President Lai Ching-te declared there was ‘no room for compromise on national security’ in face of escalating harassment and espionage

Beijing’s threats to Taiwan are “intensifying” and its preparations to invade are speeding up, Taiwan’s government has said while announcing a $40bn special defence budget and a swathe of measures to counter Chinese attacks.

The Taiwan president, Lai Ching-te, said there was “no room for compromise on national security”, and he was committed to boosting Taiwan’s defences in conjunction with US support.

Plus: long waits to play at a World Cup, champions being thrashed and title-winners with a negative goal difference

• Mail us with your questions and answers

“Idrissa Gueye’s red card for slapping Michael Keane at Old Trafford made me wonder – which other players have put hands on a teammate during a game?” asks Conor Humphries.

We covered this in a question back in 2004 – but 21 years is a long time in football, never mind intersquad violence, so it’s due an upgrade. First, a brief summary of those we mentioned in the 2004 article.

The CMP system means Huda Ammori will not be allowed to know what allegations were made against her

At some point in the challenge to the ban on Palestine Action beginning on Wednesday, the co-founder of the direct action group will be asked to leave courtroom five at the Royal Courts of Justice, as will her legal team and most others present. Then the case will continue without them.

When Huda Ammori returns to the room, the special advocate – a security-cleared barrister – who represented her interests in her absence will not be allowed to tell her or her legal team what evidence was presented against Palestine Action. If Ammori asks what allegations were made directly against her, the special advocate must not tell her, even though that means she will have no chance to rebut them.

Brutal economic realities are prompting a shift in Labour’s tone on Europe. But will it dare tell the whole truth about Britain’s predicament?

Rachel Reeves has approached this week’s budget like a reluctant swimmer inching into freezing water, trying to ease the unpleasantness by incremental exposure. The chancellor started paddling delicately around the problem of insufficient revenue at the end of the summer. First, she refused to stand by former insistence that tax rises in last year’s budget would be the last. “The world has changed,” she said.

Then, earlier this month, she took a bigger stride into the icy waves. There was a speech promising to “do what is necessary” to fund public services and keep borrowing costs down. Downing Street did not discourage speculation that this meant reneging on Labour’s 2024 manifesto promise not to raise income tax. Too deep! Within 10 days the Treasury had retracted the hint. The manifesto commitment still stood after all. As any cold-water swimmer knows, this aborted plunge and shivering retreat is the worst of all techniques. Nothing prolongs the pain like indecision.

Rafael Behr is a Guardian columnist

• Verona venue to host Milano-Cortina opening ceremony

• Critics see changes to 2,000-year-old arena as blasphemy

A 2,000-year-old Roman amphitheatre is to be made fully accessible to people with disabilities before the Winter Paralympic Games in Milano‑Cortina, as organisers prioritise legacy with 100 days to go.

The conversion of the Arena di Verona, which will host the Paralympics opening ceremony, includes the addition of a lift and toilets to a structure older than the Colosseum. Described by the Milano-Cortina 2026 chief executive, Andrea Varnier, as “the symbol of our Paralympic Games”, he admits the conversion has also been considered as an act of “blasphemy” by some traditionalists.

The artist and his wife, novelist Kiran Millwood Hargrave, lost seven pregnancies before their daughter was born. They explain how his nude paintings of her helped them process their grief – and eventual joy

‘The subject comes with huge baggage and I like that,” says Tom de Freston. The painter and I are in his studio in a village outside Oxford, surrounded by nude portraits of his wife, the novelist Kiran Millwood Hargrave. “I wanted to ask, ‘What does it mean as a male artist to be looking at the female figure? And where does the agency sit?’”

We have been talking about Titian’s Poesie series, how those paintings – commissioned by the most powerful man in the world at the time, King Philip II of Spain – fetishise the naked female body. “Obviously there’s other things going on in them … I think Titian’s often prodding at morality and power,” De Freston says.

Layer after luscious layer of spuds, smoked trout and cavolo nero in a herby cream and topped with bubbly cheese, and crisp roast potatoes tossed in a buttery wine reduction

A deliciously decadent gratin with layers of potato, smoked trout and cavolo nero all smothered in herb-infused cream and finished with a grating of gruyere. It’s the ultimate cosy potato main course. Then, for a flavourful twist on everyone’s favourite part of a roast dinner, crisp roast potatoes tossed in a lightly spiced and herby butter emulsion.

The oil painting depicting the artist’s son Jean had never been exhibited or sold before.

A previously unknown work by French impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir depicting his son Jean sold for €1.8m ($2.08m) at a Paris auction, according to the auction house.

The oil painting – L’enfant et ses jouets – Gabrielle et le fils de l’artiste, Jean (The Child and His Toys – Gabrielle and the son’s artist, Jean) – had never been exhibited or sold before.

From the top lollipop person to the most dedicated convenience store managers, we celebrate the winners of the year’s most unusual accolades

Michael Leech, from Sowerby Bridge, West Yorkshire, has been named the UK bus driver of the year

As casualties mount, recruitment is expanding. Three women talk about why they signed up for a brutal combat environment

Women have been involved in Ukraine’s drone operations since the early months of the full-scale invasion, but as shortages in the military increase their presence has grown, particularly in FPV (first-person-view) attack units.

Casualty figures are not disclosed but widely understood to be high, and Ukraine is becoming reliant on civilians to fill roles that once belonged to trained military personnel. A short but intensive 15-day course is given to a trainee operator for frontline deployment, a turnaround that reflects the urgent need.

Indoor and outdoor training courses set up for trainee pilots at a drone school

Environmental charity Fidra says 168 of 195 SSSIs it surveyed are contaminated with tiny pellets

Plastic nurdles have been found in 84% of important nature sites surveyed in the UK.

Nurdles are tiny pellets that the plastics industry uses to make larger products. They were found in 168 of 195 sites of special scientific interest (SSSIs), so named because of the rare wildlife they harbour. They are given extra protections in an effort to protect them from pollution.

Chancellor to set out tax and spending plans shaped by weak productivity, high borrowing costs and cost of living crisis

• What to expect: tax, VAT, pensions, savings and more

Rachel Reeves will unveil her make-or-break autumn budget on Wednesday, after months of speculation over tax rises.

In a critical speech in the Commons, with the government under intense pressure, the chancellor is expected to announce tax and spending measures aimed at plugging a multibillion-pound shortfall in the public finances.

What does it mean to lose a language? And what does it take to save it? Those were the big questions being asked in Barcelona recently

There’s an Irish saying, tír gan teanga, tír gan anam: a country without a language is a country without a soul. Representatives of some of Europe’s estimated 60 minority languages – or minoritised, as they define them – met in Barcelona recently to discuss what it means to lose a language, and what it takes to save it.

Language diversity is akin to biodiversity, an indicator of social wellbeing, but some of Europe’s languages are falling into disuse. Breton, for example, is dying out because its speakers are dying, and keeping languages alive among young people is challenging in an increasingly monolingual digital world.

Stephen Burgen is a freelance writer who reports on Spain

This update of the 1995 documentary series is utterly authoritative. And its tweak of the Fab Four’s songs is a thing of wonder – their music absolutely thumps!

It would be wrong to go into The Beatles Anthology expecting another Get Back. Peter Jackson’s 2021 documentary did such a miraculous job of recontextualising the glum old footage from Let It Be, by setting it against an ingenious ticking clock device and expanding it out to become a maximalist feelgood avalanche, that it felt like you were watching something entirely new.

But The Beatles Anthology is not new. If you saw the original series on television in 1995, or on YouTube at any point since, you’ll know what you’re in for. It is almost the exact same thing, only the images are sharper and the sound is better.

The Beatles Anthology is on Disney+ now.

In Fritzi’s Footsteps tells story of a girl growing up in Leipzig who witnesses the fall of the Berlin Wall

The creators of a children’s television series about life in communist East Germany have said they hope it will awaken interest in the region’s history, after it was awarded an International Emmy.

Auf Fritzis Spuren (In Fritzi’s Footsteps) tells the story of a 12-year-old girl living in the eastern city of Leipzig and how she experiences life in the east and the events that lead to the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Brazilian teenager’s goal in win against Barcelona was a classic and the winger could end up as one of the very best

Everything Lamine Yamal does oozes quality. Even when he is strolling about looking dejected, which he did quite a bit at Stamford Bridge, he does it with the nonchalant grace of a star. He caresses the ball rather than kicking it, generating remarkable power from limited back-lift. He plays on the balls of his feet, always alert, always able to go either way. He glides rather than runs, but does so at speed. He has already finished as runner-up in the Ballon d’Or. But he was not the best 18-year-old right-sided forward on the pitch on Tuesday, not even close.

In Estêvão, brought in from Palmeiras for a fee that could rise to £52m, Chelsea have recruited a player who could end up as one of the very best. He has been making more and more of an impression since scoring the late winner against Liverpool last month. His last four starts for Chelsea have brought four goals, and he also scored in both of Brazil’s friendlies during the international break. It’s very early, but Brazil may at last have found the player they desperately wanted to have found in Neymar.

The US president made jokes at the annual turkey pardoning ceremony. It went as well as you would expect

Don’t give up the day job. On Tuesday, Donald Trump came to the annual Thanksgiving turkey pardoning ceremony at the White House ready to serve up some political satire. It went about as well as you would expect.

Like a startled turkey flapping in zigzags, the US president’s speech ricocheted bafflingly from topic to topic. He told jokes in the worst possible taste and watched them arc through the Rose Garden sky before landing with a thud. And on a day intended for charity and good cheer, he described a state governor as “a big, fat slob”.

WA court appoints administrator to oversee estate after Jeffrey Epstein victim’s lawyer and housekeeper contest Giuffre’s sons being granted authority

An interim administrator has been appointed to oversee the estate of Virginia Giuffre after she died without a valid will, meaning multiple lawsuits that had been on hold can now resume.

Giuffre, 41, died on a small Western Australian farm, 80km north of Perth, in April.

As people continue to move away in record numbers, readers share their reasons for leaving and contemplate life in New Zealand

In the past year, tens of thousands of New Zealanders have left the country, surpassing the last spike in 2012 and raising fears of a “hollowing out” of mid-career workers. Guardian readers share their experiences on why they left – or are thinking of moving out of New Zealand.

Interior department, which has defunded conservation organizations, claims fee hike is for conservation

The interior department announced today new “America-first” entrance fees for national parks, commemorative annual passes featuring Donald Trump and “resident-only patriotic fee-free days for 2026” including Trump’s birthday.

Starting next year, entrance fees for international visitors will more than triple.

Exclusive: Officials frame strikes as self-defense against violence, without naming aggressor, while Trump claims they’re to stop US overdose deaths

The Trump administration is framing its boat strikes against drug cartels in the Caribbean in part as a collective self-defense effort on behalf of US allies in the region, according to three people directly familiar with the administration’s internal legal argument.

The legal analysis rests on a premise – for which there is no immediate public evidence – that the cartels are waging armed violence against the security forces of allies like Mexico, and that the violence is financed by cocaine shipments.

Show at Cauldeen primary school in Inverness had included a scene explaining hardship faced by Syrian refugees

A primary school in Scotland has cancelled its Christmas show after receiving “racist and abusive” messages because it featured sympathy towards Syrian refugees.

The decision by Cauldeen primary school in Inverness follows rising tensions at other schools in Scotland over adult English classes being targeted by far-right demonstrators, which has also led to events being cancelled.

The British billionaire founder of Virgin Atlantic said he was ‘heartbroken’ by loss of wife and partner for 50 years

Joan Templeman, the wife of British billionaire Sir Richard Branson, has died at the age of 80.

Branson announced her death on Tuesday in a post on social media, saying he was “heartbroken to share that Joan, my wife and partner for 50 years, has passed away.”

Lead singers in bands fare better than solo artists, but fame – rather than lifestyle or job itself – seems to be major factor

For those who hanker for the limelight, be careful what you wish for: shooting to stardom as a lead singer really does raise the risk of an early death, researchers say.

Their analysis of singers from Europe and the US found that those who rose to fame died on average nearly five years sooner than less well-known singers, suggesting fame itself, rather than the lifestyle and demands of the job, was a major driver.