Online audiences seeking out authentic and passionate voices as antidote to AI-generated content

For years, social media fame has been associated with the red carpet glamour of the Kardashians and Cristiano Ronaldo’s megawatt sporting celebrity, but millions of users globally are increasingly turning their attention to unassuming heroes drawn from everyday life.

TikTok says a range of accounts, from a bird enthusiast to an Italian grandmother and a doubledecker bus fan, have grown in popularity this year as social media users latch on to authentic voices.

he fire department moved in early Sunday morning

Key topics include security guarantees from Europe and the US, with Putin yet to signal interest in latest negotiations

• Russia-Ukraine war – latest news updates

Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy are to meet on Sunday to discuss a plan to end the war in Ukraine, amid continuing Russian attacks on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities, and scepticism that Moscow is willing to drop any of its maximalist demands.

Zelenskyy arrived in Florida on Saturday night with a Ukrainian delegation, before talks with the US president at his Mar-a-Lago residence. The two leaders are expected to discuss the latest iteration of a 20-point peace plan and the unresolved question of the future of Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region.

Ukrainian president will meet US president at his Mar-a-Lago home later today for their first in person meeting since October

The Ukrainian military said on Sunday that it hit the Syzran oil refinery in Russia’s Samara region in an overnight drone attack.

The strike caused a fire and damages were still being assessed, Kyiv’s General Staff said.

Emmanuel Macron leads tributes to​ actor who became an international sex symbol ​and later embraced animal rights​ and far-right politics

• Brigitte Bardot: a life in pictures

• Peter Bradshaw on Brigitte Bardot – a zeitgeist-force and France’s most sensational export

Brigitte Bardot, the French actor and singer who became an international sex symbol before turning her back on the film industry and embracing the cause of animal rights activism, has died aged 91.

Among those paying tribute on Sunday was the French president, Emmanuel Macron, who wrote on social media that Bardot had “embodied a life of freedom” and “universal brilliance”. France was mourning “a legend of the century”, he said.

Italy's most active volcano erupted on Saturday, prompting scientists to issue a red Volcano Observatory notice for aviation, signalling a potential risk for aircraft. Despite the alert, authorities said flights continued operating normally at Catania-Fontanarossa airport, adding that no disruption was expected unless ashfall increased

Volunteers and neighbours are restoring the century-old homes as an act of defiance against Russia’s assault

Lesia Danylenko proudly showed off her new front door. Volunteers had nicknamed its elegant transom window the “croissant”, a nod to its curved shape. “I think it’s more of a peacock,” she said, admiring its branch-like details. The restoration project at one of Kyiv’s early 20th-century art nouveau houses was supported by residents, who celebrated with two pavement parties.

It was also an act of resistance against Russia, she explained: “We are trying to live like normal people despite the war. It’s about arranging our life in the best possible way. We’re not afraid of staying in Ukraine. I could have left the country and moved away to Italy or Germany. Instead, I’m here. The new entrance shows our commitment to our homeland.”

Take this hopeful thought into 2026: the tyrants we endure always falter, and their ‘seismic’ upheavals are usually false dawns

For those who lived through the cold war, the fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989, was an unforgettable moment. The sinister watch towers with their searchlights and armed guards, the minefields in no-man’s land, the notorious Checkpoint Charlie border post, and the Wall itself – all were swept aside in an extraordinary, popular lunge for freedom.

Less than a month later, on 3 December 1989, at a summit in Malta, US president George HW Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev declared that after more than 40 years, the cold war was over. All agreed it was a historic turning point.

Simon Tisdall is a Guardian foreign affairs commentator

PM Albin Kurti’s Self-Determination party may struggle to win majority after rival parties refused alliance

Voters in Kosovo are casting ballots in an early parliamentary election in the hope of breaking a political deadlock that has gripped the small Balkan nation for much of this year.

The snap vote was scheduled after the prime minister Albin Kurti’s governing Vetëvendosje, or Self-Determination, party failed to form a government despite winning the most votes in a 9 February election.