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

Women from all over West Bengal and beyond travel to Vrindavan for a life of prayer, many having suffered abuse, stigma and abandonment by families who see them as cursed. Up to 20,000 widows – nearly 20% of the city’s population – have found refuge in ashrams and shelters that have sprung up to support them

• Words and photographs by Rana Pandey

Biologist says the massive numbers of jellyfish and algae in Tasmania’s Storm Bay are ‘drivers of harm in the ocean’

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A “magical” swarm of moon jellyfish colliding with algae dazzled onlookers this week, but it comes with a warning.

The bloom of jellyfish – temporary increases in populations – has occurred over the past few weeks in Storm Bay, east of Hobart, and as far as halfway up Tasmania’s east coast. The biologist and jellyfish expert Lisa-ann Gershwin said the population growth was “unprecedented” and had “stepped up dramatically” last month.

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Serge Atlaoui is expected to be transferred after an agreement was reached with the government in Paris, Yusril Ihza Mahendra says

A French man who has been on death row in Indonesia since 2007 for alleged drug offences is expected to return home in weeks after an Indonesian minister said an agreement would be signed on Friday to allow his transfer.

Serge Atlaoui is expected to return to France on 5 or 6 February, the senior minister for law and human rights affairs, Yusril Ihza Mahendra, told Reuters on Friday.

Trump says Opec should cut oil prices to starve Russia of war funding; Ukraine evacuating children from towns in Kharkiv region. What we know on day 1,066

• See all our Ukraine war coverage

Russian crews were responding to an air attack in the Ryazan region south-east of Moscow over Thursday night. Social media channels posted videos of what appeared to be very large blazes in the city and said a major oil refinery and a power station had been hit by Ukrainian drones. The Ryazan governor, Pavel Markov, said air defence units destroyed drones. The Moscow mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, said air defences intercepted attacks by Ukrainian drones at four locations around Russia’s capital and more drones headed for the capital.

Donald Trump has told the Davos World Economic Forum conference that he wants to meet Vladimir Putin soon and “stop this ridiculous war”. Trump, who has threatened to impose punitive measures on Russia if no deal is reached, said: “I really would like to be able to meet with President Putin soon to get that war ended … And that’s not from the standpoint of economy or anything else. It’s from the standpoint of millions of lives are being wasted … It’s a carnage. And we really have to stop that war.”

Heather Stewart writes that in his online address to Davos, the US president accused the Opec global oil producers of prolonging the Ukraine war by failing to cut their prices, which, if they did, would hurt Russian oil revenues and “the Russia-Ukraine war would end immediately”.

The Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said there was nothing particularly new in Trump’s threats about ending the war but Moscow was following closely “all nuances” in rhetoric and remained open to dialogue. Peskov said Trump had often applied sanctions on Russia during his first term as president.

Trump’s comments have been welcomed by Ukraine. “We do really welcome such strong messages from President Trump and we believe that he will be the winner. And we believe that we have an additional chance to get new dynamic in diplomatic efforts to end this war,” said Ukraine’s foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha.

Russia has rejected the idea of Nato countries sending peacekeeping troops to Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire. Maria Zakharova, Russian foreign ministry spokesperson, said it could cause an “uncontrollable escalation”. Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president, said on Tuesday that at least 200,000 European peacekeepers would be needed to prevent a new Russian attack after any ceasefire deal.

Ukraine announced evacuations of children from several towns in the north-eastern Kharkiv region threatened by Russian forces. The Kharkiv region governor, Oleg Synegubov, said “267 children and their families are to be evacuated from 16 settlements to safe places”. Synegubov said the towns and villages affected were near Kupiansk, a town Russia has tried to capture for months where fighting is raging around its outskirts. “The decision was made due to the intensified hostile shelling. We urge families with minors to save their lives and leave the dangerous areas,” Synegubov said.

Ukraine is in the final stages of drafting recruitment reforms to attract 18- to 25-year-olds who are currently exempt from mobilisation, the battlefield commander recently appointed to the president’s office said. Col Pavlo Palisa said the current drafting system inherited from Soviet times was hindering progress. Though Ukraine has already passed a mobilisation law lowering the age of conscription from 27 to 25, the measures have not had the impact needed to replenish its ranks or replace battlefield losses in its war with Russia.

One initiative is what Palisa described as an “honest contract” that includes financial incentives, clear guarantees for training, and measures to ensure dialogue between soldiers and their commanders. The plan would also target Ukrainians who have the right to deferment or were discharged after the mobilisation law was passed. “As of now, my view is that we need to start an open dialogue with society,” Palisa said. “Because the defence of the state is not only the responsibility of the armed forces. It is the duty of every Ukrainian citizen, and it is their obligation.”

Executive order signed by Trump, which was to take effect on 19 February, is already the subject of five lawsuits

A federal judge in Seattle blocked Donald Trump’s administration on Thursday from implementing an executive order curtailing the right to automatic birthright citizenship in the US, calling it “blatantly unconstitutional”.

US district judge John Coughenour at the urging of four Democratic-led states issued a temporary restraining order preventing the administration from enforcing the order, which the Republican president signed on Monday during his first day on office.

Spanish Town brought to standstill amid gunfire on streets after police kill Othneil ‘Thickman’ Lobban

Schools and businesses in a Jamaican city have been closed and taxis and buses stopped running after the police shooting of a powerful gang boss prompted a violent backlash.

Gunfire echoed throughout Spanish Town on Thursday and at least one business was burned hours after police shot dead Othneil “Thickman” Lobban, whom they described as a top leader of the One Order gang.

Our writers highlight the films they find endlessly rewatchable, including Notting Hill and Married to the Mob

“Feelgood” movies are often thought of as big-hearted romantic comedies, comforting classics, or childhood favourites that still hold up decades later. In our series, My feelgood movie, Guardian writers reflect on their go-to flick, and explain why their pick is endlessly rewatchable.

This list will be updated weekly with further picks.

Married to the Mob is available on Hoopla, Kanopy and Pluto in the US and Amazon Prime in the UK

Hughes fire near Castaic Lake broke out on Wednesday and led to evacuation orders or warnings for more than 50,000

Firefighters fought to maintain the upper hand on a huge and rapidly moving wildfire that swept through rugged mountains north of Los Angeles and resulted in more than 50,000 people being put under evacuation orders or warnings.

The Hughes fire broke out late Wednesday morning and in less than a day had charred nearly 16 sq miles (41 sq km) of trees and brush near Castaic Lake, a popular recreation area about 40 miles (64km) from the devastating Eaton and Palisades fires that are burning for a third week.

Thailand has become the first country in south-east Asia to hold legal same-sex weddings, with LGBTQ+ groups aiming to mark the occasion with more than 1,000 marriage registrations in a single day

• ‘I am so proud’: Joy as Thailand’s same-sex couples can at last get married

Photographer Richard Sharum visited the central states – condescendingly dismissed for years – to see if he could find any unifying aspects of national spirit

Houthis in Yemen said 25-member crew of Galaxy Leader had been freed ‘in support’ of the Gaza ceasefire agreement

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Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis have released the crew of the Galaxy Leader more than a year after they seized the Bahamas-flagged vessel off the Yemeni Red Sea coast, Houthi-owned Al Masirah TV has reported.

It said on Wednesday the crew were handed to Oman “in coordination” with the three-day-old ceasefire in Gaza’s war between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas.

Over a four-decade career, the Franco-Haitian artist has built his own world of contrasts, contradictions and blissful escape

Juan Guillermo Garcés had a brush with death while burning jungle for cattle pasture – now he runs a nature reserve in Colombia where more than 100 new species have been discovered

• Words and photographs by Anastasia Austin and Douwe den Held

Juan Guillermo Garcés remembers coming face to face with death at age 17. Smoke filled the air, choking his lungs. The temperature rose and Garcés struggled to see through the haze. Panic set in as he watched monkeys, snakes, lizards and birds desperately trying to escape the flames surrounding them.

Garcés and his brother started the fire that nearly killed them to clear a large stretch of land. But when the wind suddenly changed direction, they found themselves locked in. The brothers survived, but the fire destroyed the little remaining patch of virgin forest on the family’s 2,500-hectare (6,200-acre) ranch, nestled along Colombia’s Magdalena River. Experiencing firsthand what the animals and plants endured was a turning point for Garcés.

Got something you’d love to ask the former Baywatch star about her life and new career directions? Now’s your chance

Director Gia Coppola had only one actor in mind to star in The Last Showgirl: Pamela Anderson. Having watched Ryan White’s Netflix documentary Pamela, A Love Story, Coppola knew she would be perfect as Shelly Gardner, an ageing Las Vegas dancer facing the closure of Le Razzle Dazzle, the classic revue she has starred in for three decades. The problem was, Anderson’s (now former) agent threw the script in the bin. Coppola did not take no for an answer. She got in touch with Anderson’s son Brandon Thomas Lee, who made sure the pitch reached his mum. Now trailing accolades, award nominations and an Oscar buzz, the film is bringing the 57-year-old icon something she struggled to find earlier in her career: respect.

Having risen to fame as a Playboy Playmate, Anderson became an international superstar in the 1990s in Baywatch, which cemented the sex-symbol image she struggled for years to shake off. Recently, however, her public persona has morphed into something much more multilayered, thanks not only to the Netflix doc but also to her thoughtful 2023 memoir Love, Pamela and her well-received Broadway debut the previous year as Roxie Hart in Chicago. As she said in a recent magazine interview: “The stars have aligned.”