Israel-Hamas war live: efforts to extend ceasefire as deadline nears; reports of Israeli raid on West Bank city of Jenin

Egyptian media report that an extension has been agreed in principle as Israel says any deal depends on the release of more hostages

• Israel and Palestine: a complete guide to the crisis

Foreign ministers of the Group of Seven countries have said in a joint statement that they support the further extension of the truce and future pauses in order to increase assistance and facilitate the release of all hostages.

The group urged Hamas to release all the hostages “immediately and unconditionally”.

Russia-Ukraine war live: bad weather hampers Russian assault on Avdiivka

Poisoning with ‘heavy metals’ puts wife of Ukraine intelligence chief in hospital; thinktank says storm forced Russian warships into port

This is the Guardian’s live coverage of the Russian war against Ukraine, which has entered its 644th day. Here are the main developments:

Marianna Budanova, the wife of Ukraine’s intelligence head, Kyrylo Budanov, was poisoned and received treatment in hospital, a Ukrainian military intelligence official confirmed. She fell ill reportedly after eating food laced with “heavy metals”.

Russian shells struck homes on Tuesday, killing four people and injuring at least five, Ukrainian officials said. A five-storey building was hit in the southern town of Nikopol, said the Dnipropetrovsk region governor, Serhiy Lysak.

Tornadoes were forecast for the Black Sea region after a storm that killed at least 14 people and left more than 2 million people without electricity in Russia and Ukraine including occupied Crimea.

The Institute for the Study of War said the storm forced Russia to return all of its naval vessels and missile carriers to their bases, and suggested that the threat of mines drifting in the Black Sea would increase because the storm dispersed minefields.

There were also reports that the storm damaged railways in coastal areas, which could have an impact on the Russian military’s logistics capabilities in occupied Crimea and southern Ukraine, the ISW said. The damage affected “the tempo of military operations along the frontline in Ukraine” but had not stopped them entirely.

In an intelligence update, the UK’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) said Russia had made small advances on the northern axis of a pincer movement as part of an attempt to surround Avdiivka. “Although Avdiivka has become a salient or bulge in the Ukrainian frontline, Ukraine remains in control of a corridor of territory approximately 7km wide, through which it continues to supply the town.”

The US Senate will begin considering legislation that includes aid for Israel and Ukraine as soon as next week, the leader of the Democratic majority, Chuck Schumer, said on Tuesday, adding that an aid bill is needed even if there is no agreement with Republicans, who demand linked funding for US border security.

Ukraine, Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania said their foreign ministers would boycott a meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in North Macedonia on Thursday and Friday because the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, intends to take part.

Nato’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, urged members of the alliance to “stay the course” in supporting Ukraine in its war against Russia’s invasion. “It’s our obligation to ensure that we provide Ukraine with the weapons they need,” Stoltenberg said after arriving for a gathering of foreign ministers from Nato countries at its headquarters in Brussels.

The EU has agreed to more than quadruple its spending on training Ukrainian soldiers, investing close to an extra €200m (£173m), AFP reported.

Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has said military and financial support for Ukraine is of “existential importance” to Europe. In a speech to parliament, he was quoted by AFP as saying: “We will continue with this support as long as it is necessary. This support is of existential importance. For Ukraine … but also for us in Europe. None of us want to imagine what even more serious consequences it would have for us if Putin won this war.”

Smashing the grass ceiling: Eta set to make Champions League history

Union Berlin’s interim joint assistant manager will break new ground when the German side travel to Braga on Wednesday

When Marie-Louise Eta takes her seat in the away dugout at Braga on Wednesday night women across the world will have reason to cheer long and loud. In her capacity as interim joint assistant manager at Union Berlin, Eta is set to become the first senior female coach to be actively involved in a men’s Champions League group stage game.

There was a time, not so long ago, when such a scenario seemed impossible. Indeed the inherent challenges involved dictate that Eta’s achievement still feels almost akin to a human walking on the moon. At elite levels of the men’s game gender diversity often remains a vague aspiration rather than anything approaching reality, so quite a watershed was achieved when, on Saturday, Eta helped choreograph Union Berlin to a 1-1 home draw with Augsburg. In the process she became the first female assistant manager in Bundesliga history.

What are the biggest football fixtures that have never taken place? | The Knowledge

Plus: chains of substitutes, sharers of Spurs’ injury-time pain and the legality of using an opponent’s back as a springboard

• Mail us your questions or tweet @TheKnowledge_GU

“What are the ‘biggest’ (competitive) international and club matches that have never occurred, ie the teams that have never played each other competitively?” asks David Mills.

Pete Tomlin kicks things off for us with the kind of researched answer that could put us out of work. “I have been looking at international matches and used the current Fifa rankings to decide which are the biggest matches that have not occurred, depending on the teams’ current placings,” he begins. “It also depends what you class as competitive – there are tournaments such as the Confederations Cup, Umbro Cup, etc which may be seen as competitive by some but are not officially.

Mozart in Italy by Jane Glover review – the making of a master

An account of the teenage Mozart’s operatic awakening is packed with humanising detail

Of all the stories that are told about Wolfgang Mozart’s visits to Italy, one exceeds all others in fame. It concerns the day in Rome in April 1770 when the 14-year-old Mozart first heard Gregorio Allegri’s Miserere, an unaccompanied nine-part polyphonic setting of a psalm that normally lasts about 13 minutes. The Miserere rises repeatedly to an ethereal top C, a haunting moment that had already given the work Europe-wide mystique in Mozart’s time and ensures that it is still widely performed and recorded today.

The Miserere had been written in the 1630s for the exclusive use of the Sistine Chapel choir and for performance only during Holy Week. The score was a ferociously guarded Vatican secret. No written versions were supposed to exist. Yet, in the chapel that day, young Mozart listened to the Miserere once, then went home to his lodgings and wrote the entire thing down from memory.

I’m an outspoken Black woman in France – so a powerful man tried to silence me with the law | Rokhaya Diallo

A celebrity targeted me online, but under a system that should protect all equally, I was the one charged with a criminal offence

As someone who has been in the public eye for the past 15 years, I am used to scrutiny and criticism. Online hate – especially when it targets women, and Black women in particular – has been extensively documented. So I have a pretty good idea of what to expect if I choose to speak out about sexism and racism in a country unwilling to acknowledge its misdeeds. Anonymous abuse and attacks from political or public figures come with the territory, and I have little choice but to face them.

But I could never have imagined that a French celebrity could subject me to persistent criticism in plain sight, yet escape being called out for it by any of the media figures who invite him to appear on their shows and platforms. It has been a chilling lesson to realise that instead it was me who would end up victimised and put on trial for attempting to expose what I felt was harassment.

Rokhaya Diallo is a Guardian columnist. She is a writer, journalist, film director and activist

Bad Behaviour review – Jennifer Connelly full of spit and vinegar in family rage drama

Alice Englert directs and stars alongside a mesmerising Connelly in this inconsistent tale about a troubled former child star who checks into a retreat

Much like the little girl with the curl in the well-known rhyme, when this film is good, it’s very good. But when it’s bad it’s … well, the original poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow says “horrid,” but Bad Behaviour is more very awkward and self-indulgent. But the good largely outweighs the “oof” and this is a first feature for writer-director-co-star Alice Englert who should be applauded for taking interesting if not always successful risks.

At least Englert made a safe bet by casting Jennifer Connelly in the lead, for one of her best roles for many years. Here she plays Lucy who, like Connelly herself, was once a child star but is now filled with rage and bitterness with her parents, her (never seen) ex-husband – and even her grown daughter Dylan (Englert) who is working as a stunt double in New Zealand when the story begins. Lucy calls Dylan from Oregon where she’s just about to check into a retreat to say she’ll be incommunicado for a while, but Dylan is distracted and the line is bad.

A moment that changed me: I avoided mirrors – until I fell in love with clothes

In a department store in Tokyo, I realised buying stuff wasn’t the point. The thrill was in choosing the person you might become

When I was growing up in Auckland in the 1980s, my relationship with clothing was all about utility. Clothes needed to be comfortable and keep me at the right temperature. They should work for climbing trees, or riding horses. I had a very clear picture in my head of how I wanted to look. Insouciant, lanky – a tomboy. Someone who didn’t care about clothes. Someone who had interesting stuff in their pockets.

I particularly hated getting dressed up. If it was unavoidable, I would dodge mirrors. When I did look, dressed for an occasion in clothes picked out by my mother, I saw a girlish girl with fluffy hair. A girl in a hideous pale yellow mohair sweater and a skirt with no pockets at all.

Child respiratory sickness overloads China’s paediatric clinics – reports

Authorities appeal for calm, saying spike is due to end of Covid-19 lockdown restrictions

A surge in respiratory illnesses in China, particularly among children, has reportedly swamped paediatric units in city hospitals, while authorities have urged calm, attributing it to a post-lockdown wave of illness.

Many hospital wards are full, according to state and other media reports in China. The Global Times reported on Tuesday that the Beijing Children’s hospital was receiving up to 9,378 patients a day and had been at full capacity during the past two months. It also said outpatient clinics, paediatric clinics, and respiratory departments at several Beijing hospitals were booked out for at least seven days.

Taliban could be convinced to open girls’ schools, says Afghanistan ex-education minister

Global governments should engage with the Taliban because some in the regime support reversing the ban, says Rangina Hamidi

There are many Taliban officials who would support reversing the ban on schooling for girls in Afghanistan, according to the country’s last education minister before the takeover.

Under Taliban rule, Afghanistan has become the only country in the world where girls are banned from schooling beyond the age of 11. The group has also imposed what has been described as a policy of “gender apartheid”, banning women from most work and public spaces.

Rwanda is a proxy in the war for the Tory soul. It’s a war Rishi Sunak is losing | Rafael Behr

A brave leader would admit he is cornered and set out a new direction to his party and the public. He’s not that guy

Rishi Sunak will not “stop the boats” carrying asylum seekers across the Channel. He still promotes that general ambition, but with synthetic enthusiasm that contains more exasperation than confidence.

Even if the scheme for removing asylum claimants to Rwanda were up and running, the deterrent effect on people launching dinghies from Calais is doubtful. Facilities in Kigali can handle only a few hundred cases at most. UK government policy envisages deporting thousands. But that’s academic anyway, because the supreme court has ruled that Rwanda cannot be considered a “safe third country”, so sending refugees there would be unlawful.

Historians come together to wrest Ukraine’s past out of Russia’s shadow

Ukrainian History Global Initiative brings together 90 academics to put the country’s historical contributions on the map

The opening salvo in Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February last year was not a rocket or a missile. Rather, it was an essay.

Vladimir Putin’s On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians, published in summer 2021, ranged over 1,000 years of history in its 7,500 words to assert that the two countries are “one people”.

No evidence cannabis reduces long-term illicit opioids use, study finds

Lead author says study led by University of Sydney is longest ever to have looked at relationship between the two drugs

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Cannabis should not be considered an effective long-term strategy for reducing opioid use, according to a new study released amid the global shift towards cannabis legalisation.

A study led by the University of Sydney, published on Wednesday in the American Journal of Psychiatry, followed 615 people with heroin dependence, many of whom also used cannabis, over 20 years.

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From the archive: ‘We the people’: the battle to define populism – podcast

We are raiding the Guardian Long Read archives to bring you some classic pieces from years past, with new introductions from the authors

This week, from 2019: The noisy dispute over the meaning of populism is more than just an academic squabble – it’s a crucial argument about what we expect from democracy

10 ways the climate crisis and nature loss are linked

The natural world is caught in a vicious cycle – extreme weather is destroying natural habitats and wildlife, yet these are crucial to fighting the climate crisis

Nature loss and the climate crisis are locked in a vicious cycle. These two issues are separate yet inextricably linked. As the climate crisis escalates, natural habitats are being destroyed. This in turn exacerbates the climate crisis and loss of wildlife. Here are 10 ways the two issues are connected:

Tory MP who chided gambling regulator received £8,000 from betting industry

Hospitality and payments Craig Whittaker has accepted include Madonna tickets worth £2,000 from the Betting & Gaming Council

A Tory MP who accused the gambling regulator of being too “heavy handed” has received more than £8,000 in hospitality and payments from the betting industry this year, including tickets to see Madonna.

Craig Whittaker, the MP for Calder Valley in West Yorkshire, criticised the Gambling Commission in an article for the Conservative Home website last week.

Ukraine war has marked a turning point in Europe’s gas consumption, says IEA

Global energy watchdog says Russia cutting supplies has prompted efficiency upgrades and move to heat pumps

The Ukraine crisis has marked a turning point for Europe’s gas consumption, which is expected to fall again this year as homes and firms embrace efficiency upgrades and heat pumps, according to the global energy watchdog.

A report from the International Energy Agency found that the continent’s developed economies reduced their gas use by 15% in 2022 after Russia cut off flows after its invasion.

Larry Fink, acclaimed photographer of different social classes, dies aged 82

The self-decribed ‘Marxist from Long Island’ documented working class lives and the elite of show business and Manhattan society

Larry Fink, an acclaimed and adventurous photographer whose subjects ranged from family portraits and political satire to working class lives and the elite of show business and Manhattan society, has died at 82.

Robert Mann, owner of the Robert Mann Gallery, told the Associated Press that Fink died Saturday at his home in Martins Creek, Pennsylvania. Mann did not cite a specific cause of death, but said that Fink had been in failing health.

Geert Wilders and Europe’s lurch to the far right – podcast

How did far-right politician Geert Wilders win so many seats in the Dutch election? Jon Henley and Senay Boztas report

Since winning the most seats in the Dutch election last week, Geert Wilders has been attempting to form a government. The controversial figure is the leader of the far-right Party for Freedom (PVV) and has campaigned for anti-Islamic policies in the past, including a ban on the Qur’an and headscarves.

Senay Boztas tells Michael Safi about her experience interviewing Wilders and how his approach to policies has evolved over time. Jon Henley explains how the governing of Mark Rutte’s People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) laid the ground for Wilder’s ascent. And he delves into why the far right is finding success in parliaments across Europe

History fades as rising sea levels slowly destroy Thailand’s temple murals

Saltwater damage could see precious historical Buddhist artworks dating back hundreds of years slowly fade entirely from view

If you look closely, you can just about see the characters and scenes that once stretched across the walls of Wat Prasat, a temple in Nonthaburi. There’s the dark shape of an elephant’s head, a figure slouching on its back; outlines of swords pointing upwards to the centre of the display; patches of curved roofs.

“The mural used to be more vivid,” says Phra Maha Natee, the abbot of Wat Prasat. Even when he was a novice monk, 20 years ago, the image – which shows one of the jātakas stories that recall the Buddha’s past lives – was easier to understand. “The colour was brighter and sharper,” he says.

Mark Cuban to reportedly sell majority stake in Dallas Mavericks NBA team

Miriam Adelson’s family, which runs the Las Vegas Sands casino, said they will be selling shares worth $2bn to purchase a team

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban is working on a deal to sell a majority stake in the NBA franchise to the family that runs the Las Vegas Sands casino, a person with knowledge of the talks said Tuesday night.

The agreement would be in the valuation range of $3.5bn and take weeks for the league to process, according to the person, who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity because details weren’t being made public.

Iran execution of child condemned by UN human rights office

Seventeen-year-old Hamidreza Azari was executed along with Milad Zohrevand, 22, as UN agency calls for moratorium on capital punishment

The United Nations said Tuesday it deplored the executions of a 17-year-old and a 22-year old in Iran and urged Tehran to immediately stop applying the death penalty.

The UN Human Rights Office said it was troubled by Friday’s executions. “The execution of Hamidreza Azari, who was accused of murder, is the first reported execution of an alleged child offender in Iran this year,” spokesperson Elizabeth Throssell said in a statement.

Pope Francis cancels Cop28 trip to Dubai due to ill health

Vatican says ‘flu-like condition’ will prevent pontiff from making historic visit to summit where he was expected to urge more action to tackle climate crisis

Pope Francis has cancelled his upcoming trip to Dubai for the Cop28 climate talks, on the advice of doctors concerned about his recent flu-like symptoms, the Vatican said.

The 86-year-old, who has made protecting the environment a cornerstone of his 10-year papacy, had planned to become the first pontiff to attend the UN event since the process began in 1995.

Pope revokes privileges of conservative US cardinal critical of church’s reform

In second radical action in a month, pontiff hits back at retired prelate Raymond Burke, one of his most vocal critics

Pope Francis has decided to punish one of his highest-ranking critics, Cardinal Raymond Burke, by revoking his right to a subsidized Vatican apartment and salary in the second such radical action against a conservative American prelate this month, according to two people briefed on the measures.

Francis told a meeting of the heads of Vatican offices last week that he was moving against Burke because he was a source of “disunity” in the church, said one of the participants at the 20 November meeting. The participant spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to reveal the contents of the encounter.

Lewis Miley makes his name on biggest stage amid Newcastle’s righteous rage | Jonathan Liew

The 17-year-old from County Durham starred on the game’s biggest stage and local hero provided green shoots of joy

Power finds a way. Albeit for Paris Saint-Germain, the road to redemption here would consist of a scandalous late penalty, a midfield made of sugar syrup and some of the worst distance shooting seen this side of a Soccer AM Crossbar Challenge. At full time the Parc des Princes roared with relief, heaved and exhaled, not with conviction but with the begrudging acceptance of something stolen, not earned.

And this really was tough on Newcastle, who were 97 minutes in to perhaps their greatest away win in Europe. Annihilated by injuries and with about three grown adults on their bench, they weathered everything the world’s richest club and the world’s greatest forward could throw at them: a home crowd, chances saved and blocked and thwarted, the sort of pressure that makes the Montpelliers and Lyons of this world crumble on a weekly basis.

Champions League: Barcelona and Atlético seal knockout places

• Barça beat Porto 2-1 at home to earn last-16 spot
• Borussia Dortmund win in Milan; Atlético eliminate Feyenoord

João Cancelo and João Félix scored in each half to earn Barcelona a 2-1 comeback win at home against Porto that booked their spot in the Champions League knockout rounds for the first time in three seasons.

The visitors wasted several chances before Pepe put them in front in the 30th minute with a close-range strike from a rebound. But Barça hit back quickly with a fine curling shot into the top corner by Cancelo two minutes later.

Hamas invites Elon Musk to Gaza to see ‘extent of destruction’ by Israeli strikes

Invitation comes after tech billionaire accompanied Benjamin Netanyahu to inspect Israeli kibbutz that was attacked by Hamas

Hamas has invited Elon Musk to Gaza to witness the devastation of the Palestinian territory under Israeli attack after the hi-tech billionaire accompanied Benjamin Netanyahu to inspect a kibbutz targeted by Hamas.

“We invite him to visit Gaza to see the extent of the massacres and destruction committed against the people of Gaza, in compliance with the standards of objectivity and credibility,” Osama Hamdan, a senior Hamas official, said in a press conference in Beirut on Tuesday.

Manchester City seal top spot as Álvarez caps fightback win against RB Leipzig

Pep Guardiola was proud of his players’ fight when transforming what appeared certain defeat when Manchester City trailed 2-0 at half-time into a late victory. He was less enamoured of the actual display.

In introducing Julián Álvarez and Jérémy Doku early in the second half, Guardiola performed a masterstroke. Each was pivotal, the former finding the winner from a move that was decorated by Doku’s mastery of the ball before Phil Foden set Álvarez up.

Rosalynn Carter memorial: Jimmy Carter, Biden and former first ladies pay tribute – in pictures

Politicians and public figures gathered on Tuesday to celebrate the former first lady Rosalynn Carter’s life following a public memorial. Former president Jimmy Carter, 99, attended the tribute for his late wife of 77 years, traveling from his hospice care at home to the Glenn Memorial church in Atlanta.

• Jimmy Carter, Biden and Clintons pay tribute at Rosalynn Carter memorial
• Rosalynn Carter: a life in pictures

Omid Scobie’s book on royal family pulled from Dutch shelves over ‘error’

Book reportedly revealed who expressed ‘concerns’ about what skin colour Harry and Meghan’s son would have

A new book about the royal family has been taken off shelves in the Netherlands after reports it named the person who allegedly expressed “concerns” about what skin colour Harry and Meghan’s son Archie would have.

Xander, publishers of the Dutch translation of Endgame by the journalist Omid Scobie, have put sales of the book on hold “temporarily” over what it called an “error”.

The Great British Bake Off final review – one last spicy twist changes everything

The bakers are virtually identical, the format repetitive, the standards low – we’ve just seen everything on this show far too many times before. Until one final moment livens things up …

‘Boring is too strong a word,” said Paul Hollywood, “but it’s on its way.” He was talking about a showstopper cake presented to him by Josh, a Leicestershire 27-year-old who hoped his three-tiered celebration of the English seasons, complete with a biscuit greenhouse, would win him series 14 of The Great British Bake Off. But the veteran judge could have been referring to this year’s final.

Josh seemed the obvious winner from the start of the last episode, despite presenters and judges trying to impress us with his rivals’ achievements in earlier rounds. “They’ve all had a handshake!” protested Prue Leith, referring to the gesture of approval that used to be sporadic and understated, but which has now become awkward and somehow slightly icky. Perhaps we have just seen everything in this show one too many times.

Boy held by Hamas ‘forced to watch videos of 7 October attacks’, says aunt

Recently released Eitan Yahalomi, 12, suffered ‘horrors’ at the hands of militant Palestinian group, according to family member

A 12-year-old boy who was held hostage in Gaza for 52 days was forced in captivity to watch videos of the 7 October atrocities, his aunt has claimed.

Eitan Yahalomi, a French-Israeli national, was kidnapped from the Nir Oz kibbutz with his father, Ohad Yahalomi, who remains captive.

Canadian man sentenced to life in prison for ‘incel’-motivated murder

Man who used machete to murder Toronto massage parlour employee in 2020 pleaded guilty in July

A Canadian man who used a machete to murder a Toronto massage parlour employee has been sentenced to life in prison for a killing the judge deemed to be an act of terrorism motivated by the online “incel” subculture.

The man cannot be named because he was 17 at the time of the February 2020 attack in which he killed Ashley Noelle Arzaga, 24, and seriously wounded another woman identified only by the initials JC.

Deaths from disease in Gaza could outstrip deaths from war, UN says

Organisation warns that people are starving, lack clean water and the diarrhoea rate is up 45 times compared with a year ago

• Israel-Hamas war – live updates

Gaza is not getting enough aid to meet even basic emergency needs, the UN has warned, and the population is so ravaged by hunger, bombing and the lack of clean water that deaths from disease could outstrip those from war.

“All this aid is triage, and it’s not even enough for triage,” a Unicef spokesperson, James Elder, told a press conference in Geneva, speaking by video link from inside Gaza. “Everything here is emergency care.”

Media gave much less play to Trump’s ‘vermin’ comment than Clinton remark

Main networks gave 18 times more coverage to 2016 ‘deplorables’ remark; while top papers give it 29 times more, Media Matters finds

Major US news outlets devoted significantly less time and space to covering Donald Trump’s description of his enemies as “vermin” this month than they did in a similar period in 2016 to Hillary Clinton’s reference to Trump’s supporters as “deplorables”, a new study has found.

Findings by the progressive watchdog Media Matters included 18 times more coverage of Clinton’s remark than Trump’s by the “Big Three” broadcast networks (NBC, ABC and CBS) in the first week after the remark was made; and print reports among the top five circulating newspapers (Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, USA Today) in which mention of Clinton’s remark outnumbered Trump’s 29-1 in the same period.

Nike and Salazar settle $20m lawsuit alleging abuse of US track prodigy

• Mary Cain said alleged abuse forced her from sport
• Nike scrapped elite athlete program in 2019

Nike and disgraced coach Alberto Salazar have settled a $20m lawsuit with a former athlete over allegations she suffered “emotional and physical abuse” at his hands.

Mary Cain, who qualified for the world championships as a 17-year-old and was considered a once-in-a-generation star, was coached by Salazar as part of the sportswear giant’s Nike Oregon Project for elite athletes from 2013 to 2016. The Oregonian reported on Tuesday that the case has now been settled, according to court documents. Terms of the settlement have not been released but are believed to be in the range of millions of dollars.

‘Still a very alive medium’: celebrating the radical history of zines

A new exhibition collates more 800 objects to give insight into the zine scene, a way to democratize art and journalism

A medium that basks in the unruliness and unpredictability of the creative process, zines are gloriously chaotic and difficult to pin down. Requiring little more to produce than a copy machine, a stapler and a vision, zines played a hugely democratizing role in art during the 20th century and have managed to stay popular and relevant in spite of web-based innovations, like blogs, that might have supplanted a less compelling medium.

The Brooklyn Museum’s substantial and exciting new exhibit, Copy Machine Manifestos, offers a welcome, thorough examination of zines made by artists. With over 800 objects on display, Copy Machine Manifestos is a crucial step toward documenting the zine scene, even if, in zine terms this show is a proverbial drop in the bucket. As the exhibition co-curator and art historian Drew Sawyer put it in an interview: “Even if we wanted to be very inclusive and seemingly comprehensive, we knew it would be impossible to claim to be comprehensive in any way. It would be delusional to think anyone could be comprehensive on a history of zines.”

The Guardian view on betting the planet: a big oil producer presiding over Cop28 is a risk | Editorial

The success of this week’s UN climate summit will depend on one man who must know that a favourable result would be bad news for the industry he represents

History was made in Glasgow in 2021 when “fossil fuels” appeared in the Cop26 declaration. It was the first time they had ever been mentioned in the text of a Cop agreement – officially recognising the taproot of a human-led climate emergency. Two years is a long time in geopolitics. This year’s Cop28, which begins on Thursday in Dubai, will be presided over by Sultan Al Jaber, the chief executive of the state oil company of the United Arab Emirates, which has the largest net-zero-busting expansion plans of any fossil fuel business in the world.

It was already doubtful that Mr Al Jaber was fit to lead global climate negotiations while responsible for planet-wrecking activities. This week’s revelations that he planned to lobby on oil and gas deals during meetings with foreign governments ahead of Cop28 further damage his credibility as an honest broker in climate negotiations. Mr Al Jaber had a hard enough job without hustles making a mockery of his independence.

Israeli family of youngest hostage held in Gaza call for his release

Kfir Bibas, his four-year-old brother and their parents may have been handed over to another Palestinian militant group

• Israel-Hamas war – live updates

The family of a baby who is the youngest hostage in Gaza have called for his release along with that of his four-year-old brother.

Kfir Bibas, who is 10 months old, has spent nearly a fifth of his life in captivity after being kidnapped from his home in a southern Israeli kibbutz during the 7 October Hamas attack on Israel, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 240 taken hostage.

‘They are truly hideous’: will we ever escape the puffer coat?

They’re bulky, awkward and rarely have personality. But even the most stylish dressers can’t seem to shake them

Karl Lagerfeld once said that sweatpants were “a sign of defeat” and that anyone buying them had “lost control” of their life. (It should be noted that this was pre-pandemic, and the French designer was kind of an awful person.) But for me, my personal fashion Waterloo was when I finally purchased a puffer.

Undeniably warm, puffer coats are a wintertime staple. Still, a certain style-conscious set bemoans their frumpy, bulbous, all-consuming silhouettes and drab colorways.

Ukraine spy chief’s wife recovering after being poisoned

Poisoning of Kyrylo Budanov’s wife, Marianna Budanova, suggests Moscow has undercover assets in Ukraine

The wife of Ukraine’s top spy chief is recovering in hospital after being poisoned, a spokesperson for the country’s military intelligence agency said on Tuesday, after apparently eating food laced with “heavy metals”.

Marianna Budanova is the wife of Kyrylo Budanov, who heads Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence agency. It is unclear when the alleged poisoning happened. She complained of feeling unwell and was admitted to hospital for tests.

Finland closes entire border with Russia after tensions over asylum seekers

Temporary closure comes after Finnish intelligence suggested Russia was helping asylum seekers reach the border

Finland has announced it is temporarily closing its entire border with Russia after weeks of tensions between the countries over asylum seekers that Helsinki has labelled a “hybrid operation” by Moscow.

With just 24 hours’ notice, the Finnish government said on Tuesday it would close Raja-Jooseppi in Lapland, its last remaining border crossing point with Russia, on Wednesday night.

‘Cancel the meeting!’ It’s not just the Greeks who’ve lost their marbles

Rishi Sunak and Oliver Dowden get tough on foreigners and tough on the causes of foreigners

Rishi Sunak kicked off his Prada loafers and sprawled out on the sofa. It had been another long day of everything going exactly to plan. The autumn statement in which taxes were going down while still going up. The net migration figures where getting tough on foreigners meant allowing more of them into the country. He couldn’t quite understand why people weren’t more grateful for everything he had done.

A rare half hour with time to kill. Rish! reached for the laptop and began scrolling the Harrods website. He could do with a new suit. Tricky. He couldn’t decide on the fit. Was he a size 8- to 10-year-old? Or 10 to 12? One was too small with the trousers coming halfway up his legs, the other too large. Or were these emotional age groups? In which case he might be better off in the toddler range.

Depraved New World by John Crace (Guardian Faber, £16.99). To support the Guardian and Observer, order your copy and save 18% at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply.

A year in Westminster: John Crace and Marina Hyde live in London and online.

On Monday 11 December 8pm–9.30pm GMT, join John Crace, Marina Hyde and Pippa Crerar for a livestream discussion on another year of anarchy in British politics.

Tiger Woods frustrated by controversial Saudi framework agreement with tours

• Deadline for 31 December for commercial deal to be finalised
• Woods: ‘I was frustrated the players were never involved’

Tiger Woods has admitted to being “very frustrated” by the circumstances surrounding the controversial framework agreement between golf’s established tours and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.

Speaking for the first time since he withdrew from the Masters in April, the 15-times major winner made plain alternative investment deals remain very much an option for the PGA and DP World Tours.

Divorce doulas: ‘like having that best friend you’ve always wanted, but you’re paying for’

Divorce doulas guide clients through the brutal, byzantine legal process of separation, giving emotional and practical support

Divorce is complicated and expensive. There are convoluted legalities, logistical headaches and financial restructuring. Lawyers help with a lot of that, in exchange for nosebleed-inducing sums. But what about the various emotional quandaries that arise as you dissolve a marriage? How do you handle attending your kid’s tee-ball game if your ex will be there? What do you do when your estranged spouse is texting so much you can’t use your phone? If you send that angry email, will it hurt your legal case?

Enter divorce doulas.

Paul McCartney and Elton John to appear in Spinal Tap sequel

Director of the beloved mock-rock-doc confirms filming will start on a sequel next year, with most of the original cast and a few new big names to feature

Paul McCartney and Elton John will appear in the sequel to cult mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap, for which filming is due to get under way early next year, it has been revealed.

Rob Reiner, director of the original 1984 release as well as the sequel, was speaking to comedian Richard Herring on the latter’s RHLSTP (Richard Herring’s Leicester Square Theatre Podcast). Reiner told Herring, after the latter expressed his admiration for This Is Spinal Tap, that “everybody’s back” for the sequel and that filming would begin at the end of February.

From Kurt to Elvis, JFK and more, what movies did stars see just before they died?

For Franz Kafka, it was The Kid. For Stanley Kubrick, it was the trailer to Eyes Wide Shut. But what about Cobain, Presley and Kennedy? Artist Stanley Schtinter talks us through his revelatory new project

Clad in black and wearing a cheeky-chappie grin, the artist and author Stanley Schtinter resembles Damon Albarn dressed as an undertaker. That suits his new book, Last Movies, which refracts cultural history through the prism of films watched by notable figures soon before their deaths. Stocking-fillers such as 1,001 Movies You Must See Before You Die are 10 a penny, but this is a more profound proposition: 28 Movies They Saw Before They Died. Bette Davis, Charlie Parker and Steve Jobs are among the cinema-goers attending this last picture show, which mixes fact with scintillating speculation. What parallels might Kurt Cobain have drawn, for instance, between the life he was about to leave and The Piano, the last film he saw, in which a woman is sold, brutalised and deprived of her beloved musical instrument?

“I wanted to see if I could remap the century of cinema based on something other than the usual categories or value judgments,” Schtinter explains over coffee at Close-Up, a London cafe, cinema and DVD library. His book opens with Franz Kafka bowing out in 1924 after watching Charlie Chaplin’s silent comedy The Kid. The last film to unspool in front of Chaplin’s eyes, before his life flashed before them in 1977, was a print of Barry Lyndon, directed by Stanley Kubrick. (Chaplin “hated to send it back”, he wrote in a telegram to Kubrick.) That film-maker, in turn, watched the trailer for his own swansong, Eyes Wide Shut, right before his own eyes shut for good in 1999.

Crackdown on French far right urged after boy’s killing sparks protests

Minister warns of risk from militias after death of 16-year-old blamed on immigrants and minorities

The French interior minister has called for the dissolution of three extreme-right groups after a series of marches were organised in response to the killing of a 16-year-old in the south-east of the country.

Gérald Darmanin told France Inter broadcaster he was seeking to shut down Division Martel and two other groups he did not name, warning there was a risk of militias targeting people of different skin-colour.

Geert Wilders will have to scrap most of manifesto to enter government, say experts

Far-right anti-Islam pledges and Nexit referendum promise are unacceptable to potential coalition partners

• Europe live – latest updates

Geert Wilders, the Dutch populist whose Party for Freedom (PVV) won the most seats in last week’s election, will have to sacrifice almost all his far-right manifesto to enter government, analysts say – and even that may not be enough for him to form a new coalition.

As Wilders on Tuesday appointed a second “scout” to scope out possible alliances (the first stepped down on Monday over fraud allegations), he again insisted on social media that the PVV was “a broad party” and “there for everyone”.

All 41 Indian labourers rescued from collapsed tunnel

Workers pulled up through escape pipe after 17 days stuck in Silkyara-Barkot tunnel in Himalayan mountains

All 41 Indian labourers have been rescued after a gruelling 17 days trapped in a collapsed tunnel in the Himalayan mountains.

The dramatic scenes of the first men emerging on stretchers from the entrance of the Silkyara-Barkot tunnel came after more than 400 hours, during which the rescue operation hit multiple obstacles, delays and false promises of imminent rescue.

The Trans Handy Ma’am: the home repair TikToker championing renters

Mercury Stardust makes DIY home repair videos centering renters – and the person who thinks they can’t fix anything

In April 2021, Mercury Stardust, a Wisconsin maintenance technician, was “cleaning someone else’s poop off myself” after a clogged toilet came apart. She happened to see a video of someone asking how to use a ratchet strap, one of those complicated-looking thingummies often used to tie down cargo. As soon as she tidied up, the 33-year-old responded as digital natives often do: she recorded an instructional video, wearing a (clean) flannel shirt and overalls while skillfully handling the tool in question.

The minute-long video introduced her signature enthusiastic and encouraging patter, ending with: “Learning something new is a triumph, and I’m proud of you.”

Back with a crash bang: Banks Violette on his wrecked chandelier self-portraits

Inspired by black metal, his art was the toast of the 00s. But the former tattooist flamed out. Now he’s returning – with 14 fallen chandeliers that speak of opiated excess

If Christmas is the season for excess, then Banks Violette has made the perfect decorations. The artist has created 14 chandeliers out of industrial white fluorescent tubing and put each one in a different flagship branch of Celine, the French fashion house. A handful are suspended from the ceilings and look pristine but the rest are smashed and collapsed – one third vertically, another horizontally – and slump on the floor.

They are self-portraits of a sort, Violette tells me. “It’s in there,” he says over the phone from his house in Ithaca, Upstate New York, “this thing collapsing in a corner and passing out.” He says that he responds to sculptures that in some way also relate to the human body, such as Alberto Giacometti’s macabre 1932 work Woman with Her Throat Cut, an eviscerated body that looks like a mantrap. Another inspiration was the German artist Martin Kippenberger’s street lamps for drunks, where the poles are so bent over that the light is almost in the gutter, or the posts wave crazily around the pavement.

Brilliant: a Cop28 to save the planet – staged by oil barons who imperil it | Marina Hyde

The UAE will have its moment of glory while the UK press worries more about petrostate money buying the Telegraph

“A petrostate hosting a climate conference” sounds like a situation shouted out at an improv night, after they’ve done the ones about a fox hosting a henhouse and Jimmy Savile hosting Jim’ll Fix It. Arguably, though, the fact the president of this week’s Cop28 climate conference in Dubai is also the CEO of the United Arab Emirates’ state oil firm crosses the fine line between mirthless joke and extinction-level distress signal. Happily for Sultan Al Jaber, this metaphorical flare will be obscured by all the actual flares caused by oil companies still cheerily burning waste gas across the Gulf. Maybe the various Emirati governments will order the oil firms to lay off this toxic practice – ineffectually outlawed by the UAE 20 years ago – for the duration of the conference, a bit like the Chinese government ordered many Beijing factories to shut down during the 2008 Olympics so that a pea-souper didn’t prevent enjoyment of the dressage. If not, international dignitaries flying into Cop28 on private planes will be able to look out of their windows at the oilfields and consider how nice it is to be welcomed by a roaring fire.

To the jolly old UAE, then, which can own our football clubs but not our newspapers, which should rather be squired by the right kind of meddling foreigners (Rupert Murdoch), criminal foreigners (Conrad Black), morality-vacuum island fort dwellers (the Barclays) or basic non-doms (the Rothermeres). Yes, the week’s other Emirati plotline is the hokey-cokey over the sale of the Telegraph, Sunday Telegraph and Spectator titles, which look like they could be at risk of effectively going to an investment fund backed by the Abu Dhabi ruling family. At present, only a half-arsed government probe stands between civilisation and a desert ski-resort corporate retreat at which former Telegraph editor Charles Moore would be seated heavily down-table from Pep Guardiola, and possibly even Jack Grealish.

Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist

Cop28: Can fossil fuel companies transition to clean energy? On Tuesday 5 December, 8pm-9.15pm GMT, join Damian Carrington, Christiana Figueres, Tessa Khan and Mike Coffin for a livestreamed discussion on whether fossil fuel companies can transition to clean energy. Book tickets here or at theguardian.live

What Just Happened?! by Marina Hyde (Guardian Faber Publishing, £9.99). To support The Guardian and Observer, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply

‘When will people decide to choose the path of life?’: a Sudanese father’s letter to his dead son

Abdel Rahman Sumel, 20, was killed by Sudan’s security forces in December 2018. His father, Alsadiq, reflects on all those lost since and the hope of a return to the peace his son marched for

Abdel Rahman Sumel, a 20-year-old university student, was killed by Sudan’s security forces during a peaceful march in Khartoum. It was December 2018, and the protests that finally overthrew President Omar el-Bashir’s regime had taken hold across the country, amid fuel shortages, a currency crisis and the tripling of bread prices.

Hundreds of young men and women were killed during the popular uprising, which called for a democratic civilian regime. The protests continued until April this year, when war broke out in Sudan.

First transatlantic flight using 100% sustainable jet fuel takes off

Virgin Atlantic flight, partly funded by UK government, hailed by ministers but criticised by campaigners

• Can UK’s ‘jet zero’ hopes take off with a plane fuelled by used cooking oil?

The first transatlantic flight by a commercial airliner fully powered by “sustainable” jet fuel has taken off from London Heathrow.

Tuesday’s Virgin Atlantic flight, partly funded by the UK government, has been hailed by the aviation industry and ministers as a demonstration of the potential to significantly cut net carbon emissions from flying, although scientists and environmental groups are extremely sceptical.

The sex lives of animals: three hours of foreplay – and mass orgies on the move

New research has revealed the extraordinary mating habits of serotine bats. They are far from the only creatures to take an unexpected approach to intercourse

On a dark November afternoon at Southampton’s City Farm, the animals are going about their business. They are all rescues. Penny the pig, a clutch of former battery farm chickens, three pygmy goats and Salvatore the cane snake, so orange and shiny he looks as though he is glowing from within as he twines around my arm in loving, even sensual embrace.

All little miracles in their own right. But none so strange as the dull-looking brown shells in the glass tank in the corner. “Who’s that in there?” I ask Hannah, in whose charge they lie. “They’re African land snails”, she tells me. “They’ve just laid their eggs. They were both females, but being hermaphrodites, one changed sex. It was quite a surprise.”

‘It should never have happened’: death of boy, 16, at sawmill highlights rise of child labour in US

Michael Schuls died after getting trapped in dangerous machinery at a mill in Wisconsin. But across the US conservative groups are pushing to loosen laws that protect children in the workplace

In late June, Jim Schuls and his 16-year-old son, Michael, woke up at 4am for their usual drive from their apartment in Florence, Wisconsin, to begin work at 5am at a sawmill. Father and son made this journey together five times a week in the summer, when Michael worked longer hours than he did in term time. His two older brothers had also worked at the same mill when they were about his age.

Their day at Florence Hardwoods – one of the largest employers in the town with a population of about 2,000 – began as normal. Jim operated a forklift outside while Michael worked alone inside the mill. Jim says he never worried because he believed “young kids were stacking lumber”, not operating dangerous machines.

Which potato for which dish? How to choose the right spud for your recipe | Kitchen aide

Should you mash a maris? Do you know your king edwards from your duke of yorks? Our panel washes the mud off the mysteries of spud varieties

I never know which potatoes to use for what dishes (roast, boiled, mashed), and please include North American varieties such as russets and yukon gold.
Catherine, Portland, Oregon
Reigning supreme as the UK’s number-one vegetable (according to a YouGov survey and, well, common sense), potatoes can do no wrong – so long as you choose the right one for the job. “It is really important,” says David Taylor, chef director of Grace & Savour in Solihull. “If you’re doing a lamb hotpot, for example, the [wrong] potato could absorb all the liquid and collapse.” Recipes often stipulate “waxy” or “floury” potatoes, so it’s really worth clocking a few names.

To avoid calamity, Gelf Alderson, executive chef at River Cottage and author of Great Roasts, would “never use any [recipe] that doesn’t name the [type of] potato, because it could be anything.” As a general rule, he recommends a king edward or maris piper: “They’re pretty good year round, they don’t degrade particularly when stored, and they mash really well, roast really well, and make nice chips.” Essentially, “if you’re going to work with potatoes, these are the ones I’d go for”.

Rohingya refugees and a stranded plane: photos of the day – Tuesday

The Guardian’s picture editors select photographs from around the world

WSL title challengers flex their muscles – Women’s Football Weekly

Faye Carruthers is joined by Suzanne Wrack, Sophie Downey and Tim Stillman to round up all the action going into the international break

On today’s pod: it was goals galore as the Women’s Super League’s top five had fun this weekend.

SEVEN says our vidiprinter as Bunny Shaw’s first-half hat-trick set Manchester City rolling at the expense of Spurs.

A royal family ‘in crisis’: six claims from Omid Scobie’s book Endgame

Journalist claims Charles is angry at William upstaging him, while William thinks Harry has been ‘brainwashed’ by therapists

The latest tome on the royals has dropped, though, according to initial reviews, with none of the explosive impact of Spare, the Duke of Sussex’s unsparing memoir.

Endgame – by the Sussexes’ journalist supporter-in-chief, Omid Scobie, the co-author of Finding Freedom, on their escape from “the firm” – examines a royal family “in crisis”.

Detainees speak out against ‘abusive’ US migrant jail: ‘This place is horrible’

Inmates at Stewart detention center in Georgia file complaint alleging mistreatment, medical neglect and retaliation

More than 200 detainees held at the Stewart detention center (SDC) in Lumpkin, Georgia, are raising their voices against the inhumane conditions and mistreatment they endure daily. In a recent petition addressed to local officials and the Biden administration, organized by Sopheak Pal, an SDC detainee, the petitioners are demanding immediate action.

“We’re treated worse than criminals [and] Ice takes advantage of our situation,” Pal told the Guardian. “This place is horrible, like the way they treat us … we are all human, and we should all be treated like humans.”

Nigel Slater’s recipe for mushrooms with olive, thyme and anchovy butter

Large flat mushrooms get a herby, fishy, piquant twist

An aromatic butter is useful to have in the fridge or freezer. I make a decent-sized batch, using some immediately to savour a grilled vegetable or piece of meat, storing the rest, tightly wrapped, for another day. If you only want enough for this recipe, make half the quantity.

Beat 200g of unsalted butter to a soft, spreadable cream. Dry 8 anchovy fillets with kitchen paper to remove their oil, then chop them finely and stir into the butter. Finely chop 1 tbsp of thyme leaves.

When does life end? A father didn’t believe his daughter was dead. The hospital still harvested her organs

After Brittany O’Connor was declared brain dead, her father clashed with medical authorities. The battle shines a light on America’s legal definition of death – and the thousands waiting for organ donation

Mike O’Connor had just been told that his daughter was brain dead.

Brittany had been in the hospital for six days. One end of a thick blue tube was taped to her mouth, the other connected to a respirator, which pushed air into her lungs with a mechanical force that shook her chest up and down.

The Israel-Hamas war is deadly for journalists. Lives are being lost, and truth | Margaret Sullivan

At least 53 journalists have been killed since 7 October, the deadliest figure in the 30 years of keeping these dire statistics

Sign up to get email alerts every time Margaret Sullivan publishes a new column.

The numbers alone are dreadful. Journalists are being killed in the Israel-Hamas war at the rate of more than one every day since 7 October – at least 53 so far, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, or CPJ.

Margaret Sullivan is a Guardian US columnist writing on media, politics and culture. Sign up for her newsletter here.

These Palestinian boys received life-saving surgery in the US. An Israeli airstrike killed them in their home

The trajectory of Farid and Qoosay’s fight to save themselves from the ravages of a rare medical condition only to die a violent death is a portrait of the limitations of life in Gaza

Seven years ago, an NGO, a team of craniofacial surgeons and a community of host families in Shreveport, Louisiana, moved mountains to bring Farid and Qoosay Salout from Gaza to the US for medical treatment.

The surgeries were a resounding success.

Tell us what it is like working in your dream job

We would like to hear from people who have an interesting or unusual job and why they enjoy it

Do you have an interesting, exciting or unusual job? Or perhaps you feel as if you have your dream job – even if not everyone might find it so appealing? If so, we’d love to hear from you.

We’re looking to go behind the scenes and learn more about a variety of trades and professions. What do you do for a living and why do you enjoy it?

How I survive: a seven-year-old’s life in Gaza – video

Seven-year-old Lina and her family are sleeping on the floor of a tent outside al-Aqsa hospital, in central Gaza. They were forced to flee their home in Jabaliya in the north of the Gaza Strip when the war between Hamas and Israel broke out after Hamas' murder of 1,200 people in southern Israel. Now displaced, Lina and her siblings spend their time searching for food to buy, queueing for water and playing games. The Guardian spent one day on the 9 November with Lina to see how children are surviving in Gaza. She told film-maker Majdi Fathi how she wishes she could sleep comfortably at night, without the sound of rockets and ambulances

‘Sometimes you feel you’re in Palestine’: culture and cause burn brightly in Chile

Chile has the largest Palestinian diaspora outside the Middle East – and it is lending its considerable weight to the call for justice

Above canvas awnings along the narrow streets in Patronato, a busy commercial district in Chile’s capital, Palestinian flags hang from lampposts and frame warehouse doors.

Bakeries sell baklava, pita and falafel; and shelves are stacked with products imported from the Middle East, their ingredients hastily covered over with Spanish approximations.

Village people: a 1970s fishing community – in pictures

Melinda Blauvelt spent three years visiting a family in Brantville, Canada, capturing magical childhood games – and fluffy white rabbits

Rail route of the month: across eastern Germany to the Polish city of Szczecin

Our slow travel expert rides a train through a region of lakes and forests which deserves to be far better known

The elegant main railway station in the Hanseatic city of Lübeck is well suited to grand departures, but these are few and far between these days. The only international destination served from Lübeck is Szczecin, in Poland. Half a dozen daily trains ply a meandering route through sparsely populated terrain on a 185-mile journey that starts in Holstein and then crosses Mecklenburg to reach Pomerania. It is a region where, historically, Prussia and Sweden vied for supremacy. Today it’s a chance to see off-the-beaten-track communities in a remote part of eastern Germany.

I start my journey by Lübeck’s celebrated Holstentor: it’s an extraordinary mid-15th-century city gate and sets the scene for the journey east towards Poland. The rail route from Lübeck to Szczecin is known as the Stadttore-Linie (the Town Gates Route). Several places along it boast fine examples of defensive gates, most of them in an architectural style found across the Baltic region. It’s called by the German name Backsteingotik (brick gothic).

Levels of toxic PCB chemicals found at 30 times ‘safe’ limits in stranded whales

Studies of cetaceans stranded in UK waters show high levels of toxins 20 years since global ban of most PCBs, say scientists

Nearly half of the whales and dolphins found in UK waters over the past five years contained harmful concentrations of toxic chemicals banned decades ago, an investigation has found.

Among orcas stranded in the UK, levels of PCBs, a group of highly dangerous and persistent chemicals that do not degrade easily, were 30 times the concentration at which the animals would begin to suffer health impacts, researchers said.

Weight of the world – the climate scientists who saw the crisis coming - podcast

Science Weekly brings you episode one of a new mini-series from Full Story.

Pioneering Australian scientists Graeme Pearman, Lesley Hughes and Ove Hoegh-Guldberg saw the climate crisis coming. Pearman predicted the increase of carbon dioxide levels, Hughes foresaw the alarming number of species extinctions and Hoegh-Guldberg forecast the mass coral bleaching events we’re seeing today. All three went on to become some of the country’s most respected experts in their fields, travelling the globe, briefing leaders, and assuming the world would take action having heard their alarming findings.

In part one of this three-part series, these climate scientists reveal the moment they realised the planet was heading for catastrophe. What did they do when they found out? How did they think the world would respond? And how do they feel today, looking back on that moment of cognisance?

S5 E10: Gregory Porter, singer-songwriter

Bringing lashings of comfort and joy to Grace’s house for the final episode of this season is the legendary jazz singer Gregory Porter. The multi-Grammy award-winner, known for his smooth, silky tones and iconic headgear, is gliding in on a wave of Californian soul to ease us into some truly mellow seasonal joy. Food and music has taken Gregory on a winding path, navigating student digs and kitchen jobs, ending decades later in global stardom and stadium gigs. Get comfy for this intimate audience of just you and Grace, with a few musical treats sprinkled through like baubles winking on a Christmas tree

Credits:

‘Something Beautiful’ by Bill Gaither Trio and Gaither Vocal Band, Gloria Gaither, Willam J. Gaither,
‘Waltz for Debby’ by Bill Evans, Gene Lees,
‘Pretty Young Things’ Quincy Jones, James Ingram
‘Chestnuts roasting on an open fire’ Mel Tormé, Bob Wells

Guardian environment pledge 2023

Six things the Guardian is doing to confront the emergency facing our climate and the natural world

• Why the Guardian’s climate and nature journalism is needed now more than ever
• What impact does the Guardian have on the natural world?
• Around the world, around the clock: how we report on a world on fire
• Support urgent, independent climate journalism today

Four years ago, we took a stand. Of all the crises facing the world, the most alarming is climate breakdown. We asked ourselves: what can the Guardian do? The answer: to report relentlessly on this emergency each day – its causes, consequences and solutions. To keep pressure on governments and businesses to act now, to make changes for the better, to make good on their promises. And to look at our own organisation to ensure we are practising what we preach.

Now, we are updating our readers and supporters on the progress we have made on six vital promises – including, this year, a stronger commitment to the natural world.

‘The monarchy looks vulnerable’: will Britain’s republicans bring down the king?

Every day, we learn more about the royals’ colonial legacy and financial privileges – and it has given a huge boost to the republican movement

It was a wintry and ominous November Tuesday. A crowd of 50 or 60 republicans waited outside Westminster for the state opening of parliament. “Not my king”, read their big, yellow banners. Even if you didn’t care about the existence of the monarchy one way or another, there was something ineffably sad about the whole fandango. King Charles, pushing 75, was about to perform this duty as king for the first time. He was charged with reading out unhinged oil and gas policies that directly threatened the only thing he has ever publicly cared about – the environment. Figurehead of the country, or the puppet of a hooligan regime?

Maybe, at the moment, those two things are the same. Only one of the protesters, a woman in her early 60s who declined to give her name, had zero sympathy: “He should have the guts to speak his mind,” she said, in a meld of anatomical metaphors.

How King Charles profits from the assets of dead citizens – podcast

An archaic custom allows the king’s estate to absorb the assets of people in the north of England who die without a will or a known next of kin. Maeve McClenaghan investigates

• King’s estate to transfer £100m into ethical funds after bona vacantia revelations

For most people in the UK, what happens to your assets when you die is a relatively simple process: you either specify your wishes in a will or your estate passes to your next of kin. But some people have neither: no will, no known next of kin. What happens to their assets is not so simple, and if you live in certain parts of the UK, even less so.

As the Guardian’s investigations correspondent Maeve McClenaghan tells Nosheen Iqbal, if a person dies in England and Wales with no will or next of kin, their money goes to the Treasury. There is, however, an exception for people who die in parts of England with historical links to two royal estates: the Duchy of Cornwall and the Duchy of Lancaster. For those who die within the boundary of the ancient county palatinate of Lancashire, their assets, if unclaimed, go to the king’s private estate, the Duchy of Lancaster. It’s an archaic custom known as bona vacantia.

Revealed: Saudi Arabia’s grand plan to ‘hook’ poor countries on oil

Climate scientists say fossil fuel use needs to fall rapidly – but oil-rich kingdom is working to drive up demand

Saudi Arabia is driving a huge global investment plan to create demand for its oil and gas in developing countries, an undercover investigation has revealed. Critics said the plan was designed to get countries “hooked on its harmful products”.

Little was known about the oil demand sustainability programme (ODSP) but the investigation obtained detailed information on plans to drive up the use of fossil fuel-powered cars, buses and planes in Africa and elsewhere, as rich countries increasingly switch to clean energy.

'It's difficult to realise I'm home', Palestinians celebrate prisoner releases – video

The Guardian's Jerusalem correspondent, Bethan McKernan, witnesses celebrations at the Betunia checkpoint in Ramallah after 39 Palestinian women and children were freed from an Israeli jail after Israel and the militant group Hamas agreed to an exchange deal.

Fairuz Fayez Mahmoud Al-Bu, a 26-year-old from Abu Dis, told the Guardian conditions in the facility were 'extremely difficult' and had declined since the Hamas attacks on southern Israel on 7 October. She had been held in administrative detention – without charge or trial – for more than two years after being arrested for allegedly stabbing an Israeli, an allegation she denies

• Israel-Hamas war – live updates

Tell us about the food your family leaves in the cupboard at Christmas

We would like to know what food tends to be left over in your home and thrown away after Christmas

Celebrity chef Nigella Lawson has told people to scrap the traditional Christmas cake this year in favour of a family-friendly chocolate one instead.

She said there was no point in having a dried fruit cake “gathering dust” on the kitchen counter. What Christmas food do you and your family leave on the side?

Arsenal go top and a tribute to Terry Venables – Football Weekly

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, John Brewin and Troy Townsend to review the weekend’s Premier League action and pay tribute to Terry Venables

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: Spurs lose their third game in a row and the panel ask whether Ange Postecoglou’s good vibes can ride out this storm and whether Aston Villa are quietly becoming title contenders.

US oil and gas production set to break record in 2023 despite UN climate goals

United States projected to extract 12.9m barrels of crude oil as countries at Cop28 to push for agreed fossil fuels ‘phaseout’

The United States is poised to extract more oil and gas than ever before in 2023, a year that is certain to be the hottest ever recorded, providing a daunting backdrop to crucial United Nations climate talks that hold the hope of an agreement to end the era of fossil fuels.

The US’s status as the world’s leading oil and gas behemoth has only strengthened this year, even amid warnings from Joe Biden himself over the unfolding climate crisis, with the latest federal government forecast showing a record 12.9m barrels of crude oil, more than double what was produced a decade ago, will be extracted in 2023.

The nature cure: how time outdoors transforms our memory, imagination and logic

Without engaging with natural environments, our brains cease to work well. As the new field of environmental neuroscience proves, exposure to nature isn’t a luxury – it’s a necessity

It’s a grey November day; rain gently pocks the surface of the tidal pools. There is not much to see in this East Sussex nature reserve – a few gulls, a little grebe, a solitary wader on the shore – but already my breathing has slowed to the rhythm of the water lapping the shingle, my shoulders have dropped and I feel imbued with a sense of calm.

I’m far from alone in finding the antidote to modern life in nature. “It’s only when I’m outdoors and attentive to the wild things around me that my mind holds still,” says James Gilbert, an ecologist from Northamptonshire. Despite his job, it is not visits to nature reserves boasting rare species that provide what he describes as a “mental reset” – “simply the everyday encounters I chance upon in my daily life. These touches of wildness freshen my mind, broaden my perspective and lift my spirits.”

Environmental photographer of the year 2023 – in pictures

A termite-snatching drongo, cows wading through flood water and a coral glowing like a Christmas tree are among this year’s winners. From CIWEM and WaterBear, and presented by Nikon in association with MPB and supported by Arup, the 16th year of the contest showcases global environmental photography to inspire change and climate action. The six winners primarily come from climate-vulnerable countries, including Bangladesh, India, and Argentina

Happy, faithful and tied to nature: life adapting to the climate crisis – photo essay

Activists are pushing for action at the upcoming Cop28 summit as the way of life on Pacific islands such as Kioa in Fiji are reshaped by climate change

When Poiongo Lisati returned to her home of Kioa after decades away, she welcomed the shift in the pace of life. The 58-year-old left the busyness of Fiji’s capital Suva for the island of about 400 people, who live off the land they are deeply connected to. But some changes she noticed were stark.

“When I left the island, a good part of the beach was there,” Lisati says. “But when I came back after 40 years … around six metres or more had been washed away.”

Above: Kioa island, Fiji, at sunrise.
Below: A resident of Kioa strips the thorny edges from the fronds of pandanus palms. It is one of many steps in the process of preparing the fronds to be woven into traditional baskets, floor mats and ceremonial skirts.

‘All of us want to respond’: Australian artists auction works for Israel-Hamas war victims – in pictures

Ben Quilty, Hoda Afshar, Tom Polo, Abdul-Rahman Abdullah, Jasper Knight and Jude Rae are among more than 60 artists who have donated works to the auction raising funds for Médecins Sans Frontières’ humanitarian and medical aid efforts in Israel and Palestine.

The auction was organised by artist Nathan Hawkes, who said he was feeling ‘intense distress and despair at watching the horrors unfolding so rapidly’. Quilty said ‘all of us in the arts community feel the world poignantly and powerfully, and all of us want to respond to the crisis’

• Readers can view all artworks and bid online until 4 December

How Israel created a water crisis for Palestinians – video

Water is one of the most precious resources in Israel and the Palestinian territories. But there is a stark imbalance in how this resource is distributed. In the occupied West Bank, Israeli-owned farms are flourishing, while Palestinians often do not have enough water to drink. And in Gaza, Palestinians are facing deadly levels of water shortage. Josh Toussaint-Strauss examines how Israel took control of the region's water supply and created a deadly scarcity crisis for Palestinians

• A precious resource: how Israel uses water to control the West Bank

OpenAI staff: share your view on developments at the company

We want to speak to employees at the company, anonymously if needed

Following a dramatic week at OpenAI, where Sam Altman was fired before plans for his reinstatement were announced within days, we want to hear from staff at the company.

What is your reaction to recent developments? Do you have any concerns?

Civilians in Gaza react to warnings war could spread further south – video

Israel has dropped leaflets into southern Gaza telling Palestinian civilians to leave four towns on the eastern edge of Khan Younis, raising fears that its war against Hamas could spread to areas it had previously said were safe. The flyers told civilians in Bani Shuhaila, Khuza’a, Abassan and al-Qarara that anyone in the vicinity of militants or their positions was putting their life in danger, local people told Reuters

• Israel drops leaflets warning people to flee southern Gaza towns

• Israel-Hamas war – live updates

Tell us about your interesting book club stories

We would like to hear the entertaining stories about your book club

A book club in Venice, California spent 28 years reading James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake and finally reached its final page in October.

After starting the complex book in 1995, the group began reading two pages a month eventually reducing it to just one page per discussion.

A safe space for Gaza’s children: 'They still have dreams for the future' – video

The sound of singing and music drowns out the ambulance sirens in this school for displaced families in Khan Yunis, in southern Gaza. Thousands of children have lost their homes and had to flee since the Israel-Hamas conflict began.

Now, volunteers like Mohammed Aborjela spend their days going from school to school and offering these children a glimpse back into their childhood with games and fun activities.  'The kids come back really happy, they revive their playful spirit,' said one parent. While it won’t bring back their homes or loved ones, volunteers are hoping that making time for play in a war zone will help these children recover from the trauma of living under siege.

Floods hit Somalia after worst drought in four decades – video report

Floods caused by heavy rains across parts of Somalia have displaced more than 113,000 people and 'temporarily affected' hundreds of thousands, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The rain comes a year after the Horn of Africa nation suffered its worst drought in four decades.

The agency added that about 10 people had died in the aftermath of the rains, and the government has declared a statement of emergency

• Somalia – latest news

• Climate crisis talks resume on ‘loss and damage’ funding for poorest countries

Why are Republicans still supporting Donald Trump? - video

Despite facing multiple criminal charges, Donald Trump remains the frontrunner in the 2024 Republican presidential primary. But in South Carolina, a traditionally conservative southern state, a split is opening up between Trump loyalists and more moderate Republicans who are fearful of what their party has become. The Guardian’s Oliver Laughland and Tom Silverstone investigate

Ilya: the AI scientist shaping the world

Ilya Sutskever, one of the leading AI scientists behind ChatGPT, reflects on his founding vision and values. In conversations with the film-maker Tonje Hessen Schei as he was developing the chat language model between 2016 and 2019, he describes his personal philosophy and makes startling predictions for a technology already shaping our world. Reflecting on his ideas today, amid a global debate over safety and regulation, we consider the opportunities as well as the consequences of AI technology. Ilya discusses his ultimate goal of artificial general intelligence (AGI), ‘a computer system that can do any job or task that a human does, but better’, and questions whether the AGI arms race will be good or bad for humanity.

These filmed interviews with Ilya Sutskever are part of a feature-length documentary on artificial intelligence, called iHuman

Into the wild to fight Scotland’s addiction problems – video

Scotland has some of the highest drug deaths in Europe, a deepening mental health crisis and loses between three and four people a day to suicide. Yet at the same time, services are being stripped back leaving a gap in support that is often filled with volunteers who have a personal experience of addiction. Guardian reporter Danny Lavelle, joined one of those organisations, Fire & Peace, which aims to encourage bonds with nature to help people beat the cycle of addiction, on a trip to the Scottish Highlands. As a natural sceptic of alternative therapies, could he be convinced of the benefits?

How British colonialism increased diabetes in south Asians

People of south Asian origin today are between four and six times more likely to get type 2 diabetes than white people. While the role of diet and lifestyle has been explored, it’s only recently that the impact of the disproportionate number of famines under British colonial rule has been uncovered. Neelam Tailor looks into the history of famines during the British Raj and their lasting impact on south Asian genes

'We are at war': Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu makes statement on Hamas attack – video

The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said that the country was 'at war', hours after the Palestinian group Hamas launched a surprise assault with gunmen crossing into several Israeli towns and a heavy barrage of rockets being fired from the Gaza Strip.

Netanyahu said the evacuation of some areas was being carried out and he had ordered the mobilisation of reservists. He said the 'enemy' would pay 'an unprecedented price'

• Israel and Hamas at war after surprise attacks from Gaza Strip

More than 100 killed in attack on Syrian military academy – video

In one of the bloodiest attacks against a Syrian army installation, a drone has hit a military academy in Homs. The attack came minutes after Syria's defence minister left a graduation ceremony at the base. More than 100 civilians and military personnel were killed. Syria's defence ministry said 'terrorists' had used drones to carry out the strike but did not say who they held responsible

• More than 100 dead in attack on Syrian military academy

The fall of Nagorno-Karabakh: 'I've lost a child, and now a homeland' – video

The breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh has been dissolved after decades of bloody conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The collapse has led to almost all the ethnic Armenians living in the region to flee over the border into neighbouring Armenia. Many say they will never return.

The Guardian’s Andrew Roth and Christopher Cherry were at the border as the exodus began. They heard the stories of those fleeing their homeland, sometimes for the third and fourth time, in a conflict that has claimed the lives of thousands.

Tiny robots, giant steps: how nanotechnology could improve cancer and fertility treatment

An advanced robotics lab at Canada’s top university is helping the medical world tackle some of its most perplexing problems – starting at the smallest of scales

Advances in treatment and earlier detection have significantly improved cancer survival rates in recent decades. But some cancers remain devastatingly lethal. For patients with glioblastoma (GBM), the most common and aggressive form of brain cancer, the average life expectancy is just 12 to 18 months after diagnosis. Only a quarter will survive more than a year, and just 5% more than five years.

At the University of Toronto, Prof Yu Sun and his team at the Robotics Institute are harnessing the potential of nanorobotics – the field of technology developing microscopically small robots – to build what could be a game changing new treatment option: “nano-scalpels” that seek out cancer cells and destroy them by spinning when activated by a magnetic field.