by the floods, while 2,600 have been injured and 472 people remain missing

The death toll from flooding and landslides across Indonesia’s Sumatra island has risen to 631, the country’s disaster agency said, as one million people were evacuated from high-risk areas.

Heavy monsoon rains and tropical cyclones have devastated parts of Asia this week, including Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Southern Thailand, killing more than 1,160 people across the region, destroying infrastructure and inundating towns.

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© Photograph: Binsar Bakkara/AP

© Photograph: Binsar Bakkara/AP

© Photograph: Binsar Bakkara/AP

Yen and equities steady a day after hawkish comments from the BoJ governor

Sayegh had been suspended without pay before November's decision.

Jets rookie wide receiver Arian Smith was a conspicuous name on the inactive list for Sunday’s win over the Falcons.

Braden Schneider will get the first crack at replacing injured Adam Fox on the top Rangers defensive pairing.

The WNBA just upped the ante.

Exclusive: Swedish carmakers push to retain target as Germany lobbies to help its own industry by softening cutoff date

As the battle lines harden amid Germany’s intensifying pressure on the European Commission to scrap the 2035 ban on production of new petrol and diesel cars, two Swedish car companies, Volvo and Polestar, are leading the campaign to persuade Brussels to stick to the date.

They argue such a move is a desperate attempt to paper over the cracks in the German car industry, adding that it will not just prolong take up of electric vehicles but inadvertently hand the advantage to China.

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© Photograph: James Ross/AAP

© Photograph: James Ross/AAP

© Photograph: James Ross/AAP

Labour backbenchers have been cheering it as a win for the most vulnerable in society. In fact it was aimed at the bond markets

The charge is a grave one: that Rachel Reeves has just lied to Britons, spooking them into paying billions in extra taxes that she can splash out on higher benefits. However hyperbolic, this isn’t the usual Westminster sparring; this time, someone might get hurt. A week ago, critics of Reeves and Keir Starmer were, rightly, calling their budget “chaotic”. Today, it’s denounced as lies, and Kemi Badenoch is demanding the chancellor quit.

It’s an accusation that demands straightforward answers, so let me give mine. Did the chancellor tell lies? On the available evidence, no. There were no whoppers, no falsehoods, no porkies. But despite Starmer’s comments yesterday, that doesn’t mean there’s nothing to see here and we can all move along. Reeves did mislead the public about the factors shaping her decisions. Was it all to funnel cash to “benefits street”, as the Tories claim? No, and the figures prove it.

Reeves has sustained another hit to her reputation but, if facts still have anything to do with politics, Badenoch should call off her lynch mob. Perhaps the resignation yesterday of the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) chief, Richard Hughes, over the leak of its own documents will quench SW1’s thirst for blood.

Aditya Chakrabortty is a Guardian columnist

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© Photograph: Frank Augstein/Reuters

© Photograph: Frank Augstein/Reuters

© Photograph: Frank Augstein/Reuters

Roast turkey breast is often dry and overcooked, so why not give everyone a leg instead and serve it with a traditional Irish potato-and-cabbage side?

We often braise chicken and rabbit legs at Cafe Cecilia, because all the preparation and cooking can be done ahead of time, and it’s then just about heating them gently to serve. For Christmas, I often employ much the same process for turkey legs – it’s a lovely way to eat them. Serve with colcannon, although basmati rice, boiled new potatoes or roast carrots would also go great.

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© Photograph: Matthew Hague/The Guardian. Food styling: Aya Nishimura. Prop styling: Anna Wilkins. Food styling assistant: Laura Lawrence.

© Photograph: Matthew Hague/The Guardian. Food styling: Aya Nishimura. Prop styling: Anna Wilkins. Food styling assistant: Laura Lawrence.

© Photograph: Matthew Hague/The Guardian. Food styling: Aya Nishimura. Prop styling: Anna Wilkins. Food styling assistant: Laura Lawrence.

Independent reviewer says need to protect against online threats is now as important as need for robust armed forces

The UK’s independent reviewer of terrorism laws has criticised the government’s latest national security strategy for failing to take online threats more seriously, despite Keir Starmer claiming it would result in “a hardening and sharpening of our approach” in the face of Russian menace.

Jonathan Hall KC said it was “a very surprising omission” that the 2025 national security strategy did not focus more on online risks, including from terrorists and hostile states, which he said were now a “major vector of threat”.

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© Photograph: 6KBW

© Photograph: 6KBW

© Photograph: 6KBW

Heroes, zeros and the full blitz from the Giants’ 33-15 road loss to the Patriots on Monday night.